A Lovely Weekend All The Way Around...

Friday found me up at 4 a.m. for my Friday morning workout at the club. This was followed by a full day at school planning new units of inquiry for next year along with taking care of other tedious things that never get done when the students are in the classroom. Then, was a quick drive to Rochester to celebrate my sister Gina's wedding with the family.

A fine Italian dinner at 6 p.m. was followed up by preparing the wedding dinner.

A good deal of time was spent in the kitchen cooking, cleaning, drinking wine and of course, socializing. This is typical of the gathering of most large Italian families. The kitchen is the focal point of any family function.

As always, our parents were key figures in the weekend and time with them is always precious. They will be entering their 66th year of marriage this October. My mother was her usual talkative self, but my father, who has been dealing with many health issues over the past couple of years was somewhat contemplative.

Saturday morning I was up early and managed to squeeze in a quick 1 hr. 40 min. bike ride :)

Then it was off to the bride and groom's house to decorate for the wedding. Yes, myself, along with my brothers Jeff, Blacky, and brother-in-law Dave were the decoration crew. We operated under the strict discerning eye of our sister Jackie.

My brother Jeff taking some time to have a little fun and show us the proper technique of throwing flower pedals along the path. One his favorite lines for the day was..."Straight guys with queer eyes." Hope nobody takes offense to this, but we did think it was pretty funny that a group of boys from the Iron Range would be decorating for a wedding.

Of course every job involves break time and this one was no different.

I was given the task of "wedding photographer" which brought a good deal of pressure to make sure I was on my "A" game. I kept telling people that photographing a wedding was a hell of a lot different than taking pictures of a bike leaning up against a tree. In the end I feel that the photos came out quite nice and more than deserving of a couple of glasses of wine when it was all over with.
The wedding ceremony itself was absolutely beautiful. Despite the string of terrible weather we have had the heavens shined upon my beautiful sister and her husband. Considering the fact that I was present really made this a huge miracle. You see, I have a notorious reputation for being the cause of some rather miserable weather. If you ask anyone who fishes along the Echo Trail in northern Minnesota or anyone who has gone off on adventures with me, they will testify to this fact.
Our parents were looking their absolute best for the occasion and I even decided to get myself a little spiffed up for the occasion. Yup, that's me below along side my lovely wife Patti.

This of course is somewhat out of character for me as I prefer shorts, aloha shirts, and sandals for most occasions. I never was much for suits and ties.

Today was supposed to be a day for a long morning ride with the amigos and yard work. The long morning ride was washed out by torrential rain, thunder, and lightening. So, school work consumed my time, along with grocery shopping, laundry, and yard work with temps in the upper 80's (finally). This was all followed up with a relaxing moment enjoying a cold one on the patio.

All in all...It truly was a lovely weekend.