Whew

So the big news around chez Melospiza is not that I made it home from Phoenix in one piece (that's OLD news), but that we bought a new vacuum. I know! It's a Hoover Wind Tunnel, and yesterday I vacuumed the whole house and sucked up about five pounds of dust. Sheesh. Our old vacuum was a Bissell, and I'm just going to have to go on the record and say I do not recommend it.

The house is all catfoot clean this morning, which is niiice. And yes, if you're wondering, it actually did take me a week to clean the house after getting home. My first day back I had the day off, so I went for an eight-mile hike; then my parents were here, and then it was back to work.

But none of that answers the big question, which is, How was Phoenix? This is the first time in a couple years that I've been away from home without the kids, and I was looking forward to having a hotel room to myself, having evenings to read or watch TV instead of remind people about the importance of good oral hygiene and regular sleep, and getting to go out to eat without checking the kids' menu and telling people to use their restaurant behavior. And all of that was nice, except that I worked so much I actually didn't get much time in the hotel room--I certainly didn't do any leisurely reading, at least. The TV was annoyingly set so that you couldn't switch from channel to channel but had to go back to the slow-to-load hotel menu every time. And I found myself oddly lonely, both in my room and out of it.

I did visit the Heard Museum, went running through some elegant old Spanish-style neighborhoods, and picked an orange right off a tree. Mostly, though, I was stuck inside, in the cavernous Convention Center. It was a business trip, in other words.

Have a great day, and rock that daylight savings time! (Augh.)