Sacramento Travel Meeting - August 20 @ 10:00 a.m.

The high point of our month! Well, getting reservations done for our September trip was good, too.
See you there!
Lauri and Ed

Marci and I won't be there as we will be coming home that day from our Alaska cruise. We leave this Friday night for Seattle, and then board on Saturday. Should be fun. Nice to actually be travelling instead of just talking about it.

Have a great cruise, Rob and Marci.

Rob, I hope you and Marci have a great time on your cruise. I'm in the beginning stages of planning an Alaskan cruise for next year, so I will look to you for some advice.

David -- are you speaking from experience!?!

I'll be there with bells on.

David, don't be so sure about that. I'll have my people look into it for me.

Nothing from Susan & Monte?

We're a regrettable no for next Saturday, getting our daughter settled into college dorms for the new school year (already ?!?).

I've tried desperately to find something else to do but have failed, so I guess I'll be there.

I'm keeping my options open, though...

Hey Eileen, I have something else you can do!! You can come and help us paint! It's fun, really fun... 😂

@Susan -- are you channeling Tom Sawyer ?
;-)

I'll do anything (ok, almost anything) to get this house painted! At this rate, by the time we're finished, we're gonna have to start back at the beginning again (like the Golden Gate Bridge)... 😱

Or the Eiffel Tower, Susan!

Yes, and the Eiffel Tower Darcy! At least we're in good company!

Unless I'm feeling a lot better tomorrow morning, you'll have to get by without me. After a 10-hour sleep I woke up with a sore throat, a little ear pain...the usual crud symptoms :-( Since I haven't left the house all week, I blame my husband :-) Maybe my mouth was open all night with the air vent blowing on my face, but that doesn't explain the dull ear pain...and the extreme desire to just.go.back.to.bed. I'm driving to Texas in a week, so I need to get rid of this ASAP...and our meetings are just too much excitement to lead to a quick recovery.

Okay - actually, I'll be at Susan's. She said painting is "fun, really fun", so I'm going to do that instead.

I'm definitely NOT staying home to watch rhythmic gymnastics in the Olympics.

Eileen, I'm sorry you aren't feeling well. I hope you shake off the crud quickly. I'll be in your neck of the woods after the meeting. Let me know if I can bring you anything. Let me clarify, anything reasonable.

I am back from Italy. See you all tomorrow.

I hope you feel better soon Eileen... that's not fun... 😪

(Susan, our plan is working perfectly; I'll be there soon and we can start painting. I'm bringing my pjs so there's no pressure to rush the job...)

Thanks, Andrea! I'd feel better if you brought me some chicken noodle soup. And a puppy.

'Mom, David's gettin' smart again! Make him stop!'

There won't be any Olympics on TV here. No men's high platform diving with those little strips of fabric wrapped around their, ummm, 'bodies'; no slow-motion dive analysis showing rippling man-muscles; no occasional shots of Greg Louganis (thud) watching from the stands...no sirree.

I already miss y'all! Have a good time! I know I will!

Eileen, hope your day goes well. We are stuck in traffic (billed as a 25-minute delay) between Davis and Sacramento. Hope we get there before it's time to head back!

Ugh, Lauri & Ed - I hope your day is going better by now...

Sweet Eileen! 😘

Eileen, are you okay? I came by with the soup and puppy, but no one came to the door. I rang the doorbell and knocked for at least 10 minutes. I would have peeked into your windows, but the plywood covering them prevented me from doing that. I thought I could hear cheering and music from the Olympics playing. I'm sure you wouldn't have blown us off to watch them.

The puppy and Riley are now fast friends and they both agree that they wouldn't want to live in a house with cats. Since Riley doesn't move as fast as he once did, we now have a new way of playing fetch. I throw the ball, the puppy gets it and takes it to Riley. I take the ball from Riley and we repeat the process. We've decided to name the dog Eileen, after you. You can visit any time. Well, not any time. Make an appointment.

Plywood? I have no idea what you're referring to...You mean those heavy, light-blocking curtains?

I'm glad Riley has a new friend...and I'm glad you've named her (?) Eileen. I noticed specifically that you said you named her Eileen, and NOT that you named her after me...because that might have meant you named her b#%ch 'Biscuits'.

This was my house these last 3 weeks.

After Danell Leyva won, we ALL won.

Yeeeaaaaahhhhhh......

Where was I? Oh yeah...My favorite new sport by far is weightlifting - I'm convinced there's some schnapps/vodka/firewater action going on backstage, and I'm pretty certain that there's lots of it going on in the audience ;-) Here's just a couple of the better YouTube videos for your viewing pleasure:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

(Here's some more of him from a previous competition ;-)

And a sweet adieu from a retiring competitor.

Man - 3 weeks of the Tour de France, a mere 2-week recovery period then 2 weeks of Olympic Games...and 2 weeks after that the Paralympics begin...Oy! I'm too old for this. I look forward to regaining my old life by the middle of September. At least the Summer Games only happen once every 4 years...and the Winter Games don't begin after a 3-week bike race 8^O

I sure am looking forward to walking and moving around again, untethered to a TV :-)

Now I've gotta go tell The Kitties that they aren't getting a new puppy :-(