Yesterday Mom and I enjoyed our lunch with Lucille at the cafe (first time I'd eaten there.) Lucille looks good - considering - but has so little energy she can barely talk above a whisper. Just being at lunch seemed to wear her out and she was quite ready for a return to her apartment to rest.

It was another day of more Rummikub and home movies. Lisa and Alex were very entertaining with their comments at Mom & Dad's 50th anniversary party the summer of '99 - and of course adorable.

On the drive home in the dusk a deer sprinted out of the trees and across the road in front of me while I was driving on Mink Hollow (a narrow, windy lane with no shoulders.) I've seen lots of grazing deer near the side of the road since my arrival, but this was the first one to provide a "challenge".  If she had jumped across just a second or two later I might not have been able to miss her. (On my daily drive over to Mom's I pass a couple of dead ones by the road.)

I again beat Sandy home since she's been spending all day with Ivy, who is still with us - though she's asleep (from the morphine?) all day. Monday Andy was able to join Sandy for a while, and yesterday Ed did.  Of course now we will not be heading to the shore on Friday for the weekend after all.  That's fine with me, though I know how much Andy & Sandy love it there and try to get there as much as possible.

She and I were able to get all the glass doors on the fireplace clean for tomorrow.It was not easy (and we will both need to replenish our supplies of elbow grease) but the paint scrapers did work to get the baked-on soot removed so we'll be able to see the fire now and not just feel it.  Andy, who had another late night, was quite impressed with the results when he got home.

Last night I did a load of laundry and also boiled up a batch of eggs in preparation for whipping up some deviled eggs for tomorrow. Still there was plenty of time to sneak in some games of Rummikub. I'm definitely on a roll this visit, having won all games Sandy and I played on Monday and Tuesday. I also skunked Andy our first game, though he squeaked by on the second one when I was left with just one tile.  Just the luck of the draw since we're all quite evenly matched with regard to our skill, so I expect Mom should start evening up our scores any time now.

The house cleaners will be here this morning so we all need to get going fairly early. But since Mom has a 10:00 appointment I thought this would be a good day to swing by the cemetery before I head over there and say Hi to Dad (and Jeff.) Yesterday was not as cold as Monday (and we didn't have that intense biting wind) and today should be warmer still so it seems like a good plan.