Maniacs

The beautiful weekend in Maine is over. We left on Friday and got to Ogunquit in time to sit on the beach for an hour and a half before dinner. We found a place that is a combo take-out/eat-in and it was very good. I had fried clams, which tasted great going down but messed with me later. Jean and Sandy loved their meals and wanted to eat every meal there for the rest of the weekend.

Cooler heads prevailed however, and I convinced them to go to the Maine Diner for breakfast Saturday AM. We had to wait about a half an hour but it was well worth it. I had the Aces High...one egg; one piece of bacon; one sausage and one blueberry pancake. I had been wanting to have the blueberry pancakes as i heard that they were fabulous, but I didn't want a full order...too much pancake.

Well, the pancake was awesome! I can't believe how many blueberries were in it...I'm not a huge blueberry fan but this was great.

We headed down the road to Sanford to find a store that Jean and Sandy had gone to a few years back...we found it...it's called Mardens. It's like an Ocean State Job Lot and Railroad Salvage all rolled into one. We found Hush Puppy shoes for $24!

Then we stopped at a moccasin shop and I bought my first pair of moccasins. They make moccasins there, and Sandy bought a pair of them. Mine are Minnetonkas. They had a leather boot there that was made by the woman's grandfather. The owner is in his 80s and he just brought the boots back to them. He had worn them for 57 years. He even brought a picture of him wearing the boots, out tapping maple trees for sap, in the snow. The boots looked worn, but not worn out. It was awesome.

I'm wearing the moccasins now and they are so comfy. My mother used to wear moccasins, but she had to get men's moccasins because she had size 13 feet and it was tough to find shoes that fit. Unbelieveable.

After those great finds, we went to our usual...Reny's and the Wells Clothing Outlet. Found some good buys there too. Fun.

Saturday night we sat out on the beach again. There was a wedding party down by the water, getting their pictures taken. The ring bearer and flower girl and some other girl in a gown were playing...IN THE WATER! I got pictures of them.

Sunday we hit the Kittery outlets...Coldwater Creek and Liz Claiburne (which is going out of business, at least up there)...got some nice capris at the Creek and a top; hoodie and purse at Claiburne's.

We got home around 2pm...in time for me to catch the second half of the Patriot's game.

We had a very good time. The Meadowmere was great, as usual. I went in the hot tub and Sandy and I took a dip in the pool. Jean didn't bring her suit. We sat out and had wine, crackers and cheese. Later they had a fire outside, but we were tired and headed in to bed.

Charmine and I went to our semi-annual training session at UConn today. It was pretty cool...one of the things they did was show us "Sim Man"...the automated dummy that has a pulse, breathes and can simulate loads of physical conditions. You can even shock him to change his heart beat. So cool.

Tomorrow I work in the afternoon and again on Thursday.

Oh, I got my blood work done last week and they took 12 vials of blood. Did I already write about this? 12 VIALS....jeez that's almost a pint! I have never had that much drawn at once before. It was because it was a combo of blood tests requested by Dr. Valin and Dr. Sansone. I was sent home with three containers for stool specimens too...another first for me.

Such fun I'm having! Actually, I AM having fun, stool specimens aside.

I'm doing okay on the milk-free diet, although it's hard when you are traveling to do what you are supposed to do. I had to use creamer in my coffee and some cheese snuck into my breakfasts..but to be honest, I don't think the milk is the reason my stomach goes nuts...I think it's more greasy things. Or not...I don't have fried stuff that often.

Things do seem to be settling down a bit in the nighttime bathroom scene. I have been getting up only about five times a night...big drop from the incidents that were up in the "teens" in number before.

Hopefully things will continue to settle down to a dull roar in that department. I'm so sick of it already.

We have a skunk...actually, two skunks, setting up residence in our yard. Sandy tracked them to the ramp by the cellar door. The opening under the ramp is so tiny and yet they fit in there...it's a losing battle to think that we can keep them out of the yard. If they can fit there, they can squeeze into any little hole in the fence. All we can hope for is that they decide to hibernate soon.

Sandy is off from work next week so we are going to plan some work projects and some fun stuff too. Can't wait. I do have an appt with the allergist but that's something I've been wanting to do so that's not an intrusion.

Sheila Dolan died and we'll be going to her wake and service Wednesday. We didn't know Sheila that well...we know Pete better, but we knew her well enough to know that her death is a real loss for Aussies and the agility world. She raised some awesome dogs and was a very talented writer. She will be missed.

Nighty night.