A New Hampshire Fourth

If you blink, life passes you by. That's how it seems to me, anyway. So one must take full advantage of all opportunities. Like enjoying long weekends as much as possible.

Doug and I spent this long Fourth of July weekend in New Hampshire at the family compound. Despite there being some rain, no running water in my uncle's cabin, and my mother's dog biting my cousin (twice!) and other family antics, it was a great weekend and definitely an enjoyable way to spend the 4th.

We got to see my sister and her family, and we honored the occasion of all of the family being together in one place by taking a group photo. I don't recall another photo with all of us in it like this. And it's a really good photo. I may have this one framed.

We paid a visit to the King Arthur Flour store in Norwich, VT. Have you been there? It's a must if you like to bake - they sell anything that you might need or want for baking. I got three boxes of the King Arthur Belgian waffle mix, so we'll be having waffles around here for a while. Yay!

We tubed, as in me, my mother, and Doug. Tubing, if you've never done it, is when you sit or lay on a big donut-like tube connected to a speedboat by a rope and you are pulled around the lake/ocean at high speed. Now, this is a great feat for Doug, who does not swim and is terrified of having his head go underwater and not being able to touch the bottom of the pool/lake/ocean/etc. So the fact that he tubed is very impressive. Very, very impressive. I was so proud of him! I was also very proud of my mother, who tubed with me once Doug had had enough. My mother is sixty-six, but she held on tight and had more stamina than I did throughout our (very fast and very rough) ride. My mother is also very impressive. For someone who actively asserts her senior status at places like the movies and anywhere where she can get a senior discount, she certainly doesn't act like a senior. The energy she has amazes me (and, truth be told, makes me a little jealous. How come I didn't get that energy?).


Let's see, what else did we do in New Hampshire. We boated. We kayaked some, but we also rode in the little fishing boat in the Crystal Lake Boat Parade. We were the last boat in the parade, and our boat wasn't decorated, but at least we joined in the fun. Doug drove the boat in the parade, and Brian tried to keep up with us in the kayak. Brian eventually went his own way and left us with the pontoon and party boats, waving to the people on shore as we puttered by. (Maybe we should have tubed while being pulled by this little john-boat!).

Of course, what we didn't do over the weekend was spend much quality time with our cats. We left all three cats out in the house alone this past weekend while we were gone. We are still very much in the throes of integrating the two girl cats with their new feline brother, and this process is going to be a slow one. Much slower than when we integrated Wyatt with Meg, or when we integrated Sasha with Meg and Wyatt. Why? Because of Sasha. She's Satan's spawn at times, and this is one of those times. So, while we had hoped that over the weekend they would get the fighting and hissing out of their system, since they would have no choice but to live together while Doug and I were away, we are now back to having them in separate rooms overnight and throughout the day, and are only together in the house when we come home from work. The new cat, Sherman (we've been calling him this, and it's stuck. He head-butts like a Sherman tank.), loves being out and roaming the house, so we feel badly for him that he is locked up in the office all night and day, but if we ever want Sasha to stop hissing, growling, spitting, and making these god-awful screams, then this is probably what we have to do for quite a bit longer.

But look at him! He's such a good and handsome kitty, who has a bottomless pit for a stomach. He's already gained weight since he's been here, and his coat feels so much more healthy. The one thing is that we have to keep his lampshade on his head. We tried for a few days to leave it off, but he scratched way too much at his ears and neck, so now it's back on and he has himself an appointment at the vet tomorrow to get some ointment to help with the itching. He's doing well, though, despite everything, and he's settling right in. If only I could say the same for his sisters...