I don't know what day this is...

Ok, so I figured I'd better update a bit before I forget what's been happening in my life. Here are some lovely turkeys to look at before they become someone's dinner next week!

Last Friday I went to Margaret's funeral, and even though it was sad, spending most of the day with her family and friends was nice. I'm getting better at recognizing and matching up brothers and sisters with their spouses and home cities. Now I just have to master who the nieces and nephews belong to!

Anyway, after the day's activities, I returned home, packed, visited with Kelly and then picked up Sheila and drove to West Virginny. In spite of rain and rush hour we made good time and arrived about 6:30 or so. The house is still beautiful -- probably even more beautiful than I remembered. There are many new houses up there now, but the house still feels fairly isolated. Linda and Beth arrived 7:30 or so. Eileen, Sheila and I drank until they arrived. Then we ate and drank. Needless to say, it was a fun evening.

Saturday we sat in the kitchen over breakfast for hours. We watched the rain and talked about all kinds of things. Linda is crazy funny. It was nice to get to know her better. Beth was our grounding force. Everybody meshed really well.

In the afternoon, we went in to Shepardstown. The rain had pretty much stopped. It was cool and overcast, but not nasty so we visited shops for about four hours! I got a blown glass tree frog for daddy's birthday and a ladybug for Patty's! There's a great little shop with all sorts of lovely French gift items. I didn't buy anything, but I did try to imagine you using all this cute provincial stuff over in Grenoble. We had dessert in a small bakery in town, then headed back to the house for dinner. (As in, "Life is short, eat dessert first.")

After dinner we played Upwords and Boggle and talked for a bit more, but finally crashed about 12:30. I don't know if that was because we were relaxed or just old.

Sunday morning we watched birds in the birdfeeder on the porch while we had a leisurely breakfast. (Ok, so I guess we went to bed early because we were old.) Sheila and I left after breakfast. Linda, Beth and Eileen went for a long walk, Eileen told me today; then after Beth and Linda left, Eileen planted some iris bulbs and puttered around before heading home.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend. Oh, and trivial factoids...in the lunchroom scene of "When Harry Met Sally" the ladies at the next table are apparently Billy Crystal's and Rob Reiner's mothers. Killing deer with a crossbow is more humane than killing then with a shotgun, (Yeah, that one won't be on Jeopardy!) Geese are not migrating back North after the summer and they are overwhelming the ecosystems of Maryland and Virginia. And there was another one that was really good, but I forgot it. I forgot a lot of stuff this weekend. Like the name of John Steinbeck, as well as any of the books he had written. Actually, I was forgetting books and authors left and right.

I got home early enough to help Kelly finish off daddy's b-day cake and wrap the gifts we had for him. He got a slow cooker cookbook, an italian cookbook, cocktail napkins that quote Ben Franklin's adage "Beer is God's way of saying he loves us and wants us to be happy," and the aforementioned tree frog. We had Famous Daves (salads for all of us!?!) for dinner and watched the 'skins disappoint him on his birthday by losing to Dallas 14/10. (I can still hear Davo's sobs from Vermont.)

So now I will look for a random photo and post this blog so you will have something to do when you are attempting to avoid other responsibilities. Pretty thoughtful of me, don't you think?

Here are some turkeys not in danger of being served on Thanksgiving! L, M.