Today is Garrett Grice’s baptism which is why Dominica, Oreo and I are in Frankfort this weekend. We all had to be up fairly early this morning so that they could get off to church for the nine o’clock mass. I couldn’t make it to church with them because I was scheduled for a nine o’clock conference call (or bridge as they are called around here) that was supposed to last until eleven. Nothing like last minute migration work on a Sunday morning 🙁
So while everyone else is at church, I am left home with the Boston Boys (that makes Oreo and Dexter sound like an old west stagecoach-robbing gang.) They appreciate not being left completely on their own.
Last night, I forgot to mention, we had a little Oreo incident here in Frankfort. When we arrived home from the Kitlas, Oreo got left out of the front door to come see everyone. He was not wearing a harness or anything. He came out and said hello and usually is quite good to stay near us, but just as he got to the sidewalk he spotted a large, young black lab walking down the street. Like a shot, Oreo was off and on that lab before we even knew what was happening.
Oreo, even at around eight years old, had that lab fleeing as best as it could (it was young but definitely full grown and many times Oreo’s weight) but it was leashed and trapped. The lab ran around its owner in circles trying to get away and Dominica’s father and I tried as best as we could to catch him but without a harness on he was all but impossible to get a hold of. It only took a few seconds before he had the lab down on its back and was on top of it. He wasn’t being vicious – just playing really, really hard, but the poor lab was in quite a panic.
Our saving grace came in the form of a flying Dexter who came full tilt from the house and plowed into Oreo knocking him off of the lab and then stood between them keeping Oreo away long enough for us to scoop him up. Oreo loses all ability to comprehend what is going on once he gets into his “hunt” mode even if he is just playing.
We were hoping that my conference call this morning would be short as we thought that the work was just going to be canceled. So there was some possibility that the call would only last ten or fifteen minutes for me but it ended up taking more than forty-five minutes before they even mentioned getting to my stuff so that idea was right out of the window.
By ten o’clock we had only confirmed some work that was canceled yesterday and were not even up to the point where we could talk about work being done today. It was a bit after eleven when I finally really pushed the point and got them to start on my work as I could not hang around for forever. It was after eleven thirty when we finally wrapped up the morning work.
Needless to say, I was unable to make it to the church service or the baptism service that came after it. I was still on the conference bridge long after everyone got home and after most everyone had left for the baptism party in Utica! What a morning. I am told, though, that the church was so hot that I would have been all soaked with sweat and feeling sick and that it turned out for the best that I couldn’t go or I would have felt awful.
We left for the baptism party at Grimaldi’s in Utica before noon. It was a nice party – twenty five of us were there which was what was expected. All family. We had a nice time visiting with everyone. Dominica and I have been so busy that we have barely had a chance to see anyone in quite a while. As we get farther along in the pregnancy it will get harder and harder to see people as well. Already we are having to place a hard limit on doing no additional traveling that is not already in the schedule or needed for the baby and/or house. We just don’t have the time or energy. Dominica is really, really sick with a bad cold and it is going to turn into a sinus infection or worse if she doesn’t stop doing more things than she should. She isn’t getting anywhere near enough sleep.
After the party we got back to the Tocco’s and I was getting paged out, almost as soon as we arrived, to do more work for the office. So I logged in and worked on another conference call for well over an hour. What an exhausting day. At least during the time that I was working this afternoon everyone took naps so I didn’t miss any “visiting” time. Dominica got an hour and a half nap probably. That will make a bit of a difference.
After nap time we had to hit the road so that we could get back to Newark at a reasonable time. We hit the road just as the rain began. It was a really heavy rain that caused all kinds of driving problems. We were not able to get the car up to full speed due to the rain until almost Albany.
We got home to Newark a little before ten. It is going to be another really hot week in New Jersey. Temperatures expected in the low nineties tomorrow as well as rain. Shortly after we arrived home the rain and thunder began here as well.