Saturday, August 16th
The two of us took Christina and her best friend Lizzie to the Drive-in to see a “Squash-Belter” (as Christina called it by mistake; The Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl) and Freaky Friday. I really liked both, but Christina didn’t get the pirate movie. The next day, we all went to the Erie County Fair and I was wearing my much-needed new sneakers I bought earlier in the day. The two of them had all-you-can-ride wristbands, and I even joined in the fun with one round of bumper cars (may favourite of the few rides I’ll go on).
Wednesday, we went to a Coptic Mass at St. Tommy’s. It was really nice and a learning experience, but Christina was less than enthusiastic.
On Thursday, however, we went to the farm together and Christina didn’t complain once. In fact, she put in several consecutive hours working, and as a team we whipped through pickings and washings. It still amazes me — she didn’t even go back to the car for her CD player. She even said on “going to parent workplace” day, she would consider coming with me again.
Later in the day, the greatest power outage in history rocked the Northeast US and Southern Canada. We still had power, and I still went to Frontier Middle for Tai Chi class and power was on there, but hardly anyone showed. The fair almost cancelled a concert. And there was blame everywhere … first a fire near NYC, then a failure in Ottawa, then Niagara Falls, Cleveland, whatever. They still haven’t traced it back to the first domino.
Saturday, Christina danced at the Community Stage at the Fair as part of Miranda’s dance studio, using numbers from their recital. It was only a bearable hour, and Christina did well. Afterward, we went to Mer’s company picnic and had a good time, good food, and good company.
Sunday, August 17th
Someone rummaged through my car — fortunately, only some change was missing. It’s still a little “violating” and annoying that I actually have to lock my car doors at night.
At the fair this evening (closing day), it was just Merry and I, and Merry promised to dance with the “natives” in the Indian Village. They didn’t invite people in for the friendship dance though, and we spent a mere few seconds making fools of ourselves in the “smoke dance”. Not the same, older announcer as in last years. Maybe next time…
Tuesday, August 26th
Last weekend, I had Christina over from Friday to Saturday. Friday, we tried to go to the Erie Basin Marina, but they didn’t allow dogs. I thought I didn’t see any other times I’ve been there. We went for ice cream at the Bedrock Eatery instead.
On Saturday, we had out BNI picnic at Mike Harmony’s house out in the middle of nowhere. It was a great party — we even went paddle-boating in the pond, and Christina and I fed Cheerios to the fish. She was catch-and-releasing them with a small net for what seemed like an hour, and even caught one on a line. After we came home, Chrissie and I went out to “The Spot” for coffee later that night, and stayed out real late. She had a “Chocomoco” and I had Kenya AA.
Chrissie was put to work weeding with me around the Plaza, and she did a decent job, so I allotted her regular wage. She was proud to spend some of the $20 later that day on makeup and such.
Today, I went to the Women’s Equality Luncheon at the Adam’s Mark honoring my friend Jennifer Sinatra as one of the Federal (Employee) Women of the Year. I had no idea she was involved in so many community projects!
Afterward, I caught up with my old associate Jamie at The Spot while she was working to see if she could help me with sales. We were both happy to run into each other again — I didn’t realize it was about two years!
Wednesday, August 27th, 2003
Finally got to a dentist today for that tooth that cracked while camping last month. It’s been six years since I had full X-Rays, so here they are!
My only lower wisdom tooth (I never had the other, and the two on top never came through) grew sideways into the molar in front of it and needs to be extracted. I still have two baby teeth on the bottom (a few were extracted as a teenager), and I only have three fillings, all done as a teen. Unfortunately, I have three more to take care of, but thankfully they are only small ones.
On another note, we found out today that pretty much everywhere we would want to go camping (State and other Parks) are all booked. We’ll have to call last minute hoping there’s an opening or make alternative plans.