The verdict is in...

And our mechanic can’t find what’s wrong with Whitey. Of course, since he had to run a bunch of diagnostics to find this out, we still had to pay him to find this out. Totally fair, really, because he did take the time to run all those tests, but it’s frustrating for all of that to happen, and then to not have anything “fixed”. So we have Whitey back, but I think we’ve both nervous about taking Whitey or Doris (my car – yes, we’re weird and we name our cars) out for any long road trips. While that may be an exaggerated concern, they are both older cars, so it may not be totally unfounded. Of course, when Special K and I were driving home the other day and we saw a 1980s Cadillac roll up next to us, I turned to him and said “if that POS is still running, then our cars should definitely still have a few more years left in ‘em!” So we’ll see. But it’s been an interesting month! (Did I mention the extensive vet visits and lab work for the kitties this month? Because that was awesome, too.) Owing to all of those things, we’ve had to forego a weekend at the beach with some friends, which is sucky. However, it’s part of being a grown-up, I suppose. That whole “attempting to live within our means” thing and all.

But the good news is that July is almost over, not that it hasn’t had some very high points, including a planned trip to see my grandmother at the tail end of a business trip and a spontaneous trip to see friends in Madison (represent!) in the middle of said business trip because my meetings got out about 4 hours earlier than expected. Miss M will be making a stop in Maryland on her way back to Chicago, and my grandmother is coming to visit as well, all of which will add to the silver linings of a somewhat cloudy July. (And I finished the seventh Harry Potter book, which was awesome.)

I swear, the older I get, the faster time flies by. I really can’t believe that the summer is more than halfway done. Special K and I have been married for more than four months now, not that it’s any particular kind of milestone, but it’s somewhat noteworthy because it doesn’t really feel like it’s been that long. But the fact that we haven’t had an ice storm since the wedding should have been a clue. I have our guest room restored to “livable” status, and our closets are on their way to being organized – life feels like it’s getting back into a routine. Which is a very good thing.

Now if we could just finish getting our thank-you notes written, I could go through my day without feeling so embarrassed that they’re not done yet. Always a work in progress, eh?

Aww...

So, my parents, after reading my last rant about the ravenous raccoons that decimated my tomatoes, called me on Saturday and said that they had something they wanted to drop off at our house, and asked when we’d be home. I asked what they wanted to drop off, and they were all cryptic about it. Now, as most of you have figured out, which I didn’t, they had been scouring Montgomery County for the last tomato plants available, and showed up gently cradling three Roma tomato plants in a box. We (by which I mean Dad and Special K, while Mom and I chatted as I prepared for a large family dinner that night) planted the new tomatoes, and then my mom suggested something that had briefly occurred to me earlier – why not move the plants into the screened porch? So they are now comfortably ensconced on our porch, away from fat, greedy raccoons, with a grow light to make up for the reduced sunlight, and it looks like we’ll have a bumper crop in a few weeks! Even the plant that got damaged by the raccoons is bouncing back and should be heavy with tomato clusters soon.

*sigh*

I have the best parents ever.