Labor Day Weekend

In a nice break for us, the O'Cayce's didn't do much this weekend - we've been really busy for the past few weeks.

Here's what a quiet weekend looks like:

Friday Night: meet up for a picnic before the HS football game. I'm late getting there, since a major event (disease-related, of course) broke at 4:45 PM. I've been on 24/7 call all week, so got to handle things starting about 5 PM. We left at half-time, Izzy having been at school since about 7:30 AM. The kids did fine without us, winning in over-time.

Saturday: Drove across town to pick up Izzy's bike, which had been undergoing repairs. It was leaking oil from the area that, on a car, you would call the differential. Since bikes don't need differentials, it has some other name. In any case, repairs took about 1 1/2 weeks.

Whilst there, I got a call from the CDC on my cell phone with test results related to the major event. I had accidentally left my list of cell numbers at the house, and had to decide the best way to get the info to those most in need of it - wait until I got home and call the cell phone of the Regional resource person? Or use readily available resources to get to those directly involved in the major event? (Cryptic enough?) So, with limited seconds left on my phone battery, I called directory assistance, and, after a couple of false starts, managed to actually get the correct health care facility and actually speak to the nurse at the bedside. All this while driving home. Once I got home, I contacted the Regional person involved with the major event. I got a major lecture about whom to call first - I'll spare the details, except to say that I finally said to the peeved person that I was saying "mea culpa," and that I was sorry, but this had seemed the most expeditious way to proceed at the time. I'm totally sure he didn't believe me, and I expect he'll have called my boss over the weekend. This is someone who takes any conversation as an opportunity to let you know he disapproves of something you are doing...

{Brief break from typing just now as the pager went off again. People, people, people: stay away from wild animals. Especially ones that are acting strangely.}

Then there was the call to animal control in a neighboring county where the sheriff's dept wasn't sure that they dealt with possibly rabid animals.

Headed out for Thai - they were closed! Tried a new place run by "Starving Artists" - OK, not worth writing home about yet. Home to watch Alton Brown's "Feasting on Asphalt" - checked the progress of the game via the radio and Internet every so often.

Izzy let me know I'd been out of sorts all day - I think he had a point.

Spent times in between listed events getting wedding pics into Flickr sets for family viewing and downloading. I'll do a summary post with pics this week.

Sunday: Mass, then Izzy's Florentine variation on Omelette Lyonnaise. After a nap, we went to return the loaner bike, then shopped for another daily pill counter. The first one I'd bought wouldn't hold a day's worth of meds -- I'm that old now -- and I needed another one. Now we've gt AM & PM pills separated. Yippee!

Home, mowed the front lawn, then had another of Izzy's culinary inventions. Once he's perfected the ensalata caprese popovers (or whatever he ends up calling them), I'm sure he'll blog the recipe.

Monday: Out to the Red Cross to donate blood after giving our sexual histories to complete strangers. I had a copy of "The Bad Catholic's Guide to Good Living" with me and that sparked some discussion with my interviewer, who was raised Catholic (12 years of Catholic school, etc.) After discussions on my opinions on the new pope (the interviewer has become Episcopal, which he referred to as Catholic-lite, so he asked "how do you like your new pope?"), he then asks me all sorts of questions that I was delighted to be able to give the "good Catholic" answer to.

We stopped at the liquor store on the way home from the blood donations - picked up some peach schnapps which I am looking forward to trying after I've turned in the pager tomorrow.

Another nap.

For dinner, we headed to a restaurant that we'd heard had gone smoke -free. They have expanded the non-smoking area, but still allow smoking in the bar and the area behind the bar, which permeates the entire restaurant. Alas. We headed up the road to the Mediterranean place, where there is woodsmoke, but that doesn't trigger allergies. Nice quiet dinner - we had the backroom to ourselves most of the meal.

We're home now and I'm awaiting a call-back on another animal bite case.

Be careful out there folks. Don't pet stray animals. Really. Don't, just don't.