Saturday, July 30, 2011

Sonny, Tony, Grandpa

It is with great sadness that I post about my wonderful grandfather's passing this past Thursday, July 27. He was 96 years old, and lived 4-1/2 years after my grandmother's passing. He was doing pretty well up until a year ago, then things got tricky after some surgery that I felt was unnecessary but others apparently did not. He was never the same after that--how is a 96 year old going to recover from surgery? Really?

Grandpa was sharp-minded, right until the end. I spoke with him last about 2 weeks ago, and he remembered that I had a problem in my basement with these hopping crickets. He was at my house only once, about 10 years ago, but he remembered these bugs and was giving me advice on how to get rid of them. He also thought I should white wash my basement. It was the most awesome confersation, and somehow I knew it would be our last.

I will never forget how amazing he was . . . smart though he'd never gone to college, handy, sharp as a tack, opinionated, Democrat! (old people are never Democrats), a major Yankees fan. He was a big music fan, and taught me all of these old songs as a kid. To this day I still remember the words to "I Love My Baby" and "I Took My Girl." He always took us to get Slurpees as kids, and told us the story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" no matter how many times we asked.

I leave tomorrow for the services in NY. My grandfather was very well-loved, there will be a lot of people there to pay respects, and it will be very hard to get through cause there will be a lot of tears. He was my last grandparent. It's the end of an era and I'm so sad . . .

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

July 4 Beach Weekend

This past weekend I hit the beach with NOAAGirl and we had tons of fun, starting with riding in her cute little red VW bug convertible. We were loving the attention we got as we rode with the top down, rocking out to great 80s tunes.

We left Saturday morning and it took a while to get to the beach. Saturday night we hung out on the Rehobeth boardwalk, having dinner at the awesome Pig and Fish. We shared the fried green tomatoes and pork tacos as appetizers, and probably could have stopped right there cause they were so awesome. But we got entrees, I had the swordfish (sustainable, of course) and NOAAGirl had tuna. My swordfish was out of this world, cooked just perfectly. The Rehobeth boardwalk was quite a spectacle and we earned our place in hell by people-watching and making fun of everyone who walked by.

Sunday we spent the day at Bethany Beach working on our tans. At night we went to Matt's Fish Camp, which also was outstanding and had a cute young waiter who was flirting with us. We drove to Cape Henlopen, recommended to me by a cute coworker, and watched the sunset from the beaches there. Then we cruised through Dewey back to Bethany where we hung out at the boardwalk and had more Kohr Bros. frozen custard.

Monday we left for home, and were determined to find Evolution Craft Brewing Co., on the way. It turned out to be closed, and we were peering inside sadly when a guy with beautiful blue eyes came out from the back and let us in. NOAAGirl bought a "growler" of a beer she'd loved the night before, and then we got samples of another Summer Session, which I wound up buying. Score! It was the perfect ending to a really fun, flirty, and fabulous weekend. Best of all, there was no traffic on the way home, unbelievable!