Welcome Back, Keefe

It was cloudy and cool when I finally rolled out of bed around quarter of 9. Since I was going to spend most of the day at my parents' house sitting down or in a car, I decided to go for a short walk to the Oaklyn Library to do some volunteering there. Headed out as soon as I finished my breakfast of Honey Bunches of Oats, blueberries, and a pear.

It was busy when I arrived! The library was hosting two groups of very young kids from a local day camp, one after the other. I listened to the librarian read books about camping and summer to them as I organized DVDs and shelved children's books. My favorite was the Curious George tale about him camping with the Man In the Yellow Hat. He puts out a fire that someone was using, but after getting lost in the woods, saves the day when he finds a fire that has gotten out of control and reports it to a ranger. Unfortunately, he also has a close encounter with a certain black and white cat-like creature that leaves him smelling less than wonderful.

Rose called not long after I got home. She, Craig, and Khai were going to drop some Father's Day cards off at our biological father's house, then swing by and pick me up so we could head to Cape May County. I watched some Three Stooges shorts while I waited. "In the Sweet Pie and Pie" is a variation on the Stooges in high society theme. This time, three young women marry the trio of death-row convicts in order to gain their inheritance. When the Stooges are pardoned, they try to humiliate them by showing them off to their fancy friends. It's their friends who end up humiliating each other when their party turns into the pie fight to end all pie fights!

I got bored with waiting and went down to the front of the house to wait. Rose and her boys finally showed up around noon. Other than hitting a little traffic around a construction area in Runnemede, the trip up here was just fine. The weather cleared and became sunny and a little humid, but not nearly as hot as it's supposed to get over the next few days. There was no more traffic, two-year-old Khai slept most of the way, and I got to try out the iPod Nano Lauren gave me for Christmas.

(That thing is fun, BTW. I can change from song to song without letting the darn thing go on random. It takes a few minutes to figure out how to switch it back and forth on the tiny touch pad, but after that, it works great and sounds better.)

We arrived around 1:30. We were the first ones there, other than my mom, dad, nephew Skylar, brother Keefe, and his girlfriend Vicki. Keefe's awaiting his next orders for the Navy, but it sounds like he's going to be in Charleston for a while. He looked so handsome in his Naval dress uniform (even though he was a real baby about people taking pictures).

There was tons and tons of food set up under a big tent in the backyard. Dad grilled hot dogs and hamburgers. For people who preferred their meat chilled, there was all kinds of fresh seafood that Dad brought home from work (he's a commercial fisherman) - lobster tails, crab claws, chunk crab meat, and massive shrimp. Mom made four kinds of salad (two different pasta salads, a green salad with lettuce and onions, and a potato salad). Dad put out his own seafood salad with calamari rings, crab, and scallops. There were bottles of water, cans of soda, and bottles of beer and wine for those who prefer them.

I eventually met all kinds of people, some of whom I hadn't seen in years. Some of the first arrivals were Diane. Carson and her sons Brendan and Austin. Ms. Carson had been a teacher of mine in high school; Austin is a long-time friend of Keefe's who is going to culinary school in Philadelphia. I met some of Mom and Dad's neighbors and Dad's co-workers on his boat for the first time. Keefe and Rose's beloved junior high school music teacher Ms. Delacorte came later. Rose was happy to see her friends Joey Towns (an English teacher at Middle Township High School) and Laura. My sister Anny and her current boyfriend Tom finally showed up a bit after them.

I had a long chat with several of Keefe's friends, including the girlfriend of one of his best friends, Jocelyn. We were some of the only people drinking sugarless sodas. I'm dieting; she just found out she's diabetic. She wants to be a nurse, and she thinks knowing  how to handle this will be a big help. I had a nice chat with her throughout the night, about diets and about her prom. (The kids at Lower Cape May Regional High were lucky to have their Junior and Senior proms at the beautiful, brand-new Cape May Convention Center. Jocelyn and her boyfriend Nick had romantic shots of the two of them in their prom outfits taken right on the beach!)

I helped Mom and Rose bring out dessert around 4. In addition to the Lemon-Blueberry Cupcakes I made on Sunday, we had a big half-gold, half-chocolate cake from the Acme in North Cape May, a key lime pie and blueberry crumble from Desserts by Design in Audubon, and Mom's famous chocolate chip bars and "magic bars." The latter is made from coconut, chocolate chips, condensed milk on a graham cracker crust. They're a huge family favorite; some of Rose's guy friends still talk about them, and Keefe adores them. (Ironically, Mom found the recipe in a book on PMS...but they've always seemed to be even more popular with men.)

By the time Anny's son Collyn and his father Mike arrived, it was starting to get late. I watched Keefe and his buddies kick a soccer ball around next to the tent and continued my talk with Jocelyn (she's got a heck of a soccer kick - in black bow-trimmed ballerina flats!). Joey and Laura left; Rose, Craig, and Mike took the kids inside to watch Cars. I joined them for the second half.

Everyone began to leave as the sun went down around 8:30. Poor Khai was so tired, I don't think he knew what to do with himself. I think everyone in the house is asleep but me. Keefe and Vicki went out with their friends after Keefe changed out of his uniform.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow, too. I'm going to hit the beach in Cape May with Rose and her boys before heading back up north.