I am home. We got here about 1:30 this morning. There was a longish wait for a taxi at the airport for some reason. Maybe Sunday night, maybe too many other people had delayed flights. But the beach route home was pretty empty so it only took 15 minutes once we got into the ride. There was much discussion in line about the random people who walked up and claimed to be legit drivers. Yeah, not really up to this at this hour, buddy.

Brendon went and picked up Skinner and he is super enthused to be home. My housesitter did a bunch of sample sketches that look awesome, and is doing a bunch more to discuss later this week. ALSO, today my son messaged me that this is the first Monday ever that he hasn't had to seek my assistance to fix issues and he is gaining confidence.

That said, I think I need Buffista F2F hugs on a much more regular basis. It is indeed a balm for the soul. I'd be happy to facilitate these at either Casa Holt North or South.

Nilly, Shir was kind and shared some of your family pictures, which brought joy to all. I will upload the pictures I took shortly.

Thanks, Nilly!

At SFO. I do not want this vacation to end. It was awesome, because y'all are y'all and yes, a balm to the soul.

Let the international traveling commence.

Let the international traveling commence.

Let it be as smooth as possible. So enjoyed your visit, and our time together!

Safe travels, Shir!

After this weekend, I am reminded yet again of how much it sucks for me, personally, that all but one of my non-met-as-parents local close friends with whom I hung out with on the regular have moved out of easy hanging distance, and the one who hasn't moved is the one with cancer, which reduces our impulse hang ability by a bit, as you might expect. (And yet, she's still as close as I have to a "doing anything tonight/tomorrow/whenever? want to hang?" option these days!) Everyone else now requires major pre-planning to see. Sometimes travel and overnight stays.

Don't get me wrong! I am happy for them all! I like their new digs! I am just whiny and sad for me as I attempt to rebuild an impulse local hang network and keep failing at it! (I have never been especially good at finding people to hang out with on a one-on-one basis, as I find socializing in groups less awkward than socializing one-on-one, but trying it at almost fifty is even more difficult than it was when I was younger, and people just don't throw parties the way they used to before the pandemic.)

Maybe I need to get back in the habit of seeing movies by myself, honestly. It's not socializing, but it kind of fills some of that out of the house non-family activity need.

My soul is balmed. My calves are rocks. Still anxiously waiting on pickup details for phone. Do not recommend being an idiot and losing one’s phone the last hour of vacation. Thankfully all my photos were uploaded to the cloud so I can still access the important stuff…Though realizing I took pitifully few photos this weekend. Was so busy just being there and trying to be present that I realized today I only have pics from Friday! I have zero photos from Saturday which is a shame, because everyone was gloriously gorgeous and should have been throughly documented for preservation purposes.

My ancient 2nd gen iPad is painfully slow and strangely will not communicate with J’s android phone via Wi-Fi. It is sending and receiving texts just fine with mom and friend who also have apple phones, but not with the keeper of the Waymo app who should have this morning received information related to phone recovery. Not being able to text with one’s sweetie during the workday is like being back in the 90’s and relying on emails. He was adorable yesterday trying to problem solve my predicament and calmly walking me through a return to phone-less travel. Bought me a book of logic puzzles in the airport so I’d have entertainment on the plane. Tried to buy me a gorgeous book also but I didn’t think I could focus on actual reading….I might have been wrong. Oh well, opportunity lost. He also declared he would invest in an iPhone for increased technical compatibility and the ability to share phone location (which I generally do with friends and family, but of course couldn’t with him because cross platforms.)

Just splurged and ordered a new(er) refurbished 6th gen iPad from the evil overlords to be delivered before 8am tomorrow. Maybe a newer iPad will play nicer across the apple divide?

It was so good to see everyone. The very short 36 hours that we were in town just wasn't long enough. I want to spend more time with all of you.

We are always ready to host, and we have a guest room, and a hot tub, and an amazing deck that we can all fit on and just enjoy enjoy enjoy. Oh, and I have a very well stocked whiskey collection.

Yay impulse buys! Boo losing phone. Yay having a bf who can help you (and who can also roll with the buffista-crazy and be appropriately dressed to boot!)

I am home and back to work. Thank goodness this coming weekend is a long weekend!

And I 100% need to get down to LA.

Cereal: anyone have any interest in going to Colombia in September? Ostensible reason would be to go to the women’s under-20 World Cup but really just to have fun going somewhere.

I am just whiny and sad for me as I attempt to rebuild an impulse local hang network and keep failing at it!

I understand this well. Moving to Ft. Lauderdale has meant visits are now inconvenient. I did organize a book club for my condo which has resulted in meeting a few fun women and now being in text/email chains with them they invite to other social events. Of course, now I will go away for 5 months, but we are supposed to continue the book meetings over summer remotely. Baby steps.

Our niece's wedding events start Thursday, so we old folks are trying to save up our energy in the early part of this week. My stomach should be okay for Indian food by the end of this week.

The top half of my outfit for the Hindu ceremony is 100% What If Mrs. Roper Was Indian. It's a very long tunic, cut and sewn (such as it is) like a caftan — just a big ol' rectangle with sleeves that are really just arm holes. It's hot pink, with white detailing and small bling-y sparkly fake jewels. I freaking love it. Caftan lyfe 4evah! The pants are a lighter pink, like a rose color, with white detailing at the cuffs. And I have big silver earrings and less-big silver bracelets and a silver claw clip to put my hair up (because, let's be real, I will die from the heat if my hair is down).

The only thing left is to get the steamer out for the ginormous silver dupatta (scarf) that I think I drape over one shoulder. (My SiL told me that any of the numerous Indian aunties who will be at the wedding will be happy to help me sort out how to drape the dupatta.) Also I need to go get a silver pedicure later this week.

Tim's tunic is royal blue with gold detailing and looks so good on him. The pants are a plain cream color, so nothing fancy. Tim's brother (father of the bride) told him that he bought socks for Tim and Oldest Brother. I have no idea what that's about, or even if the socks are for the Hindu ceremony. Maybe they're to go with his suit for the Lutheran ceremony? I have zero idea. Oh, wait -- I think we take our shoes off in the Hindu temple, so maybe that's it.