Is anyone still out there?

It may come as a shock to any of you still reading this, but yes...I'm still here. And yes...I'm still on vacation and no, vacations are not particularly conducive to blogging. However, mere hours before my few glorious days at my favorite place on Earth (which will require a 3 hour solo road trip in a car with no radio), I've found a minute or two to reach out. To say hello. To connect.

SO...hello.

I'm about 5 days from the end of what has been a fantastic, busy, fun, sad, hectic, relaxing vacation. Yes...all of those things, rolled into 21 days. From Ottawa to Victoria, we've accomplished a lot. Kurt is back on the Rock now, as of this morning, and I'm still home, enjoying cool ocean breezes and quality time with the cat.

Ottawa, of course, was crazy. We sorted out some things with the house, caught up with our friends (and managed to see almost everyone...no small feat), and enjoyed a lot of the things we miss the most about what used to be our home. It was awesome. Sometimes I let Victoria gloss over Ottawa in terms of "home", but it definitely felt like home for that week. It was nice to be back, and even nicer to know that even though we're not there for 95% of the year, the week we manage to be there feels like we never left. I miss it already.

Ottawa highlights:

1. Beautiful, warm Ottawa weather. Better than the Rock, because you can still breathe.

2. A hug and a kiss from Jaia.

3. Friends, friends and more friends. We miss you guys!

4. Delicious Greek delicacies with EAP.

5. Pho at phive.

6. A LUNLF reunion, unfortunately sans Emily and the Piglet...who has a tiny Bermuda present coming her way.

We flew into Victoria last weekend, for what ended up being a more relaxing week, highlighted by a few major events:

1. Wedding dress: found. I know that made Shannen squeal, just a bit. ;-)

2. Wedding plans: changed. Date and venues are the same...but everything else will be different.

3. Engagement photos! I'm so excited about the photographer we picked for the wedding...she is awesome.

4. Actual words from Kurt's mouth: "I can't wait to live here." True story. I knew I'd get him.

5. KC at HR with LP and HAO.

And now I'm headed on a solo trip to the family cottage, to spend some quality time with the grandparents, my cousin (who happens to be an amazing chef...I timed this well), and his awesome girlfriend who I've never actually had a lot of time to visit with, so I'm really looking forward to getting up there. Speaking of...I should get going. Traffic on this larger Rock moves, well, not very fast.

But that's how I like it. It's really good to be home.