Hello, Vicky?

So, a while ago, as in some time in October or November, I received a comment from a lady named Vicky; at least, I'm assuming she's a lady. At any rate, Vicky commented on a post from 2011 about my trip to France. As it turns out, she is planning a trip with Custom Getaways and she wanted to ask me about my experience and asked me to contact her. However, she did not leave an email address or any other way in which I could reach out to her. So, Vicky, if you are stopping by here, please contact me via email and I will happily answer any questions you have about your upcoming trip to le Tour de France and I may I also add I'm crazy jealous. I think half of my heart will forever be in France and I get a little "homesick" for the motherland every July. 

Since there's nothing overly exciting going on in January, I thought I would update you on my knee because I'm sure you've been sitting there wondering to yourself how my knee is doing. The answer is great! Coming back to work after having two and a half weeks off was a little bit of an adjustment (in more than one way) and so it probably goes without saying that my knee has been a little sore in the evenings. I have walked a lot more since starting back to work and so there's been some swelling and soreness which is easily remedied with Aleve and a cold pack. There's still quite a bit of tenderness which feels like bruising which I'm sure will go away at some point. This tenderness is even worse when you hit your knee on a table, theoretically speaking of course. 

We finally got a dose of some decent weather over the weekend, but unfortunately, I didn't really get to enjoy it much. Saturday I spent the day inside waiting on the guys from Lowe's to deliver my washer. Plus, I was feeling really rotten and didn't want to do much other than lie around on the couch. I did let  in some fresh air along with lots of mud on Saturday afternoon when I left the back door open for a little while so Pip could go in and out freely. I also managed to finally take down the outside Christmas lights. Yes, that's right, I still had not taken them down. The weather has either been super cold or super rainy or a combination of the two and since I was trying not to get sick (funny how that didn't work out too well) I decided to wait until the weather warmed up to take down the lights. I have not turned them on since January 1 though, so that's my redeeming grace for leaving them up too long. I am glad to finally have them all put away. 

Downton Abbey started back about three weeks ago and it's about all I can do to not read message boards or episode recaps to find out what happens next. I have already pre-ordered the current season which will arrive next week and I'm afraid I will have no restraint when it comes to sitting down and just finishing up the season. So far, the season has been really good and the zingers from the Dowager Countess get better with each episode. It's certainly one of the highlights of my week. 

In other random and unrelated news, my dad and I are planning our next trip which will be this coming April. This time around we are heading to Washington, DC and plan to take in all the monuments, museums, etc. We went there when I was a kid, in 5th grade if I am remembering correctly, and it was one of the best vacations of my childhood. Since it's been almost 30 years since I've really visited and enjoyed the city, I thought we should go back and take it all in and I'm really looking forward to it. I think I will appreciate it all the more now that I am an adult and love history. 

Well, since I probably lost your attention a long time ago, I think I'll wrap things up here. I realize none of these things even remotely flow together, but I wanted to try and get something posted and try to get back in the habit of writing something lest this blog fall by the wayside and Erika has nothing to read on her lunch break. Hopefully more interesting days are ahead. Have a good evening, y'all!