Sheep Guarding Llama

Today is our full day down in Waverly. We got up at the Gutherie or Best Western as it is now called, in Sayre, Pennsylvania and had breakfast there in the hotel and relaxed for a bit before heading to the family reunion on the farm.

Full day of family reunion stuff on the farm today.  Mostly hanging around on the deck.  The kids ran around and played with their cousins all day.  They mostly had a great time, although there is always plenty of fighting, too.

I went out for a few shopping runs throughout the day.  But mostly the day was pretty tame.

They tried doing outdoor movies tonight with the projector and stuff but it really did not work and the kids were not interested in sitting still for a movie.

This evening the big excitement was that Emily was running barefoot through the yard just before it was time to leave and her big toe rolled under her foot and she broke her foot.  We did not know that it was broken at the time, although we suspected that it was.  She was in a lot of pain and we spent a few hours dealing with that, although she did not go get it looked at by a doctor tonight.

Our fourth of July tradition has long been driving down to Waverly for the Doty family reunion and Fourth of July celebration.  This morning we drove down straight to the party.  This is my first year that I am able to go for several days rather than just going down for one day like I always have in the past.  Liesl and I missed the longer party last year because we had to leave early to drive down to Texas together.  This year we all get to stay.

Today was a small gathering for food and stuff with the family on the farm.  This evening we all went over to James’ place for the big bonfire where they burn a couch and chair and stuff.

The kids had a great time playing with all of their extended cousins all day long.  We figure that they will sleep really well tonight.

We stayed at the Gutherie tonight.  It’s a Best Western, now.  Same hotel that we stayed in many years ago.  Normally we stay in the Hampton, but they were full up tonight.

We got in late and several people were hungry.  Emily sent me out to find McDonald’s which ended up being closed and so I went across town looking for Wendy’s, which I was told was open late. Liesl was hungry so went with me.  We ended up being gone for about an hour.  We got food for the teenagers from Wendy’s, then went to the gas station across the street from the hotel to get food for Liesl.

Wendy’s ended up getting all of our food wrong and none of it was edible that Dominica and I got.  We were rather unhappy.  I at least managed to eat the small salad that I got but had not ordered.  Liesl at her snacks from the gas station.

We were in bed around two.

It is Friday and tomorrow morning we are heading down south to Waverly, New York to spend the fourth of July holiday with the extended family.  It’s the annual Doty family reunion down there.

I spent the day writing and posting, nothing special.  Most everyone went out to the movies today, so I got a bit of quiet time to get things done.

This evening we ordered in pizza and the family watched a kids’ movie in the back yard.

June flew by like nobody’s business.  I can’t believe that we are nearly into July.  It seems like just yesterday that we were in Galveston for Christmas!

Today I have SpiceCorps of Auburn to go to.  Technically it is SpiceCorps of Syracuse, but it is being held in Auburn, as it often is.

The drive out to Auburn is about an hour and a half.  I have not been in Auburn since I installed the servers at the Wegman’s there in 2005!  That might be the only time that I have ever been there.

I got down there early and met up with one of the guys at a local Mexican restaurant.  We had a nice time getting to know each other over tacos.  He’s been with NTG for most of the year but we have never met.  Most everyone else has known him for quite some time since he runs the SpiceCorps Syracuse group.

After dinner we walked over to the bar where SpiceCorps was getting set up.  This is a venue that they have used in the past.  It’s a bar but we get a private room there and it seems to work pretty well.

I am the featured speaker this evening and NTG is the sponsor of the event.  So I spoke for about an hour on career development and some other stuff.  I think that it went pretty well.

It was a good meeting and I think that everyone had a good time.

We got done probably around nine thirty.  Then an hour and a half drive back to Frankfort. So it was getting on towards bed time by the time that I got back.

I’m still at the kitchen table working today.  There is no really good space for me.  Everyone sneaked off to Utica for something today leaving just Madeline and I behind so we got pizza from Big Willy’s. My first change to get Mohawk Valley pizza in quite some time.

Mostly a quiet day.  The video game laptop running Steam is quite busy all of the time in the living room.