On the move: Clifton Park

[lillibet]

October 5, 2000

I arrived in Providence without incident. On the way in, there were
thunderstorms off to the left of the plane. Not enough to cause more than a
very slight bump, but the view was great, with the clouds lighting up from
within. We circled around the city to the airport and got a great,
low-altitude tour of the place.

I picked up my car (a red Ford Contour) and headed up to Boston, arriving at
Tom & steve's new house just after 1:30am. Tom was still awake, so we went
ahead and toured the house. They've repainted two of the rooms on the
second floor (the library in royal blue with white trim and their bedroom
all in black, with red for the trim and their enormous closet) and they both
look great. steve is very happy to have a black bedroom again.

Tom went to bed and steve and I headed over to 10 Kirkland, so I could
unpack and give him the presents I'd picked up for them at Archie McPhee.
He looked through the formal wedding pictures while I re-packed for the
weekend. Neither of us had eaten, so we went to the IHOP out on Soldier's
Field Road for a late dinner. He started looking through the candids there
and finished up back at the house. I had hoped to get up at 8am, before Tom
left for work, but having stayed up so late, I knew there was no hope of
that. Instead, I got up at 10am and after a quick shower, I was on my way
to Clifton Park.

The drive was pretty easy. I was sorry that it was so grey, as the foliage
was lovely and would have been stunning in sunlight. It began to rain as I
got over the mountains and kept it up all the way to my parents' house. Dad
looked through the formals while Mom fed me a bowl of chicken noodle soup
and then he went off to his pool therapy and she and I looked through all
the pictures and had a nice afternoon chatting together. Dad got home and
looked at a few of the candids and then we went over to the Old Dunker Inn
for dinner. That was a very nice meal. I had their delicious clam bisque,
a salad with creamy blue cheese dill dressing and the rack of lamb with
roasted potatoes in a Merlot demi-glace, followed by a slice of pumpkin
walnut cheesecake with coffee. Mom had the salad and a pan-seared duck
breast, while Dad had salad and the herb encrusted swordfish in a lemon
beurre blanc with a very nice apple walnut cake for dessert. The dining
rooms are all quite small-ours had only two tables, the other one occupied
late in our meal by a party of six Germans--so the atmosphere is very
intimate and homey.

Back at the house, Dad looked at the rest of the pictures and we watched Who
Wants to Be a Millionaire? and the start of the vice-presidential debate.
We chatted and looked at pictures of their 50th Anniversary luncheon in NC
and I logged on and caught up with my email. I was astonished to realize it
was after midnight. I had thought I might sleep upstairs, but the twin-size
bed just seemed too narrow after being used to our king, so I came
downstairs to my usual spot, after all. It's still raining.

October 6, 2000

We had a good, quiet day today. Mom woke me up around ten and fed me an egg
on toast with another slice of toast to go under some of Uncle MG's honey.
That was some of the most flowery honey I have ever tasted.

We unwrapped all the gifts that had arrived here, then put them all back in
their boxes to be stored here until we come home again. More lovely,
wonderful things.

Then Daddy was ready to talk computers, so I spent a couple of hours with
him going over various things he'd been unable to figure out to his
satisfaction. I was pleased that I was able to answer some of his questions
and find answers to others, but like the old saying, sometimes the answer
was "No."

Tricia arrived and looked at the wedding pictures and then the four of us
went to the Ripe Tomato, using up a gift certificate that the Women's Club
had given Mom for her 50th Anniversary. That was quite good--Daddy and I had
their shrimp & scallop bisque, Mom had chicken parmigiana, Tricia had the
roast pork and I had the chicken piccata. It was a grey, rainy day, so it
was nice to be in such a cheery little place.

After lunch we came back to the house and Dad dragged me back to the
computer, while Mom talked to Trish for another couple of hours. She has
been contracting for GE for the past two years and they decided not to renew
her contract this year, so she has been out of work for two weeks and is
thinking that perhaps she'll go back into the construction business. She
seemed pretty calm about it all--said it was hardly a surprise--and looked
better than she did in June, so I think it can't be a bad thing.

She left around five. Mom and I talked for an hour and then I took a nap.
I had told her to wake me at seven, but they ran out to do errands and I
didn't wake up until almost 8:30pm. I called Jason and we chatted for a
while and then I spent some more time with Dad and the computer and looked
through the whole list of wedding presents with Mom and then it was time for
them to go to sleep. I checked my email and will go to sleep as soon as I
stop writing. We're getting up at 6:00am in order for them to go on a
day-long bus trip to Montreal, so I should get some sleep to be ready for
the drive back to Boston.