Social Butterflies

Had a wonderful week with my mom who was visiting from Atlanta. We wined, dined, walked, hiked and did a ton of socializing. Three dinner parties, a cocktail party, and three dinners out on the town in seven nights. She left yesterday, and last night we attended another dinner party, and there's one more Sunday night before it quiets down. No complaints here, it's just kinda funny to us how social we are here compared to our lives in Charlotte and before that, Atlanta.

I hosted one of the dinner parties this past Saturday night. I love entertaining, and it was fun to do it with my mom here. She knows most of our friends, though with Mom, it wouldn't have mattered. She gets along with everyone. We somehow crammed, I mean seated 10 people around our dining room table that comfortably seats 6. But you know, it worked, and it was cozy. People seemed happy. So here are a couple of photos from our party during cocktails.

The Gals -- Wendy, me, Mom, Melanie, Sandy and Peggy Sue (yes, that's her real name).


The Guys -- Bobby, Bill, Jim and Billy Bob (yes, that's his real name).

I'm told the food was excellent, especially my homemade carrot cake.
The house is quiet again now that Mom is back in ATL. It's just the dogs, me and my long-haired husband.

Take Five!

The skiing has been great, perhaps our smiles show it. This was taken Sunday afternoon after several hours of great skiing in the sunshine. Today was a lot less crowded than yesterday, even though it is still technically a holiday. Going to take a couple of days off skiing as my mom is coming for a one week visit on Wednesday, so tomorrow is dedicated for cleaning and set up. Takes some time and creativity to convert a small den with a lot of furniture into a guest room with a full-size air mattress.

Plan on doing some walks and snowshoeing with Mom and enjoying some nice social events we have planned. Last time Mom came alone for a visit was back in March of I think 2005, so this is an unusual event. Must remember to snap some photos.

Good news

The headline is that I do not need surgery on my thumb to repair the torn ligaments. I also get to get rid of the hard cast and get into a custom "splint" tomorrow. This will allow greater mobility and easier bathing. Jim is especially happy that I will be able to cook without his (read: minimal) help.

In other good news, we've been getting a lot of much needed snow over the last 24 hours. Boomer is especially happy with the fresh powder and frolics endlessly without provocation, though for the camera, we enjoy encouraging him.

Not sure if this even translates, but there's a lot of fresh snow falling -- almost a foot. At the time of this photo, as is the case during many of Boomer's snow escapades, Riley is completely ignoring him and already inside snuggled on the sofa.

The Thumb Spica Cast

That's the technical term, anyway, or "the pink cast."

Monday they will cut this one off, examine the stability of the thumb joint and let me know whether surgery to reattach the ligaments is recommended. Either way, I will end up back in another cast for several more weeks. Last time I had more than a dozen color choices, all but two (navy and clear) were bright neon in nature. I will be at a different office location, but I suspect I will have a color choice there as well and am looking for recommendations. Orange, sky blue or purple are the leading three. Look, when you are in this situation, you gotta look for anything at least mildly amusing, so roll with me here.

We're Ready

Ready, at least on the food front, for anything.

Had a giant day of food and supply shopping on our trip to Grand Junction this week. You know on some receipts it tells you the number of items purchased? Well between Sam's and Walmart, we bought 152 items. That may be a new Lilly record. While it takes a lot of time and money up front to shop so much, the resulting convenience and savings are huge.

Below is a thrilling shot of our refrigerator. Thrilling mostly to Jim, that is. Our basement frig and freezer are just as packed, and that actually thrills me, too. We won't be shopping for at least another two months!