Well, well, well.

TWENTY-FIVE years.

Look how adorable y’all were. Not that you’re not adorable now, because you are, of course.

By the way, I deeply apologize for the picture quality, but I took a picture of your wedding picture when I was at Mama and Daddy’s this past weekend, and it didn’t turn out as crystal clear as I wanted it to. Or even just regular ole clear.

But it was either this picture or the one from Sister’s office Christmas party a few years back, and well, I’m just sayin’. :-)

Nonetheless.

Happy Anniversary!

Or, as we like to say around here: Harropy Arranorvarosarary! ;-)

And may there be many, many more.

I really tried not to get my hopes up about AloneFest ’06 because there’s that point where expectations get out of whack with reality, and I didn’t want to be all hyped up and then be bored out of my mind, wondering why, why did I ever agree to let David and Alex go out of town at the same time, why would I do such a foolish thing, why.

But, oh, my friends, AloneFest ’06 did not disappoint.

I decided yesterday morning that I wasn’t going to get a salon pedicure because I didn’t want to spend an hour feeling like I had to make small talk. If I was having a day out with the girls, I would’ve been all for it – but the point of the day was not to socialize. The point of the day was to be totally, completely, and gloriously alone.

And it was glorious.

Once David got on the road yesterday afternoon, I sat on the couch for at least two hours – reading blogs, sending emails, enjoying the silence. And then I cleaned, and ate sushi, and watched television, and took a bath, and gave myself a pedicure, and slept like a log.

I did miss my people – I did – but I was so grateful to have a little “me” time.

I think D. was more excited for my “Mamacation” than I was. He knows my personality better than anyone, so he gets that while I’m mostly an extrovert, I have just enough introvert in me that I sometimes need to be away from people in order to really re-charge my batteries. Only I’m NEVER by myself. I think that’s the hardest part of motherhood for me…the fact that there is little, if any, “down time.” It’s like being a doctor who’s on call 365 days a year. Without the six-figure salary.

Anyway, to fully cement my nerd status, I took some pictures of the lively festivities at my house last night. Wanna see? Good.

First I got my sink just like FlyLady likes it. I like to run scalding hot water in each side, then add some Mrs. Meyer’s lemon verbena or lavender all-purpose cleaner. Makes the whole house smell yummy.

Then I ran some more hot water. For me. With a combination of my favorite Bath & Body Works soap and some great Arbonne stuff that my friend NK gave me. And I know, I know that InTouch is tacky. I’m sorry. I was alone, and I had a big ole bubble bath, and I wanted to read some celebrity news. By the way, did y’all KNOW that Jessica is wearing her wedding band on a chain around her neck? She is. Very Carrie Bradshaw-ish, if I do say so myself.

Afterwards I adjourned to the den, where I fixed myself a BooMamapolitan. That would be diet Coke. On the rocks. Neither shaken nor stirred.

I kept my standing weekly appointment with Jack Bauer, who didn’t get very far last night in his attempts to Save The World From Peril, but he did knock a guy out by elbowing him in the neck, and that was pretty cool.

And while I was watching Jack, I gave myself a pedicure. I actually took a picture of my feet so I could show you the results, but then I decided that was gross. So you’ll just have to take my word that my toes look cute.

So that’s about it, I reckon. D. and A. will be home later this afternoon, and we’ll get back to the business of our normal routine. I’ll move from AloneFest ’06 to ToddlerDetox ’06, because A. will be rotten after three days with grandparents (which is fine – spoiling is their job).

But it was fun, y’all. It really was.

Things I must remember to tell D.

Or I guess he could just, you know, read them here.

Why talk when you can blog? :-)

1. As proof of what a loser I am, I actually watched an episode of House Hunters that I’ve seen at least five times. Yes, it was my first night alone in over three years. Yes, I watched a re-run. And even worse? I enjoyed it. They got the house in the woods! They got the house in the woods!

2. Last night? By sundown, I had locked every single door in our house – deadbolts and all – and set the alarm. (Most of the time we forget to even lock our doors. Country living spoils you that way.)

3. 24 wasn’t very good. Mainly because nothing happened. Except that there’s an evil co-pilot, but Alex would have been able to call that particular plot development if he had been watching. Which he wouldn’t have been. Being three and all.

4. I took out the garbage! And fed the dogs! Do I get some sort of prize now?

5. A bath is much more relaxing without a toddler running in the bathroom, screaming, “OH! LOOK! MAMA! BUBBLES!” Or on top of that, a toddler pointing at my chest, saying, “Hey, Mama – what are THOSE?”

But most importantly? I missed my boys. I really did.

D: “So, what are you going to do during your alone time?”

S: “Oh, I don’t know. I want to clean, and watch TV, and work on my new blog banner.”

[pause. then -]

D: “NERRRRRRRRD!”

S: “Yep, you got it.”

So here’s how I ended up handling my blogroll.

I put in all the addresses I subscribe to via a feedreader, and the list was, oh, a mile or a mile and a half long.

Give or take a hundred or so yards.

I decided that it’s better to keep it short and just rotate people on and off the blogroll – that way the list doesn’t get too overwhelming. Since I already have a LBY blogroll in the sidebar, I made a point to include folks in the new “roll” who aren’t in the study. Except for a couple of people who are in both, because I wanted to have 10 listings, because I’m OCD.

So there you have it. And as I run across new blogs I enjoy, I’ll add those, delete some, and basically keep a running list of stuff I think is fun.

I may not always agree wholeheartedly with some of the authors of the blogs I list – and odds are that you might not, either – but I do enjoy reading other people’s opinions, and I think we’re all grown enough to handle that.

At least I don’t overthink the simple stuff. Or anything.

You may have noticed that I have a new banner at the top of my page. Well, actually, how could you not notice, because it’s GINORMOUS, which wasn’t my intention, but it was late when I figured out how to replace the old one, and yes, there is still some tweaking to do.

First among the tweaking: making it waaay smaller.

I’ve been suffering from a little blog restlessness the last couple of weeks…I’m tired of looking at the same green page, finding myself wanting a little blue or brown to liven up the proceedings, but I’m too cheap to invest in a re-design when I don’t know that I’m long for the Blogger world anyway. It’s the same feeling I get when the furniture has been the same way in my house for more than about three months – I need to shake it up a bit, move some stuff around, re-accessorize my surroundings. I actually purchased a domain name last week (never felt more like a goob than I did in that moment) so that this summer, hopefully, I can move away from Blogger and have a little more flexibility.
I like options.

Anyway, I owe Addie a big hug and a nice dinner after her email tutorial on how to swap out the banner on my page. She pointed me to this site, and while the instructions aren’t totally comprehensive (check out the comments, too, as Addie told me to do), they’re a mighty big help indeed. The new banner is the first time I’ve ever played around with Photoshop (yes, I know what my husband does for a living, and yes, I get the irony), so hopefully I’ll get better at it the more I practice.

ANYWAY, this morning I hardly knew what to do with myself given that there was no child – with stuffed monkey and stuffed frog in tow, of course – coming down the stairs, proclaiming for all the world to hear, “MAMA! Did ya sleep good? Wanna see Noggin? Want waffles with syrup?”

As a result, I went outside? And took pictures? Of my porch? Is that what one does in lieu of making waffles with syrup? Is that proper no-child-at-home protocol?

While I was away this past weekend David worked in the yard and filled up my pots on the front porch. He also mowed, edged, mulched, and weeded, which definitely sets an incredibly high standard for what I should do during my own alone time tonight and tomorrow.

I kinda feel like I need to add on to the deck or something. But I’ve decided that I’m going to confine my activities to the indoors (imagine that)…do some good, thorough cleaning, get everything like I like it, and then concentrate on the serious business of relaxing, watching TV, and, well, blogging.

More exciting updates to follow!

I’ll be sure to let you know when I’m about to go to Walmart!