Just a Normal Week

It was a normal week for the Niemans. And that would sound really boring, if we had those all the time. It's just that we've been craving normal for so long that it actually kind of feels like we won the lottery.

Seth broke with the usual physical therapy routine and made a trip with some other wounded warriors to Lancaster Archery in PA, where he made friends with Nick Mundt and some other famous hunters whose names I can't recall. And of course bought a bunch of new dangerous-looking arrowheads. He had a blast, and was of course a big hit with the pros. I'm expecting a contract for his own hunting show in the mail any day. (He has me practicing for guest appearances with a standing Wednesday lunch date at the archery range near work.)

I worked (another long week of trying my damnedest to get fired by my imprisoned clients, and to get my Captains to stop feeling sorry for theirs) and ran and scouted team uniforms and supervised picnic preparations, which have inexplicably taken over the entire defense appellate division. "Wrongly convicted in violation of your constitutional rights? You're going to have to wait until we figure out how to get the petting zoo animals to the picnic, sorry." (True story.) I took a break Wednesday for a long-overdue "wine-d down Wednesday" with girlfriends to celebrate Michelle's birthday at Cheesetique in Del Ray. I probably consumed 10,000 calories' worth of bread, fondue, and pinot, but it was a terrific time. And no one tried to slip me any goat cheese (a major bonus, since I despise it and usually have to be pretty vigilant at upscale cheese places.) Double bonus, I made it home in time for the season premiere of "Duck Dynasty," which was awesome.

We ran errands this weekend. Bought a couch that is probably too large for our living room. (We'll see when it gets delivered. Neither of us is really the "measure first" type, which makes furniture purchasing a pretty serious adventure.) I ran a beautiful 10k complete with river crossings in Clarksburg, the last of the Blue Crab trail series. We picked up another gun or scope or something for Seth. Went to a movie. Got frozen yogurt. Found a cute brewery in Sterling, of all places. Considered yardwork, and then were grateful when it rained and let us off the hook.

Just normal. And nice. Today Seth had an all-day bowhunting class required to hunt on Belvoir (the man has killed every animal available for slaughter in North America, but of course the Army still says he has to pass some sort of test to hunt on post), and I spent a rainy day running errands and being kind of lazy, for once. It felt luxurious. I did spend a couple hours cursing at the Target shelving unit I bought in my efforts to reorganize Seth's closet... but finally got it mostly put together and escaped to have lunch and a pedicure with Ranj. It was still raining when I got home and I was feeling domestic, so I did yoga and made mini apple pies and drank wine on the couch and watched a bad Adam Sandler movie. Seth made it home in time for the end of that one, and- of all the luck!- another one followed. We decided to temporarily ignore the piles of boxes dropped off by his movers Friday and are now pretty much down for the count, enjoying our little Sunday evening slice of normal.

Photo of the week is back by popular demand, and this one made us the laugh the hardest. Our rock star little niece Lehua, marching down the beach like a boss: