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Note to self, if you're within five hundred miles of your oil change deadline, get it changed BEFORE you head south for the weekend. I'm now 200 miles OVER. Also note to self - Andee is really bad at math and mileage. least ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
captainlove won't kill me about it as long as I bring Hanzo-san in this week. Also - how the blessed blue fuck did I rack up 2,600 and change miles in a month??
Anyway, car whinging aside,cell23 and I got to Pennsylvania and back in one piece. And had a pretty fantastic weekend being good-naturedly tormented by my entire family.
Saturday we went with Amanda and Alé to Amanda's church "Tricky Tray" fundraiser. I've never seen raffles work quite like this - you have all the prizes arranged around the room with different colored bags in front of them where you drop corresponding colored raffle tickets (each color is a different price tier). So you're kinda entering a whole bunch of different raffles for things. I wasn't really expecting to win anything really so it came as a surprise when I won something rather excellent - a one of a kind gold earring and necklace set that honestly is kinda hard to describe other than it looks fantastic on me.
ETA: see?
The rest of the fun was watching other people win stuff and completely lose their shit when they did. Especially the girl who dropped one ticket into the grand prize drawing and won herself a 42 inch TV. Epic shriek.
Saturday night we got taken out for hibachi (I've been enough times that I know most of the tricks they do by now but am still utterly delighted by it nonetheless) and then all sprawled around the living room to watch Kung Fu Hustle, which still remains an AMAZING movie even on watch number 3.
Sunday we all primped up and then drove back to New Jersey for Ruthy's 50th birthday brunch at the Short Hills Hilton. Well, drove is a loose interpretation of what actually happened. An elaborate game of highway leapfrog between Hanzo-san and Stanley's Chevy is what actually happened. I'm not sure who ultimately won, but havingcell23 and Alé laughing hysterically in my car and Stanley grinning from ear to ear in his and Amanda glaring at all of us and clearly spending the time in the car yelling at Stanley that he REALLY ought to know better (she's right) I think made ultimate victory a moot point. And after that we all settled down and behaved for Ruthy's party, which, in typical Browne family party style was chi chi and fantastic. There really isn't anything like swanky hotel Sunday Brunch. And of course, also in true Browne style, it wasn't so much a family lunch so much as a roast of Ruthy, who took it all with grace and even invited cell23 to participate. Like I explained to him, this was kind of the perfect time for him to meet the family because usually when we're all together anyone is fair game, but today we had a designated target so everyone else was pretty much off the hook. But yeah, it was really fantastic to be there, not only because cell23 seems to have passed inspection with flying colors (Stanley even going so far as to dryly ask where on earth I dug up "the normal one" earlier in the day), but because since all of us are now scattered up and down the eastern seaboard, having all of us in one place in any context besides Thanksgiving, Christmas and lately, Easter is becoming enough of a rare occurrence to make it a treat. Somewhere up in here is a ramble about me and my own interesting headnoise regarding family and my part in it, but right now's not the time to post it - I'll just say yet again that amid most of the suck of the past year, having to chance to plug back into it and reconnect with everyone since I got sick is not unappreciated.
Anyway, we all stayed until the hotel staff politely informed us that they were closed and needed us to clear out, and then we pretty much made the circuit of hugs, kisses and goodbyes before firing up Hanzo-san and heading back to MA... gotta say, I'm coming to really love car trips withcell23, between the singing along to the iPod and the particular brand of shit shooting that somehow only ever happens in a car you're stuck in for over an hour. And probably best of all, since these always seem to happen towards the end of the day, the bit involving coming home to very cozy bed for both of us to collapse into is super nice.
tl;dr version: good company, good food, pretty great family time, and much with the squee = good weekend.
This week: is gonna be busy. Work, writing (I didn't have any time for it last week, lulz), and various being-a-grown-up-waaaaaah stuff all week, hopefully karaoke on Wednesday, and hopefully finally nailing down and burying a few coffins on Thursday and Saturday. Got some fun ideas for both of those... here's hoping I get the time and wherewithall to properly execute them. Also holy crap, thinky. This weekend, good as it was, did dredge up a fair amount of headnoise - it's gonna be a bit before I get everything settled back down again. Though for a change, this doesn't seem like a bad thing....
captainlove won't kill me about it as long as I bring Hanzo-san in this week. Also - how the blessed blue fuck did I rack up 2,600 and change miles in a month??Anyway, car whinging aside,
cell23 and I got to Pennsylvania and back in one piece. And had a pretty fantastic weekend being good-naturedly tormented by my entire family.Saturday we went with Amanda and Alé to Amanda's church "Tricky Tray" fundraiser. I've never seen raffles work quite like this - you have all the prizes arranged around the room with different colored bags in front of them where you drop corresponding colored raffle tickets (each color is a different price tier). So you're kinda entering a whole bunch of different raffles for things. I wasn't really expecting to win anything really so it came as a surprise when I won something rather excellent - a one of a kind gold earring and necklace set that honestly is kinda hard to describe other than it looks fantastic on me.
ETA: see?
The rest of the fun was watching other people win stuff and completely lose their shit when they did. Especially the girl who dropped one ticket into the grand prize drawing and won herself a 42 inch TV. Epic shriek.
Saturday night we got taken out for hibachi (I've been enough times that I know most of the tricks they do by now but am still utterly delighted by it nonetheless) and then all sprawled around the living room to watch Kung Fu Hustle, which still remains an AMAZING movie even on watch number 3.
Sunday we all primped up and then drove back to New Jersey for Ruthy's 50th birthday brunch at the Short Hills Hilton. Well, drove is a loose interpretation of what actually happened. An elaborate game of highway leapfrog between Hanzo-san and Stanley's Chevy is what actually happened. I'm not sure who ultimately won, but having
cell23 and Alé laughing hysterically in my car and Stanley grinning from ear to ear in his and Amanda glaring at all of us and clearly spending the time in the car yelling at Stanley that he REALLY ought to know better (she's right) I think made ultimate victory a moot point. And after that we all settled down and behaved for Ruthy's party, which, in typical Browne family party style was chi chi and fantastic. There really isn't anything like swanky hotel Sunday Brunch. And of course, also in true Browne style, it wasn't so much a family lunch so much as a roast of Ruthy, who took it all with grace and even invited cell23 to participate. Like I explained to him, this was kind of the perfect time for him to meet the family because usually when we're all together anyone is fair game, but today we had a designated target so everyone else was pretty much off the hook. But yeah, it was really fantastic to be there, not only because cell23 seems to have passed inspection with flying colors (Stanley even going so far as to dryly ask where on earth I dug up "the normal one" earlier in the day), but because since all of us are now scattered up and down the eastern seaboard, having all of us in one place in any context besides Thanksgiving, Christmas and lately, Easter is becoming enough of a rare occurrence to make it a treat. Somewhere up in here is a ramble about me and my own interesting headnoise regarding family and my part in it, but right now's not the time to post it - I'll just say yet again that amid most of the suck of the past year, having to chance to plug back into it and reconnect with everyone since I got sick is not unappreciated.Anyway, we all stayed until the hotel staff politely informed us that they were closed and needed us to clear out, and then we pretty much made the circuit of hugs, kisses and goodbyes before firing up Hanzo-san and heading back to MA... gotta say, I'm coming to really love car trips with
cell23, between the singing along to the iPod and the particular brand of shit shooting that somehow only ever happens in a car you're stuck in for over an hour. And probably best of all, since these always seem to happen towards the end of the day, the bit involving coming home to very cozy bed for both of us to collapse into is super nice.tl;dr version: good company, good food, pretty great family time, and much with the squee = good weekend.
This week: is gonna be busy. Work, writing (I didn't have any time for it last week, lulz), and various being-a-grown-up-waaaaaah stuff all week, hopefully karaoke on Wednesday, and hopefully finally nailing down and burying a few coffins on Thursday and Saturday. Got some fun ideas for both of those... here's hoping I get the time and wherewithall to properly execute them. Also holy crap, thinky. This weekend, good as it was, did dredge up a fair amount of headnoise - it's gonna be a bit before I get everything settled back down again. Though for a change, this doesn't seem like a bad thing....
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