Family Time in May

Readers of this blog may have noticed I like my family. Not just my immediate family, but my extended family. During the month of May, I will have had four weekends of family time with various family members in four different locations.

Golf, Tennis, and the Kentucky Derby

The first weekend was in Jupiter with my sisters Sue and Joanne. They flew in, drove to our house, changed into golf clothes, and went golfing with Dave. I tagged along riding in the golf cart watching and sipping my sangria. (Golf is not my game. I do not have the patience for putting.) Sue had some nice shots but was mainly out there to have fun. Dave was trying to apply what he had learned during his golf lessons, but was unsuccessful. Jo parred 3 or 4 holes and finished by saying “Moody, we are coming out here again!”

After golf, we watched the Kentucky Derby while drinking martinis. Sue picked the winner, but she wasn’t part of our immediate family bet (which somehow includes my brother Matt and sister-in-law Bonus Megan but none of the rest of the extended family) so we claimed her win wasn’t official. (And then we found out later her win REALLY wasn’t official.)

After more martinis and a home cooked dinner, we headed to the tennis courts. We played surprisingly well considering the martinis (or that was my perception at the time). Jo doesn’t have a lot of tennis experience, so she was getting “helpful” pointers from the rest of us, including from Dave who also does not have a lot of tennis experience. 

The next day, Sue’s friend Robin joined us, and the rest of their mini-vacation was primarily focused on food. One night we had dinner on a “yacht” (a pontoon boat with an upper deck) during sunset. Jo was in charge of the playlist while Sue was in charge of criticizing the play list. At Robin’s request, Jo played Kung Fu Fighting. Sue asked for Hot Child in the City. Then, since I didn’t have a 70’s request, Jo played the theme from Ice Castles for me. It was the perfect selection. I pretended to skate on the upper deck. In the middle of the night, I woke up and remembered it had been our wedding song.

The next night Dave joined us for dinner, and it was like he and Robin had a mini reunion after a long time apart. They made plans for dinner and dancing up in Massachusetts. I’m not sure their plans included their spouses. Though when Jo asked him what Ice Castles brought to mind, he immediately responded “Our wedding.”

Sue played tennis one more time with me and two of my tennis friends, Eileen and Barbara. Sue quickly learned that we don’t play nice. She noted that we intentionally slam the ball at our opponent at the net. However, most of us apologize after doing so. (Not me.) The tennis this time was at a higher level than our post-martini tennis.

Jo did indeed play golf with Dave one more time. And beat him. After all those lessons this spring.

Mother’s Day

The next weekend, my sister-in-law Debbie and her family came over to the condo in Methuen to spend Mother’s Day with us.

Mother’s Day felt special this year. There were probably a bunch of reasons for that, including

• It was a beautiful, sunny day, and we were able to go outside for a walk (in tee shirts). 
• I thought the food was very good, and, since it was catered, I didn’t have to kill myself making it. 
• We drank Cosmopolitans. They were on the strong side.
• Everyone seemed especially happy to be there, perhaps because it was the first time in a year and a half that we had been able to get together inside.

One more reason this Mother’s Day was special: the titles of “Nana” and “Grandma” have been passed on to Debbie and me respectively.

And it was so much fun having a toddler in the house. 

Prior to Jacob coming over, I went into the basement and selected some old toys that I thought he would like. These toys had traveled from Chelmsford to the Lake to Dunstable to Methuen. Some had been stored in a cardboard box labeled by an 8 year old who will soon be 50. Jacob seemed to like the airplane from the Fisher Price Adventure People Wilderness Patrol set the best. (That set also includes a pontoon boat which might explain why Matt has his heart set on one now.)

In addition, Jacob also very much enjoyed playing with a lemon. A real lemon.

And, through a toddler’s eyes, we got to discover new things for the first time. Like the fire hydrant across the street. Jacob saw it from our front window and insisted on going out to touch it. Repeatedly. In fact, he pointed out to us a number of fire hydrants on our walk. He was able to spot them all from about a football field length away. 

Being a former pre-school teacher, Debbie came up with the clever idea of making Jacob a picture book of the people he knew near a fire hydrant. Here are our photos:

Opening Weekend

This past weekend, my niece Amber and her husband Tyler came up to the lake to help open the place up. I believe it was the easiest opening ever. No mice infestation. No water spouting from the fridge plumbing onto the kitchen floor. No spark plugs in a bobbing sea do to fight with. And the Internet and TV worked. Though the kayaks have disappeared.

The other reason it was was the easiest opening ever is because Amber and Tyler are hard workers! I couldn’t get them to quit.  

Things we accomplished on our to do list:

• Moving all the outdoor furniture from the garage. 
• Putting the boat dock in the water.
• Leveling the sitting dock. (It shifts every year in the ice.)
• Putting the buoys out on the rocks that we need to avoid.
• Picking up goose poop on the lawn.
• Mucking leaves from the lake.
• Launching the sea do.

Things Tyler accomplished on our project list:

• Repairing the wiring on the sea do trailer so the back light on the passenger side now works. (Mice.)
• Repairing the trash compactor. Last summer, we lost the knob to the trash compactor. Without the knob, we couldn’t turn it on. The manufacturer no longer makes the knob and even though it looked like you could just use a pair of pliers to turn the inside mechanism to turn it on, that was not the case. Tyler built an ingenious home made knob that works. It’s not the prettiest, but it works. I was impressed.

Things we accomplished that had not been on any lists:

• Clearing out an overgrown area of the yard (at Tyler’s prompting, not mine). The sounds coming from Amber while pulling roots alarmed me. And at one time she ended up on her butt. 
• Drinking various alcoholic beverages, including the speciality of the house – White Claws. New flavors are out.

Something we did not accomplish because it is no longer on our to do list:

• Cleaning out the kayaks.

Baby Time

Next weekend I get to see Meagan and Chris. AND CALEB! You can count on another blog post. But here’s a recent pic to tide you over until then.