I’m Back!

And I’m relieved that I posted the rest of our trip. It was weighing on me for a while, but it’s all out and now I can focus on the present again. I spent four lovely and very hot days in Austin, sleeping in, lying around, reading, surfing the web, eating, occasionally going out, and shopping. It was just what I needed. And I had a chance to strengthen my bond with Shelley, who is like a sister to me.

While I was gone, John was busy with Fiona. They went to the Fair again, went to MyGym a couple of times, went to the beach and to parks, and generally had a good time together. Of course he did not take any pictures. Cue the sad face. I take it back. He took one picture. Our friends drove through on their way home from Los Angeles to the Bay Area, so they stopped for the night. I’m told Fiona had a blast with their daughter, who is eight or nine years old. There is one picture of the two of them together. They taught Fiona some new games and I really wish I was here when it happened. I spoke to everyone through Skype, so it was sort of like I was here, but not really. And I guess that seeing me on Skype every day helped Fiona to not miss me at all, so that when I walked in the door, she headed straight for my water bottle and went back to playing with her toys without much ado. She gets more excited when my parents come over or the door bell rings.

Here is Fiona with our friends’ daughter:

I am not posting her name because I did not ask permission to do so. Even though this blog is not searchable on the internet, meaning that unless you know the exact name and url, you will not find it using a standard Google search, it is not private and therefore not 100% safe from weirdos (that I am not related to). Therefore, I don’t post names of people unless I ask their permission. I really shouldn’t post the photo either, but it is the only photo John took when I was away. Sheesh!

Fiona may not have been excited to see me, but we were all excited, then disheartened, when we saw this in the backyard:

It’s a tomato hornworm. It’s a pest that eats tomato plants. We also learned that our tomatoes are infested with keeled treehoppers. Look them up, they are gross, and they are killing our plants. According to the internet, keeled treehoppers secrete a sweet honey like substance so ants like to follow them and “help” them to thrive. So our plants are also full of ants. Ugh! It explains why none of the plants grew very large this year and some of them have looked half dead for a long time. One of the plants IS practically dead, and only one is really producing good tomatoes. The rest are either not producing, or in the case of our Romas, producing small, misshapen fruit that doesn’t seem to fully ripen on the vine. The cherry, pear, and grape tomato plants are sort of duds as well. This makes me sad because I love fresh tomatoes and so does Fiona. She loves to pick them right off the vine, wash in the hose, then eat, but this year there is nothing for her to pick. For me, that is the worst part of the problem. I know that she has been waiting eagerly to pick tomatoes like she did last year.

Here is Fiona playing with the caterpillar:

 

 

 

We had fun rolling it over onto its back so we could see its chubby little legs when it rolled over again.

On another note, here we are, both wearing sunglasses:

Fiona wanted to go for a walk in the wagon and requested the sunglasses when I put mine on. We went to visit the turtles (who are really tortoises). All four were out today, although the smallest was partially hidden by a gate.

And here are some cute photos of Fi, but terrible photos of me:

Please pardon the plane hair and the bags under my eyes. I hadn’t even showered yet, having just flown from Austin and then driven home. Also, I was holding the camera in my hand, so I wasn’t really thinking about what my face was doing, just whether or not both Fiona and I were in the shot.

And last, here is Fiona in a chair:

  

Sometimes we like to sit on the front porch and watch traffic go by. We live in an exciting town.