Powell and Pickerington

First of all, that handsome boy in Sunday's post is my brother's dog, an American bulldog mix.  Ralph is getting old, greying and arthritic, and according to my SIL, he likes to spend his days following the sun around the pool, since he's allowed on the outdoor furniture.  He also sleeps with the elder of my two nephews.

The pool is gorgeous--brand new this summer and just perfect.  It helps that their house is positioned so that the back yard gets full sun every minute of the day.

Yes, that is where I spent my Saturday afternoon. :-)  Dad, of course, took a nap.  After we were all suitably pruned up and chlorinated, we showered and got dressed.  Jeeves and the boys took the Jeep with the top down, and Mom and Dad and I rode with Anabel.  We found the restaurant and after three of us topped off our nicotine levels (Mom abstained), we went in and were greeted with a lovely chaotic rush of family.

All three of my Colorado cousins were there (although one of them is now a Kansas cousin) and all of their kids, and we had a great time talking and catching up.  I also found out that my aunt and the cousin who now lives in Kansas both share my weakness for lemon drop martinis, although I was smart enough to stop at one this time.

I got mistaken for my mother once, and corrected someone who thought Mom's name was Cindy, and ate pizza and just generally had a good time.  When it was time to leave, Dad and I were outside waiting for everyone when a man, his wife and little boy walked out.  The man looked at me and then asked if he could ask me something.  When I said yes, he said, "Is she really 100?  My son said the cake said 100!"  I told him yes, and he should congratulate his son on his reading.

Dad went to bed shortly after we got home.  Mom and I lasted a bit longer, but not by much.  I was asleep by 10:30 and woke up at 4:00 with an incipient migraine.  I walked downstairs, got a glass of water and some ibuprofen and made my way to the family room, intending to see if I could sleep sitting up.  A soft voice warned me "Please don't be startled" and I saw a long lump on one half of the sectional.  I laid down on the other half, and asked Mom why she was sleeping downstairs.

Mom had gotten up to go to the bathroom and left the door open.  When she came back, she got into bed only to discover she couldn't put her legs all the way down.  Ralph had taken the open door as an invitation and climbed in with Dad. :-D  Mom, being the softie that she is and knowing how hard it is for Ralph to climb up on things these days, decided to just sleep downstairs.  She asked what I was doing and I told her, which led to worries about if I had a blood clot and should we go to the ER and such.  Eventually Mom fell asleep and my pain dulled enough that I went back upstairs around 5:30.

Unfortunately, the migraine wasn't gone, so when I woke up again at 6:30, I decided to just get dressed, pack up and go get some coffee.  When I opened the garage door, SuperDoughnut's super ears picked it up just like he did up at Lakeside, and he came upstairs afraid he would miss Mom's Krispy Kreme run (which is silly, because he is the only reason she does that when she's there!).  I told him Gramma might be sleeping late because *portentious voice* she got up in the middle of the night and when she got back into bed there was someone there who shouldn't have been.  When his eyes got really wide, I said, "And he had brown and white fur hair" and SD relaxed.  I went to the nearest gas station I knew how to get to, grabbed a cup of coffee and filled Edgar's tank and then went back.  I was tempted by the pumpkin spice coffee and the pumpkin spice creamer, but since the goal was to get the coffee to stay down, I went with plain Colombian.

Mom & SD went on the doughnut run, and I called to see if they could get me another cup of coffee.  Sadly, I mis-timed my request and they were almost home.  To my surprise, when they walked in 15 minutes later, Mom had a cup of coffee for me because my thoughtful nephew remembered there was an indie coffee shop around the corner.  I hugged him and promised at least two months of not picking on him.

Despite more talk of blood clots and the inadvisability of driving with a migraine, I left at 11:00 and was home by 1:00, at which time I took to my bed to recover.  Because the kennel has no Sunday or holiday pickup, I didn't get LMPP back until tonight.  So since it was hot as blazes on Monday and the dog wasn't there and my migraine had finally left, I used the time to do laundry and Vacuum All The Things.

So now it is Tuesday evening, tomorrow is Call Day (ick) and I have had a good dinner and fed my puppy, who is sprawled in the hallway where I can trip or step over her.  The next excitement will be the Girls' Weekend in NYC in October.