Hot August Nights

 Summer has finally arrived after months of chilly, overcast weather. 

We celebrated my 75th birthday a little early because the kids would be in Croatia on the actual day. So sad that the picture is so crappy. Nonetheless, we had a wonderful time. We’re a motley gang. 


Michelle brought me flowers. Aren’t they lovely. She’s an angel.

I haven’t played much golf, mostly because the weather has been too hot. (I’m such a golf snob these days.) Not because of my shoulder surgery, which is great, I don’t even realize that I have that fake joint in there. I wish they made fake neck joints, my neck arthritis really impacts me in a big way. But not every day, only when I do something for a long time. Like quilting. Sigh. But boy, can I make it pop and crack. Shocking. 

We play bridge often, and these two guys (below) play duplicate, which, if you don’t know, is tournament play for master points. Bridge is huge, a worldwide pastime. You don’t need to speak each other’s language to play, as we learned in Croatia. There were hundreds of people in the ballroom of our hotel and you could hear a pin drop. I had to investigate why so many people were coming and going and it was so quiet. Ah, they’re playing bridge. Good to see this game being played at all, bridge isn’t very popular among younger people. It’s a great game, and in danger of being lost. Here’s a fun fact, there is a local guy who has about 75,000 master points and people pay him to partner with them. Because he always wins. 

Bridge is a partnership game; you always play with your partner. Here our guys are discussing some strategies. They’ll need it, because their opponents, their wives, are going to sit down in a moment and clean their clocks. If you like to play cards, I urge you to learn to play. There are easily more than 5,000 books you can read on the subject.


We got our sofa recovered (again). It was first red, then beige, now some tweedy effect. I have all these pillows that no longer “match,” so I’m going to recover them. So that’s what I’m going to be doing for a while.

We celebrated our 40th anniversary with a trip to Chart House, where we have been going for years. There was a SNAFU with our reservation and we ended up walking out, vowing to never return. Wait—didn’t that happen last time? Yes, it did. We definitely will not be going back. So we drove to JFAT’s, a fun burger joint, and shared a French dip. And of course the legendary onion rings.


We have booked a trip to Japan next spring, and I need to get a new passport. So Jim took this picture, and while not good for a passport (dark background), you can see my longer, gray hair. 


I’d better get to the pillow sewing. 


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