Izzy has her last rehearsal of Seussical Jr. at the Granite Theater in Westerly. Opening night is tomorrow, and all week is evening dress rehearsals. Susanna and I have been taking turns dropping her off. In reality, it is only 30 minute from home, and the rehearsal is 3 hours, so I could make it home for 2-hours, but that adds an hour in the car, so we have both mostly been staying in Westerly while Izzy rehearses.

I had been taking Hoagie to the Westerly dog park for the rehearsals that started earlier in the evening. However, the park empties out at 6pm, so I would have two hours with the dog to wander around until it is time to pick up Izzy. Plus, Hoagie has learned how to jump in the kiddie pools at the dog park and pee in them. So, tonight I left Hoagie at home and took a walk around Wilcox park to take some pictures before landing in the library to kill a few hours.

Will and I had originally planned to drop off my Blue Jay sailboat, Cookie Monster, at Pettipaug yesterday morning and race in the opening race of the season. Unfortunately we had to turn back before we got far and didn’t get to sail yesterday. This morning we made the trip to Essex with the boat and dropped it off. Izzy and Hoagie joined us for the trip, which adds a little bit of stress, but is worth it.

Will and I spent some time at the club trying to figure out how to get the upgraded/extra-large jib to fit on the boat without much luck. When Will gets back to work at the loft at Farrar Sails on Tuesday, he will talk to Kevin to see what we need to adjust on the mast to get the jib to fit. The demonstration sails Will borrowed should significantly increase the sail area on the boats, and should be good in the light wind on the Connecticut River.

This afternoon, Susanna’s preschool class marched in the Ledyard Memorial Day Parade. She invited Izzy and I to join the group and help hold the sign and pass out candy. Last year my nephew, Matthew, joined us and we brought Hoagie. This year we didn’t have any house guests to join us and I didn’t want Hoagie to walk on the hot pavement today. Izzy and Susanna got dressed up for the parade. Izzy’s best friend, Evelyn, was there as well, which I think was the real incentive for Izzy to go. It is always fun to walk in the parade and hand out candy (and for Izzy to meet all the dogs along the way).

I’ve been really taking my time on the the front porch repair. Last year we replaced the ceiling, which wound up being a larger project than I expected. The project sat dormant for most of the winter. Earlier this spring, Susanna ripped up the rotten stairs and porch decking in front of the door. I had planned to make the decking from some white oak, but the rough stock I got was too thin, and it was going to be a lot of work. So I stalled and found other projects to work on.

A week ago I went by Koszela Lumber to see if they had anything already milled to match the existing flooring. The original floor is a solid 1-inch thick tongue-and-groove Fir. They had a very close match. The boards were the correct thickness, but not quite as wide (maybe 1/4″ shy of the original boards). The deck is painted, so I decided to go for it and hoped it would look good.

Last week I cut the boards to length and rounded the ends. Today I installed the floor repair, with the final board having to be cut thin to meet up with the existing deck. The next step is to finish the steps.

I had to head to Washington, D.C. this week for work. I was able to get a hotel downtown, only a few blocks from the White House. My flight home on Tuesday was late morning, so I had a chance to take a short walk for breakfast around sunrise and get a few pictures. I’ve stopped doing the long trips with my current job and no mostly go to Washington D.C. or State College, PA. I miss some of the exciting trips, but I am enjoying more time at home.

Even though my phone camera takes decent pictures, I think that next time I’ll have to bring my camera and better walking shoes so I can get out a little more and take some nice pictures.