I Know. I'm Rambling.

I was told that the area in Baltimore where Gary and I had to go today for his medical tests was a bad section of town.

  First of all...  our GPS got us lost.  

Doors locked?  Check.

Finally, we found the place.  Second floor suite 208.  I won't go  into detail... but let's just say there was standing room only and I needed to get some air so I went downstairs to wait.  I found a chair in a long hall leading to a Pharmacy that only carried wheel chairs and walkers.  No shopping there.  So I first bought a Mounds bar, then had a seat.  (yes, they had candy and a very hard chair).  Sick, grungy, hacking people were spewing germs every which way as they passed by me and I thought, I see possible flu in my future.  Then a great idea!  Wait in the car where it's more comfortable.  But first find the bathroom and see if I can't find the coffee shop that Gary said was down there...  

Bathroom.  Check.

Coffee shop...  had a sign that said 'Handicapped Only'.

That left me out.

So I went to the car and began my 3 hour wait.  What to do... what to do... Facebook asked me...  what's on your mind?  So I spilled my guts.  

And then I spotted the ice cold water in the middle of the desert.  Okay... it was really an outside entrance to the coffee shop and real - non-handicapped people were allowed to go inside.  

They had ice cream, cheese cake, coffee, sodas and chips.  I grabbed a Choco Taco and a bag of barbeque chips, paid the man, and ran to the car.

There's the coffee shop entrance straight ahead.

 Below -  This was my 3 hour scenery.  Not so entertaining. 

 But the angry, fighting, yelling screaming people coming and going were very entertaining.  I learned a lot of new words.  And they weren't all four-letter words, either.

And then an old lady pulled her car right beside of ours and slammed open her door scratching our car.  

 She grumbled something like 'it sucks to be me' then went inside.  I sneaked a peek at the damage...  a little scratch...  but nothing that I wished to risk my life over, so when she came back 5 minutes later and got back in her car and left, I concentrated on my Words With Friends move with Gary and never even gave her a look.

So what do you do when you're in the middle of a mock Jerry Springer show, in a seedy part of town with nothing to do but eat junk food and pray the protection of Jesus?

Between Gary and  Sophie Doodle my mind was kept pretty occupied with Words With Friends.  (Yes...  I play Scrabble with a dog.  And Yes, she has beat me.  Don't judge me.)

Instead of using GPS to find our way out of Hell Town, we used common sense.  

It got us home without getting us lost.

Party Time?

No better way to celebrate Father's Day than to spend time with Gary's family...  

Enter - Bethlehem Pennsylvania. 

We spent time at the Downs OTB with his Uncle Victor where I won over $100 on scratch off tickets.  

  

Gary's daughter Stacy and her boyfriend Vinnie met us there  and then we all went out to dinner.

After lugging our bags up two flights of narrow, filthy, steps - Hotel #1 smelled bad and looked dirty.  

 Hotel #2 was passable.  

The Casino was fun, but I'm sure glad I'm not a true blue gambler.  I'd be living in the streets.  I lost the money I won on the scratch offs and then some.  

Gary's daughter Stacy is always so thoughtful and never forgets her dad on special occasions.  I'm so glad she came from Jersey to spend the day with us!

Today before heading for home, it was brunch with Gary's mom.  After good conversation and a few good laughs, we were homeward bound.  

It's good to be home, but tomorrow we're on the road again.  Fredericksburg, Va. for a business meeting.  I'm tired.

Dear Diary,

I knew it would be ugly.  The word 'vacation' along with suitcases and a lot of belly rubs and cuddling could mean only one thing.  Mom and dad were leaving me again.   Lindsey and Rissi came to spend time with me and take me out to potty. But I was still sad. They're home now... but there's talk of them leaving me again tomorrow.  I'm torn between being sorrowful and sad or throwing a big 'ol 'my parents are away party'.  Who's in? Gracie.

Magic

Spring is in the air.

Gracie smells it.

And here I am...  on my way to Delaware...

 Jason Bishop is a well known magician who is performing in Wilmington, Delaware at the Grand today.  GP's mom once provided years of foster care for him and now he has saved us some tickets to his show :)

Travel was not good.  Plenty of rain, slowed traffic and yes... we got lost briefly.  

Yahoo maps wasn't enough.  I had to fire up my navigator on my Android to get us back on the right track.

As far as hotels go> I gave Trip Advisor one more chance.  This Holiday Inn Express was rated right there on top as far as the reviews go.  

My faith in Trip Advisor has been restored.  A sparkling  hotel that smells clean and the Internet even works.

Last night I decided to take my turn (Scrabble) with the game my sister and I are playing (her on her IPhone, me on my ITouch IPod).  

Sorry.  But I need to brag.  I got 95 points > my word-Crayons.  She's a school teacher so it always does my heart good to beat her in Scrabble.  Of course the game's not over yet...  so I should stop gloating I suppose.

Well, gotta get ready for the Magic Show this afternoon.  I hope everyone is having a beautiful Saturday.

Help Our Planet Thrive

Thanks so much, for all the prayers and well wishes for safe travel on our trip to Annapolis.

It's good to be back!  I've missed everyone the last few days.  I was kept busy though.  On Thursday we left for Annapolis where we stayed with my sister, Angie.  We went to 'Mike's on the Water' for dinner.  Great seafood place!  We were impressed.  But what I was not impressed with was the new app that Angie tried to wow me with that was on her IPhone.  

"Watch this!" she said to Gary.  "All I have to do is speak into the microphone and it will send you that in a text message".

She said clearly " Hi Gary, it's so nice to have you and Bobbi. I hope you come back again. Bye"  

Angie had Maryland Crab Soup

Gary had flounder and I had a crab cake sandwich and fries.

And a bowl of cream of crab soup.

Prissy the cat was true to her name.  She watched as we left the next morning making sure we didn't make off with any of the antiques or vintage jewelry her mommy showed us the night before.  

It snowed Friday morning, and Angie had her fingers crossed...  but shortly after 6 AM she found out school was on, and she was out of there and on her way to work. 

And soon after we were headed to Arundel Mills where I had a meeting.  

After the meeting we enjoyed the beautiful Arundel Mills Mall.  

About our hotel.  It was nice enough.  But I was a little troubled with this message on the clean towels. Help Our Planet Thrive>  #1 states that the only towels they wash are the ones found on the floor.  So...  that means if the towels are still hanging they consider them clean.  That tells me that we may or may not be using clean towels.  I drug my own out of my suitcase.  

Gary thought it would be funny to sprinkle pepper over my side of the bed sheet...  in honor of my bed bug fear.  I pretended to believe him for just a minute, to humor him.   

This morning we lingered at the hotel a while, then it was off to our boss's After-Christmas party...

Where there were colossal shrimp and lots of meat.  And everyone seemed to have the dropsies.  Yes, that's crab dip on Gary's shirt.

And George decided since nobody cut into his boston cream pie that he brought, that he'd take it back home with him....

I don't think he meant he wanted to wear it home...

Uh-oh.  Looks like George's pie ended up all over his car.  No, there were no alcoholic beverages served at this party....

Gracie spent the last few days alone in between the times my daughter Lindsey came by to take her out to potty....  but mostly she was alone. 

She got a new toy for being such a good girl.

It's good to be home.