04/21/2005 Entry: "Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dusty."

Haven't really been much in the mood for writing lately, but people are beginning to notice that I've been absent and that's often an impetus for writing something. So back I am, thought it's been a while. Please pardon my dust.

We did pretty well on getting the place ready for The In-Laws. The contractor didn't leave until the night before they arrived, so we didn't have a lot of extra time. There's still some painting to be finished, and I never managed to get all the dust out of our bedroom; the plants in the front need to be planted, and the cracked plaster of the kitchen walls, well that will have to be another project for another time. But the shower tile got updated and the toilet moved to where it needed to (and no sinks were defiled in the process.) Things are moved around in the kitchen, and I'm adjusting. (I still go to the stove instead of the fridge, and routinely look for the silverware in the plastics drawer. These things take time.)

I actually got the most sleep in recent memory while they were here visiting. Suddenly we went from not enough hours in the day to plenty of time to chat. We'd try to get up at a reasonable time, but they were on East Coast time; they would already be showered and have read the paper and watched Good Morning America and had toast and coffee and were ready to talk and start the day. And by the time they went to bed at night, we were too pooped from entertaining to stay up much later ourselves.

But we did a good job entertaining. The Boyfriend got great tickets to a Giants game, where the Giants won on an Eighth-inning Grand Slam Home Run Splash Hit. We saw Teatro Zinzanni again—Always a good time. We visited a friend in Napa whose family owns and runs a vinyard and winery. We played cards in our living room, which I think was my Mother-In-Law's sole activity request when we were planning their visit. In all they described the trip as "delightful," so I guess we did pretty well. And taking an extra day off to recover after they left? Well, that was a stroke of genius. Even though they were great houseguests, eight days of sharing our space (and one bathroom) was plenty.

I strolled into work the day after "the day after" and knew something was wrong when the Project Manager hugged me and said "Thank god you're here!" into my back. That's never a good sign. And with that I was plunged into chaos again. In two short, frenzied days, we'd managed to build presentations that our staff could use, but...well, there was a lot of dust on everything when we were through.

Don't you love it when things come full circle?

Replies: 3 comments

Baseball? Cards? Contractors? In-Laws? I remember a time when the mere mention of any of these would have elicited a languid, dismissive wave of your alabaster wrist as the adjacent black lace cuff of your shroud put out the gelid eye of yet another philistine.

That was then, this is now. Go, Giants!

Posted by Huntington @ 04/22/2005 12:57 AM PST

I'm still terrified of my in-laws, so your post gives me some hope for the future. Of course, the feeling does seem to be mutual -- my mother-in-law makes her husband call our house because she's afraid I'll answer. Seriously. Once I hand the phone off to my partner, his father hands the phone off to his mother.

Posted by Mark @ 04/22/2005 05:21 PM PST

I want to see photos of the new bathroom.

Posted by Gigamatt @ 04/29/2005 07:42 AM PST