05 July 2006

Houseguests, New Babies, All Sorts of Stuff

There's been a good bit going on the past few days that I haven't really written about. David's friend Johanna, her husband John, and their three kids came to visit us for a couple days. They're heading out in the morning, most likely before I get home from work, but a bit more on their visit later.

David woke me up at 11:30 on Monday morning (That's early for me, remember?) with three rather unwelcome words - "The clinic called." Because Monday was technically not a holiday, we didn't have a third doctor scheduled to work overlap between the day and night shifts. Turns out we should have.

Being the team player I am, I got up and drove in to help out. I ended up working 5.5 hours - not really a full shift, but enough to feel like I worked. Had I not gone in, things would have gotten horribly bogged down, and there would have been ripples carrying over into tonight, I'm sure. I called home on my way out the door, and David told me that the guests had just arrived.

I stopped off to pick up a few things at the grocery store and made a big salad for the grown-ups when I got home (Kids, apparently, have to be fed earlier in the evening to keep them happy). Then we all walked down to the town pier to watch the fireworks across the river in Portsmouth.

Walking back from the pier, we were talking about Johanna's friend Dena, whom David & I met at Rhinebeck last year. I remembered that Dena lived in Northampton, so I had wondered if she knew mamacate. So when Johanna told me that Dena's working at Webs, I was pretty sure, and when she said that Dena has a blog, well, that pretty much clinched it. Come to find out, they're practically neighbors, even. And I always thought the veterinary community was incestuously small.

This morning at around 10:30 (really, really early), David woke me up to tell me that his girl Spooky had given birth to a female cria earlier in the morning. Spooky's a light rose grey and this cria is a dark rose grey - not a common color, but a really neat one and one David likes in his herd. He, the guests, and Wendy were all going over to see the new arrival. He's got pics on his computer now, so I'll try to post one soon.

I tried to go back to sleep but realized it wasn't going to happen and got up before they left. David generally does not like name suggestions, so when I called after him, "You know you're going to have to name her Liberty Rose," he let out a pained cry and started running for the van with his fingers in his ears. "Betsy Ross," I yelled.

After they returned from the farm, We all went to the local lobster pound so that John could indulge in some of Maine's most popular frutta di mare. Afterwards we went to our local beach so we could poke around the tidal pools. There is always an abundance of green crabs, often starfish, and today we discovered that one small pool actually has a cluster of sea anemones. We also learned the best spot for finding large starfish, occasionally lobsters, and other treasures, though the tide had come in enough to cover that area by the time we got there.

After the beach, we parted ways. I headed home to gather my things for work, while everyone else went to get ice cream. Somehow it didn't seem quite fair, but David assures me the ice cream tasted awful.

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