Saturday Morning at Home

Good morning and happy Saturday!

I have a ton of work emails to catch up on, but I just dropped Claire off for warm-up at a high school swim meet, I'm about to wake Cora up so she can get ready for her swim practice, and Landon and James are already at their respective pools for their own swim practices, so I'm stealing these few minutes between swim carpools to catch up here.

Then I'm going to pilates, maybe, because I'm trying to go to fitness classes again, but I get annoyed at how long they take. (Picture of me above at a class a couple weeks ago; I know they're good for me, but I don't even get sweaty and it's hard to feel like the time is "worth" it. I wish the harder studio was closer to my house.) Anyway! September. I was in DC, then we had our anniversary, and then everyone was home for one whole weekend before we scattered again.

We made use of the time with a new card game - Play Nine - that is a fancier version of the Golf we'd been playing with a regular deck of cards for years.

Despite Landon's face in this picture, he both had fun, refused to follow any rational strategy, and somehow won by so much I had to check my math multiple times.

The pets remain a constant. Maggie continues to occasionally trap herself in the downstairs guest shower with no clue how to get out.

To be clear, she's the one who gets herself. She uses her big head to push open the door that easily swings in and out in both directions, turns around in the shower space, and then stands by the door on the other side of it, with seemingly no clue how she got there or how to ever get out again. Eventually one of us will realize she's missing and go look for her. This is always the first spot to check.

Murphy is settling in nicely. He's very friendly and is always around us. He completely resists cuddling though. Has anyone had a cat who didn't want to cuddle at 18 months old (and only 1 month into being adopted) but then became snuggly later? I'm trying to adjust expectations.

Moose is being more social! He's been jumping on the couch when humans are already on it.

He's doing this by choice, but always looks a little/lot uncomfortable about it.

Landon went on his first swimming recruiting trip! He and James flew to The Ohio State (turns out, the "the" is important) on Thursday.

The schedule was packed with fun for swimmers and parents alike. The school flew out Landon and covered the hotel for James. Both were very impressed with the athletic facilities, which had changed a lot since James went on his own recruiting trip there in 1998! Landon roomed with some swimmers, they both attended a game, and everyone had fun.

James and Landon flew back Thursday morning, landing about 30 minutes after I had taken off for NYC for work. This passing of ships (planes) meant that James and I were apart for 7 days which is the longest we've been apart since we were married! Kind of a funny mielstone after just celebrating our 20th anniversary the week before.

My trip was 5 nights, but my trusty carry-on suitcase (and large "personal item") managed to fit everything I needed.

NYC remains one of my very favorite places to be.

I walked miles and miles in Central Park, reaffirming my plan that James and I are moving here after Cora graduates high school.

Some people have a city adventure in their 20's. Mine will be in my 50's. I'm genuinely very excited about it.

My new firm's NY office is great and I got to meet several more of my partners.

I discovered a gluten-free bakery directly across the street from the office and I ate a pastry and bagel sandwich every morning I was there.

I weighed 4 more pounds when I returned, but I have no regrets.

Except not getting an extra cinnamon roll to go for the flight home.

Speaking of "home," my temporary home in NY was a crazy hotel room at The Lombardy. I booked a normal room, but somehow opened the door to a Titanic stateroom from the early 1900's.

I had a very fancy foyer, a huge living room and dining area (with fire place!), and a full kitchen.

A giant bedroom with clouds on the ceiling.

My bathroom was all green marble and amazing molding and a mysterious black tufted leather door.

That turned out to be a secret entrance from the foyer.

It was really something.

I finished taking my last deposition on Thursday midday and was able to hop on an earlier flight home to reunite with my loves. The plane started boarding while I was still in the Uber to LGA, but I made it! And even the second-to-last-row middle-seat was worth it to get home more than 12 hours earlier than planned.

This weekend I need to catch up on many work things, attend Cora's meet tomorrow, find outfits for our family pictures coming up in a couple weeks, exercise (whether or not in a studio), and catch up on South Africa blog posts. So obviously the first thing I did was switch out the winter/summer bins in my closet. Most of my clothes stay out year-round, but I have two bins that I switch halfway through- sweaters for sundresses, etc. It's going to be 95 today, but it made me feel hopeful that I can wear sweaters soon. Ish. By January for sure.

Let's close out with some favorite outfits of the past couple weeks!

Ayron comes back in a couple weeks for styling and I can't wait. I continue to be amazed at what she puts together in my closet- nothing in the above pictures is new, but it's all worn in a way I hadn't before.

Happy Saturday all!