I cannot believe that a week has passed since I have typed, but it has. We’ve kept ourselves very busy! Let’s see:

Wednesday: We saw my grandma. It was so nice to see her! For dinner, Jeffrey made his pine nut pasta and I made my French onion soup. I made Jessie’s vegetarian, and it turned out better than the beef broth version, so I started adding her “better than bouillon” stuff to the beef version. It was so good!

Thursday: This was the last day at the lake for the Adams/Decker gang, so we did everything they wanted to do during the day. My family plus Hannah decided to go on the “gorge walk.” Since it had been raining a lot, the place was flooded and dangerous. Hannah got scared. I got to a point where the obstacles were too big for me to get over. Mike, Hannah and I headed back while the others went on. Our goal at that point was to not die, which was a distinct possibility. It was very dangerous! I broke my flip-flop at one point and had to walk barefoot the rest of the way. When we finally got back to the house (without dying), I discovered that I had a big slash in my foot that required stitches. Well, with all the nurses we have around here, they fixed me up and used super glue rather than stitches. At night, Holly and Jason made enchiladas and they were very good! At this point, I think we’re trying to outdo each other, which is fine by me! Good food, good wine, good company.

Friday: The Adams/Decker gang left at 6AM. I spent the morning mowing. My parents are impressed with how well the lawn looks – they want to hire me as a yard boy. In the afternoon, we went shopping at Walmart in Geneva, and then did some tubing. In the evening, my foot began to hurt. We discovered that I had another deep hole between my toes that also required stitches. The nurses were now gone so I asked Jeffrey to superglue it after I cleaned it out with hydrogen peroxide. He did a pretty decent job (from what I could see).

Saturday: Jeffrey’s last day with us. We decided to spend the day in Syracuse. This is sort of funny because I did a lot of research before we came on places we could go but I had considered Syracuse to be too far away. Jeffrey really wanted to go to a zoo and they had one, so we went. The zoo was nice. We then had a fantastic Mediterranean lunch in the downtown area and then went to the Erie Canal Museum. After that, we went to the Science and Technology Museum. I thought it would be too “kiddy” for my kids, but they had a great time. I was surprised that I was still walking OK by the end of the day. The superglue sutures seemed to be holding well. Jeffrey’s glue job had actually come off, but so long as I kept my toes together, I was in no pain.

Sunday: A VERY long day. Jeffrey had to fly out of here at 5:50 in the morning to his first duty station in North Carolina, so we all got up at 3AM to drive him to the airport. It was sad to see him go – we won’t see him for a whole year! We drove back to the lake house (3 hours round trip), packed and changed for half an hour, then drove to my dad’s church 75 miles away. Barbara drove while I slept a little. When we got to the church, Barbara took a nap while I practiced music. Church was fun. I got to play guitar and bass with my friend Ade. From there, we drove back roads all the way to Buffalo to see our friends the Hartke’s. Barbara drove while Courtney slept. She also said that I slept, but I don’t remember falling asleep. The Hartke’s were having an annual pool party, so we joined them and 50 of their friends for that event. In the evening, we watched soccer and played card games.

Monday: This is Nate’s usual day off, so he spent his morning with us. We wound up simply chatting for a few hours and then we went to the Anchor Bar (the home of the first Buffalo Wings) for lunch. The wings were great. We said good-bye to the Hartke’s and then we went to the home were Teddy Roosevelt was inaugurated (after McKinley was assassinated in Buffalo). It was a good museum. I drove home after that. Again, Garmin took us on back roads rather than on highway 90. We saw all kinds of stuff that we’ll probably never see again. For some reason, I was very sore upon arrival – I could barely walk! We did laundry.

Tuesday (today): We decided to take it easy. It also helped that it is very hot outside today and there are expected thunderstorms later today. I spent the entire morning working on a computer chip. In the afternoon, I watched soccer.