The
above photo may appear like a black rectangle. But if you look closely, and
perhaps use your imagination, you might see the eclipse. It was an excellent
eclipse that everyone enjoyed tonight for about 2 hours in the late evening,
right out in front of the house. Pete even brought some of his homework outside to study by the eclipse-light.
Mom
and Dad went for a bike ride on the WOD trail up to Ashburn Road. Sam did not
want to join. They stopped for lunch at Partlow’s barbeque. Dad noticed that
they had a nice assortment of ice cream treats. Dad snapped a picture to text
to Sam, in the hopes that it would entice him to join next time.
Sam
went to Village Fest on Friday night with Garrett and a few of his other
friends. Since Sam had his new phone, Dad was able to drop him off and then
pick him up later. In the meantime, Dad went out to a nice dinner with Mom. Sam was careful to hang on to his new phone when he went on the upside-down rides.
Unfortunately,
Pete could not participate in “Tag Day” with the marching band this year. He was
at James Madison University on his choir trip. Dad was able to capture a photo
of his bandmates when they came to the door. Note: hopefully you like the photo since it cost Dad $20 in
donation.
One
night Sam was getting ready for bed and he asked Dad “How many times do you
think I would have to stomp on the floor before Mom would yell?” Dad replied
“Nine.” Sure enough, Sam began stomping on the floor, and after the ninth
stomp: “Hey!!!!” could be heard coming from downstairs.
Dad
and Pete went to Luv’n Berry. The plan was for Sam to get something from the
ice cream freezer at Manhattan Pizza, but they apparently got rid of the
freezer when they opened Luv’n Berry. Dad tried to convince Sam to get
something equivalent from CVS, but Sam refused to go in there. Dad took the above
picture to prove to Sam that they had lots of the same good stuff that you
would find in the ice cream freezer. But to no avail.
Pete and Dad loved the sign in Luv’n Berry
“$8.00 per pound, $.49 per ounce” (see photo below). So the intelligent customer will
be sure to pay by the ounce and save 16 cents per pound!
Dad
and Pete went to Broadlands Family Practice for the first of Pete’s three
Gardasil vaccinations. Dad made sure to ask if it would be quick when
scheduling the appointment, since Pete likes to get to school by 9am to avoid
waiting in the dreaded tardy line. Unfortunately, the nurse giving Pete the
vaccine was not going to let the rule slide requiring that Pete lie down for 20
minutes after getting the vaccine. Despite the pleas of Pete and Dad, they were
stuck there. Pete decided to protest this rule by doing the Can-Can instead of
lying down on the table. After some additional negotiation with the nurse, they were able to
leave after 10 minutes.
Also, in case you were wondering, Pete survived despite not laying down for the full 20 minutes.
If
you look briefly at this picture, you may conclude that there appears to be
plenty of seating in the four spacious chairs in the living room. However,
looks can be deceiving. One chair is occupied by mom, one by the rifle that
Pete left there for weeks, and one by the small guitar. No problem, you say, since
Dad can sit in the other chair. Not so fast. If you look closer, there is
another guitar leaning against the arm of that chair. Dad took a seat in the
dining room. By the way, that stuff on the coffee table is not clutter. Other
than the Burger King crown and guitar pick, all of those items are actually
permanent design fixtures on the table.
In
the entertainment industry, 2015 was known as the “year of the minions” (at
least until the new Star Wars movie came out). This was bad news for Pete,
since he absolutely hates minions. Especially when they are given their own
spinoff movie. Dad figured he better not buy these minion freezer bars that he saw at
Walgreens, but he did take a picture of them. Dad figured that Pete would be
conflicted about these bars, since he hates Minions but loves freezer bars.
Pete
went to the mall with Mom and Dad for some lunch and to look for some clothes
for school. Sam decided to come too. Of course, the trip would not be complete without spending about 30
minutes lounging in the massage chairs at Brookstone.
Mom’s
quest continued to try to figure out what was causing the chronic pain in her
side. Today’s phase was the surgery to remove a lipoma, which the surgeon said
was “about the size of a chicken breast”. Pete and Sam tried to be nice to Mom
for a few days, and help out a bit more around the house. Although the surgery
was “successful”, unfortunately the pain did not go away (other than when she
was taking Oxycodone). So the search for answers continued.
Sam
looked pretty sharp on the second day of school, with his pink shirt and bright
neon shoes. Pictured (l-r) are Ethan, Sam, Mason, Mary, Makayla, Maya,
Nicolette, and Sasha. It was a big change, being in middle school this year at
Farmwell Station.
