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When I grow up, I want to be like this.....

Mother's Day and Demolition

Saturday morning, we went to the rental place, and got ourselves a sixty-pound jackhammer. We didn't know how to use it exactly, but we quickly figured it out. Heavy? You betcha. Efficient? Hell yes.

We worked from about 3:30 until 7:00 pm, Max and I; we made it about three-quarters of the way around. Fortunately (for us) a huge and terrible Maryland thunderstorm come through. It was hot, and the storm brought the promise of cooler temperatures. The physical aches and pains I was expecting didn't really happen; we were really, really tired, but not terribly sore. Sleep came quickly; it was a good kind of tired. So often I feel emotionally tired rather than physically, especially when I'm not feeling very well. I so prefer the physical exhaustion...it makes for a good, honest nights sleep.

Sunday morning brought Mother's Day...a beautiful bouquet of roses from the kids (Maggie, Max and Roger), and a sleep-in, read the paper in bed with tea morning (actually, we do that most Sundays); the aches and pains that I had expected previously had visited sometime over Saturday night, but it still wasn't as bad as I thought. There was no way we could start hammering before ten; I'm sure the neighbors didn't appreciate all the noise, but before ten on a Sunday morning, even I would be complaining.

We only had about one-quarter of the concrete left to do; maybe it was because we knew what we were in for, maybe it was because we were sore...but that small space took us three hours. Granted it was the large area around the stairs (which is twice as wide and twice as thick), but it seemed endless. But we slowly kept at it...and finally, it was done.

Poor Richard didn't get to play with the jackhammer, but we let him try it for a minute. If you look in the picture, the pose he has is almost the same as the pose of the man on his shirt. Funny!

Ta Da!

After a thorough cleanup and rejuvenation (a shower and a caffeine pill) we headed out for our Mother's Day gathering. Diane and Joe were nice enough to host this years fete'....we brought an appetizer (which so needed more spice) and Mom and Dad brought shrimp cocktail....and then we had Chinese food. Yum. It was a really nice, low key dinner with our family, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Joe and Diane have a really big, really gross snake in their birdhouse (I hesitate to think about what happened to the bird!), and we didn't get to see it, but we did see the skin he had shed. It was at least 5 feet long. Ewwwww.

Joe had made dessert (chocolate chip cake YUM)...it was a really nice day capping off a really productive weekend.

Here's more results from the demo:

My New Favorite Website

Ok, I've found a really, really good website. Here's a sample:










It's at www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com

Rain, rain and more rain. Wait, there's the sun. Oh, never mind. It's going to rain again tomorrow.

It's been a long and busy week, and filled with grey skies and rain. The sun is out today, and it feels like an old friend has come back.

Wednesday, Richard and I went to pup class, and Debbie met us there. She took Inky back for the long weekend...and we miss her like crazy. Very quiet around here. Mookie is moping a bit. I've only heard from Debbie once, and things are going fine over there. We're really hoping that we can do a dual-raise for the rest of the time that Ink is here.

Thursday I got up really really early (like Richard early), and made my way to Barb and Randy's house, where we met up with their son, daughter in law, grandaughter and Barb's mom; we drove up to New Castle, where Barbara was being honored with a Jefferson Award. It was a fun ride, with much laughter and discussions, and giant cups of coffee.

We got there, and there were five people being honored. The Jefferson Awards were started by Jackie Kennedy to recognize outstanding service to community by individuals. There was Barbara, and then there was a lady who was a breast cancer advocate (she lost her mom to breast cancer, and was also a survivor herself), a lady who worked at Delmarva Power who organized and orchestrated a gift drive for needy children and senior citizens who wouldn't otherwise have had any holiday gifts, a doctor who worked with the terminally ill and their families, and a man, who was very involved in his community (not sure what he did, he was rather shy and did not make a speech). The award itself is beautiful and heavy (I told Barb we needed to put it on a big chain and then she could wear it like Mr. T).
One of the highlights of the whole morning was Maggie, Barbara and Randy's grandaughter. She is just so funny, and several hours in, she had warmed up to me, and was shaking my hand and sharing her bracelets with me. Definitely a heart stealer, for sure.

I must admit to being a bit jealous, as Debbie has called Auntie Barbara for a several hour babysitting job for the littlest Maggie; Debbie doesn't like to inconvenience people, and hesitates to ask anyone. Her email to Barbara said something like "I figured I'd ask you before we asked the neighbors". I can just picture Barbara responding with lightening speed (she herself told me it was in all caps...) that she'd love to babysit.

This is the picture I got this week...she's the world's smallest fencer. "En guarde!"

You know I'm going to get around to putting a tiny little fencing sword in her hand at some point.

Goodness, kids are awesome.


Yesterday was my Maggie's 22nd birthday, and she took the night off from work to come and spend it with us...I was really glad! I did figure that she's got Roger now, and she's young, she would want to go out somewhere...but she opted for hamburgers and hotdogs, homemade potato salad, french fries and cake with her family. Roger got there a bit after dinner from Seaford, and it was a really nice nite. I totally slothed out and got a cake from Food Lion, which was good, but just not homemade. I was writing the message on the cake in blue icing, and it all came out in a glob...it looked awful...but we laughed about it. I made a rather politically incorrect joke about it, and lit many many candles. It was a very nice night; Maggie and Roger are on different schedules than us...11 pm for them is just getting started. I could barely keep my eyes open! It was a good night, and it's truly hard to believe she's 22 years old.

Today I'm going to catch up on all that I didn't get to this week...get ready for the weekend. It is Mother's Day, and we're going to Diane and Joe's for dinner on Sunday. All the women don't have to cook...and that's a good thing. It's going to be a nice, low-key day. Joe even made the cake! (I hope it's chocolate chip cake!)

It's now 10:45 am on Friday...and it's getting cloudy. No more sun until Sunday, but that's ok. It's going to be there for Mother's Day (if it knows what's good for it)....