Back to work and it seems like a strange place to be. I came in this morning, completely forgetting I was due in Burlington for my mammogram. I got back in my car and made it to my appointment in time, no problem. Ferry ride was a bit rough and it was hazy, no view. After the 'gram I went to a department store I like and found a good pair of shoes to wear to Jamie's wedding on Saturday. They are Clarks and will be good to wear for other things too. They are $70 shoes that were on sale for $40. Yea me!

I had a good weekend but it almost feels as if the whole thing happened to someone else. My eye appointment went well, my small cataract is no worse and my vision is only marginally worse. I ordered bifocals with the lenses that have no lines so had to pay $225 for them myself. This sucks and I am now broke. I was very late to the meeting that started at 5:15 because it took 1 1/2 hours for my appointment, then there I was, at 5:00, in Lake Placid, and I had to get to Silver Lake for the meeting. Didn't seem as if much got accomplished at the meeting anyway.

Saturday morning was the road clean up and I got paired with the loony woman who lives in her parents' camp over by the island year-round. This is her 2nd or 3rd year there. She lives with her 9 year old daughter and does batik stuff for a living. Guess what she's discovering? You can't make a living doing that. I love these people who don't have to pay $600 a month for housing, and must be getting child support or something for enough income so they don't have to work. She admitted that she may have to go back to work. She's a counselor, amazingly enough. Anyway, she brought along this man who insisted we put a dead porcupine in our garbage bags, triple-bagging it. Everyone was totally grossed out that we did it (including me). After the cleanup we had a cookout and I talked Ken into going, which turned out to be a nice thing for him, a little socialization with people he hasn't seen in a long time. One of the women from Baltimore went too, which she found very exciting. People who don't normally hang out with this group think it's an exciting group. Those of us who do know better.

Saturday night was, of course, a big drinking party at Linda's. Many people and many drinks. It was nice to be with that group again. I had a chance to talk to Joe about his cancer, his surgery, his attitude about life, plus he told me that Steve has OCD, which explains why it's taking SOOOOOO long for him to finish my deck. Steve is Joe's sister's son. Linda's friends from Mich. were there, and Chris is a devoted fisherman. Unfortunately he got his triple-barbed lure stuck in his hand so badly that Joe had to use pliers to yank it out. I was holding Chris' hand steady, and in the process got two hooks stuck in my fingers so badly that then Joe had to use pliers to yank them out of my fingers. Much blood, some pain. Too much alcohol. All is fine now, wounds are healing and don't interfere with my ability to type or weave baskets.

Sunday we had dinner at Joe and Martha's a huge group of us. I stayed after dinner to visit with Martha and Pat (Pat is Joe's sister, Ken's niece, who I seldom get to see even though she lives next door to Ken). That pretty much killed the day. Sunday night I had dinner with Rush & Annie and Annie's son, his wife and her son. We had a lot of fun playing cards after dinner. We played "I Doubt It," which I hadn't played since childhood. Annie's son is a psychiatrist and we talked about things psychiatric a lot, including Tom Cruise and Scientology at great length. Michael (the son) is really remarkable.

I stayed in the boat house Sunday night and slept well. There were really cool fireworks across the lake that I had a great view of, sitting on the porch. The lake was still and beautiful. I got up at 5 on Monday and took pictures of the sunrise, fed the dogs and went back to sleep until 7:30. Then I got up, sat on the porch and drank tea for 2 hours. It was really great. I put my chair on the dock, put my suit on and set up my sunning station. The water is warm, 72 according to Rush. I swam, the dogs swam even more. They had a great day, running along the shore, swimming, then napping at the end of the dock. They were great. I got to swim with Jamie's sister, whom I have always liked. She was there with his parents, cleaning like crazy in preparation of the rehearsal party Friday night. They're planning on a crowd of about 60. I won't be there, or if I am it will be for a short time only, Erdvilas' birthday party is that night.

I went home briefly to start Erdvilas' basket, did quite well with that, then went to Linda's for the evening. Another big crowd, another dinner. Delicious food. I took Chances, who ate 8 of the buttermilk scones Linda had made. She made 16 so had just enough for dessert, since the crowd didn't really grow until after dinner. How truly embarrassing for me, though, to have such a poorly behaved dog. She ate them off the plate, which was on the kitchen counter.

Today I have to meet Ken after work to take him to the doctor. Sometimes this doctor has a big crowd, sometimes not. It's taken anywhere from 1/2 an hour to 1 1/2 hours when we've seen him. I'll stop at Ken's before going home, but then I'm going home to vacuum the floor and do some cleaning. Having a social life is fun but my house is more of a mess than usual. My flowers look like hell, completely neglected since I don't really have a deck to put them on. I have tiny tomatoes and cukes, though.

Now I should probably get a least a little bit of work done.