Good Morning, August 4, 2014

Hello everyone,

I haven’t posted in a couple of days.  It’s been busy on this trip.  What a great time I’ve had though.  But as the saying goes: “after 3 days, family, like fish begin to smell”!  So I’ve been away for 5 days and I’m looking forward to getting home and settling into my routine and I’m sure Doug and Dick feel the same.  What wonderful hosts they are!  Don’t know how to repay them, but it is always good to visit here.

After the dinner on Saturday night, I spent the night with Jennifer at the hotel.  She had a huge room with 2 queen sized beds so that was great – then I didn’t come home late and wake up the dog and the whole neighborhood!  Duncan has a wonderful deep bark.  I said it sounded like the type of bark they use as a deterrent to burglars, and it is loud!  Love that dog though, very sweet and fun to watch.  I gave Dick a “dog toy” for his birthday and of course it was really for Duncan.  I took a picture of him playing with it.  I’ll have to remember to post the picture here when I get home.

We got up on Sunday morning to rain and went out to breakfast to the Darien Diner.  It was great!  Huge pancakes!  I had corned beef hash and a bagel.  Off the “no wheat” thing all weekend.  It was just too much trouble.  I did skip dessert at Wee Burn and I was pretty proud of that but haven’t taken a walk all weekend.  Oh well, maybe I’ll hit the “jim” a couple of times this week.

Jenn, Janet and me at The Darien Diner

Darien Diner

I don’t relish getting back to work and “catching up” on the 400 (I’m guessing) emails I’ve accumulated while away.  I put the “Out of Office” message on and I think I’ll leave it on most of the day tomorrow.  Plus this afternoon I have to get ready for the Corrections Committee meeting so we can hand out tickets to sell for the picnic.  I’m mostly ready for that.  I did send my “end of the month” reports out a day early so I think that will be OK.  The only one I need to remember to do is the ER Report and the Pendant/Pull Cord report (note to self).  The good news is that Lily was away Wednesday through Friday so she wasn’t there to send me email missions – although she will be in today so she’ll have time to send some out that I’ll get tomorrow.  It’s all good though.  Keeps me working and getting paid for it too!

So with the rain yesterday morning I figured that the “Beach” time on Sunday would be a bust.  Glad I had decided not to go anyway.  Jennifer and Janet had to go – they had “cooler” duty – but they were anxious to get on the road.  Heidi left right after breakfast and was back in New Jersey at 10:30!  Dick and Doug had big “plumbing” issues to deal with on Sunday.  They had a “flood” in the basement and Dick discovered it while walking Duncan and made Doug get out of the shower to stop the water from causing more trouble.  The Roto Rooter guy came and worked for around 4 hours.  Dick and I went to “Palmers” to use the facilities and get some corn for the “birthday” dinner.  The weather turned around and by 11AM it was sunny and beautiful.   It stayed that way the rest of the day, so it was probably great at the beach.  I texted Carol Ann and she had left around 1 – said it was “a bore” so I’m really glad I didn’t go.  I think we’ve really outgrown the “beach” thing for these reunions.  All in all I had a great time.  Found out that Jimmy Valenti liked me (“was in love with me”) as a kid.  That really shocked me but made me feel pretty good.  He’s happily married for many years – no kids.  So that will give me something to “wonder” about for a while.  Stu Traver was a no show which was OK since I had a little anxiety over that encounter.  It would have been “weird” I think.  Since the next reunion is the 50th I think I’ll try to make it.  Plus I love staying with Doug and Dick – they are so gracious and their home is so phenomenal!  So beautiful in a beautiful neighborhood.  It was so much fun driving all over the place and fun to reminisce.  Dick has a memory that is amazing.  He is such a great story teller and host.  And funny!

So enough for today.  I need to continue this later so I’ll talk about the Birthday Bash with Aunt Pat, Luann, Katherine, Doug, Dick, Duncan and me.