Subject: Weekend Update: April 22-27, 2003
Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 08:44:44 -0400

Last week the younguns were off of school for Spring Break.
They ping-ponged between friends' houses throughout the
week, spending one or two nights in various places.
Miranda took the opportunity of the week off to add to her
mural, painting in a farm and a school yard in the September
segment.  I think she gets better all the time.

Jessica is not the kind of person who likes to be the center
of attention which makes being the bride at a wedding somewhat
interesting.  Given her druthers, she'd prefer to have everyone
show up, get the nuptials over with, and onto the party - no
planning, just go with the flow.  I understand that.  Joy's
maternal instinct is caught between giving Jessica as much
latitude as she wants or needs to plan the wedding and urging
Jessica to make some time-critical decisions, which she has to
balance with the pressures of term papers and work. That pressure
has increased now that the wedding clock is under two months.
Last week, she had to attend two wedding showers in addition
to her other responsibilities.

On Tuesday night, Joy, Miranda, and Emily went to Quincy
for a wedding shower from Jessica's friends.  Because this
was a lingerie shower, it was a kind of hazing for Jessica
who is rather personal and private by nature.  She accepted
her friends' gifts with embarrassment and as much grace as
possible. They all had great fun. She told me on Monday that
she'll live through the stress and embarrassing moments of
getting married; she and David are beginning to sense the
reality of it now and their excitement of facing life together
is building.  Meanwhile, Andrew and I and David Bickom and
his son Brandon got together as bachelors to eat pizza and
play video games. Showers are for the girls, not for the guys.

Jessica traveled north for another shower on Thursday night,
that was cancelled earlier because of snow. The church shower
was much different. It went off unembarrassingly well and
without difficulty. Jessica came home with more home goods
with which to set up house. Andrew and I, alone again men,
warmed up what was left of Tuesday's pizza. Reheating is
something we can do. We weren't alone for too long, however,
because Emily's girlfriends arrived later in the evening
to stay overnight.  We entertained them until Emily got home
from the shower.

On Friday night, Joy and I took Jessica to pick up her wedding
dress, again; this time the bead check had been performed.=20
The dress won't be steamed until 10 days before the wedding.
We then detoured up to Dave and Paula Bickom's house; they
wanted to give Jessica and David a blue fish. I suggested the
name Ty-D Bowl, but Jess will name the fish in her own time.
By the time we got home, David had arrived from Quincy and was
waiting for us.  He came to stay overnight because he had
some conference to attend in Lowell the next morning.

Jessica's bridesmaids finally made the trip to Pepperell on
Saturday morning to be fitted for their dresses so that Joy
could sew them together.  This is about a month behind Joy's
preferred schedule.  One bridesmaid lost two inches - good
for her; bad for the seamstress!  Joy warned that any significant
fluctuations between now and June 21 would be pinned (assuming
additional weight LOSS).  Marge Ogden is helping out with some
hemming.

Prevented by rain from doing outdoor chores on Saturday, I took
a break from chronicling our family history to DVD and recorded
my father-in-law's DVD of the video we had of Joy's mom.  In
the afternoon, I abandoned the homestead and went to visit Rich
Gonzalez for a few hours.  We decided that it would be good if
the guys went out for dinner, but not after first offering to
buy dinner for Joy and the rest back home.  Joy declined, so Rich
and I headed off to find man-food.  In retrospect, I think Joy
would have preferred that I chose differently, and she confirmed
this to me when I got home.  It was just her and me; Miranda
went to the coffee house, Jess and Dave took off for Quincy
and a marriage counseling session, Emily was babysitting for
the Hunts and Andrew was at a friend's house for the evening.
As a token of my contrition, I bought her some peanut butter
cup chocolate ice cream that she likes.  We relaxed in the hot
tub and played Dr. Mario so that she could unwind from the day's
sewing labors.

Sunday was indeed a day of rest, including a couple of hours
in the beloved embrace of afternoon sleep. Later, Joy and I
strolled around the yard seeing plants coming out of the ground
and trees whose red buds are turning green with the first
beginnings of leaves.  Warm weather is finally winning out
and there is much yet to get done.

Mark