Caroline

You know it's been a long time since you've posted at your blog when you go to to write something and can't remember the password.

Please. How lame is that?

I know that the easiest thing to do is write every day since too much happens in a single day to record it otherwise. And yet, here I am with a month to reckon for--- alas.

When last we spoke, I was in a very blue funk that had been gaining on me since mid-Spring. Since that time, we have had houseguests every single weekend culminating in this past week with a seven-day visit from my sister Michele, my niece Caroline and her friend Mary Grace who brought with them the most gorgeous weather imaginable--glorious beach weather day after day after day.

The girls hiked, swam, boated, made fairy houses, took baths, learned recipes (each of them wrapped in a chef?s apron), started and finished a puzzle, all the while making art at the dining room table every day.

I'm thinking they had a good time.

We, of course, were no less industrious with our formidable consumption of chilled white wine and trashy beach reads. (We = Michele and I, as this was my week of vacation as well).

Yesterday we rented a boat for the morning. With a carafe of hot coffee, a hamper filled with bagels, cream cheese, onion, tomatoes and smoked salmon, we slipped out onto the lake while the mist was still rising. Christine, my other sister, happened to be visiting with friends across the lake so we headed over there--- and then last night she and her crew came over here for cocktails and tapas which capped the week in perfect wine buzz-tanned-sundress-Les McCann and Eddie Harris on the stereo-splendor.

Early this morning, Michele and the girls headed home as we waved from the porch and the dogs looked on rather indifferently. Henry made some kind of comment to Ollie which I think translated to: ?thank god, back to peace and quiet as normal,? which isn?t quite how I feel, but it is another stunning day and I?m sitting in my recently reconfigured office/studio and everything feels so good.

Perhaps it?s because I am about to embark on yet another phase of my life?a new undertaking that is both frightening and thrilling. It begins on Monday when I hand in my letter of resignation.

But more on that when next I write which I promise will be soon.

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