Eben started Vacation Bible School yesterday at the Spruce Head Community Church. He didn't want to go until Alexis called and invited him on Monday night--and that's all it took. He couldn't wait to go.

He said he had a great time. Adrian, Thomas, Cassie, and Sam were all there, too, so he had lots of friends to socialize with. He told me that on Friday, he has to wear pants that can get wet and can get grass stains. Sounds like they'll have a really good time that day.

Caleb got another mosquito bite. He got this one on Monday night while he was outside with Dwane. We had him all dressed in long sleeves and long pants, with a hat, all sprayed with bug spray (with DEET). And guess where the mosquito chose to bite? Right on his eyebrow. There's not a whole lot I can do with his eyebrows. Someone asked if he'd wear one of those mosquito hats. I don't know if he would or not, but it may be worth a try. Anyway, this bite was not as bad. Dwane was able to kill it while it was biting, and we washed the area right away with soap and water. We then added an antibiotic salve, and later we put on the anti-histimine cream when we saw that he was trying to scratch it. It got a little swollen last night, and quite red, but it was nothing compared to the one he had on his knee.

I guess there's not a whole lot of news to report, but here goes...

My show on Saturday seemed to go ok. There were only 4 girls there, but they were really receptive. They seemed to love my Purse Card demo, and the products speak for themselves. Liz didn't want to close her show until Wednesday, so I won't know how "big" the show actually got until then. They all want to take turns hosting a show each month, so that's always good.

Dwane worked a full day yesterday (Sunday). He went in at 9:30 AM and got done about 7:00 PM. He had to set up a sound system for an outdoor wedding. The wedding was 400 feet from a power source, so he was outside in the sun and heat running extension cords all that way. He did end up with a pretty bad sunburn, but nothing in comparison to his Jamaica burn from last year.

Ok--here's all the details about our Samoset "date" last night...

Dwane was given a free dinner at the Samoset by one of the Banquet managers. Dwane's co-worker from New Hampshire, and his wife, were to join us. At the last minute, we learned that the wife's sister, and her husband, were also going to join us. So--now I was going to have a date with my husband and 4 people I didn't know. I was a little apprehensive...

When we got there, and made introductions, and I learned that the brother-in-law was actually a former supervisor of my Dad's. How odd is that?! He had one of those names that are so unusual that you know that you've heard it before. When I mentioned my Dad's name, they started laughing. "Of course, we know Bill!" That broke the ice, and we had a little discussion about my Dad.

Dwane and I started with root beer and diet coke. The others had some sort of onion martini (a gimlet?), some drink made with "grey goose?", and some kind of wine. I know I had heard of that type of wine before, but I can't remember it now. Can you tell that I don't drink?

We were then served "tapanades". You'll have to forgive my spelling in this post. I tried looking up the words in the dictionary, but they weren't there. (Maybe because the words are from a foreign language, as opposed to English.) The tapanade was crostini with a black olive paste, sun dried tomato and parmesano reggiano. Can you believe that I actually ate it? Although I wouldn't pay money to have it again, it wasn't bad. We then had our "appetizers". Four of us had the lobster stew, which was to die for. It was made with sherry, and it was very rich. The other two had Caesar salad that was made tableside. Lemon sherbert was then served to cleanse the palate. For our main course, Dwane and I had the chateaubriand for 2, which was also prepared tableside. It was awesome! It was so tender, and such a huge portion. I'm used to putting down some protein, but that was unbelieveable. I don't remember all of the other dishes--but there was Steak Diane, some sort of duck, some sort of pork, and I think some sort of stuffed haddock. Four of the people had Bananas Foster for dessert, because of my brother's recommendation. (My brother is THE famous Billy Rhythm, the world's best drummer.) I had creme broulee with fresh berries. It was really good. Even though I love custard, it was the first time I had ever had it. What surprised me was that it was served cold. I guess I figured it was worm because of the burnt sugar on the top. Everyone loved the bananas foster. I tried it, but actually didn't care for it too much. I could really taste the alcohol. It felt like a vapor was in my nose. Someone mentioned that perhaps it hadn't been flamed enough.

We got home about 10:00 PM. The boys were still up, and they did a great job with Mindy. Mindy said Caleb cried only once, and that was when she told him "no".

This was a great night. The food was great, the company was great, and the boys didn't kill the babysitter.

Caleb learned two new words in the last 24 hours. That's very exciting for us. Caleb is now 28 months old, and only uses 4 words regularly: Mama, Dadda, Uh oh, and No. He occassionally says boat, ball, banana, apple, Nana, and cheese. Well, yesterday, he learned to pull up his shirt to show his exposed belly and say "ta-daaa!" It cracked Eben up. This morning, I was putting on his shirt. It is one of those shirts with the animals going forward on the front, and then showing the animals' backsides on the back of the shirt. I said to Caleb, "Look at those butt-butts!" Caleb promptly replied, "Butt-butt". My father will be so pleased that he learned to say "Butt" before he learned to say "Grampy".

Dwane and I are going to the Samoset for supper tonight. We are going with Dwane's co-worker and his wife. I have not met them before. Mindy is coming over the watch the boys. I think this is the first time Caleb has had a babysitter other than my parents and Uncle Bill & Aunt Sue. Dwane asked me if I was excited about going, and I told him I thought I would be more excited after we got home and I saw that Mindy was in one piece.

Well, here is my first post. Just a test, primarily.

I will say that headquarters is shipping a new catalog to me today. It should arrive here on Tuesday. I'm really excited to see what products, if any, have been discontinued.

I have my first "real" party tomorrow. It is for Liz, a girl I have never met. She says there are at least 7 people coming, and that would be great. Since I don't know her, I probably don't know any of the people coming, either. That could open a whole new group of customers for me. I hope I can do a good job. I had a dream about it last night. I dreamt that I had forgotton most of my stuff at home, and had to go back to get it. Not a good way to make a first impression.

Ok--let's see how this blogger thing works. Here goes the post!