We had a “pizza party” at the Mansion this afternoon to celebrate the beginning of Assisted Care Week. The Army Of Good bought 22 pizzas from the Round House Cafe and Bakery, they were delivered at 11:30 this morning at the Mansion. The dining room was festooned with balloons and banners sent by many of you,  and beautiful flowers from Lisa Hatch.

The residents were very happy to get this fresh and interesting food, they had a choice of pepperoni, plain, veggie, mushroom and sausage and tomato pizzas. I finally met Jane the nutritionist and we opened up another avenue of support for the Mansion residents.

I have to say, they sure loved the pizza, they devoured about 16 pies, the rest will go to the staff or be frozen.

We decided today to support monthly theme dinners – we’ll do an Octoberfest sausage and bratwurst lunch at the end of October, and Chinese food – the residents love Chinese food – to celebrate the Chinese New Year in January. After that we’ll help the staff buy special foods for special meals at regular intervals.

I learned today and on other days just how important meals can be at the Mansion, people look forward to them all day, and special themes and foods are exciting to them, healthy and stimulating.

An important week for the Mansion work. Wednesday, there will be a memorial service for Bruce, the much loved long-time resident of the Mansion who died last week. Red and I are going. Thursday, our trip to Lake George for lunch and a steamboat ride. The residents who are going are excited and a bit nervous.

I talked to one resident who conceded that he needed some new clothes. I will see if we can help him. The kitchen air conditioner blew out early this summer and it needs replacing, it gets awful hot in there in July and August.  That’s a project to do before next summer.

Jane’s electric lift and massage chair is coming the first week of October, she is thrilled and full of gratitude. I am  still figuring out Art’s chair, I’ll write about that later, it is more complex.

Robert loves his National Geographic photo books, he looks forward to his subscription to Builder Magazine.

If you wish to help with the Mansion work, you can donate money in two ways. One via Paypal, [email protected], please note the money is for the Mansion. Or you can send a check to Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, please note the funds are for the Mansion.

A number of people message me regularly seeking a list of Mansion residents. I cannot respond to these requests from the many people who seek updating of the lists. I update the residents list at least once every week,and the best I can do is to ask you to follow the blog posts.  The list changes often, and there are a lot of you and one of me.

This new list: Art, Brother Peter, Winnie, Jean, Ellen, Mary, Gerry, Sylvie, Jane, Diane, Alice, Jean, Madeline, Joan, Allan, William, Helen, Connie, Robert, Alanna, Barbara, Peggie, Dorothy, Guerda, Brenda, Bruce, John Z. The address is The Mansion, 11 S.  Union Avenue,

Thanks so much.