eastowners

Current Mood: Martini Mood

Sorry for the delay in posting.  Thanksgiving made me super sleepy, and highly unmotivated.  Last week we left on Wednesday for what is the LONGEST trek accross the state I’ve ever taken.  My parents live in Goodells (just outside of Port Huron) on the East side of the state.  It’s usually a relatively easy trip to make in about 2 1/2 hours with my lead foot.  How much easier can you get than take I-96 to I-69 to the Whales Center exit?  It took us 5 hours from when we left home to get there.  We left about 1:15ish, stopping for lunch and coffee before leaving town.  It took me 15 - 20 minutes to make my way from Breton Rd to the highway on 28th street!  I got on the high way, dodging the horrible drivers in the rain.  We got on I-69 without too many troubles to be halted to a complete stop for oh about half an hour.  It literally took me 1 hour to go 5 miles, all because people don’t pay attention to construction signs.  The highway went down to one lane for about 10 miles, but of course everyone has to swap lanes and be 3 cars ahead of you causing the highway to halt while they try to cram into one lane.  We were stopped in front of a rest stop, and people were cutting through the rest stop to get ahead….only causing more traffic to pile up.  We finally made it to my parents house to have some pizza, and then ship Clare off to bed.

Thanksgiving Day was relatively quiet.  My brother Frank, his fiance Cari, and their baby girl Olivia joined us for dinner with my Grandpa.  We all over ate of course, leaving me to lounge on the couch feeling bloated and ready to explode.  I think those last few carrots I ate did me in!  Clare had lots of fun, and she got to try to give Olivia toys to play with.  It’s funny how baby toys become big kid toys just because they are new, and make noise.  Olivia is getting so big, and makes lots of noise to feel like she’s part of the party too.  I have a great shot of Clare holding her…now I just need to get them off the camera

On Friday morning we joined the other fellow crazies in the cold for a bargain or 4.  I set the alarm for 3:30am, and we were out of the house by 4:00am to make it into town by 4:30am.  We got in line at Best Buy and awaited the warmth of the store.  Man was it cold out…and I forgot my scarf!  We picked up an HD DVD Player (which came with 5 free cd’s), Brad got a new LCD Monitor, and I got the remainder of the Sex in the City DVD’s I needed to own the complete series (because they were 1/2 off).  We ”thought” about going to Kohl’s…but we heard someone say they waited in line to check out for 45 minutes (and we were out of Best Buy by 6am).  That and the parking lot was a mad house.  Toys R Us was much the same….so we skipped them and headed to Tim Horton’s for some coffee, a breakfast sandwich, and a donut.  We were going to stop at Game Stop too….but they didn’t open for another hour, and Brad claimed Food trumped Video Games.  Never mess with Brad when he’s hungry!  We went back to my parents for a nap.  My parents took Clare to see The Bee Movie that afternoon with a stop at my mom’s McDonald’s to play in the play area.

On Saturday we left, and made it back home in our normal 2 1/2 hours.  We unloaded, put some things away, and then headed out for some dinner.  On Sunday I had planned to put up our tree….but lack of motivation, and just wanting to hang out watching tv in my comfy pants got the best of me.  It’s Thursday, and it’s still not up.  This week has kinda gone by in a flash…with grocery shopping, helping out at school, and some Christmas shopping keeping me busy.  Tomorrow will be much of the same, as I have to await our exterminator.  We found ants in the wall of the project room we are turning into Clare’s room.  I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll ever get her in there!  Which leaves it to be done this weekend.  Ah well.