<-- a slice of heaven.. where they take 2 hr lunches and dance on the beaches w/Aperol Spritzs in hand.... just b/c they can

Special thanks to guest bloggers Laura Caroline Gingrich and Lisa Thoms for helping cover the Kirkland Blog while I was out town.  Our family went on an extended vacation to Europe this summer and we are struggling to get back to reality. A crazy thing happens when you are gone for more than a week or two----it's called RELAXATION.  And I'd highly recommend it. True relaxation...the kind where your mind gets de-cluttered of all the everyday tasks and stresses and your biggest concern is which fabulous untaxed non-headache-inducing $10 Euro bottle of wine to order with dinner that night.  We absorbed the culture and pace of the places we visited by slowing down and exploring our surroundings, trying new foods, be-friending the locals, breathing deep,  laughing more.  

This is all fantastic until you come home and have to hit the ground running.  I am not complaining, however, we Americans are so focused, hard-working and efficient I am having trouble re-calibrating.  Despite the joy of sleeping in our own beds, the Rabuchin house started the week with a plumbing emergency and exhausted/cranky back-to-school kiddos whose feet suddenly seem to be bigger than mine and require immediate shoe upgrades. Steve is back to working 29 hours a day. Throw in a bunch of sports teams, a crate of mail to get through, some event planning, a mini family crisis, and I feel like a running-back with broken legs that just got thrown back in the game.  I was mildly comforted at the gym the other day when I walked into the locker room and discovered that someone had left the faucet running, and there was nobody in sight.  So it's not just me who can't quite get it together.  Whew.  How's your Sept going?

There are so many fun things coming up that I need to catch you up on....Vintimate at The Heathman 9/15, Kirkland Home Tour 9/17, Porsche event at Carillon Point 9/18, Oktoberfest 9/23-25, Little Brother (did they do a soft opening while I was gone?), and even a new bookstore. More on that this week.

  -Beam me up, Scotty

For now I am going to leave you with this photo.  I was amazed to see how much demo work had taken place at Kirkland Urban while we were out of town.  It appears that I snapped this picture at the very moment that the old Kirkland Park Place's soul was being beamed up to heaven.  And here is the old Starbucks location reduced to a mini mountain of dust. It will be fun to watch this new space take shape.