Memorial Day

Did anyone go to a parade today?  Hear a speech?  Put the flag out?  Have a barbecue?  Summer is officially here.  It's grand!
 
So was Annie's graduation.  Hard to believe it went by so fast.  I bet Annie's thinking the 4 years went by so fast.  Highlights included dinner at an Indian restaurant the night before (as we had done with both Joe and Margaret); being joined by Peter, Janet and Johanna (thank you!!); staying at Red Roof Inn was just like the Point; packing up Annie's stuff with help; getting a Hamilton sweatshirt (or two); seeing Annie before the ceremony; a nice speech by the founder of Ms. magazine and current head of Hearst magazines; an easy picnic lunch; an easy drive home.  Annie graduated with distinctions in Spanish and Psychology and a lot of good friends and good memories. 
 
We stopped by Grandma's on the way up on Friday and had dinner with her and Peter on Friday evening. She is well, and continues to walk to get some strength back. Mary and I had stopped at the Jersey shore on the way up; it was cold and windy but still nice to see the ocean. We had seen the movie the Wrestler and expected it would be more seedy, but it was very nice.

We drove back right after graduation and had Monday to catch up, with housecleaning and yard work, before the big storms hit. We were in touch with Peter and Janet who were in the same storms but had the sense to stop and get dinner, an anniversary dinner at that! Margaret and Annie stayed and drove back on Monday, leaving early enough to miss the traffic.

Annie is home for a couple of months before she starts her new job at a residential school for autistic children near Boston. Margaret and Joe gave her for graduation a real world basket, full of stuff she'll need, like a spatula, a movie called 9 to 5, and other assorted objects. She's off!

Love from down here.

What is going on?

This is the third time I have written a blog.  Hope it works this time.  Bet Pop never lost a letter in the ether.

So, one more try. I think I started with the weather each time - cold and rainy, this weekend. It was too bad for our house guests, the Lockerys, our friends from Lagos, who were here for their son's graduation from GWU. It looked like the rain would hold off for the ceremony on the mall today. We did have dinner with them last night and Joe and Margaret were able to join us. And it rained.

Another Peter, this time our brother, joined us last weekend ahead of his big federal appeals case on flight paths to the New York area airports. I gather the actual arguments did not go so well before this conservative court, but it sure was nice to see him and and talk important things like baseball and Supreme Court and teaching. And guitar. Peter played and gave Mary a few free lessons.

Did someone mention Mother's Day? YES!! We talked to Mom and she sounded like she was on a healthy upswing. She said Johanna had come over during the day. We had a nice dinner here which Joe, Margaret and Peter joined. Did someone mention the ice cream? I highly recommend Ben and Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch.

Next weekend, we're heading to Annie's graduation, via Pittsfield, Vancouver and Ottawa. John managed to convince people that he was needed back in Canada for a couple of days. Tough assignment.

Amidst the rain has been the effort to cut the grass. It grows like a terrarium here. Last year, John went green and cheap and got a push, reel mower. It savid on gas but cut lousily. So John went green and expensive and bought this week an electric mower. Let's hope it works more than once.

And then there's Sean's birthday (hope you had fun), Matthew's birthday coming up, Peter and Janet's anniversary, Claire's graduation. Big days, enjoy them all!

A rainy weekend

Why do I feel like Charlie Brown?  It's because I've just come in from outside in the pouring rain - gardening, not playing baseball.  And I'm soaking wet.  But I did get the tomatoes planted and some geraniums.  Let's see if they survive the cool and rainy weather we have forecast all this week.
 
Anyone have the sniffles and think they had swine flu?  Mary did, and lost her voice and had to miss a couple of days of school.  She didn't get swine flu, but even my allergies made me think I had the flu, at least for a couple of hours.  She wasn't sick enough to miss her guitar class though, and she has expanded her repertoire to Amazing Grace.
 
Margaret braved the weather yesterday to take D to the beach.  At least that was her plan.  She joined Mary for dinner this week, but I missed out because of work.  We talked to Annie a couple of times and she was putting the finishing touches on her thesis.  Since we haven't heard from her since, we assume she's out celebrating.
 
At this very moment, we think Claire is in the middle of her confirmation.  We tried calling last night, but no one was home.  Out celebrating too, most likely. Congratulations Claire.
 
And, at this very moment, we think Grandma is at Meadow Lakes church and then Sunday dinner.  She thought she was well enough to venture out again, for the first time in a long time.  She said too that Uncle Jim is back in the hospital.
 
The photo is from Jeffrey's camera, from last weekend in Hightstown.  Thanks Jeff.
 
Big news from Fairport - David's on Facebook! And I was his first friend!
 
The front page of the Washington Post has a picture of Justice Souter's New Hampshire home.  It could be the only home in America that looks more hard luck than 5 Hancock Road.
 
It's also been a sports week.  Last night Mary and I saw a great movie - Sugar, about a Dominican baseball player.  It's in Spanish (with subtitles), but more a movie about immigration than baseball.  We're also watched parts of two exciting playoff series this week - basketball (Celtics) and hockey (Capitals).  And, of course there's always the first month of baseball!
 
It's May and that means Mother's Day next week, and Sean's birthday and a couple of graduations coming up.  Big month.  If the past is any guide, then this month will fly by as well. 
 
That's all from down here.  Love.

All is well in NJ

A three hour drive is pretty easy.  Jeffrey and Melodie made the trip to Grandma's and back on the same day.  John and Mary stayed overnight. 
 
But that is if it really does take three hours.  On our way up, we took rte 295 in NJ and looked over at a parking lot and wondered what that was.  Turned out it was the NJ turnpike.  A terrible accident shut down the turnpike in both directions, for five hours.  Luckily we decided to take 295. 
 
Because we had a great time, catching up with Grandma and with Jeff and Melodie.  And with Peter and Janet and Sean who joined us for dinner Saturday night.  Grandma looks and feels a whole lot better.  She's walking again, and we even went grocery shopping.  Sunday morning we went to Perkins for a healthy brunch.
 
Much of the conversation was on politics and books we were reading, dogs, plays, crafts, grandchildren and family memories.  (We tried to talk Jeffrey into taking the foreign service test!) Andrew, perhaps you can help us with the name of the fried chicken fast food place we went to in Carmel Ind.   We talked baseball and Grandma was really into the NFL draft - she was hoping the Lions would take Sanchez instead of the Jets.
 
Mary uses her time in the car for all her calls; I think she gets tired of talkking to me, or listening to me.  She learned her brother Tim may be coming east in May, that John and Marilyn had a good time playing golf in South Carolina, but wondered what else people do down there, that Marj and Lew are also renovating their house.  Mary also called Annie, but this is crunch time for Annie at school as she is wrapping up her thesis.  Soon she'll be able to talk longer.)
 
Joe had a party this weekend where the theme was bad decisions.  People were supposed to come dressed up as bad decisions.  Mary said that she would have come as a tatoo if she had been invited or able to go.  Kathleen came down for the weekend.  She is getting ready for a 5 week trip to China before she starts grad school in August (at some school in New Haven.)
 
Last weekend, we went down to DC for Sunday morning brunch with Joe and Margaret in the eastern market.  City life looks like fun. 
 
Did I mention Mary is playing the guitar?  Look for her first cd out soon - Skip to My Lou, Amazing Grace and Clementine will be her break-out covers.
 
No dog stories this time around.  Have a great week.  Love from down here.

two websites

Hey.  We've got news!
 
First.  In case you didn't get enough dog news, here's one more.  Margaret was interviewed by the local NPR station about her adoption tale.  Check it out..

Adopting Foster Animals - Not Always Just a Heart-Warming Experience http://www.wamu.org/news/09/04/13.php#25985

Next, click here to see the project John has been working on for the President's and Secretary's trips this weekend.   http://townhall.howcast.com/
You can even watch a live stream of Secretary Clinton at her town hall event. Hope you're having a great week.

Happy Easter

Joe and Margaret just left after Easter dinner, and we walked it all off.  At least some of it.
 
It was an eventful day and a restful day. Joe and Margaret (and her dog d'Angelo) came to spend the night in order to be here when the Easter bunny came.  We had a long Seinfeld-like discussion today about the logic of the bunny with eggs and chocolate and hiding the eggs, and we got lost in the logic.  Then Grandma told us that Claire had done a reading at her church today which may have tied the tradition to the church.  Would you share with us the reading Claire?
 
The events started with the cat and Margaret's dog not really getting along, at least Moe was not being very hospitable.  So, we decided to take the dog to church with us, and we left the windows of the car open enough for plenty of air while we went to church.  When we came out the dog was gone, and had jumped out the car window.  Fortunately he had a leash and a dog tag, and about an hour and half later we got a call that the dog had turned up in someone's yard.  Thankfully.  The rest of the day was spent eating too many jelly beans and chocolate and reading.  Nice. 
 
Mary had the whole week off, and we started off her spring break in Pittsfield, doing a little work on the house.  It was cold and it snowed each of the days we were there.  Nothing stuck, reminded us how further along we are in spring.  We went out to dinner with her Aunt Mary and went for a long discovery walk through the woods in the back of our house, ending up at the family cemetary.  John left to come back on Wednesday, and Mary went on to Stonington and Rhode Island to see  Dan and Maura, and Marg and Lew.  She drove back on Friday, stopping by Hightstown to visit Grandma.
 
Who is not feeling so hot.  It looks like she had a bad reaction to some medicine she was recently prescribed.  She went off the medicine, but it's taking some time to get out of her system.  Slowly on the mend.
 
Annie spent Easter with friends in New York, first in NY City and then on to the Hamptons!  Must be nice.  She's got a few short weeks left, but a thesis to finish in the meantime.
 
John's been busy at work, preparing for two big trips this week with Obama and Clinton going to Trinidad this coming weekend. 
 
Not much else to report - baseball season started and things were more hopeful last week than this week.  For Reds fans anyway.
 
Hope you all had a great Easter, and spring is on its way.  Love from down here!

They Came, They Saw, They

Ate a lot of food!
 
Not really, but it sounded funny.  The Dundee Dicksons came east, swinging by Washington on their way up to New Jersey.   Not a lot of excitement, but a lot of chatting - reliving the wedding, piling on AIG, talking sports (and trash), a lot of walking along the length of the mall.  Claire was on the mend from a bad cold, and Danny was, well, being Danny.  Fun, that is. Check out the video.
 
Jeffrey and Melodie joined us for dinner on Sunday night, along with Joe, Margaret and Annie, and Margaret's new dog, DeAngelo.  I bet it is the first time a dog has ever been named DeAngelo. Speaking of pets, there's a photo here of David and Paula's new kitty, and we heard lots of stories about Andrew and Lur's new dog. 
 
Please don't tell Claire that her air mattress filled up with air this morning as we were folding it up. 
 
Margaret does have a long story to tell about her dog adoption experience, and hopefully it won't be told in court.  It involves a sick dog and an outlay of a lot of money for medical bills, immediately, and an adoption agency which has washed its hands of the affair.  The good news is the dog is much better, after one very worrisome night.   
 
Annie stayed with Margaret and Dee to help out.  She goes back to school tomorrow after a pretty uneventful spring break. 
 
Nice to see Jeffrey and Melodie and they are off for a short break to New Orleans; Joe knows a few people down there, they should stay away from.
 
Other news- Mary started playing the guitar, and signed up for some classes.  We tried to fix up one of the old cheap Mexican guitars but to no avail.  After one class, she is about to release her new "best of" cd, with covers of "Skip to My Lou" and "Hokey, Pokey" and Itsy Bitsy Spider."  Look for the video next.
 
Not much else to report - working our way through another season the Wire, through biographies of Andrew Jackson and Walt Whitman and through a lenten season with no sweets and desserts.  Spring is trying to sneak in, and it is Cherry Blossom weekend here, but is is cold, rainy and raw.
 
Finally, Andrew, you snuck out of here without taking the slides!  Come back!
 
Love from down here