It’s Monday… but not according to the <i>Daily Show </i>

So, Saturday “morning”, as JamesT and I sat at Teh Cracker Barrel awaiting our wagon fulla pancakes, we began to ponder what to do with ourselves on a fine weekend with no work to do, fair weather, and no obvious obligations. Going to the shooting range came up, which led to how that really wouldn’t fill a weekend, which led to why don’t we just drive to Alabama, visit sis & the fam who happen to have plenty of acreage, plenty of guns you don’t have to rent, and plenty of other stuff we haven’t seen in a while. After a quick phone call to see if they were in the midst of a weekend full of obligations, it was decided we would just grab an overnight bag and make the drive. Why the heck not.

As it turns out, it was a super-great break. They have actual stars in the sky out there. Our sponteneity had the fortune of not coinciding with any major traffic, so it was a very tolerable drive to and fro. Sis & Hub seemed perfectly content to hang out, snack and watch flicks with us, they’ve actually finished their house since JamesT had been there, and we met lots of friendly kitties to keep us from missing ours. Not only did we get to stay in The Angela Suite — where I hope she doesn’t mind I flipped through her many photo books, laughing and showing James years worth of goofy family stuff — but I also had the fortune to catch The Angela herself on the telephone as she called to check in with her mom on the way home from Vegas. She rocks. They tried to scope out the chapel where James and I got hitched, and she was so excited to tell me that she and D had their faces superimposed on a picture of Han and Leia that she can’t wait to send me a copy of.

Anywho…one thing led to another, and one night led to another, which meant we drove home early this morning. I hate to say and best of all!!!, but it really was the icing on a good weekend to come home to my Shrek 2 pre-order waiting in the mailbox. You KNOW I already watched it.

Well, plans are in the works for a “party at the lakehouse” sometime in the future… probably closer to new years, as the bro is hoping we’ll shoot off enough fireworks to seriously bother his neighbor. Hopefully Thanksgiving and Christmas are also now hammered out, as it looks like the Johnsons/Ganeys/Thorntons/Reeders… etc., will be heading up to Bristol to spend a final Christmas at the old homestead with mom. I called her when I got home, and she’s totally up for it. She’s also feeling much better, she says, on her new medication and even managed to get out today to rake some leaves for exercise. Once again, we’re on an up swing it seems. Good to hear, as I don’t want to even think about the scenarios I imagined calling her several times over the course of the hours it took us to get home and having that answering machine pick up after two rings. She’s not supposed to be driving, last I’d heard, so where was she? But, paranoia averted, she finally answered and all is well.

PS: Oh! And the trip may have been made TOTALLY worthwhile (and long overdue) if only by the fact that we finally learned how to make margaritas that don’t suck!