Now that I've completed cataloging an entire set of Jackie Chan's earlier works (in Cantonese with American subtitles) for the Schroon Lake library I can take some time off and blog.  I'm excited that there are so many bloggers covering the Democratic convention.  I think this is really revolutionary in the media in America right now, and a grand way for us to keep up with what's happening.  I want to take a television down to camp, where my mother and her friend are visiting for a few days, to hear the speeches.  Liza doesn't want a tv there but Mark is interested so I'm not sure how it will go.  Mostly I want to hear the keynote speech and I'd like to hear Kerry's acceptance speech on Wednesday.  Since we may go to Potsdam either of those days it's unlikely I'll hear them both anyway so the point is probably mute (as they say here).

I'm off for two days, tomorrow and Weds.  This feels quite strange, having time off in the middle of the week.  I was busy today, getting ready to be gone, plus reminding myself that I'm scheduled to be on vacation for two weeks starting a week from today.  Who knows what my plans will be, though.  Doesn't look as if I'll be flying to Cleveland so I'm thinking of other options.  Stay here and build my deck with Ken.  Go to Rhode Island for a few days before the Rogers meeting.  I'd fly to Cleveland and meet my friend Priscilla there but I don't have a flight back scheduled until mid-August so there I'd be, sans transportation home.

Jenica set me up for a great weekend with her friends.  Thursday she and Drew arrived during the day, I saw them for just a minute.  Friday night I had dinner with camp friends, Bill and Ken, a nice time since their sons were there.  One son is in music school, learning how to be an opera singer; the other is doing his chiropractic internship and is a fountain of information about the human body.  We had a really nice evening.  Saturday I hung out at home a bit and went to camp in the afternoon to mingle with the young 'uns.  They're really a nice group of people and I completely enjoy being with them.  It got really windy on the dock, so in spite of the warm sun it was very cold.  The water is warm, 75 degrees supposedly, so Sarahanne and I swam (my first of the season, she said without embarrassment).  Tess is quite the swimmer and jumps off the dock with glee.  I went home to mow the lawn, was interrupted by the people I dined with Friday night, who arrived to stack the 3.5 cords of wood I had.  YAHOO!  This was a fantastic help to me and we set up a chain to get it done.  It took about 1.5 hours, even with that many people doing it.  Imagine how long it would have taken lowly me.  Now it's all done and is grand to see.  After they left I finished mowing the lawn--my outdoor domestic chores are done, except for weeding, which I barely started doing.  I did a tiny bit of indoor cleaning but the dogs did more paper shredding and other messing up to keep up with whatever paltry attempts I made at cleaning.

I went to camp for dinner with Jen & friends, then stayed for a game of Trivial Pursuit.  They are good, very good.  It's fun to compare their depth and breadth of knowledge with mine.  I've certainly lost a lot of pieces of information over the years.  Anyway, they are all very intelligent, charming and witty and we laughed a lot.  I really enjoyed myself.  And they are wonderful to my dogs, incredibly tolerant and loving, which scores total huge points.  Sunday morning the dogs escaped and went straight to camp.  Jackson and Chances returned to me, but those guys thought it was Jackson they saw swimming in circles in front of the next camp down so they gamely paddled out to rescue him.  It was the neighbors' yellow Lab, known for his swimming disorder and insane behavior, but I thought it was so sweet of them to go to such lengths to rescue my dog.  Tess spent the morning with them, swimming and visiting.  They treat her much better than I do, apparently.

I had Sunday dinner with Bill, Ken, and a Plattsburgh State graduate who was visiting from Long Island.  He felt like taking a long ride on his BMW motorcycle so he came up for a night.  I've spent time with him before so it was a nice, companionable visit.  He loved Chances and wanted to take her home with him but Ken thought that since he had no helmet for her it wouldn't be appropriate for her to ride on his bike.  I do have wonderful dogs, this is true.  They are very, very sweet.

Sunday afternoon I returned to camp, made Liza's and Mark's beds and spent a little time on the boat house porch, reading and listening to the water lapping.  Dozed a bit, then they arrived.  Liza isn't feeling too well but is happy to be in the Adirondacks.  Jenica returned from her trip to Burlington to deliver Tamara and Jonathan to their plane and had dinner with us, then left for home.  I stayed to visit with Liza and Mark, then went home myself.  The lake was like glass.  The mergansers who had taken up residence on the dock weren't there last night, though they were there when Jenica and friends were staying in the boat house.  Elsa says as soon as Ben puts in their float the ducks will move over there.  She's right.  The heron spends plenty of time in our bay.  The lilies aren't in bloom but seem to be doing ok.  Jim put a new toilet in main camp, at last.  Life goes on.