Subject: Weekend Update: May 2-4, 2003
Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 15:57:05 -0400

The power went out on Friday afternoon.  Our stove operates on
gas so Emily made us the old orange standby of boxed macaroni
and cheese.  It's nice that it is still light out I the evenings.
Emily made her exit after dinner, leaving Andrew home wondering
what we were going to do with no TV and no instant messenger on
the computer.  Andrew suggested that we play a game, and we agreed,
but we could not agree on a game that would suit all of us.  Andrew
wanted to conquer the world in Risk and Joy preferred a card game.
I was operating on my battery-powered laptop, putting the finishing
touches on the pre-wedding presentation, but I remained non-committal
on the game choice when I completed my task.  Andrew tried to wrestle
an answer out of me. I told him to stop wrestling with me before he
got hurt but he was unconvinced of my continued superior strength
and taunted me.  After several more unheeded warnings, I flipped
him over where he landed and hurt his wrist and pinky finger.
We both know that he will someday be able take on his Old Man,
but that wasn't the day.  The electricity came on soon after that,
so we abandoned the game night scenario.  Instead, Andrew invited
his friend Brian Callowa to stay overnight and we watched a DVD
on the TV.

On Saturday, we got lucky with the weather which was wrongly
predicted to be rainy in the morning.  Instead, Joy and I eagerly
set about the yardwork.  The first and main activity centered on
cleaning out the pond. I put the pool hose in it and began to
siphon out the water to get to the muck and leaves.  We learned,
by the number of maturing tadpoles that the frogs have been busy
fornicating.  While the pond emptied, I got distracted with one
thing after another on my way to a particular task. I hammered
some loose fencing around the pool, straightened out the gate
hinges, attempted to grease the sunroof on my Eclipse, pruned
some hydrangeas, fixed a flat tire with fix-a-flat tire fixer,
re-dethatched the lawn, then mowed it to mulch and pick up
the remaining leaves that Joy raked into the yard.  Andrew and
Brian emptied the pool house, bringing the summer furniture out
into the sun.  Emily and Miranda helped, too, despite morning SATs
for Emily, and Spring allergies for Mandy. =20

Joy got sunburnt from a couple of days of yardwork without
protecting her fair Irish skin.  By Sunday, she was quite
uncomfortable.  Paul Bastien suggested that she apply cool
wet teabags to her skin and she was desparate enough to do
it.  I suggested that she soak a washcloth in cold tea and
put that on her back.  I do not know how well the remedy
worked, but it was good to put something cool on her hot skin.

Em, Mandy, and Andrew spent Sunday afternoon celebrating Patrick
Lane's and Rachel Long's 16th birthday.  This gave Joy and me an
excuse to go out for a dinner date.  Afterward, we attended a
birthday party of our own; Rich and Wendy invited us over to
celebrate Rich's brother Louis (44).  We sat out on their
deck in the sunshine.  Rich had made some steaks. =20

I sat down near Katia (who is almost 4).  She showed me a
cube of steak and covertly let it drop to the floor where
Seargent (their dog) was watchful, eager, and grateful for
such gifts.  I wondered if I should "rat her out" to her
parents who wanted their children to "eat their food" but
kept the incident to myself (until they read this).  Later,
I was convinced to have a small slice of steak for myself.
Katia came over to me and I offered her a cube of my steak
about the same size that she donated to Sarge, and she ate
it.  The cosmos was back in balance without her parents'
knowledge, and I felt better about offering Katia the
over-abundance of frosting from my piece of cake.  That
was with Rich's knowledge because he ran interference
saying that she had plenty of frosting on her own piece
of cake.  Perhaps I should have been as clandestine with my
frosting as Katia was with her steak.

Mark