Palm Fronds & Nom Noms

The panoramic view from Majestic Mirage, Room 4221  After MONTHS of holding our breaths our December 2021 Dominican Republic vacation approached with a sense of Deja vu.  The last time we traveled anywhere  was February 2020 just as news of the pandemic was starting to break.  I remember having conversations then about how we could salvage the trip if air travel because a problem.  Back up plans were laid out and our "worst case scenario" at that point was driving to Disney and taking a couple of extra days off.  (That option still sounds absolutely gross.  With benefit of hindsight though...)  Clearly the Dominican Republic (D.R.) did not allow for a driving back up plan.  We were wise enough to book everything with refundable terms, the hotel was offering something of a COVID insurance plan in case we tested positive while there, pre-flight COVID testing was being done onsite, and I laid out a little more $$ for an extra COVID insurance pol...

 The demo project that started on Mother's Day finished up with Phase 1 construction by the end of the summer.  Well, most of it was done by early June, with finishing touches dragged out through the rest of the summer as our motivation and interest began to wane.  Check out the demo work here Considering neither of us are trained in the construction arts, we're pretty pleased with our outcomes!  About 3/4 of the way through we remembered that there was a table top model chop saw in the basement attached conveniently to its own stand...  That would have made for about a day's less work had we remembered that in the beginning instead of using a circular hand saw and jigsaw... And thanks to Dad's corded drill, we were only sore for 2 days not a week when it came time to install 500+ screws in the floor boards and posts.  I'm not sure if it was due to our use or just the drill's time to die, but before we were done the drill's chuck would not release the bit. ...

  Mother's Day? Demo Day? How about a little of both.  Somehow we managed not to lose an eye despite wood chips flying during our morning demo project.  I took the low side welding dual pry bars and Adam took the top end with our fancy new Duckbill Deck Wrecker  - a.k.a the $98 find that lived up to it's promise as a back saver and frustration eliminator making it worth every penny! My own mother offered up free weekday labor to take care of another dump run and some quality time with the reciprocating saw to nip off all of the old, rusted screws the Duckbill left behind.  After demo, I was treated to a steak and egg breakfast and a sparkling Rose berry spritzer.  We got all of our morning work in within about an hour's time, so after breakfast it was off to the Home Depot to collect the tools and materials to shore up to newly shortened deck on one end.   Funny how Home Depot is so often our "holiday" outing.  I think that was where we went for "...

  This Sunday morning over coffee we are revisiting a conversation that started yesterday - categorizing pajamas.   The subject initially came up as we were getting ready to head to Home Depot to pick up some project supplies.  I had just finished my coffee and left the couch to go brush my teeth and tame my hair.  On the way out of the room I commented, "I think I'll put on my Going Out Jammies today..."  When I came back downstairs Adam commented, "you are wearing the same thing?  How is that different than your drinking coffee jammies?"   Duh, underwear AND a bra.   Now to be fair, its not like I was wearing a onesie to begin with.  I was in one of my usual hanging around the house combos: a comfortable pair of black stretchy pants, a Disney tee-shirt, and a light weight fuchsia hoodie.  None of it worn or ratty, just simple and comfortable.  Still, this morning we came back to the idea of "going out jammies" and what other cate...

Majestic Mirage - Punta Cana, Dominican Republic I finally let Adam twist my arm a bit and agreed to book a fly away vacation for the end of 2021.  Vaccines are rolling out, hotels are offering generous cancellation terms, airlines are still waiving "redeposit fees" if you book with miles - essentially creating refundable tickets.  Time to roll the dice.  I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but somehow in the last last week a spreadsheet was born comparing the cost of flights in points vs. miles, booking hotel separately or as a package, resorts, room categories, pictures of rooms and grounds, cancellation policies, Dominican Republic vs. Barbados and a few other islands...  Since this process seemed like just an exercise in daydreaming and a fun thing to do we even used a 10 night stay window for our reference dates.  Turns out that with consumer friendly cancellation policies booking directly with the hotel and using JetBlue points for flights, we could boo...

Regency Suite at Portland Regency Hotel & Spa 10 months into our pandemic mandated travel hiatus we cracked - slightly.  Though Adam had already reached the point of being willing to get on a plane to just about anywhere, I surprisingly was not.  Still, as our 10 year wedding anniversary approached, staying at home seemed just too sad.  Sure we weren't going to be able to do a big trip like I had been dreaming of.  There would be no Europe, New Zealand or Japan in our immediate future - despite me having pages of details for each location worked out on a variety of spreadsheets.  It was time for a Plan B. Limited by out of state travel restrictions, we decided to get one of the best rooms we could in Portland with the intention of eating great takeout, taking a few nice walks, and generally lounging in our bathrobes.  Relax and recharge was the only missive.  I read an article once that talked about taking a vacation close to home, but just far eno...