Vacation begins tomorrow at 2 p.m. and I AM SO READY.

I had the weekend from hell with an unfortunate situation at Ann's Airbnb + textbook scammy/scummy guests.

The "linty" stuff in this photo is water dripping from the bathroom above.

Long story short: I got a message with a bunch of photos of dripping water in the basement at 9:59pm on Friday, also that they hadn't had hot water all day, and, oh by the way, "we found a condom in our bed."

I'm almost as FURIOUS now as I was at 10:00 on Friday, and I think my face is just as red.

Rusty & I were there within minutes to assess, turn off the gas to the water heater, etc. There were supposed to be two guests, but it was evident that there were more, and it was all just so stupid... "we didn't want to cause problems" by telling me that there wasn't any hot water.

I got the plumber there as soon as I could on Saturday, and found that the guests had vacated without a word and basically incommunicado, which only added to my fury (the incommunicado part). (There was an exchange with Ann later that evening, along with a demand for a full refund, of course.) They didn't trash the place, thank god. Turns out, the threaded connection for the shower head gave out, likely hastened in part by some aggressive handling of the shower control (which will need to be replaced), so the water was just spewing out the pipe between the walls, and then through the floor, and on the water heater which caused it to kick out (and thankfully, not get toasted altogether). The alleged condom (complete with incredibly vague & generic photo) was allegedly found in the bedroom most recently occupied by Ann & Brian! She is more than a few years past menopause; the bed had been unmade/remade at least twice since the previous booking; and the description of where it was actually found was different from each of the allegedly offended parties. Dumbasses.

The plumber will be returning today to finish repairs... because there are new guests arriving on Friday! Rusty & I have to get the place shipshape tonight. I had a good head start over the weekend, so it shouldn't take too long.

I can't say I wasn't shaken quite a bit by the whole thing. I had my own gracious and respectful guests this weekend, so at least I got a little dose of GOOD.

Island breezes, crashing waves, tropical temperatures, sand between my toes... I hope it's enough!!

In other news, and as a palate cleanser...

Rusty & I had the kids on Thursday night for a few hours, as Ali attended the funeral of a friend from high school. All four kids are in that photo with Rusty -- can you pick them all out? Davy found the Cold Turkey Chicken Viking Hat that my co-quitter friend Ann made for me when we quit smoking -- almost 17 years ago! Isn't he adorable? I could spam you with a few more photos but I'll refrain.

Do you remember my weird amaryllis situation a while back? Kym had suggested that I cut it & plunk in water to see if it would at least bloom.

And it did! It's so pretty, and there might be another blossom or two yet to come. It was so nice to notice that yesterday!

I spent a little time with my spreadsheet for the Temperature Blanket, too. I finished the one for Rusty's panel, and got the data organized for all the other panels. There are a lot of color changes, but it's looking pretty great -- and I'm so curious to see how the other charts compare. Photos as soon as I get some good light!

I helped Mamie, the new owner of the coffee shop, with her first payroll yesterday, working out a couple of things she wants to do differently, and I'll continue helping with other bookkeeping for a few months... at least until her head stops spinning! She's got so much on her plate right now. I'm looking forward to closing the door for good on all that, but I'm not a jerk.

Yarn was wound and a few items gathered for possible vacation knitting/crocheting... I'm finding it hard to concentrate on that task. I have to figure it all out by tonight, though, because we're packing up tonight (after the Airbnb is set) and we're leaving right from work tomorrow afternoon.

Did I mention... I'M READY FOR VACATION TIME???

The three big kids slept over on Saturday night.

I'll spare you the photo of the floor covered with LEGO, K'nex, Playful Patterns, wooden blocks, dolls, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc. Haha. We watched a couple of movies, some of the Olympics (they were very impressed with snowboarders & figure skaters), played with all of the aforementioned toys (and more), and the kids had baths.

Those are Malina's tracings of her own hands. Pretty impressive for an almost-4yo!

Bonus of Davy -- from last week, not the weekend -- blurry but so cute!

I'm delighted that our travel plans have been worked out. It took a 5-hour texting session with various agents at the airline, but I'd rather do that than be on hold listening to "music" for hours. Anyway, we'll fly to Chicago the afternoon before originally planned, stay overnight at the airport hotel, then catch the early morning direct flight to San Juan, arriving mid-afternoon. Puerto Rico currently has 1.5 hours more daylight than we do, and all at the end of the day, so it'll be perfect for driving across the island.

Joining Kat & the Unravelers today for Unraveled Wednesday... but no reading. I am on hiatus, I guess. It's happened once or twice before.

This is the start of my Temperature Blanket! That knitting represents about the first two weeks of Rusty's life -- December 1947-January 1948 -- in Southern California. The daytime high temps are on the left and the nighttime lows are on the right... in a few more rows, the days will start becoming noticeably longer! It's a little fiddly, but I'm finding a groove, and it is SO SATISFYING! Look at that!

What I really need to do is streamline my information -- the number of day/night stitches is on one page, the temperatures are on another, and the colors are on a third (color chart)... it's a balancing act and I am constantly counting. (There might be a color/temp mistake in there, but I won't tell if you won't!) All I know is that I'm really glad I didn't follow through to the end with all five charts just yet.

I'm still wondering how I can pack a project with 20+ balls of yarn for vacation, but more "realistically" pondering packing Hexie Love...

...one ball of yarn, but one big project... made of wool. It'll be 80+ degrees. The sane option would be to cast on a pair of socks or something.

I've been online and on the phone for much of the day trying to figure out how we can arrive in Puerto Rico... not in the dark. The original booking back in September had us with only one connection (at O'Hare) and arriving mid-afternoon. The airline made a couple of changes, adding another connection (Houston... not good memories of Houston), with less than an hour for each connection, and arriving at almost 9 p.m., which means we'd be lucky to be on the road by 10 and it's a 2-hour drive to our destination, across an island that we've never visited before!

NOT WORKING!

I am currently texting with an agent (this is new, and I like it!) and we're this >< close to re-booking departure on the last flight out of here the day before. I've already booked our overnight stay, and we'll catch an early flight to San Juan the next morning, arriving in... daylight.

Stay tuned...