Goodbye

I haven't posted in a few days (6 to be exact) and a lot has happened. Unfortunately, one of the things that has happened has overshadowed the rest of my thoughts about the last 6 days. We found out at work yesterday that our friend and colleague Kristie Ley had passed away. She had been suffering from a tumor in her stomach and was out of work while being advised about some of her treatment options. She went to the doctor last Wednesday, was admitted to the hospital and left this world early yesterday morning. It was quite a shock for us at work and for her family - she was supposed to have many more years.

Some things that stick out in my mind about Kristie are her love of cats and Chadwick's, her wicked and cynical sense of humor, her smoky voice, her determination to finish her museum studies degree and her pride in having done so, and her excellent contest entry, "The Passion of the Kristie". She was a lovely person and she will be missed.
We will raise a glass to her the next time we gather.

Other stuff that happened:
Thursday - closed on my house. Yay.
Friday - Happy Birthday Richard and Laura! Began cleaning the new house during the day; Kate's last day of work happened and we celebrated at a local pub at night. I made her a vest of flair and provided her with a 'new and improved' S&H.
Saturday - the scraping, sanding, washing, painting of walls in the kitchen & bathroom.
Sunday - dinner with the entire family (to celebrate the wonderful Richard's b-day), the highlights of which were reading Where the Wild Things Are over and over to my nephew, Noah, and watching Bryan read it to him another 3 times, then getting an impromptu concert of classic children's songs like "I've Been Working on the Railroad" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" during dinner from said nephew. I also now believe that the question "Why?" should be banned from a two-year old's vocabulary.