Fun in DC

This weekend, Maria, the girls and I drove up to Sara's for some visiting and fun. Diana & Ken also flew in from Chicago. The 4 of us sisters all together is a guarantee of fun and mayhem, in spite of Sara being sick and my allergies acting up. The nonstop rainy weather and germs inspired naps in between the fun. Someone (probably Maria) managed to get Ken to read aloud from a trashy novel that Maria'd bought at the airport last week. That was some unplanned comedy right there. Ken opened up the book at a random spot and started reading (in this monotone voice that makes Ben Stein sound animated in comparison) that made the smutty parts even funnier. "Oh god. oh god. I want more. I want more. don't stop. oh god..don't go..." Andrew had been upstairs putting Ella down for a nap and when he came downstairs in the middle of the smuttiest paragraph, completely unaware of the spontaneous story hour event, the looks on his face were beyond priceless! I got cramps from laughing too hard! We decided that the plot must've been written by an 8 year old with some editor inserting the smutty parts. Not a book intended to boost your IQ in any way!

Some of us went to a coffee shop nearby during some kiddos' naptimes (Sara took one, too) and like everywhere else I go, I discovered Steeler love there. There was a Super Bowl Terrible Towel on the counter, with a mini helmet that'd been autographed by Byron Leftwich sitting on top of it. Naturally I bonded with the lady behind the counter, sharing stories and comparing which memorabilia we had in common (which included the Terrible Tote and the Polamalu hat), much to the amusement of Maria, who has been utterly schooled by now (thanks to hanging out with me so much) to the vast reaches of Steeler Nation.



We went out for dinner at some Italian place that had a dedicated kids dining area, which Dale & Dinah loved. They had their own server, their own little table and got to watch a movie while they dined. I was mildly envious! After the kids went to bed, we played a game of 80's Trivial Pursuit, which Ken knocked out of the park. We decided that next time, he can read all the questions instead of playing, which will level the playing field. It was the shortest game of that game we'd ever played! Due to the fact that I was in an allergy medicated haze, Maria bestowed upon me a new name, Bernie (weekend at Bernie's).





Sunday morning was occupied by Andrew making beignets to go with breakfast, me taking more medicine and some of us heading downstairs to play on the Wii. Bowling is about the only game I've gotten comfortable with on it. I am pretty old school when it comes to video games, so I play more on the gamecube and old Nintendo when I actually have time to play games. Andrew patiently showed Dale & Dinah how to play it, and they had a blast!




I tried to get a good picture of the kids in their leprechaun hats that I'd made for them, but I got the kind of photo that I usually end up with when I try to get one of my own kids. But it's still funny.




The drive home was yucky. Unlike last time I was in DC, this time the traffic getting out of there was nasty. We only went about 10 miles in the first hour, it stayed backed up before Richmond, and didn't really speed up until we'd gotten off 95 and onto 85. Maria and I took turns driving and by the time I got all the way home after dropping them off in Hillsborough, it was about 7 hours after we left Sara's. Granted, that did include a stop at the massively sized Wegmans that is south of DC, but still. I barely had the energy to spend much time with Chris before I fell asleep. Today should be better. I woke up feeling crummy but not so much now.

Life is a bottle of ketchup

Here I am, yet again, playing catchup with posting. It seems like all I've done lately is write "catching up on my posts." Stress will do that to a person. But to get myself caught up here and write about the fun that goes in between all the stress...

February 28th, Maria, Kelly and I went to Drag Queen Bingo in Durham. It is apparently a very popular event here and all the proceeds go to a really great cause, the HIV/AIDS alliance. I'd never seen drag queens in person before but I like bingo so I went. That was a few hours of hilarious fun. The dude hosting was dressed like he was captain on the Love Boat and his drag queen sidekick, Mary Kmart, was hilarious. There were singing numbers between every game, which is why the event was several hours long. I was a little annoyed by the fact that some kid won the 500 buck cash game, not because I expected to win anything, but because of the fact that there were a LOT of shall we say, risque and sexually charged jokes flying around the room. Not an appropriate venue for a child, in my opinion. I would not have taken any of mine there! But it was great fun.



This one in the orange circus tent dress reminds me of that over the top Mimi character from the Drew Carey Show. The funniest part of this one is that during his(her) song, you could tell the dress wasn't put on all the way because it bunched at the top and near the end of the number, the fake boobs started to slide down a little!


here's Capt. Stubing and Mary Kmart (isn't this a cheap tart of an outfit?) heehee