Urg!

Good morning! Today is my cousin Jeannette’s birthday. We’ve got a few more coming up in the next week so that means we’ve gotten over the bad part of the month. Unless you count the beginning of school which may seem bad or good depending upon your point of view. Since soccer should be starting as well, I think it’s good. You know, for the most part. By December I’ll be thoroughly tired of school but that’s life.

This is my patch of the two holes made by the door handles.

Joseph and I got the bedroom done. It was fun.

Joanna had a couple of big announcements for us but they’re good. The one requiring the most attention at the moment is that she’s getting married in October and so I’ve got some sewing to do. I can deal with that.

This should have been the first picture but I obviously put them in backward. This is what it looks like once I cut the holes out.

Seth and Cedric had fun at camp. Amena did too.

Last Wednesday Cedric was supposed to fly to Portland, Oregon, where Dan was supposed to pick him up for a week-long visit. We left at 5:00. We got the airport a few minutes after 6:00. This is am, by the way. We waited in line for at least 20 minutes before we could talk to someone and then she took our information, gave me a paper to fill out. I gave it back, she looked at her computer and said, “7:05.” She looked at her watch. “Twenty-two minutes. I can’t get this done in time.”

This is the patch with tape and gunk. I don't remember what the stuff is called so gunk is good enough for me.

Are you kidding me? I thought. Really?

Well, there was another flight that evening but it was full (and I was not about to drive in to Boston twice in one day) and there was another flight the next morning leaving at the same time with nine available seats. Would we like to take that?

This is the corner with the doors before painting (you can see my lovely patch)...

I called Dan but he didn’t answer so I said, “Sure,” while I’m thinking that if he can do it, great, if not, whatever. Maybe I could talk to my lovely Auntie Deb and she or Andy could pick Cedric up and transfer him to Dan (even though I know he’s not on their list of favorite people). So we left the airport and Dan called and he said he’d talk to his boss and blah, blah, blah.

...and this is the corner after painting. You can see I haven't removed all the tape around the door frames.

It turns out that he was able to stay in Portland and pick Cedric up the next day so we drove to Boston again Thursday morning. The only difference is that Joanna didn’t go with us and we left a few minutes after 4:00.

We got there and got Cedric checked in. The line wasn’t as long when we got there and we were in line for security within maybe twenty minutes. While we are in line for security, I’m seriously thinking Cedric is going to miss his flight again because it take so long but finally we go through and then get to wait yet again at the gate.

This is the meeting of three colors. The ceiling blue isn't as dark as I thought it would be. The wall blue is darker than I thought it would be. The green is just different than I thought it would. However, all in all, I'm happy with how it turned out.

Because Cedric is flying as an unaccompanied minor, he is the last to board and I have to stay at the airport until his flight actually pulls away. I waited a bit longer—until I could no longer see the plane from where I was standing.

All I can say is holy crud. What a pain in the patootie. I do not like the Boston airport. I don’t like the drive. I don’t like all the bloody lines. I don’t like the drive home. Going to Manchester is worth the extra cost. I have to go back Wednesday evening to pick him and if I never have to go again, I’ll be perfectly happy.

This is the Nerf basketball hoop Daniel put up. I took the hoop and backboard off for painting and then put them back and quite frankly, I think it looks really good with the new green background.

Friday I made a cake. It was the fourth anniversary of Papa’s death so I figured that those of us here needed something so I made a cocoa cake. It turned out terrible so I made another one Saturday. It turned out much better and we ate most of it yesterday.

And, you know, I think that’s about it in the way of news around here. Sort of. Amena is currently gone to the cape with a friend from school. Paul is at work. Cedric is in California. Seth is in the library. Joseph is in the bedroom. I am in the dining room thinking about what I want to use for work samples for school last year for Seth and Joseph. I’ve got the Notice of Intent filled out and ready to go (well, I do need to print a paper but it’s ready other than that) so I just need work samples.

And that’s about it. Have a lovely day and I’ll attempt to do the same (although with a current temperature of 79° with humidity at 58% and an expected high of 88° I’m not holding my breath).