The Fifth Installment
7:05 p.m.
It was a very warm night and the place was hopping. We found a table on the patio and waited a very long time for the food waitress to bring us a menu and take our orders. The beer lady was quick, mind you, so Hubby ordered a pitcher of Pride, and then one of the owners came by with a tray of complimentary pale ale, brewed as close as they could come to the original taste of an old brewery in Sh'brooke. He was handing out small glasses and toasting everyone, so I think he probably consumed more beer than anyone. There was a band, again one of the owners and his buds, which was kind of loud, but happily we weren't sitting that close. Our daughter's BF came by and joined us until we left, our beer and veggie burgers consumed, fortified for the walk home.
In order to escape the heat, we watched a rented DVD downstairs, a really awful movie called Dirty L0ve (it was soooo bad), and I went to bed with a terrible headache which seemed to have disappeared by this morning.
Little Princess and I went to Costco this afternoon, just before closing time, and there were employees scattered strategically around the store hurrying us out as the clock struck 5. We managed to find everything we were looking for, and I think I experienced my first hot flash, but I can't be sure. We were looking for the Brita filters, having found the pitchers, when I started to sweat. Little Princess thinks it's dubious if it was a hot flash. She says we were walking at a pretty quick clip through the store and the weather has been quite warm, but still...
Monday, July 10, 2006
After a mega breakfast, the kind my mother-in-law always serves us, which means way too much food, Hubby, Buddy Boy and I tootled off to Waterl00, a 30-minute drive or thereabouts, to visit an old roommate, someone my husband lived with when he was an undergrad, a fellow guitarist who later went back to school to become a chemist, married earlier the same summer that we did, and now has two boys, the older of which turned out to be a pretty good playfellow for Buddy Boy, although two years younger.
The amazing thing was that even though we hadn't seen our friend (his wife was off on business somewhere) for more than 20 years, it was as though no time had elapsed at all. Of course we played the "Do you remember so-and-so" game, but the feeling was one of an unbroken cameraderie. The two men went off to play tennis, the boys did whatever teenage boys do, and I got dropped off at the mall to have some "alone" time. I also spent money on a new purse, a book of Neil Gaiman short stories, and two cute "lava lamp" night lights for two of our three bathrooms. Sadly, I left a good umbrella on the bench where I was reading, waiting for my ride, never to be seen again.
We drove from W'loo to the hospital to see Hubby's father. He had the knee surgery on Thursday, when he said the pain was off the scale, but it was quite manageable by the time we saw him. In fact, they let him home the next day. After supper (my mom-in-law stayed at the hospital but instructed me where to find victuals) my menfolk went back there and thence to see the new Pirates movie, but I begged off, citing a headache, and stayed home and read. My brother-in-law rose from the dead, i.e. he came out of his room and made an appearance, and we had a nice visit. I hadn't seen him in an age, as the last few times we have been at my in-laws' he hadn't emerged from behind his closed door. He takes tons of medication, pain killers and anti-depressants, which play havoc with his whole system.
Please go check out the new minisaga. All submissions will be welcome.
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