Just pick a spot.

I had to laugh today at the grocery store. I watched as a car sat there with it's blinker on, waiting for someone to vacate a spot. I pulled into the closest spot and got into the store before the car with the blinker on even moved. I got my groceries and was leaving the check-out line when the person from the car with the blinker on came into the store. What are they thinking?

Hubby figured out the videos.

I had been having some trouble uploading videos to my blog, and Hubby just figured it out for me. So here, for your viewing pleasure, are some videos of Emily apple picking.

Apple Picking with Emily

One of my favorite activities has always been Apple Picking. I've always loved it....the crisp fall day, the blue sky, the apple trees dripping with apples. I've been very lucky the past two years to be able to take my grand-daughter out apple picking. Yesterday, we went to our favorite place, Apple Acres. The first thing on our list was the hay wagon ride. We waited patiently for the wagon to arrive. Finally we could see it coming.

Pepere took a picture of our happy faces.

Then it was time to pick some apples. I showed Emily how to "shine them up" on her shirt.

She literally picked the entire bag of apples herself

And of course, had a couple to munch on.

After a second tractor ride, it was time to have some hot apple-cider donuts and cold cider. Deeeeeelicious! Emily, however, didn't even want to try it! She was still munching on her second apple. Pepere and I shared the half-dozen donuts we got. (What?!? They're small!)

Emily picked out a great pumpkin for herself.

And we had to squeeze in one final tractor ride. By now it had gotten busy, but Emily was very patient.

Afterwards, she told the farmer driving the tractor that it was her best tractor ride, EVER EVER EVER!

Oh the Drama!

So with all the drama of me being sick, I never got into the drama that was going on in our condo building. The guy who owns the condo below us is very elderly, and has always used the condo as his "office" (aka: big fat mess that should be on the show "Hoarders"). He lives somewhere else, and hasn't been in his unit for years. Which is apparently where the problem lies. It seems there was some sort of clog in the drainage, and whenever someone flushed all the......stuff....came up through his toilet, tub and sink. Since no one was there to notice it, this went on for some time. Until water leaked into the next unit (the one that was just renovated and about to be sold) and covered that unit's brand new floors. We came home to flood restoration trucks, plumbing trucks, etc. They asked us if they could come into our unit and take our toilet off, so as to try and unclog the system, since they did not want to try and go through his toilet. So the plumber removed our toilet and tried to reach the clog, whilst the whole time I was puking noisily into the kitchen sink. Good times. They finally got the thing unclogged. Then spent the rest of the week (the whole week while I was home sick) cleaning out the unit, vacuuming up water, dragging out rugs and ruined stuff, and cutting out the sheetrock a foot up all the walls to avoid mold. (They also had to do all this on the brand new unit next door). They also had to rip up all the rugs in the hallway. The unit was basically condemned. Now, however, all the trucks are gone. The unit is ripped apart with cut-up walls and ripped up floors. And no one has been back here all this week. I hope they're just waiting for insurance or something. Because the building looks like a slum. And it still doesn't smell so great either.

Music, Music, Music!

That was our weekend this weekend. Music. Friday night we went to one of our favorite places. The Java Room is a very nice coffee shop that features live music on weekends. Our friends John, John and Betsi were playing there. So Hubby and I got to sit and eat some delicious food and listen to them sing for a couple of hours. Last night we were invited to the home of some other friends, Pat and Bob, who finally finished the addition on their home and threw a party to celebrate. Pat and Bob are music friends, and everyone they invited are musicians. In fact, we were asked to bring our instruments. So we had a fantastic time eating, visiting, singing and playing. Today it's back to the Java Room where Hubby will play the piano for their Sunday Brunch. I'll bring along the Sunday paper and relax with their excellent hot cocoa while I read and listen to the music.

Bergeron Family Reunion

Yesterday was our Family Reunion on my Mother's side of the family. The Bergeron Family started with my Grandparents, who had 7 children, who had 25 children, who had 57 children. There's another generation as well, my grand-daughter Emily's generation, but I don't know how many great-great grandchildren my grandparents would have.

Yesterday we managed to get about 60 of those family members together at a State Park in NH.

It was a little scary at first as it seemed like just my immediate family was there.

Then people began showing up.

My cousin Bobby and his beautiful wife Nancy. They've been good friends to my parents, and have been especially loving and helpful with my Dad since my Mom died.

Cousin John, cousin Glenn and my brother John give my Dad some advice around the charcoal grill. My Dad made his famous chicken livers wrapped in bacon. They disappeared as quickly as they came off the grill.

Emily was once again the youngest one there. She loves playing on the playground.

Little Second-Cousin Alissa (I think?) actually went swimming in the lake despite the chilly temp.

My brother and his "Huh?" face.

This is what was happening all day: sitting, eating, talking and visiting.

My Uncle Chanel has a quiet chat with his daughter, Cathy.

My Cousin Fran, her daughter Sabrina and her niece Bianca. Fran is my "twin cousin". Her mother and my mother are identical twins, and we are only 6 months apart in age. When we were younger we took great joy in having the same hairdos and eyeglasses to enhance the likeness. Nowadays, she looks more like my sister Chris with her short, dark hair.

Second-Cousin Matt, his brother Joey's Fiance Brandy, and Matt's mother Nancy.

Hubby had a great time playing on the beach with Laura.

My Uncle Chanel, the only living relative left of my Mom's (she had five sisters, all of whom have also passed away). He is almost 83, and was out on the beach with kids playing a beanbag toss game. Beside him is my second-cousin Jimmy's girlfriend, Jerry.

My niece Sara, my cousin Cathy and my cousin Scott share a moment.

Sara really didn't want to get her picture taken, as you can tell by the above photo. But she gave me this gem later.

It was crazy, it was fun and it was heartwarming to see all my cousins and their families once again.

Can't wait for #18.

Bet you thought I died.

I bet you thought I died from my illness. Noooooo.....although at times I wished I had. I have no idea what's wrong with me. I have no idea if I'm getting better. Sometimes I feel better. Sometimes, not so much. The first time to the doctor: After an examination which the doctor said was "unremarkable" and no fever, even though I had all the symptoms of high fever, he decided it was a virus. (aka, I have no freakin' idea). The second time to the doctor: Fever of 103 and some indication in my urine sample that I had a UTI (even though I had no symptoms of a UTI) they gave me a prescription for Cipro. Just in case. I did tell the doctor that the last time I had slightly elevated bacteria in my urine and they treated me for a UTI "just in case" it was a kidney stone. However, I don't have any symptoms of a kidney stone either and a kidney stone doesn't usually cause the symptoms I do have. So...... Hmmm..... Clueless. I do know that I haven't been able to eat for almost a week. That I have the energy of a very-slow-moving turtle. That I'm exhausted from doing something like sit at my computer writing a post. That sometimes I'm feeling much better. And then I see-saw back to feeling lousy. I missed a whole week of work doing absolutely nothing. I am determined to go back on Monday, even if it kills me. And it just might.

Sick, sick, sick

That's what I am. Sick. I NEVER get sick. Not like this. Some allergies in the fall give me an annoying cough, but I haven't really been sick in 7 or 8 years. During that time 7 or 8 years ago, I was constantly with the sinus infections, strep throat, etc etc. I started taking Echinacea and it was like a little miracle. I wasn't sick anymore. Ever. Well, now I am. The shakes, (although oddly I am not registering a fever on our thermometer. I have all the symptoms of a high fever, but it's saying I'm 99 degrees. Is it possible for a thermometer to have an expiration date? This is a very old thermometer. The kind you stick in your mouth and hold under your tongue for three long, gruelling minutes, then take out and try to find the damn line.) Anyway, I digress. The shakes, the sweats, the nausea, the vomiting. And the thing that upsets me the most is staying home from work. Not that I love my job so very much that I miss being there. But that I am using up all my carefully accrued PTO while lying nauseous on the couch watching re-runs of Home Improvement.

Our Secret Destination

I have been teasing Hubby for a couple of weeks now about taking him on a Secret Adventure. Since I know he's partial to train rides, and I know he's never been to Lake Winnipesauki, I figured I'd take him to Weirs Beach and let him enjoy a ride on the train. Of course, he figured out, as we were going through the door to leave, where we were going. The 20 questions and giving him a glimpse of the map might have had something to do with it! The train ride turned out to be not so great. It was an old train with small windows. The scenic trains I've been on before have been open-sided. The train ran along the lake for 1/2 hour, then came back along the same track! And most of the view was obstructed by trees or buildings. But Hubby seemed to have a good enough time.

We went down onto the beach and sat for a while, which was lovely.

The beach is not really as big as this makes it look. It only covers a small corner of the waterfront. Most of the waterfront is a boardwalk.

We ate outside on the deck of a restaurant called Anthony's. The food was good, and there was a guy playing a guitar and singing. Very relaxing. You had to go through the arcade to get to the restaurant. Hubby and I each played a couple of the old games we used to have....Ms. PacMan and Tetris for me, Centipede and Space Invaders for Hubby.

The boardwalk from on top of a footbridge going over the train tracks.

And we finished off the night at an old-fashioned drive-in movie theater.

We saw "The American", which turned out to be a pretty dumb movie. But it was fun and nostalgic to be at a drive-in, and I got to look at this man for a couple of hours:

Florida.........for free!

I work for a company that plans a lot of travel. In our capacity as travel agents, it's very helpful if we have actually been to the places that we're discussing with our clients. For this reason, they occasionally send employees on "Fam" trips, to FAMiliarize ourselves with the places we're sending people. There is a Fam trip going to Seaworld in Orlando, and guess who got picked to go!! ME!! So on October 20, I'll be flying down to Orlando and seeing Seaworld Then over to Tampa to see Busch Gardens:

Off to Aquatica in Orlando:

And then to Discovery Cove......where you can swim with the dolphins...which I hope I'll be able to do!

I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! AND....now I have to find a nice bathing suit.

Enjoying the Sunshine

On Sunday, Hubby took me to our favorite breakfast place...Parker's Maple Barn. Every time we go up there, we pass this beautiful big pond, and we say we should stop there "sometime" with our canoe and check it out. This Sunday, we did! This is Potanipo Pond in Mason, NH. An over-the-shoulder shot of my Hubby steering the canoe.

Self- portrait.

And the water was beautiful for swimming.

Thus ended the most excellent of weekends. Hubby knew how frustrated I was with not getting outside during this hot and sunny summer, and spent the whole weekend taking me around to do whatever I wanted to do.

My Hubby is awesome.