Absolutely stuffed, and hot as hell. According to my mother, there are two rules regarding the air conditioning. It goes on when it is over 90, or whenever my dad is hot. Neither happened, so you had 40 Coles sweating all damned day, walking listlessly from room to room to porch looking for a breeze, any breeze.
The food was great- grilled tenderloins, grilled mushrooms and zucchini and squash, turkey, ham, pasta salad, stuffed cabbages, mixed fruits, bread, stuffed grape leaves, a bunch of different torts, etc. My favorite was my Aunt Cherie’s stuffed cabbages, but I am just a sucker for any kind of cabbage.
Saw my first butterfly this summer, and some of the younger Cole cousins from the desert portion of Washington just saw their first lightning bugs. Seems like there are just so few of them compared to when I was a kid and we would collect jars of them.
This was kind of cool- my cousin turned me on to this Monterrey Bay Aquarium Seafood watch guide that you can use to make better choices about what seafood is better for you and the environment. I think that is a real handy tool. I did not realize the real extent of the problem of bycatch. Humans suck. We really, really do.
As far as politics go, we all decided that Keith Olbermann drives us insane and thinks he is Edward R. Murrow, but he is the only one out there saying anything, so we tolerate him.
At any rate, it was fun. I am stuffed, sweaty, and pooped.