Last week saw us catching up with lots of folks we had not seen in awhile. Having sold the house, Mer and I now feel we can be more social, and not only go out with friends and family from time to time, but even initiate outings. Such was last week:
On Tuesday, Mer and I caught up with our pastor, Ken, and his wife Janet. It was Janet’s birthday, so Mer and I invited Janet and Ken out to eat to celebrate. Janet decided she wanted to go to the Golden Corral in Canton, so off we went. The Golden Corral is a buffet, so rest assured that Mer and I had way way way too much to eat. We had a great time eating and chatting, and then we went back to Ken and Janet’s house, where they demonstrated Tetris Attack (at our request). Tetris Attack is a 1995 Nintendo game that we had heard Ken mention a lot, and it is a head-to-head competition about keeping rows of blocks from getting too high on your side of the screen. It was much fun to watch those two go at it.
On Wednesday, we headed up to Beechwood (a suburb of Cleveland) with Zach and Londa. For months, Zach has been touting the gastronomic wonders of an ice cream parlor up there called Mitchell’s. The ice cream was quite good, although probably not as good as Handel’s. However, Mitchell’s had great ambiance and outside seating, and had a 30-minute drive each way in which to visit with the Churchills. It was a good time.
Thursday, Mer went down to Aunt Mary’s to welcome her parents, who were arriving in town. They were not going to get in until 8:00 or later, so I passed on going with Meredith since I had to work on Friday. It turns out that they made very good time and made it to North Canton a little before 8:00, and Meredith was home just as I was going to bed, so I could have gone after all.
Friday, we headed down to the old stomping ground of New Baltimore to party it up with the extended (and I do mean extended) George clan. The Georges used to be our neighbors, and have known Meredith since she was 3 years old, so they are very close and dear to us. All of the out-of-town children and grandchildren were in town, so the Georges threw a get-together. There were the Georges (Ray and Sara), and six children (or spouses of children), twelve grandchildren, Dale, Carlene, Aunt Mary, Meredith, and me. It was a busy household! I had made a pan-full of chocolate-peanut-butter bars, which proved to be a pretty big hit. I ate some amazingly good pulled pork, and chatted with Sara about her dad for over half an hour, which was pretty fascinating. Meredith got to visit with her girlhood friend Melissa, and they got to play Dutch Blitz (a game involving speed and multi-tasking that I will not play with Meredith). Most people spent a lot of time visiting around the Georges’ large dining room table.
Not a bad little week!