2 weeks in 1006 words

Mood: good
Weather: sunny and warm

Two weeks without a post... I really should have said I was taking a break because I knew I was. Last post was that Lars' parents were set to arrive. I rushed home, cleaned, went to class, came home and jumped in the shower hoping I would be done before they got there and in the end we waited 2 extra hours for them to turn up. No big deal but we were starving! Lars liked his presents from me, especially the keyboard and mouse he got himself and I wrapped. His parents got him a BBQ set that is virtually identical to the one I got him 2 months ago when we got the BBQ, and a shirt that doesn't fit. Lars' mom means well but has Lars' size stuck around freshman in college size. Since moving to MN he works out 5 days a week, one of those days is usually dedicated to weight lifting, so he is significantly larger then she remembers. Wednesday night was a little tense, Thursday got a tiny bit better, Friday we waited up for his sister and brother in law to arrive (8hours later). Saturday we did sight-seeing in the capitol building and a museum and the sculpture garden. The sculptures are all very 1980s, MN must have had a good art budget that year because everything is from between 1978 and 1982. The brother-in-law who is vaguely manic depressive, did not want to come and sat home alone. Kinda a downer of a start but then at least we all fit in one car. He got the idea on Sunday that we weren't going to pander to him and that we would leave him if he wanted to stay, somehow I think he thought we would just hang out if he didn't want to go. Sunday we did the Mall of America then the the guys and our neighbor went to WI for some good fireworks. Monday was the forth so we hung out, played games, went out to an early dinner and around dusk started the 2 cases of fireworks they picked out (somewhere around 120 pieces). We all stayed up too late and were dragging on Tuesday when sister and brother in law took off around 3 and we had one last dinner with the parents. They had to leave very early on Wed so we said goodbye around 8pm and finally got to relax. They really wanted non stop entertainment and I think I ran the dishwasher 5 times in 4 days, cleaned semiconstantly, and was constantly making snacks or meals. The chain smoking habit they all had kept them outside the majority of the weekend so I'm very glad we had nice weather. I cleaned the table yesterday and I had to scrub and spray and wash and wipe for 20 min to get the table white again....

I meant to post last week to say how cool my company is; last Friday my boss took another person in the group and I on a trail ride and I got to go through my first mud pit. It was pretty shallow and I did much better then they expected :) It was my first time on an ATV but they are pretty easy to figure out and it was a nice change of pace for a Friday afternoon. The second reason it is a cool company is that they have a product in the Fabulous Four movie so we got a movie theater to ourselves on Thursday to watch the movie for free a day early! We had to drive 40 min to get to the theater and it ended up being the most uncomfortable theater in the world but it was a cool experience. The movie was pretty good if you like the super hero comic movies. I would put it on par with Spider Man 1, better then Electra, but not as good as the X-Men or Spider man 2. I am of the wrong age to have read the comics but that probably made me like the movie better because I didn't have preconceived ideas of what all the people should look like.

We actually went to our first camping event of the SCA season. Northshield does way less camping and war practice then the east and Lars has gone to 2 other events but this is my first since crown. I think a few people may have thought we quit since we have been absent but it has just been a sparse season. Not winning meant we didn't have to go to any event we didn't want to go so we just didn't :) WW (the event) was good, very hot, but fun. We ended up leaving Sat night because we were both over heated and there really wasn't anything going on Sunday. The grayfox party on Friday night was very cool, tons of people and talking, just like a mini pennsic. The 5 guys ended up drinking all 10 gallons of water I brought for them so that tells you how hot it was. Yesterday I started my list for pennsic and top of the list were things I forgot I needed for hot camping events - WW is like a pennsic trial. I also have a modest to-do list before Pennsic so my free time will mostly be sewing from now until then.

Second to Last in this very long post ~ my parents are coming to visit so I need to get general order in the house again. I have plenty of ideas of things to do when they visit and I took Monday off too. In my opinion they are way easier to have visit then Lars' parents but I may have a personal bias.

and now last - I have decided to do book reviews, real ones like school style, and post them. I'll preface and of them with 'book report' so you can skip but who knows, that may be my blog destiny.