Vacaaaaaaaaation

You may be thinking to yourself, "Self, why has Claudia not updated her blog? Is it a lack of commitment? A general sense of malaise, perhaps?" Well, we're on vacation. It took me five days to pack for a nine-day trip. Plus, I had to drop the three dogs off at three different locations before we left (don't ask - the doggie diaspora is a long story). The goal was to leave at 6 a.m. on Friday and drive straight through to my sister's house in Virginia. We were all packed up and ready to go, but when I attempted to start the car, I heard an ominous clicking noise. You would not think that a clickety-clickety noise could be ominous and foreboding, but trust me, it was. We didn't really think it was the battery, but we tried jumping it just in case. No dice. So, we went with Plan B, which was to unload everything and toss it into P's car, which is a Taurus. Less roomy than the van, of course, but we had no choice.

We drove all day and arrived at my sister's abode at around 12:30 a.m. A hung in there until 10:30 before conking out in the back seat. P arrived at maximum crankiness long before that. The drive was mostly uneventful. I had downloaded Spongebob Squarepants' voice for our GPS before we left. His jokes were funny for the first 100 miles or so, but not at all after that. When it wasn't my turn to drive, I sat in the back with the kid. I watched "The King's Speech" on our laptop and the kid and I took turns reading poems from "Where the Sidewalk Ends."

We're all settled in and are having a great time. I'm trying not to fret too much about the van, and I'll have you know that I have not made a to-do list in four days! Yesterday we had tickets to see Mamma Mia! at Wolf Trap.  They were lawn seats. I don't know exactly how hot it was, but I'd say it was pretty close to the temperature at which one ordinarily reheats leftovers in the oven. My sister is pregnant and was really in danger of overheating, so we gave up and left after 1/2 hour or so. We went back to the house and let the kids play in the sprinkler. My sister and I stood in the sprinkler as well, even though we were fully clothed.

Today we're headed to my grandma's house and then I guess we'll do something related to explosives later tonight. I am hoping to visit some of my friends while I'm here. P and I went out with my friend J on our second night here. I was planning to visit J's parents while I'm here, but I have it on good authority that his mom is rankled over my "special people" post from last week. Mary, please take me back! Blame it on my kid - it's all her fault!