Sometimes reality is such a bitch...

What I Left:



What I Came Home to:

• A miserable chest cold, product of too much relaxation after too much life craziness.
  
• A child on hospital watch with dozens of scary-ass bites that seemed to contribute to a heightened immune response causing hives around mouth and highly enlarged (i.e. visible from above the skin) lymph nodes. (She's improving, fyi.)
  
• A half-complete bathroom reno - forgive me for neglecting to mention this but I was in denial, all details to come soon, I'm sure you're beyond thrilled to know. Upshot is that all the demolition was supposed to be done and everything except a couple of key features in place upon my return. But instead the new toilet is in my dining room (boxed, thankfully) and walls are untaped (construction-speak for "all there is is blueboard right now") and there are tiles all over my exceedingly narrow hallway. Did I mention the dust?? Which, btw, just makes the chest cold that much more hideous.
  
• A migraine (I get about one of these a year) which came on the heels of discovering that I had written out two exceeding large cheques to the designer and contractor and, in my pre-vacation fatigue and frisson, neglected to transfer money from the line of credit into the chequing account. So those cheques bounced and the NSF fee was 80 bucks, not to mention I had to get to the bank on Saturday to have a certified cheque made out because the contractor is half-way through the job and (I suppose, rightfully) suspicious. Rule one of renovations: Don't piss off your contractor.

Note to reader: I cannot believe I did this. How wretchedly ineffective of me. You must know that I have never bounced a cheque in my entire life. Like not even for $30.00. So this filled me with horror and embarrassment the likes of which made my blood vessels dilate super quickly, and then to immediately contract. Hence the horrendous, day-long migraine - including ocular hallucinations! (These are different than antihistamine hallucinations, btw...)

Wow, could I be less post-vacation rosy glow? Do you just want to smack me at this point?

I promise, give me a couple of days and you'll hear all about the good stuff. And then, you may recall, I'm off to Montreal for a fast-track weekend of eating and shopping. I'm so bringing the camera for that one.

PS: I'm putting together answers to a couple of games I was tagged to do. Oh, and just getting back into my blog-reading groove now. Can't wait to hear what y'all have been up to...