Thanks have been given
11:56 p.m.
We drove all day Saturday, even stopping for some pictures of Mt. Orf0rd all decked out in the glory that is autumn. I will post the pictures at the end so that I can put them in a larger size and they won’t interfere with the stuff in the margin. The weather was nice at the beginning, then not so nice, then nice again. However, it was after dark when we arrived at Little Princess’ and her apartment reeked of cooked turducken. This was a protein extravaganza prepared for them by the butcher (they just had to cook it, something that took about 12 hours) consisting of three deboned fowls: a chicken, duck and turkey, stuffed inside each other and sewn up, the cavity of the chicken filled with a bacon stuffing. Being the good vegetarian that I am, I had none, but everyone else made happy noises while they were eating it. Hubby and I ordered pasta dishes from the Italian restaurant down the street, and we were just as content.
Little Princess’ apartment was filled to the gills with her and her BF’s friends. Not counting our hosts and ourselves, there were nine other guests (that would make a baker’s dozen in total, no?) who didn’t seem to want to depart, even though the hour was getting quite late. I finally said to my daughter out loud, in front of everyone, “Could you please ask your guests to leave so I can go to bed?” The hint was taken, people put on their coats, bid their adieus, and left.
We didn’t bother bringing the air mattress with us this trip, so I slept on the small couch in the computer room and Hubby slept on the larger one in the living room. The problem with this was that he decided to stay up and watch TV, and then fell asleep. I finally got up, turned off the television and the lights so that I could fall asleep, Hubby not evening waking while I did so.
The next morning Hubby and I went to see my mom at the retirement residence. We spent about an hour with her before leaving so she could go to lunch and we could gather our young ’uns in the car and head off to Hubby’s family. The turkeyfest was at his brother’s and there was a large crowd there. The food was ample, as always: turkey for the meat eaters, salmon for us, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, carrots, sweet potatoes (those were my favourites), stuffing, cranberries, and both pumpkin and apple pies for dessert. I had told myself earlier that I wouldn’t overeat. Right. I was so uncomfortable from stuffing myself that I lay down after dinner on their couch and dozed for a half-hour.
In the meantime, the boys had set up their musical instruments downstairs, so I joined them after a while to sing some rock and roll. Unfortunately, my 10-year-old great-niece is a microphone hog and can’t match pitches. Not a very good combination. But it was fun.
Hubby drank to excess, and then joined his brother and brother-in-law and our kids for some controlled substances in the garage. He’s a two-toke high, and he was extremely obnoxious. I asked him, as politely as I could, that if I was going to be driving home, would he please not utter a word. He’s the kind of guy who will not be told to shut up. Even the kids in the back seat were telling him to be quiet. Oy. I ended up missing my turn and we got back to his parents’ by a rather circuitous route.
I and Little Princess went to bed, but the boys continued to party. The next morning they were all a little worse for wear. Hubby even went back to sleep for another half-hour after breakfast.
We drove Buddy Boy home, said our goodbyes, then did the same with Little Princess and her BF, and joined my mother for lunch at the retirement residence. The menu was grilled cheese sandwich or smoked fish platter. Hubby had the former, I went for the latter, and it was amazingly delicious. The different kinds of smoked fish just melted in my mouth. I was in heaven.
My mom ate next to nothing. It’s hard to believe this woman once had a weight problem. She remembered very little of the recent past and talked in circles, as she does these days. Back in her room, a telemarketer phoned and she handed the receiver to me. I politely told the lady that my mother was not interested in getting her vents cleaned as she lived in a retirement residence and would they please take her number off their list. She gets a lot of these calls and they just confuse her.
Anyway, we got back on the road, drove for another seven and-a-half hours, and arrived at our own stable door at around 10:30 p.m. My plan is to stop eating so much.
Tonight the local library held a reading by writers from my writing group, and so I read a couple of my stories. It was quite nice and not a little sentimental. The writing group is wrapping up. After eleven years, Janice is tired of doing it. I’m in another group now, which is good, but I’ll miss this one, that’s for sure.
And now for the pictures:
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