trotting along: November 2008

We spent this week in Tahoe, our last hurrah before our house is fully rented for the ski season. Given the difficult economy and some credit card debt left over from the summer when we couldn't actually afford to be paying two mortgages (we sold house #2 thank god), we decided to use the house for a ski share again. Only this time we won't be members of the ski share since we have Colin (aka Homie) and the ski share is not an environment for kids. Ironically we spent time this weekend searching for a vacation rental that we can split with our friends Jen and Graham, who have an 8 month old baby girl.

Happily we found a 3br, 2ba condo with Heavenly Ski Resort in its back yard. We can ski out at the end of the day, isn't that fun? We rented it for nine weekends through April, basically 2 weekends a month, and that's probably as much as we can get to Tahoe anyway. The difference in what we will make on our house and what we will pay for the rental is astounding, enough to pay off the debt and then some. I have felt some sorrow over losing our own house for the winter but as soon as I remember how sound this decision is, it doesn't feel as bad.

I went back to work on Oct 8 and it's been very hard, not surprisingly. We announced our earnings in early November, bad news to Wall Street, and ever since then I have had too much stress on the job. Because I work in internal communications, there has been a lot to do -- explaining lots of changes to employees, and everything has been urgent. Getting a couple of days off at Thanksgiving has been really wonderful. I bet everyone at work has felt this same relief.

Michael and Colin and I were afraid we would be in Tahoe by ourselves for the holiday but Uncle Kevdogg came for a couple of days. It was a lot of fun to have him here. He showed us how to play poker online, he crushed some breadcrumbs and made the Stove Top stuffing for our feast, and he got the latest Indiana Jones movie for us to watch that night. It would have been great to have him here all week but he had to drive his taxi on the weekend so we had to let him go. Our meal was fantastic and our whole day was totally relaxed. Hate to say it, but it was nice not to spend the day doing the big family thing. A lot less to fuss about. It's wonderful spending time with Michael again. We spent every day together during the summer and then bam, we hardly see each other during the daylight because he's back in school and I'm back at work. I've got two weeks off at Christmas and I'm looking forward to them.

Yesterday Colin rolled from his tummy to his back -- his first time! He's been working on his rolling technique with our manny Keith but he hasn't succeeded until yesterday. We were surprised he didn't go from his back to his tummy, thought that was the usual thing, but what do we know? He's also cutting his bottom two teeth and it makes him such a sad baby these last two days. He sure appreciates me for cuddling him though, and it's nice.

Aunt Maureen sent him some Christmas pajamas that are adorable. He's got some red velour pants. Let me say that again. Red. Velour. Pants. And a couple of onesies with secular Christmas messages. I put them on him this evening and we did a photo shoot but the poor kid just wanted a bottle and bed, so there were no smiles. We will try again tomorrow morning and I am sure we will have better luck.

Now for some updated photos of Homie. First his Halloween costume. Can you guess? He's the Travelocity Elf. Don't you want to just pinch those cheeks?