Let's rewind to the Friday before the east coast tour began. Date night at The Triple Door. Over the Rhine. Amazing, per usual. Karen told the story about the nursing home - the third time I've heard it - before doing Only God Can Save Us Now. I still love it - both the story and the song. Her voice is from the heavens. I always go to the Triple Door with high expectations for the restaurant side, and I'm always disappointed. The service is always unbelievably slow, and the food is average. But it doesn't really matter when Karen & Linford are entertaining you.
Flew out Saturday morning to Boston. Slept a good chunk of the way out there and got some good reading in too. Peg picked me up at Logan and whisked me away to her church's murder mystery dinner & show. The food was apparently the same catered stuff as every year - a five course spaghetti dinner. The wine - Two Buck Chuck. The show - totally hokey. The highlight - when everyone had to guess who done it and I won. What glorious prizes, you ask? A book on Egypt, a travel guide to Rio and a kids' book entitled "The Curse of the Cheese Pyramid." That's right. Not even a bottle of that delicious wine.
I have determined that Adam is my olive-eating muse.
The rest of my Boston stay was a blur of shopping, baking, drinking and talking. Lots of each. I think Peg got me drunk every night I was there. But she also let me sleep in, so it all worked out. We went to dinner Monday night at the Colonial Inn in Concord. The couple next to us was clearly on their first date - and probably were both in their late 60's. She was a Valley Girl (like, really) and he wore white socks with his dark suit. This sent Peg into her new mantra: I'm never dating ever again.
Armed with a metric crap ton of toffee and a gluten free pumpkin roll, Peg and I made our way to Putnam, CT - the quiet corner of Connecticut. Hugs and kisses and Peg drove back to Carlisle. Jaami showed me all that Putnam's strip mall had to offer while we waited for Tony to be done with work. Then a giant vat of carrot-squash soup, complete with leftover pizza for dipping. Wednesday Jaami and I got in a workout - just in the living room while Ariaana napped, and all body weight. So not quite like old times, but still pretty darn good. Anytime your warmup includes 50 burpess, you're in for a doozey. That's right, a doozey. Then we ventured into the raging metropolis that is downtown Putnam - all three blocks of it - and I actually got a fair amount of Christmas shopping done.
Showing a little leg.
We also stopped at the local coffee shop and had oursevles some snacks and a diaper change.
Guess who had which one.
Tony joined us for Steak & MacGyver Night, although we ended up not having any MacGyver to watch, so we settled for the finale of Dancing with the Stars. We did have steak though - delicious steak. Suzanne came in from Vermont and told us all about her match.com first date with "Poop Tooth." I don't think it's going to work out. Jaami and I made a batch of Maple Bourbon Bacon Cupcakes, and I think they might have all been eaten by the time we went to bed.
Best workout buddies ever.
At o'dark thirty on Thanksgiving morning Jaami and I drove to Hartford so I could hitch a train to New Haven. Lots of tears as I boarded the train, from both of us. Adam picked me up in New Haven and gave the full tour of Yale - that is, showed me the library, his old apartment, and the boathouse. We took the very roundabout way to Fairfield, but we got there. We walked in and Jo yells "Jeny Potter in the house!!" Lots of hugs, then "Hooray! Mimosa time!" Adam and I insisted on coffee time first, which was met with some resistance, but allowed (but I think only because we also had mimosas on deck). Adam got some acupuncture after breakfast, compliments of Josh who happens to be going to school for it. Josh came back downstairs where Jo and I were chatting while Adam was laying (in misery, according to Adam) with the needles in, talking about how he's such a baby about it (true) and how he's so wound up that it practically didn't matter where Josh stuck the needles, anything would help (also true). Then I got major points for taking Gaia to doggie acupuncture (which is totally working). The whole clan let me watch the Packer game, even though they're not football fans (10-0!), Seth chased Duncan around the yard (not Seth's choice), and Adam showed off his bottle of beer that Jo acquired through her wine distribution job.
Double bastard.
As evening (and dinner) approached, Adam got it in his head that we needed to start a fire. He also insisted on NOT using modern comforts and methods like a lighter, or even matches. Oh no, he set up his primitive wood-friction contraption and spent at least an hour trying to light the kindling.
At least he's persistent.
Eventually - about the time dinner was ready - he gave up, we had some (ok, a ton of) delicious food as prepared by Jo... turkey, sweet potatoes, stuffing, rolls, brussels sprouts, green beans... and probably something else. Then "pre-dessert" of little brownies and Peg's toffee. Then pie. And wine. Oh so very much wine. Then after dinner Adam convinced the rest of the boys they should help him with his campfire operation:
The fire never actually got started.
A solid Thanksgiving, although the Absinthe never made its promised appearance. Probably for the best. Friday was a good long sleep in, frittata, basketball, and a long walk around Southport and all its money. I saw the Long Island Sound and a peak at NYC.
A beautiful "Buy Nothing Day" in Southport.
We got back home and Jo's extended family started showing up... cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma:
Jen: Um, what's up?
Adam: Oh yeah, there will be about a dozen more that show up.
Jen: You didn't warn me of this.
Adam: Hey, you're the one that wanted to come out for Thanksgiving.
Touche. I met (and impressed, I do say) a crap ton of people, drank lots more wine, had a "conference" with Jo while Adam laughed his ass off, went digging through old family scrapbooks in the basement with Adam, and ate way too much pizza. Sometime around 11p someone (probably Adam) suggested Monopoly, so the six of us sat down for a "quick" game. More wine. GF brownies. Jo insisted that eight was the most common number to be rolled and got really excited every time someone got it.
Eight again!
Around 2a, Arthur and Jo had thrown in the towel, and I gave up too. Adam, Seth and Josh duked it out, and I think Seth came out on top. Adam (although not surprised) wasn't thrilled. And he says he isn't competitive. Saturday we slept in, I got on a last minute shuttle to JFK and came home. Best. Thanksgiving. Ever.
Duncan wins.
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