Of Polish Breakfasts, Rain, and Colds

Hello!!! Alrighty, I did NOT mean to post again this much later. :( I had read something about how not having bright lights like the ones on computer screens around can keep you from insomniatic moments so I thought I'd take the advice and do my posting earlier...but I've realized one can only have a set number of hours a day and night is the best time for posting...so Huckleberry Finn to that.

Last weekend was a nice rainy one. And funny enough this one was too! No really, it doesn't rain every day and the weekdays were mostly rainless, it's just that since we were thinking maybe we could work on the yard during the week last weekend, it rained. And this weekend it rained because more visitors came from Arizona. Seattle has a funny way of showing off to visitors and playing around with its inhabitants' weekend plans.

I'm sitting here trying to remember last weekend and the one thing that comes to mind is that Sara had another birthday party to go to. Yes, the girl's weekends are booked, busy girl. This time it was bowling which was much nicer for me as far as walking in and out of the building without a problem. You see, last birthday party was at Chuck E. Cheese and Mr. Cheese takes good care of his guests by having a guard by the doors to make sure no one comes or goes without a stamp of approval and an adult. Well, my cellphone rang while I was in there enjoying Mr. Cheese's place and chatting with my tia. So as much as I loved the party Mr. Cheese makes sure to have every day in his place, I found it rather difficult to hear what the person on the other end was saying...so I decided to step out for a little and finish my call. Sure enough, the ever faithful guard was ever watchful and before letting me out asked me how old I was. :

Mmmmm...yes, she did ask. Surprised? If you've hung around with me, probably not. I've been asked before, several times. Well, once the fact was established that I was my own escort because I was an adult, she let me out and I made the call. Huckleberry Finn...so you can see why I was relieved to see that Sara's next party was at a place that people of all ages went to. :D
Last weekend was overall quite calm which was very good because I think that helped us recouperate from all the journeying we'd done last time and prepared us for this weekend.

Friday, the girls had their piano recitals, which they did quite well at if I may say so myself. They got to perform at a piano store and got to play on a 9-foot Concert Piano! Those are the largest that exist and are the ones that are often found in concert halls...I also got to play on it before the recital started, since we got there a little early. Very nice....wish I had a classical piece memorized for that moment...but hey, it still worked and it was still amazing.

We had guests over on Saturday from good ole AZ (thus the rain). They were friends of the family who were passing by as they drove up to Canada (they flew here mind you, then drove up to Canada). Well we prepared by cleaning the house and playing the piano till I felt my hands were going to fall off...honestly I played for a good hour and a half in total....well playing wasn't really preparation, it was more like something to do while I waited to be given a task but tia wouldn't let me work too much. I felt like I was cheating being still a little sick and all, but I realized it wasn't entirely my fault. :P

Okie, so they get here and we all have fun playing basketball and flying this dragonfly my tio got for the girls when he and Sara went shopping for one of her many parties. She's really better than I at this social and parties thing. Anyhoo, the family had two boys that were near the girls' ages, hence the basketball instead of the dolls. Naw...actually, it was so nice out, before Seattle decided to show off...my tio had gotten the grill going with this huge fire-breathing thing...boys when you come, you'll need to see it, I thought he was going to end up setting the whole porch on fire it was that big. :O So the grill is ablaze and we are ahungry because we did many a run and jump, and it starts araining. Actually, it was more like 3 drops fell from the sky and then suddenly it starts pouring. Well tio comes out to get the grill covered and the family comes out to watch the rain...they were so surpised it was quite funny. I guess I've already gotten used to it.

Well after a few games of Set inside, we had an amazing dinner of steak and potatoes and everything else you can imagine that's yummy. Gosh, it was so good and I had been anxiously awaiting the dinner by eating the chocolate covered raisins we had out for the guests (along with every berry you can imagine...it was fun and yummy). But a few minutes into my dinner I started feeling full...I was quite mad at the chocolate covered raisins at this point. But still I ate my dinner, definitely without regrets. :D

Afterwards we played some foosball and piano (the boys play too).....we were Set-out because we played way too many rounds before dinner.....at one point Sara and the boy her age, Patrick leave Karen, Matthew and I and go bounce balls off the second floor (which can actually be fun to watch, but dangerous when thrown hard, so don't try it at home kids). Well we were so into the game, we were heedless of our surroundings. :P It got to the point that we couldn't even place the new cards on the table before one of us would shout 'set'! We were that fast.....

Anyhoo....foosball was fun and we did boys against girls, well that was before dinner and I believe the girls won...whoo hoo!! But after dinner it was men against girls and well that didn't go quite as well as we had planned...Karen and I were trying to be nice to the guests... :D well....tio was on their team so I think that made things a little uneven.....

No wait....before I go any further......we, Karen and I, had an amazing moment before this weekend. We had been playing my tio almost every evening trying to get better and master the game in the hopes of one day winning against tio and at last we accomplished it! Yes, we won tio!!!!! And I do believe we won twice....I may be wrong, but for sure it was at least once!!!! So Karen and I are quite proud that we accomplished such a feat and look forward to more of those moments in the future (this weekend was an exception, we were being nice to the guests and friends' dad who was paired up with tio against Karen and I happened to be a decent foosballer so yeah....well, we'll get even better!). ;)

After all this fun stuff the adults and I went out for a walk (by this point, our guests knew how old I was....even they couldn't believe me when they found out how old I was), the kids were way too much into this Sim Zoo my cousin had. Which actually has a funny story to it.....while Karen and I were feversihly trying to beat the men, Patrick, who had been hard at work with the zoo, comes up and asks Karen something about the zoo. Well Karen was so busy and concentrated, she just responds "it doesn't matter." So Patrick, seemingly content with the answer, goes off. Later while they were all gathered back at the zoo, I mean the game about the zoo, Karen ends up finding out the zoo they had been creating all evening was named the It Doesn't Matter Zoo. Hehe, I thought that was pretty funny.

Towards the end of the night we ended up playing a little bit of Cranium, I say 'little bit' because we never got to finish it....it's like Monopoly....it never gets finished, people give up or get distracted before it's over. But one of these days, we'll finish a whole game of Cranium...Karen and I are determined. Anyhoo, for your information, Ralph Ellison did only write one novel in his lifetime and the man who wrote James Bond also wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. You're kidding, I know, but I'm not. Cranium says so. Karen and I wish it wasn't so, but it is. Se la vie.

Well, after the Cranium gang fell apart, we headed towards the TV, because it had been turned on.....so we all went towards the light just like those little flies that are attracted to lights. And, after a little insisting, we ended up watching an episode of the Flinstones....good ole Flinstones, and good ole bed when I finally got to it. Hehe....it was all fun but I think we were all happy once we hit the sack.

Next morning, I had a yummy breakfast of different kinds of cold meats and different slices of bread with Swiss cheese. Oh so good....I'm told that it is a typical Polish breakfast even though it may seem like lunch to the non-Polish. But after that breakfast, I'm switching my breakfasts' ethnicity to Polish. :D

Then we went to the nearby lake and played some Volleyball till our arms got sore. At one point in the game some of us were purposely trying to avoid the ball because we were so sore. :P Got some lunch at Ruby's Diner and then saw our friends off to Canada.

Then we all took a nap....seriously, well most of us....we were sooo tired!!!

After a nap, we all went to Mass and then we all sat for a movie and watched Shrek. I'd forgotten a lot of it and we all laughed at the same jokes....it was great. And after we watched the credits...it said Neil Diamond wrote "I'm a Believer".....I do believe it was the Monkees that played and sang it before the man was born!! Come on, any backup?

Well, I hope you all had a lovely Father's Day....shout out to all the Dads!!! Love you guys!!!

P.S. I just looked it up and Neil Diamond did write the song but it was recorded by the Monkees and later covered and recorded by Diamond. Odd.