What’s on the iPod: Modern Leper by Frightened Rabbit
What I’m reading: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
Great day Friday – thanks to both Devon and Jenn for a terrific time. Meeting with you guys underscores the importance of having like-minded writers in your life. We get each other.
Had a nice weekend. After a few hours of pondering our approach, we decided to drive to Manhattan (the bus was sold out) and spend the day. The daughter wanted touristy stuff. In all the times we’ve been there, she’s never seen anything beyond museums, rain/snow, and that fantastic Eddie Izzard show. So we headed first to Strand to fill up. I was thrilled to see the changes at Strand book store. We remembered it as dusty, hot, and loaded with books (not the place to visit first if you’re wearing white). Thankfully things are much different. I picked up four new titles.
We then went to Toys R Us in Times Square. She wanted to see the Ferris wheel. We picked up a few gifts there, then headed off to Rockefeller Center. Top of the Rock, which was way too expensive ($21 each – to peer off the side of a building? Seriously?), but the views really were incredible. Then we met up with another in our party (he had a meeting uptown) and went off to St. Andrew’s Pub (thank you, Devon) where we had terrific desserts. Dinner too, but the desserts were spectacular. Ironically, it was right beside the Irish pub we’d visited in April when we were there for the Celtic parade. How’d we miss that?
Yesterday I decided to finish some of these books and start new ones. The Devil in the White City was a terrific tale, start to finish. I’m in awe of research and writing that good. And last night I plowed through another chapter of Death Comes for the Archbishop. Since television sucks right now, it’s easy to pick up a book instead. I will say I was exhausted from the heat on Saturday, which led to a few impromptu naps, and I had to put my book down a few times because I was getting drowsy.
Today, a ton of work. I’m a little unnerved that I have money owed, but no checks. That hasn’t happened in a long time for me. And naturally, it’s happening now because I just paid the IRS some back taxes. I’m squeaking by for the next ten days. And I hate it. Time to rattle a few cages and get these late checks collected.
How was your weekend?
6 responses to “Weekend Re-entry”
I had the BESt time with you guys on Friday.
Glad you enjoyed the St. Andrews. I love that place.
I spent the weekend finishing up a job and working on my lecture materials for fall.
Sent off the next volley in the contract negotiations (thrilled I found a diplomatic way to say it), and keeping my fingers crossed.
I need to rattle some cages, too. Spent too much time these past few weeks sitting on my duff.
This weekend, I managed to finally get that motivational blog started that I've been talking about for around 6 months or something like that. I'm still working on it, but you can see my first post, if you like.
http://www.motivatingmadness.com/
Other than that the only major thing I did was clean out our fridge and freezers. Yes, exciting times.
We had more than 8" of rain in less than 48 hours. I live in a 90-year old house where the driveway abuts the foundation…on the uphill side of the house, naturally. All the better to trap water from flowing down the hill.
Want to guess what I spent most of my weekend doing?
Oh no, Paula! I hope you had good waders.
LOVED your website, Wendy! That story has me so jealous. 🙂
Fingers crossed for those negotiations, Devon! And likewise. You're always a blast. 🙂
Considering how much rain we had, I was lucky. The water didn't quite make it to the two floor drains – but it did get up to the water heater, and it was trapped by the framing of some built-in shelves. So after I dried it up I mopped with a mixture of bleach and water to help prevent mold. Four fans have been blowing on "high" for most of the weekend to help speed the evaporation.
I checked on an older friend of the family, whose 1960-era basement almost never leaks. The groundwater in her neighborhood was so high the water was coming up through her basement floor. Thank goodness I live half way up a hill!
Back at ya lady! Friday was quite fun. 🙂 We'll definitely have to drive up to NY at some point to visit Devon again and hit up Clint.
Wendy – Congrats on the blog launch! 🙂