Getting ready

We're moving into high gear here, getting ready for Tamar's bat mitzvah.  Paul, Jenny and Max arrive today - they flew into Boston last evening and will drive up today. Jim and Mary will come Friday, Wallace is coming from Swarthmore, Suzine from Boise - it is a real gathering. They are not all staying here but PJ&M will start out here tonight. Naturally, we want things to look nice. I've been using the area under the deck as a staging area for sorting, disposing, etc., and over the winter a lot of "stuff" had accumulated there. No more. I didn't think to take a "before" photo, but here is an "after."

All cleaned up!

Ellen has been hit with some sort of intestinal bug or something, and has felt lousy for a couple of days, but has been gamely cleaning and washing up also. She did give up preparing fruit and cookies for the reception. Julie was fine with that - there are good sources for such things. But Ellen is disappointed. Thank goodness she finished the tallit  before it hit!