weekend

Trude and I went up north- great- I haven't been there in... umm... likely more than 2 years, but that long ago- info has been lost, so I can't be sure.

We saw some special people:
N and little Sasha, 20 mos old with Down's Syndrome- she'll soon be walking, she howls when company leaves and truly is like the sunshine... so's her mom.
V- if all little boys were this sweet, they'd quit making girls! ha!
T&V and their 2 kids- T came up to spend Sun with us as well; they're in their new house and it's... well, it's just perfect. Modern kitchen (that's a big deal, really); indoor toilet and shower/bathtub (ditto the big deal) with a washer (triple ditto the big deal); pantry; little boy's room (doubles as a guest room); computer room/den/family room (whatever you want to call it- will likely eventually be little girl's room as well); mom and dad's room; living room (the pride and joy of the whole house as this is where we have our time together with the family and they love it and so do we; also doubles as 2nd guest room).
There were others too but these were the highlights.

Between stops and before and after (is there a difference? seemed like it to me) were hours of bus riding. People pile on and pile on and on and on till there are more standing in the aisle than seated... and then the ones from the back start having to wiggle down the aisle, over and around 1 body at a time (watch out for purses and elbows that don't always seem to know what is their space and what's your space)- oh yes, they're wiggling cause they need to get off the bus. And let me just say that we had seats the whole way (except maybe 20 min of 1 trip) so we were among the lucky ones; let me also just say that the bus situation is so much improved from even 7 years ago as to hardly be worth mentioning. Still it evokes comments like this one from Trude: I have a valid CA driver's license! Why am I on a BUS?!

Coming back yest to our apt, we dove into the sandwiches that Elaine had made for us (she's a mom through and through, one of the best- I hope to 'introduce' her and Max later)- those sandwiches were for lunch- but at approximately 9.20 am I understood that my sandwich was destined to perish spectacularly and for a worthy (I'm sure) cause long before then... Elaine still holds the honor of being the best sandwich maker I know!

We also memorably forgot about Daylight Savings Time ending (in Europe) this weekend- so, we were up at 5 am 'new time'... not my choice but it did make for a nice LOOOONNNNNGGGG morning...