I should probalby also make a note not to barely eat all day then dive into a bottle of wine with dinner. *the spinning is fun!* In fact, all that sugar plus wine: uber spinny-fun.

Meanwhile… in the downstairs, right now, JamesT is using a borrowed carpet cleaner to try to suck up the water from the carpet in the den around the bathroom door. Wow do we need to fix/finish that half-bath. I had cheaper home projects in mind first, but… we’ll see.

Max and A.J. are the official cat names, I guess. Maximilian had just stuck in my head after Inglorious Basterds – the German soldiers new baby boy, and A.J. sort of evolved. Technically he’s our “almond joy” cat, since he still has nuts, and well, myself and Kitty confined ourselves to the den and watched Armageddon the first day we decided to let the new cats explore the upstairs, so A.J. just seemed to work out. And perhaps I was just a bit creeped out at naming both cats after Stephen King story cats.

Max – the tabby – is working on being my buddy, though we haven’t quite figured each other out. He has taken to meowing a lot at times when I can’t work out what he wants. A.J. is still too shy to hang out with people, so its probably just a little lonliness for him not being around, too.

Kitty has done outstanding with the new arrivals. No fighting at all. She’s curious about them, enjoying the placement of food and litter box in an alternate location, and all the new toys. So far she’s only really gotten pissed at each new cat when they tried the same move on her independently — tried to come up and groom her. She’s not having any snuggle-time with these guys yet. Not really sure she knows what its all about, as it seems to REALLY freak her out.

A.J. needs a vet appointment in the next couple weeks, so I hope he gets a little more comfortable with people soon. I wonder if afterwards we’ll need to change his name to “Mounds”.

Oh well. Bed now. Up at 4:30 is hard, but I haven’t turned on the tv tonight and all that wine seems to be doing the trick to knock me out.

I have an appointment Wednesday at lunch to test drive a potential new vehicle, which I’m strangely excited about. I really think Spyhunter has gone on it’s last mission. Changing the air filter did nothing to stop the running very hot it’s been doing since the wedding, it’s sputtering even more, and as of the last leg of this weekend’s trip we can add in intermittent A/C. I’m just SO glad that I’m already driving a car with an average mpg of 22 so I don’t qualify for this clunker credit, though, let me tell you.

The reunion went so well, though there were still a lot of faces missing that I’d like to see again. There’s always next year… so yeah, the suggestion was thrown out that we try this simple, inexpensive picnic notion every year and maybe work on something “special” for the 25, which we can plan together in the upcoming picnics. It’ll give us time to gather more faces and figure out what we’d enjoy doing together… maybe even a group trip someplace. I’m genuinely excited at the notion of it all!

Kitty was once again pretty freaked out when we got home. Second time we’ve left her alone, and she’s going right back to the pre-Smudge crazy behavior. I guess she just misses us, but she really did seem less desperate for attention when she’d had company while we were gone. Though, talked to sis and they left three cats home while they vacationed and all three were attention-whores when they got home, each one jealously vying for lap time.

It may or may not be apparent that we stayed in a hotel for this trip up for the reunion, and certainly enjoyed some pool time while we were there. We did, however, have to stop by mom’s, and I’m sad to say things were no better. Worse, actually, though I don’t think I have the inclination to spell it all out here right now — must be the TheraFlu kicking in, as I’m getting sleepy finally, though I still can’t really breathe through my nose. I’m attempting to be kind to JamesT tonight by sleeping in the guest bed instead of keeping him up all night like last night.

There are actually a couple things from this weekend I need to set down someplace, but I’ll wait for a clearer head. Just hope this sinus funk doesn’t get in the way of dinner with Maggie and her folks when they get to town. Still haven’t really processed that by Friday she won’t be living here anymore, but heck we’ve been so busy it seems we rarely chat other than via the internets anyway. Can’t see as Texas or Oklahoma or wherever will make much difference, other than perhaps a little more planning involved for when we DO want to get together in person. Anything’s doable, though, and with a new car on the horizon, I’m sure I’ll be itching to hit the road and start putting the miles on…

Sunday: Cuyamaca Rancho State Park to Julian, CA (elevation 4235 feet) to pick up the frewtnut great niece at girl scouts – Julian Cafe knows apple-pumpkin pie – Then Rifftrax for The Matrix

Monday: Balboa Park: San Diego Zoo (It’s turtle mating season), San Diego Automotive Museum (Ferrari!)

Tuesday: Guy/Girl Day, where JamesT hangs out with the senior chief. I do lunch with niece at Taco Salsa (where they know her name and told on her that she’d just been there the day before) then go shopping and see Twilight at Otay Ranch mall.

Wednesday: Balboa Park: San Diego Aerospace Museum (with the Star Trek experience!), San Diego Natural History Museum, lunch at outdoor sidewalk dining on Coronado, then dinner at PF Changs, B&N and Bolt at Otay Ranch mall.

Thursday: biscuits & gravy to hold us over until turkey & ham to hold us through Wall-E to hold us through pumpkin pie, pecan pie & cheesecake (then Maalox)

Friday: SeaWorld, leftovers, and Rifftrax for “Spiderman”

Saturday: “What the Dickens?” at Balboa Park, complete with Christmas carols and grown men in elf outfits, then a drive up to Del Mar to photograph the sunset and have dinner at Jake’s Del Mar

Sunday: San Diego Wild Animal Park (great-niece in control of my camera!), pop our In-n-Out Burger cherry, and leftover pie!

Monday: Chillout with more shopping and Quantum of Solace at Angela’s mall – which is Plaza Bonita Westfield in National City. Seriously, she did that. Order pizza, watch tv, more chill out and stay up way too late for our last night.

Tuesday: Hug great-niece 2 more times before school, leave her tons of silly notes, hugemongous brunch with niece (and eventually her hubby) at F-Hop, more hugs, ride to airport where we lament not having driven around by the water in San Diego more this visit before then, more hugs, then home.

The Southwest Experience^TM has pretty much already been documented, but it should be noted that at about 2am, when we finally got home, Kitty was only somewhat insanely happy to see us and the only thing trashed from her having run of the house for 10 days was the San Diego shotglass that I’d bought on my first visit, which she’d knocked off onto the tile by the front door and smashed but good. James’ reaction, “Kitty, you could have just called us.” Yeah, we were tired.

If more fun could have been had, we couldn’t have survived it. We have 3 billion pictures to sort through.