H just moved out, 13 months post-bomb

[Dawn of Hope]

Thanks, IL! Yes, it does feel good!

Had to put the pool on hold today due to a work deadline. Will get finished with the draining and cleaning tomorrow (I still have at least one frog in there too!), and get the holes patched (way overdue for a new liner, but too expensive for me), then start filling it up with nice fresh water! Maybe it will be ready to swim in (and warm enough) by the end of the weekend!

I'm looking forward to doing something with friends on Friday...every year, this local group puts on a full professional presentation of one of Shakespeare's plays, at a stage set up in a large, well-known park in the city (it was the site of a World's Fair a century or so ago). It's free, and something like 100,000 people attend each year (it's 6 nights/week for a month). This year they are doing "Merry Wives of Windsor." My friends and I take a full picnic and go early to stake out our spot on the lawn in front of the stage (you can bring either blankets or lawn chairs). We get there two or three hours before the show starts, because by the opening curtain, people are just about climbing trees to find places to sit. We bring our blankets and spread out so that we aren't cramped, especially since we know that people will be squeezing in at all the edges of our blankets before long. It is WAYYY fun, and one of my friends should have been a chef, so the picnic part is seriously good. I'm just hoping the weather is cooperative...we've had a LOT of rain this week, and more is expected every day through the weekend.

Okay, gotta go eat something and take a shower and check on my cats, who are sitting in a dark house outside my office door. I actually feel pretty good overall today...and that's newsworthy!

Peace,
Dawn