Genevieve
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	The gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam...

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Gobble Gobble Gobble
2001-11-26 - 3:31 p.m.

Well, I have just wasted a few hours catching up on folks diaries, especially the rest of Theo and Roland's trip across the pond. wow. Good thing it is slow, my boss would be pissed.

Just to be strange, I'm gonna update backwards, or at least give it a try anyway. So, let's start with the future, tonight I get to have dinner with Theo, Roland, Alisandra and my sweetie, but only after dropping off Scarlett for a checkup. She really needs to quit stalling upon start up on cold mornings. Eventually Fall and Winter will hit.

Alan is taking a sick day today. Is he feeling sickly? Well, not excatly, but you might too if you came home to a drained fish tank at 10pm on a sunday night. Yup, that's right, Alan is spending his morning, if not the rest of the day, with the wet/dry shop vac getting the fish water out of the basement. Alan had decided to clean the filter of the 60 gallon fish tank yesterday afternoon and apparently right after we left for the evening the connector for the filter to the tank came apart, so all but the remaining 6 inches of water in the tank went rushing down to the basement. When we got back at 10, I walked in and said, Honey, it smells fishy in here... Alan and I moved stuff around in the basement, fixed and filled back up the tank, mourned the loss of the latest batch of Angelfish babies, who are now a smear on a leaf, and sat up watching the tank and eating ice cream last night. I also started Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire last night after he had retired to extend the death watch on the tank a little longer. Luckily it was still full this morning.

Sunday evening Bob and Laura invited us over for dinner, Laura was cooking, excellent. We had a nice evening of yummy food, pork chops with a balsamic vinegar and olive oil/rosemary sauce, snow peas, and a nice starter of a tomato, olive and motzerella salad. Then we had drinks, and more drinks, and Alan, you're driving right? and I got presents, lovely Jamestown glassware, my friends are sooo cool!

Sunday morning was being a bum, finishing reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, excellent book, my favorite of the series so far, watching one hour of Trading Spaces in Springfield Mass. where the outcomes were really nice and far from hideous as they sometimes can be. :) Alan made me brunch after I slept in far too late. He is so good to me. He even bustled around cleaning gutters, fishtanks, playing with leaves and filling up the pond a bit, while I sat on my fat ass reading. Ah, Luxuria, I am your slave.

Saturday night Clint teased me by thinking about seeing the 1am showing of Harry Potter and the Socerer's Stone at the Muvico. I was game, except I had to find a way to get the sleepy Alan home and I don't think he could have gotten Michelle in to see that movie again even upon bribery of diamonds. oh well. We had a lovely, late and very large dinner with folks at the Bennigans off of 100. It was Alan and I, Mel, Shane and Gina and the girls, Clint and Michelle, his brother, her son and his friend, and Rags and Kymber. Fun, a bit rucous, but fun. After two hours we had sufficently tired out our already exhausted waitress, who was also obviously not the sharpest tool in the shed. It seemed to be a theme for the day, poor waitresses.

Saturday afternoon before my insanely long nap and watching Cirque de Soleil on Bravo, we went for a late lunch at Hard Times Cafe in College Park. The food was great, the second emergency backup waitress was great, brought me a straw, checked up on us, fixed my order the previous waitress had boched. Sadly, I think the tip we left went to useless waitress number one instead of excellent emergency backup waitress number two. sigh. After lunch, I went for the last and final check up on Mr. Garibaldi, the cat not the clown. I think the cat has reached the stage of disdain, he put up with me taking care of him for a week and a half, but his enough buton had been pushed, and he avoided me like the plague the last two times I checked in on him. Can't really blame him, I'd be a bit upset too if the only person Mom and Dad could find to take care of me wasn't a plays-with-me kind of person. Apparently he has made up with Rob and Wen, but I dare say he probably still hates me.

Saturday morning consisted of getting up earlier than I ever intended to on my vacation, having apple pie for breakfast, shades of college and my wonderful roomie Bera and her apple pie, and getting on the road for the hour or so drive to the Providence RI airport. We got there in plenty of time, of course they are telling folks to be at the airport two hours in advance, but Southwest didn't open up the checkin at the gate until an hour beforehand, so we had half and hour of standing in line. pout. We boarded the exceptionally full plane, and made our crowded way home, Alan reading return of the ring and me reading the Prisoner of Azkaban. There was this peach of an obnoixous lady behind us, her coat looked like she killed a stuffed animal and took it's skin, tried hard to tune her out. Safely we land in BWI, get Scarlett out of hock and head on our way home where Alan comes up with the idea to have Hard Times for lunch and I agree with his excellent plan. Traffic wasn't too irritating...

Friday was a lovely lazy day. After the familial obligations of Turkey day we were bums around Alan's folks' place on Lake Mashpee on Cape Cod. I read a bunch, took a nap and chatted with Alan's dad most of the time. He's a great guy, funny sense of humor, good at sarcasm... like the Alan but older, obviously. We chatted about books, music and the internet while Alan helped his mom clean the gutters, tidy up the grounds a bit and showed her lots of tips on using her new computer, reorganizing her desktop to the things she needed and the things she didn't. I bummed around in sweatpants and a frumpy turtleneck all day, never once putting on shoes. :) Lovely!

Thursday was Turkey Day, Thanksgiving, hanging out with family. We get up, have a small breakfast, and eventually head over to Alan's brother, David's house. David and Nancy have two cats, just like the Art Nouveau print of the calico and black cats, Dollar and Abby. This means avoiding the upholstered furniture, not petting the cats, and taking allergy meds ahead of time. The food was excellent and they cleaned as the went so no huge overwhelming pile of dishes to take care of after the gluttony. After the meal, we did dessert at Alan's brother, Dana's place, conveniently next door, so a little tromp thru the woods and we get to Dana and Deanna's place for a buffet of dessert and beverages and all around good time. I like Alan's family, they are good people. Dee showed me the special drink cooler in the basement that will eventually be in the bar, Dana showed us his new surround sound stereo system on the TV in the sunroom. Dana's house is really cool, loaded with character. It has a pellet stove, clean burning for additional heat, open vaulted ceiling living room, nice kitchen, half bath all decked out in teak, sun room off the kitchen with real wood panelling, not the stuff from the 70's, where there is a gas fireplace and entertainment center, and the master bedroom has a parlor off of it, which is really nice. Cute house with tons of character. They even have these window quilts to help with insulation, keep the heat out in the summer and heat in during the winter. It also has a cool backyard inground pool hand dug by the first owners, and better yet a secluded driveway. I told Alan we aren't allowed to visit his family again until we too have a cool house. Let the house hunting, mortgage calculating, house fixing up to sell madness begin. Oh wait, wasn't I trying to plan a wedding? So Thanksgiving was very nice, we were out past Alan's folks's bedtime so hurry home to bed, and a little more reading and then sleep.

Why oh why did we decide to travel on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving? We thought the flight was at 8:45 instead of 8 so we start with a bit of a time deficit. I decide to call my older sister for a quick Happy Birthday to my niece, and end up being talked to on my cell phone for 30 mins. I am not gonna like that bill when it comes. Not at all. When we get there, the Park and Go is our friend, and we get to the terminal way before we should have considering when we left, and see the long and winding line to get thru security. Mega yikes. We were trying to get thru Gate B, and had a winding line thru the childrens' play area, and beyond the entrance to Gate A and then some. It was very scary. We ended up only being in line for 30 mins, which wasn't so bad, so we hit the gate for our plane at 50 mins ahead of takeoff. Amazing. Apparently I can bend space and time to make it so that if we are late, it is not disaterously so. While waiting int he terminal and on the flight, I finish the last 40 pages of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and start on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I'm such a slow reader, but damn these books are good. We get to Providence and thr rental car pick up and to Alan's folk's place on the Cape, and immediately to bed. snooze...

And that my friends, was my long and mostly relaxing weekend... :)

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