Lots of happenings this past week. Joe, Pete and Donald were down deep sea fishing off the coast of Florida with some other fishing buddies and Pete and Joe actually brought back some fish! Pete left his here for us because he was afraid they would thaw before he got back to Idaho Falls and we're looking forward to cooking and eating them. I'll update that when we try them - the cooking part mostly. None of the three have cooked many deep sea fish.

We had arranged the dinner at Pio's for Sunday so Chris and I checked it out last Thursday. The neighborhood and the restaurant have both changed in the last 50 years. After dinner Chris and I cruised the neighborhood and I pointed out places where we used to live. Brother Joe used to say that when he came to see us after we had moved he just looked for a place with all the lights on.

Shirley had to go to Chicago and Rose had to go up there on Saturday. It was a prior commitment on Rose's part and she really hated to miss the weekend. Goldman and I took Rose to the airport and then Chris and Shelly came and the three of us went to dinner on Saturday night. I stayed by myself Saturday night and had no trouble managing.

Pete, Joe and Donald were all on the same flight from Birmingham on Sunday and Vita and her sister, Jenny, picked them up at the airport and brought them to our house and had time to visit a little while. Vita and Jenny look so much alike that I was hugging Jenny and at first thought I was hugging Vita. Someone had ask them the day before if they were twins so I wasn't the only one fooled for a minute. Needless to say, they're both very pretty.

Vita couldn't come to the Pio's dinner so the brothers and I headed to St. Charles to meet up with the rest of the attendees. We had an upstairs room at Pio's which was quiet and spacious. The service wasn't so good but the waitress tried hard. The attendees were: Norm, Margaret, Sabrina, Alex, Catrina, Sam, Lizzie, Randy, Lynn, Conner, Amanda, Chris, Shelly, Pete, Joe, Donald and myself. Randy 'returned thanks' as Grandad Madden used to say and did such a nice job of it. It made us all be truly thankful to be there and to have each other.

Pete spent Sunday night with me here and Joe headed back to Springfield. Donald and Vita picked us up and took us to an Italian restaurant - Amighetti's - down on the Hill which is the Italian section of St. Louis or Vita's section as she called it. it.