Last weekend was my family reunion. It's always good to see everyone, and this year we had quite a few of the cousins (my generation) attending so we managed to corral all of us and get some pictures.
There are (I think) 23 of us, so having 15 all in one place is pretty good.
Actually, one of the folks in the pic is a cousin from Germany, who was visiting with his daughter. So make that 14. Still a pretty good showing.
It was nice to meet Hannes, our German cousin. His mother and mine are first cousins. I'm not sure what that makes us; second cousins? I can never keep that straight.
Back at work on Monday, we had two days of sales meetings. Fortunately, my team didn't have to attend all the modules. It's hard for me to sit through long meetings. I need to get up and stretch, and walk around once in a while! We were supposed to all go to Dairy Queen again, but it was rather gloomy outside so they brought in ice cream & toppings, and we did make-your-own sundaes. That was fun. It was my birthday that day (Tuesday), and one of my coworkers spilled the beans so they all sang to me. That was fun, if slightly embarrassing.
After work, I met a friend at her now former house so she could give me an extra TV they had, since mine had bit the dust a while ago (all I've had to watch since then is a 13" old-fashioned tube set). Well, the darned thing is HUGE, and it was an effort for both of us to get it into the car. There it stayed until today, when my landlord dropped by (for another reason) and nicely helped me carry it upstairs, and waited while I cleared off the bookcase where we put it. Whew. I had to do some rearranging, but I think I've found a good arrangement.
I had to go to Target to pick up an HDMI cable, and after I attached all the cords I turned it on. Great picture, but no sound! That was frustrating. I called the electronics department at Target, but the guy there was little help. So I looked at the back of the cable box, and noticed there was an audio out jack (actually, a pair of them) which matched jacks on the TV. Aha! I think. So I went back to Target (it's only 5 minutes away) and bought an audio cable. It took a couple of tries in different jacks on the back of the TV (there are so many of them!), but now I have sound! And HD picture! And the thing really is huge, I think it's 40". So now I have a bigass television, and I'm watching the opening ceremonies from Rio on demand. Nice. I don't have a remote or a manual, but hey, it was free. I really can't complain.
An aside: why do the Olympic opening ceremonies have to be so weird? Who started that trend?
Last night, I got together with friends for a nice cookout-and-cocktails evening, complete with cupcakes for my birthday.
My friends are awesome. But they made me take home the leftover cupcakes. I had one for breakfast, because I could.
Oh, and the other night we had a smoke alarm malfunction in the house. Fun times.
So it's been quite the week. I hope I have the spoons for tomorrow's Lammas Faire, which is here in Hudson now.