Abby: Emma’s mom and essentially the nucleus around which this reunion formed.

Mike G.: Abby’s first husband.

Larry G.: Abby and Mike’s older son. His son, Max, wasn’t able to come.

Deborah G.: Abby and Mike’s older daughter. Her son, Ben Z., was there, but her husband, Mike Z., couldn’t come.

Jenny K.: Abby and Mike’s younger daughter. Arranged the entire event (Yay, Jenny!) and attended with her husband, Brad K., and son, Sam K.

David G.: Abby and Mike’s younger son. Was there with his wife, Lorrie G., and children, Joseph G. and Sarah G.

Vince L.: Abby’s current husband and Emma’s dad.

Teresa S.: Mike’s second wife. Attended with her wife, Susan J., and their twin children, Isabelle (Izzy) and James.

Billy and Eli D.. Two of Abby’s cousins.

Susan S.: Another of Abby’s cousins. Attended with her s.o., Stuart.

Priscilla C.: Abby’s sister. Attended with her daughter, (”the older”) Sarah.

Ellen: Mike’s sister.

Judy: Mike’s current wife.

Ben: David G.’s friend, who came to join us for the last few days. His partner, Bruce, came up for the last evening (with his tuba).

Barb: Jenny K.’s friend, who also came up for the last few days.

Is that it? I’m sure I’m forgetting somebody. Hmmm. At any rate, counting friends and children, that’s 30 people at the reunion, at varying times. I think we averaged about 25 at the llama ranch over any given night.

Pictures and adventurous tales to come later, but for now, bed.

I hope you all have a lovely week and I’ll type to you all when I get back. If you see her, don’t forget to wish the unbelievably awesome Sarah a happy birthday on the 14th! Col-o-rad-o, here I come, gonna be a llama farm bum…

Pick up the nearest book.
Open on page 123.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the next three sentences.
Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

From Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver: “Local food is a handshake deal in a community gathering place. It involves farmers with first names, who show up week after week. It means an open-door policy on the fields, where neighborhood buyers are welcome to come have a look, and pick their food from the vine.”

Woo! I used them both today and *really* liked it. The shave felt very nice and I didn’t end up with the nasty, leftover gel all over my hands (and towel and robe and…). I’m not ready for a straight razor yet, but might be trending in that direction.

PS: I was going to take some nice shaving porn pictures for y’all, but I left my camera at my folks’. Sorry. Maybe next time.

There are a few more pictures over on Flickr, but none of them came out terribly well, I’m afraid. It was raining a little (hurray!) and I think the rain confused the autofocus. Oh well. Just don’t zoom in too much.

Friday night: the backup air conditioner died. After a few fruitless calls to friends and family in search of a couch for the night and the realization that a motel would cost at least $50 each night, we drove to Lowe’s at 8:30 PM and bought a new wall unit for the converted garage. We took out the old, dead unit, installed the new one, and insulated with rolled-up blankets. Not ideal, but sufficient, and enough to allow us to sleep comfortably, even if it was for less time than we might have chosen.

Saturday morning: After breakfast, Emma and I went back to Lowe’s to buy new molding and insulation to finish the a/c installation. We had just started to figure out how we wanted to do it when Emma’s cell phone went off, saying she was late to work. Work she didn’t know she was scheduled for. Work that took away her first day off in two weeks.

Saturday afternoon: High point of the weekend. I did a little work and played a little WoW. Emma got some sleep, before having to work the overnight shift.

Saturday night: Nightmares. Recurring dreams of being paralyzed and unable to speak, presumably linked to anxiety over my looming committee meeting.

Sunday morning: Lowest point. Tiger dies. Racking pangs of shock and sorrow and grief. Much of the rest of the morning is a blur. I know we eventually took her cage outside — having the empty cage was clearly going to be too heart-wrenching — and had to find some food before Emma collapsed. In an attempt to keep ourselves moving (I would have chosen to lie down on the couch and done nothing), we went back to Lowe’s and bought the materials to close up the hole around the a/c. By Sunday afternoon we found ourselves out at my folks’ house, who have been wonderfully helpful and supportive. Emma had a good nap and I floated in the pool for an hour, doing and thinking about nothing.

Sunday evening: We buried Tiger under a Korean dogwood, next to the garden. We gave her lots of treats, her favorite chew toy, and a lot of sand, which she loved to play in.

My committee meeting went decently on Monday, which was a huge relief. They seemed pleased with the progress I’ve made in the last month and want to see me again in another month. Work harder, work harder.

The air conditioner installers were out at the house this morning to replace the main unit. Naturally, we won’t be able to replace just the outside unit — codes, you know — so at the moment I’m waiting to hear from the credit union about financing. If approved, they’ve offered us an 11.5% interest rate, which seems like a decent sign that we’ll be approved, but we’re still waiting. Once the financing is approved, it will take about three days to get the unit ordered, delivered, and installed. In fact, if I can get this ordered by 2 PM tomorrow, we can have the air conditioner installed on Friday. I can live with that.

2. I’ve started two new swatches/cloths, one in Arabic Diamond and the other in Basketweave.

3. Work is progressing. I don’t really want to talk about it.

4. I’m having a lot of fun playing WoW, naturally, but there are some concerns that it is stealing my soul. I’ve discovered that I’m such a joiner and am having a hell of a good time with both raiding with my main Horde guild and with exploring the Alliance faction with Big Bear Butt Blogger’s social guild. Good times. Oh, and the antiPUG experiment is going tremendously well. Another week, another thrashed dungeon. Very fun.

5. Umm…there is no five. I had something else to write, but I can’t think of it right now. An online friend just posted some great pictures of herself climbing and it makes me want to get outside more. I hate the little boats available at Lake Wauberg, but bad sailing is better than no sailing, right? Or maybe I should get off of my ass and start building that kayak. Hmm.