Lighting Candles

Life has been all kinds of busy, Internet, hence my lack of verbiage.

And because I could get Carpel Tunnel Syndrome trying to fill you in, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Last Saturday we realized school was about to start



and we felt pretty ambivalent about it,



so we went to Warren's in Kittery, ME for one last big-ass dessert



before packing up the car and heading back to Illinois.

On the way we spent the night in Chautauqua, which is all kinds of adorable



what with the porches bedecked with vases of gladiolas



the pedestrian-friendly streets,



the cultural offerings,



and a really good bookstore. (If you haven't heard of the Chautauqua Institute, you could read this interesting Wikipedia entry or get the brief version from me; it's a resort for intellectuals, where the focus has always been adult education.)

So that was fun.

Then it was home to inspect the damage from the big storm that struck the Chicago area while we were eating ice cream in New Hampshire. So I bid you welcome to my back yard




and you can see what my first order of business was.

It was obviously not to get my son a haircut, so he went off to school somewhat on the shaggy side but relatively cheerful about the start of the school year.



Unlike his mother, who vacillates between full-on nausea and a sense of impending doom



because my next tasks were: 1. to get the building permits that will make it legal for the construction people to rip out the kitchen and two of the bathrooms;

and 2. To join Weight Watchers. Where I got weighed in. Shall we see that again?



So now, I am figuring out this whole Weight Watchers Flex Plan Jargon Thing. And Tracking Points. And keeping the Supreme Dieting Icon candle lit:



All I need now are two more candles: St. Jude Pray for Me as I Oversee Homework and St. Joseph Watch Over My House as It Is Remodeled.