Another name in the family

 Life continues to be rich and full here in Enoughsville.  In fact, we now have a new last name in the family!   Between me, my husband, our kids, and kid-in-laws, we now have 7 or 8 last names, depending on what Kinderling's last name is officially these days (even she is not quite sure).

Lisa and Kevin Stanton,
sandwiched between my guy and me.

The wedding was beautiful; it was fabulous; it was lots of fun.  Afterward there was a huge dinner and awesome dancing.  The next day, I was really, really tired, but I managed to have a bunch of fun at a barbecue, catching up even more with family from around the country.

Lots of family . . .
with two more last names included in this group photo.
Hi, Jean and Tasha!

I found out a few days later that the reason I was really, really tired is a five-letter word starting with C and rhyming with Ovid.  Four of us (who spent a bunch of car time together) ended up testing positive; everyone else I've checked in with seems to have escaped safely.  I've been staying home by myself -- well, I guess actually with Prewash -- ever since.  I'm feeling okay again, but I'm still not safe to be around others, I figure.

But let me back up to before the wedding.  Inkling and my guy and I rented a car and drove together on the way there, with me reading "Breaking the Age Code" to everyone along the way.  I've been thinking about forming a book reading group around that book, and wanted to test it first.  Green light!  It's going to be a great book to read with my very intergenerational running group, if for no other reason than the book says that my younger friends and their children will live longer, happier lives if they think older people are cool, so now they'll have yet another reason to look up to me!  At least, that's how I'll spin it when we start reading together.

Once we got to Minnesota, I got to do an awesome workout with Gosling that had me hobbling (in a happy way) the next day -- oh, man, those squats!  And then I went to the Mall of America.  

Proof I was there.

But I wasn't really doing the mall thing, of course.  I was scoping out the Museum of Illusions, for math research purposes, naturally.  

Colin is not really falling off the building;
that's a mirror tilted 45 degrees.
You can see his actual feet toward the bottom of the photo,
where he's lying flat on his stomach.

Both my guy and Gosling gave fabulous speeches at the wedding dinner, 

The toasts were touching, and also quite funny.

. . . and, as I mentioned, there was lots of fun dancing.

Most of the dancing was much less sedate than this.
Footloose!!!  Shout!  Danger Zone!

Before we left, Gosling loaned us a book that she promised would make us laugh out loud.  Anxious People, by Frederik Backman, was indeed a wonderful companion on the ride home  . . . although a couple of times I had to stop reading so that my guy could catch his breath from laughing, and thereby continue to drive safely.  We loved it.

I got home and my guy almost immediately took off again, bound for Amsterdam by way of London.  I plunged back into my Fulbright proposal, but have taken a couple of "breaks" for other projects.  I visited an open-air farm stand (staying far away from other people), and picked up enough produce that I could put up 21 pints of corn and 33 quarts of diced tomatoes.  I'm very much enjoying my new electric water bath and pressure canners!

I'm doing two-handed can removal,
while Inkling's sock helps me by keeping me company.

I also participated in a yard sale on my block (again, outdoors and staying way up on my porch).  I put price tags on only a few things --- Prewash had a tag listing her as "$5000" --- and everything else was free.  We didn't have great crowds come by, but I *did* get rid of a lot of stuff.

Even more delightful, and frankly surprising, is that my new next-door neighbors participated in a big way.  These particular neighbors have been pretty stand-offish; we've tried saying hello, and they mostly rush by us and back into the house.  But at the Yard Sale, they brought out a bunch of stuff.  They even brought out a grill and started selling food.  They offered me cookies, and I showed their kids how to feed cheerios to Prewash.  I learned that they're starting a bakery; they learned that I speak Spanish.  We each hung out on our respective porches and commented on the traffic (or lack of it), celebrating when each other managed to offload something.  I offered one of my hand-me-up dresses to the wife, who was delighted to accept it.  It was more interaction than we've had ever before, and it felt like a really nice development.  

I just realized that because missing a posting last week (while I was starting my really, really sleepy phase), I didn't write about 

• volunteering at a huge back-to-school event for our local public school kids, or 
• sifting compost and dirt with my compost club (so much fun!), or 
• dermatology appointments, or
• making cardboard reverse perspective structures, or
• Ofsnough attending the local Honor Guard.

Oh, yeah, we've been hopping around here.  As I wrote in my 5-year diary one night: "Life is full of good things to do".  So, that's the latest news from our new family, which continues to be wealthy in our abundance of last names.  May you and yours stay healthy.