Domestic Doings

With all the talk of my freelance life and conventional life,I haven’t had much time to talk about domestic life. And there have been thingsgoing on since school ended in early June.

First, we finally acted on our desire to fill the gap left in our lives when Ginger died last August. We had discussed getting a new dog and they accelerated once I saw how quiet and lonely the house can be when I am here all day and night and Deb is away for business. We had some travel in June so decided to get a new dog in July and began scouring for a rescue. Deb fell in love with one picture and we began investigating him. He’s a two-year-old Aussie mix and adorable.

Harley had been born to one family that kept him for a bitbefore passing him into foster care and then his first adoptive family largelyneglected him before returning him to the foster family. And then we found him.We filled out the paperwork, had some phone calls, and decided to adopt himdespite not meeting him since he was then in Alabama. That got remedied once wedid all the paperwork and were told he’d be arriving Gaithersburg, MD onSaturday. Deb skipped Shore Leave to bring him home.

Since then, he has been adjusting to the routine in ourhouse and the neighborhood in general. He remains glued to one of our sides forthe most part and seems disinterested in other dogs when we walk. He is trainedenough we don’t have to worry about accidents so we just need to work withkeeping him off the furniture. So far so good and with Deb having been gonethis week, it was certainly good to have a companion.

Also this week, our HOA had its annual meeting and I waselected for my second two-year term. At the organizational meeting, I wasappointed Vice-President so no more Executive Minutes for me. It’ll be nice tooversee some capital improvements in the coming year and keep things on an evenkeel.

As for the travel, I never did talk about my firstexperience officiating a wedding. Sammi Rozakis, daughter of the Answer Man himself,Bob Rozakis, wed William Cosgrove in mid-June and they had asked me to conductthe ceremony. This request came last year and I immediately got ordained online,worked with Long Island’s Town of Hempstead to make sure I knew how to make itall legal, and looked forward to it. On Thanksgiving, they handed me athree-ring bedazzled binder with the script they prepared. As I began crackingjokes as I read through it, they exclaimed, “Yes, that’s exactly what we want!”

This was the most personalized wedding I have ever attended,with the bridesmaids holding cue cards, and one of the readings also using cuecards as the woman read quotes about love from television shows and movies.

It was also a chance to reconnect with old friends includingartist Alex Saviuk, his wife Jody, and former DC editors Alan Gold and JaniceRace.

Speaking of reconnecting, two weeks later we were down in Georgiafor a family reunion with some thirty of us present. Our hosts, my cousin Aimeeand her husband, had recently added a beautiful pool and outdoor kitchen sowere well able to handle the crowd. We talked, shared family stories, reviewedold pictures and the family tree and just chilled. I realized, with somehorror, I hadn’t seen some of these relatives in a decade or more. It was aterrific three days even if I ate way too much.

And now the remainder of the summer beckons. Next week Iwill be at University of Maryland for a weeklong professional developmentclass. I have over 200 Thrilling Adventure Yarns to complete packing andshipping; I have a manuscript to freelance edit; and I have some freshman booksI need to read and begin thinking about how to teach. I am not bored at all noram I feeling particularly stressed about the load compared with previous summers.