A Visit From Uncle Chris and Pancakes ... It Doesn't Get Much Better

We had a wonderful visit with Uncle Chris from Montana, who arrived late Friday and left all too early on Sunday after lunch. All three girls enjoyed his presence, and by the time he left, Brigid was calling out for "Un-kul Ciss! Un-kul Ciss!" Lousy weather delayed his arrival Friday night, so the girls didn't have too long to visit before it was time for bed. Jack, Chris and I did get to go downtown for a short time to say goodbye to a colleague from the Press who was leaving, oddly enough, for a job in Tonawanda. But Chris was exhausted from a too-long drive not only to Plattsburgh but from Montana over the previous two days, so we called it an early night.

Saturday was pretty lousy out, but the girls, Jack and Chris did get a visit in at the dog party that morning. For years, an unofficial and unorganized group of dog owners have converged on the field behind the college field house to socialize both themselves and their dogs. When Buster was alive, Jack would bring him back there with the girls to meet and greet. He has since continued the tradition, just bringing the girls so they could see the dogs. It's often a different group of dogs from one week to the next, but they're all pretty friendly and the girls are always happy to see them.


Margaret had her friend, Maggie, over the night before and she was staying with us throughout the afternoon because it was the Sanger Pancake Breakfast weekend and we were going to go for an early breakfast-for-dinner. The Sangers (or Casey-Sangers) have two daughters, one of whom is best friends with Patricia; one of whom is best friends with Margaret and Maggie, so it made sense to bring Maggie along with us. Because the day was so bleak, the girls and Chris stayed in most of the afternoon and played cards while I kept tabs on Brigid and Jack went to work out at the YMCA and to do some work at the office. Chris taught my girls how to play Texas Hold'em poker (thank you, Chris) and the stakes were high -- pennies were spent wildly.


We piled into the car about 4 p.m. for pancakes and sausage and hot, homemade syrup at the Sanger Sugarhouse. Yum. The only time during the year that I actually look forward to pancakes. Chris, we found out, doesn't put syrup on his pancakes. He eats 'em with butter only, but it was the spirit of the thing, afterall, and we all chowed down. Little did we know that both Jack and Patricia were coming down with something.

After the pancakes, we deposited Maggie off at her own house, after having spent more than 24 hours with us, and headed to the mall to walk off some of the damage done at the Sangers'. The rest of Saturday was spent just hanging out, watching movies and visiting. Meanwhile, Patricia wasn't feeling well, and Jack wasn't 100 percent, either. By Sunday morning, Patricia said she was well enough to go to church (she and Margaret were serving at 11 a.m. mass) but Jack was out of it. He did get up to see Chris briefly in the morning but went back to bed before I left for mass with the girls. We made arrangements for Chris to meet us (the girls and me) for lunch. I knew Jack wouldn't be joining us. He was out for the count.

Brigid was better than usual at church, which was a blessing because I was alone with her in the pew, and it can be excruciating when she's not cooperating. We went to Michigans Plus, a local hot dog place, and Chris was already there waiting for us, his car all packed up for the trip to Buffalo. We had a nice lunch and said our farewells in the parking lot. The girls were sad to say goodbye to their favorite uncle and even Brigid called out "Buh bye, Un-kul Ciss!" as we pulled away. By the time we got home, Jack had left for work but was truly under the weather. Patricia went to bed complaining of fatigue. Turns out she had a fever of nearly 101. She napped most of the afternoon and by the evening her fever had dipped slightly thanks to the advil, but she had a rough night because of it. So far, Margaret, Brigid and I are doing OK. I hope the trend continues, and I hope Un-kul Ciss manages to stave off any nastiness as well. When Patricia woke up this morning after a not-too-restful night, her fever was 102, so she really does have something.

On a different note, it was brought to my attention that some of my faithful readers (all two of them) thought I give short shrift to Margaret and Patricia in my musings. To that criticism, I say that the things I journal about with regards to Brigid they have already experienced. I didn't have a blog at my disposal back then to keep track of their developmental milestones. All I had that I kept up regularly were their baby books. Now that they're older and, one would hope, have met most of their developmental milestones by now, the news is with the baby. They are exceptional students and great kids. It would be newsworthy if they didn't do well in school or weren't involved in extracurricular activities. So if you want to know more about their exploits than I regularly report, I suggest, dear readers, you email them and ask them yourselves. You'll get it from the horses' mouths and thrill them no end to have received email.

B O N U S P H O T O S

As I posted previously, Patricia had her Global Village evening Wednesday at school and Margaret had her Colonial Tavern social studies project on Friday morning at school. Patricia spent many months studying about Nigeria and was able to answer questions and show her work at the Global Village celebration. Here is Patricia at her tri-fold display:





Margaret was "assigned" the personage of a 60-year-old blacksmith. She brought in Jack's farrier equipment, took photos of herself hammering on the anvil up at the lake and brought in mulled cider as part of her total project package. The cider was a hit with the crowd that filed into the cafeteria at the middle school. Who knew? Every recipe we found on the Web called for cinnamon sticks and allspice; I had neither so I made my own allspice with cinnamon and nutmet and just added additional cinnamon in a homemade teabag (I used a coffee filter) to float in the cider in the crock pot. Margaret also earned points for learning a period dance, which they performed at the "tavern". Here are some photos from the event. Her friend, Maggie, is the one in the tri-corner hat with Margaret at the crock pot.