Perpetual Motion

Children are in perpetual motion when they aren't asleep! These photos of Iris prove the point. On Thursday, November 16th, her daycare class rode on a city bus to a supermarket to purchase food items related to Thanksgiving. Iris was most excited about riding the "big" bus as she had never been on one of those before.

We were in our own version of perpetual motion, as this was the day Molly and I went birthday and Christmas shopping for the children. Iris turns 4 on December 7th and Cameron had turned 1 at the end of October, just before we came over.

Don got in touch with a couple of his musician pals with whom he played drums in a band for over 15 years, entertaining folks at wedding receptions, anniversary parties, New Year's events, and so forth in firehouses, Italian-American halls, American Legion and Elks lodges throughout the Albany capital district. Don was able to have a long phone chat with John Fusco, leader of the group. Later, while Molly and I were shopping and Mark was at work, Don drove over to Green Island to visit with Frankie Coca, the erstwhile piano player and his wife, Theresa.

Molly and I did an amazing amount of shopping in an afternoon and managed to pick up everything on our lists, mostly clothing and toys for the kiddies. I am proud to say I made a foray into Joann's Fabric and Craft Store where I was surrounded by fabric and all other kinds of quilting supplies and managed to keep my head. For the most part, I stuck to my original quest for some navy blue fabric to repair Tom's quilt back in Rochester, although I did buy a quilting magazine and a sheet of template plastic in addition to the navy fabric. I confess to picking up two small balls of knitting yarn and a book of knitting patterns for gift projects, but that's a far cry from the sort of buying blitz we quilters are known for. (Of course, there was the sticky issue of how to fit very much more into our luggage, especially as we had already bought some shoes and clothes in Rochester and still had some food items to pick up.)

That evening Molly made us a Portuguese chicken dish which she learned to cook when she was living and working in Massachusetts. It was delicious. Before and after dinner, we enjoyed spending more time with the two little ones who were scheduled to be in daycare the next morning when we visited with Molly before getting on the road back to Rochester.

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Don, Gordon, and Peter are out playing golf at St. Fillans while I am having a nice, lazy morning with the paper. Thanks to Pat Kay in Bethesda, I am supplied with the Sunday crosswords from the Washington Post magazine section to work each Sunday morning. It doesn't matter to me that they are weeks old by the time I work them.

Last night's chorus concert went very well. There were a few minor glitches but above all the audience was entertained and we chorus members enjoyed the singing (for the most part). David and Juliet Sutcliffe drove us home and came in for Victoria sponge cake with peaches and coffee.