We're back

The longer I go without blogging anything substantial, the easier it is to go longer without blogging anything substantial.

Last week seemed to be the week my entire family entered into various philosophical and/or religious debates with guys I knew/dated in high school turned theologians. When I posted the link to the thread a few posts ago, I was maybe secretly crying out for moral support, a plea for rescue me!, if you will. It was nice that my homeboys Steve, Neil, Ryan, and Sarah rose to the occasion. Austin and Abby and Amy had some nice contributions as well. I think all of the above are really, really smart. The other parties in the discussion were quite passionate about the subject matter, and I learned quite a bit from the exchange.

This week was the week I went on vacation, and oh, did I! A quick trip to the glorious mecca of San Diego with my husband and kids and mother was a little, um, noisy is the word that comes to mind. But we managed to have a great time, and it's always nice to have my mom around to help with the kids. The zoo was our primary destination, not counting stopping by my grandpa's house. Pandas, polar bears, gorillas, takins (my new favorite animal) -- all fantastic.

Then we came home just long enough to strew all the dirty clothes on the floor throughout every room, repack, and head to the airport. Norah and I flew out with Steve to Chicago for some work he had to do there. Steve's sisters Becky and Nancy were most gracious to take our boys for us for four days. Thank you, thank you! We had a great time. At least Norah and I did. For Steve, it was mostly just work. Tell me again why it is that Steve sometimes gets stressed about work. Work isn't stressful! Work means free hotel rooms, lots of leisure time in a fabulous big city, chi-chi weekend getaways every so often, holiday parties, steady paychecks. . . .Work is the best! Oh wait. {As I write that, I'm realizing that I rather sound like one of the always-big-busted always-big-diamonded Scottsdale women I was just observing and talking about with Steve over dinner tonight. For the record, I'm not big-busted, I'm not big-diamonded, I'm not from Scottsdale -- not that there's anything wrong with any of these things, per se -- and I'm really not a brat.}

In Chicago, I did lots of walking, lots of shopping, I learned a lot about the city's architecture on an architecture boat tour. I slept in, I took naps, I bonded with Norah bigtime. I ate good food, I slept through the Harry Potter movie, like I knew I would. We had a good time.

Which brings me to tonight. Steve took me on a nice date to a restaurant where we observed the Scottsdale women in great abundance. Then he took the boys to a Harry Potter party at Borders. I seem to have forgotten how to rotate pictures effectively, but you may get the idea that we had a couple of Harrys, a dementor, and one fine looking Batman with a lightning bolt on his forehead representing our HP-loving household.