Visiting Long Island

Matt and I are alone again. My nephew has returned home to New York for the summer and we are left to our own devices. It appears from the weather forecast that summer will be soon upon us. I am slightly sad because I feel that we have had almost no spring - lots of rain with temperatures mainly in the high 50's - 60's but very few clear days in the 70's. Soon the high 80's and 90's will be upon us, as will the humidity, the very reasons that I don't like the summer very much.

We have a few trips planned over the summer that I'm looking forward to. A weekend in June to see DC for a day or two and then on to a wedding in the area. It should be a good time as Matt and I get to spend some time together sightseeing and forgetting about work and then I get to see some good friends that I rarely get to see (maybe twice a year if I'm lucky). In July we have a week in New York with my family - our plans are simple enough and involve hanging out with my Daddy and enjoying the beautiful sights of Long Island as well as the coolness of Daddy's pool. August is our "big trip" away. We have a wedding in Santa Barbara for which Matt will spend two days in Las Vegas for the bachelor party and then I'll fly out to LA to meet up with Matt and Andrew and Karen. We'll all head up to Santa Barbara for the wedding and an overnight stay and the following day Matt and I will take the red eye back to Boston (it's my first "red eye" ever and I'm interested to see how much I will sleep). Another wedding is anticipated in New York in September and that will finish out our weddings for this year. I nearly forget the highlight of the year - September 23rd we will be attending a once in a lifetime concert of Journey and Def Leppard - despite some cynical comments, I am still holding out that it will be the most fantabulous concert ever. And even if the concert sucks and we all hate it, there will be 9 of us tailgating and having a blast enjoying each other (not nearly as perverted as that could possibly mean).

We're off to New York now to spend Memorial Day weekend with my family and eat lots of sausage. If you have never had the opportunity to sample "cheese sausage" - I highly recommend it. We purchase it in our local Italian food store - it's a pinwheel sausage with cheese and parsley mixed in and OH MY it's delicious. I'm pretty sure Matt has been drooling ever since I told him that it was on the menu. Besides the consumption of cheese sausage and Italian sausage and hamburgers and hot dogs and potato salad and lots of other yummy yummy foods - the rest of the weekend is up in the air. Matt even remembered the camera so hopefully we'll be able to take some pictures to share with you.

As I'm typing, the purser of the ferry just announced that "two drivers have still not purchased their tickets." I can guarantee that in 5 minutes there will still be "two drivers who have not purchased their tickets and even if you have a reservation, you must still come to the purser's window and purchase your tickets." It's the same announcement that we hear at least 2 if not 5 times each trip. Do people get on the ferry, see a long line of people waiting to purchase their tickets and think - oh that must not include me? It's truly a pet peeve of mine. But then again, I tend to have a lot of pet peeves so take that as you will.

All in all, I think Matt and I will have a fantastic summer. We still haven't had the chance to meet Anthony - Matt and Natalie's son - but we hope to do that soon. I also hope to get a few more hikes in as well as at least one weekend in Maine. Fourth of July will be down in Plymouth, unless Mom and Dad have other plans. Labor Day, as of the current time, is still up in the air. Meanwhile, Matt just became the supervisor of the help desk so he'll have a little bit of an adjustment period as he acclimates himself to the new position and we're coming up on my busy season at work so we'll both have work to keep us busy, trips to keep us entertained and each other to keep us company. If I had a Magic 8 Ball I'm sure that it would see that the outlook is good for these upcoming months. (And just so that Ed and Andrea do not think we have forgotten about them, we will still be trying to fit a trip to London in our itinerary!) Happy Summer everyone!