Rosh Hashanah starts tonight, so happy new year to everyone!  We’re at my grandmother’s house to celebrate the holiday. Since it’s quiet here, I’ll use this as my opportunity to wrap up the summer!

First of all, I never mentioned my sister Rachel’s birthday (it was August 5th).  Happy tenth anniversary of your 27th birthday, Ray!

The last thing I posted about was JP’s birthday.  And now it’s the middle of September!  Of course.  Always happens.  So, to catch up:  After a busy July, it was nice to relax and not have a lot of things planned.  We decided to take a ride out to Massachusetts one Saturday in August to visit my aunt and uncle.  We went back to the Indian restaurant we went to the last time we drove out there (but Miriam was with us this time!).  Delicious.  Then we went to their house to visit some more.  And despite the crack in my windshield and the parking ticket, both of which I received that day, we had a lovely time! 

A few weeks later, Miriam and I drove up to visit the northern nieces and nephew over Labor Day weekend.  On the way there, my car reached this milestone.

Whoa, Nelly!  Nelly’s my car, of course.

The drive up was uneventful, and we enjoyed a few days with the kinders, our sister, and our brother-in-law.  And when three sisters are together, a little of this happens:

We didn’t actually get this wine.  And we didn’t really have any rivalry either.

The weather was beautiful, so one afternoon was spent at the park staring at the ducks.

Actually, they’re mostly geese.  Auntie Miriam and the girls really liked them.

We hung out at home on the deck a lot.  And played.  And read books.  And just spent time together.  And then when the kids went off to their first day of school as a fourth grader, a second grader, and a junior kindergartener, Miriam and I started our drive home.  Which turned into a very long drive to the border, since the traffic in Canada was atrocious.  It’s usually a bit slow, but also it started POURING, so that was fun.  And then we got to the border.

We were stopped on the Peace Bridge.  I can’t begin to explain how much I hated that.

We actually weren’t sitting on the bridge for too long, thankfully.  And we sat at the border for a little while, but not for as long as I thought we would, so that’s good.  Then I spent the next two weeks watching the Republican and Democratic conventions.  SPOILER ALERT: I liked the Democrats a whole lot more.  And that’s about it.  Until last weekend, when I finally ran my first race!

The starting line wasn’t far from my house, so I walked up there with enough time to take my inhaler and find a spot to dominate the 5K.  Well, I’m exaggerating, of course.  But I’m super proud of my time!  I finished in 29:38, with a pace of 9:33!  I usually run a 10-minute mile, so this is really fast for me!  Having all those other runners around really got me to push myself.  My knees are still a bit unhappy about it, but the rest of me isn’t.

And now I’m using some free wi-fi at a Starbucks near my grandmother’s, and I can’t find an outlet, so I better hit publish before my battery runs out!