Happy June!

Well, at least I hope it will be happy for most of the month for all of you, even if not every day is perfect.

Our trip to West Virginia was wonderful, though it started out sketchy.  It was raining a bit on Friday when we left Philadelphia, and it was pretty foggy, but nothing to really worry about.  However, by the time we got to Somerset, PA (where weather is always an issue, no matter what time of year!), it was raining so hard, you couldn't even see the lights on cars ahead of you, much less the cars, the lines on the road, the twists and turns - well, you get the picture.  So much for our plan to stop on the way to see the Flight 93 Memorial.  Hopefully we can do it next time.

So we stopped for lunch off of the turnpike - way deep into Pennsyltucky territory!  I mean, it was really creepy to see the signs, clothing, hats, well, whatever you can imagine all extolling the wonderfulness of our former terrible President.  Ick.  But we did find a nice diner, and our waitress was adorable (The Tim: I think we have found Kimmy Schmidt), so we had a wonderful lunch.  By the time we left, there was not a drop of rain falling, go figure.

Fortunately, for the rest of the trip - getting there and coming home - that was the extent of bad weather.

We had a great time, just hanging out, enjoying catching up with everyone.  We played bocce, took a couple of hikes, and did as much porch sitting and laughing as humanly possible (which is when we caught up on our wine and other beverage drinking, for those who may be wondering).  This is the sum total of the photos I took:

This is one of the views from the porch at my sister's house.

The weather was stunning.  Highs during the day of about 80 degrees Fahrenheit, with nighttime temperatures of 65-70 degrees - open window weather!  I still can't believe how we lucked out!

We were also fortunate that we didn't run into any traffic either way - unusual for a holiday weekend, but it makes everything so much more relaxed.

Then back to real life.  It happens, what are you gonna do??

I am hoping that June will be a kinder month than May turned out to be.  I know of two things in particular that will be good for us, one that is happening later this week, and then another at the end of the month, if all goes well.  Don't worry, I'll keep you posted.

And for any of us who might like to know that all is not lost (and these days, isn't that all of us?), here is an article that a friend posted on social media that I really appreciated.  I'm not usually one for inspirational reading, but I think this is a good one.  I hope it will give you some hope.

Have a good rest of the week, everyone - we've already got most of it under our belts!

Oh the Hilarity!

As mentioned before, last Friday after work we headed to Baltimore for a weekend with *almost* all of the family.  The only ones who couldn't make it were our four great-nieces and great-nephew in Arizona (all in school of course), and my niece Lauren, her husband, and their two little kiddos.  But everyone else was there at one point or another, and the hilarity ensued.  

We lucked out, because the weather the entire weekend was lovely!  Cool, but sunny and not too windy like it had been here in Philadelphia.

Upon arrival, and parking our car in the back of Amanda's house, we acquired a new hood ornament:

This is our great-nephew Oden, who lives in Brooklyn.  He was THRILLED to see us and then as soon as we got out of the car and said, "Hi Oden!" he yelled "Shingles doesn't care!" and ran inside. (Apparently that is the tag line for a commercial for shingles medication and he is obsessed with that line. Seems about right.)

Once inside, we got to see everyone, and it was so great.  This is my nephew Chad's wife, Liesl, and my niece Julie (Oden's mother):

Liesl and Chad and their kids live in Arizona, and we hadn't seen them for about 10 years!

Here's my niece Liz (aka La Liz) and my sister Nancy who lives in California:

Here are my two brothers-in-law, Michael (California) and Patrick (West Virginia):

The Tim and my nephew Chad (Arizona):

Me, Greg (Liz's husband), and Nancy:

My favorite picture of the weekend - the sisters:

(Please note that I was making myself shorter here so I could fit into the photo.  My sisters are tiny people! We are shown from youngest (me), to middle (Mary Ellen), to eldest (Nancy). My two sisters are Irish twins - born 1 year and 28 days apart.  Then, 10 years later, I showed up.)

The next day, we planned to meet at the hotel where the West Coasters were staying, to spend the day at the Inner Harbor.  

Mary Ellen with Oden and his sister Penn (they are her grandkids)

Lest you be concerned, we almost immediately stopped because my brother-in-law Pat wanted a drink:

(Liesl: "I don't think I've ever had wine at 10 a.m.")

"Paddy" (what the grandkids call my brother-in-law Patrick) making scary faces at Oden and Mary Ellen!

Penn and Oden had to show Pat the fish in the harbor, which were frankly, creepy, but I'm not a kid, so what do I know? Also, Pat kept telling them that he lives in Baltimore, so he was not surprised. Then they would look at him like he was nuts ...

Penn and Oden

Then Annie and her partner Forte showed up, and everyone rode on the dragon boats:

(Oden:  "I LOVE this dinosaur boat!")

Penn, Pat, Amanda

Penn, Pat, Amanda, and Nancy

We finished the day with the whole crew going out to dinner together:

The only person not in any of the photos is Julie's husband Keith - he was busy bartending on Friday night, and then on Saturday spent most of the day in Harrisburg, visiting his mom who is not doing well.  He joined us again at Amanda and Pat's house after dinner, but was again bartending and didn't make any of the photos.  (I sincerely doubt he is too broken up about it ... 😉)

Sunday morning, flights home for the West Coasters were early in the day, so we said our goodbyes on Saturday night, and headed home on Sunday morning.  We were lucky to get back to Philadelphia around 11:30 a.m., so we had the rest of the day to regroup, unpack, and just relax.  

Because seeing the family is fun, and I'm so glad we had the chance to really spend time together.  But to be honest, they're an exhausting group!  

Here's to chances to be exhausted again for years to come. 💗

A Closer-to-Normal Easter

I hope that all of you had a good weekend, whether you celebrated a holiday or not. Our weekend was great, as for the first time in 2+ years, we had the chance to have our usual guests and do some of the things that make Easter extra fun.

My niece Amanda and her husband Pat came up for the weekend from Baltimore, and it marked the return of a fan favorite - Inappropriate Easter Eggs!  So without further ado, I present our work.

First up, Celebrity Eggs - at the top, RIP Bob Saget; in the middle, Britney Spears now that she has been freed from her conservatorship; and, Madeleine Albright, wearing one of her brooches.

Next up, Current Events and Statement Eggs - top row, from left to right, Vladomoyr Zelenskyy egg; Slava Ukraini egg; America egg, with the bald eagle crossed out and a gun in its place; January 6 insurrection.  Bottom row, pandemic masked egg; Russian warship egg (on the back it says, "You sunk my battleship!"); and, an Elon Musk tries to buy Twitter egg, which was created by Pat who also had to take it home with him because we didn't want it in our house any longer than necessary!

As Amanda pointed out, we didn't/couldn't cover as much as we would have liked to, because we only had 18 eggs to work with, we had to make some name/family eggs, and there was more than 2 years' of people and activity! ("The celebrity death eggs alone would need a couple of dozen.")

As you can imagine, there was a lot of hilarity, stories, and overall ridiculousness.  Pip and Milo thought it was the best, since Amanda always brings them tons of treats, and she and Pat pay them so much attention, the level of purring is just out of control.

They headed home after brunch yesterday, and we just had a relaxing rest of the day.

Best of all, the Easter Bunny showed up to leave goodies for everyone!

The weather was cool but sunny all weekend, and it rained a bit on Saturday night, but mostly overnight, so that worked out nicely.  It was so nice to feel like things were normal-ish again, and to have some company.

So Easter 2022 was a happy success. Hopefully, things will continue in that direction. Though today in Philadelphia, we are back to mask mandates indoors, since Covid cases are on the upswing. Since we have not stopped wearing masks indoors, it's not that big of a deal for us, but as you can imagine, a lot of people are extremely unhappy about all of it.  

But at least our holiday weekend was a happy one.