Weekend of very little Labor
Stupid overbooked weekends.
A couple months back, I made plans to go out to Virginia over Labor Day weekend for a surprise baby shower for my sister in law. I don't get back to see my family nearly often enough, but I was pretty sorry to miss the Knights Errant visit to Santa Cruz, and Count H's family Pit-n-Spit, and etaine_pommier and dave_orphal's barbeque.
So the surprise part of the shower was spoiled by my mother, and the shower part was preempted by the 3 weeks early arrival of Katherine Parker, so the weekend was less about partying and more about hanging out and visiting with the family. And eating. A lot.
Friday's airplane adventures involved a canceled flight from Denver to Dulles, resulting in a five-plus hour layover and an upgrade to business class. The video on that flight wasn't working -- not that I noticed because I was busy watching Tropic Thunder on my computer -- resulting in a sorry-for-the-inconvenience-take-$100-off-your-next-flight bribe. Er, gift. And even though I got to Mom's house at a reasonable hour, I didn't get my check in call with mastersantiago for a couple of hours, 'cause, you know, Mom had to make sure I wasn't going to starve to death.
Saturday morning, we trooped over to the brother and sister in law's place to meet the new baby. She's so tiny and precious, and they're going to be wonderful and devoted parents. Since brother is going to be taking the baby to daycare, he'd asked for a manly diaper bag and I found the perfect one: tasteful brown canvas with lots of pockets and zippers, trimmed in pink with pink skulls & crossbones. He loved it.
Saturday evening was dinner and drunken Scrabble with all the parents and my sister & her family. At one point, I went into the big room to watch the youngsters playing Mario Kart. Luke was playing the princess racer, which upset his four year old brother. Jude shouted, "Don't play that one! I hate girls!" "I'm a girl," I said. You know that scene in Blackadder II, when Edmund is explaining "Great Boo's Up?" Well, you could see Jude trying to figure out how he was going to get himself out of that corner. Finally he said, "I only like older ladies. And you're old." That kid has a promising future in politics.
Sunday started badly with a family blowout. After the dust had settled, Mom & I decided to take a field trip to Wegmans to make ourselves feel better. Afterward, we headed back for another visit with the new baby and family, and finally to dinner at Dad's. Note to self: don't let Dad make the garlic bread again. I had four pieces and felt like I'd been slathered in butter. Mmmm, butter. Butter makes everything better.
We decided that, since the baby shower didn't happen, they should just throw a christening party instead. Which sparked a debate about the difference between a baptism and a christening -- funny, since none of us is Catholic and we don't know. Never let it be said that ignorance keeps us from arguing. And I made a crack about palming a couple of Alka-Seltzer tablets and putting my hands in the baptismal fount. That's always good for a laugh.
I was up at four to get to the airport; Dulles has changed a lot in the last couple of years, so I wasn't sure how long it was going to take me to get through security, and I was expecting to see kazillions of Labor Day travelers. But it was quiet, and it took me barely half an hour from curb to gate, including a stop at The Capitol Grounds for a lovely cup of vanilla chai. The plane wasn't full, so I had an entire row to stretch out in. My layover was in Dallas, where I grabbed another cup of coffee and hung out in the Samsung lounge -- almost too comfy there, and I was worried about falling asleep and missing my flight. Stupid Dallas doesn't have free wifi, though, and I wasn't about to pay just so I could play Facebook games for half an hour. Again, my flight from Dallas wasn't full, so I was able to curl up and watch Hellboy II and then get a little bit of sleep before we hit San Jose.
Still, by the time we landed, I was totally bleary. I'd planned on driving past Costco to gas up the car before getting home, but they were closed -- on Labor Day? WTF? So I mentally replotted my route to hit another gas station on my way home. I did, but five minutes after leaving the gas station, I didn't remember that I had stopped at all. Warning sign! Too tired to drive! Windows rolled down, music turned up loud and I poked my way home (mostly) safely. Vegged out on the sofa, caught up with mastersantiago, polished all the cats, managed to perk up long enough to go out for sushi, then back home to crash.
Tonight and tomorrow I'll get caught up on theater stuff, and hopefully finish the sleeves on my new dress, figure out what to wear to the masked ball this weekend, and get ready for rehearsals to start on Sunday. Yay!
A couple months back, I made plans to go out to Virginia over Labor Day weekend for a surprise baby shower for my sister in law. I don't get back to see my family nearly often enough, but I was pretty sorry to miss the Knights Errant visit to Santa Cruz, and Count H's family Pit-n-Spit, and etaine_pommier and dave_orphal's barbeque.
So the surprise part of the shower was spoiled by my mother, and the shower part was preempted by the 3 weeks early arrival of Katherine Parker, so the weekend was less about partying and more about hanging out and visiting with the family. And eating. A lot.
Friday's airplane adventures involved a canceled flight from Denver to Dulles, resulting in a five-plus hour layover and an upgrade to business class. The video on that flight wasn't working -- not that I noticed because I was busy watching Tropic Thunder on my computer -- resulting in a sorry-for-the-inconvenience-take-$100-off-your-next-flight bribe. Er, gift. And even though I got to Mom's house at a reasonable hour, I didn't get my check in call with mastersantiago for a couple of hours, 'cause, you know, Mom had to make sure I wasn't going to starve to death.
Saturday morning, we trooped over to the brother and sister in law's place to meet the new baby. She's so tiny and precious, and they're going to be wonderful and devoted parents. Since brother is going to be taking the baby to daycare, he'd asked for a manly diaper bag and I found the perfect one: tasteful brown canvas with lots of pockets and zippers, trimmed in pink with pink skulls & crossbones. He loved it.
Saturday evening was dinner and drunken Scrabble with all the parents and my sister & her family. At one point, I went into the big room to watch the youngsters playing Mario Kart. Luke was playing the princess racer, which upset his four year old brother. Jude shouted, "Don't play that one! I hate girls!" "I'm a girl," I said. You know that scene in Blackadder II, when Edmund is explaining "Great Boo's Up?" Well, you could see Jude trying to figure out how he was going to get himself out of that corner. Finally he said, "I only like older ladies. And you're old." That kid has a promising future in politics.
Sunday started badly with a family blowout. After the dust had settled, Mom & I decided to take a field trip to Wegmans to make ourselves feel better. Afterward, we headed back for another visit with the new baby and family, and finally to dinner at Dad's. Note to self: don't let Dad make the garlic bread again. I had four pieces and felt like I'd been slathered in butter. Mmmm, butter. Butter makes everything better.
We decided that, since the baby shower didn't happen, they should just throw a christening party instead. Which sparked a debate about the difference between a baptism and a christening -- funny, since none of us is Catholic and we don't know. Never let it be said that ignorance keeps us from arguing. And I made a crack about palming a couple of Alka-Seltzer tablets and putting my hands in the baptismal fount. That's always good for a laugh.
I was up at four to get to the airport; Dulles has changed a lot in the last couple of years, so I wasn't sure how long it was going to take me to get through security, and I was expecting to see kazillions of Labor Day travelers. But it was quiet, and it took me barely half an hour from curb to gate, including a stop at The Capitol Grounds for a lovely cup of vanilla chai. The plane wasn't full, so I had an entire row to stretch out in. My layover was in Dallas, where I grabbed another cup of coffee and hung out in the Samsung lounge -- almost too comfy there, and I was worried about falling asleep and missing my flight. Stupid Dallas doesn't have free wifi, though, and I wasn't about to pay just so I could play Facebook games for half an hour. Again, my flight from Dallas wasn't full, so I was able to curl up and watch Hellboy II and then get a little bit of sleep before we hit San Jose.
Still, by the time we landed, I was totally bleary. I'd planned on driving past Costco to gas up the car before getting home, but they were closed -- on Labor Day? WTF? So I mentally replotted my route to hit another gas station on my way home. I did, but five minutes after leaving the gas station, I didn't remember that I had stopped at all. Warning sign! Too tired to drive! Windows rolled down, music turned up loud and I poked my way home (mostly) safely. Vegged out on the sofa, caught up with mastersantiago, polished all the cats, managed to perk up long enough to go out for sushi, then back home to crash.
Tonight and tomorrow I'll get caught up on theater stuff, and hopefully finish the sleeves on my new dress, figure out what to wear to the masked ball this weekend, and get ready for rehearsals to start on Sunday. Yay!