Letchworth State Park, Sweetest Day

Yesterday was Sweetest Day, and since the weather was fantastic, we decided to treat us all and take a trip to Letchworth State Park, about 1 hour away from home.

The way that we traveled went through the town of Sheldon NY, the site of much angst in recent years because of these:
They are Wind Turbines. People who own the land get paid to have them in their property, wind energy is tapped in and turned into a commodity. You either love them or hate them. I suspect your feelings depend on whether you are are the receiving end of the paycheck or just have to look at these ugly things out your window. Some say they are loud, some say they kill birds, some say they interfere with normal migration of birds, insects, which in turn affect the ecosystem. etc. Some say they are a wonderful energy alternative that does not depend on foreign oil, but other nay-sayers talk about the need to use fossil fuel (oil or coal) to convert the wind energy to a usable form.

I think they look like a horizon on a foreign planet. I mean, you are driving along and What? There they are HUGE, at least several hundred feet, and bright white. They are placed in farm fields, near a high elevation, to maximize wind-catching.

We have had 6-8 wind turbines along Lake Erie that you can see when driving to Downtown Buffalo-they take advantage of the wind off of the lake. They were always a novelty, but not too intrusive, they are in a mixed area which is mostly industrial, but still has some homes-we should ask those people if they are bothersome.

I think having these THINGS right in the middle of a beautiful rolling hills vista is too bad. But again, I am not a down on your luck, barely making ends meet farmer, and these things do benefit them. So who am I to judge what means are used to survive?

SGrandson was with us, and he happens to be studying Wind Turbines in Technology Class, so he reeled off the names of the components, and we printed up some pictures for him to take to his class tomorrow.

But, the opening act of the Wind Turbines was nothing as compared to the headliner-Letchworth State Park and all the countryside along the journey. The trip is to be enjoyed, not just a method from A to B. The hills show so many different views, "as far as the eye can see".
When we arrived in Letchworth State Park (named after William Pryor Letchworth from Buffalo NY-this was his summer home!) there are so many places to see the beautiful gorge with the many types of trees-this variety is what gives the scenes so much beauty0different trees-different shades of color. Most of the Maple Trees have lost their leaves there, which usually account for the deep red color, but enough leaves still remained on the trees to make your senses pop. Letchworth State park is known as the "Grand Canyon of the East".

Looking at the license plates on the cars in the park will give you an idea of how popular this beautiful park is.

These next two pictures are from the Letchworth web site.

This is my header for the month-I have used pictures from my trip to Italy for a year, now it will be nature photos for the next 12 months.
Here is a picture that has a bonus,

SHusband and SGS spotted a hawk floating over the gorge-I had the camera and could not track the hawk, so SGS took the camera and ran off. See in the middle-just to the left, above the shade line, with the light colored rock as a backdrop? That black speck is the hawk. SGS was very proud of this picture, and he put it on his facebook account.

The cute couple:

Here is a picture of my guys-notice they are all wearing clothing to reflect their interests.

These are some other shots of the area.

And these are rocks making up the way-too-low retaining wall that keeps people from tumbling down into the ravine: 550 feet below. These rocks were originally in a river bed.

SH said the wave patterns are Ripple Marks from Turbidity Currents formed when water movement causes disturbance of the material at the bottom of a body of water, then this material is covered with other material, and the pattern underneath is hardened, and presto, 350 million years later, we are looking at them! Someone nicely collected them and put them in the border fence for all to see.
The park is also know for having an incredible Restaurant/Hotel called "The Glen Iris Inn" (see above), very sheshe, elegant place. Big verandas overlooking the breath-taking falls. If you want, you can rent a room upstairs there and wake up to the sound of the falls-I have done that. This was the home of Mr. Letchworth. It is bright yellow and very well maintained, with unique gardens. This is a destination wedding venue for many couples.

They also have a marvelous museum-we could not find a handicapped entrance. And, they have a train trestle in the southern end of the park-some stupidos actually go up there to prove that they are invincible-duh!

Also, there is a HOT AIR BALLOON RIDE available-can you imagine what that must look like??? Pass, I am way too chicken for that.

SGS gave me a present for sweetest day of two fused acorn tops that look like a heart since he knows I collect them, and for his Grampa-he found two pieces of flint-you know the rocks you smack together to start a fire (note, do not attempt this in the house, or your grandfather who never yells at you will be very stern with you).

For Sweetest Day, SS gave me some coconut candy-nice surprise, and my guys all got treats from me. My gift from SH was his ability to go yesterday, and to make it up the hill to see the Mary Jemison display at the Park-the last time we went he was not able to. I know it was hard for him (and the fahkockatah wheelchair lift did not work at home, so he had to use the steps with SS carrying the walker up and down the steps for him-I will make another very upset call to company again tomorrow), and we had a struggle going back down the hill to the car, we should have brought the wheelchair, because even though he can sit on his walker, he did not have enough strength to hold up his legs so that we could push him down to the car. I know he was tired-BUT, not too tired to have some big desserts at a restaurant we returned to from a visit about 4 years ago. It is in Perry NY, called "John and Sarah's" 127 N. Center St. (Route 246) 14530 (for those using their GPS).

It is small, with big, tasty hamburgers, as verified by SS and SGS:

SH and I shared one bowl of soup and a sandwich-I know some people thing this is disgusting, but it works for us-we both wanted dessert, and we had our own spoons:

SGS/double chocolate cake which he could not finish (trust me, he did later that night):

SS/Peanut Butter Chiffon Pie(trust me, it was there):SH/Peanut Butter Chiffon Pie (trust me, he did finish it):

SME/Coconut Cream Pie (trust me, I ate most of it, but it was finished by SH, that is why the plate is nestled next to his plate):
Trust me, we had fruit, veggies and yogurt for supper.

On the way home, we did a pumpkin stop for SGS:

My SFamily has gone to Letchworth State Park for many years, since Matkas's birthday is in October. This year, we can only give her fall flowers.

Print now framed.

A time back,in July, Matka was at assisted living, and they had a class which she took and did very well at. She came in 3rd place, and she gave the original to one of the recreation department workers who asked for it. I took her picture:

She was very proud, as well she should be.

Slow forward to today, 2 months and 4 days after her death, and on my wall I have:

In the lower left corner in the frame, is a print of the original photo which I took with her and her painting.

Out of the generosity of my SNephew#1 in California (do you remember the 4 Generation picture which I posted? He was the baby), I have a print of that painting. He downloaded the picture that I took, and went to Staples Office Supply store. His copy is hanging in his living room, and now my copy is in my dining room, and many others will soon be on display because he sent a very generous amount of prints up here.

And, because SSister#1 is wonderful at finding bargoons-frame, print trimming and all that goes with it to be ready to hang on the wall was done for a pittance at Hobby Lobby.

Thank you to everyone who made this possible. It is very comforting to see that connection to Matka.

If one cat is good................

So listen, you have all met Boo Boo Marie:

Well, when we got her from the SPCA , she came from a home with three cats, and she was a lively little thing, climbing, jumping, all that energetic stuff. I am not saying all of it was good-a cat jumping from a high place onto you is not necessarily a thing to be desired. But then she started sleeping all day-not interested in playing too much. Eat and sleep.

SOOOOOOOOOO, I thought, maybe she needs a playmate, she misses her previous cat family. SHusband was on board, I mean after you buy the food and litter, one more cat is not too much more work. (Remind me of that phrase later SFriends.)

So, we went online to the same SPCA site and found this sweet lap cat, 8years old,male, neutered, declawed and very friendly-it said.

The next day I called to speak to the man (Michael) who had Cody at his store as an off-site adoption location. He loooooved this cat, cat got along great with the other 5 cats which he kept at the store, blah, blah, all good. You can tell that he sincerely like Cody. I called SPCA, since we had gotten BOO BOO Marie recently, we did not need to reapply-I just had to give my drivers license #??? OK???. I went to pick him up that afternoon.

The location was down/up(?) on Elmwood Ave in Buffalo-I am familiar with that area, having lived on that same street-but down a zillion miles and a lifetime away, and also having worked downtown on and off during my work life. And, I used my GPS-always have plan B ready.

I was so excited to be there, I noticed a parking meter-a
bizillion years since I used one of those-what fun! I could pretend that I was a sophiscated uptowner just doing my daily stuff, poppin' coins in the meter. How pathetic am I?? Don't answer.

I did not want to carry the empty cat carrier, my purse (new-very large but so adorable) and a small mum plant for Michael, so I left it all in the car and put the money in the meters. Then I opened the door, then I tried to open the door, then I nearly peeshawed my mudonies-I locked the car with the keys, the phone, the emergency spare key, all inside. You know how old I am, but really this is the first time in my life that I have locked my keys inside. One time, around 30 years ago, my car key fell off my key chain somehow, so after that I kept a spare key in my wallet-no help today however.
So, I had to walk into this store and look like a responsible person who should be given this *&*^& cat, and oh, by the way, I locked everything in the car, would you mind calling AAA for me?

Michael could not have been nicer, in the middle of doing business he stopped and took care of it for me. They came in about 20 minutes, and this 12 year old popped the door in less than 5 minutes. I kept repeating to him that I never did this before, so he wouldn't think that I was an addled old lady who should not be on the road, and take away her license, and her AAA membership and put her away someplace to watch soap operas all day. He kept nodding his head and smiling-a polite young man.

So, after I proved to Michael that I was who I said I was-I guessed the reason for the drivers lis # is to make sure I was not someone who has been known to sell cats for experiments, etc (a multiple cat adoption rule maybe?), he and his sweet assistant packed up Cody. This lady was very fond of Cody and was saying soft things in his ear. Michael carried him out to the car, I gave him the thank you fall Mum and we were on our way home. He talked to me the whole way, I called SSon to have him hear Cody talking and that he was on the way, so SS would see him when he got home.

I came in the house with this verrry heavy cat in the box-no wonder Michael carried him for me-what a kind man. I opened the box to show Boo BOO Marie, and she went nuts-hissing, baring her teeth. Oh crap.

Cody slinked away and hid, coming out periodically to find food and water and jump on SH's lap-this is day one,

but whenever BBM saw him, she repeated her previous welcome to him.

This went on for days, one time she jumped on our bed-formerly her bed before HE came, but now the only place C spent his time if not under the bed. When she was just getting comfy on her blanket-she noticed him! Hissing, etc started. What a pain in the coulou she was being.
See her spinning when she noticed him near the pillows-a true action shot:

This went one for three days, then BBM went for her routine checkup at the Vets-and had the bjesus scared out of her by the BIG dogs. She became very quiet and docile, even when I brought her home. AND, C saw his opening. Now, he is the snarly one, and she is slinking away. This went on for two days, and she decided that she had enough, so now they are each fighting for territory dominance. No they do not keep each other company, no they do not play together, no they are not BUDS. They will occasionally have a truce and sit near each other.

But most times, they hate each other. They have not made contact, just some horrible screeches and showing of teeth and swipes in the air with their missing claws. Sigh.

Last night, C was sleeping on my feet, and around 5am, BBM jumped up on the bed-C stood up slightly, and then just laid back down, sleep winning over war.

BBM then settled down on my back until I got up a few hours later. I was so happy, maybe the wars were over? I fed them, putting a little aside for him to eat in a different area since today they both wanted to eat at once. All was serene. Then, while I was reading the morning paper, it all ended. He HAD to sit on the end of the couch where she was-jiminees, we have this huge couch-room for 50 cats, I coaxed him to come sit near me for a millisecond, but then he just walked away in disgust. They are spending the day stalking each other, never approving of where the other one is, BUT WAIT, there is good news-today, they both used the cat door that we have had for 2 weeks and needed to prop open because the two nitwits were too lazy to push the plastic door open. We tried putting them through, giving them treats, you name it. I was just whining about it to my SFriend this morning, that it seems a waste of money, then when I got home, they each came through-I think BBM shamed C into doing it. Whateva! They are using it.

So, all in all, our so affectionate lap/chest cat,

who we also found out is a neck cat-here with SDaughter,

is deciding what role he will have, beside being the sweetie little lap cat that he is and our sweet little quiet fur ball
is deciding how she can kill him-without actually touching him. So, she is more active, and so are we-chasing them to their corners.

Today is an honor and a memory

We put this in our paper today from the entire family, and will be attending a Mass at a local Basilica where she will be remembered. This is all surreal, how could we not be making plans to take her out today to celebrate her birthday? How is this possible? Thank God for her and that we will be together today to help each other get through this next step in the "firsts without her".

Yesterday was a big deal.

I am 62, and I am the youngest of the kids. Matka called SBrother#2 the baby, but age wise, I got that title. I only mention my age to put the following in perspective.

Yesterday was the first time in my life that the family got together for a meal that did not include Matka. How can that be? How can we manage that? How will we be able to make it though without crying? Well, we did manage, we did talk, we did eat, we did cry. All of it was needed.

We had some details to take care of, some pictures to look at. Some hugs and kisses to get again.

We met at SB#2's home which faces the waterfront. Lovely relaxing view and since the sibs are all "water people", we found it a perfect environment. Our wonderfully supportive spouses and partners who are such an integral part of our family-we don't like to think of them as "in-laws or out-laws" were with us. They are all family and we would not be where we are today without their love and support.

Everyone brought things to add to the meal, some wine, pop, water and beer were enjoyed along with the snacks, and then we had a nice shared meal, and plenty 'O desserts. SHusband was very happy.

My contribution was a pasta e fagioli soup (pasta and beans)-a new recipe. It had a bit too much kick for my liking, I added a little sugar in the morning (SGrandma Viviani used to add sugar or baking soda to her sugu (spaghetti sauce-I am sure I misspelled that) if it was too bitter or acid, so I thought I would try her trick. It brought the heat down a smidge. Some said it was good, but SSister#1 and I agreed that it was too hot for us. Next time I will cut the hot pepper flakes from 1/2 tsp to 1/4 tsp.

Here is the recipe-it is from Wegmans-a verrrry nice grocery store in the area.

Those pen scratchings are my changes, I decreased the beans, spinach and onions and increased the carrots and tomatoes. I think if you right click and save picture to your files-it should be larger print for you.

So, we got through our first real emotional event, more "firsts' are quick on the horizon-Matka's Birthday is in 3 days. We will be together again, and again, it will be sad, but we will get through it, pulling her love of us to each other as the string that binds us.

Here we are in December 1968.

Toliet Paper brides

I went to a Bridal shower today for a family member on SHusband's side. And, SSister-in-law who really does not go out much because she is a full time caretaker for her wonderful SHusband, was able to ride with me because her son was with his dad for 2 hours. So nice to spend time with her. It was a very efficient but yet nice shower-sometimes these two qualities do not go hand in hand, but they managed to pull it off.
They had a breakfast shower, so all the yummy breakfast foods were there and some very good decaf coffee. And for dessert, they had cheesecakes and homemade Italian cookies-just like the kind Matka used to make. Their favors were white chocolate suckers in a tiered wedding cake mold, or regular chocolate in double/connected heart mold. My Shusband got the favor and the Italian cookies when I got home-he lives for sweets.

And they had some fun quick games, the first were 10 wedding day scrambled words, and then a new one to me-Wedding Shower Gift Bingo. You are given a blank bingo card, and you fill in all the squares with the name of possible shower presents, then as the gifts are open, they call out the name of the gift, and you mark it off on your sheet if you have that gift listed. If you fill the entire card, you win. I guess I am way out of the loop for what brides are getting now. I picked the usual sheets, towels and the kitchen things which I have, but the things that she got were mandolin(slicer), pasta bowl dishes, porch awning (???), lotsa picture frames and wall hangings. I was no where near a full card. But it was fun. The gift opening went smoothly with 5 ladies including the bride handling the 70 plus gifts. One nice thing they did was to leave the wrapping on until it reached the head table. Sometimes, you go to all that trouble to wrap something nicely, and then a bridesmaid rips it off before the bride even sees it. Today, someone loosened the wrapping, and the brides mother pulled the card off and handed it to the bride who did the final opening etc, and then it got handed down the line where someone recorded it, packed the card, shipped it on to be completely boxed/bagged again and stacked. Loved it.

The cute game that the title of today's blog mentions is, each table had three rolls of toilet paper, 5 minutes to fashion a wedding dress for someone at your table. We were lucky enough to have an adorable 10 year old at her first ladies shower and she was happy to be the bride. Isn't she just too cute?

And here is the Toilet Paper Bride Group Picture. The winner caught a bouquet from the bride. The sweet lady on the far right was in her 80's-a great-Aunt of the bride-to-be. They made her a sheath dress, and then she needed to

walk to the front-which she did-with teeny-tiny little steps-do you see her train?

It was a nice time with family, and all in 2 hours.

I am sure that if Matka was at this shower, she would have volunteered to be the toilet paper bride-she was a fun lady.

Here she was as Bride with husband #2

And then with husband #3.

No pictures from husband #1. even though she was married to the same man in two different cities in probably less than a week, no pictures survived. The Irish side of the family/husband did not acknowledge the wedding in the Eyetalian Catholic Church, so they made the couple get married in the pure Irish Catholic Church-which was totally against all church policy-you can't get the sacrament of marriage vows twice to the same person-but what the Irish family wanted they got. At least that is the way it was explained to me.

It's Raining, It's Pouring, and I'm Lovin' It!

So Listen, the reason I am loving the rain-and it is a hard- "I mean business " rain, is because we planted a Matka tree and I have been watering it to make sure it takes. But, what it really needed was a "Trash-moving and a Gulley-washer" rain. You know, the kind that washes your car so you don't have to. The kind that cleans the dirt off the driveway so you don't have too. The kind that messes up the window that you washed yesterday-well at least it was only one window.
The Matka tree is really called a Crimson King Norway Maple.

The leaves are kind of purplish, and since she loved purple, I thought it would be an appropriate tree.

I also was lucky to find some plants for sale called Colchicum or Autumn Crocus because they bloom in the fall only. See how pretty they are?

I renamed them the DuBois flower because about 12 years ago, Myself, SHusband, SMatka and SSister#1 took a road trip for SM's birthday back to her hometown in Western Pennsylvania. We were driving near her last homestead there and had to stop to take a picture of the street sign-well, you do remember that SH is the town Historian where we live-and that his mantra is "Document everything!" . So anyway, at that corner was a planting of these Colchicum that really interested us all. We took pictures of course, and have wondered about them, never seeing any for sale. Last week, I was driving SSon home and went down a street that I try to avoid-it has too many twists and turns, and I don't like how many times I have had to get out of someones way that crossed over to my side in the road. Have you picked up that I am always trying to be proactive to prevent accidents?

Do not say the anal word! It is what it is.

So, driving down this street, I suddenly see a front yard sale with these plants in pots! I turned down the first cross-street, doubled back and flew out of the car. OK, in my mind I was flying-work with me here.

I purchased three, and the nice lady gave me instructions about them, etc. Do not plant if you have dogs or cats in your yard or little kids that would be attracted to it-they are poisonous.

I immediately planted mine when I got home, saving one for SS#1. Mine are OK, but the bloom lifespan is short, so the blooms are now hugging the ground.

Can you see two little bursts of purple near the soil?

But I think they will do OK. So the purple-leaved tree now has purple flowers! Goal accomplished.

Can you tell I am doing better today? I still cry because I miss Matka, but I am trying to focus on how lucky I am to have had someone in my life that was so bigger than life-and that statement covers it all. Life could not contain Matka, so even after she is gone, she is alive in my heart and mind and it is great to have these bizillion memories.

I am not saying that I am la, la, la, happy, happy. Her birthday is coming in a few weeks, so that will be really hard, but, I am saying that I am trying to smile at the memories instead of feeling pain. Trying is a process, but I am going for it.

Thank you to all who have supported me in this life lesson. And especially you Matka. Here she is in her final residence-she said she was living like a Queen. Can you see how happy she is in this picture? I can..............

Ist Anniversary Blogging

Today, September 12th is the date that I composed and posted my first blog in 2009. It was Hello World and I did not even know enough to give the post a title.

So many moments have entered this thing I call my life these past 12 months. All have been important, even the painful ones. The painful ones teach you so much about yourself. I never thought I would experience such pain when my SMother died. I try to be very strong, efficient, helpful, and this has just been unbearable at times. I have been given so much support from family and friends, but really, I am not ready to give up the pain I guess because I have been unable to go one day without seeing or thinking about something that reminds me of her and the painful tears and tightness in your throat begins. When the gasping breathing begins, I have to just force myself to stop. People have suffered more than me when they lost a loved one, imagine losing a child or a parent who was young or a loved one at the hands of another person. How do they survive, how do they get out of bed?

OK, I am back now. I just needed to take a break, get back on track, but I will not delete what I just entered. It is too much a part of me.

The happy pieces are so wonderful-Imagine how blessed I am to have a SHusband whom I truly love and guess what? He loves me too and tells me multiple times each day. I am blessed to have a smart, kind SDaughter who realized her dream of getting her teaching degree this year. I am blessed that she also is in a loving relationship, just what parents want for their beloved children. I am oh so blessed to have SSon who makes me laugh, helps us out, and brings so much into our lives. Please Buffalo Sabres Hockey Team, would you win the Stanley Cup this year as a personal thank you to SS for being such a loyal fan? Please, Please. OK, thanks.

I am blessed to have a wonderful SFamily-my birth family and my family though marriage (both marriages!!). How do people survive without the help of those that love them?

And my SFriends? Well, you try making it through life without the give and take of support that only true friends can offer.

And, we have the luxury of no bills, no car payments, no mortgage, retired, so no job insecurity, and enough funds to share modestly with others.

So, yes I am blessed. And everyday I do not take this lightly, but focus on what I have.

As a gift to celebrate with my readers, first we have:

This is a plum or Italian plum or prune, whatever you know it as. SH and I are always on the lookout for heart-shaped things, and this one caught my eye, so I am giving it to you, well, actually I already presented it to him, so you just get to see it and not enjoy eating it. I tried to crop it in closer, but it changed from being heart-shaped to resembling a big coolou. Do you remember? That is a term we use in my SFamily to mean fanny? It is pronounced just as it looks, and is actually a fun word to say-try it a few times. Coolou, coolou, coolou.

Your next gift is a favorite recipe-including my little notes. It is easy, and when you defrost the tomatoes to put in sauce, soup, chili, goulosh, whateva the smell of the vinegar is really wonderful.

This is the Red Wine Vinegar that I use. It is low acid (7.5%), and the label calls it "Robust Flavor". I think those are important things to look for when you pick a red wine vinegar for this recipe. I use freezer containers and wrap in foil for extra frost protection.

I have been thinking of making them all week, not motivated, but today it hit me, so I went to a local farm store, bought the beautiful tomatoes, and when washing them in a better light than the farm store, they looked way too yellow. Yellow does not work well with this recipe. You need red, ripe, but not soft-mushy for them to break down well. So, after washing, I decided to put them out for a few more days of ripening. Not all of them fit onto my kitchen windowsill, but I thought they looked nice. I took a picture..............

then the incremental avalanche started. Now, I only have what will stay up there without jumping into the sink-the first to fall actually broke a few leaves off of my African violet plant-how dare they!

So, your next gift is my gratitude for being faithful, supportive and kind in your comments to me, written and verbal. I was afraid I was going to be blasted as I have seen on other blogs-with a harsh comment some faceless entity choose to make.

But you just keep coming back, as my counter shows, and I appreciate your faithful presence. May God Bless you, and continue to give me no more

than I can handle.

I hate Concrod grapes today.

I love concord grapes. They are only out a certain time in the fall, and not everywhere. They are grown north of where I live, and every year, the first one to find them buys some for the girls to share. The girls are Matka and her three daughters. We all love them, we usually don't find them until near Matka's Birthday on October 7th when middle sister is home for the birthday festivities.

Today, I bought some, and could not wait to bring some to Matka.

I hate concord grapes.

Sweet Son's Summer Swim Swansong

This is how SSon loves to spend the summer-wet!

And this summer he has been able to go swimming quite often. The place he goes most often is Darien Lake State Park (the one that was closed all last year due to some "never-happened-before-we hope-to-fix-it-soon" 2009 mantra).

He gave me official notice last weekend that today, Labor Day would be the last day which they are open for the season. That is serious-that means summer is over.

I tried very hard to make his last week a swimming week-he went 4 times, but I honestly would have taken him more if we would not have had rain-this activity had an expiration date, so all efforts were towards swimming.

Then the weekend happened: Friday-rain, Saturday rain and COLD, Sunday (today), COLD.

All weather reports said that this was going to be THE BEST DAY OF THE WEEKEND! Warm, hot even, in the 80's.

At 7:30 this morning it was 53degrees, and the heat went on here in the house (after I asked SHusband to nudge the thermostat).

I had a plan: I told SS that if he wanted to, I would take him swimming for 5 minutes so he can say that he went swimming on the last day of the season. Now most people would laugh and say are you kidding? He however saw the beauty in this idea. He gobbled down his breakfast while I tried to look for a Plan "B" to do after swimming to lessen the disappointment. I remembered that a local church has a noon BINGO game-that's it. He loves BINGO, we almost never go-it has been maybe 8-9 years since I last took him (Can you tell I hate it?). So, as a remembrance of SMom, who loved BINGO, I thought we would go there after the min-dip. Just to be sure, since that is what I am all about-I called the Church, bothered the man who answered (probably the Reverend-yikes), apologized for bothering him, but just wanted to see if there was BINGO today-no luck, no BINGO. While SS was brushing his teeth, I went online to a site called http://www.bingoplanner.com and there is a list for all of the Western New York BINGO Parlors (isn't that a neat name, BINGO Parlor-like a formal place you would visit, like the front parlor in a fancy house). The only place that had a Monday afternoon BINGO Game in WNY was the place which I just called. DRAT.

While driving to the lake, we discussed other options, and another favorite activity of his is to GO TO THE MALL! I hate malls as much as he loves them.

So, that was the plan. THEN.... he remembered that he did not bring his fanny pack-one of those things that you wear to a sporting event for your wallet, etc.

Well, it is his security fanny pack, he wears it everywhere but swimming, didn't bring it today because he only brings his I.D. some cash and his cellphone for swimming, and I did not mention that I was working on a Plan B. H was sure we should turn around and go home to get it, but this was not my plan, A, B or C. Once I am out, I am out. I told him that he could either go home after swimming or put his things into the pocket of his shorts that he brought for after swimming-BUT, he brought those sporty shorts-pull-on, no pockets. Are you kidding me, who makes shorts without pockets????

When all seemed lost (notice I did not say I could just go home and get his fanny pack, which to some was an obvious solution to avoid a meltdown), I had another idea-I would just stop at a Dollar General Store and buy him some shorts with pockets-genius!

Dollar General had their fall line out-no shorts, none, nada, zilch. Are you kidding me again? So, I bought a cute top for SDaughter and some pants for SS.

We had the bad news, good news conversation in the car. From the look on his face, you would have thought I just told him that his favorite hometown hockey team was moving away. Oh no, pants, no, I can't wear pants in the summer, ......

Then it was time for tough-mama: you can either go to the mall wearing pants or go home, and if you choose to wear pants, you will not pout. Worked like a charm.

He went swimming, he went to change his clothes, and this is how he walked to the car:

I laughed so hard, I could hardly breath, what a fun guy he is. His Plan B was win-win for everyone-we had a lot more laughs today together.

Here is a picture of Matka in her swimsuit. Wasn't she adorable!