Subject: Weekend Update: April 7-9
Date:    Mon 4/10/00  1:17pm

We became parents of a 20-year old on Friday as Miranda put another
decade under her belt.  We could only reach her by answering machine
on her birthday; such is the life of a college co-ed.  We had a cake
made to share in the school cafeteria and spoke with her Saturday and
wished her the best.

We expected Saturday to be a wash-out but to our suprise the weather
forecasters were wrong and we were able to drain our small pond, and
extract a layer of rotting leaves before refilling it.  Three
mid-sized frogs and a snake have taken up residence already and we'll
take a trip to the nursery to stock it with some water plants and then
some cheap feeder fish.

We hastily accomplished this in the morning so that we could get to a
wedding at the church for 1 o'clock.  Two ladies asked me to seat
them.  They thought I was an usher because (I found out later that)
the real usher, who was late, had long hair and a beard.  I smiled and
escorted them down the aisle.

The wedding proper was a remarriage of a couple in their sunset years
who had been married many years ago by the Justice of the
Peace. Barbara O'Connor strolled down the aisle to some Lawrence
Welk-ian serenade to meet her groom, Don O'Connor. The reception had
many of the things you'd expect from a wedding, with a little twist.
The demographics of the crowd made for a scarcity of eligible
bachelors, so three young men (not yet in their teens) vied for the
garter that the groom tossed over his shoulder.  James Xayachak
(Zi-a-chak) caught the garter and deftly worked it up to the panted
knee of the maid who caught the bouquet.  I was tapped as impromptu
Emcee. (Why not?  I made a pretty good usher!)  Too bad I didn't know
all the verses to "The Bride cuts the cake" and had people cuing me
all the way.

Anyway, by the time we got home later in the afternoon, the
temperature and weather was doing its imitation of the stock market.
Our freshly cleaned pond had a coating of leaves and debris floating
on the top which I attempted to skim off before giving in to the wind.
On our way to the church the next day, we saw several snapped trees
and some house damage so I won't complain about the branches some of
our trees deposited on our yard.  The temperature, as I indicated,
went from 75 degrees down to snow flurry weather in less than a day
(explaining the high winds that we endured here in New England).

A side note: today is Steve and Akiko Long's 17th wedding anniversary!
(SteveAkiko@AOL.com)  I think 17 is the Burlap Anniversary.  Joy and
I are coming up on 21 years in May.  Isn't that the Wine Anniversary
since we'll be 21?  (Yeah, to go along with my "ashtray" on my desk!)

Mark
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