It's been a long time

And we have excuses for not writing.  But that's what they are - excuses.
 
Yesterday was Annie's birthday and we celebrated in grand style - with an ice cream cake!  Annie came back from China and showed us tons of photos and videos from there.  She has promised to put together a slide show or something for the letter.  Joe and Margaret came up for dinner.
 
Annie is getting ready to move, and part of the move was her getting a new car.  So we headed off to Carmax on Saturday and settled on a good winter driving car, a few years old, but it looked safe and warm for the cold weather.
 
We talked to Grandma who filled us in on her eye and teeth issues from last week.  She had teeth pulled and eyes check and it looks like she might be a candidate for laser surgery.  She mentioned David and Paula were coming to Hightstown this week.
 
Grandma and John fell into an interesting debate over Michael Jackson.  We both agreed that there was entirely too much media coverage, but we disagreed on his musical talents.  Grandma didn't buy the argument that he still had the biggest selling album of all time.  Where do you all stand on this issue?
 
Since we last wrote, though, we had a vacation, with a long drive and two weeks away.  We went to Pittsfield and got a little work done on the house, with a disappointing meeting with the contractor.  We also went to Boston, New Hampshire and Maine and checked in on various friends from various slices of our lives.  We went to a movie ("Up") and a baseball game, had a birthday dinner at John and Marilyn's; we saw a moose and a weird recluse's mansion in Maine, and we got rained on.  Everyone was talking about the rain.
 
It was also Andrew's birthday, and he told us about his long weekend at Green Lake, about Claire and Daniel at basketball camps.
 
The sad news of the last few weeks was our kitty, who developed a tumor.  She stayed with Margaret while we were gone, and when we came back it was evident that she too much suffering and we said goodby to her this week.  She was th emost sociable cat in the world, and had a happy, adventurous life adjusting quickly to new environs.      
 
We actually have legitimate excuses for no photos.  John lost his camera and we can't find Mary's.  Our old camera has no batteries.  So while Joe took photos of Annie's birthday with his phone, we haven't gotten copies yet.
 
So, almost halfway through July.  Love from down here!