The other weekend Fun

Two more weekend happenings:

I painted again, but that's almost expected at this stage in my home-ownership. We purchased a gallon of brown paint several weeks ago, after having seen some really cool pictures in Better Homes and Garden. (Stop making fun of me, I like that stuff sometimes!) This brown turned out darker than I thought, and much darker than we wanted. We're having a graduation party in 10 days, so I had to rush out to find a new color, after having made the brown-boo-boo.

I grabbed a quart of Pewter Cup - It's this very nice gray. It's the front room of the house, so it will actually turn out better, a bit more elegant with the furniture in there. (Piano and some "sitting room" style furniture.) I painted less than one wall with my puny quart, but it's enough to know that the whole room will look good!

The other, much more fun and cudly story is that we got to meet our new puppy! My sister worked out a deal where she gets our new beagle puppy, Maggy, from graduation to move-in date for college, then she's ours. What a great deal! Michelle has a true gift with animals, so it's going to work out for both of us. She's going to train Maggy for leash walking, outdoor pooping, and all of the other essentials.

So, here's is the picture that is now my desktop on my work computer:











And here is another really really cute one:












That's the adorable puppy that will be sharing our house soon! I'm so excited!

Graduation Weekend

This past Saturday was Graduation Day at my sisters' school. She is a high school grad now! Four years ago she decided that she needed to get out of the town she lives in at home, in North Carolina. She then did research to find a boarding school that met her priorities:
1 - not at home
2 - equestrian program
3 - scholarship monies to give

She found her high school home in Chatham, VA at Chatham Hall. It's an all girls school that met all three of her standards for choice. Another Chatham Hall alumus: Georgia O'Keefe!

Saturday was a georgeous day, weather-wise, which set up for a beautiful ceremony of graduation. A graduating class of about 40 certainly did not take as much time as last years graduation that I attended, a class of 500+. (Can't remember exactly how many, but a TON.)

The day started with breakfast in their hotel-like dining hall. at 10 we were ushered into a very simple but very elegant baccalaureate service. If you have never heard an all girls choir sing a hymn, you should! It's very sweet sounding. I couldn't even sing, for fear that I would mess up the sound.

The actual presentation of diplomas was preceeded by presentations of awards. Everything from dance to academics. Michelle won an English award, which suprised the heck out of her! I remember hearing last week that she was writing a paper for english while studying for Spanish, so I guess she did not get the two mixed up! The presentations were short and sweet, with the service capped off by an interesting poem by the Rector. He took all of the girls' names and created a poem ranging from the girls hobbies to college choices. It was neat to hear his perspective of each graduate. That's one of the many reasons to attend a small school!

Now she heads to college in Richmond. It will be a lot closer than her high school, so hopefully we'll get to know her better during the coming years. She's a good kid... better yet, she's a good young woman!

Here is a picture of "the kids." I will add a couple of other pics later, but this is classic. (Left to right: Me, Anny, Michelle, Nadia, Jason) If you notice Anny's expression, she is being tickled from both sides! :o)

Sporradic Activities

My brother is trying to be helpful in my quest to stay healthy by coming up with new things to try. This spring alone has been quite ADD in "our" regiment. Roller Hockey one weekend, Golf driving range another weekend. Today we are going to play racquetball up near his house! In his defense, he gave me a choice between roller hockey and racquetball, and with the heat they are predicting, I chose the indoor sport! It should be fun, and Anny is even predicting that I will come home and sleep it off before dinner. I doubt it..... hope not that is!

Anny and I have taken a few walks around the lake that is in town. It's a nice place, with great views from any place on the paths. There is one source of annoyance there - our subway system runs along one side of the lake! It's funny, actually, just how much people think that it interrupts the serenity. If there was not a metro line there, there would not be a lake there! It's actually the drainage pond from the construction of the tracks and such.

So, today I play racquetball for the first time since I was in high school. I just pray that I don't break an ankle, or get hit too hard by my slightly-over-competitive brother!

Military Burial Service

(I started this post on Tuesday afternoon when I got home, but have not been able to finish it until now!)

Today was the burial service in Owings Mills (Maryland) for my Grandfather, Bill Donovan. He was a great man, with many quirks, as is true of most grandfathers. I have not been to a burial service before, but movies have given me certain expectations.
A crying widow
A priest
Green grass around a hole in the ground
A folded flag being presented after a very strict folding

No crying widow - my grandmother is not one for emotions, she's a hospitality person. She even tried to buy lunch for the family. We caught it before she could do that!
No priest - but grandpa was not a religious man. I believe he had faith, but not religion.
No green grass - this was a bit disturbing. We didn't know it, but they were not planning on a graveside service in any way. They moved the casket to a pick-up truck, lowered it into a concrete box, then into the ground with a backhoe. Not very romantic. What was even better was the cemetery guy with the biggest mullet I have ever seen!
Yes - we did have the flag presentation ceremony. It was very somber and quite, with each fold of the flag resonating in a chapel built just for this purpose. Upon presentation to my grandmother, they said something to the effect of "M'aam, this flag is presented to you with great respect and appreciation of the service by your husband to the United States."

In another awkward moment - The Obit!
You can't get the obituary online, because the newspaper up in Aberdeen (MD) is not that high tech yet. If you could see it, you would see that he taught at NYU, a line about the patents, a list of the children (and spouses) and grandchildren (with current home location), and burial info. What you would not find is the line "is survived by Rosemary Donovan" but not because my grandmother is not around - but because the newspaper LEFT HER OUT! Yes, they did have to print a correction. They also left out my step-father, and that was in the correction too.

And that was the first half of my week. More on Ropes Course Wednesday when I get home!

Reunion-ized

Saturday was my 10 year high school reunion, and it was not as bad as it could have been! I graduated in a class of 45 brave souls, and there were about 15 of us that showed up. That ain't too bad, eh? Being the extrovert that I am, I did some rotation and chatted it up with folks that I would probably still hang out with. I was even nice to those that I didn't care to know 10 years ago, much less hang out with on a Saturday night.

Anny was a trooper too. I have a suggestion to those going to events like this: make sure your significant other has someone they know there, other than yourself. I graduated with two people who have to this day remained my best of friends. (I'm even in their will!) Anny knows them very well, so she didn't have an awkward night of half talking and half looking at the ceiling, like some of the other spouses. There was one guy there that didn't say a word that I heard, and another spoke very little.

So anyway, I was not amazed by anything that anyone does now. The argumentative, but nice, one is now a prosecutor. The wrestler is still wrestling. (okay, that one threw me) Most folks have kids of various ages. To others, dogs are their children, which is my situation right now.
No good stories to share - but no bad ones. When people wrote "don't ever change" in the yearbooks, I think they meant it.

Ready, Set, Paint!

I leave for work at about 6:50. Sometimes five minutes early, and sometimes five minutes late. Today it was 15 minutes, but I have a good excuse.

Paint. Yesterday and today is Bleached Denim. Anny has to leave for work before 6:30, so I decided to be productive instead of reading the newspaper, so I painted the trim around the door and the built-in bookcase this morning. (Actually, it's a recess in the wall right now, will be a bookcase by the end of the weekend) Remember, though, I'm the morning person.

I am on a very tight schedule, which was made tighter by having to be out of the house for most of last weekend. This is all part of having my 18 year old cousin move in so that he can be closer to college, and partly to allow him to have a growth experience out from under his own roof. I am hopeful that he will pull his weight, and he has followed through with everything that has been asked of him so far in the process.

Everyone is helping. My brother is helping me with some plumbing, and has talked me through some electrical work. His wife painted baseboard, before I installed it to make sure we didn't mess up the walls. Jon (the cousin) has done everything from ripping out cabinets to helping build the best bed in the world. (Working on loading some pics, but I'm going to wait until the completion, which will require yet more paint)

So, Jon moves in tomorrow. Baseboard is not down, but will be. Some more electrical work to be done. Nothing has been done in the closet to make it a closet. He will be helping more this weekend to make it livable.

But it will be the coolest project that I have ever done on "my own" and will only lead to more.

Oh yeah - I had to cancel the Air Hockey table I was going to pick up last weekend due to my grandfather's passing, but have found a newer, and much better, one that I'm picking up this Sunday. Again, I will make my offer of:

If you're ever in the area and want to play some air hockey... GAME ON!

Plans Change, very quickly

We're not getting an air hockey table right now. Brother and I were going up to pick it up today, but my grandfather died. Priorities shift.

We had expected that things would not be good after he had a heart attack a couple of months ago. His heart was working at 30% capacity, but last week it got down to 10%. He died this morning before my mom could make it up from North Carolina. As soon as she got to my house we turned around and jumped in the car heading to Aberdeen to be with family. We're home for the night, but will be heading back in the morning. There is work to do, both mentally and physically, to get the house up to par.

Viewing on Monday. Haven't had that experience in 10+ years. Not sure when the funeral will be, or where. He has several medals of military honor, but they are looking into whether or not he qualifies for an Arlington burial.

Everyone is in good spirits. Step-Dad and Sister are coming up tomorrow.

I struggle to find my role in my mom's family. On my dad's side, I'm the coordinator. We honestly don't see my mom's family enough to have roles. I think this weekend/into-the-week may be one of communication and reconnection that we need. Now that we all have email, I hope that we can establish better relationships.

We will see.

Reunion is next week.....

It's been ten very interesting years since I graduated from high school. Next Saturday (20th) is our ten year reunion at a local bar. Yes, the Baptist School grads know where to meet! It's strange that over the last two or three years the school itself has been pushing reunions, but they have not done anything to facilitate this. (It will probably be better that way)

I love my life, which I think is evident to anyone who meets me. I have a wonderful wife whom I love dearly, and a job that I look forward to going to every day!

But it's a reunion. An opportunity to become someone I'm not. It is just like a week at summer camp. (We actually had campers assume completely different life story lines during their one week at camp than they actually lived. One camper even said that she lived in another Country, when she was really quite the local-yokel.)

I have a one night shot at making up a very creative story line for what I have done over the last ten years. How creative can I be with it?? Last night we had dinner with our best friends, whom I graduated with, who were all about tyring it along with me! Since we are close enough we could even back each other's stories up. What fun!

I am in no way saying that I would want my life to be anything that it is not. Except for my kidneys, I really don't have complaints. I do have this neurosis of telling everyone I meet about my kidneys, so I'm a bit worried about over-informing on Saturday as it is.

So, I know that only five people read my bog, and I know one of you. I welcome the rest of you to comment also.
I am wondering: If you could, for one night, make up a story line about your last ten years, what would it be? It's not to say that you think any less of the way your life has actually gone, but just something for fun.

No really, post a comment about it!

What a Steal!

I have been a bit slow on the ebay train. I have purchased very specific items that I have been after in the past - a CHEAP Palm Pilot for work, golf tees (100 for 10 cents!) - but the last few days I have been goofing off.

Hockey Jerseys? None for me today.
Another Golf Club? Naa, I still haven't even been on a course yet!
Air Hockey Table? SURE! Why not?!

How could I pass THIS up?

I am getting away with only paying $5 for a table that I have wanted since I was in high school. I will have to put in around $40 for gas to get there and back, but still! I definately would not have made the purchase from out of state.

So, as of this weekend I will have an air hockey table. You're welcome to come by for a tourney sometime! (Just give me some warning, Anny would kill me if anyone came over and the house was not in top shape!)

Now I get to spend the next two weeks visiting Ebay every couple of days (hours?) to get accessories. I'm sure that there's something I can find that I "need".......

Really? THAT's the best you have done?

President Bush was asked two questions:

What's the worst moment in your presidency? (that one is easy)

What's the best moment of your presidency?

Hmm.... Think on it.... It's been five lloonngg years.... THIS is his answer.

I'm not a supporter to begin with, but that blows my mind. I would have at least used a "everyday that I get to serve the people, those are the best moments."

Wow.

Now, for Something a Bit Different

Now - on to politics!

Yesterday was our Town Election. We were allowed to vote for up to 5 people to be on the Town Council. The person winning the popular vote becomes Mayor. Very simple process.

In the last few weeks we were visited by two of the candidates, both incumbants, one of which is the mayor. I like him. Both he and the other candidate who stopped by the house were really making an effort, in my opinion. I thought it was just political mumbo-jumbo, but both were making enough of an effort that they remembered tid-bits about our short visits. Kind of cool to be living in such a small town that the citizens matter.

One of the women running my grandfather (who worked for the town for several years, and lived here for many many more) refered to with particularly harsh words. I thought it was all talk, until she "introduced" herself to us yesterday. She pushed a flyer into my hand, as if to say "vote for me, I know how to make a flyer...." Okay - If I'm voting on principles and issues-at-hand, I'm not going to bother with the flyer you stuff in my face at the last minute.

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I have just seen that the inbumbent Mayor has won again! Quite a margin, too. That's good news.

I will try next time to be even less political - my cousin and I "created" a new "game" which I want to write about...