Almost two weeks ago, Trina, Toby, and their son came out for a week - a full week, to visit us. I picked them up on Saturday morning from the airport, a couple of hours away. Due to the nature of this particular airport, all I could really do was swing through the curb-side pickup and do a race car pit-crew kind of greeting. "Hi! Now get in the car before everyone behind us crushes us." I'm sure they wouldn't have, but it did feel a bit rushed.
No matter, we came home and as soon as our own munchkin got back from gymnastics, she and their son got along mostly fine. A couple of false starts, but overall much better than in prior visits to either house. I'm actually kind of proud of her for doing as well as she did, under some less-than-optimal circumstances. More on those in a minute...
I'm a cook. Not by profession (anymore, at least), but I'm the cook in the household. I also hadn't seen any of them in over a year, so I was feeling a bit anxious. What to do? Cook! First evening's meal was about as close to mongolian BBQ style stir-fry as I'll ever get. That did mean a lot of prep-work - some of which I'd done prior, some of which had to be done that day. It did keep my hands busy, and allowed me to talk without feeling too awkward. Toby played around with the pool table, and both of them napped for at least a little bit here and there after the red-eye flight from the other coast.
Sunday morning was church day. Trina and Toby both go to UU churches wherever they happen to be, and while I'm not religious in the least, Susan is at least somewhat spiritual. So she offered to take anyone who wanted to go out to church. I wasn't going - friendship and relationships will get me to stretch what I'm willing to do, but not that far. Toby bowed out, and with him out of the equation, neither of the younger kids felt like going. Our older one, of course, wasn't doing anything that took away from her computer time.
Toby and I realized while they were gone that this was very possibly the first time that Susan and Trina had been alone together - anywhere. At the very least, one kid or the other was around, if not either Toby or I. We played pool while they were out, then the kids got onto the Wii and messed around with that some. The intent of the morning was that as soon as they got done, they'd let me know so I could start food. So, when I got a text saying "Service is over, we're on our way out. Stopping by the store real quick for coffee and a couple of things and we'll be right home", I took that at face value.
The menu for the morning was eggs benedict + tomato slices, along with roasted white asparagus. I had everything mostly prepped and ready, so I waited a bit just to make sure things would be ready on time. After what I thought was enough time had passed, I started cooking. Asparagus in the oven, check. English muffins sliced and ready to be toasted, check. Tomatoes sliced, check. Water was on for the poached eggs, and the only other thing to do was the hollandaise sauce.
I waited a bit more, then started making that. We have a double boiler that doesn't get much use, but it's prefect for this. I've made hollandaise once before, and that took me two attempts to get right, so I was trying to be as careful as I could this time. Long story short, I got it done, but then time continued to pass and no Susan or Trina. Of course, the sauce broke, and right at that time, Susan called - to say that they were just then leaving church. The two had gotten sidetracked by conversation and architecture.
I was aggravated, mostly by the poor communication, but held it in, mostly. They eventually got home, right about the time my second crack at the sauce was failing miserably. Poached eggs came out wonderfully, everything else was good, but the sauce refused to work. I gave it a third try and almost immediately got scrambled eggs. I gave up in disgust, and was kind of pissed for a little while. We all ate though, and eventually I ramped up out of my funk.
I'd warned everyone the prior evening that I was going to subject everyone to football (my team was playing on the night game), but that I'd offer salt-and-pepper wings in compensation. Of course, I'd forgotten to get them thawed before, so I had to do a rush job during the course of the day to get them workable. Oh, and they were full wings, not broken down yet. And had feathers still attached in way too many places...yeah, wasn't happy about those either!
I did eventually get about half of them segmented, and started frying. Of course, a storm was rolling into the area, and it was a bad one. The wind and rain picked up enough outside that I was worried that I wouldn't be able to finish, so I cut it short at a half-batch, ensured the kids got food, and finished up the wings. The TV upstairs was on the fritz after a couple of extremely quick power outages, so I went to the downstairs to eat and try to watch the game. By this time, it was already into the 3rd quarter. I got to finish my own wings, and watch a couple of series, but before the end of the third quarter, the power went out completely.
We got the kids taken care of and settled in, then we all traipsed down to our king-size bed downstairs for a cuddle/ talk pile. None of us were worried about the power, thinking it'd be up by morning. Yeeeeah...about that...
Monday dawned with no power. Not only that, no water! We've lost power before, but for whatever reason, our water has never been affected. This loss must have hit us at the wrong time, because it wasn't too long before the kids were complaining about not being able to flush the toilet. I ended up popping the cover from our pool, which had been closed for the winter, and filling up a couple of buckets for flushing use. A check of the power company's website had 5pm for Monday as an early estimate, which didn't take too long to shift to 5pm on Tuesday.
Eventually, Trina and I, both wanting showers, headed towards my base to use the showers at our gym. On our way back, we stopped at the store and snagged a bunch of jugs of water and a couple of non-perishable things for foods. That evening, I used what daylight was left to grill the remainder of the non-prepped wings, along with assorted root veggies. Came out pretty good, and used up what would have gone bad anyways.
The kids were rambunctious for a while, but eventually figured out how to play together with non-technology related toys, so they did alright. I was amazed that by 8pm, all three of the kids went to bed voluntarily. They were bored.
The rest of us had another cuddle pile. Between the three days up to that point, we discussed that rather than straight retiring by 2020 like I'd originally planned, I was putting in my paperwork to see what options I had to change commands. Given the right opportunity, the plan is now to transfer commands and take on some new roles that I haven't had a chance to do yet. Alternately, if I get shitty choices for new jobs, I can still retire. If we moved though, the request would be to move during next spring/ summer, so our older kid at least gets her final three years at one high school, rather than splitting her school directly in half.
Along with that, Susan and I had previously discussed inviting Trina, Toby, and their son to move in with us, and even to buy into whatever property we ended up living in. Complicated, messy, but doable. Neither of were sure at all that they'd accept, but we had several discussions between just the two of us before they came out. Cut to the first three days of their visit, and we discussed, as a group, my intentions and then out of nowhere came "So, want to move in with us if we do move?" I was floored when they almost instantly agreed! No hesitation, no "we need to talk about it before we say one way or the other"...we all did recognize there'd be way more discussion over it. And over the next few days, we did discuss it.
So, with nothing else to do on Monday night, we discussed it some more, and realized that even if we stayed where we are, we have a house big enough to fit everyone. Some relationship stuff got discussed between the four of us, but before too long, we split up for our own beds and sleep.
Tuesday was Halloween, and we weren't sure what we were going to do for trick-or-treating. The entire region was without power, including the neighborhood we drove out to last year. Everyone was also starting to get a little bit of cabin fever, so I found a place about an hour or so away that had a small hands-on science museum for the kids. I used the burner on the grill to make eggs, since they needed to be used up, along with boiled water for instant coffee for Trina and Toby, who both need caffeine. We dressed the kids up in their costumes, along with Susan and Trina in parts of theirs, and took off.
While we were there, Susan found out that the restaurant by our place was doing a "trunk-or-treating" due to the power outage. Good enough for me! We all had a good day out, then rushed back to get the last costume pieces for those dressing up, and take off again. Susan had gotten a call from the power company to say that power should be on by 8am Wednesday. Not great news, but better than some in the area who stayed without power til Friday. We got home, and we already had power! By looking at the stove clock, Susan had actually been called about 20 minutes after our power came on. Works for me! So, without further ado, we took off and had the quickest trick-or-treating of my life...makes a difference when you can complete a parking lot circuit in about fifteen minutes.
We came back home, had pasta, and I started attacking the absolutely massive pile of dishes from the last few days. At some point, Susan reached out to me for some extra reassurance...I thought she was okay afterwards, but it turned out her new medications were about to play absolute havoc with her mind. During our (by now nightly) cuddle pile, Susan ended up getting overwhelmed by everything, and starting leaking from the eyes. Eventually, the other two went up to their bed, and Susan thought it was because they didn't want to be around her being emotional. Really, it was just that everyone was tired as hell...the four of us were awake til after 1am down in the cuddle pile, and then Susan and I stayed up another couple of hours talking through her insecurities and emotions.
Part two coming later...
No matter, we came home and as soon as our own munchkin got back from gymnastics, she and their son got along mostly fine. A couple of false starts, but overall much better than in prior visits to either house. I'm actually kind of proud of her for doing as well as she did, under some less-than-optimal circumstances. More on those in a minute...
I'm a cook. Not by profession (anymore, at least), but I'm the cook in the household. I also hadn't seen any of them in over a year, so I was feeling a bit anxious. What to do? Cook! First evening's meal was about as close to mongolian BBQ style stir-fry as I'll ever get. That did mean a lot of prep-work - some of which I'd done prior, some of which had to be done that day. It did keep my hands busy, and allowed me to talk without feeling too awkward. Toby played around with the pool table, and both of them napped for at least a little bit here and there after the red-eye flight from the other coast.
Sunday morning was church day. Trina and Toby both go to UU churches wherever they happen to be, and while I'm not religious in the least, Susan is at least somewhat spiritual. So she offered to take anyone who wanted to go out to church. I wasn't going - friendship and relationships will get me to stretch what I'm willing to do, but not that far. Toby bowed out, and with him out of the equation, neither of the younger kids felt like going. Our older one, of course, wasn't doing anything that took away from her computer time.
Toby and I realized while they were gone that this was very possibly the first time that Susan and Trina had been alone together - anywhere. At the very least, one kid or the other was around, if not either Toby or I. We played pool while they were out, then the kids got onto the Wii and messed around with that some. The intent of the morning was that as soon as they got done, they'd let me know so I could start food. So, when I got a text saying "Service is over, we're on our way out. Stopping by the store real quick for coffee and a couple of things and we'll be right home", I took that at face value.
The menu for the morning was eggs benedict + tomato slices, along with roasted white asparagus. I had everything mostly prepped and ready, so I waited a bit just to make sure things would be ready on time. After what I thought was enough time had passed, I started cooking. Asparagus in the oven, check. English muffins sliced and ready to be toasted, check. Tomatoes sliced, check. Water was on for the poached eggs, and the only other thing to do was the hollandaise sauce.
I waited a bit more, then started making that. We have a double boiler that doesn't get much use, but it's prefect for this. I've made hollandaise once before, and that took me two attempts to get right, so I was trying to be as careful as I could this time. Long story short, I got it done, but then time continued to pass and no Susan or Trina. Of course, the sauce broke, and right at that time, Susan called - to say that they were just then leaving church. The two had gotten sidetracked by conversation and architecture.
I was aggravated, mostly by the poor communication, but held it in, mostly. They eventually got home, right about the time my second crack at the sauce was failing miserably. Poached eggs came out wonderfully, everything else was good, but the sauce refused to work. I gave it a third try and almost immediately got scrambled eggs. I gave up in disgust, and was kind of pissed for a little while. We all ate though, and eventually I ramped up out of my funk.
I'd warned everyone the prior evening that I was going to subject everyone to football (my team was playing on the night game), but that I'd offer salt-and-pepper wings in compensation. Of course, I'd forgotten to get them thawed before, so I had to do a rush job during the course of the day to get them workable. Oh, and they were full wings, not broken down yet. And had feathers still attached in way too many places...yeah, wasn't happy about those either!
I did eventually get about half of them segmented, and started frying. Of course, a storm was rolling into the area, and it was a bad one. The wind and rain picked up enough outside that I was worried that I wouldn't be able to finish, so I cut it short at a half-batch, ensured the kids got food, and finished up the wings. The TV upstairs was on the fritz after a couple of extremely quick power outages, so I went to the downstairs to eat and try to watch the game. By this time, it was already into the 3rd quarter. I got to finish my own wings, and watch a couple of series, but before the end of the third quarter, the power went out completely.
We got the kids taken care of and settled in, then we all traipsed down to our king-size bed downstairs for a cuddle/ talk pile. None of us were worried about the power, thinking it'd be up by morning. Yeeeeah...about that...
Monday dawned with no power. Not only that, no water! We've lost power before, but for whatever reason, our water has never been affected. This loss must have hit us at the wrong time, because it wasn't too long before the kids were complaining about not being able to flush the toilet. I ended up popping the cover from our pool, which had been closed for the winter, and filling up a couple of buckets for flushing use. A check of the power company's website had 5pm for Monday as an early estimate, which didn't take too long to shift to 5pm on Tuesday.
Eventually, Trina and I, both wanting showers, headed towards my base to use the showers at our gym. On our way back, we stopped at the store and snagged a bunch of jugs of water and a couple of non-perishable things for foods. That evening, I used what daylight was left to grill the remainder of the non-prepped wings, along with assorted root veggies. Came out pretty good, and used up what would have gone bad anyways.
The kids were rambunctious for a while, but eventually figured out how to play together with non-technology related toys, so they did alright. I was amazed that by 8pm, all three of the kids went to bed voluntarily. They were bored.
The rest of us had another cuddle pile. Between the three days up to that point, we discussed that rather than straight retiring by 2020 like I'd originally planned, I was putting in my paperwork to see what options I had to change commands. Given the right opportunity, the plan is now to transfer commands and take on some new roles that I haven't had a chance to do yet. Alternately, if I get shitty choices for new jobs, I can still retire. If we moved though, the request would be to move during next spring/ summer, so our older kid at least gets her final three years at one high school, rather than splitting her school directly in half.
Along with that, Susan and I had previously discussed inviting Trina, Toby, and their son to move in with us, and even to buy into whatever property we ended up living in. Complicated, messy, but doable. Neither of were sure at all that they'd accept, but we had several discussions between just the two of us before they came out. Cut to the first three days of their visit, and we discussed, as a group, my intentions and then out of nowhere came "So, want to move in with us if we do move?" I was floored when they almost instantly agreed! No hesitation, no "we need to talk about it before we say one way or the other"...we all did recognize there'd be way more discussion over it. And over the next few days, we did discuss it.
So, with nothing else to do on Monday night, we discussed it some more, and realized that even if we stayed where we are, we have a house big enough to fit everyone. Some relationship stuff got discussed between the four of us, but before too long, we split up for our own beds and sleep.
Tuesday was Halloween, and we weren't sure what we were going to do for trick-or-treating. The entire region was without power, including the neighborhood we drove out to last year. Everyone was also starting to get a little bit of cabin fever, so I found a place about an hour or so away that had a small hands-on science museum for the kids. I used the burner on the grill to make eggs, since they needed to be used up, along with boiled water for instant coffee for Trina and Toby, who both need caffeine. We dressed the kids up in their costumes, along with Susan and Trina in parts of theirs, and took off.
While we were there, Susan found out that the restaurant by our place was doing a "trunk-or-treating" due to the power outage. Good enough for me! We all had a good day out, then rushed back to get the last costume pieces for those dressing up, and take off again. Susan had gotten a call from the power company to say that power should be on by 8am Wednesday. Not great news, but better than some in the area who stayed without power til Friday. We got home, and we already had power! By looking at the stove clock, Susan had actually been called about 20 minutes after our power came on. Works for me! So, without further ado, we took off and had the quickest trick-or-treating of my life...makes a difference when you can complete a parking lot circuit in about fifteen minutes.
We came back home, had pasta, and I started attacking the absolutely massive pile of dishes from the last few days. At some point, Susan reached out to me for some extra reassurance...I thought she was okay afterwards, but it turned out her new medications were about to play absolute havoc with her mind. During our (by now nightly) cuddle pile, Susan ended up getting overwhelmed by everything, and starting leaking from the eyes. Eventually, the other two went up to their bed, and Susan thought it was because they didn't want to be around her being emotional. Really, it was just that everyone was tired as hell...the four of us were awake til after 1am down in the cuddle pile, and then Susan and I stayed up another couple of hours talking through her insecurities and emotions.
Part two coming later...
