"The Talk"

We had "the talk" today...the talk everybody is supposed to have, preferably younger than mid-60s to 70s, but definitely the one while you're still breathing, the one about the money and your "wishes" and all that good stuff.

This time it was a family talk. We met Jeri, Phil, Ned and Marta at Crepeville for brunch. Phil was getting ready to get on a train to take him to the airport for his trip home to Boston. Jeri still had another couple of days to stay here. Marta was getting ready to take Ned "somewhere" for his birthday, later this week. Marta had suggested that we get together for brunch before "the talk."

After brunch, we came home and sat around the table (Marta cleared away a corner of the piled up junk--I didn't realize we were going to make this a table talk!) and Marta took charge. Smartest thing Ned ever did was to bring Marta into the family!

Having recently been through the settling of her step-father's estate and seeing how difficult it was because of the things that had not gotten done, she knew all the questions to ask and all the pokes to be made. She went down the list about where is this and where is that and what insurance did we have and what did we want for health care and burial and did we have an attorney (no).

Walt, bless him, is extremely organized and he had written down everything and put it in a folder. Me, damn me, can't remember diddily so I knew that there was "something" somewhere, but didn't remember what or where. But now everybody knows what is where and who does what. Marta is going to find out the name of her mother's attorney and we will make an appointment ASAP. We agreed Walt's sister (a bank trust officer) should be the executor of our estate and if she can't, Tom. Marta and Ned, because they are here and not 3,000 miles away will have our medical power of attorney. Jeri will play Amazing Grace at my funeral. ;)

When "the talk" was finished, everybody felt MUCH more comfortable about our inevitable demise and there was nothing left to do but move furniture. With Ned and Phil here, Walt took advantage and had them move some furniture into the garage. We are another step closer to being able to paint the living room before tearing up the carpet and putting in the new Pergo.

After Jeri got home from taking Phil to the train station, Walt showed her our China pictures and then we went to a Thai restaurant for dinner. This place has the best curried duck, with almost more duck than we had at our Peking Duck dinner, and all for less than $10...plus Walt eats there a lot, so they toss in a free dessert for us.

The restaurant is next door to the theatre, so we went and saw The Help. I'm not sure it is one that Jeri or Walt would have chosen, but it was that or Conan the Barbarian, I told them. I liked it very much because I had read the book. They said they sorta liked it, but I don't think they were as taken with it as I was.

When we came home, Jeri was determined to make friends with Polly. We learned that Polly, who is basically a slut, can be bought for treats.

Of course all bets were off nce she'd taken the treat, and when Jeri got out of the chair and stood up, forget it! But for one brief moment, Polly allowed herself to be manipulated for food.

Yeah--I can relate to that.