So, did I mention I was going to California?
(crossposted from justalurkr
A bizarre, nearly macabre, twist in the drama that was vacation scheduling last year resulted in ONE WEEK ONLY BUY NOW...wait, this isn't an infomercial...a week opening up in December, which I used to visit the folks in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
Dad: still not acting 89, though he is starting to look it a little.
Mom: Still winning at Weight Watchers and exercising her powers of Maternal Guilt to extract a promise from me to go every week forever and ever and ever. Well, at least til I'm back at goal and for a while after that.
Tiger: still a Maine Coon, still making my cats look small and bald in his magnificent fluffiness. Also still running the house with an iron paw. I rated extra laptime because Mom has fallen into the habit of working on matted fur every time he parks on her. I just ear scritch. See? Humans can be taught!
Curves: New twist on weight management discovered! Also the best idea for budding business women ever: rent a relatively small and inexpensive space in a strip mall, set up a relatively small and inexpensive (well, it looks low cost) circle of hydraulic weight machines interspersed with "recovery pads," and run the bee-hinds off all the local matrons. I sort of sniffed at the sight of their workout set up, then lost two pounds over my vacation with judicious adherence to Weight Watchers and approximately half a pants size in two visits to Curves. Okay, so my butt hurt, but it was narrower. That took longer the first time I did it with diet alone.
The Litigators by John Grisham: So, like most of mass market reading American, I devoured The Firm avidly and read a few of its successors (wow, not so memorable as I can't eve remember how many I lasted.) Then the Earnest Young Lawyer Making Good Against Impossible Odds in Very Serious Situations got a little old. Sure, there were some humorous moments in all of the books, but the fundamental conflict rendered true funniness generally inappropriate. The Litigators changed all that (unless I missed a funny somewhere between Pelican Brief and now.) It's as if a lightbulb ignited over Grisham's head and he realized: "Hey! The situation can be grim, but the characters in it can be hysterically hapless losers and not-quite-losers." Yes, there is an Earnest Young Lawyer Battling Incredible Odds Against What Could Be Construed As An Evil Conspiracy, but he got really, really drunk first. Also, what he did at the Big Law Firm is something a lot of Fortune 500 inmates would really, really love to do not that I have any bitter, personal experience of carnivorous Fortune 500 companies that squeeze the juice out of the best years of ....(crickets chirp)...yeah. Just read the book, if for no other reason than you may have thought Grisham didn't have the capacity for a belly laugh.
So, I'd like to say I came back tanned, rested and ready for action, but it was December in the Sierra Nevada, for cryin' out loud. My dad is an artisan with Weight Watchers recipes (where can I find a younger, less related version? I might actually give up solitude for an in-house chef and cheering section;) my Mom is still totally a mom, and I missed being there by the time the plane hit the end of the Sacramento runway.
A bizarre, nearly macabre, twist in the drama that was vacation scheduling last year resulted in ONE WEEK ONLY BUY NOW...wait, this isn't an infomercial...a week opening up in December, which I used to visit the folks in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
Dad: still not acting 89, though he is starting to look it a little.
Mom: Still winning at Weight Watchers and exercising her powers of Maternal Guilt to extract a promise from me to go every week forever and ever and ever. Well, at least til I'm back at goal and for a while after that.
Tiger: still a Maine Coon, still making my cats look small and bald in his magnificent fluffiness. Also still running the house with an iron paw. I rated extra laptime because Mom has fallen into the habit of working on matted fur every time he parks on her. I just ear scritch. See? Humans can be taught!
Curves: New twist on weight management discovered! Also the best idea for budding business women ever: rent a relatively small and inexpensive space in a strip mall, set up a relatively small and inexpensive (well, it looks low cost) circle of hydraulic weight machines interspersed with "recovery pads," and run the bee-hinds off all the local matrons. I sort of sniffed at the sight of their workout set up, then lost two pounds over my vacation with judicious adherence to Weight Watchers and approximately half a pants size in two visits to Curves. Okay, so my butt hurt, but it was narrower. That took longer the first time I did it with diet alone.
The Litigators by John Grisham: So, like most of mass market reading American, I devoured The Firm avidly and read a few of its successors (wow, not so memorable as I can't eve remember how many I lasted.) Then the Earnest Young Lawyer Making Good Against Impossible Odds in Very Serious Situations got a little old. Sure, there were some humorous moments in all of the books, but the fundamental conflict rendered true funniness generally inappropriate. The Litigators changed all that (unless I missed a funny somewhere between Pelican Brief and now.) It's as if a lightbulb ignited over Grisham's head and he realized: "Hey! The situation can be grim, but the characters in it can be hysterically hapless losers and not-quite-losers." Yes, there is an Earnest Young Lawyer Battling Incredible Odds Against What Could Be Construed As An Evil Conspiracy, but he got really, really drunk first. Also, what he did at the Big Law Firm is something a lot of Fortune 500 inmates would really, really love to do not that I have any bitter, personal experience of carnivorous Fortune 500 companies that squeeze the juice out of the best years of ....(crickets chirp)...yeah. Just read the book, if for no other reason than you may have thought Grisham didn't have the capacity for a belly laugh.
So, I'd like to say I came back tanned, rested and ready for action, but it was December in the Sierra Nevada, for cryin' out loud. My dad is an artisan with Weight Watchers recipes (where can I find a younger, less related version? I might actually give up solitude for an in-house chef and cheering section;) my Mom is still totally a mom, and I missed being there by the time the plane hit the end of the Sacramento runway.