June 6th, 2001

It's really amazing, all the memories being out here is bringing back up from the depths. Sandy and I talked about it and we figured it'd been 14 years since I'd been out there last. A decade and a half. Her and Ed are shocked about the crazy things I can remember... little details about the house and things we did while I was out here last.

The morning was spent pretty lazily. I woke up pretty early and milled around Sandy and Ed's house waking up. I grabbed a shower after a while and went for an early morning swim. That woke me up.

Sandy took me out grocery shopping after I'd dried off and whatnot. She seems to know everybody around this town as she goes about. I make comment on this and she says when you've lived here this long(in upwards of 20+ years) you get to know everyone around. The fact that she's incredibly nice probably doesn't hurt any either.

I spent a good 2 hours or so on the phone with my Internet provider trying to get my account set up. Apparently they were having issues on their end and needed to be smacked around a bit.

I met this really great girl here. She's cute and blonde and pretty silly. Lots of energy, bouncy. The only bad thing is that she's 4 years old. ;) About an hour and a half into my "tech support" call my cousin Tina got here with her three kids, Katie, Brian and Jason. They brought over food from a restaraunt I'd never heard of before... Weinerschnitzel. (or something like that). They do all sorts of hot dog type stuff... I had a corn dog and a this hot dog in a pretzel bread bun. Quite tasty.

A good couple of hours were spent afterwards swimming in the pool. Tina's kids were initially a little shy, but Katie warmed up to me pretty quickly. Her brother Brian is so cute. He's 3 years old and very quiet, in lots of ways the opposite to Katie. He's shy and he always has this very earnest look on his face, forehead furrowed like he's thinking about something. Jason has the biggest blue eyes, and is very precocious. He loves the water, and any chance he can get while he's near the pool he tries to get in. Tina ends up keeping an eye on him as he keeps jumping into the water, giggling and squealing in delight each time.

Grandma Genevieve comes over as well. She lays out in the shade on one of the recliners and watches us splash around.
Brian plays some here and there, but mainly hangs out on the side of the pool. Sandy had told me that he would probably take a little while to get used to me. Katie on the other hand is all about playing pool games! She's a riot...
For the first time in over 2 years or so, I get a sunburn. I'm so happy. =) I think I'll be a bum tommorrow and lay out by the pool.

After we finish in the pool we go inside and relax a while. The kids watch a Vegetales movie and I begin doing some updates to my journal.

Ed gets home about the time Tina needs to take the kids to their swimming lessons at a local pool. I decide to go with them, and with Genevieve in tow(I'm gonna start calling her Gen, I'm probably butchering the spelling of her name as it is), we head out.

The swim lessons are short, Brian is worn out from the swimming earlier in the day and is cranky during his lessons. Katie's all sorts of energetic, swimming and playing in the tubes at the pool.

Afterwards we go to Tina and her husband Dan's house to pick up a few things. Their house is very nice... high ceilings, huge rooms. Her kids take me around everywhere and show me the house while Tina gathers up a few things.

From there we head to the store and back to Sandy and Ed's for dinner. Dan shows up from work after a time and we all sit around chit chatting and grilling up dinner. Dinner's wondeful too... and I find out that Sandy and Ed are planning on taking me up to their mountain cabin this weekend.

More to come tommorrow...

This is Coco, their chocolate lab. Funny dog... she likes to get her ball, act like she wants you to take it from her, then she runs off and repeats. If you can nab the ball from her you can usually coax her into the pool with it.

This is the previously mentioned pool. Have lots of memories swimming in it when I was little.

A lemon tree in their neighbor's yard. I remember this because we had to go over there once when I was last out here and I swear the lemons on this thing were the size of cantalope.

This is their cat, Kiddy. They also call her Minnesota, as in Minnesota Fats. She's an indoor cat now because I guess she used to go out and kick the crap out of the other neighborhood cats.

Panoramic shot of the front of Sandy and Ed's house.

SURPRISE! This is Aunt Sandy.

Pool time! From left to right: Brian, Tina, Katie(underwater), Jason and Coco.

Katie mugging for the camera.

Tina holding Brian, Jason to the right.

The whole group again. Say cheese!

This is Grandma Genevieve. She was checking out the latest issue of Better Homes while we swam.

Sandy and Ed right before bed...