Day 5

I have to start with after last night’s blog when we played two games of Yahtzee and I won the first one! It was about time that I got to win something.

Back to today. I woke up at 7:30 or so. Once the sun starts coming in the skylights of our bedroom, I’m up. It was kind of nice to be the only one up – both Date and Tim slept in today – Dave not as long as Tim, and Tim not as long as he would have liked. The laughing ladies (minus Colleen, who is in Michigan dropping her daughter Sarah off at college) were supposed to arrive at 10:30, and we figured Tim should be up and dressed and breakfasted before they got here. (A brief note about time. The bird clock is broken, so the only clock in the living room/kitchen area is on the stove, which isn’t visible from most of the living room. So mostly I have no idea what time it is, which is how yesterday I was still in my loungewear when it was time to go to Newman’s). They arrived at the appointed time. Laurel came alone, Kay brought her niece and nephew, and Patti brought Kenzie and Suzanne and Bailey Moore, a friend of Suzanne’s. We hung out on the porch for a while, then headed in to the sunnzy beer garden at Warren House. Ok, not really, because the kids can’t go in the sunny beer garden, so we sat on the sunny deck.

Wow, was it sunny! It was almost too hot to sit out there, and many of us got “a little color” while we waited for the food. Our waitress had some trouble getting the pea salad or chips part of the order right, but eventually everybody had all their food. It was a fun time. After lunch Kay took her charges to a beach that you didn’t have to climb down to, and the rest of us went back to the little house and hung out on the beach. Dave took a walk, Tim climbed around, and the girls did girl beach things. Kenzie took lots of pictures of our picturesque rocks. Eventually Dave & Tim decided they needed to go into town for another helicopter and more buckyballs. We needed more buckyballs because I lost one, and neither Tim nor I can play with the set knowing there’s one missing. When you make your shapes, there is an empty space. It’s not good.

The rest of us stayed down on the beach. Patti and I got our exercise throwing the giant frisbee at imaginary people so the other person had to run after it. Then we sat on the blanket and chatted and sweated until we had had enough. Because it was really hot today – like 80 or so – with no breeze down on the beach. It was odd to be there without all the big kids – Breanna is in Spokane, and Mikaila is in Fort Collins. But it was good to get caught up and compare notes. Apparently girls take many much more clothes to college than boys.

As Patti & Laurel were leaving, Tim and Dave got back from town with their goodies. Dave had found a helicopter a size up from Tim’s that is radio controlled (Tim’s is infrared/line of sight, which meant that when he accidentally flew it behind the chair it stopped going and crashed). It was so hot in the house and I’d gotten so sweaty playing throw-the-frisbee (you can’t really call it catch) that I took a shower and then sat outside in my loungewear reading. Oddly, even though today was warmer, the weather was nicer yesterday. Today we had lots of high cirrus, which would periodically thicken and block the sun, where yesterday was just clear blue sky.

Our plan for tonight was to go to The Irish Table, which is Midtown in the space formerly occupied by the Midtown Café. It shares space with the Sleepy Monk Coffee roaster and is only open for dinner, at which point the Sleepy Monk has presumably gone to sleep. They don’t take reservations, but you can call after 5:30 and get on the waiting list, and they’ll give you an approximate time to come. When you get there, they ask if you if you have a reservation, which I guess is different from not taking reservations. Anyway, they told us 7, but when we got there our table wasn’t ready so we sat outside in the sun. Dave had a Murphy’s Stout while we waited, and it was very pleasant.

We finally got in after about 20 minutes, and it was well worth the wait. The service was friendly and attentive, and the food was excellent. Standouts – the House Salad, which Tim had; the curried lentil soup, which Dave had; and the curried mussels, which I had. Also the Chocolate Pot which Tim had for desseet, which he said is better than the fallen chocolate soufflé at Wayfarer – high praise indeed.

After dinner it was time for me to work on the blog, and for Tim and Dave to duel to a tie in Farkle. They’re waiting for their helicopters to charge and then it will be airport time here. Meanwhile, I think I will read a good book. Oh – and the peaches are finally done!