Now that I'm back from my weekend in Lake Havasu and Parker I can focus on getting ready for my next trip, to Maryland the beginning of May. 

On Monday I made lots of phone calls, coordinating everyone's schedule to set up the nonagenerian lunch for this year.  Ann, who turns 99 in May (but still lives alone and is going as strong as ever) offered to make lunch for all of us (like last year!)  However, I figured it would be easier if we lunched at a restaurant and let someone else do the shopping, cooking, cleaning up!

My uncle, who turned 96 in March (he also lives alone - and still drives!) is also doing great.  The only concession he seems to have made to age is that I finally no longer need to worry about a possible broken rib when he hugs me. 

And of course Mom (yes, she too lives independently) will turn 91 while I'm visiting. 

It's quite the hale and hearty lunch bunch!

This year, however, I will not be the youngest in the group.  That honor will fall to my cousin Rachelle (Allen's daughter) who is two years younger than I am. Now that she's retired she'll able to join us and make it a five-some. 

On Tuesday I was e-mailing back and forth with Barbara, finalizing the arrangement for the trip up to NY with Mom to spend a day with Suzanne, Barbara's mother.  The two of them are the only remaining Bronx Beauties, a group of seven childhood friends (and later included their husbands) who remained close all their lives.

Mom is now tasked with making the hotel reservations at The Andrew (easy enough) and also getting the Amtrak tickets for our ride up to NY.  (The day of our return Thursday we'll just see what time we get to Penn Station from our ride in from Long Island and buy tickets then.)  We're looking for a mid-morning trip up on that Tuesday so we'll arrive with plenty of time to make the transfer to the LIRR before the craziness of rush hour that afternoon.  But as soon as I said "it shouldn't be too busy then" we both uttered (in unison) Dad's "immortal" words: "Nobody flies to Denver on a Sunday."

which made us laugh almost as much as  the mere mention of Petaluma!

We now have a lovely bamboo shade hung over the sliding glass door to the family room.  (Tom had  tossed the trashed plastic one at the end of the Sun Season last year.)  What a difference it makes, keeping the afternoon sun from ramping up the temperature in that room.

BUT rehanging the design wall was a major production - and once it was (finally!!!) up, Tom pulled it down too far trying to snap it back up, at which point the spring gave up the ghost.  Looks like I'll be shopping for a shade then then gluing new flannel onto it (though Marcie was kind enough to bring me her left-over gridded flannel, which is a great start.)

On the way home from the gym yesterday I made another library trip, and then stopped at the new neighbors' to introduce myself - and discuss the early arrival of our water on Friday morning.  Brianna insists she let the water go at the appointed time, but "somehow" it arrived here early - and we got so much extra water that for the first time ever (in 20 years) water reached the house foundation.  

Next cycle I will (of necessity) have to monitor our flow from the beginning of our time slot in order to document when the water actually arrives at our property out back.  It's also possible (though not very likely) that WMID has done "something" which has dramatically increased the water pressure.

 

I knew Marcela was starting her new job on Monday, so I sent her good wishes for that on Sunday.  Yesterday she called to update me on how it went, and we talked for well over an hour.  As expected she's doing well (one of the strongest women I've ever known) and moving forward bravely into her new life without Steve.  One of their last pix together, in October, before he went downhill fast.

Almost time to head to quilting.  I wanted to recharge my camera battery last night so I'd be ready for Show & Tell this morning (took lots of pix this past weekend) but my charger in MIA.  Thought I'd taken it with me to Havasu since I knew I'd be snapping pix of the trunk show, so called Tami to see if somehow I'd left it behind.  But her search of "my" quarters did not turn up anything.  It was a last-ditch attempt since I'd stayed very contained and was reasonably certainly I'd packed up everything Sunday morning.  Looks like I'll need to go shopping for a new one before my trip to Maryland, where I will be snapping lots of family photos and definitely need to recharge the battery!