Hey Hope

So it’s good that our friend from Baltimore is about to arrive with his dog Leona after an arduous journey by car and I’ll have a reason to crack open this bottle of champagne in just a bit!

But here they are today, day #6 of 6 of my last in office days at my job ever, and even though it was my last day and members of the executive team very much knew this and had attended my going away party, they were still, like, cc’ing me on fairly important emails AFTER 5pm! I mean, I did stay until 8:30pm to ensure some things were tucked in a little bit before leaving, so to speak, but I did not take the bait on the new issues/emails. 😅

That’s it! I drove straight to WV after leaving for the last time and here I am now at midnight, hoping to fall asleep soon

I wanted to put my hands on my colleague’s shoulders and look them in the eyes and say “you know what my friend Molly’s grandma always said???? TOUGH TITTY SAID THE KITTY, BUT THE MILK STILL CAME THROUGH!!!!”

But of course I did not do this.

I didn’t even show her the evil renovated bathrooms on her first day, only the three tiled bathrooms! 😈

My in-laws haven’t met our MI nephews (the reason we moved here) and very much wanted to, so my sil kindly invited us all up to their house this evening.

I used it as an excuse to make a Twinkie Bundt cake, which had been on my list to try.

I decided to keep it flipped upside down like this instead of turning it back right side up—after scooping out innards and tunneling through with a melon baller and adding the filling—because the dots from adding filling were a helpful visual guide to where to cut if you wanted a piece with the most filling or less filling.

Served it with Neapolitan ice cream, realized I have fallen fall short of my “hey, maybe try baking/making one fun dessert or sweet treat each month” ideal that I had aspired to. Time to get back in the saddle!

My two brothers and I grew up around the corner from our three cousins on our dad’s side. My cousin P and I were both the middle kids between two brothers.

It was a success! Well, Debra raised her hackles and ran away but that’s fine, Callie had no interest in pursuing her. Shelby was fine.

She is a rescued beagle from a research facility in southwest Michigan that used beagles in pesticide tests (they stopped doing this in 2019). She has a “USDA” tattoo. She was born at the lab.

She is such a tiny little lady! She is so calm and sweet! I cannot wait to have her with us and cuddle and walk and spoil her! She had a grand time sniffing her way all around our backyard.

ETA: this is an article about the release of the beagles from the facility: https://www.humaneworld.org/en/blog/breaking-beagles-freed-pesticide

After the Cubs game last Wednesday, we drove everyone back to our house and then

Coming up for air for a moment to say that we were at the Cubs game on Wednesday where they won 23-3, and since it was my first time at Wrigley Field (and Hazel’s first time that she could remember…she was taken there as a baby) we both got our official first timers certificate and button, which was more exciting for me than it should have been.

The heat index was 102 and our seats were in the sun until the 7th inning. Normally, I’d rather die than subject myself to such conditions. It was murderous.

We have three separate sets of house guests (all related to us) in July:

1. First guests: 4 ppl (Andy’s sister, our bil, Hazel and Tabby)

2. Second guests: 3 ppl (my cousin, his wife, and their delightful 18-year-old daughter)

3. Third guests: 2 ppl plus a dog (Andy’s parents and their rescue pup, Benny).

Plus *two* quick jaunts to Chicago for part work/part fun, plus I come back to Bmore for my final in-office week ever (a split week with a WV weekend in the middle)

And then I start my new job the first Monday of August!