Hello, Monday {Blue Skies}

It was rainy, cloudy and chilly for most of this weekend, so I was happy to wake up and enjoy a morning walk under clear blue skies this Monday.  It was mostly a quiet, lazy weekend, but the week was busy and action-packed with routines.

Hello, sweet boy. 

On Sunday I took Tucker to a birthday party, just an informal thing at a pizza parlour. Amazing how some arcade tokens and plastic prizes can make kids so happy.  Tucker doesn't have the busy social calendar of his big sister, and doesn't yet have a true best friend. Sometimes this makes him sad, and I feel bad that she gets to do more Fun Stuff -- sleepovers and play dates and Girl Scout field trips and such.

Still, I know that he's only 8 -- his time for pool parties and sleep-overs will come. Meanwhile, I was happy that he had such a fun couple of hours helping his friend celebrate.

Hello, Blue Skies.
Go ahead: roll your eyes and shake your head at this California wimp, but damn I was happy the sun came out today.  I know it was miserable in the East this weekend, but their reality is so hard for me to relate to, never having even visited. For our family of Cali natives, watching news footage of blizzards and snow and ice is like watching a sci-fi movie -- it's that foreign and exotic.

Meanwhile, on Friday night, returning from dinner, we drove through a small hailstorm.  It poured down on us for several minutes, and the street in our headlights turned white with hail stones.  The car thermometer read 37 degrees out, and Lily started willing the temps to drop another 5 degrees -- then it will snow! Sadly, by the time we got home, the temp had risen to 40 degrees and the hail had stopped. But! There was an accumulation of slushy ice at the bottom of the windshield, and the kids scooped it up and made a couple "snowballs."  And that is our version of extreme winter weather.

Today I walked by the new pool that the HOA built last year. It must be heated -- it was 43 degrees on my walk and somebody was swimming laps.

 Or maybe somebody just has visitors in from Canada. I'm looking forward to trying out the new pool sometime in the coming months.  But not now: damn, it's cold outside!

Hello, Old Friends

Recently I rescued some of my favorite books from storage in the garage. (More on that soon.)  These included some by one of my favorite writers, Laurie Colwin. Her take on life and love and marriage (and food!) via her upscale, brainy New Yorkers is always so sharp and warm and wise. 

This weekend I re-read Another Marvelous Thing, about a young woman and older man who meet and fall into a deep love affair, despite being quite happily married to other people.  Considering that I first read this book when I was single and in my early 20s, it feels like a much different read now.

Speaking of love & marriage, it's Valentine's this week. Uh-oh! Well, the husband and I are somewhat circumventing that treacherous date by having our date night on Friday the 15th.  Still, that doesn't mean the 14th can't be romantic. Right? Right?

Linking up with Lisa Leonard for Hello, Mondays.