jimsjournal
| Catching up -- 06/02/05 |
jimsjournal |
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Yeah, I've been quite remiss in updating things here. No entry since May 20th. Well, I started one for May 24th but went to bed instead of finishing it and thought I'd recycle it for the next day but never got the time to do it... *sigh*... and one thing leads to another and one day leads to the next and so it goes... My sinuses were really bothering me all last week and much of the week before -- I think the delayed nice weather and all of the rain we had made all of the spring pollen pop out in the same time span. It seemed as if almost every night I would wake up around three or four a.m. with a stuffed nose and a headache. But that seems to be past now. Last week... Wednesday night went to see Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with Matt and Tammy (Nancy's youngest brother & his wife) and our niece Lauren. The movie was okay. I enjoyed parts of it. I found it interesting to note that most of the film (except for the ride through the world-building construction company site) could have been done with vintage 1960's movie special effects technology. Indeed, much of it had a bit of a low budget look to it. Still, it was amusing, although I would attribute most of that to Douglas Adam's wit. After the movie we wandered over to an Applebee's -- yeah, what can I say... it was only maybe a hundred and fifty yards from the theatre -- for coffee & drinks & munchies. We all had fancy coffee things that had various kinds of whipped cream and flavorings and alcohol in them (except for Lauren who is 19 in a 21-age state) and a platter of assorted tasty but unhealthy munchies (Mozzarella Sticks, Spinach & Artichoke Dip, Cheese Quesadilla Grande, Boneless Buffalo Wings and breaded deep-fried lard -- oh, okay, I made that last one up) and then, after finishing our fancy coffees, Matt and I ordered Guinness. Pouring rain outside, winds gusting above fifty miles an hour... we must have enjoyed our food and conversation and avoided going back out into the storm for at least an hour and a half. So that Thursday Nancy and I went to some cocktail party reception by the group that sponsored the fund-raising spelling bee this past winter. We had a couple of hors d'oeuvres and then split before the speeches began and went over to the Main Street Fish Market (which sells raw fish, cooked fish takeout, and also has a restaurant section), stopping to pick up some beer at Sweeney's Wine and Spirits (Main St Fish is a bring-your-own-bottle place) to go with our fish and chips. Yummy. (And, I didn't have to cook!) Friday we headed over to New York State -- were in Connecticut just about to exit from Route 9 at Middletown when I remarked to Nancy about this incredibly ugly looking cloud bank to the west -- ugly bruised looking clouds with flashes of lightning in them -- when the car radio suddenly began with this bweep-bweep-bweep noise leading into an emergency weather alert -- severe thunderstorm heading across northern Connecticut, heavy rains, hail, winds in excess of sixty miles an hour, "a very severe and extremely dangerous storm" -- wonderful, we had been driving north and here was where we would turn to go west, straight into the rapidly approaching storm. A few miles later we were into heavy rain, but once we reached interstate 84, our path went south and we skirted the parts of the storm with the hail and violent winds. Spent the night with Nancy's sister Clara and her husband... enjoyable evening sitting around eating (Jeremy had made us a couple of his special pizzas to bring and Clara had prepared a platter filled with tasty treats) and talking and drinking wine. In the morning we took an hour-long walk on a bike path that passes near Clara's house and then in the afternoon we went to another one of Nancy's sister's annual summer season kick-off cook-out.. Her sister Karen and husband Bob live perched high up on a steep slope overlooking a reservoir (in winter -- in summer the leaves of the trees obscure the view) Lots of good food and drink, many family members and friends, babies and toddlers (the children of our generation's children -- Karen's granddaughter, Clara's three grandchildren, etc.) We stayed until around 5:30 (leaving a party that would continue past midnight) and then headed back to Rhode Island. On Sunday evening Nancy and I were at the Kinney Bungalow in our capaciy as attendents/docents while a 40th wedding anniversary party was being held. That was a fairly easy evening -- party was over at 10:30 and everything was cleaned up by 11. The previous weekend a wedding was going on and we were there for nine hours. (We have to supervise the caterer set up process before the event begins and check up on the clean up afterwards -- the caterer isn't finished until we sign off that they cleaned everything properly.) My feet were really killing me that night. Of course I think I'd gone for an afternoon run on both days that we worked there. Duh. On Monday we did a lot of work in the front yard and on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings I did a little prep work in my vegetable garden -- or, should I say, where my vegetable garden will be if I ever get around to planting anything. Our cold and rainy April followed by our cold and rainy May really through me off schedule as far as gardening goes... So if you actually took the time to read much of that blather, you can see why I may have been too busy to put in the time to post new entries. (And, if you just skimmed rapidly down to here, you probably have figured that out too, except for skipping the details.) I've also been trying to be better about working out -- Friday excercise bike and weights -- Saturday one hour walk -- Sunday three and a half mile run -- Monday yard work -- Tuesday three and a half mile run -- Wednesday excercise bike and just a little bit of leg lifts (had to get in exercise early in a.m. because of a before-lunch blood donation) -- today three and a half mile run. |
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