Sunday, September 13, 2009

On the road again

In a few hours, John takes off for a week-long visit to Venezuela and Colombia.  The trip to Venezuela has been in the works since January when he first applied for a visa.  Then this week, Venezuela canceled most of their flights to Colombia.  So we'll see what adventures are in store.
 
Quick around the horn - Mary's school did win the national award, and will get a visit this week by Education Secretary.  Joe is back at work feeling better.  We stopped in to see Margaret last night and saw her new Facebook pages for her dogs.  She bought a football shirt for her puppy (with Michael Vick's name on the jersey!  No hard feelings.)  And Annie is into week 3 of work, having survived one very stressful day early on.  She caught up with an old Pomfret friend this weekend in Boston.  Marilyn went to the U.S. Open last week, and Patrick is planning on a semester in Paris! 
 
Football season's starting, just in time for some of us to forget about the disastrous baseball season. 
 
Temperatures dropped this week, and we even have leaves on the ground!  Unusual for here, but at least one tree did not do so well with this summer's combination of cold, wet and then hot spells.
 
What's new with youse guys?  Love from down here.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Labor Day

Aren't three day weekends the greatest?  Time was, years ago, we worked in a school where every weekend was a three-day weekend.  It sure made it easier to go back to work on Monday morning.  People were ready and even a little bored.
 
We took advantage of the extra day by going to the beach on the Chesapeake Bay.   Once there, we knew immediately we should have brought our camera.  It was a small beach a little south of Annapolis, but certainly served our purpose for the day.  They charged for access to the beach, but for the first time we both took advantage of a lower rate for seniors, and we even qualified - over 55.  So we're planning another return trip on the 18th, since they also have a crab house in the town.  Any takers?
 
We also went to a Nationals game, thanks to donated tickets from Mary's friend Gerry and Dennis, who have season tickets but couldn't go.  We had hoped Joe could go with us, but his bout with strep throat and mono kept getting worse.  He had been sick since he went to San Francisco in July, but this week it got worse and Mary went down to bring him home.  On Friday, he went to urgent care since his doctor was unavailable and finally got some serious medicine.  Only today, was he feeling well enough for a bowl of cereal (the true test) and he went back to his place.  Joe was well enough to watch the first weekend of college football!
 
Margaret took advantage of the long weekend by driving to Ohio with her friend Adam, who is from Lima.  Annie went to Providence for a "fire on the water" show. 
 
We talked with Grandma who seemed well.  Peter had come over for a visit; they had spent their extra day at a family reunion with Janet's brother. 
 
On Facebook, Jeffrey passed around a health reform statement (which we forwarded as well).  And on Facebook, the big news is that now Jeffrey, David, Janet and Lur are friends! 
 
We're about to take the plunge on our renovation project.  Our contractor sent us a contract (Grandma said she never did anything like that in all the renovation projects she was involved with) and hopefully once that's is back and signed they can start the work.  Have I said that before?
 
And our routines continue - a little exercise, a little reading, a little tv watching, a little (?) napping, and a little chores and errands. 
 
Tomorrow back to work.  Hope you all have a great week!  Love from down here.