the action-packed weekend of Giggy and Ruh-ruh

We've been to five households in the last two days. I'm ready to go back to work to rest up from our weekend. Saturday, I was up before my normal workday alarm so I could get to the vet's office to pick up prescriptions for Sarah. I'm thinking of having Rich ask for some arthritis medicine from his doctor so we can get a prescription for some of this stuff. He just has to convince the doctor that he normally takes his Rimadyl in treat form but could probably mix a powder into his "cereal" twice a day. Hopefully, the online price will be cheaper once we sort out if this medicine is working out for her in the long run.

Then we headed to and 's long enough to eat lunch before I moved onto 's house to help her work on her pirate outfit for 's wedding next weekend. We made good progress on that and then headed out to the bachelorette party that involved swordfighting lessons and dinner at the Pyratez Tavern in Silver Spring. After dropping everyone off, I was back to KJ's by midnight.

Sunday,we got up early again to get some quick breakfast before the fellas met Shannon for shooting at the NRA range while Jake and I ventured to Target. When we pulled up to the Smith's, Regan was literally standing in the driveway vibrating in anticipation of my arrival. I've really missed that little girl (and the rest of her family) and it was hard to have to leave again so soon. It's also hard to explain to a little girl why you can't stay overnight or come back tomorrow.

We hit the road to get to Byron and Sarah's for some football watching and hanging out. Their cat is adorable and we had a nice relaxing time just chatting and yelling at the television. Then it was off to Rich's parents for a belated birthday dinner with the family.

We're on our way home now and while it was a jam-packed two days, it was a really good time, only lacking in our inability to squeeze in more visits with more folks that were so close. I have learned, though, that I'm not a good candidate for Rich's "pack in the morning" method of travel. I forgot several key toiletries as well as failed to pack any long pants, so I've been buying clothes to hold me over and may never wear them again. I think I'm much more of a "pack for several days leading up to any trip" kind of gal.

Oh, and 19-month-old Tommy calls us Ruh-ruh and Giggy because he can't pronounce our names. This is quite possibly one of the cutest things on the planet, particularly when he says "Giggy, more meow pwease" when he would like to see more pictures of the cats on my phone.

crate sweet crate

Since Mollie has perked up from her kennel cough she's picked up a chewing habit. She hasn't really gotten into anything expensive, but when she managed to dig out Rich's shotgun cleaning kit this morning I worried that she might hurt herself with some sort of chemicals. That and eventually she was going to figure out how to open the fridge or unlock the front door for a party while we're gone. We picked up a "giant" sized crate today to give her plenty of room. She doesn't have any issues with house training, so we wanted to give her enough room to move around while keeping her out of trouble.

Once we got the crate assembled and some bedding inside, all the animals were very curious about it. I crawled inside to check it out and instantly the dogs were desperate to get inside with me. Both dogs crammed themselves inside and everyone was very excited about the new digs. Sarah used to have one long ago and I'm surprised she didn't retreat to the new one this evening when I fussed at Mollie for chewing my shoe. Instead she just shook like a leaf a few feet away until I consoled her. We're a family of sensitive souls in this house. And it's a full house at the moment ...

dinner and a monkey

We dropped off my brother in downtown Norfolk tonight to see a concert and he had several suggestions for where we should get dinner. We settled on Hell's Kitchen since Perry said it was a casual atmosphere and we were far from dressed up even for a Sunday evening. Dinner was excellent - Rich had a grilled burrito and I had a crab cake sandwich. I ate a bit too much, though, and my belly is trying to tell me so. When we stopped at my brother's to pick him up, Rich waited in the car while I went into the house. Next to the TV was a large stuffed monkey. I immediately picked it up and Perry said, "Do you like him? I won him for you at Busch Gardens." This confused me since he had gone to Busch Gardens with his girlfriend and I would have assumed if he won anyone a monkey it would have been her. "There's kind of a story behind it, though," he added.

They were at the games area of the park and wandering around when they happened upon an Asian girl who didn't speak the best English. She wanted to play some squirt gun game that needed three people so Perry and Christine agreed to join in. She paid for the game for all three of them and they proceeded to shoot their water guns at the targets. The bell went off and Perry threw up his arms in celebration! Hooray, go team, we're doing a great job! They played a second game and the bell went off again. Perry exclaimed some shout of victory as though their motley group was kicking this game's ass.

The Asian girl grew tired of the game after they had won those two prizes. Perry offered that since they had only won two stuffed monkeys but there were three of them that Christine could have one and she could have one. She looked at him puzzled and said no thanks and they could have both monkeys. Perry and Christine walked off with the two monkeys and Christine proceeded to slowly explain that the game they all just played wasn't a team effort, but was in fact a competition between the three of them in which Christine had won the first time and the Asian girl had won the second time. For all his enthusiasm, Perry was the only loser in the entire process.

"So I guess I technically didn't win the monkey for you, but Christine has the other one and nobody would have won any monkeys had I not been there. So I feel like I had a hand in it." He shrugged and started gathering his things. I smiled and walked back to the front door clutching my monkey. Rich looked very confused from the driver's seat when he sent me inside for my brother and I came back with a monkey instead.