pittsburgh, to round off this crazy month

Wowsa, I have not blogged for a long time.

(Sidebar: The bf would harrass me for saying "wowsa" because it is just the stupid, corny kind of thing I would say. Because I still say "criminy" and "gosh almighty" and "well I'll be" because you can take the girl out of the corn, but you can't , apparently, take the corn out of the girl. But back to my story...)

What with the big move and the craft fair this has been just one wacky month that has careened at break neck speed to its final days. We did slow down to a crawl for Thanksgiving, however. Zero to five miles per hour, to be precise, in one long, record-breaking traffic jam between Indianapolis and Pittsburgh. These are the trips that try men's souls. We made it there in twelve point five hours, five more than the usual trip time.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at the bf's brother and sister-in-law's house, in their new kitchen over which I am totally green with envy--huge fireplace, beautiful wood floor, stunning cabinets, awesome wine bar, etc. etc. We could hate them for their beautiful kitchen if they weren't such very sweet people who served us the most outstanding meal. We ate till we were sick, and then had pie.

On Friday we walked around downtown Pittsburgh, hitting the doors of the Andy Warhol museum even before they were open. What an awesome museum. They let you take pictures of any of the Warhols--incredible! One room contains nothing but a large fan and a bunch of pillow-shaped silver balloons floating all around. A sign warns you to "Please play with the balloons." Lots to see, chat about, question.

Another highlight of the trip: the bf's brother is an MD and an Osteopath. He gives us adjustments when we see him. He cracked me up and down like a bag of potato chips, and that night I woke up in the middle of the night with no lower back ache. For the first time in TWO YEARS I had no lower back ache. I have been in pain at night, and in some seating or standing situations for simply ever. I just "got used to it". I never go to doctors. I don't know why. I just figured they'd give me some pill and it would make me woozy and then life would go on, with backache. I did not feel they would "cure" the backache. I thought the backache was just "life at 40 something", that it was just "the way things were"--all kinds of justifications for the backache. The backache is now gone. I can't believe it. Vanished. This has been a real eye-opener for me.

On the way home we stopped at what had to be the world's largest Cabello's...hunting and camping store. We are campers, not hunters. Good God in heaven, I've never seen more camo in my life. And they have dead, stuffed animals everywhere. HERDS of dead stuffed animals...brown and black bears, two polar bears, lions, antelope, herds of deer and elk and moose and coyotes and bighorn sheep, lions eating antelopes, hyenas attacking lions, arctic foxes, a baby seal, and even a rhino and an elephant, for crying out loud. The boychild and I were very disturbed. Beautiful animals--but dead, all dead. The dead zoo.

And now here we are at Monday. I have more tales to tell, so God willing and the creek don't rise, I will have time to blog more.