Starting Summer on a High Note …

… high note, that is, in the low desert. …

We took a quick weekend getaway to Palm Springs this weekend, and had a great time. Things I love about about the low desert:

  • Dry heat. I love it in small quantities, and when I’m ready for it.
  • Hauntingly beautiful mountain ranges. The surrounding mountain ranges make you feel “nestled in,” safe somehow, like you’re in a bowl. The San Jacintos are visible from everywhere in Palm Springs — they’re dry, and haunting, and beautiful, and timeless, and they turn purple in daybreak and turn orange at sunset, and they’ve been there since the pioneers saw them, and they’re just lovely.
  • It’s all about the pool. In Palm Springs, vacation is all about having a great pool. I love that single-minded focus. When we asked Nathan what he was most looking forward to, he said “the pool!” Easy breezy.
  • Another world. It’s a different climate (at least 10 to 20 degrees warmer). A different ecosystem (different bugs, different lizards, roadrunners!, etc.). It even feels like a different era (all that midcentury modern architecture — even the fonts on the house numbers). Yet we can get there and back on less than one fill-up of gas. Perfect.

So that was our kick-off to start the summer! Now we’re all in our laid-back mindset. …

What gets you started on “summer brain”?

Celebrate!

Yay! School’s finally out! We’ve had a crazy-busy June.

We’ve had late-night school projects and open houses:

 

Art awards shows:

 

Violin concerts:

 

Dances and galas:

 

Graduation ceremonies:

And that’s only after all the shoe-shopping, dress-shopping, corsage-ordering, tux-fitting, project-finishing, violin-tuning, tie-tying, shoe-shining and more that preceded each event in the last few weeks! Whew! It’s been a crazy, busy June.

But it’s been very celebratory. And very happy.

It’s just that I’m pretty sure we’re all going to be sleeping in this weekend. …

Discussion Still Going On About Jamie!

One of my most popular posts to this day is the one I did about who should play Jamie Fraser in a movie version of Outlander. …

Yup, indeedy, it seems we’re all obsessed about this possibly-most-romantic-hero-ever.

In fact, the discussion is still going on over there, more than a year later — I just got a comment last weekend, in fact, from a young woman who claims she’s found THE guy to play Jamie. And she’s uploaded a [gulp. …] verra cool video to prove it. …

C’mon over to Who Would You Cast as Jamie in Outlander and see her video (along with a few others that were uploaded in comments) and see if you want to change your answer? Or add a new one?

Obviously, the Jamie discussion is just going to go on and on until someone makes that movie! 🙂

Few More Things I Love About My Guy

Last year, in honor of Father’s Day, I did 30 Reasons I Love My Man.

But over this past year, I thought of a few more.

Here they are:

  1. When the kids were very small, he insisted on making each of their birthday cakes himself, from scratch. He made Rene a giant castle one year (with ice-cream-cone turrets) and — another year — made her a giant unicorn head (with twisted sugar chews as the horn). He’s also made race-car cakes and cakes with Elmo all over them for the boys. There’s nothing like seeing a grown man in your kitchen with frosting all over his hands and a frown over how he’s going to stack that third layer to give your 3-year-old the highest castle he can. …
  2. When he’s on vacation, he never shaves. The resulting dark stubble around his jaw has now come to look like pure relaxation to me — and is just rugged enough and just sexy enough to make me look forward to it every time.
  3. He plays the guitar in our bedroom from time to time to relax. He taught himself to play, but he’s been doing it for about 20 years now and can play a lot of songs. He also bought a ukelele about 2 years ago and is now teaching himself to play that, too. It sounds like the beach.
  4. He looks great in his Levis. (Oh, did I say that one already?) Okay. … He looks great in his Levis sitting on a Harley.
  5. He always rises to the occasion to be a dad. He’s always been involved with the kids’ sports — being in charge of sign-ups and picture days, too. But one year, he moved beyond the sports realm and took our daughter to get her dance pictures taken at the dance studio when I was ill. Although I wasn’t there to see it, the image I have in my mind of him standing there — making small talk with all the stage moms as they discuss hair and makeup — is priceless to me.
  6. He brings me bouquets of flowers from time to time for my writing room. But the thing I love best is that he always pulls one flower out of the bouquet and gives it to our daughter.
  7. He cuts his own hair.
  8. He grills a mean steak.
  9. He knows what basil is.
  10. When we got our new dining chairs, our kids fought over who got to sit next to him at the dinner table.
  11. He watches the Housewives series with me.
  12. He has good taste in television and has insisted that I watch all these shows with him: Mad Men, Entourage, Weeds, Hung, and Modern Family. Now we make them into marathons that we watch together.
  13. He taught our son how to drive this year. He also taught him how to order a corsage, make a date dinner, order a tux, and tie a tie. I think my son is in good hands.
  14. He still makes me laugh every day. (Oh, I said that one already, too?) That’s okay. It’s important.
  15. I still think he’s quite possibly the best father in the universe.

Happy Father’s Day, babe!

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