A Grand Day Out

A grand day out...or actually several! Before I go any further I must include a link to Wallace and Gromit for someone who has never heard of them. I don't know if his humor is on the same frequency as mine but I find these characters very funny: http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/index.html

Be that as it may my grand weekend out started on Friday with a trip to Portland for my older sister Cathy's wedding (when I say older I am of course stating only in a chronological sense and and not in an outlook on life). Since many who read this blog (or at least profess to!) were present, I will not give a blow-by-blow account of the ceremony and the wonderful dinner and visiting afterwards except to say that it was fun, wonderful to see all, and Charlie has a great family. I arrived way too early before the ceremony at Charlie's house and was installed on the screened porch to stay out of the way while the preparations continued. While silently praying that other guests would soon come I was able to visit with Charlie's mom and two sisters and had an enjoyable time talking with them. Here is a link to some pictures of the ceremony: http://festiveheart.com/ You will need to scroll down to see the event. The older I get the more I feel the need to stay connected with siblings and the nieces and nephews. My great nieces Eden and Estelle were there and cute as lady bugs!

Saturday a.m. I left Portland in the pouring rain and jetted back to hot and sunny Burbank to get my lawn work done, go to church and get ready for the next grand day out.

Sunday the missus and I and the local kids attended the wedding of Chris, the older son of our friends Janell and Ted. The wedding was a bit unconventional but then I am a grouch and a conservative grouch at that but for all that I thought it was nice and everyone had a great time. The bride was radiant and the groom looked relieved that he didn't pass out when his time came to recite his vows. Many of the guests were 20 somethings who had a raucous time at the reception and really enjoyed the music and dancing. I even did the chicken dance - who could imagine??

But wait, there's more! Today we went to Marla's estate in Moorpark. A beautiful house with a huge yard and 20 acres behind it, a massive shade tree in the back yard and oodles of room for her dog agility training ground. She hosted a Labor Day cookout for her family and her dog agility friends. Janell and Ted came too even though they aren't dog people or family but very much friends. Kurt applied his considerable talents to cooking the food to perfection. The food was great and the visiting was even better. And there is a grapefruit tree in the yard laden with huge grapefruits - and I love grapefruits! I took two home to give them a try.

All of this visiting and conversing and socializing is putting my grouch rating in danger of being revoked!

And that ends my grand several days out.