I went to class yesterday, even though I am not actually enrolled yet. I am starting the Gerontology Certificate program at UGA. The class was the Psychology of Aging and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I really like learning and the challenges that go with it. I have to buy two books and get busy reading and writing. There were 6 or 7 others, an interestingly diverse group. Two Ph.D. students seem very young to me, but so does the professor, who just got married and changed her name--I think it's Emerson now. Along with a lot of introductory stuff, like reviewing the syllabus and signing up to do reports, we watched a couple of TED talks--one by Jane Fonda, a hero of mine and Dr. Emerson's. She is now into aging and spoke about the third act of life and being finally able to be yourself, especially for women.

The other TED talk was by a woman neuroscientist who had a stroke and talked about the experience. It took her 7 years to recover, but she was clearly pretty sharp again now. The left lobe of her brain stopped working, and so she couldn't talk or dial the phone, but the right brain took over and she had a euphoric feeling of well-being. She says if we could all turn off our left brains occasionally, the world would be a better place. Fascinating and powerful.

Other than that, I spent about an hour pulling up grass in the garden, hoping to plant some beans before it is too late. But I have to buy some seeds and I don't know if the stores will have them. We have a few old ones, which have not worked when I planted them before.

I went to the doctor for my physical. My cholesterol and blood pressure meds are working pretty well, but I am still creeping toward diabetes. She told me to cut back on carbs and get more exercise. When she started telling me specifically about potatoes and rice, I told her I was doing that, but it didn't seem to help. Of course, I will do better now that I am home, especially the exercise part.

I went to Earth Fare and bought a f ew groceries (including white bread flour), as well as some things for lunch: tuna salad, Asian noodle salad, squash salad. I went to my Dad's, brought in his mail, and ate my lunch there.

After class, I came home. Ray and I made Roman rice and beans for supper. We still have Olympics on tape, so watched some of that, plus a little John Stewart.

Water communion at the Fellowship yesterday. The Lay Miniters (incluing me) conducted part of the service. It's always fun to hear where people have been and see them at the start of the year. Lisa and Ella and Billy were there. Ltos of good rain music, like Dan Fogelberg's and Come Sing A song with me (which includes Come Walk in Rain with me).

Before we left home, I had cooked potatoes and green beans and hard-boiled eggs and put together dressing, so we had Salad Nicoise after the servcie. I had to stay for a meeting from 1-3, at which we discussed a book we had read, Don't Call Them Jerks, about dealing with difficult people in the congrgation. It was a good conversation, better than I expected. Ray went down to the peach place in Watkinsivlle and brought me back peach ice cream, which I ate in front of eveyone. It was awfully good. We have lots of peaches now.

We watched Olympics most of the rest of the day, except we saw an old movie from Netflix late in the evening. It was very fun: Charade with Audrey Hepburn.

We had thawed a small pork steak for supper and I made a delicious BBQ sauce. Ray grilled it, but it was a little too done, unfortunately. We had a few broccoli stalks from the garden adns some rice. Also a cucumber I bought at the farmers' market. And a bag of corn chips--well not a whole bag.

It was cool enough overnight to open the windows, although a little damp. Yay!

There was a drip irrigation workshop yesterday morning from 9 to 11, so I didn't do much else except eat breakfast, shower and dress, before I drove there. It was at the greenhouses on South Milledge belonging to UGA's Horticulture Dept., and taught by a professor. Lots of good information. Of course, I would have to spend money to buy the parts, but it might save us money on water bills. At this exact moment, we have enough water, but that will surely change. I didn't rain much here yesterday, but it was very overcast with some occasional sprinkles.

Ray went and cut firewood, which was great. He was exhausted though. Fortunately, it was relatively cool.

I made us omelets with peppers for lunch and watched some Olympics recorded from the day before. Volleyball, track, platform diving, women's water polo. I could watch all day every day and not see everything. The recordings are great, because you can skip through the ads and even the interviews if you want, just watching the action.

We went to Paul and Tanya's to celebrate her birthday. It was nice to see many of our neighbors. They were having pork barbecue and asparagus...as well as lots of other things, including cake. but we had another invitation. We met Janna and Ron and Deb and John and Becky and Kent at Teds Most Best for a lovely dinner and then the theater. Lysistrata at Town & Gown. Ray was running the box office, and it was sold out. They had to turn people away. Which is nice in one way, but it was kind of a madhouse. Some people said they had reservations, but their names weren't listed...

The show was not my favorite, but impressive. A large cast, of whom we knew many.

Yesterday morning I whipped up a batch of Cowboy cookies while it was relatvely cool. I opened the kitchn window, in spite of very high humidity. I spent about an hour working on salvaging some of the garden. There is a squash plant that had hundreds of fuzzy white bugs on it. I squshed a lot of them, but I bet they are back this morning. Must spray. I pulled up a lot of weeds (mostly grass) and some dead plants (tomatoes, dill...). I am going to plant another squash in a different place and see if I can get it to produce some fruits before frost.

Ray and I tidied up a lot because the cleaning lady was coming. Now we have a really nice house, except for a few rooms. Two people were here for four hours. She said if we have a regular day and time, it won't take so long to keep it up.

Ray and I left as they got started. He went to his office and I went to lunch with Becky at Mama's Boy. It is always crowded and noisy there.

Not much to say about yesterday. We had another thunder-boomer in the afternoon. This one lasted a while and must have left us a good amount of rain. The chickens were out most of the day and they looked pretty pathetic when I put them up, soggy, like a wet cat. We watched a lot of Olympics, but there is still a lot more to see. I spent most of the day on the computer and answered some of the important e-mails. Potluck at Kenney Ridge was mostly pleasant.

hmm...time warp...where to begin??

We are home in Athens, Georgia. It is hot and humid. We had an awesome thunderstorm last night, so are not directly suffering from the drought right now. Most of the garden is pretty bad off. Deer got in and ate the beans and other things. The tomatoes, cucumbers, squash are pretty much done, due to heat and drought mainly, although we harvested some earlier in the year. It is consistently over 90 and stuff just doesn't do well. Sweet potatoes are growing just fine. We have a couple pretty sunflowers, as well as marigolds and zinnias, and lots of peppers. We should have some eggplants in a few weeks--they look good. And we ate some melons that were good.

I am trying to adjust to being alone here again. It is very quiet and nice in some ways--I can mostly find what I want and don't worry about anyone else. We have recorded the Olympics and watch at our own pace, zipping through ads and some of the "background" stuff. Except that there is too much and I fall asleep after a while.

We had a pleasant potluck supper at UUFA last night, saying hello to five of our friends there. I made a pasta bean salad, using some of the many peppers we have. There's enough left for tonight's KR potluck as well. We ran some errands during the day, meeting the cleaning ladies at my Dad's apartment and going to the bank and the grocery stores. Ray spent some time at his office.

the Mayflower II

Cameron seems happy to see us and we let him in to the cool house often, whenever I am downstairs to make sure he doesn't decide to climb on the couch. The chickens are out of their coop now, pretty much for the full day, the first time in a while. They seem unhappy and I haven't had any eggs from them yet. I have noticed before they seem to blame us for heat or cold or rain.

The day Molli and Adrian left Boston for the Cape, we met them in Plymouth and visited Plimouth Plantation, a recreation of where the Pilgrims landed and set up housekeeping. We thought it would be a fun and educational experience for Adrian. I remembered it fondly from the last time we went. Unfortunately, it was a little hot (no AC of course). The re-enactors there are amazing, with accents and authentic costumes...

I had lab work done yesterday morning and I am afraid of the results. I have gained back weight whie I was traveling and not able to eat as well as at home. We shall see.

Deb and Molli

The day we flew home was a little more stressful than most of our travels have been. We took the M60 bus from Upper Manhattan, near Columbia, to LaGuardia. We have done this before and generally enjoy it. But it happened that it took over an hour this time. It is really hard to watch the minutes go by and know you are going to be late and can't do a thing about it. We actually got to the airport about 45 minutes before our flight. We came in on the wrong level and had to hurry to check in. The kiosk would not let me check my bag, even though I had prepaid it. A helpful person got us to the head of the line and eventually they overrode it and sent our bag through, but they warned that it might not make it. After that, it wasn't too bad. We got to the gate in time to board easily, but no sitting around waiting. The whole flight I was wondering if the suitcase would make it. Landing, getting to the baggage claim, and there it was. Next challenge--could we make the 4:15 shuttle? A call to Groome reserved us two seats, although it was very full. I sat next to a young man from Estonia, who had just arrived in this country for this first time, to become a student-athlete at UGA. His sport? Decathlon! Very interesting. His English is better than many Americans'. I gave him my contact info and said I would love to drive him around and have him to dinner, etc. But I may or may not hear from him. He doesn't have a local phone yet or email address... His name is Michael Uibo, in case he becomes world famous.

My Dad had left the red car for us, so we just got in it and drove home. OK, the house was pretty messy. I had to keep reminding myself that we would not have wanted to leave it empty for a whole month and this was a small price to pay. The man sits on the couch and eats and drinks on the coffee table and never The day before we took the Megabus from Hyannis to New York City. This is amazing--just get on the bus in Hyannis and off in lower Manhattan--I think it was $39. However, it was not as nice as our Megabus in Athens. It was not a double-decker and the internet didn't work. My thoughts about playing cards or doing something on my computer did not hold up. It didn't matter much, though, as Ray, Molli and Adrian slept most of the time. I read and was about ready to drift off by the time we arrived in NY. We had chosen our hotel partly bcause it was only a few blocks from the bus stop. However, it stopped five blocks away. I guess they are still working out the stops. Our driver insisted he was supposed to be there (11th avenue), while the coordinator said no, this is where you are supposed to pick up, but the dropoff is at 7th avenue. Looking at our pile of luggage, he allowed us to get back on the bus, carrying it all on with us, and he drove us to the original stop. I don't know about the other riders. Maybe they didn't mind. Now I hear that a Megabus recently caught fire on its way to Charlotte. Maybe I will be less excited about taking it...wipes it off! We slept well and appreciated our own bed and everything else.

(para. missing here) We walked (thank goodness for rolling luggage) to our hotel. It's great to be the grande dame (or the old lady). Everyone else carries the heavy stuff and I just tag along with my purse. We had reserved several rooms and finally cancelled all of them except the Gershwin. It is a self-proclaimed "funky" or artistic place. But finding a Manhattan hotel that sleeps 4 comfortably at a good price is a challenge. This was $250 a night, about $50 more than the cheapest we found, but the location and the Frommers recommendation clinched it. A tiny elevator and we reached our room at the end of the sixth floor.  We left everything there and went around the corner to eat. Really good food, but noisy and crowded, at the Cafe 28.We had to take turns going in the one bathroom before starting on a walk. No particular destination, just enjoying being in the city. We walked south to Madison Park and remembered the last time we were there with Amelia in the rain. We admired the buildings, the Flatiron and the clock tower, and kept walking down to Greenwich Street and back up, making a big loop. We considered taking the train or bus back, but nothing was very direct, so we just plugged along, stopping for sustenance at Crumbs (cupcakes and chai). We had a late and wonderful dinner at Marseille--I'm a sucker for French. It reminded us a good bit of Bistro Niko. The chilled corn soup was awesome. I thought the desserts were not as wonderful as the rest, which was fine. I was very moderate, having some authentic bouillabaisse and a few tastes of other dishes. Pinot Grigio, bread and butter--it was all good. and I love this level of service. many different waitstaff kept our glasses filled and got our food there hot. Lots of people watching (or clothes watching).

The next morning I got up hours before anyone else, took my iPad down to the coffee shop (birches) and ordered some tea and a bagel. Oh yes, I am a New Yorker now. Watching the other people. work already going on out on the street. Eventually, we all got showered and dressed, packed our things and left the Gershwin. We took the subway up to Amelia's old stomping grounds near Columbia, that being one of the law schools Molli would like to attend. We had breakfast at Nussbaum and Wu, where we had eaten eight (?) years ago, when Amelia was a student at Barnard, and Molli and Gerald were high school seniors. The food is very good. Every place like this, the menu is extensive and it takes me a while to study it all. I love having so many choices. I had a spinach and mushroom omelet, having already had my bagel. Then we ordered a few things to take with us, sandwiches for the flight (cheaper and better than anything at the airport--and a good thing, too, since as it turned out, we didn't have time to buy anything). Roast beef and turkey with Russian dressing...Then we had to say good bye to Molli and Adrian for now, and board our bus.

We had picked them up in Boston Saturday morning early, leaving our cousins in St. Johnsbury after an early breakfast. Molli's travel luck held and they arrived about 15 minutes early. We got there just as they picked up their suitcases from the baggage claim. We drove to Point Judith, Rhode Island, where they needed to get the ferry for Block Island to attend Christine and Ian's wedding.

Yesterday was a recovery day. Ray slept late. I cooked supper--pork chops and Spanish rice and beans from the garden. Spent some time at Barbara's.