Independence

We are starting our fourth straight day of barbecues.  Life is good!  And we may even have one tomorrow if we make it to Dundee in time.

We came back to Bethesda this morning following an early wake up call in Hightstown.  One of our barbecues was with Grandma, and would have been even better had we not left the grill At Annie's house.  So we cooked the brats in the toaster oven.  Still tasted good, and because of the heat we probably saved ourselves a gallon of liquids we would have had to have replaced.

Grandma looked good, in red, white and blue.  We cashed in on some Dairy Queen coupons and talked about a September trip, to Rochester, Pittsfield and Pomfret, perhaps.

We had finished two weeks in Pittsfield, and the days were starting to blur together, so I started a running account of our activities each day.  Still, our work boils down to having painted one side of the house.  That means of course, scraping and priming and fixing the eaves.  (sort of)    Our contractor has started work, dug the hole, poured the footings and started the foundation.  And, we have two teachers -- one of whom we found out worked at the same high school as John did in Clarement NH -- who are renovating what will be our master bedroom.  Looks nice.

We spent a weekend in Rhode Island, near our old haunts in Charlestown, and went to the beach there and even the ice cream place.  We were visiting Marge and Lew who have been renting a spectacular house on a salt pond while their house is being renovated.  (There is no truth to the rumor that we are racing them to see whose house gets finished first.)

And..... drum roll....we met ...Elsie Ray! A beautiful, petite, sweet baby who is just about 1 month old. We had a morning visit with Maura; Steve was out getting his new fish shop up and running. We also watched a World Cup game with Dan, and later had a visit with Mary and Patrick.  Annie came down for a day at the beach and we watched the U.S. come close but lose in world cup soccer.

Lots of developments back here while we were away.  Joe finished his job in anticipation of a nice long layoff before he starts a new job in November.  So he moved out of his current digs and set up a base back home.  He arrived the day after....

Matthew and Tina and Oliver left.  They had come to show Oliver the nation's capital!  But we were away (sigh).  They got their capitol tour from Jeffrey and then after two nights here went on their way to Norfolk Virginia.    

Margaret played hostess to them (thank you) and also to a group of Iraqis who had been here for most of June on the project she's working on.  

And this week is Annie's last week at work.  She has had a tough year with a very tough population of autistic children.  She has a hiking trip planned, a trip to Pittsfield for her birthday and then a drive down here before her flight to China in August. And yes, we had a barbecue at her house in Natick on Saturday, with her roommate's parents.

Other notes:  we saw John and Marilyn most days as they checked on progress and gave us plumbing and closet tips!  Aunt Mary stopped by for a quick visit and inspection. She looks like she's 55 and acts like it too! (She is closer to 81.) We went to see Roseanne Cash who was terrific, and then bumped into her at a bar a  little later on!  The contractors said it was unusual how many rocks they had to dig out so we did the New England thing and made a stone wall.

All for now.  I will try to write from the road on our progress.  Love from down here.