We are enjoying a particularly lovely summer week.  We have begun the annual tradition of cramming as much FUN as is humanly possible into the short and gorgeous Wisconsin summer.

Dan and I used the Solstice as an excuse to have a get together at our (still new-ish to us) house: the weather cooperated nicely, and we had a great turn out.  It’s always a good idea to have people over periodically to motivate us to do some cleaning and sprucing up, inside and out.

It occurs to me that our family and friends are getting to an age, that it may be advisable to ask our guests sign a liability waiver before entering our stair-ridden home.  I was diligent to point out the fact that we have a SUNKEN living room to all guests… (the memory of my father’s fall is still very fresh). However, we had no injuries and lots of laughs — playing badminton with an LED lit birdie in the dark.

Monday was the ACTUAL solstice: we had a very pleasant evening listening to a live band, while visiting with a small group of friends at monthly neighborhood event. There was a USTA match going on in the adjacent tennis courts, that included several of my tennis friends.  I wandered over to the courts between music sets and scored a glass of wine during their court-side post match picnic, and was given $5 that was said to be owed to me for some reason that no one could recall.  All in all, a well rewarded visit!

I coordinate a local rec group that gets together to play tennis on Wednesday nights.  Its a bit of a motley crew with a wide range of abilities; everyone is super friendly,  and we make it work with whoever shows up.  Tonight, the rain skirted our courts, and we had some very competitive and fun sets.

Tomorrow I have two social events after work… One is a reunion of sorts for those of us that worked in the IT dept of Oscar Mayer foods at some point over the last 30 years … the plant and office is being shut down — its an opportunity to reunite with people that I used to be close to, but haven’t seen for a very long time.  After that, I will join my current work team at a Mallards / college baseball game.

I’ll catch up on my sleep in the winter!