Back to the Grind

Well, we survived a week at the beach with the family.  We're all a little browner and a little decent amount fatter.  There was a lot of eating, a lot of drinking, and a lot of game playing.  Turns out that there are people on this earth that are more competitive than I am, and those people happen to be my brother Mike, my sister Martha, and my sister's husband, who is appropriately nicknamed "The Ronimal".  Luckily the only injuries were bruised (destroyed) egos, and a few morning headaches.  Could have been worse.

There are a lot of things about these whack jobs I call my family that people should know.  I think I'll share a few of the most interesting ones....

The players: Myself (not a whack job), my husband Andrew, my parents (Dr. Frank and Jan), my sister Martha (her nickname is "Ugly"), her husband "The Ronimal", my brother Mike, and his wife Melissa. 

Fact #1: There are a lot of card games out there that require bidding, strategy, and then some dumb luck.  If you want to play any of these games with any combination of the cast of characters above, you can expect that, even if you win, you will be interrogated, scoffed at, and downright ridiculed for any move you make.  Because, after all, the best people to take advice from is the people who lost, right?  The most common phrases I remember from the week are, "well...I would've played it better if I were you", "why did you do THAT!?!?", "that sure was a lucky break since you didn't KNOW the Ace wasn't out there", and "who leads with the Jack of Trump!?!?"

Fact #2: If you make a mistake, do something ditsy, or commit any sort of real or perceived faux-paus, my family will never, ever let you forget it.  You will be mocked for life, often publicly, so you should just go ahead and get used to it.  Even if your last "incident" occurred when you were 8.  They'll remember it, and tell you what a moronic 8-year-old you were.  A week with the fam is a sure-fire way to get your ego in check.

Fact #3: If you are on vacation, anything goes.  Popsicles for breakfast, beer at 10:30 AM, cocktails at lunch, multiple naps on the same day, third helpings of dinner if its especially good, and going entire days without ingesting vegetables.  All good in our book.

Fact #4: Beach air makes normally voluminous hair bigger than what one would think is humanly possible.  I can't think of a better example than the man we call The Ronimal.  I wish I had pictures.

Fact #5: Boccie Ball is the dumbest game ever invented.  And NO, that is not because I am terrible and didn't score a single point the entire week.  Not entirely, at least.


I think I'm done with fun facts for now.  I wouldn't want to embarrass myself my family and more than is necessary.  It was a wonderful week and everyone had a blast.  I feel lucky that a week with my family is a pleasure, filled with laughter and awesome memories.  A lot of people don't have that, so I am very thankful for that.  I love those crazy whack jobs, I really do.

I don't have a lot of recipes to share, but rather just some photos.  Hope you enjoy, and I'll be back in the cooking blog saddle tomorrow!