So Tom did not return to Baltimore last weekend. He finished up his work in the San Francisco area. He was then scheduled to work in LA. He decided since he was already in California, it would be easier to just travel to LA from San Francisco rather than fly all the way home to Baltimore, turn around and head back. So when he finished work, he decided to drive down from San Fran to LA. It is about an 8 hr drive. And on the way he stopped into one of our favorite  stomping grounds near Santa Barbara and Solvang to eat at the Hitching Post and enjoy a few wine tastings. He stopped into Fess Parker's winery to see if there has been any improvement in their wine over the last 20+ years. Fess Parker played Daniel Boone(in a coon skin cap) on tv. Tom and I met him at the winery during one of our visits when we lived in LA, before he passed away of course. We enjoyed meeting Fess, and loved the little coon skin cap on the wine bottle label, but the wine needed a few more years to improve. Looks like they finally got it right. Tom enjoyed the tastings.  He planned on spending another week in California working near Redondo Beach.

Meanwhile, back in Baltimore the rest of our family was busy visiting my mom and getting Scott ready to attend Church Work Camp. On Saturday, it was hair cut day-for everyone. I dropped Cookie off at the groomers to get a summer cut, and then dropped Scott off at the hairdresser, followed by my Mom for  color, wash and set. I also had to get Scott to work. He went in on Friday night as well as Saturday night to work. Allison headed over to her friends for an overnight visit and bonfire on Saturday night. Meanwhile, after mom finished at the hairdresser, the two of us headed over to Glory Days to have dinner out on the patio. It was so nice to have beautiful weather.

The week before was not as nice. As a matter of fact, we had a tornado touch down in Howard county! It happened during the day on a Tuesday while I was at work, Allison was  working, and Scott was home with the dogs. We were still puppy sitting. I called him to tell him we were under a tornado warning and to get downstairs with a flashlight and the dogs. Allison was out of the path in Baltimore city. Scott was sitting in the basement in the dark with phone alarms going off warning of tornadoes and floods.  At my work, we moved all our patients into the center of the facility and covered all the windows. The sky had that scary tornado green color. It seemed that the bad weather had passed before we knew it. The power came back on at home and Scott went on to clean the turtle's tank. I was headed home early for a dentist appointment and a Church Work Camp buffet dinner and orientation. I could not believe my ride home. We had not heard that a tornado went through the area. Trees were down all over and the power was out at every intersection. Turns out we had an F1 tornado travel across our county, stopping just short of Ellicott City and Columbia. Fortunately no one was injured, but there were a lot of trees down and damaged and extensive power outages. Some trees fell onto homes and cars. Most of the area it traveled through was out in the country and the woods, so less home damage. Thank goodness. They actually have a video of the tornado passing by that was recorded on a security camera at a plant nursery. Scary.  And Allison and I sat in the dark on Friday night while Scott was at work since the power went out in our neighborhood. A transformer exploded and caught some trees on fire. Allison and I gave up on having the power restored and went out for milk shakes. It is not fun sitting in a hot house with the power out.

The power went out when I was at the dentist office on Tuesday as another rain storm came through. Thankfully I managed to get to my appointment done before that happened, and I also made it to the Church Work Camp orientation and dinner with Scott. Some families reported cooking their food items on the grill as their power had gone out during the day. Still, we had a wonderful buffet and then the kids were separated into their work groups. Scott was scheduled for the 1st week of camp and planned on leaving on Sunday.

Allison and I joined Scott and his work group at the noon mass for a special blessing before they headed out via car caravan. The group was headed to Pennsylvania in a town near Philly, west of Lancaster called Coaksville. They were going to help rebuild homes for those in need. After the mass, we enjoyed a wonderful, international buffet. Our church supports several communities around the world-one in Mexico, India and Palestine. The food variety was incredible and very tasty. The work group enjoyed lunch and then headed out on the road.

Allison and I headed over to my Mom's place to enjoy Game Day. The Activity Director thought it would be fun to include family members in some of the facilities activities. She put out board games and had group games as well. We had a great time playing Bingo and then a Hidden Word Game. Of course Allison and I won in both games. Leanne the Activity Director made up Goody Bags for the winners. We also had way more snacks then we needed. Leanne put out chips, cookies and candy at each table. They served chicken wings and hot dogs and afterwards we had ice cream sundaes. We were ready to explode! We already had an incredible lunch buffet at church. No more food.

Scott and his friend Jason head of to Church Work Camp

Game Day at Sunrise with Gma Bozyk

GMA Bozyk has been attending painting classes. Tom likes the sailboat, I prefer the tree line