Today, Sunday, was such a wet, drizzly day.A good day to do homework and housework and stay indoors and watch football. Except that Allison had to get up early this morning to serve mass. She was quite surprised to share the job with another high school girl(the boy scheduled with them did not show up or get a substitute). Allison also had a pasta party Sunday night to get ready for their first Field Hockey game scheduled Monday night. The team captain invited all the girls to her house(italian family) so her mom could cook up an enormous batch of pasta-all kinds including meat and shrimp sauces. I was just excited to get a homemade cannoli when I picked up Allison! But Sunday was a far cry from the activities we participated in on Saturday!
If you may recall, I mentioned my plans to participate in the Catholic Charities Dragon Boat races on Saturday, and I did! I had to be to the Baltimore Harbor at 630am for registration and team photos and to watch the sun come up and freeze and drink coffee. Then our first boat race was at 815am. The race is across the harbor, the length of 4 football fields(wow)! Our time was not too bad-1min 48secs. We had 3 more races that day and our worst time was 1 min 51secs. The winning teams had 1 min 35 secs. We also had a hat decorating contest and a chant contest during the day. And there was a special ceremony for 9/11 and the mayor of Baltimore who was also paddling on a team made a speech along with a blessing from one of the bishops. It was a pretty warm day, and I ran out of the house without my sunscreen so I got a bit toasty. Fortunately, all the paddlers got free beer after the race so I was quite comfortable. And our Team Tent was pitched in the volleyball sand pits, so I felt like I was at the beach! It was quite an experience-I just wish the family could have made it. Tom and Scott were off hiking through the woods that morning with the scouts so they didn't get home in time. I tried to talk Allison into coming down with me at 6am but she preferred sleep(can't blame her).
She was just getting over the cold I gave her. She struggled through school last week with a stuffy head and upset stomach and lots of cold medicine. Fortunately she had Thursday off(jewish holiday) to get caught up on some rest and a ton of homework. The teachers sure have started out with a bang this school year. On Friday she had a quiz in every class plus homework that was due. At least they back off a bit on the weekends. There is just so much going on this fall-the English and Math teachers are trying to get the kids prepped for their PSAT test in early Oct(not much time). Allison did take some time out on Saturday to start selling Girl Scout cookies. She always does well on our street, even though we are surrounded by other up and coming girl scouts. People have been buying from Allison since she was little. So let us know if you'd like to donate some boxes of cookies to the US Troops-we like to donate them to the USO or drop them off to the soldiers at the Baltimore airport ourselves when the Troops come home.
Saturday night we celebrated my race with cheesecake at our neighbors house although I think I was falling asleep in my coffee. The kids were busy playing video games. A very long weekend.
I ended up working on Friday since I had taken Monday off. That made for a long day too. Tom had to get Allison to her piano lesson. I was supposed to go help set up our tent, but I just didn't get out of work on time.
We also visited Scott's school for Back to School night last week. Scott is in 5th grade and is very excited about this year. He is especially looking forward to a trip to Northbay camp for a full week of science and nature activities. I was quite surprised since this is the first time the school is sponsoring this activity and also since my company owned the camp! I have been trying to get the kids signed up there for years, it just never fit into our summer schedule. So naturally I asked for the week off of work to join them. I can use the time towards our mandatory volunteer hours at school and even get paid for part of the time from work for volunteering. I hope this is a good year for Scott. We are also getting back to his gymnastics and Cub Scouts. Next year Scott will graduate to Boy Scouts. Good thing I have lots of calendars, cause I am having trouble keeping up with everything!
A very Happy Birthday to Mike Bozyk! We hope you get a job offer as a birthday present! That would make for a special day!
I had to send this out late since I finally got Tom to sit down and help me download a few photos-two Dragon Boat pictures and Scott and Sammy at Comic Con. I will send more(if I remember the steps!)