Bingo sinks in status

Renny went to sleep and dreamt that he had a puppy. The dream came true, and the American Staffordshire known as "Chunk" is a reality. The psychological impact on Bingo is somewhere between 6.0 and 8.0 on the Richter scale, however, the cats seem to have adapted well.

Wickes Reunion - NY Vacation

A delayed plane flight resulted in WNMR arriving to the Wickes reunion at approximately 7 a.m in the morning, after driving from NYC at 4:30 a.m. The family almost didn't make it all, because W, in an apparent state of confusion, drove into the FastPass toll lane without a FastPass. Fortunately, the state trooper did not throw them all in jail, and accepted W's lame explanation that he hailed from St Louis, "and he had done never seen such a new-fangled thing like this here automatic machine that takes your money without no dang person."
Not satisfied with the thrills of NYC, N and W rented mountain bikes and headed down Hunter mountain. Not satisfied with the thrill of falling off her mountain bike, N ventured extremely close to a mother black bear with a cub. The bear, charging at about 25 mph, came within three feet of N before stopping. Apparently this had been a "bluff charge". and N was unhurt, and indeed, ostensibly unscared (at least of bears).
That evening there was fire dancing and lots of beer.
The reunion was a large success, with 90 or more attendees. Unfortunately too short to really talk to everybody.
Afterwards, WNMR drove northwards to Indian Lake for some enjoyable golf and rafting with DVEL. While W was golfing with R&D, N bought a wedding ring and cake and W&N got married all over again, with Elodie as the mistress of ceremonies.

A Crain reunion was held at Keuka Lake, attendees were DVEL, WNMR, Uncle Bill, Aunt Carol, William & Michele & Liam & Schuyler, Betsy, Mary-Ellen & ?? (she was pregnant), Kelly, William, and Narina. Highlights (besides seeing all the Crains) were playing tennis, sailing, and waterskiing.
Then it was off to NYC for more excitement. Unfortunately, they were too late for the tornado, but they still got to visit Cousin Judy and Chris Mueller in Brooklyn. MOMA was exciting to W and N, though perhaps no one else. A mugging was almost witnessed (only the cries for help were heard), and a big tourist bus scrape hit and run was actually witnessed by WNMR plus 300 other tourists standing in line at the Empire State Building. The police/security presence seemed pretty strong, and it was later learned that there had been a rumor of a "terrorist dirty bomb" to turn up the paranoia factor.
All worries of terrorists vanished with a fantastic dinner with Tom Andrew-Shev-Ski (phonetic spelling) who personally walked the lost tourists back and found their hotel for them.

Disturbing News About St Louis

St Louis was recently rated 50th out of 50 cities on the weirdness index (see article). Apparently Walter's influence on the city is less than he imagines.