April weekend recap

What a great weekend.  It was precisely what I needed.  My Julie came to town, and she and a couple of old college friends, my cousin Dan, my two aunts (Julie's mom and Dan's mom), and a couple of new friends from my job all met out at a watering hole for a bit Friday night.  It was a fun and eclectic group.  I didn't get into my bed until 3:30 am.

So, since I'm old, that took me a while to recover from.  Saturday was a quiet, low-key, rainy (and snowy) day.  Kids were amused and entertained by Julie and her friend Michael (who also stayed the night).  Bob and Two went out for a date that night (to a fancy steak house).  Two is on a journey, a vision quest I suppose, to explore all of the steak houses in town.  Not to be outdone, I grilled out a couple of steaks for the boys left home with me.  They were yummy.  The key, my friends, is closely watching the clock while grilling and not getting distracted by facebook.  (This lesson was learned by a couple of very tough pieces of chicken last week.)

On Sunday, the sun was shining again.  Around noon, Bob took the kiddos to Milwaukee to a Discovery World science museum there.  (Local peeps - if you have a Madison Children's Museum membership, you can get into this great spot for free.  It's super fun and I'm not sure it's that well known.  Check it out.)

While the boys were gone, my Julie and I visited our grandma and had a great visit.  She was more lucid than I've seen in a long time.  I asked the staff there if she has had a medication change lately, and a staff woman said that she is no longer taking the alzeihmers medication she had been taking.  I don't know if it's related, but the difference was remarkable.  She was clear headed.  She followed stories.  She remembered what we had been talking about.  Julie and I told her about the events down at the capital lately, and she was amazed and kept going back to it - wanting to hear more.  And she was spicy, which is what I've missed the most about my grandma since she developed dementia.

Afterwards, we went to my Aunt MaryKay and Uncle Dave's house for goulash with my parents, Aunt Jo (Julie's mom), and Dan, briefly.  It was a lovely, fun evening on their screened porch - lots of laughter into the night.

Julie left bright and early this morning to head back to NYC.  We are on our Spring Break, and we head out this morning for our annual trek to a Dells' water park with 3 other neighborhood families.  Best vacation ever - kids are happily amused with each other, and I get good adult conversation with people I really like but don't see very often.

Mark - there was lots of talk last night about "when are YOU going to Palestine?"  We were all asking each other.  I hope this means we all do get over there to visit you.