Fourth Annual Planning Weekend in RI !

Last weekend my book buddies came together in Rhode Island to eat, drink, select books and talk about books. As the weather wasn't all that great (not nice enough to go to the beach) one of the ladies suggested we visit a local Connecticut vineyard. She was participating in a Passport to CT vineyards program and needed one more vineyard before she could enter her passport for the grand drawing. Off we went only to discover that our first vineyard was closing and we couldn't get there in time for a tasting. The second vineyard was the venue for a wedding so it was closed to the public. So we headed off to her third choice. The drive to North Stonington was quite scenic and we came to the Jonathan Edwards Vineyard.

I only tasted three white wines- all were enjoyable. We trooped out to the vineyard and had a couple of pictures taken.

. We then drove back to the house and sat on the deck, having our own little wine tasting until it started to rain.

. We moved into the screened porch and discussed books for the upcoming year. Lots of great suggestions but we finally narrowed it down. Then my wonderful husband grilled chicken for us and basically did all the clean up so we could sit, eat, and talk… It was a really relaxing and productive weekend for the group.

One of the hardest decisions - ever

Yesterday my family had to make one of the hardest decisions ever. We said good bye to our sweet little 14 year old cockapoo Buffy who had suffered from congestive heart failure for the past two years. It came very quickly- we all thought the medicine would give us more time but it was very clear over the weekend that she was having more difficulty breathing and she was not very interested in eating and she was tired. I think that was the one thing that made us all realize that it was time. She just was tired- too tired to really eat, too tired to go out, too tired to bark at another dog, too tired to even cuddle. And we all wanted to remember her as (relatively) healthy. After doing some research about the final stages of CHF I knew that I could not put her through any of that. It wasn't fair to her. And her quality of life would not be improved. So good bye my little old lady-my companion, my buddy, my shadow.