Beefing Up

We’re in the middle of prep week prior to our hopefully epic trip back to Europe next week. I haven’t been back to Europe twice in a year since the late 1970s. I can “thank” Hamas for their ill-advised attack on Israel last year. Originally, we were supposed to travel to Israel and Italy in late October. It’s all about the timing, as military doctrine once advised. The area blew up two weeks before we were scheduled to arrive. The travel agency postponed the trip for a year, but it isn’t a whole lot better this year as the Israelis and their Iranian backed foes continue to exchange jabs. The trip was morphed into a tour of Italy and the Balkans. It’s a church-based tour which includes attending mass daily, so, very excited 😊. My Favorite Panamanian is over the moon with that last factoid. I’m being tolerant since she suffered through the weather of Ireland and Scotland for my dream trip earlier this year.

Stickered Voters

She’s already packed and unpacked the luggage twice. If there’s ever an Olympic sport for suitcase packing, she would be a gold medalist favorite. I’m not sure why but she revels in the opportunity to pack (I’m sure Freud would have something to say about that). As soon as we’re back from this trip she’ll start packing for our end of year trip back to Panama. We were struggling to decide on what our big meal of the week was going to be. Instead of cooking a big lunch each day, she prepares a large one on Monday and we eat the leftovers for the rest of the week; so much simpler. Anyway, this week I spotted a large roast beef in the store which brought back memories of my youth when this was one of the staples of my mother’s table. My Favorite Panamanian scored a recipe from the internet and I’ve been in heaven all week savoring her first ever roast beef. So there.

Addition to the Man Cave
Found License Plates From our Time in the Military

My wife and I are now official voters in the 2024 presidential election. Since we get back just a couple days before election day we opted to do the mail-in vote thing. That was remarkably easy and we even got a couple stickers to prove we’re voters. Now we can join the rest of America in praying for the results. I guess that daily mass thing is looking better. I’m still mystified for the continued support for Trump. He tells blatant lies and gets a pass. I still believe in honor and he has none. I’m not happy voting for a liberal democrat but if he’s the alternative, there is no other decision to be made. He continues to deny being the architect for the single most serious attack on our form of government in recorded history, January 6. We cannot afford four more years of chaos and hopefully the Republican Party can emerge from whatever fog he’s submerged them in. 

FBR Facetiming Last Night, Fireworks Behind Her

Then Confetti

And Balloons

We spoke with the FBR and my daughter last night, or I should say, I tried to talk with them. The FBR has discovered how to elicit special effects on the iPad using hand gestures. The attached photos show a couple of them. When her abuela saw this, it became a contest between the two of them, which made a rational conversation between the two adults (my daughter and I) difficult. At least they had some fun with it.

Five movies fell in the A-Z watch, all keepers: Matrix Reloaded, not as great as first one but still awesome; Matrix Revolutions, satisfying if very sad end to original trilogy; Matrix Resurrections, so fun to see the original cast back after so many years; Maze Runner, when you knew Dylan O’Brien was going to be a star; Maze Runner The Scorch Trials, epic sequel to the Maze Runner.

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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 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; Seis Amigos - two couples from our condo complex and my wife and I; Soxfather – my brother-in-law (whom I miss more than I can ever explain); Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course