Weekend Update: A Wedding, A Visitation, An Anniversary and A Trip to Las Vegas

The wedding: My niece was married yesterday in west-central Illinois -- pretty much the middle of nowhere. Several family members on my wife's side of the family came to celebrate, so it made the whole thing kind of fun. Otherwise, I have never really liked going to weddings and even receptions, unless I can cut out right after eating. I don't have any deep, dark reason for this -- just a quirk of mine, I imagine.

The visitation: Unfortunately, the father of my daughter's girlfriend passed away after a lengthy illness -- Lewy body dementia. If you don't know what that is, look it up. It is a terrible way to die. Having had my mother and mother-in-law both pass away within the past 13 months, I have begun thinking more about the future and quality of life. It is a scary thing to think about as one gets older.

The anniversary: Yesterday, my wife and I celebrated 29 years of marriage. Yes, not only was there a woman foolish enough to marry me, but she has been foolish enough to stick around for almost 30 years. I may have taken a lot of heat when I was younger for taking so much time to decide to get married, but I am happy to see that my caution and slow deliberation paid off.

My favorite picture of my wife

The trip to Las Vegas: Although I just returned from Las Vegas two weeks ago, I am heading back today! The first trip was an add-on after visiting my son in Seattle, but this trip was planned quite some time ago to coincide with a Las Vegas visit by Aussie friend Koala. I don't have many things planned out for the trip, but I hope to catch dinner with VegasDWP before he jets off to distant corners of the world, and on Wednesday night (6:30pm at Nine Fine Irishmen in New York New York), I will be having dinner with Koala, Alysia Chang, Stacy and Miyuki (from the 1st Annual "Memorial" TBC Meet Up,) and anyone else who'd like to join in. Arch, if you are reading this, join the group! If anyone else would like to be added to the dinner group, let me know ASAP so that I can revise the reservation.

So ... it was a busy weekend, but I am now prepared to have a great time in my favorite vacation spot. I'm going to also try to see a few other friends, time permitting. Now if I would only not wait until the last minute to pack ...

Thanks for reading!