One Day at a Time: The end of August ...

Huge happenings occurred the weekend of the 19^th and 20^th.

On Saturday we were fortunate to share breakfast with our Maid of Honor and Best Man – Vince and Patti. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Bruce and I celebrated our 49^th anniversary on the 14^th of August. For those of you who are on Facebook, you already know that I posted the following picture taken back in 1965. Now I can compare photos from 1965 with those taken in 2014 …I hardly see any differences!

Vince and Mary Ellen

We were lucky that our waitress was very understanding about our staying forever to reminisce and get caught up with each other, and delighted to meet Vince’s wife, Mary Ellen.

The 20^th held another special reunion. We haven’t seen Bill and Anne in 42 years! Bill and Bruce are distant relatives (maybe third cousins), and they remember many wonderful times spent with each other in their youth. They both came from farming families, and their parents used to get together to play cards. They also reminisced about baseball games at the house (a broken window!) and the time they left Bill behind at a state park! Bill’s sister Joan was the mastermind behind the reunion. Unfortunately she left before I could get a picture.

Bill and Ann

The night of the 25^th found me meeting up with “the girls” for Girls Night Out. Two cousins, two moms with their daughters, three sisters, and one friend had a fun time together. The drink special that evening ($3.00) was delish! … Five of us enjoyed the drink made with Southern Comfort, lemonade, vodka, amaretto and a splash of sloe gin; I can’t remember the name of it. Perhaps that loosened our tongues a bit! We each ordered an appetizer to share including their special, Macaroni and Cheese. Not exactly diet food but sure was good. I inquired about desert, and much to my dismay, there really wasn’t much to choose from. Can you imagine serving Jell-O for dessert in a restaurant? Well, there is a reason. The restaurant is located in LeRoy, New York, the birthplace of Jell-O. (Another link: http://www.jellogallery.org/)

Girls Nite Out

Three sisters and me

Sisters

Patti and me

Cousins - Traci and Kelli

Also during the week of the 25^th, we hosted our first guests for dinner - Neal and Bev and our former hosts, Dan and Carol, the 27^th and 29^th respectively. I have not found it hard at all to prepare a dinner for 4, and we took advantage of decent weather to eat outside. Thanks to both of the men for bringing some wood to throw on the fire. We enjoyed S’mores although I was not very skilled in making mine!

I finally got to enjoy the pool (one of two) at Southwood toward the end of the month. It wasn’t heated so I was grateful for the “beach” access (small wide steps across one end of the pool so you can ease yourself in). It was refreshing.

I also “played” around in my backyard some more. I remade a stone wall so that wood stretched across it made a bench. I put out some pretty pink flowers (thanks, Nancy) with my Welcoming critters nearby. I walked the hedge row and found lots to small twigs, etc. for fire starters. And I also rebuilt the fire pit. I love the fact that we have such a private site.