I <3 Keith Olbermann

couldn't get the embed code to work with LJ, so click here to watch Keith Olbermann express his opinion on Diane Schroer and the Library of Congress.

Vacation Wrap-Up

s promised, here's the rest of what we did on our summer vacation!

Friday we spent more time with quantumswordsmn, chenoachem and Helena, which was very awesome. We decided to make it a day at the lake since the weather was finally nice. Yay! We went to Hannaford to grab food for a cookout and then headed to chenoachem's family camp on the lake for eating and swimming. At some point quantumswordsmn took to assigning roles for Kathy and me, and we did improv lake theater. We acted out all sorts of groovy things, but I think the favorite of the day was me acting out an undersea volcano forming an island chain. I had sand in my hair the rest of the night for that one, but it was so worth it. The clown fish and sea anemony bit was pretty funny, too. We sat around in the camper for a while and just chatted and listened to music. After the lake we decided to go hang out for a little while and then go out for dinner at the Italian Farmhouse. As always the food was delicious. The folks at the table next to us were amazed at how well-behaved Helena is. Our waiter is someone was actually the former Executive Director for one of the local non-profits, so it was a little weird being served dinner by someone who not too long ago I worked with in a completely different context. There's nothing wrong with being a waiter, mind you. It was just a different interaction than I was used to with this person. We ended up hanging out in the parking lot for a bit but then the three of them had to leave, so we headed home.

Saturday was a sleep-in, do chores kind of day. We slept late. That part is pretty self explanatory. The chores included laundry, shopping and some cleaning. Nothing really spectacular, but definitely needed to get done.

Sunday we got to visit with Candace and zeppelinmage. It had been quite some time since we had seen them (though admittedly not quite as long since we had seen quantumswordsmn and chenoachem), so it was great to spend time with them, too! That was really kind of the theme to the week: visiting with friends we hadn't seen in a while. It was actually a nice vacation. Liam didn't come because he was spending time with his grandfather. First we walked to Chase Street Market to get sandwiches for lunch. We walked down to the new amphitheater at Riverside Park and sat on the concrete steps/benches and chatted while we ate. It was a beautiful day for it, too! Then we walked back to our place and played some games. Candace and zeppelinmage brought a few games and we fetched Ticket To Ride out of storage to play. painted_wolf won Ticket To Ride by one point! After Ticket to Ride we played a game of Puerto Rico, which is one of my most favorite board games. I thought I was doing horrible, but it turns out I won! Next we played Scattergories because it was quick and it was nearing time for the two of them to go. Candace won the game and there were a lot of instances where two or three of us matched responses. Not very clever on our part, I know. Candace managed for the most part to stay out of the common words bit, which is probably why she won. zeppelinmage hadn't won any games, but we decided to play Mamma Mia since we still had some time. He won by a considerable amount! It was nice to get some gaming in again, especially with them, and even better that by chance we each managed to win a game. And we got to introduce them to Tim Minchin. Have I mentioned quantumswordsmn got us hooked?! Totally did!

Monday it was back to work. Holy crap the busy! It's amazing how much work can pile up the week before and after vacation. I actually spaced a public hearing that was supposed to be cablecast live that night (and they also may have spaced telling me they wanted it cablecast, but we all aren't sure how it happened). Regardless, I got a call five minutes before it was scheduled to start and managed to get there, get set up and go live only ten minutes late, so everyone was happy and even apparently suitably impressed. I've never been given a public ovation for screwing up before! It think it was one of those mutual screw-ups anyhow, but I digress... quantumswordsmn and chenoachem had planned to visit that night one last time before leaving. They called while I was producing the meeting and I felt bad that I had to hang up on them and shut off the phone, but it was one of those awkward "in the middle of a meeting and forgot to turn off the phone" moments. Fortunately I was almost done, called them immediately after and found out they were already at our place with PW and visiting, but not for much longer. I rushed over and got to spend a little more time with them before they left. There were lots of bubbles and it was so wonderful to see the joy Helena had chasing them around. We took a quick walk over to Rite-Aid and on the way back I got to give her a ride on my shoulders which was precious. Have I mentioned I love kids?! Totally do! Sadly they had to leave, but it was so much fun to spend so much time with them while they were up. We missed them so much! It was really great of them to set aside so much of their week to visit with us. We both appreciated it so much!