Doug leaves for his trip to Florida today. It will be weird without him here to assist me in yelling at the boy on a daily basis. We had a great day yesterday, not perfect but great. Geoff wasn't on his best behavior and we had to take him out in public.
Friday night Doug's aunt called. Seems she has been attending a doll conference in Lowell. Yesterday was the only day in the week she had any time free, so we met her for lunch. We went to a Greek restaurant in town that we hadn't been to in at least 10 years, I think the last time we were at the Lowell Folk Festival was the last time we were there. The food wasn't as good as I'd remembered, and the shish-ke-bob portions used to come with the roasted onion and tomato, but now it's just four little pieces of lamb.
Geoff was extra goofy and wired, to have a new audience to "impress" with his burp jokes and his fake story about getting bit by a Garrados (pokemon) and that's how his arm was broken. I'm sure Doug's aunt (who rarely gets to see us due to her geographical location) was unimpressed with his behavior, but, she was good humored and it was overall a very nice visit. We don't get over to Lowell much. We had some fun walking around the mills and the museums. Doug's aunt's attendence in the convention got her entrance to the museums and we figured we could go in, but we'd be policing Geoff in his hyper state and neither of us would enjoy the mill visits, so we split.
We thought Aaron was going to swing by for a brief visit on his way back up to Maine from coming down to get bike parts, but I think we misunderstood his agenda. He was going to stay with another friend who lives in the area overnight, which is all good, but I misunderstood him saying he'd come by. So last night was lowkey, hanging out, watching TV, and doing nothing.
Today has been a low key day too. Doug's packing, so he did laundry and took care of a bunch of stuff. I'm kind of steering clear so he can do his thing and I won't be "hovering" and in the way. Geoff has been pressing every one of my buttons today. He hid his splint for his arm, he lost the tag off of a Travel Bug for geocaching and I'd love to wring his neck but I'm sure we'll find it. I was going to take him to the movies this afternoon after Doug leaves. Geoff will freak when he goes, not because Dad is going away but because HE (Geoff) isn't going on a trip. The boy loves to travel. All the time he's begging us "Can we go here, can we stay at a hotel with a pool, can we go camping, I want to go to Chicago, I want to go to New York."
I have a feeling the kid will work for "Lonely Planet" or "Frommers" or something someday.
My upstairs tennant told me his niece moved out. He has no idea where to, and asked if I'd seen her. Last thing he knew she'd gone to Canada for a week with her boyfriend, and when he (the tennant) came home all her stuff was gone except for her bed.
I'm a little worried -- she's been depressed for a few months. Top that off with my tenant getting a new girlfriend... I hope the new girlfriend doesn't move in and be a complete psycho like his last one. The past year or so has been bliss.
But, on the other hand, he could end up moving out if they get serious... hmmm. Then I'd either have an apartment to rent or a whole new floor of my house for our family to move up into, and projects up the ying yang to do to merge the house back into a single family.
That's been my dream for years. When we picked the house out we knew if we stayed here that we'd spread to the upstairs. I have a visual in my mind of how I'd like it all to work out.
- Three bedrooms upstairs, possibly two if we wanted them to be huge. The "master" bedroom would access the "master" bathroom which would be up there when the kitchen and bathroom upstairs are combined floorplan wise. Big nice jacuzzi bathtub... all the luxury of a house on MTV cribs but without the bling bling of excessive spending. I'm all about the nice bathroom but don't need gold plated fixtures. And the master bedroom would, of course, be the one that has the current door out to the upper deck, which we'd make bigger, because the potential for that kinda thing is up there.
- Geoff's current bedroom as a formal dining room, or we'd keep it as another bedroom/playroom
- Jessica's room returned back to it's original state of formal livingroom with the staircase going up to the second floor and lots and lots of built in bookshelves.
- This area where I'm sitting, which used to be Clayton's kitchen, would be turned into another huge bathroom with the washer and dryer moved up here
- Our bedroom would be the office/guestroom.
- Our current bathroom off the kitchen, I'd gut and make a 1/2 bath with just the loo and the sink, and there would be our staircase to the basement... which this house does not have.
And life would rule. We'd have a four/five bedroom 2.5 bathroom house. Not Too Shabby.
Money to make the improvements down here has been tight enough. I don't know what the hell I'd do if given the option to do the full one family project on this place. I'm glad Doug's got a better paying job, and mine is okay in pay for part time... it could all work out and we'd have a hell of a friggin' house, I tell you what.
Dreaming, dreaming.... dreaming.
Ah well. Dishes. Shower. Bye to Doug. Maybe a movie. Maybe just blockbuster and the pick of the shelves for the boy. I am going to start skimcoating some of the walls in Jessica's room where Geoff has written on the walls in pen over the years. When we repaint the room the pen marks won't show. Stupid kid.
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