Deep breath, a full day, was up from like 3am - 5am e-mailing Jackie, reading and finally falling back to sleep, woke up later this morning, I think around 8:30, hit the bike for half an hour, got to the store around 10.  And somehow was in a bad mood right away, case of wine sitting on my desk, empty boxes by the back door,  did all these odds and ends, phone calls, clean ups, scheduling issues, worked for 3 hours and went home with lunch for Dad.  We ate lunch outside on the back deck, then came in and hung out in the living room just talking.

When Dad met Polly on his walk yesterday she was mowing her lawn with one of those old fashioned non powered rolling mowers.  When he was 16 he was mowing someone's lawns with one of those mowers when he met Peggy.  Peggy was his first girlfriend.  Then he was telling me about all his jobs.  He worked for Hudson News for this guy Dave.  When he lived in Valley Stream he was working at a machine shop, then when he was 16 they moved to Glen Oaks.  There was a sign in the window of a store in the mall, his mother saw it and told him to go ask for a job.  This guy Dave who became his boss asked Dad, "Don't you look in the newspaper for a job?   He hired Dad and Dad worked for Hudson News for I think a few years.  He also got a job working at Yonkers Racetrack.

He asked Uncle Jack Eshay what should I do?  Should I work for my father-in-law at the bakery or should I take a union job at the track.  Uncle Jack told him to take the union job.  Dad was looking to buy a convenience store location from Hudson News, but he couldn't come up with the money.

So we sat and chatted and nodded off.  It was definitely a hot one today.  At 4:30 we headed back to the store to hear Lauren sing at 5 pm.  She was awesome.  Beautiful weather, great music.  After she ended I took Dad back home - he wanted to watch the Mets game - and I went to the Baked Moose game - We lost 30-20, a game we were winning for awhile, but just fell apart in the field.  

After the concert Stephanie took me aside to talk about work.  She was actually super helpful, telling me to stay out of things, let my managers run the show.  She was upset, actually in tears, but it was hard for to confront me, but maybe one day she will be my human resources manager.  (We saw each other later at the concert and everything was much better by then) Then I walked over to the free Thursday night concert, where I hardly listened to music - I just socialized. Sat down with Amber and Joe and their beautiful 14 month old daughter Devon who I sat and played with as I talked to them for awhile.  Then I wandered off to Lindsay and 3 day old Sabine.  Just beautiful - both of them.  Wandered over to 3 general contractors and told them all that I had a full time position open at the hungry moose if any of them were interested.  Then I wandered back over to Lindsay and Sabine and some of my employees were hanging out.  I was just being relaxed all by myself and then I noticed that Lindsay was done feeding Sabine and I asked to hold her and I held her for at least an hour.  The music was on break, the power had gone out so they were trying to figure how to get the show back on.  I just walked around with Sabine, giving people double takes and just having fun.  I had a great conversation with Lilly, now 23, only 8 when I moved to Big Sky.  Patty and Christine are getting married next summer! Sabine just slept in my arms and then finally did this really cute neck stretch.  She has such a beautiful complexion, looks like her big brother who is definitely a little bent out of shape.  It was really fun to just hold her, so tiny, so easy and then when I felt like it was time to go home I just gave her back to Lindsay.

Micah was dropped off at the house from camp.  Howie wasn't home yet.  Micah and I walked the dogs and Howie drove by.  Micah actually came home with a nice shiner around his left eye.  Took an elbow to the face yesterday, but he's O.K. Everyone is home, everyone is happy, camp was great.  I got a letter today in the mail from Micah - in this camp they always mail one letter home.  Micah's was short and sweet:

Tuesday

Dear Dad and Grandpa,

Hi Dad camp is great its a lot of basketball.  But I miss Mom and Andrew more because I'm not home. I LOVE you and Grandpa and can't wait to see Mom and Andrew.  NBC is fun, tonight is intensity night and thats the hardest thing here!

Love,

Micah

So, now they're back into the routine of watching television all night long until their Dad gets angry so that's what I have to do now since it's almost midnight.  Then I'll come back in and load some pictures and videos.  They said they would go to bed at the end of the show. I just went back downstairs to check on them.  Micah says Mike texted him, wants Micah to stay over in town - I'll have to call Teresa tomorrow and try to set something up.  I think Micah is really missing his Mom and brother and I guess hanging at a friends in town would make it all go quicker.  It's also the Gallatin County Fair going on right now so that could be fun for them.  So much going on all the time - tomorrow is this motorcycle jump thing out in the park at town center, saturday I have this wedding to go to, sunday another double header softball game and really all I want to do is go fishing...