Mishaps and other haps

Michael’s mom passed away around 1:00 this morning. We had all been at the hospice center until around midnight with Joe and Becky and Kim (Michael’s dad). Tom came in around 11 to stay there during the night and he and Kim were with Margot when she died. Kim called Michael around 7 this morning with the news. We all miss her a lot already.

After a week of in-home hospice care, Margot was moved into the hospice center Monday night. Althea has been writing multiple daily updates about the situation here.

Alice and I plan to go with Michael to visit her tonight.

Oh what a beautiful morning!

It’s not raining!

PhysOrg is hopping outside to mow for the first time in … several weeks. I can’t remember how long it’s been. Between the fairly constant rain the past few weeks and all of us being out of town a couple of weekends, there really hasn’t been opportunity and suddenly we’re looking like neglectful homeowners.

There was a lot of flooding in Wisconsin and Ohio this past week and just west of us there was quite a bit of damage to homes and property. One main subject of conversation at work this week revolved around the topic of flood insurance and how normal homeowners’ insurance doesn’t typically cover flooding. People who live on flood plains (near inland bodies of water) are generally informed that they need to buy flood insurance, but it sounds like many who aren’t considered to be in that type of area have been affected by flooding this week.

Another topic of conversation this week (and next week, I suspect) revolved around the strange evacuation notification that played quietly on the intercoms Thursday morning, followed by the announcement that there was no fire situation in our building, followed by some e-mails detailing how sprinkler systems on two floors of the adjacent building had activated unexpectedly and damaged the cafeteria, which will not be re-opening until after Labor Day.

We’ve been busy in the evenings this week, starting some weeknight games and having dinner with friends. Last night we kicked back, ordered a ton of Chinese food, and PhysOrg and I ran Karazhan with our guild while Mlitiagrl hung out upstairs with her laptop and something televisiony.

I checked on the garden this morning. It seems to be doing OK despite the drought conditions earlier in the summer and the huge amount of rain that has fallen in August. I expect it is a bit bewildered, but that hasn’t prevented the odd tomato from ripening, so there was one more to pluck today. It seems that a rabbit has found our squash, but I think I am going to leave the damaged goods on the vine for the moment, perhaps to tempt the rabbit away from the small green pumpkin snuggled between sticky pumpkin leaves.

Local entomologists are predicting mosquitoes to be worse in the next few weeks because of flooding. This is sad news, as Mlitiagrl and I have been bitten every time we’ve attempted to take a five-minute peek at the garden the past few weeks.

I have promised to cook French toast and sausage while PhysOrg is out mowing and I just heard the lawnmower crank up, so I am going to go upstairs and start slicing the bread.

We arrived back at the house this afternoon after the APT weekend. We tried our best to make it through the two plays Saturday, but “Night of the Iguana” was cancelled due to rain just after intermission. The rain continued through the afternoon and we arrived for “Timon of Athens” only to find that it was also cancelled. We had thunderstorms through the night and woke up this morning to find it was still raining.

PhysOrg’s mom has not been doing well this week and we received an e-mail over the weekend from his older sister about what’s going on right now with her health and care. I encourage people who know the family to take a look here for updates. It’s a very hard time right now and we are all thinking of Margot and her family.

We had a very dry summer until about the time I returned from Florida. Since then, we’ve had quite a few rainy days. I have no idea how close we are to catching up on our water deficit, but I haven’t had to do much in the way of watering the garden lately and the tons of little green tomatoes out back have started ripening at a fairly steady pace. This week, Mlitiagrl has tried her hand at making fried green tomatoes with some of the stragglers growing along the ground and that was a pretty worthwhile endeavor.

The arrival of rain has something to do with the fact that the grass is growing again … the lawnmower did not want to crank tonight when PhysOrg attempted to mow … and there is some muddy seepage in the basement that we may need to investigate further. My old car detests both the heat and the wet– it chokes and chirps and eventually gives up and runs mostly well.

Small nuisances.

We had a wonderful time last Friday night hosting the Guffeys’ Science Fiction/Fantasy Film Fest. Four movies and four episodes of Doctor Who put us at a 3 or 4 AM bedtime on Saturday morning, but we completed the entire fest in one night!

A trip to the Bristol Renaissance Faire happened later on Saturday, but PhysOrg and I opted out of that one. I love the Renaissance Faire, but I ended up in the first aid tent twice one year due to heat exhaustion. Therefore, I at least *try* to avoid making the trip on very hot, humid days.

On Sunday, we made some steps toward getting our D&D game back on its feet, with the addition of Mr. Guff and Artie. In an impulsive gaming fit, we made an excellent start at reviving Mr. Guff’s mage school game on Wednesday, so we officially have a weeknight game up and running now, too. How many months has it been since that was the case? There are plans in the works for adding a weeknight Shadowrun game soon.

This weekend, the plan is to spend time with people out at Aldebaran Farm and see some wonderful plays at APT. I am taking insect repellant because … it is the wet season here.

Cleaned off the back deck today: Animal bits. Maybe intestines? Possibly dropped by a flying predator? Very likely pieces of some small bird.

The new Fitchburg Super Target lacks: Onion dip. More than two brands of rice. A soul.

The week has flown by and I have been fairly busy every evening.

I am looking forward to spending some time with friends and kitties this weekend

I have Texas Roadhouse to thank for tonight’s perfectly medium-well, melt-in-your-mouth 6 oz. Dallas Fillet. Yes, it is a chain restaurant, but they do cook steak very well.

My sister swears by Roadhouse Grill but it’s just not the same. The meat is a little tougher, the skill in cooking it to the ordered doneness is slightly off.

Our household had dinner tonight after we picked up Mlitiagrl from the airport, ending her ten day assault on visit in Canada.

While PhysOrg suffers through endless Warsong Gulch matches tonight, I thought I would update.

The past couple of weeks have been busy. JoZEr has been in town visiting. We’ve seen Artie and Guffey here and there and they looked in on the kittens last weekend when we went to Jack’s with PhysOrg’s family.

Jack lives in a farmhouse right beside the Wisconsin River (also practically a stone’s throw from the Mississippi River). It was a rainy weekend for the most part, so on Saturday we took a sight-seeing trip by ferry across the Mississippi into Iowa. We stopped at several scenic spots, ate at Iowa’s Oldest Restaurant (Breitbach’s Country Dining in Balltown, est. in 1852), and shopped in the town of McGregor. Delicious food was prepared and eaten all weekend and card games and Trivial Pursuit were played. Gruntac, PhysOrg and I left on Sunday before the postponed float event got underway, but reports say that people had a good time.

The guys roughed it in tents during the thunderstorm outside on Saturday night, but the heartier sleepers slept through it and others caught up on their sleep Sunday. We desperately needed rain and the storms over the weekend and at the beginning of this week have put an end to the long dry spell we’ve been having this summer.