My picking this book up is Britta's fault. I want to share the spoilers with everything and everyone within earshot, because I love it so much. Today, I purposefully toted it to work with me, and enveloped myself in a half hour of stillness on my lunch break to continue reading. I'm nearly finished, which makes me sad in its own way, but it's a familiar feeling I have with so many of my favorite books.
lunch break reads♥
With work checked off the day's list, it was time to get home and get back to the gym.
I haven't worked out since 2016. [heheh..] < It's corny, I know, and we're in the first month of not 2016, but the sinus infection that I had last week would've made for quite the scene of me wheezing and eventually/inevitably either passing out or vomiting all over the equipment. BUT, now I'm back, feeling my face again [which is a relic I don't appreciate until it's impossible to do, I've realized], and ready to get back on track with the task of hunting down all.ze.gains. ALL ZE GAINS.
cashed.
Whhhheeew. I'm spent. Not a bad way to end hump day.
We're on the home stretch now - two more days til the weekend! :)
Gooooood ole' Cincinnati, Ohio: Rain, sunshine and reaaaally strong breezes within the hour. If we'd gotten the full experience, it would've snowed for an hour right in between the tornado and the flood.
rainy day... womp womp..
Fortunately, the dampness of the day couldn't weather a chance against the clear landmark not just for today, but one of the biggest of this year:
2nd grade!
We officially have a 2nd grader!
I won't launch off into a novel about how I can't believe how fast time is flying - even though it is, and I'll try to keep the 'I remember when...' cutaways to a minimum... but seriously?!
Mini, you'll never know just how proud of you we are!
One more day, and then we're outta here to go see Nana, Pappy & the rest of the MV family. Jonathan graduates high school this weekend, too [another reminder that time can just slow down wheneeeeever it would like to...any time now!] - I can't wait to see everyone!
There are a couple things for which nobody really prepares you. The most obvious of those is becoming a parent for the first time [an entirely separate diatribe; you parents out there know what I'm sayin'.... ]. Driving on the major Cincinnati highways would be the second thing [71, 75, 74, Beechmont Ave., etc.].
Okay, there are a few other things that are hard to gauge until they're in your lap. My point is... we've just opened the chapter of Homeownership, which 1) I'm told is not one word [don't care], and 2) introduced itself as everything except subtle.
We signed the closing paperwork yesterday, but ran short on time in the evening to journey across town to get the keys. We put it off to tonight, and had Becky & Mike joining us as we set foot inside for the first time without our realtor.
We showed them the upstairs; Becky claimed her bedroom ;).. haha. We toured the dining room, the other dining room [I'm still uncertain I'm grown-up enough for that kind of spacial awareness], and peered out into the darkness at the backyard that ends at the golf course.
And then we ventured into the basement, aka future mancave. It was going just fine until our solid footsteps were offset by the sounds of splashes.
Splashes = water.
Water inside = no good.
something... isn't quite right.
It took a moment to register, but we quickly realized [oh, and it was raining all evening], that the sump pump had broken and the water was flowing freely into the basement through several ruptures in the pump and pipe.
I know. Awesome.
This is a first world problem, for sure. Yeah, it's a pretty big deal, and it wasn't what we'd hoped to find in our new house that didn't hold even a towel of our own possession [which would've been immeasurably useful at this particular moment]. BUT - the silver lining is deeper than the puddle.
We 1) have a warranty from the sellers, thankfully, that will cover all of these damages. That's the operative reassurance that made this nothing more than a minor inconvenience and I'm sure a good story five years from now.
2) We brought Mike & Becky, probably the best two individuals to have on deck at a time like this. There was no griping, but instead almost cheerful engagement in the cleanup.
3) I'm taking up curling.
Which of those 3 things is false?
Haha.
This was Rob's and my first time setting foot in our new home together without Tiffany [realtor].
This will be forever how I remember this moment:
hahah.. that's about it!
new basement, coming right up!
I guess now, we get to update on the basement renovations. Everything happens for a reason!
Good times [kinda], good friends [definitely], good night [phew]!
I'd thought about asking Rob if we could take a walk, or hike or something otherwise outdoor and adventurous after work today, but I realized somewhere around the mid afternoon that the day had changed its mind somewhere in the midst of me burying myself brain deep in the task at hand.
So, instead of the brisk yet sunny day we had yesterday, this was the tone for the afternoon and evening:
I mean... it could've absolutely been worse, so I'll take it for what it's worth and be thankful we weren't wading around in snow this evening. :)
Instead of an urban outdoor outing, we settled for a night in, complete with a tinkering session that resulted in my broken hairdryer being reincarnated into a parts mashup to fix a heat gun. Soundtrack? Well, that one was an obvious:
guess the movie?
[P.S. - If you don't know that immediately, well, you're missing out!]
Time to call it a night for now.. this girl's a tired ol' thing tonight.. :)
The running theme of pure saturation was branded all the way through the day today. However, there's always a silver lining, and in our case today, that came in the form of winning the league after a round of tournament games! Not too shabby for rain-soaked sand, players and volleyballs. Yay, team!
league champs ;)
Next session starts next week. Here's hoping for no rain in sight :D
I spent the entire day amped up over the game, and even though Becky and I didn't make it to Montreal today, I'm fortunate to have a viewing area big enough at home to [kinda] compensate for not seeing the ladies in person on the field. Anyway,
#solo
#harris
#morgan
#krieger
#leroux
Ob.SESSED.
It'd been raining for the greater part of the late afternoon/early evening, so when I turned into my neighborhood, I wasn't surprised to see it a bit tousled from the storm. Small bits of trees and branches were down and fresh leaves and twigs were strewn across all the lawns. My backyard has a particularly larger ticket item sitting on my shed [which appears at first glance to remain unharmed], that we will have to deal with on a night other than World Cup Semifinals:
well that's.. just.. very nice, storm. thanks. :/
The storm not only took its toll on my backyard, but it knocked out the already so-reliable Time Warner Cable, leaving me with a pesky, stubborn and overall aggravating sight of the white screen telling me it's more or less thinking about thinking about letting us watch anything. It's a hit or miss every.single. game with TWC, so I wasn't surprised when we had to rally together and determine our contingency plan.
That plan was set for Goodfellas, but that was dashed as soon as I arrived to find Tim & his family standing in line by the front door, without an open table in sight. We quickly weighed our options, and took a chance on running across the street to Latitudes. GOOD. DECISION. We snagged a table for 10, and before long there were 10 of us craning our necks in the direction of the big screen, where kickoff happened just as we were being seated.
There are few sporting events on planet earth that will ever elicit the type of emotional response comparable to that of soccer. It's safe to say really that there are no other events that could do so. I've never traditionally considered myself a feminist, but our USWNT is a collection of the most talented, charismatic and patriotic athletes out there - after tonight's game, heck yeah I'm proud to be a woman, an American, an athelete/a soccer player and a supporter of these ladies paving their own way to World Cup victory.
No, it wasn't Abby's 2012 goal against Brazil, but it was an absolutely beautiful sight nonetheless to see our team challenge Germany and come out on top.
I snagged this from ussoccer_wnt's IG, which sums up the night in what words just can't...
#lloyd #ohara
I. Love. This. Team. Love It.
Congratulations, USWNT! Here's to ONE. MORE. GAME against the winner of tomorrow's matchup. Just a few more days.. YOU CAN DO IT!
And to this group [minus 2], thanks for hanging out and hanging in there together! I couldn't have hand-selected a better group to roll with on a night like this! :)
We all awoke to Tawny and Ryan on board; the post midnight journey back across unfamiliar waters went off without a hitch, thanks to GPS! We woke up today to a sky threatening rain, but decided to spend it outside regardless of the weather.
good morning, beautiful cumberland :)
We started out with a little early morning fishing. Well, Rob did. I was mid-page reading through Phenomenal when my Paul and Elisa called, while simultaneously Rob managed to catch a fish with another fish. It was a really strange short series of events.
morning fishing... with fish! crazyyy... haha
By mid morning, we were on the boats and cruising towards 76 Falls. We made a stop off at the marina to fuel up and grab a few essentials, before continuing on to the Falls.
marina
We finally arrived at the opening of the falls, and carefully navigated our way through strings of other boats already anchored down for the morning. It wasn't a huge cove, but it sure was beautiful!
76 falls!
We anchored down and spent the early afternoon doing what we came here to do - kick back and relax!
The skies started to cloud over, so we loaded back up and started heading back to the houseboat. We thought we were on the right track, until we realized that Kenny had peeled off and we found ourselves soaring through the lake in the wrong direction, while the sky opened up and rained on us as though it'd never rained ever. Haha.
We were a little miserable, but once it ended and we were back at the houseboat - and dry, it was nothing but a laugh. We spent the evening grilling out and admiring the local visitors; they came in droves and it made me wonder how Ali would be handling this situation.. haha. :) Turtles everywhere!
We opted to wait and relocate the houseboat tomorrow morning, once we have some light to navigate our way to a new spot closer to the Falls.
see ya there, rob! :)
For now, we're wrapping up the day here, listening to the fish flop around out there and hoping it stays dry tomorrow. The radar keeps telling us it's going to be raining all day, but we're hoping for the best and relaxing for now.
So, it rained a lot today. Like.... all day. Awesome, right? No... not really...
right before the lightning...
The good news, we walked away tonight with our championship Tshirts from the last session, where we somehow managed to pull away with both league champion and tournament champion status. I could've done without the rain & lightning, but I'm not complaining - it was still a blast.
woop woop!
Let's all say a quick prayer that the rain will not be here when we wake up tomorrow... wouldn't that be nice? ;)
This is what I think of, naturally, when I think of June:
sunshine & flowers & green grass & pretty!
And then I remember where we live - the gooooooood ol' Midwest, where the weather does what it wants, when it wants, however it wants, and we should just be thankful that we're not somehow drowning and burning simultaneously.. haha. Thanks for the rainy welcome, June!
welcome to cincinnati :|
Anyway, it's all a state of mind, right?! RIGHT.
i'm on it!
Consider it done, I said at 7am. I arrived at the office to greet the standard things of Monday: miniature fires needing to be extinguished and that generally-disorganized feeling that comes with a Monday.
Also, this is the weather that replaced what I would've liked to envision for the first day of June:
happy.... june?
Wonderful, wet, dreary. Right?
I'm gonna go ahead and continue imagining this instead:
that's more like it.
And that, friends, is how we're off to a blazing start for the month of June.
Let's all say a prayer for better weather tomorrow! I know we can do it, Cincinnati... c'moooon sunshine!
Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Sunshi---nope, just kiddinnnngggg... Rain! Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. And then no more rain, but just... wet.. everywhere.
HowEVER:
got it got it got it!!!!
^^ That was exactly what I needed to brighten up the otherwise rainy day: MY HAMMOCK!!! I'll be heading out this weekend to the Smokies with Becky & Mare, and I needed this sucker to get here. PERFECT. TIMING.
