Peaks and Valleys

Ever seen a yoyo master ply his or her trade? It's a blur of zigs and zags that makes you dizzy.

Such has been my professional life this week.

Happily, I've had other stuff going on, too. Here's to the peaks. To hell with the valleys.

Jeff brought home a bouquet of lilies that had yet to bloom before I left on a quick work trip. They were a great welcome home and have only gotten more gorgeous every day this week. 

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After years of claiming to have a terrible case of stage fright, Alison tried out for the 7th Grade play. She got the role of Genie in an adaptation of "Aladdin."  Huzzah to not letting your fears hold you back. 

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I'm trying to connect a friend of mine to another PR professional. One had to decline. The next prospect today responded with in minutes to my request with: "You had me at dominatrix."

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Ali and Jenna were making cupcakes today and I overheard Alison impart the following wisdom: "I've found that if you give it a good beating, it'll tone right down."

Informed that that phrase exactly describes my parenting style, she rolled her eyes. Jenna giggled. I love Jenna.

  

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It's week three of my debut fantasy football team. Squirrel Gravy has a 1-1 record and is going up today against Valentine's Heart Breakers, which, sadly, Jeff says should live up to its name. 

Alisha has Trent Richardson, who makes his debut as an Indianapolis Colt today. The bad news is he's apparently the best running back in the league right now. The good news is it's his first game with the Colts, and they're up against San Francisco's awesome defense. "So if you have to play against him ever, this is the game to do it," so says my advisor.

A note about that: When Jeff told his buddies I was in a FF league and he was helping me, Ed Kaufman (commissioner of Jeff's FF league for years now a frequent winner) replied, "Uh, why is she listening to you?)  Jeff has a great track record in fantasy baseball. He gets brought back to Earth with is football league. 

Regardless, he's enjoying my foray into football. "There's something sexy about talking football with your wife," he said the day. I have pledged to pay more attention.

Jeff volunteered his best email was when we were texting each other about something and I wrote: "Stop bothering me. I'm evaluating tight ends." I followed that up with a question: "What exactly is a tight end?"

It was funny, he said, because "of the high probability" I really didn't know what a tight is. (I didn't.)

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We had a huge storm the other day with lots of thunder and lightning. Ali relocated to the couch to watch it through the living room window. I was sleepy and declined her offer to join.  The next morning I found evidence of who'd joined her.  Yep. Pink Bunny, her very first plush friend, still makes an appearance every now and then.  

  

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Our neighborhood had a food truck gathering at the local park that included a live band that covered a bit of Johnny Cash. We squeezed in dinner there before Ali had to go off to basketball practice. Jeff had a smoked turkey, goat cheese and roasted red pepper sandwich on foccacia. Ali had bacon-topped mac-n-cheese. I had a kale and brussel sprouts salad. Happily for me, they shared bites. Strangley, they didn't want to sample my salad.

  

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For those of you paying attention, I had a great time in NYC Sunday. I wore the shoes for something like three hours straight without sitting down. I think the high of being at the WWHL Clubhouse and being the whole mix of thinks kept the pain at bay. I'll admit that the dogs have wimpered a bit since then, but overall, well worth it. 

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And now on to today. Alison will cheer again at the Christ the King football game. Here she is last week, courtesy of Jeff Reed, and a silly one resulting from me finally remembering to bring in a souvenir from a work trip.