Ben and Jenelle DOT COM

Jenelle here…

Ben’s grandparents, Nick and Isabelle, celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary back in July. It took us a while, but we finally took them out to dinner to celebrate. We’ve only been out to dinner with just the two of them a couple times, but everytime we go we’re reminded just how well-loved they are. For example, when Ben and I arrived at the restaurant, Nick & Iz were already seated at the table of their choice and talking and laughing with the restaurant owner. After we ordered our food, the waitress brought out Italian bread and cheesy garlic bread — compliments of the house.

Grandma Iz ordered one of the specials — breaded cod — and Grandpa Nick snuck a few bites. He told our waitress how great the cod was, and with wink and a smile she asked him if he wanted a couple more pieces. His mouth was saying no, but his head was nodding an emphatic yes. A few minutes later, the waitress came out with a heaping plate of breaded cod — free of charge.

After we had eaten and eaten and eaten tons of food, the waitress brought us our check, but asked us not to leave… dessert was still on the way. Four bowls of spumoni ice cream.. again, compliments of the house.

Maybe it’s just their friendly demeanor, but Nick and Iz sure know how to get the best service at any restaurant!

Last Saturday: Happy Birthday, Gina!

Last September and October, I participated in four fundraising walks. This year, the number might actually increase. The fun begins this Saturday at the Milwaukee Walk for Wishes to benefit the Make-A-Wish foundation. Jenelle and I will both be participating. We’re not going to do a lot of bugging people about donations, but let us know if you’d like to make a contribution.

A big thank you to Uncle Nick, who is giving us lots of guidebooks and tips for our trip to Walt Disney World next month. I last visited in 2000; Jenelle has never been there. It’s going to be great fun.

I had the craziest dream last night. I was extremely thirsty. I recall being at many different locations drinking every available flavor of Gatorade. To my surprise, nothing would quench my thirst! On some Monday mornings, it’s very difficult to get out of bed without hitting the snooze button on the alarm a few times. Today, it was not a problem. I walked directly to the kitchen and drank a huge glass of water. 🙂

Time to make another plug for the history site, which mentions that pictures can be added to any event. Those of you would like a living example of this, be sure to check out the site this coming Wednesday. Or, if you’re very eager to check this out, just do an event query for August 18.

By the way — for the entire month of April, there’s no events in the database. Gasp. Can anyone think of some historical Isaacson family moments that occurred in April? Anyone?

Congratulations to Eric, Gina, and Hunter on the new addition to their family. Tanner was born on August 8.

Jenelle and I have returned from Oregon. Amanda and Dave’s wedding was wonderful. Jenelle was the most beautiful flower girl I’ve ever seen. 🙂

I took 140 photos throughout the course of the trip. After I figure out the best way to organize them, you’ll see the best of those 140 photos online!

We’re looking forward to a fairly calm weekend ahead. We’ll be catching up on correspondence, cleaning the condo, and doing plenty of other “recently got back from out of town” type tasks. I’ll also be planning for the upcoming “Walk Season”. I participated in four fundraising walks last year — we’ll see how many I attend in the coming months.

Our travels to Oregon yesterday were fairly smooth. The only trouble we had is that our luggage did not get successfully transferred from the MKE-ORD plane to the ORD-PDX plane in time, so our bags were delivered to us this morning. No big deal at all.

Speaking of the luggage, here’s an interesting tale from the MKE airport. After we checked in, we put our three bags in the spot where the agent could properly tag them. The agent completed his task and handed the boarding passes to Jenelle. Clearly excited by the fact that we were on our way to Oregon, Jenelle grabbed the passes and began the walk toward the gate. What she forgot is the agent mentioning that we had to take our three pieces of checked luggage (weighing a total of about 60 pounds) to the big x-ray scanners about 20-30 yards from the ticket counter.

Standing by the three bags, watching Jenelle leave me behind, and laughing inside at her oversight, I said, “Oh, I guess I’m supposed to carry these.” I slung my carry-on backpack over my shoulders, hoisted the dufflebag-style luggage over my left shoulder, and grabbed the handles of the remaining two suitcasess, one with each hand.

As I began my trek to the scanners, Jenelle quickly realized her mistake. She looked back at me with the cutest “oops” smile I’ve ever seen. “You need any help with those?” she asked with a chuckle. “Nah, I got ’em,” was my reply, also with a chuckle. We were soon on our way to the gate.

If more interesting things happen to us while we’re out here, I’ll be sure to post them. Have a great weekend, all!