vacation!

Finally, finally....I have vacation time!!

I have earned a few days vacation at the bookstore, and am using some of them this week to celebrate my wonderful husband's birthday (he's off too!).  I really, really need a break from all the stress I've been under these last few weeks.  This is the first time I've had consecutive days off in over a year!  It feels great, although I am so behind on household chores/errands/family obligations/etc etc that I'm having a hard time relaxing.

I am also trying to do all the last minute shopping/prep for GB's birthday on Wednesday.  I am ordering prints for a photo collage of Ginger and Marco, and also having two paintings by an artist friend of his framed (something we've been putting off for years now).   He's going to be thrilled to finally have them ready for hanging!  I also have to shop for ingredients for his birthday dinner, which is going to include a homemade pineapple upside-down cake!  This will be my first attempt at such a cake--I hope it turns out well.  I have a collection of old vintage cookbooks and several have recipes for pineapple cake.  One of them, a cookbook from the 40's, says of the recipe "delicious, but surely will increase the girth"!   That means only a small piece for me--GB can eat as much as he likes. That man never gains weight!  I keep telling him what a gift that is, but I don't think he really gets it!

Tomorrow we may be going up to Raleigh, NC to see GB's mom and sister.  We plan to drive up early, spend a few hours (they want to see him for his birthday, naturally) and then we will drive home tomorrow night.  I'm  happy to be going to see his family, but it takes away my last day to get ready for the birthday festivities I have planned.  Which means that I have to get everything done today.

So I continue to be busy, busy, busy although I am technically on vacation. At least I'm busy with fun stuff...and at home! That's always nice.  I'll post pictures of the cake and the paintings on Thursday.

What is everyone else up to this first week of November?