When the cat's away...

The old saying goes, "When the cat's away the mice will play". I always thought of this in terms of students and substitute teachers, employees to boss, mother to children (let's face it, dads let you get away with everything). But this past week, I realized it also goes for husbands and dogs when the wifey is out of town.

I was in Arizona this past week for work. It was wonderful and educational and I am so thankful I was able to go. I had never been to Arizona before, so I was very pleased when I was asked by the Arizona Association of School Business Officials to come and participate in their Annual Conference and "see how they do things". I was even more pleased when my boss said, "Sure! That sounds like a great idea!" I packed my bag, filled by 1 qt plastic baggy with liquid items so as not to be harassed by TSA, printed my boarding passes and off I went to the land of cacti!

I have seen pictures of cacti before, but I was still in awe of how cool they were. I was told that they are usually about 70 years old before the arms even start to grow, and they can live to be 200 years old!

I took the golf course pictures for Dave. It was beautiful and I hate that he wasn't there to play it!

I just thought he was cute!

I took most of these pictures on my morning hikes

The three amigos!

The resort at sunrise

Prickly Pear Cactus

I have truly never seen so many cacti. Sure, I have seen pictures, but it just doesn't do it justice. I stayed at a beautiful resort and I really enjoyed getting to see how another ASBO affiliate does their conference. After a long week of meetings, general sessions, breakout sessions and nightly events, I was glad to head home. The driver picked me up at 5:00am to start the long travel day home on Friday. Finally, at 3:30pm my plane landed in Austin after a series of transfers and such. I got home, brought up my bags and looked at the clock to see what time I it was.....the clock was blinking. I look at another clock.....it's blinking too. "That's interesting" I think. You see, the electricity went out Monday night. This was Friday afternoon. I had been gone an entire week and the clocks had not been set. I won't pick on Dave anymore, but let's just say the dishwasher needed to be run, clothes needed to be put away, 5 days worth of mail was sitting on the counter....I think while the cat was away, the mice took a break! :) In all fairness, Dave had a fun dinner planned. We went and tried out one of the top BBQ places in Texas as voted by Texas Monthly. It was fabulous! And Friday night is free homemade peach ice cream...YUM!

I did miss my hubby and mr. Rookie. We had a great and relaxing weekend. Now, it's just another manic Monday!