Elgan speaks
...and her words thunder across the land

End of the affair.

Monday, June 6, 2005
9:38 a.m.
This is my last chance at the internet before we leave Cambridge, so I�ll make it quick and recap yesterday�s barbecue. It was very nice, albeit a little crowded, and I got slightly loaded from a cosmopolitain cooler drink and a bottle of C0r0na (minus the lime, unfortunately). Actually, that�s about the only condition I can really stand these large family gatherings in, which was �all good�, as Buddy Boy would say. (I really miss my kids, by the way. Everyone asks after them and we boast away and tell them what fabulous people they are, and then I miss them all that much more.)

There was too much food, as always. I spent a very nice half hour chatting with my sister-in-law�s recently widowed father, a fellow who immigrated here from Ireland a long time ago but hasn�t lost one lick of his accent. Today is his late wife�s birthday and he was planning on taking a lawn chair out to the cemetary and just sitting there next to her grave. So I wished him good weather.

We met my niece�s new boyfriend, a really nice young man, about 30, with an aging dog (half GSD, half gray wolf) who was super well behaved around all the people and the other two dogs (my nephew brought over his yappy little thing which I felt like kicking into the pool from time to time). The boys set up their bass and guitar and amps by the poolside and we played and sang a few numbers. Unfortunately the crowd was more interested in rock and roll than jazz, so I was superfluous after a while.

The insects finally drove us indoors where we hugged and kissed goodbye and sent everyone on his and/or her way. My sister-in-law�s brother and father were the last ones to leave. Then, still exhausted from the bacchanalia of the night before, we all collapsed at around 10 p.m.

My brother-in-law left early this morning to catch a plane west (for work) and we are headed to my parents-in-law for lunch and then to see my mom. Little Princess called early this morning because she couldn�t find the envelope of money we had left for her and her brother in our absence (that�s all been set straight now) and to tell us how she and her boyfriend had to break into our house because she had forgotten her key and Buddy Boy wasn�t home. This involved climbing on the roof of the back deck and reaching a leg across to climb through Buddy Boy�s open window (we�re always telling him to close it when he goes out), a feat which a false move could have rendered fatal or worse. Fortunately neither she nor her boyfriend was hurt, but I reminded her to take her key next time and please close and lock that window!

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