Jan 17 - on the way

We left the cottage at 8:30 on the nose yesterday but our timeliness ended there. Getting to the church in Parry Sound on time I quickly knew that there was a problem -- the parking lot was empty. Immediately I assumed that I'd misunderstood or misremembered the time of Mass, but no, there was a notice pasted on the door of the church saying that "During Father Larry's Vacation, Mass will be at 11 a.m. ..." -- instead of 10 a.m. I was torn between "made a good faith effort" or waiting, but by the time we picked up some groceries at Sobey's and visited Canadian Tire (needed a flag for the boat) the hour was almost gone. I went to Mass while Sandy went to Starbucks.

Parry Sound ... check. Next stop Costco in Barrie. No problem there, we picked up some more cereal, antipasto and flatbread. Barrie ... check. Next up, Sears. I was planning on stopping at the Sears at Sherway but chose instead to return the sewing machine at the Sears at Oakville Place -- that's where I had bought it. Of the possible routes I chose the 401/403/QEW and chose wrong. There was a major accident where Hurontario/Hwy 10 crosses over the 403 and the road was closed right under the bridge. We rerouted onto 10N, did a U turn and got back onto the 403. Another 45 minutes blown, it was a day for patience.

There was no problem at Sears although the lady said that they could have charged me a 20% restocking fee. I'd have made a fuss but that was not necessary. Good ... I had maintained my calm all day and I'd hate to have to get agitated after everything else ! Off to Steff's ... we arrived around 4:15.

We unload enough stuff to stay a week. Sandy's bag, my bag, the food bag, stuff out of the cooler, two cases of wine, the wine bag, the camera bag, my briefcase, Sandy's purse and reading material bag ... I'm probably missing something -- oh yes, Abby's food. John and Cheryl arrive a little before 6pm; Aaron's brother JK arrived separately, a little before them. We had not seen them since Aaron's graduation celebration in Philly. We had a great visit ... then we had a great meal. Stef had done a pork roast -- a real pork rib roast -- with asparagus and mashed potatoes. The roast was delicious. As much as we like pork loin, it doesn't have the flavour of a roast.

Next up, the birthday girl, Lauren, had two cakes. One was in the shape of a sun with the center -- 10" ? -- covered with chocolate nibbles and triangles of rice krispy cookes covered with yellow sprinkels surrounding that. The entire cake was almost two feet wide. The second pan of the cake mix (I'm assuming) was simply decorated with chocolate icing. Ahem ... we didn't go hungry. Oh yes, there was a large salad as well. We hardly even got into the salad, we ate so much of the main course. We pigged out on pork. Sorry, couldn't resist that.

Lauren opened her gifts -- books, a barbie, some shirts -- the dogs caroused, everyone had a good time. All things must end, however and the evening did as well.

Aaron ... looks much better than he did in the picture taken a couple of days ago. The doctor did an excellent job stitching; I don't think that it will leave any scarring. That's not to say that he doesn't look tough, just better. The swelling is down and he can open his right eye. Apparently he went grocery shopping the day before and some little kid was scared. The worst part is probably that it looks wet. He's doing what he's been told and putting ointment on it to stop it from drying out and scabbing over, but that adds to the grim look. Jk brought his bike over ... it's toast.

Well, this morning we head to Milton, a little town closeby for our dentist appointments. We usually go to the Mississauga office but he is in Milton on Mondays so that's where we're going. These one-person dental operations operate under a restriction in that if they are not present, the office cannot even do cleanings. I guess that stops dentists from single-handedly running large operations in multiple sites without hiring associates ... but like anything else, they have to find an associate who shares their standards of care and customer service. Galli -- this dentist (actually a periodontist) is very good but probably a bear to work for.

After the dentist we head south. We're stopping in Wytheville VA tonight. Hopefully we won't spend too much time at the border.

Onward !