I say my brain is fried. I dropped SCott and his friend off for an end of the school year party at Allison's Sports club Friday night. They were supposed to have the run of the Sports Club complete with swimming, rollerblading, rock wall climbing, raquetball and pizza and door prizes. Unfortunately, I failed to see the small print that said the boys had to preregister the week before for the event. Scott and his friend made the best of it by spending the evening rollerblading and then came home for a sleepover and a movie.
I also managed to burn our Father's Day rib dinner. I had to make two batches and we were having dinner on Saturday night as Tom and Allison were headed down to her school Sunday afternoon to register for classes. I cooked dinner for Allison early since she had to work Saturday night. Tom was busy cutting the grass so I didn't get the ribs on the grill until late. I got distracted looking up prerequisite classes for Allison for the business school, and the next thing I knew Tom was ordering pizza to replace the charcoal briquettes that used to be ribs. How sad. Tom also spent Saturday morning buying new tires for my van. I did not realize how really bad they had worn down-guess that happens with All Wheel Drive more frequently. Thank goodness Costco had the tires in stock. There went my first pay check. At least I made it through work last week.
And I have been busy with last minute preparations for our trip, including calling the banks and picking up Euros for our tour guide tip money. Allison needed some supplies and clothes, plus a hair cut so I kept her busy Friday and Saturday afternoon. Allison worked Friday and SAturday night.She also finished her piano lessons for the year. And visited the nature center to look over the mounting system for her bird statues with the manager. He wants galvanized screws. I had hoped she would be getting the birds actually on the trees since she will be out of town now. Sadly, everyone was too busy to help her out from the nature center. It should not take too long to mount the birds once they decide where. Allison and I were also busy with our last girl scout choir performance at a local nursing home. Afterwards we had our business meeting and awards. The photo is a shot of all our Senior Girl SCouts in the the choir. Too bad they are talking about taking the choir to another level and looking to send girls to New York and overseas to perform in the future. Maybe Allison and I can chaperone!Scott was busy too with his boy scout award meeting. He entered the baking contest and submitted bacon brownie chocolate chip cookie dough bars. Yes bacon. Sadly he only took 3rd place but I think it was because none of the judges actually tasted them. They were surprisingly very good. Especially with ice cream and chocolate sauce/caramel sauce and whipped cream! The scoutmaster took the first taste! He had seconds! Scott also attended his Patrol Leader meeting. Since he is out of school I have put him to work on his badges as well. He will be going off to boy scout summer camp soon.
Tom was off to Chicago last week teaching a class. He did not have time to sight see but did enjoy watching the Blackhawks at a local bar in the Stanley Cup-last week's overtime ran until about 2am with 3 periods! Even Allison stayed up to watch! For Father's Day, we picked him up a WAshington's CApital's hockey polo shirt, even though they did not make the playoffs. He also got a new grilling book(maybe I should have read it!), some wine and steak jerky and a guide to local Baltimore restaurants. We never seem to know where to go out to eat when we are in Baltimore, or any of the history of the restaurants. Just an excuse to try new things, especially when guests come to visit! Anyhow, Tom liked his shirt the best! And he didn't even notice the bad weather they had in Chicago. They showed a photo of lightning hitting the Sears tower. And then all that bad weather hit us with a few small tornadoes in the area. Right when Allison was headed home from piano!
Tom spent his FAther's Day driving with Allison down to the Ocean and to her University. They had an all day parent/new student orientation that started at 8am on Monday. Early Monday morning I received an email that said Allison had been accepted into the Business Honors dorm. Only 24 students are chosen for this program out of 100s of applicants. She will live on a dorm floor with business students, and has a few classes in the dorm itself. By the end of the day she had her pre business classes set up for the Fall-Economics, Calculus, Computers, Information Systems, and World Civilizations. Tom was overwhelmed with info, and I think Allison was too. But most importantly, they both loved the food! And shopping at the bookstore. And shopping at the outlet mall. They also enjoyed a stroll down the boardwalk in Ocean City and caught the Superman movie.
It was more togetherness when Tom took Tuesday off to take Allison and her girlfriends, plus Scott to 6 Flags Amusement Park. Allison wanted to spend some time with her younger high school friends before she goes off to college. She was going to take them, but their moms wouldn't let Allison drive alone. So Tom chaperoned. Tom is not crazy about this park, and it was not the nicest day to visit the park. It rained most of the afternoon, and the park shut down at 4pm. Scott enjoyed trying out the waterpark though. And they did get all the big rollercoaster rides in since most everyone left early. Plus Allison tried out a new, scary rollercoaster-The Batwing(batman theme). And they came home early and watched a movie and had pizza. More time together than during the school year. By the way Susan, didn't I tell you that Water Country USA was the best water park I had ever been to? We got your phone message. Although Scott seemed to enjoy the water park at 6 Flags too.
So Allison and I are off on our Girl Scout Adventure to Europe on WEds. We will be returning home the following Friday. Be ready for lots of info and photos of London, Paris, Florence and Rome. Tom wants me to drive to the DC airport so we have a car handy when we get back(and so he does not have to deal with the DC beltway I think). I just wish they had flown us out of BWI, but I think the timing was not right to meet up with our group. It consists of girls from all over the country-mostly the west coast. Should be amazing. I even picked up some Maryland patches to swap with girl scouts at the World Headquarters in London. See you all soon!
