Surra BBQ: Cat and I went to the annual Surra BBQ.  We didn’t stay long since Cat had to get up early the next day for work but it was a great time for the couple of hours that we were there. The weather turned out perfectly despite earlier showers in the area.

1st Gray Hair (I still don’t have any hair…): Cat found a gray hair! Kinda random at our age but was still a sight to see.  We’re getting old!

In the afternoon after church and lunch, we went hiking in Bellaire Woods Nature Preserve in Mount Joy Township.  It was our first time there.  It is a really interesting property.  It’s the only Lancaster County Conservancy property in western Lancaster County among their 24 sites.

Unfortunately, the bugs were eating Cat alive, so we didn’t walk the entire length of the trail but we spent about forty five minutes in the woods.  Living and working in busy towns, it was nice to go into the woods where there wasn’t anyone except the two of us and some nature.

After the sun set, we also got a fire going in the backyard to roast some marshmellows.  This was the first fire of the summer since we have had some awfully warm weather that has kept us inside till now.  Einstein, our one cat, watched us the entire time.  I think he’s a pyro!

Most of the Christmas this year was what you would expect for us: the three, the presents, having a big group of the family go to church together.  I must say that as much as I like to be eco friendly, I just don’t like the new bulbs on Christmas trees, so I reverted back to the old type of Christmas bulbs.  They have a softer look and are smaller, which looks better on trees.  The picture didn’t turn out so great but here it is anyhow:

You might know that I’m a tech geek and so I had been playing around with Foursquare, which is an app for my Android phone that Cat got me as a birthday present, nice!  This was actually one of the last times that I did check in.  I see why businesses would want to use Foursquare but without much of an incentive for me to take the time to check in, I gave it up.

The most interesting thing about Christmas might have been how we spent Christmas night!  We were at Cats mom’s house eating dinner and having a good time with her family when we realized that there was a storm a brewin’.  A big storm!  A storm that would prevent us from driving to Maine and cut our trip there in half.

So we jumped in the car, ran back to Elizabethtown to get the cats and the bags that we packed, and headed out to Maine Christmas night.  Cat was a real trooper on this trip.  Cat took over for me about 1 am and I fell fast asleep.   The next thing I know it’s 5 or 6 in the morning and she was still going!  I took back over but I didn’t think I was going to get near that much sleep or that she was going to drive quite as far as she did.

We made it up to her dad’s safe and sound and have a very nice visit with them as well.

We have gone twice now.  An interesting fact about blood donation is that you can save up to three people from giving blood.  This means that between Cat and I we have saved up to 12 lives thus far.  If we keep at it we can save up to 36 lives in one year.

This is a pretty cool thought so thanks to everyone who gives blood!

Leading up to the meeting, it looked like there was going to be a three way race for chair that would have pitted East against the West against the T and progressive activists against Party stalwarts.  Fortunately, we came together and rallied around Jim Burn.  Since the meeting, Jim has attended the Lancaster County Democratic Committee’s corn roast.  He is the first chair to attend in a long time and it mended a lot of fences from people who were initially supporting other candidates.

Boy, maybe this is tough to read.  But anyways, we went to church, hung out with fam for lunch, Cat did three tie die shirts while I neurotically worked on one, and Cat watched a Red Sox game while I surfed the interwebs.