(no subject)

In "the big Lebowski" there's a line that's repeated "A lotta ins, a lotta outs, a lotta what-have-you's..."  I'm adapting it to ups/downs/WHYs 

the ups:

• Playing with baby mikey
• seeing dan and meg with mikey
• hanging out with chris and michelle
• viisitng my friend I didn't get to see the last couple times I was in town
• seeing cousins, aunts, uncles galore that all love each other at the funeral luncheon
• seeing additional family for my bro's birthday (my husband's brother & my Sis-in-law and their tiny boys, one of whom is only 6 months older than nephew)
• So that was, like, ty meg + 3 cousins!
• going to the Prez Garfield Memorial at the cemetery (because we were wandering around this epic and beautiful cemetery on a nice day, and it's a free monument/museum kinda thing you can go inside and walk around) (it was cool in both senses of the word, and had nice mosaics and stained glass and a statue, and a CRYPT)
• We went to Niagara Falls on Sunday morning and it was a really pretty day; we didn't get the bestest view but still it was pretty neat
• lovely spring weather friday thru today
• After the cemetery, came home then went to the beach (cold) and lighthouse hill (MEMORIES) and ty wept in happiness for rolling down the hill again
• then we got ice cream
• saw two acquaintances/friends while in the old hometown
• great chats with brother's friend & husband's brother&wife

the downs:

• Meg either has the world's worst allergies or an actual cold. so besides being sick, she got overwhelmed with stuff quickly. 
• It rained and poured the whole drive out there (wed/thurs)
• eating a lot of gross fast food and trying to keep the kids happy meant more chips & soda than I should have given them
• Meg had an utter meltdown last night - nobody was listening to her, 'niagara falls not even worth it' because her feet hurt and she was overwhelmed and sick and hot.  

the WHYs

• drivers from New York
• Ty is like 'this vacation puts the other trip to shame' and I'm like...wait a minute, this one wasn't a 'vacation,' it was a family trip that I tried to make Not Suck, and he says yeah but the trip to the big house was so boring
• I wanted to go to the service, but dan couldn't really deal with it, nor did we feel right leaving the kids home for potentially 6 hours (service at 10, lunch at 11, burial at 2, plus an hour drive either way).  So the best I could do was 'all four of us go to the lunch and, if we can, burial'.    
• it was stressful for megan for abovementioned. Ty wandered around the room doing laps waiting for us to be done. After an hour we gave up and went to the cemetery early - it was too early for the burial, but it gave me a chance to pay respects in my way, plus kids a chance to stretch their legs, plus also it's a famously cool cemetery. People go there for FUN.  
• I was in charge of food for brother's bday lunch but we had leftover funeral lunchmeat and no idea who was coming, anywhere between 1 extra person and 10 - plus the 8 of us:  my 4 + mom + chris/michelle/baby.  So I got pitta & tortillas, tzatziki sauce, hummus, guac/salsa/queso, and shredded chicken. And made rice.  Shrug. I  was hoping anything that wasn't eaten at the party won't go to waste.
• Listened to most of "where'd you go bernadette" with varying degrees of interest/enjoyment. (I loved reading it the first time so I'm sharing with my mom)
• Apparently ty wanted to chat so the book annoyed him but he didn't like say anything about it

(no subject)

 been eating 'on the road' food for 5 days - needing fruit & veg - see 'strawberry rhubarb crisp' at the market (and not much else that isn't fried)...

no regrets