So I had the house all to myself last weekend. Tom and Scott headed off to Boston, MA for a long weekend to enjoy a Video Gaming Convention/PAX(Penny Arcade Expo). Scott's friends were attending and invited Scott along. They obtained tickets, but were not able to provide assist with transportation or a hotel. Most of the hotels were booked, and he was only able to obtain a ticket for Friday and Sunday admission. The tickets for Saturday and 3 Day Passes were already sold out. And this was all done last year! So Tom volunteered to go along and book a hotel room for both of them. Tom also had some free airline miles to use up, so they decided to fly(so much quicker than driving too). The convention is held 5 times a year all across the country in 5 different locations. So it turned out to be a kind of overdue Spring Break trip for Scott as well as making up for his cancelled choir trip to Chicago. Sounds like the two had a great time-both at the convention and touring Boston. Scott does not remember too much from our time living in Boston since he was just a toddler. So if they weren't at the convention trying out all sorts of new video games and hanging out with the UTube personalities, they were out and about the city. They stopped into an Open House at MIT while Tom restocked his MIT shirts. They also visited Faneuil Hall/Market for some clam chowder downtown and spent most of the day at the Science museum. Scott had a blast making a small boat in an engineering challenge and catching the indoor lightning show. I had free admission for them both with our Baltimore Zoo passes.

Just before he left, Scott turned in his NHS application. (He was the first one!) He won't hear back until next Fall. He also had a lot of tests to study for including an all day English standardized test that involved writing a paper. It actually rolled over into Friday, so he will have to finish the makeup test in May. He also squeezed in his guitar lesson and video game club meeting, plus boy scouts. He had some time to meet with his Eagle project counselor and start the paperwork. He has been working on a design and cost estimate for raised wheelchair accessible garden planters for my nursing home.

Allison caught up with me on Skype briefly. I was planning on visiting her Friday night. Salisbury University was hosting the Relay for Life cancer walk/run over the weekend, but Allison was busy hosting an end of the season Frisbee party. I had wanted to go out and support one of Allison's classmates and my previous girl scout whose mom recently died from ovarian cancer. Another fellow Girl Scout leader.I also thought it would have been cool if the team could have participated in the walk. But scheduling just did not work out. The Frisbee girls did not make the Finals Tournaments, but that was not such a terrible thing. It gives Allison more time to study and wrap up projects as she nears the end of her semester, scheduled for May 13th. Looks like she also finalized the paperwork for a summer internship at the Baltimore Chemical company managing accounts receivable. (I know she is going to miss Girl Scout camp!). But we are so excited she was able to find a position as it is a business school requirement.

So I had a whole weekend to schedule events for myself! I ended up spending the first day, Friday at the medical office. Seems like I neglected to make my own physical exams last year when I was busy running my parents around to their appointments. So my doctor decided to squeeze everything in on Friday.  I did a bit of running back and forth to the medical office. It wore me out. I spent the rest of the day on the couch. Not what I had planned, but necessary. On Saturday I thought I would take my mom out to a matinee to catch the Jungle Book movie. Instead, my co worker Anne asked me to join her for dinner and a movie. We ended up at the matinee to see God is Not Dead 2. It featured one of the christian rock bands that we saw at the concert in Baltimore. It basically revolves around a court case based on previous issues where religion is brought into question in the classroom setting. In this case, a teacher spoke about Jesus and his teachings in her AP History class when a student asked how He related to Ghandi or Martin Luther King. It was interesting. Afterwards we went out for crab cakes. On Sunday I started the day off singing with the Girl Scout choir at the yearly GS Earth Day Outdoor Event. The scouts set up different environmental booths at a local day camp to teach the girls about their environment in honor of Earth Day. Our GS choir usually puts on a singing seminar to teach troops some of the traditional campfire songs. Fortunately is a chilly but sunny day for standing out in the woods. The sight of the Day Camp has been slowly shrinking,  being surrounded by lots of housing. So it is strange to see so much wildlife left in one little area-including a Great Horned Owl's nest complete with a baby chick(the size of a full grown adult!). One of the vendors had a telescope so you could look up into the tree at the nest on a platform that the scout naturalist mounted. I figured all owls nested in trees and only came out at night. I guess not.  Turns out, we have a Great Horned Owl living in the woods near our house too. I can hear him hooting in the woods all the time. After the event, I picked up my mom so we could do some grocery shopping and then grill out for dinner at our house. So not a very exciting weekend, but relaxing. The weather was a bit rainy most days so I did not get much yard work done. Instead I spent some time indoors organizing our garage attic. I would have squeezed in some dog walking as well but it looks like I already wore Cookie out on walks when the weather turned nice. She was limping all weekend, so I made her rest as was previously recommended. Which means I had to rest cause she follows me all over the house!







PAX convention in Boston(AKA Lots of guys with no lives! Or too much extra time on their hands like my two guys.)

Scott playing a virtual reality video game

Chowder at the Barking Crab(lots of Brady shirts:before he was busted again for deflategate)