As it turned out, a rep from Meticulous Lawn Service came yesterday and, after taking a picture of the damage, readily agreed their lawnmower had run over our sprinkler head, and they'll fix it. The cleaning service people were here, too, and did a nice job.
Yesterday, I called my dear niece, California Carolyn, and had a nice chat. I then compiled the names I knew for the St. James database and e-mailed them to Celeste at the school. Not sure if I'm going to the gala, unless sister Betty does. She called this morning and we talked mostly about the kiddies--not our children, but our grandchildren and great-grand. Went to the grocery, had beef tips for dinner, and the day was good.
Today, Alison came to cut Pat's hair. She and Mike are running a half-marathon tomorrow in Harrisburg, so will stay overnight there. I asked how little Joel had done at pre-school and she said he cried when he went in (and Jen almost cried, too), but after, ran up to the car and said, "I had fun!" What a relief. He'll go to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the mornings; Joel and Jen could extend his attendance later.
After lunch, I went to St. James to try to finish up--well actually, I've got another day to put in. Today I recorded information about the pictures so there's a way to keep track of what they have. I'll type the list on the computer, and will also make up a kind of "borrowed sheet " so people will write in what they took, their name, and the date. This will be left in the front of the file; if something isn't returned, they'll know who (or is it "whom?"--I used to know that!) to contact.
Making ham and scalloped potatoes for dinner. Will add a vegetable and we'll be set.
Tomorrow is the Women's Club meeting. The speaker will present something on scrapbooking, in which I'm not interested, but I'll attend. I told Susan (co-president) that I'll be the speaker in March and will do a presentation on the Dionne Quintuplets.

Had a pleasant day yesterday aside from an annoying incident that's probably too trivial to mention.
What the hell, this is my blog and I'm going to mention it before I get to the earth-shaking stuff like what we had for dinner. The lawn service person broke one of our sprinkler heads and I called and they were supposed to come yesterday and I stayed in and they didn't come. Okay, it's off my chest--back to the important stuff:
Jack B. stopped in while I was making crystal pickles and slicing and sugaring peaches. Pat had already gone down the bay so, after we chatted awhile, Jack went down to see him there.
We had baked chicken for dinner, then I did a wild, radical thing: I drove to Shop-Rite in Manahawkin to get the items I had intended to get in the daytime. Got home well after seven o'clock and didn't get to bed until 9:05.
Well, that kind of frantic, non-stop behavior caused me to sleep until SIX am and what's more, because Susan couldn't walk today, I didn't either!!
Am now waiting for the cleaning people, also the lawn service person, who has to inspect the damage.
Got an e-mail from friend Karen and invited her down for a weekend a few weeks from now. She doesn't drive, so I'll go up to get her in Trenton and bring her home.
Note for St. Jamesers: I was able to provide to Celeste G., who's working on the "Gala" for the reunion, a number of names and addresses of grads so they can get invites to the "Gala." Also called Muckie and she gave me some leads. Called Holy Spirit to see if they can tell me any info on H.S.H.S. grads who went to St. J. I'm getting sucked into this thing, I tell you--or I'm sucking myself in.

Sent Ellen's birthday present off, then had lunch with Marge yesterday--very enjoyable, as ever. We stopped down the bay on the way home, just to say hello to Pat. After I dropped Marge off, Barb H. came over and asked me in, then she, Ray, and I chatted for an hour over ice water. Puttered around, ran a few errands, and just hung out the rest of the day. Nothing special, but a comfortable day.
Pat has no other doctor appointments until next Wednesday--the first of the scheduled "vein tests"--and I'm going to talk to him about refusing them. As his primary said, we already know what's causing the edema and don't want surgery, so what's the point except to enrich the doctor's coffers? (Well, of course, the primary didn't add the last--I did.)

After 3 more hours at St. James yesterday, I'm just about finished up. I put pictures in the frames I brought, and they look great, especially the large ones of the classes of the 30's. I do want to go back once more to add some notations to the folders in the large file. School starts today, so I certainly don't want to go now, but will see if I can go in over the weekend.
It was tedious to get all the recent pictures in some kind of order, and not easy, considering there were all sizes and configurations--some stapled to scrapbook pages, a few matted, most just loose and every which way. Incredibly, some of the "official" ones--First Communions and graduations--weren't dated or identified in any way. Most of the multitude of casuals and snapshots had no indication of year, event, class, and so on; I bought a box and simply labelled them "random shots--undated." That part was frustrating to some extent.
However, the reward was coming across the fascinating older--I labeled them "historic"--photos that included cornerstone-laying in 1931, First Communion classes of the 30's and 40's, graduation classes from those years, and so on. I picked up one 18" by 22" composite picture and felt a happy shock of recognition to see my dear older sister, Gene--Helen--along with Pat's brother, John in the class of '38. Of course, I came across my brothers' and my twin sister and my graduation pictures, too. I didn't have time to check the First Communion pictures, but will try to figure out when my sibs and Pat's made theirs. Anyway, it was fun to do, if time-consuming and fairly expensive.
Getting still further involved, I called the woman who's coordinating the "gala" for October 14. She said she has 400 or so names and addresses to send invitations to, and I told her I'd provide the ones I know.
I'm not sure if I want to expend much more effort on this event, especially as I doubt if I'm going, but we'll see. It sounds as if the affair at House of Blues will be better organized and executed than the Maynard fiasco--well, it could hardly be worse--but at this point, I'm not sure about who's going, how much it costs, and other particulars.

Yesterday, I talked to my dear twin, Betty, in the morning, then picked up good friend Leslie and we went to the cemetery. I brought some pink roses and carnations, putting one on Pat's sister's grave across from Jay. It was sad, of course--it's been two years--but the sun shone and the skies were blue. Besides the sadness, there was a strong feeling of sweet peace there.
Later, we went to Alison's for a cookout and had great fun. Joel, Jen, and Joely were there, as well as Mike's son, Rob, his wife, Lisa, and their 2- and 3-year-olds, Lindsay and Lucas. We had buffalo and beef burgers, several salads, sun iced tea, and the rest of Donna's cheesecake for dessert. We always have a wonderful time at Alison's.
Today, I went back to St. James to continue the photo project. What a job! I've gotten most of it done reasonably well, but want to put some of the older pictures (graduation, etc.) in frames, as I think they should be put in the halls; Sister agreed. Went to Michael's (craft store) and got poster frames for some of the bigger ones, then to the dollar store for frames for the others. I've now spent $72 on this, which naturally, I'll donate to the school, but hey! I have to call a halt soon.

Pat's niece, Donna, came over for lunch today and we had a good time. She's a darling young woman, very pretty and smart, too. I served leftovers (mostly) from the League's lunch and it was good. I was annoyed with myself because I had put potato salad, ham salad, and cole slaw in the 3-section dish and forgot to put it out.
The rain and wind were incredible today--limbs, leave, and debris all over the streets. It stopped now, though, and I hope it'll be mild tomorrow. I'll pick Leslie up at 12:30 and we'll go to the cemetery, then we have the cookout at Alison's at 5:00.

Picked up Muckie for lunch yesterday and we went again to the Crab Trap. I can't walk in that place without feeling a powerful presence of Mom--she loved it. I had flounder, Muckie shrimp, and we enjoyed talking over old times and new. After, she showed me the plant stand that had been my mother's. I was a little reluctant to take it, as it's not in the greatest of shape, but finally did. I'll have to paint it and who knows when I'll get to that? Right now, it's in the garage covered with a sheet.
Last night, Dennis came over to discuss the office we want to put in the closet alcove in the study. I need to come up with what a want and I'm not really sure at this point.
After the morning walk with Susan today, I zipped home, made breakfast, then took off for St. James. I had offered to categorize the "box of pictures" Sister Joanmary had told me about and she took me up on it enthusiastically. Spent several hours putting things in order (but I'm not finished), then had to leave to get Pat to the eye doctor. His eye is improving, but she wants him to continue with the warm compresses, ointment, and pills.
I had asked Pat if we could take separate cars to Manahawkin and we did. He took his to the garage where they put in a new battery (to the tune of $113, which I think is outrageous). I went to Home Depot to look at components for the new office-in-a-closet (didn't find anything I liked), then went to Staples and got a plastic filing box, and legal-sized hanging files, and folders for the St. James archives. I told Sister I'd go back on Monday to finish the job.
It's rainy, cool, and extremely windy, but so what? We're snug in our Little Egg home.