Dream Realization Scheduled

Not mine, the Favorite Panamanian’s. Been there, done that, but my ever spiritual wife has never been to the Holy Land. It is approaching a significant miscarriage of justice that secular I have been all over the Holy Land while the ardent Catholic I’m married to never has.  We had talked and I had promised a trip this year to rectify that cosmic imbalance. AAA offered trip that would also include a couple days in next door Jordan which I’d only seen across the Gulf of Aqaba. This past Sunday at church (where else) my Favorite Panamanian, an zealous reader of the weekly church bulletin noticed a trip to the Holy Land being offered. It is hosted by the pastor of our old church in Charlton, who presided over my daughter and Wingman’s wedding. The kicker, the trip also includes a tour of Rome, Venice, and Florence and includes a papal audience.

I realized there was no fighting city hall on this one and gave up on my hope of seeing the Jordanian Petra site (I’ll just have to plug in Raiders #3 to remediate). There was no fighting the Pope and this means so much to my Favorite Panamanian. So, late October we’re bound for the Holy Land, this time without the several hundred well-armed traveling partners from my last adventure there. She came home from some errands yesterday to find our reservations on the kitchen table. I hadn’t yet told her I had decided we could go. Who says I don’t have a flair for the dramatic? I think this will buy me a few toilet seats left up over the next couple weeks.

Wall Complete

Trees Planted

Mission Complete

After an hour or so with the travel agency yesterday I launched back outside to finish up the small addition I’m making to the retaining wall maze in our back yard. I went much faster than I thought and I had the wall done, the trees planted, and the new enclosure filled with soil by 5pm. I used a bunch of the dirt I excavated last year during patio construction. I’m here to tell you that carrying the dirt downhill was intensely more fun that carrying it up. My Favorite Panamanian even gushed about what a good job I’d done but that was after she found the tickets so she may have had an inflated opinion of me at the time.

FBR Was Out Buying Flowers Yesterday

She has 2 Front Teeth Again!

Two movies fell in my A-Z watch, both keepers, Downsizing – just love this movie, mostly for Hong Chau; and Dragonslayer – an old time favorite of wizards and dragons (you’ll notice this movie was placed out of alphabetical order during the granddaughter reorganization of my library).

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RECURRING CHARACTERS:                                     

ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete - my daughter in law; BR3 – Blog Reader #3 – granddaughter #3; BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; CRC - Connecticut Riverboat Captain – another close friend from high school, renowned sailor of the big river; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during him her single days in Brooklyn; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter; First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Kindergarten Friend – friend since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd Musquetera (musketeer); Namesake Nephew – son of Great Aunt and Soxfather named after me; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member; PanaGals – female relatives /friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; PCR - Pittsburgh College Roommate– high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; PCR+1 - Pittsburgh College Roommate’s wife; Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; Soxfather - my brother in law; Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course