Taciturn

RWOTP: Taciturn

taciturn Adjective: (of a person) Reserved or uncommunicative in speech; saying little.

Yes, I should know what this word means, but it just doesn't stick. So here goes my attempt to make it stick. My little trick worked with sardonic, so let's keep the self-education going. 

Oregon - put a bird on it!

I'm making change of address cards for Mom to give out at the going away party Collin & Denise are throwing for Mom this weekend. Since she's moving to Portland, I had to put a bird on it ... even if not a lot of people get the joke. I spent the morning designing the card (note to all graphic designers out there: your jobs are safe from me. Creating is so not my strong suit. Once I have an idea, I can execute just fine, but damn those ideas are hard to come by for me.)

In any case, now I'm just creating them. It's a three step process: print, draw (using the Silhouette), and cut. 

Here's a picture, with the contact information blurred since this is the Internet and all. It's sort of a play on the Portland Oregon (formerly Made in Oregon) sign in downtown Portland - the one with the reindeer on it. I don't expect non-Portlanders will know it's a play on that sign. And I'm not quite sure Portlanders will get it, but I went forth with it anyway. Originally I was going to do a card cut out in the shape of Oregon with the contact information inside, but this was easier. 

You may notice a difference between the two cards (other than cardstock color). The line under my mom's name is drawn using the Silhouette, but I had to switch pens due to technical issues. When I switched pens, I had to switch line style. 

Colorado Trip #1 - Beaver Creek

Our trip to Colorado this past weekend went well. We stopped at Vic & Mike's house on Thursday night for an impromptu dinner. For a variety of reasons, we didn't think to do this until we were on the plane, so it was truly awesome that it all came together. I texted Vic when we landed. She said come on over and they had enough food going for all of us. The best part was that Vic didn't tell Mike we were coming, so when we knocked on the door, Mike was truly shocked to see us standing on his doorstep. We laughed so hard at that dinner that my cheeks hurt when we left. That's a great way to start the weekend. 

The purpose of the trip was for the GMs & their spouses to get to know each other better. I can be a bit taciturn when I am in a group of people I don't know very well. During the first dinner on Friday night, it took me a while to warm up. Fortunately, everyone was very friendly and casual, so it went well. The dinner on Saturday night was great. We ate at a restaurant called Zach's Cabin on the Bachelor Gulch mountainside. It is accessible only by skiing in or, wait for it, taking a sleigh!  Don't get too excited, though, because it's not a sleigh pulled by horses. It's pulled by a snow cat. But it was still pretty cool, especially the ride down at night. The ski was beautiful, the stars were shining, the snow was glistening, and it was all rather surreal. 

Friday I spent napping, reading and spa-ing while D was a meeting all day. It was lovely. Saturday D and I spent lazing about reading and napping and eating. It was lovely. Sunday was a pure travel day with no issues. Well, I did leave my sunglasses in the rental car, but I called the rental company. The sunglasses were located and are being Fed Ex'd to my house as I type this. 

We got to the G's to get Avery at exactly 3 pm on Sunday. I burst through the door expecting Avery to come running into my arms saying "Mooommmmyyyy!" That did not happen. She was sitting at their kitchen tables decorating cookies and it was clear to me that she was going to finish decorating those cookies, damn it! It was such a relief that she did so well being gone from us for those few days. Avery's clearly been away for us that long before, but since this was a weekend in the middle of a weird month and so many routine disruptions, I was worried. I shouldn't have been. RHG said Avery was very well behaved. Christie and Henry came to pick up Avery for a playdate and dinner on Saturday. Based on the pictures, it looks like everyone had a great time. Thanks so much to both the Gs and G&Gs for taking such good care of A this weekend!

Living Room Cabinetry

It's in! It's not done, but the meat of it is there.  The wood for the doors absorbed the paint differently than did the trim, so they're going to take the doors off and give them another coat of paint. Also, the hardware needs to go on, and the tile around the fireplace is being done today and tomorrow. We are able to watch TV, though, so that's what's important! The surround sound is much better than just using our TV volume. 

Overall, I love it. The TV is still a bit higher than is ideal, but the speakers (that black rectangular thing between the TV and the fireplace) really needed to be below the TV to provide the best sound. I had to force myself not to stock up the storage last night. I can't do that until all the finishing touches are put on. Must be patient!

Sardonic

RWOTP
I have noticed I'm getting dumber by the day. It seems like I can't learn a new word to save my life. For example, my favorite author of the moment, Sharon Kay Penman, often uses the word sardonic in her writing. I admittedly should know the definition of the word, but it eludes me every time I come upon it. I dutifully look up the definition on my Kindle (one of the best features of an eReader, tyvm), then I immediately forget it and have to look it up when I come upon it in the next chapter.

So, in the interest of not getting dumber, I present what very well may be a single installment here on CdT since you never know what I'm going to stick with and what I'm not ... the random word of the post!

"The word shall be defined, then forced awkwardly and inarticulately into the other topics," she said sardonically, revealing her true feelings about the content of her blog. (First attempt - what think ye?)

sardonic \sar-DON-ik\ , adjective: Scornful, mocking; disdainfully humorous.

Feel free to comment, on this post or other RWOTP posts that may happen in the future, if you think my use of the word is wrong. The last thing I want to do is hammer the wrong definition into my head. Onward! Oh, and bonus points to the any commenters who use my RWOTP in any comments going forward.

Last Day
Today's our last full day here. Since the departing flight is now so late in the afternoon, we'll be able to take care of packing everything tomorrow.

Avery and Henry and Christie have been playing with Legos for the past hour or two. I tried to play a bit, but Legos aren't my thing. Avery seems to like them, but I'm not sure she'd sit down and play with them by herself. It's highly unlikely that she would since there are very few activities she likes to do alone.

D and I have grand plans to look in all the stores along the paseo. Other than that, there are no plans for the day. Avery is still somewhat under the weather, though she's through the worst of it I think. She seems to really need a nap in the afternoons, so I expect that will be true today, too.

Turns out there's not a lot to say about it being our last day. "What did you think, Megan? That you'd miraculously come up with something interesting to say on the last day?" I'm thinking sardonically to myself.

It's now 9:45 pm. We had a fabulous day hunting "hermie" crabs (as Avery calls them). It was a lot of fun and I hope we can do it again tomorrow. Mom, if you're reading this, you would LOVE walking in this area with Avery. It's awesome. And I think you'd love a visit here more this time of year than in May, which is the the time of year you came last time, I think.

It'll relieve everyone to know that not only do my sand socks rock when I walk in dry sand, but also when I get them completely soaking wet. The tide was out when we were walking back, so we walked in the water a bit. I just threw caution to the wind and walked with my sand socks on. I assumed that sand would make it's way into the socks since they were completely submerged. However, when I took them off when we got home, my feet were wet, but completely sand free! How awesome is that? Almost as awesome as hermie crab hunting with your 4yo (and I say that without a trace of sardonic speech).