It's been a quiet week here.  After fighting the heat, no one has energy to do much so we get home from work and eat something quickly prepared and then read or watch movies and go to bed.  Lazy slugs.  Nothing exciting here.

So, I'll share some photos of Lulu at work with me on Wednesday.  First up is Ed, our security guard.  He good naturedly put up with Lulu nibbling on his ear and tellling him how much she loves a man in uniform.  Ed is one of the very nicest people I know.  He mans our front desk and patrols the building.

Since I work in a community mental health center, we have to be careful with photos.  We take patient confidentiality very seriously.  (We have to.  The fines can be up to 50,000 dollars for each person whose information is compromised.)

I took Lulu over to the main hospital.  I work for Pennsylvania Hospital (part of the University of Pennsyvania Health System).  It's the nation's first hospital and dates back to 1751.  It's located in what's the oldest parts of Philadelphia.  There are hitching posts shaped like horses out front of some of the buildings and Lulu loved this one.

This is our Welcome desk.  It's the first place visitors to the hospital come and it's staffed by the nicest people.  This woman didn't blink when I walked up to her with a puppet on my hand and then was charmed by Lulu and agreed to pose for a photo. 

One of the hospital's prized possesions is this painting by Benjamin West called Christ Healing the Sick.  It's enormous.  Lulu and I are included for scale.  This painting is in the oldest part of the hospital and people walk by it all day every day and lots never notice it.  It's really quite amazing.  The hospital's motto is taken from the Good Samaritan story, "take care of him and I will take care of thee" and that is what we base our care on.  I like being part of that kind of traditon.

We spent the rest of the day roaming around the Hall Mercer building.  Lots of my coworkers were willing to pose for photos but many wanted reassurances that I wouldn't post them anywhere.  "I'm not going to end up on Facebook, am I?" was heard frequently.

Friday, Pk and I took the day off and went to Atlantic City to walk the boardwalk.  Lulu wanted to come.  She was intrigued by the idea that this is where the 'beauty queens' came from. Even though we told her that the Miss America Pageant is no longer held in Atlantic City, she was adamant that he could be a beauty queen if she wanted to.  And so she was.  You can't read the words on her sash, but it says "Miss Rack o'Lamb 2010".  She wore that tiara and bikini all day and charmed strangers. 

Like this young man who was a chair pusher (AC has push chairs and you can pay for a ride down the length of the boardwalk).  He not only let me take his photo with Lulu, he had me take one with his camera and then took a photo of Pk and I.

Leave it to Lulu to find the handsome ones.

After that, we walked in the sunshine.  I wasn't sure which was stranger, me walking down the boardwalk with a puppet on my hand or the fact that no one seemed to think it was odd.

We had a lovely day and then came home so Pk and Kate and Patrick could prepare for their overnight backpacking trip today.  I dropped them off at the ranger's station this morning and will pick them up tomorrow. 

As for me, I have laundry to finish and shopping to do.  And some napping and sitting and dreaming.   'Cause that's my favorite way to spend weekends.