I'm sorry I haven't been blogging much lately. It's just been too hot. And I'm having a lot of computer troubles. And we've been sick and had visitors.

We went to my friend Karen's wedding the weekend after Steve's dad's funeral. The ceremony was in the Catholic church in Steve's parent's community, so we went there with Aidan in the afternoon. It was the strangest thing - everyone was dressed casually, except us and the wedding party. I sat there feeling overdressed, thinking, well I couldn't have worn my cut off shorts, when a woman walked in with cut off shorts. I was so happy to see Karen get married. I've known her through eight years and several goofy boyfriends. She was a gorgeous, perfect bride.

The reception was at a new Ritz-Carlton in downtown Manhattan that evening. They chose it to support the downtown economy since 9-11. On the way there we caught our first glimpse of "ground zero". All that time we were living on Long Island I never felt the need to see it, or get close to it. I had gone downtown to get my dreads tightened a few weeks after it happened and experienced the toxic smell. I can't imagine living there at that time with kids. Between the stress and the fumes... Anyway, ground zero is now surrounded by a construction wall and isn't much to look at. It's just nothing. There's nothing there.

The Ritz-Catlton was wonderful. We went there in our fancy clothes (it was black tie and Steve wore his father's tuxedo) and pulled up in Steve's pick-up truck. It amazes me how at home I feel in hotels. I grew up in them - my father was a hotel manager. The food was delicious, the wine and champagne were wonderful, the band had about 15 people in it and was terrific and I got to drink as much as I wanted (not much really) because Steve was driving home. It was funny to see the valet rushing around the pick-up to open that big door for me.

The next week Steve and I got a stomach flu that Steve's mom had. I won't go into details, but we were sick all week. Then Aidan got some approximation of it by the weekend. He would throw up and then immediately, crying, ask for water. He'd take the tiniest sip of water and then calmly say, "I'm all better mama".

He didn't have a fever until Tuesday. Tyson came to visit for the day. He was in for a wedding in NJ. I took him to a swimming hole near Bash Bish falls and Aidan threw up by the water. I was able to catch it a shirt that I had taken off. I didn't want to contaminate that gorgeous water. It was terribly hot, so we stayed there still for a little while and by the time we got home the poor kid was burning up. But I think it finally got rid of the virus and was a good thing.

We are looking at a house in Hillsdale, right on the road agian, but interesting. It's an 1850's Victorian that has an Antique shop. It's zoned for residential/business. It has 11 rooms - 5 bedrooms, 1 1/2 acres, a shed and a barn. We've only seen it from the outside so far. We have an appointment to look at it on Wednesday. It's in town, so the traffic is not so terribly fast as the other house we looked at. Labor Day weekend marks a year of us actively looking for something.

Yesterday I had a worday at our CSA farm. We harvested potatoes. Jean-Paul, the farmer, drove a tractor over the rows with a device that turned up the soil and then all of us workers picked up the potatoes and put them in buckets. It was hot dirty work but not really hard and I enjoyed it. There were a lot of people there and it was nice to meet and work with people. It's also so great to talk to the people who work on the farm about crops and bugs and water supply and the deer population and a million other things that I find fascinating. It was also nice to have a day without Aidan. Not that I don't love spending all of my time with him - its good to have a break. Steve took him to the Peace Festival in Amenia. Aidan had ice cream and a good day.