• May 3-5: Nothing
• May 10-12: The Scientist out of town for his grandmother's funeral; The Scientist's 29th birthday for which I baked a kick-ass chocolate cake; Mother's Day
• May 17-19: Uncle's birthday; originally planned a trip to the Twin Cities, but fell through
• May 24-26: Me in Boston to visit The Best Friend
• May 31-June 1: C. in town
• June 7-9: D's bridal shower (1 hour away)
• June 14-16: My great aunt's funeral (Friday, 2.5 hours away); D & K's wedding (Saturday, 1 hour away); A & D in town for breakfast (Sunday morning, here)
• June 21-23: Tennis tournament
• June 28-30: Tennis tournament
• July 4-7: The Scientist in Atlanta to visit his Best Man; me to the Twin Cities for the holiday; perhaps also to Duluth or the Duluthers may come down to the Cities; back here for friend's wedding on Saturday; The Scientist back on Sunday (I think--how can I keep track?)

Do you see that one way back at the beginning of May? The one that says "Nothing" by it? I'm nostalgic for that one.

So, this weekend was a whirlwind of activity. My great aunt T. died a few weeks ago in Florida. She was my grandmother's older sister (one of them). The other sister died a year or two ago. My grandmother's younger brother (the only other sibling) had a stroke a month ago and isn't doing so well. I used to consider my Aunt T. to be like another grandmother. There are many pictures of us from when I was a little girl. But Aunt T. moved to Florida, which is pretty difficult to visit from Alaska and we lost touch. She sent me birthday cards and checks for years and I always sent a thank-you note, but we didn't talk on the phone. For the last few years (maybe more), she has lost most of her memory. She always retained her social graces and ability to make witty conversation, masking the fact that she didn't know who you were or even where she was. I remember her style and charm and the way she could talk to anyone. My dad's family isn't big on frequent multigenerational gatherings, but a number of people turned out for the funeral. Aunt T. was cremated in Florida and her ashes were buried in the cemetery next to her parents' graves. The urn her ashes were in was beautiful--it really reminded me of her. She had the most exquisite taste and loved beautiful things.

My dad and youngest brother came down for the funeral. It was good to see them. We gave my dad his Father's Day present, which was a set of 4 July 4, 1959 49-star flag stamps. The stamps are pictured below, but I mounted them on acid-free cream scrapbook paper and framed them in a shadow-box type black frame with a cream mat. It was superb!

My dad had mentioned the last time we saw him (just a couple of weeks ago in Chicago when he was in town for 2 days) that he would like to find a 49-star flag someday. The Scientist had the great idea of finding one on eBay for my dad's present when we go up to visit for his big promotion. I jumped all over the idea and spent several nights entering searches on eBay and bidding on various flags (the one I really wanted went for over $300--sorry, Dad). I found the stamps on one of those searches and bought them. Little does my dad know that he's also getting the flag in July!

Our other event of the weekend was the wedding of my college roommate D. to her boyfriend of 4 (?) years, K. It worked out fairly well because we could stop in Milwaukee for the wedding on the way back from the funeral in Chicago. We arrived at our lovely (cheap) Motel 6 accommodations and had some time to rest. A good thing since we'd gotten up at 5 a.m. to drive to Chicago for the funeral. The Scientist really needed a nap since he had done most (all) of the driving. My grandmother's apartment is really warm and all of the sitting and talking makes us both sleepy.

After the napping we picked up my friend M. (also a college roommate) from her sister's house and went out to dinner. We were supposed to meet up with D., K., C., and others after dinner but they wanted us to come to some hotel bar north of Milwaukee that would take us an hour and a half to drive back to the hotel from. We passed. But M. and The Scientist and I had a great time eating and talking and drinking and going to a local bar to shoot some pool. M. and The Scientist schooled a whole crowd of boys on the pool table (I watched) and then she and some random guy schooled me and The Scientist. I think I was the weak link. I used to shoot a lot of pool in college and got to be a decent, although not great, player. Now that I don't spend as much time in bars, I don't keep up with my game. The Scientist and I also used to play at lunch at the student center when he was a grad student and I had a campus job. Alas, those days are over too.

We dropped M off again and crashed at the Motel 6. The next morning The Scientist brought me hot, fresh, chocolate munchkins (that's Dunkin' Donuts, not Little People) for breakfast and we met M. for lunch at Fuel, a local coffeehouse/cafe. We were early, so The Scientist had time to do a little record shopping (I believe he bought something involving Curtis Mayfield...oh, the Impressions, that's it). We drank coffee (much needed) and ate yummy sandwiches and had time to go shopping before the wedding. M. and I bought clothes at Moxie (Moxy?) and The Scientist and I bought CDs (Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and The Shins' Oh, Inverted World ) at Atomic Records. I also got the rockin' Atomic t-shirt pictured below (modeled and photographed by yours truly).

As we finished our shopping and started driving north to M.'s parents house where we were going to get ready for the wedding we a) couldn't find the freeway entrance due to random road construction and b) were almost rained off the road by a huge storm. This was very bad because a) we were running late for the wedding and b) the wedding was outside. Luckily, we found the freeway entrance (after 20 minutes of driving in circles and taking detours), drove fast, got ready quickly, drove fast again, and made it to the wedding in plenty of time. By the time we got there it had stopped raining, although everything was really wet and more rain looked likely. The ceremony took place in record time. The crowd laughed during the reading of The Apache Wedding Song at the line that said, "Now you will feel no rain." It started sprinkling during the end of the ceremony and as soon as the grandmothers had been walked down the aisle, all the wedding guests broke rank and ran indoors to where the reception was held. Everything was beautiful, particularly the bride, D., and the flowers. D. & K. are a great match and I'm so glad everything went well on their special day. I look back at our wedding with nothing but happiness and that's what I want for everyone else on their wedding day.

The reception was fun. Good food, lots of wine and beer. We sat at a table with M. and C.'s brother who I know from my college days. We danced a little. The bride danced a lot and got pretty drunk (in a happy way). We left earlier than the rest of our close friends because we had an hour and a half drive home and company coming at 10 a.m. the next morning.

Sunday was frantic cleaning in the morning (I did the bathroom and general straightening while The Scientist washed the car and mopped the floors), brief showing-off of our new apartment to our out of town friends, AR and her boyfriend D., and our in-town friends K. & T. (man, I'm getting tired of initials--I'll have to start thinking up some pseudonyms), and brunch with everyone. We went to our favorite local restaurant. The Scientist had maple pecan pancakes (yum) and I had an apple scramble (also yum) and we shared. It was great to see AR--we have a friendship that has gone in phases, but we've known each other since undergrad (6 years now!) and now work together at the Large Corporation. I'm a remote employee, though, so we hadn't seen each other since March. After brunch it was laundry and collapsing for a several-hour nap. Whew!