All over the place

I am so all over the place.

1. Yard Yard Yard. I have been doing all sorts of stuff to my yard and not taking pictures of it. My tomatoes are still green and it is supposed to freeze tomorrow night. This means I need to cut them and put them in a paper bag in the kitchen and see if they will ripen there. Matt killed 2/3 of my front lawn and I replaced it with decomposed granite and a tree. I am trimming up the bed at the edge of the remaining lawn with more decomposed granite but it means I have to take out the rocks that are squashing my shrubs and take out the landscape fabric that is smothering the shrubs but not the weeds (of course). So most of it is done, my shrubs are hopefully going to perk up and my tree will be all happy. And I will take pictures. I had to do it all quick though because it is supposed to freeze soon and I don't want to be doing any planting too close to a freeze. In the spring I will hook up a drip system and put in some more shrubs on the side with no lawn so it will match the shrubs around the lawn side. Whoof.

2. Wardrobe angst. I lack basics but my wardrobe is still boring me to death. How does that work? I naturally gravitate away from anything with bright color or pattern, so I have no idea how to fix this situation. I am trying to train myself to buy stuff in colors other than black, navy and gray but I haven't purchased anything since I came up with this strategy so I have no clue how effective it will be. I did a clean-out of stuff that is ill-fitting or falling apart so now I guess I will just have to walk around naked until I get this resolved ;) The question is, do I stock up on basics and fall asleep looking in my closet, or buy one or two stylishly quirky items and skate along with a dearth of t-shirts for a few months? That, and who decided that everything right now has to have puffy sleeves? I am not twelve, and I do not need to look any more like a linebacker than I already do, thank you very much.

3. Weekend trips. Last weekend we spent with friends in the Nevada City area. It was brilliant. We got out of Reno and were somewhere we had no commitments, had a couple of gorgeous walks (not quite hikes) in lovely beginning-of-fall weather (drizzly, sunny, turning leaves etc.) and a superfantastic dinner in a random Italian joint in Grass Valley that turned out to be totally delicious.

3.1... However, this weekend I am going home to visit my family. This did not used to stress me out. Howeever, we are having a baby shower Saturday night for my sister, and that means at least for small children present on four different schedules (as in "No, we can't do that, it's naptime" so we have to sit around and be quiet). And people who come home and think, "Aah family, that means free babysitters". Which leads to my mom chasing kids around (doting grandma is ok with that) and me doing all the cooking. Words have been spoken to the effect of "It's ok if she is the only one helping Mom, she doesn't have kids". I didn't sign up for that, sorry. Words WILL be spoken between Mom and me to the effect of, "If nobody helps us cook, we're passing the hat and making them all pitch in for takeout". Visits home USED to be fun. Now this is what is up. Last trip we tried to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Three separate groups of parents chasing around kids and me trying to keep the groups in contact (not a small aquarium) and ending up not seeing anything I wanted to see. Le sigh. Matt is not coming with, either, so being the singleton for the weekend means I get to sleep in the basement. Le double sigh.