Fun on the Road, More Fun at Home

So this past weekend, we took a trip down to see Chris's brother Dan, his wife Catherine, and their three kids Jillian, Ryan, and Lauren, specifically for the occasion of Jillian's first communion on Saturday. I got the kids out of school at noon, and off we went. We took the "extended scenic route," by which I tried to avoid not just the turnpike, but also the DC beltway, because we were headed right into the heart of that beast at rush hour on a Friday. Ended up going through Winchester, sort of, and still got in around 6:30, even though we had to stop to find a car wash where I could hose down and cool off my brakes, because apparently they are a little grabby. (Long story short, new car is going to beat new dog, hands down.)


Catherine made a cake, and we had a little b-day celebration for Cara. Mostly, she got some cool new duds, which is good because she makes a lot of costume changes and her father isn't really up on fashion. But also, Chris's mom made her a very nice photo album - a year-by-year montage of Chris's life, with captions for the photos and room for many more pages. Cara thought it was nice, and looked through it with me, but I don't think she's going to really realize what a great gift it is for a few years yet. For those of you keeping score, photo-wise: The guy she's known for over 20 years, married, and is the father of two wonderful grandchildren: 11 pictures. The guy she dated for just over a year, and left in order to date the aforementioned: 4 pictures. Maybe there weren't a lot of other pictures that year?


Anywho, after that, went out for a beer with our old friend, Paul, then came back to discover that Cara's allergies were bothering her - runny nose, which eventually became a sore throat. She insisted that the air in Dan's basement (where we were sleeping) was trying to kill her, though I'm pretty sure it wasn't.


The next day, we went to their neighbor's house for a combined communion party. The two communicants were Jillian and her friend Gillian. Attending the party was (among many, many others) Johnny, his cousin, Ryan, and Ryan's cousin, John Ryan. You can't make this stuff up, no one would believe it.


Home on Sunday. Uneventful -- the brakes barely even overheated, hardly worth hosin' down. But then the fun started: Sunday night, Cara developed a fever. Just by coincidence, Johnny had a recheck appointment for his last ear infection, so I told Cara she'd come along and get a strep test. Well, she hated that idea, insisting that she doesn't like the way they do the test at the doctor's office, and instead she wanted to go to the Minute Clinic (the name of which has never been disambiguated to my satisfaction.) So, Monday morning, we head to the clinic (which was sort of on the way, anyway.) But when the swabs come out, she announces that she doesn't want the test there, either. [coax cajole struggle struggle]...and, we're done. Strep it is! Don Pardo, tell our contestants what they've won! Why, they've won a ten day course of amoxicillin, Wink!


Johnny's ears: fine, so he goes to school, Cara stays home. For dinner that night, I tried for a normal meal: BBQ chicken, et al. Johnny really like the sauce: too much, turned out later. At bedtime, he told me he felt like throwing up, I told him it was probably just an upset stomach, gave him some water and put him on the couch. Should have got him a bucket, turned out. Live an learn, right? Or, maybe, re-learn -- seems like this might have happened before. But after that, he's fine, Cara's fine (and no fever since Sunday), so off to school they go. Of course, the nurse calls around 1 to tell me Cara's fever is back. Another day with dad tomorrow. Yippee!!!

Father/Daughter Dance

Tonight was the Girl Scouts' Father/Daughter Dance. I had almost forgotten about it entirely, apparently I forgot to put it on my phone's calendar, and I never do anything unless Droid tells me to, so it was only by chance that someone mentioned it the other day. Also by chance Johnny had a birthday party to go to, so it all worked out.

Yesterday was Cara's birthday. We just had a little family thing, we went shopping, then out for dinner and ice cream. I can't believe she's ten. She can, so it all evens out.

Anyway, at the dance, I got a few pix. The two on the left are from tonight. The one on the right is from the F/D Valentine's Day Dance. We are definitely getting our money's worth out of our outfits.

At the dance, there was a song about a daughter growing up and getting married. I pointed out to Cara that she wasn't allowed to marry unless she found someone as funny, smart, and modest as her father. Good luck with that, right? But she just said, "Don't worry, Dad, I'm not getting married." So, we're all set.

A Day to Remember

So, today is of course, a great day of celebration. And by that I mean that it's Cara's 10th birthday, which could seriously drag on into June. Oh, and Bin Laden is dead, so now I have to figure out what the hell I'm supposed to do for Johnny's birthday next year. Gadhafi, someone suggested on Facebook, just before my post mysteriously disappeared. Coincidence? Probably.

Johnny's Tree Study

Last week was the GATE/Art show at the elementary school. Johnny just got into the program last week, and he wanted to go see some of the exhibits that his friends worked on. His favorite was one about dogs, where, among many other tidbits, we learned that "dogs are often used to help people haunt." I did not know that. Never let spelling inhibit the creative process, I always say, and I meene it.

Cara's Cat

Johnny and Cara each had some art on display. Trees and a cat. We could have easily combined them and had a cat in the tree, but separately is fine, too.

Had an athletic "two-fer" on Saturday -- both Johnny and Cara's soccer games were wins. Might be a first for single-day victories at Casa de Cieslak. I can't mention enough that I really don't care about wins or losses, it was just an interesting outcome. Both played very well, too -- didn't get hurt and had fun, so they were wins regardless of the score.