Sunday, January 12, 2025

Monday, February 3, 2025

Good morning, everybody!

Yesterday was a great day of getting together with family and celebrating Geoff and Cindy’s birthday along with Pete and Maria, whose actual birthday was yesterday. Maria invited us to Minocqua for some respite because it’s not cold enough here in Chicago. When we passed the offer, she thought it a good idea to invite herself to Crystal Lake…and I thought the same. It’s not often we get to see her; it is rare for Maria and Pete to be together. This was the first time Maria and Pete had met Geoff and his new bride Kristen married now for almost 6 months now. WOW!!! Where does the time go? We all met up in Barrington at the Lucky Monk, which was a good compromise between Chicago and Crystal Lake and kept all commutes under 1 hour…except for Maria and Pete. They drove down from Appleton, WI, after visiting Pete’s Dad in Florida and then to Minocqua today.

We parked the Minocqua and Chicago contingent at one end of the table so they could chat and ask each other questions about life, work, and family. This gave me a chance to sit next to Barb, who is always by my side at most dinners with more than four people. I love it because then I always get that look from Barb, where she wants to say, or sometimes does say, “Seriously, I have to sit next to Andy?!?” It’s all tongue in cheek fun…I think?

At the end of the evening, Geoff and Kristen, suggested the idea of creating a Voice Bank, and offered to help get me started. This of course brought a few tears to my eyes and again rendered me incapable of speech. Which is another good reason to have a Voice Bank. Thank you Geoff and Kristen for the suggestion and the offer to help, since I couldn’t thank you last night. This Voice Bank idea was brought up at the ALS Clinic in October and I need to act on it now. I’ve lost too much of my voice already to keep delaying. So today, instead of tax work, I think that is what I’ll focus on.

Everybody have a great Sunday!

Love you guys!❤️