At Home: A Rude Homecoming and a Delightful Celebration

I had to head home for some appointments, and perhaps the timing couldn't have been better, given the wildfire smoke at the lake. They even cancelled parts of Gaylord's annual Alpenfest. Not that the smoke was better at home, it was just a better place to be at the time. 

I always leave the house pretty neat when I travel. Not necessarily cleaned, but things put away. This time when I walked in the door, the first thing I saw were books scattered on the floor that had been on a table when I left -- and the back door curtain valance and indoor wreath were on the floor. I didn't leave it that way.

 

Then, into the living room where my desk is. And this is what I saw. 

 

On top of that, mugs have come down from the plate rack, plants were tipped over, garland over the windows was askew, some pictures overturned, one frame broken. Whatever it was hit every room in the house.

 

My first question was "did we have an earthquake?" (We don't live in an earthquake zone but these days the weather and world is so crazy, who knows?) Nope. When I opened the back door I noticed this. The critter protection cage had blown off in the wind during one of the storms that happened while I was gone. 

My guess is that it was a raccoon, judging by the larger footprints in Lizzie's box. Fortunately, apart from the mess, it did nothing else. Naturally I made a temporary boarding up of the fireplace with poster board anchored by wine racks. I replaced the cage and Rick got it up! Hooray!

 

I returned home to a collection of dead potted plants. I'm not sure what happened to my neighbor who was supposed to water. Maybe the heat and smoke was too bad for her. I've been bringing what's left back to life and suspect those plants may take a ride to the lake this week. Meanwhile, we went to dinner and when we left the sky looked like this (that's the sun). And this was a day it was beginning to clear up.

 

We spent a lot of time inside (although the air-con car was a blessing!) but did go out to eat a couple of times, once with friends. Rick's will be leaving on his birthday (Wednesday this week) for a two-week trip that includes a trade show, so we'd been going back and forth on when and how to celebrate. On Sunday morning he said, "Let's do it tonight!" It made sense, given that his big bike ride is Monday and Tuesday he would be packing.  

I was not prepared. He'd not been forthcoming about a gift and because I had little food in the house to make a nice dinner, something had to be done! 

 

Needless to say, when something needs to be done, I get it done! Off to get steaks at the store with the better butcher (which was closed). Those found elsewhere, I bought deli salads to go with the steak, olives, almonds and breadsticks for apps, and cake and ice cream. After that, a stop at the book store to find a temporary present! A few hours later, I loaded up my tote bags and headed to his place (because he has the grill!)

 

It all worked out beautifully, if not the way I'd originally hoped. Life's like that sometimes, isn't it? Fact is, we had a lovely dinner with a good bottle of wine.

 

He liked his gifts -- a cycling book, a Sudoku book and a very nice bottle of wine I bought for him a few months ago! That got saved for later! I found his birthday card a few months ago. You can see why I snatched that one up!

 

After, we sat outside and talked till dark. It was a lovely evening and a great way for Rick to begin his new year.

 

Q and A Time! 

I've had a few questions in comments lately that are from no-reply bloggers, whose email I don't have for reply so here are the answers!

Kari and Jeanie both wanted to know how far I live from the lake. It's about two and a half hours to three, depending on construction and rest stops. Not a bad trip.

 

Unknown asked if water lilies last in a vases as long as a pond. Unfortunately, no, not nearly so well as in the lake water, but while they do, they're lovely.

 

And Nicole asked why I had used Magic Eraser on my face. You may remember that when I had my sinus surgery, they wrote on my cheeks and forehead with Sharpie rather creatively. Nothing was taking it off but I knew that Magic Eraser worked on Sharpie (and just about everything else) so I gave it a try. Unfortunately, that was a bad idea but Aquaphor took care of it in a few days. 

 

Don't do it.