"'Are we going to be friends forever?' asked Piglet. 'Even longer,' Pooh answered." ~ A. A. Milne

What a great couple weeks full of friends and family:  I got to spend some time in Deep Creek, Maryland, with my aunt, uncle, cousin, and some of their friends. They rented a house and a boat and invited me down to visit. For anyone familiar with the area we hit up Pizzeria Uno for dinner - which is a great place if you've got kids with you or are just looking for people - and alternated between the hot tub and jumping in the lake. I also got to go visit all my friends in Ohio, and spend some quality time before hopping the pond with the Houseknecht, Foreman, and Yates families, and spend a Sunday at Kirkmont. I spent an entire day with my grandparents....I thought I was just going for lunch, but somehow that turned into dinner, too, and my grandfather even stayed up til 9 o'clock to visit. He just turned 91 a few weeks ago, and especially since I am going to be gone for this whole year, I know there won't be too many more opportunities to spend time like that. So I am cherishing the moments I get. Then again, he might live another 10 years and surprise us all, but you still value the time spent together, however many the days. And I got to Kennywood Amusement Park with my friend Sara Pyszka. She and I met in middle school, and she is one of the most inspiring people I know. Sara has cerebral palsy, so the umbilical cord cut off her oxygen supply during birth, and she's lost most of her motor skills - in her case, she's all there mentally, but it's like being trapped in a body of Jell-o. But that has never stopped Sara. Oh no. She has a wheelchair she can drive using her headrest, she uses a button on her headrest to type on a computer that speaks for her, she went to college and got her degree, music is her passion and she found a way to sing using her computer, she's writing books for teenage girls, writing her own musical, and spreading the word about disabilities. She makes the most of everything life gives her - good and bad. So we spent a day going to the front of the line and riding twice at Kennywood, and having a blast. We rode the Jackrabbit 3 times, the Racer 4 times, the Thunderbolt twice, the Exterminator 4 times, the Whip twice, the Kangaroo once for old times sake, ate Potato Patch fries, drank fresh squeezed lemonade, and I even got to try out the new Sky Rocket. And somewhere in the midst of all that I managed to stain 6 sliding glass doors, 6 double-wide door frames, and 14 screen doors. Sadly, I still have another set of 6 doors and frames to go, and I think there are 2 more that we haven't installed yet but probably need staining, too. Suppose I need something to keep me out of trouble.....