My Week at My Mom's

Monday

I watched all the gamblers unload at New London, it must have been a full boat, and get on buses to Mohegan Sun. I then boarded the SeaJet bound for Orient Point. I read Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer, the third book in the Twilight series during the 45 minute trip.

Twilight will soon be a major motion picture. The weather was calm and sunny. I have already watched the view on this boat ride and have been out on the LI sound many times. But for those of you who have not, it is really very pretty.

The SeaJet goes from New London to Orient Point. Plum Gut is between Orient Point and Plum Island and is a bit of very rough water where the fishing is great.

New London light house

Plum Gut

Orient Point light house

Beach at Orient Point

Arriving at Orient Point, I saw my Mom and her dog Vasco with his new short haircut. We took Vasco for a swim on the beach right there. I found a stick and we let him off his leash and he fetched it. What a good dog! He got out of the water and his skin was pink because he was cold. We got into Mom’s car and drove west. The view was beautiful if you have never been out east on LI, the road is waterfront, sometimes on both sides and you can see osprey nests, cattails, beaches and that sort of thing. There are farms of corn too. In between towns we stopped a small lavender vendor stand and bought lavender soaps and a small bouquet for a friend of the family and former French teacher that is turning 99 on September 5. How cool is that? We then stopped at a farm stand and bought heirloom tomatoes, beets, yellow beans, potatoes, carrots and raspberries. We stopped in Greenport and ate lunch at a café that had tables on the street. I had paté with cornichon pickles on French bread and it was just great. Mom said there her coffee was dishwater weak. The service was molasses slow. The waitress was a ditz. Well, you can’t have everything. We noticed that metallic shoes are back. That evening we watched the season finales of the Closer and Saving Grace.

Tuesday

We went to TJ Max looking for purses and Mom bought a leather backpack and I spotted a cowhide with cow fur shoulder bag that I just couldn’t live without (you know how that is) that is about laptop size. So my Mom bought it for me for Christmas. Yay Mom! We went shopping. I bought a new stainless steel flatware service for 12 people for $69 at Costco. You can’t beat that. It has 3 sizes of forks and spoons and is very heavy. The design is very simple and elegant, just like Sean and I prefer. The set is made in Vietnam. We visited the food section and bought frozen Alaskan king crab legs for dinner and shrimp salad for lunch.

Wednesday

A scene from Hamlet 2

We partied at Adam’s Hamburger and Hamlet 2 event. Adam is a Drama teacher at the school where my Mom used to teach. Most of the people at his party were teachers with the exception of the spouses or dates. So, the common introduction was “Hi! What do you teach?” Adam lives in a Levittown type house and has done quite a lot with it. The entire upstairs is two rooms and so it is a loft kind of space. There is one master bedroom and a huge master bath. The bath has a Jacuzzi. Adam has many nice friends and I felt very welcomed even though I knew only Adam and my Mom.

Thursday

We saw Hamlet 2. Here are some clips:

I found the movie to be a hoot. I think it will become a cult classic over time. I give it

*** of five stars.

For dinner we had the king crab legs and veggies. It was delicious!

Friday

Early in the morning we took Vasco to the dog park so that I could meet his canine buddies and their owners. Nice people; nice doggies. Lots of flying dog flesh and mud.

We saw the movie Frozen River. Here is the trailer:

The movie was filmed in Messina in Upstate New York. I used to live in Upstate. How depressing it was to see all the snow and grey weather again. But the movie was great and I was impressed by the performances of Melissa Leo and Misty Upham. It is a very worthwhile movie to see and the hardships of life on the edge of poverty are well displayed here as well as the strained of relationship with the local Mohawk Nation. I give it

**** of five stars.

Saturday

Mom drove me to my twin sister Evie’s house for our mutual birthday celebration. We were 104, thank you very much! Evie, Mom, my niece, and I took Luna, a whippet, and Jo Jo a standard poodle and Vasco, the Portuguese water dog for a hike in the local park and they went swimming in the pond there. Sean and I joked that we should have brought our dogs. It would have been a total zoo! Vasco put his head totally under the water to see where the stick went and that was a new step for him. Evie’s husband grilled tuna which was fabulous and my niece made a tomato salad with mozzarella that was super. We had 3 cakes for dessert! Sean didn’t know that the niece was going to make one, so he brought 2, a chocolate bomb from our local French bistro and also a lemon cake. The niece made a chocolate heart shaped cake that I hear was terrific. Unfortunately I cannot have chocolate, since I suffer with migraines. There was also a musical candle on the cake, which was cute for about 5 seconds, and then we couldn’t figure out how to turn it off. So, we stuffed it into a drawer. We also had an Italian Drusian Brut Preseco that I had never had. I loved it and wish I could have had more than just a sip!

Then Sean drove me home. My puppies, Laila and Jenny, really missed me and covered me with kisses! I was so glad to be home.