All Packed Up and Nowhere to Go

What a beautiful Monday and a great weekend!

Friday night Kevin and I went to a dinner party at Pastor Jack's house for the Worship Team. We played a round robin kind of card game that was a total blast. There were 20 people, so 5 tables. The rules for each hand changed, as did your partner and what table you were at. It was lots of fun and although I started out kicking butt, I fizzled out at the end and wasn't in contention for the winning score.

Saturday, Kevin went shopping for his jeans and such while I did laundry, changed the bedsheets, and colored my hair. That afternoon I had a gig in Newport News with my Irish band Celtastrophe. We played and had fun and then went out to Keagan's for food. I didn't stay because Kevin was with Sharyn and Lanny Simpson at The Pub in Hampton, where Sharyn's daughter Jordan was working. I met them there and we hung out for a while and ate. The food was really good and the guy waiters wore kilts. You gotta love a guy in a kilt.

Church was great, as usual, on Sunday. Then Kevin and I went to my sister's house in Gloucester for the rest of the day. Our dog Teddy loves it there because he loves their dog Trixie and he can run free on their 20 acres. We had dinner, sat around a bonfire chatting and catching up, and then went inside to play cards. We left Teddy there at Camp Run-Around -Like-An-Idiot-All-Day and went home dog-less. :(

Today was packing day. I was surprisingly organized and had us both fairly well packed up by 1:00. Those vacuum bag thingies are sweet. A few people gave us stuff the carry to Ukraine for them and I thought, no way are we gonna be able to fit all that stuff (that means you, Laura ). But we have 2 good sized suitcases and it all fit no problem. One suitcase is 49.5 pounds and the other is like 40. I'll have my tote-like "pocketbook" and we'll both have our laptops. That's it. I did laundry, vacuumed and dusted, ran some errands and then went to the cemetery for a little while. We had received a notice in the mail a couple of weeks ago saying that you can't have trinkets, statues, flags and stuff like that around the grave markers anymore because they're hazards to the grounds keepers and other people. I knew some people had placed things like that on Robbie's grave and I didn't want to lose them, so I went to collect them. I have been really emotional these past few days, and being there didn't help much. I had a good cry, which was probably a good thing, and was Comforted.

So, now we're pretty much ready to go. I think I'll relax and watch "Chuck" with my friend Nancy and try to get to bed early. I hope I can sleep...you know how it is the night before you travel. Sharyn will come get us around 8:15 am (how civilized is that?) and take us to Richmond Airport. Kelly says they'll open Tagine (the Moroccan restaurant she works at) just for us. So, we hope to spend the afternoon with her and Nancy's daughter Lindsey who is visiting Kelly in NYC while on spring break from William and Mary. Perhaps Melissa Opie can join us, too. That would be great.

The next blog will be from Ukraine, so keep posted. I'll let you know how it goes.