Sunday Salon: Slogging through molasses

Happy Sunday, Saloners! Well, as you can tell by my title, I don't feel I've had a productive week. This may be partly my imagination, fueled by my dismal reading time. Why is it that I only feel productive if I have finished a handful of books? Anyway, my time is not my own these days, and is a serious buzz-kill.

On a bright note, my bathroom is basically finished. As with any project, there are one or two minor tweaks that still need to be finished, but we are operational. As the guys started wrapping up back there, it was my turn to come in and clean (more cleaning than I have done in a year), put all of our belongings back in the cabinets, shop for towels and rugs, and stay in touch with the general contractor to make sure all problems were resolved. We still have to get the cable company out here to hook up our TV in the workout room, replace the blinds in the workout room (which OF COURSE have to be custom ordered), replace our weights and weight bench, find mirrors for my husband's vanity, and decorate. But it is getting there. Slowly. At least I don't have worker boys underfoot.


Entrance into our double shower



















One side of the double shower (my back is to the second shower head)

My tub!




















My vanity (no picture of my husband's as it has no mirrors)


My daughter started volleyball, so we are back in the groove of dropping off, picking up and waiting. (Maybe this will help me get in some reading!)

I participated in a golf tournament on Wednesday, which at first annoyed me because I felt I needed to be home supervising bathroom wrap-up. But it turned out to be worth my time! Our team won fifth place, and I got "Closest to the Pin", both earning some wine-themed gifts. But the big kahuna was a raffle prize that I won...a weekend stay at the Portofino Bay Resort at Universal valued at close to $700. So I guess another weekend at Universal is in our future! Our plan is to wait until the Harry Potter portion of the park is open, which should be in the next couple of months.

The excitement is building in the Nawrot house, as we are leaving for Hawaii this Tuesday and will be gone for a week. Is it twisted that I am just as excited about the 12+ hours of flying time as I am about the destination? You're with me, aren't you? But with any trip, you have to prepare. I had to get all promotional communications written and distributed, and loose ends tied up for the book fair, which will be happening the third week of March. The kids have to make up the schoolwork. Resort wear must be purchased. Reservations must be made for dinners and tours. Housesitter and petsitter must be arranged. And so it goes. (I've got posts planned for while I am gone, but I may be scarce around the blogs this week!)

We wrapped up the week with an annual Crawfish Boil last night at some friends' house. This is a highlight on the Nawrot social calendar. Our hosts are from Louisiana, so they know what they are doing. Hurricanes by the gallon mixed with a liberal amount of liquor, fifty pounds of imported crawfish, steamed with corn, sausage and stuff, music and happy people. I probably won't eat today, but it was worth it!

So anyway. This would be why I only finished one audio book this week, Hold Tight by Harlan Coban. It was an entertaining listen, a bit tense, a bit convoluted, not entirely satisfying. I just started The Swan Thieves on audio, which was pretty exciting for me. I continue to read and enjoy Stone's Fall in print, but have only read 240 pages in two weeks. And ARCs are piling up in the meantime. This is distressing to me. I am counting on getting back my time and mojo with that long flight next week. Despite our best intentions, the kids and I did not finish the fifth Harry Potter on audio. We only have about five discs left, but we won't get through them until we return from Hawaii.

So what is on your agenda today? I promised my daughter that for her birthday (which is next week), I would take her to see that damned "Dear John" at the theater. I think I would rather have a root canal, but she really wants to go, so I may try to knock out that dreaded task today. It probably won't come as a surprise that she also wants to see "The Last Song" when that comes out at the end of March. I may have to bring a flask to get through all of that Nicholas Sparks hell.

On that happy note, I hope everyone has a great Sunday!