A Short Stay

Despite all our efforts, as I type this on Sunday evening, the pool is once again up to the top after a massive afternoon storm.

Our efforts? What's that supposed to mean Gail? Well, take a look will you?

With Bruce and Tom as our audience, Matt and I did so many jumps,

along with proper swimming strokes on Matt's part,

trying to empty the pool, that, eventually we succeeded. It is going to be pretty much impossible for me to empty it on my own this time!

As most of you know, I grew up with five siblings, all of whom spent the better part of every summer day of childhood in our backyard pool trying to stay cool in the Florida heat before air conditioning. Games and competitions were part of our repertoire, and I convinced Matt to play some of those very same contests. He, of course, won all of them, but another thing you know about me is that it's all about the experience. I pretty much missed the competition gene.

We also did summersaults until dizzy! Doesn't this sound like fun?  Who knows how many more years I'll still be able to do all these crazy stunts?

So, what else did we do during their five day stay? Matt made bread, specifically naan for dinner one night, while Tom was at the stove making our stewed okra.

The finished product, cooked in the cast iron skillet was yummy!

No photographic evidence to share, but we also went to Costco to buy a new external hard drive with more space than you can imagine. Matt worked his computer magic and I pretty much have a much faster computer on which to type this very blog.

Friday found us at Jetty Park while Bruce went to work for a while. The Atlantic Ocean was crazy calm, with only the tiniest waves. Very, very unusual.

Later in the evening the lads went to the Friday reunion event downtown. Originally, they planned to come out to Winter Garden with me early Saturday morning, however, after a night of partying that plan was replaced with Bruce driving them out closer to lunchtime. Before they got there I had my only sales of the HOT day. A couple was trying to find some matching prints and this is how we did it:

Eventually they decided on the daisy and the one in her hand pictured on the left. Although Matt had once come out to WG, Bruce and Tom never had. I dare say they all were very impressed with what they saw. It's such a charming market you can't help but like it. After having some market fare for lunch, M & T went over to a nearby bike shop where they rented bikes to ride on the trail during the remainder of my market day. In spite of the extreme heat they enjoyed themselves.

The big night arrived. Held at the Orlando Museum of Art, they took my car, now that Matt has a renewed Florida driving license, gotten on his first afternoon here. It was surprisingly easy with hardly any wait time, a very pleasant surprise. Before leaving I took this of Bruce with the lads:

Tom was his usual charming self, being a good sport when so many folks wanted to talk about the latest member of the Royal family, Prince George, whose name I believe we learned on the way to the beach. I, for one, was part of that group, although during the actual birth and the hoopla that followed, our men in London were playing tourists in Washington, DC. Visiting most all of the monuments, they saw more in the days they were there, than I have in two separate visits.

Aside from the twentieth high school reunion, Matt was here to be a godfather to one of his dearest friends new baby. Taking the day off from the market we all went to be a part of the christening of Maisy, Liza and Mike's new baby. Held in Knowles Chapel at Rollins College, it was our first time there since Dave and Michelle married there nearly four years ago.

We've known Liza since Matt was in the fifth grade, considering her part of our extended family. The Mannix family does likewise with Matt. Following the service we joined her family for a party at their home in the Conway area of town, very close to the airport. All very handy because the London contingent were homeward bound several hours later. Or so that was the plan, and I've not heard otherwise, although with the impressive lightening at their departure time, Bruce questioned whether their plane would take off on time.

We did all the normal things like sleeping and eating, with preparing various foodstuffs one of the highlights. According to Tom, the new bed is a winner! All in all, we were so happy to have them home, and so sad to see them leave. A very short stay indeed.