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This evening Lake Saint Louis hosted the fourth summer concert of the season. It was a Hawaiian themed evening and the first act was a troupe (ok, troupe isn't the right word--but I don't know what is. Tribe?) of Hawaiian dancers. They ranged in age from 3 to 87 and they were very good. Lovely Wife, Boo-Boo and I really enjoyed the music and the dancing. Some of the residents really bought into the whole Hawaiian thing. Many were on their boats enjoying the evening. One boat in particular was equipped with a lighted palm tree and a tiki bar. Afterwards, Trilogy performed. They played everything from Glenn Miller to Martina McBride to (think of something really hep and modern. Think man!) something really hep and modern. Needless to say, a good time was had by all.
Summer is rapidly drawing to a close. The days are getting noticeably shorter, the tomatoes have just about played out, and the kids are back in school. We were able to capture the traditional back-to-school pictures of Lovely Daughter and BoyHead, although with varying degrees of success. L.D. is still cooperative, although she wasn't completely thrilled about the bus stop photo shoot. BoyHead, on the other hand, could not even spare ten seconds to stop, pose and smile. Meanwhile, Lovely Wife and her gang of hens had their annual back-to-school celebration.
Last weekend we celebrated the birthday of the matriarch of our family. Mother Dear (a.k.a. Bubbles, a.k.a. Boo-Boo) is now eligible for AARP membership--but doesn't she look great! My Lovely Daughter said that I look older than Boo-Boo. What a Lovely Daughter. L.D. and Cousin Abs made a beautiful cake. The really went to town on the icing--it was very festive. Needless to say, a good time was had by all.
Well, the cat's out of the bag. My daughter came home and found me watching the Gilmore Girls. Alone. I tried to explain that there was a commercial on ESPN and I was really watching the World Series of Poker, but she wasn't buying it. For one thing, I couldn't find the channel. Darn dish. Too many channels. Well, I guess I may as well admit it now. It's time to come out of the closet.
It all started innocently enough. I would stop working around 4 p.m. and Lovely Daughter would be camped out in front of the T.V. watching G.G. reruns. I'd sit for a bit--if only to catch up on L.D.'s doings. Soon I found myself paying attention to the show. I like the quick dialog, although, I usually feel like I'm about 10 seconds behind. If not for the commercials, I couldn't catch up. If you TIVO this show, you would have to pause regularly. Soon enough, I would make it a point to mosey by the family room around 4ish (not one minute later, or else I'd miss three pages of dialog). Eventually, I was watching reruns in the afternoons and the new episodes (on WB nothing's new, they're "fresh") on Tuesday nights. That's where the WSOP conflict arose.So now I'm free. No more pretending just to wander by. No more quickly changing the channel. I'm comfortable enough in my masculinity to openly confess: I like the Gilmore Girls. I care about the characters. I know them. I like them. I wish I could talk as fast as they can. Rory and Lorelei could give Dennis Miller a run for his money with their reparte and cultural references--although I've never heard either one of them refer to U. Thant. But, whatever. Call me a girly man if you like, but I know that you are just squelching your inner rapid-fire-chatty-gossip self. And don't worry. I'm not totally gone. It's not like I visit the Gilmore Girls Website or anything.
Sometimes it takes a power outage for a man to discover just how many candles these women buy. We've got more wax in our house than Madame Troussaud's. But until the lights go out, they're all perfectly invisible. I suppose our tapers are sufficient to last a month or more of continuous outages. So, to all you women tallow hoarders out there, I say Bravo!
For those of you who may think that working from home is like living the Life of Riley, allow me to disabuse you of that notion. Sure, it does have some advantages. The commute is quite easy and the traffic is generally light. I do save some significant ca-ching on petrol and on eating out. I can, to a certain extent, make my own hours. Working in your PJ's and slippers may have some allure, however, staying in your PJ's and slippers for days at a time gets a little, shall we say, unsavory. Sometimes, I go for three or four days without even leaving the house. Yippee, a trip to the Post Office. I'm living now. I do pretty well at separating my work time from my non-work time, but it's always there. Very near. In the next room. The room that is no longer part of my house, but is now part of my work. But at least I clean it all up on Friday afternoon. Or Saturday.
Now that we're back from the lake, we're avid birdwatchers. We've got the feeders set up. We bought a new bird bath. We're continuously scanning for new species. And, when I say we I mean Lovely Wife. Sure, I participate a bit, but I don't have the patience that is required for proper birding. I'm more of a throw-bread-at-the-ducks type of aviary enthusiast. Nevertheless, I was able to get a couple pics of a newly discovered species in our backyard. He's colored like a male cardinal, but has a large yellow beak and puffy plumage. He's sort of a discheveled cardinal--perhaps he's a bachelor.
![The lake house](05_lake_05.jpg")
Our tribe made the annual sojourn to Texas recently for our yearly vacation. This was my 20'th anniversary at the lake in Bowie. L.W. and I have been here each of our twenty years together. We play, relax, visit family, eat too much--all the usual vacation things. Lovely Daughter and BoyHead have great memories of the lake and this year was no different. One of the big highlights is skiing and tubing. We went nearly every day. We also played lots of tennis, cards and shuffleboard on the Lido Deck. Julie, our cruise director, kept our schedules busy. Isaac poured the libations and Gopher talked lots of politics. Captain Steubing kept on a steady course. Wow! Where did that come from? Perhaps it was the shuffleboard. Needless to say, a good time was had by all. Click here if you care to see the rest of the pics.