Update

I’m having a fantastic time with Seester and Bo.  I’m so glad that we could all make this happen.

Yesterday was great, despite the uncooperative weather.  After staying overnight at Bruder’s house (with his kitty as my sleeping buddy - she’s so cute!), Bo came and picked me up and we headed over to Seester’s house to do what turned out to be a pretty disastrous episode of the Dark and Stormy Book Club podcast.  The speaker phone we were using apparently wasn’t up to the task, Seester’s husband and mother kept buzzing in on call waiting, and we kept dropping the handset and making all kinds of noise.  That didn’t matter, though, because Seester says that the audio on the podcast kept coming in and out anyway, and half the time we’re inaudible.  Whatever - you didn’t miss much; none of us liked the book choice and we spent half the time laughing about all the incidental noises and half the time trying to figure out what to say to fill the time slot because we all thought the book was so bad.  See us in a month; we’ll have something better for you.

After the podcast, Bo treated us to a wonderful lunch at a little cafe.  We had quiches and spinach salads (and sweet tea - Holy MOTHER, but that’ll make your teeth ache.  I mean, I like sweet as much, if not more than, the next girl, but I have to admit being wholly unprepared for the amplitude of sweet in sweet tea.  I hope I covered well…).  Lunch was followed by three desserts - yes, THREE; a lemon pie, something called strawberry pretzel salad (I wonder if the “salad” part is supposed to make it sound healthy?) and chocolate Coca-Cola cake.  WOWIE, but it was all yummy.  I have pictures, but they’re in my camera and despite my having packed too much for this trip, I neglected to bring the cable for my camera (sound familiar, Michael?).  I’ll upload them all on Monday, I promise.

We dropped Seester’s daughter off at grandma’s then decided to do a little geocaching (something that I think I understand in principle, but I’m a little hazy on the details).  The weather was decidedly unamenable to the task, however, as it started to rain in earnest just as we were approaching the intended park.  After standing around in a mostly closed coffee shop (that, for reasons I didn’t quite understand, doesn’t sell coffee by the cup…?) we decided to head back to Seester’s house and just hang.

I’m so glad we did.  I enjoyed just being with my friends - no agenda, no schedule, no burning need to do anything.  We chatted about lousy airplane experiences (I’m going to try hard to not think back on that conversation on my way home tonight) and about our families and Seester’s very proper Southern-Lady grandma and about painting and garages and Auschwitz (we’re an eclectic bunch, aren’t we?).  The weather cleared enough that we decided to go outdoors for a little bit, so Seester decided to take us to the slave burial ground up the road, where we walked around reading the plaques and talking about the history of this area.

After that, Bo brought me back to Bruder’s, where he then took me to visit his horses.  I had a fantastic time squelching about in the mud and scritching horse faces.  They are beautiful animals, though wildly intimidating; I’m not used to being around critters so big.  They were all extremely friendly and well-behaved, though, and they all greeted me with gentle nuzzles and winks from huge brown eyes.  Bruder got right in there and gave a couple of them a good scratching, and it was hysterical to see the way they responded to that.  One of them - I’ll post her picture tomorrow - walked right up to Bruder and insisted that he scratch her belly.  He complied, and she stretched her neck out in what looked all the world to me like a cat luxuriating in the experience, complete with copious amounts of horse drool.  I swear, if she could have rolled over on her back and given him her belly, she would have.

After our visit with the horses, we headed off to Bo and Lea’s for an amazing dinner (Bo, I understand now why you have trouble losing weight - your wife can COOK!).  She made us an incredibly tasty pork tenderloin with asparagus and squash and rolls and YUM - and I haven’t even mentioned the artichoke dip!  We sat around the table and just talked for hours; sitting around with my friends has been my favorite part of the trip so far.

My last day here is going to be pretty busy.  After I hit “publish,” I’m going to jump in the shower and pack up to leave.  Bo and his family are coming to get me so that I can attend church with them, then we’re all heading back to Seester’s for brunch.  The weather’s supposed to break this afternoon, so I think we’re heading to the botanical gardens a little later so I can take pictures of pretty flowers and trees that don’t grow in New England.  My flight leaves the airport at 5:55 this afternoon, and I should be back in my house around midnight (I land in my airport, which is about an hour from home, at about ten to eleven.  Damn the time change…).

More later - I’m busy having fun!