Sunday Salon - August 21, 2011

I didn’t get a chance to write last week as I was too busy enjoying our visitors. Our granddaughter came out from the east coast for a full week and our daughter flew up for a long weekend from Texas. We had THE BEST time!! We visited a local museum (UNL's Morrill Hall), celebrated a couple of birthdays, went fishing (Shay & Grandpa), saw The Help (me & Amy), did a little shopping, cooked some delicious meals, visited the Lincoln Children’s Zoo (one of us rode a horse), went swimming at a friend’s house, did a lot of porch sitting with Annie-Dog, and had ice cream almost every single night. Our favorite location? Ivanna Cone, located in the Haymarket. We went two nights in a row. :)

The week flew and after two very long days of travel, I’m only just now beginning to feel rested. More about that later.

I didn’t get much reading accomplished during Shay & Amy’s visits, but I did find time on all eight flights (yes, you read that correctly; two roundtrips to VA = 8 legs) to relax with a couple of books. I was in the middle of Sea Escape (Lynne Griffin) before the trip and managed to finish it on my first flight. I decided to stick with the “sea” theme and dove into Sea Glass (Anita Shreve), but couldn’t get interested. It might have had something to do with the lackluster plot or the fact that each chapter centered around one of six characters. I read about 50 pages and decided to set it aside. A part of me is tempted to give it another try since the setting involves the same location as other books by Shreve. Maybe when I’m not so distracted.

Keeping with the “sea/beach/summer” theme, I picked up another book by Shreve that has been lurking on my shelves for quite some time. Body Surfing proved to be a very enjoyable story. I was immediately drawn in and actually forced myself to set it aside for a day or two so I could fall back into it on my flight out of Omaha to Dallas. My granddaughter slept a good portion of that leg, so I was able to get thoroughly engrossed and almost finished the book on the following flight. It’s funny how one book by the same author left me bored and restless and another completely spellbound. Go figure.





I’ve just started another “beach read” and while I haven’t had much time to relax and read, I have a feeling Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God (Joe Coomer) is going to be a winner. I’ve had this book for ages and the cover art isn’t the same as what I’m finding on the Internet. I’ll try to remember to take a picture of it for my final review.

I'm glad we had such a good visit with the girls because our weekend has been anything but stress-free. It all started on a dark and stormy night (Thursday). My flights out to VA were uneventful other than the five hour layover at DFW. However, my final flight home the following day was cancelled (mechanical issues) and I was rebooked on a later flight, which resulted in a six hour layover. It’s really not as bad as it sounds. DFW is a lovely airport and the D Concourse has some of the nicest restaurants. I’ve eaten at the Reata Grill, Cantina Laredo and Cool River Café, the latter of which is now my all-time favorite. I know where all the quiet areas are (with comfy chairs!) and I relaxed with my book and iPad, catching up on my favorite blogs with a new iPad app called Reeder (thanks for the tip, Heather!). The bad part of this trip was when I learned that the Omaha airport had been closed due to a severe storm that included softball-sized hail and torrential rain, accompanied by strong winds. So my flight was delayed even later. I actually would’ve preferred a cancellation, so I could spend the night and not have to pay the fee for changing my flight, but that didn’t happen. Omaha reopened and we were on our way. We landed close to midnight and I had a long drive ahead of me. I crawled into bed at 1:30 a.m. completely exhausted!

It wasn’t until the following morning that I discovered the hail damage to my less-than-one-year-old Subaru. At first I thought it was simply body damage with several large hail dimples, but then I discovered the cracks in my sunroof. Ka-ching! I knew this wasn’t going to be cheap. I made an appointment with a body shop and have an appointment with my insurance adjuster on Monday morning. Oh, well. It’s only a car, right?

But things went from bad to terrible. Saturday morning I went into the basement to do some laundry and noticed that the floor was soaking wet. A couple of the ceiling tiles were soaked and there was water on my treadmill! We don’t know if it’s a roof issue (we did get hit with some torrential rain on Thursday night) or if it’s a plumbing issue. Either way, I need to make some phone calls and try to get this resolved. After today's morning shower, we ruled out the roof. Sigh.

Suffice it to say, what had begun as a fantastic week with my loved ones ended on a very stressful note.

So, how about some pictures to end this post on a happier note? I took hundreds of shots, but these are a few of my favorite. I’m sure I’ll share more in the coming weeks.

Emily, Maddie and Shaylyn
at UNL's Morrill Hall

Annie and Shay cooling off
in the shade at the neighborhood park

Shay and her Aunt Amy

Fishing at Holmes Lake with Grandpa
(Shay caught 2 fish!)

Swimming at Dave & Heidi's

Riding at the Lincoln Children's Zoo

Beautiful day at the Lincoln Children's Zoo!

Sippin' sweet tea on Nanny & Grandpa's porch

Cracking up with Grandpa
(my personal favorite)

Nanny and the birthday girl

Manicure with Aunt Amy

I literally have hundreds of photos from our recent trips that I need to work on, as well as my stack of books to review. I think there's at least eight! However, it's a beautiful day and I swore I'd get on my bike this weekend. The photos and books are going anywhere, but our fickle weather can change in flash. This is Nebraska, after all.

Links to the books mentioned in this post can be found by clicking on the cover art in my sidebar.