Cannon Ball

Leaning tower of eggplant, heirloom tomatoes, tapanade & goat cheese...at The Pink Door!

Thanks for jumping in. I've been meaning to for days and find myself with not much to say, due to the fact that nothing was really happening around here.  Well, until Friday that is.

We got a call from C late Thursday night to tell us that J's mom had fallen and broken her knee. Unfortunately, C and the rest of the family were out of town on vacation (together) and had a six hour drive to return home in time to meet with the orthopedic surgeon Friday morning.  At 89, Mom won't hear a word the doctor says, but she'll nod her head anyway and won't ask any questions.  J decided to fly out Friday afternoon to help the family, so I skipped out on my shopping day with the girls and saw him off at the airport instead.  So far, the knee surgery went very well and recovery is going perfectly.  She's going into a rehab facility on Tuesday - after her sister's funeral, if you can believe that.  J's aunt died last Tuesday.  They're a little worried about depression but Mom seems to be doing well.

He'll be gone for a week then I may go back for a bit to help her out when she goes home.  If so...maybe you and I can put something together on my way home.   We'll see what happens and I'll keep you posted.

Friday, K, S and I had a day in the city planned to include a trip to Whole Foods, lunch at Cafe Flora (vegetarian heaven) and a stroll through Nordstrom and Macys at the mall.  As it turned out, JJ and I took J to the airport then I coerced him into going to Nordstrom anyway because I had to return some shoes.  We had such a good day after all - shoe shopping (we both got new shoes) Mexican food lunch and listening to the Comedy Channel, laughing our butts off, all the way home in the car.  I love my kid.  He's just fun with a capital F, and he makes me laugh like no one else. Sure, it's 8th grade boy humor, but it kills me.  He's at that age where he's really developing a sense of humor, using irony and sarcasm appropriately and knowing when and where to hit the punch line.  I love it.

Saturday morning, I had an unexpected visit to the city.  My high school friend, LC, who lives in Chicago, happened to be in town and since I was supposed to be in CT this week, I completely forgot she was going to be here.  Thursday, she posted a picture of herself in Seattle on FB which reminded me that I had never told her I wasn't leaving town.  Fortunately, in the midst of her busy week (they're here to celebrate her parents' 50th) she had a couple of hours yesterday to meet me for lunch at The Pink Door (!). Kind of a long story but we don't know each other very well at all (we weren't close in HS) other than through FBing the past couple of years.  I know FB gets a lot of flack, but we had developed a good enough rapport on line that we absolutely couldn't shut up the entire afternoon and I left feeling as though I had a brand new, dear friend.  The cool thing is that she's the one with whom I was planning to stay while in Chicago in October, so now I'm looking forward to my trip even more.  AND, her parents live in Scottsdale, and we are both going to be in AZ for Thanksgiving! So we're planning a get together there too.

Anyway, I had such an awesome time visiting with her and being in the city. I got home later in the afternoon and did absolutely nothing until about 5:00, when I whipped up a pasta salad for no reason at all (so unlike me, I don't know what happened!)  Around 6:30 S showed up with all the kids and the two of us bbq'd burgers and brats and drank an entire bottle of Trader Joe's Reserve Zin (yum!) on my back deck.  We sat out there talking until we were freezing (still not summer here) then came in and yakked until almost 11 with the boys running and yelling all around us.  I didn't even care that they were all over the furniture with guns and shoes on; I was having a moment of pure gratitude that I had good friends, healthy kids and such a good life.  It was a wonderful day.

Today, a baseball game with JJ and his buddy.  K&R are joining us, so that should be fun.  Too bad it's not warm, or sunny, but I'll be ok if the rain just holds out.

So how's that for jumping in?!

I hope you had a great weekend in Boston; we need to catch up on other stuff when you get home. Like, how is W doing? I have a pretty quiet week with J gone until Friday.

Talk to you soon,
Love you,
A