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Honestly, we had a blast. It was such a nice relaxing week. We left our house Saturday morning, stopping to visit Katherine and Jevon and spend Saturday night in their log cabin. It was a really fast visit, but it was nice to get to see them at least. Sunday morning we finished the drive to the Thousand Islands to meet up with my family. We then proceeded to spend the next 7 days going out on the boats, laying (lying?) in the sun, and drinking. Lots and lots of drinking. We completed 4 power hours along the way. Played a bunch of games of Asshole, too. My uncle Bill even joined us for one of each. There were 2 days where we spent literally 12 hours drunk. It was great.

We did manage to get in a little physical activity as well. We played some ladder golf (a weird game, but my cousin Nick's friend Dean and I were on a team together and annihilated the competition), some bocce ball (Dad was mysteriously good at this), and lots and lots of frisbee. We were getting pretty good by the end of the week. There were quite a few impromptu dance parties as well. It was fun and relaxing, definitely a great week. I didn't realize how much I needed that. I felt so rejuvenated when we got back. And super tan. I'm approximately 60% of the way to being a different race!

long weekend!

I'm in the midst of a 4 day weekend from work! We decided to take a little mini-vacation and headed down to Fort Lauderdale to visit Alfred's grandmother, Egee. We left Friday morning, spent all day Saturday down there, and left to come back home yesterday morning. The three of us went out to dinner on Friday night. I wasn't terribly impressed by the meal, but the creme brulee we had for dessert was phenomenal. On Saturday we had lunch and dinner with Egee at the dining room in her building, spent a few hours at the beach, and watched TV in our hotel room. We used priceline to get a really nice hotel for really cheap, so we figured we should take advantage of it. Plus, I was on vacation! I wanted to be kind of lazy. It was a really nice little visit, and Egee seemed to appreciate us coming down.

Yesterday we had dinner with the rest of Alfred's family for Father's Day: lots of good food, as usual. Today is my last day off, and I have a bit of socializing planned. I'm having lunch with friends, a book club meeting later this evening, then some laundry and grocery shopping to do, maybe some ironing if I get motivated enough... busy, busy!

oh, my liver

(FYI, I started this post Saturday morning. It's now Monday night.)

Actually, I haven't really had any beer since Tuesday after work, but I drank enough Saturday and Monday to last awhile. I'd say our booze fest was a success. Alfred and Mike both finished their cases on Monday, and I finished my half case. I think Katie was within a couple of beers, I'm not sure about Maureene. Lucy, Ilya, and Mercedes all joined in for part of the day too. We played a whole bunch of flip cup. Only a couple of puking incidents. Not bad at all. The rest of the week was fun, even though I had to work a lot and couldn't join in in all of the festivities. I could make pizza, though! We had it 5 times total, twice for breakfast. Katie left on Tuesday, and Mike and Maureene left on Thursday. Now it's just us again. But we have pictures!

back in the dirty south

Ah, the warm, non-snowy, dirty south. Actually right now it's much cleaner than the north with all its salt and crap all over the roads. Alfred's car needed a bath when we got back, it was pretty disgusting. We got back Tuesday night just before midnight, it took us exactly 18 hours. That included stops for gas/food/restrooms, traffic in Charlotte and Jacksonville, an attempted beer run at 5:45am, and horrible weather in Pennsylvania. That's what this picture is from. This was a major highway, it hadn't been plowed at all so we couldn't see the road, and snow was blowing everywhere. Traffic was going about 30 mph. It was ridiculous.

Our trip was nice, except for the 3 cats that now live in my parents' house. Our allergies just love going there more and more every year. The new cat is cute, my nose and lungs just hate it. We saw lots of family, got some great gifts (including a bound book of our road trip blog, which includes all of our posts, pictures, and comments, it's really nice.) Most importantly, we played the new Mario Brothers game for the Wii. Alfred, Katie and I were the main players, though Dad and Uncle Ken helped out at times as well. We basically played for 4 days straight. And we beat the game! It was awesome. It's fun to play because when you play with multiple players you're all on the screen at once, so you can be nice and use teamwork or shove each other into pits and stuff. We also ate a lot of food. Like, a lot of food. But what else is new.

Oy

Alfred asked me last night why I hadn't blogged in so long. I told him I blogged from my phone on Sunday. He said he hadn't even checked it in a few days and didn't realize I had posted. In other words, I've been too busy to post at night, and he's been too busy to check it at all. And since I'll likely be busy tonight too, I guess I'll just blog by phone again. I prefer to do it on the laptop because then I can add my tags, and I never remember to go back and do them when I blog from my phone. This is all fascinating, no?

So, we've been busy in the evenings cleaning and getting ready for the familial invasion that begins tomorrow (yay!) Since we weren't home this weekend, I've had to fit all the laundry and cleaning into my few hours between work and bed, along with the usual dinner work. We've had a bunch of other work on the computer to take care of too. And a tiny but of TV (wipe out is back for the summer! And so you think you can dance, of course, which I'm super pumped about. I've been reading spoilers online this morning.) Tonight I also get to make a cake for a co-worker's birthday, her birthday is actually Friday but they're celebrating it a day early so I can come. And make the cake.

Work's been good. I'm trying to balance the actual work with goofing off, so far so good. I catnapped mama kitty yesterday morning and brought her to the new museum, but she bolted as I was opening her cage a bit to give her some water. Damn cat. We're also in the midst of starting up some new tours for the summer so we can make some money for a change. Of course it's happening when I'm planning to take a few days off. Oh well, they don't need me.

This has been a nice way to spend some time. It gets boring all by myself. I like to time how long I go without speaking to another human being. My record was about 2 hours on Sunday. It was broken by a tourist calling me. Damn tourists.

booze, booze, and more booze

Mike came down to visit Thursday evening, so of course we drank a lot. By now I'm sure you've seen the live blog. That was some good times. Next time anyone thinks about how lame a post is and wants to complain, just remember those posts. Cause they were awesome.

So this post is all about our drunken fun. We all wore our coordinating John Deere t-shirts on Saturday, so we took a formal family portrait.


God, we're adorable. Here's another good one from Sunday night. Our cousin David came down for the evening, and we had to get the obligatory Mike-showing-off-his-wound shot.

And now, a few high quality drunken photos. I had no idea Mike took these. There's like 5 on my camera.

I was smelling the tree. God, it smelled good.

Alfred showing off his fraternity pride.

And now, a progression of our bottle collection over the weekend. Saturday morning:

Saturday evening:

Sunday morning:

Sunday evening:

We had lots and lots of beer. On Saturday evening, after our second power hour, we walked up to Publix for more beer. I wasn't wearing shoes. We evidently decided we needed 4 cases of beer. On the way home, I dropped the one I was carrying, then grabbed it and ran home with it, beer streaming down the front of me. And only 2 bottles broke!

I need a Christmas ring tone

Sorry I slacked yesterday. I was busy. Every day I've had a list of things to accomplish before going to bed, and every night so far I've been pretty successful. We're almost ready for Christmas. The house is ready for all of our guests, we have almost all of our gifts bought and wrapped (they're all sitting under the tree right now, it's so damn precious), I mailed a package off to MN with their gifts, our cards went out this week, and we have our Christmas menu all set. I just have a few little things left to buy, and we have to buy most of the food for Christmas day. So not much left, really. We've gotten a lot done. I was going to make some cookie dough tonight to have it ready to bake this weekend, but then we decided it would be more fun to do it with my family here. You know, bonding and stuff. Really, my mom and I will make cookies while my dad fishes and Alfred is busy on his computer or something. But it will be bonding in our own way.

I feel like Christmas always sort of sneaks up on me. I look forward to my birthday, and then when that's over I have a few more days of birthday celebration time, of course, and then suddenly Christmas is a week away. Cards and packages are what always get me, because they stop guaranteeing the delivery date and make you all nervous that your stuff won't get where it's going on time.

I'm excited to have a few days off of work, but at home. We might go to Universal for a day while everyone's here, which will be fun. We haven't been to a theme park at all since I've gone back to the museum, if you can believe it. I barely can. Especially considering how much Ilya loves going. Ok time's up, got to clean up the wrapping paper in the living room and then go to bed!

embarassing picture day

In honor of the joy that is Friday, I decided to put up some pictures. They're not all that embarrassing, really, except that I look kind of goofy in a few of them. But what else is new.

First up: me and Mercedes at the M&M store in Orlando (it was delicious):


Next: me, Katherine, and Rosemary at Universal. I like how Katherine and I are kind of hunched over, like we're trying to fit into the picture. As if we might be too tall to fit in the frame.


Next, we have me, Katie, and Mike visiting the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine a few years ago. I think it was Mike's idea to make it look like we were scared, and then he just sat there and smiled. What a dope.


This is an old favorite: me, Katie, and Tony enjoying some family bonding time one Christmas. There are lots and lots of pictures of people smoking the hookah and cigars that night. And drinking. What a good influence we are for Katie. I think she was 17 in this picture.


Ok, this one's not embarrassing at all, but I like it. It's been waiting for me in Photoshop so I did a little editing. Kinda nice, I think.


That's it for this installment. Hope you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane, come back and see us sometime!

Fun with Young Children

Scene 1: church, during one of the hymns

Ella: Is there only a piano at this church?
Katie: Yup, just a piano.
Ella: No trumpets?
Katie: Nope, no trumpets.
Ella: Not even any cymbals?
Katie: Nope, just a piano.
(pause)
Ella: Trombones are my favorite.

(I don't know what kind of church this kid's been going to, but it sounds entertaining.)


Scene 2: the living room of my parents' house

Ella (coming up from the basement): Uncle Mike, they won't let me do whatever I want.


Scene 3: the basement of my parents' house

Kristin: Ella's uncle told me that I was in charge of the lights cause I'm the biggest kid here.
Me: Yup, that's right.
Kristin (worried): Well, did he tell Ella they were going to take over the world?

(yes, yes he did)


Scene 3: photography studio

Cathy carries Mason into the studio. He's a little cranky and doesn't want to cooperate. He's rubbing his face, and eventually his finger makes it into his nose. When he pulls it out and holds it up, there's a giant booger on the tip of his finger.

weekend recap

No pictures today, but a story about me being a drunken fool! Almost as good!

It was a nice weekend, though the reason for it was sad. If you've ever read Tuesdays with Morrie, though, she did not want to get to that point, and for her sake I'm glad she didn't. The funeral was very nice, the priest was good friends with both of my grandparents and did the mass for my grandfather as well. He was able to make it very personal, and he actually teared up at the cemetery. He was the priest that confirmed me, my brother, and a couple of my cousins, but I did not feel the need to go relive old times with him. I'm sure he would vaguely remember me because of my grandma, but he doesn't need to be reminded of me specifically. I wasn't the most pious teenager. Heck, the most I remember of the weekend retreat we had to take was going upstairs to the boys' hallway, and flirting with a couple of guys I liked.

So we decided to have a night out with (almost) all the cousins Saturday night. We started out with a power hour (complete with Uno) at 6pm. Luckily, we had 2 19 year olds that could be our DDs, but unluckily, they joined us in the power hour. By 7 we had moved outside (after Mike knocked over about half a dozen bottles on the living room floor) and my cousin Kim had brought her 3 kids over (my mom was having a sleep over with them and Ella and Mason). So we spent some time chasing the kids around and playing with them, I attempted to clean up the bottles and shot glasses (fully intending to clean them up on Sunday), Mike got denied buying beer at a gas station because he had an out of state ID, and Katie and my cousin Aaron raced each other around the block on my grandma's motorized scooters. By maybe 8 I think my mom's head was ready to explode, and everyone was there by then, so we headed off to a bar/restaurant.

I will add at this point that I had made it through the power hour and, while I was feeling somewhat intoxicated, I was really doing quite well. So I decided to have a couple more cans of beer. Smart move.

So we get to the bar, and we order some pitchers and food. That's when things start to get fuzzy. I think I drank some more, and I know I had at least 1 piece of pizza. Apparently there were also wings, fries, chicken fingers, and all sorts of other stuff, but I have no recollection of that. I spent a lot of time working the table, circling around and talking to everybody, and I called one of my cousins who hadn't come to try to convince him to join us. I'd love to hear that voice mail. Tony and Cathy told me Sunday that I got sentimental. I didn't ask what they meant. I also started taking little walks. I kept going outside and walking around the shopping plaza we were in. At one point I walked across the plaza and into Mighty Taco (drunk food of champions), walked up to the front, studied the menu for a couple of minutes, then walked back out.

Eventually I decided I needed to go home. So I started walking. I texted Alfred to let him know, he called me, and that's when I got emotional. I was on the phone with him for the next 18 minutes while I walked, crying my little eyes out, because I was wasted and felt bad leaving. I seem to get very emotional when inebriated. Once Alfred's sister and a couple of her friends came over and I ended up doing a bunch of shots, put myself to bed early, texted Alfred and Katie a bunch, then came back downstairs and spent an hour or so alternating between playing Mario Kart and sobbing uncontrollably. I think because a glass broke. Sometimes I get mad instead and yell. I have a problem. Where was I? Oh yeah, walking home crying. Katie caught up with me right when I got to my parents house and started laughing at me. Next thing I remember it was 3:30am and Alfred was handing me my phone (I should ask him how he got it). He told me the next morning that when he got back I was passed out in bed with my glasses on and the lights blazing. I did manage to take off my eye makeup, take out my contacts, wash my face, and put on my pjs.

I finally got up for the day at 9:15 with a little bitch of a hangover. We had to leave for the airport at 10:30. Luckily I felt much more human by the time we left (15 minutes late) but we had no problems checking in and got home fine. I didn't have time to clean up the bottles and cans like I thought, but hey, you do what you can. Fun times.

quick post

These are all of my grandma's great grandkids (so far, anyway!)

heaven's new VIP

She was God's best customer, after all.

We're leaving tomorrow and will be gone until Sunday, so probably no posts until next week. Unless I decide to harass Alfred and Katie in the airport again.