2010-04-26

Last Weekend

I realize that I've kind of left you hanging about Cora & Gwen's LAST visit last weekend.  Sorry about that.  It was really a wonderful weekend.  Aside from the trip to the Art Institute (LINK) there wasn't any real "Big Ticket" kind of event.  Nothing touristy.  Just everyday sort of life things.

And it was MAGIC!


Friday: We woke up and headed out.  But not that far.  Just down to the corner.  On the corner right outside my building is a crossing guard.  I wanted Cora and Gwen to meet her, and help fuel the excitement for the school that we would be visiting later.

While not distracting her from her job, we spent about 45 minutes talking with her.  Getting great intel on the school and the neighborhood.  And then we also had a "small world" moment while talking about a all-girl's Catholic school here in town.  While I don't know a lot of high school's in the city, I do know this one.  Turns out, she was a classmate of "The Blonde", my friend from college, who we were going to visit the next day.

The school tour went very well.  Cora and Gwen loved it.  I liked it, too.  It's a smallish school.  Not intimidatingly.  It's a classic three story brick building.  Nice and compact.  But it's also right in the middle of a "green" retrofit, and is a really neat place, with a huge community garden and play lot.

The evening was spent on snuggled up on the sofa making a "Cora sandwich" while watching more Harry Potter.  These are good movies.  Why didn't someone tell me before this?


Saturday: Gwen took the lead in making crepe's for breakfast.  We filled them with cream cheese and bananas, or blueberries, or chocolate pudding, or yogurts.  And more Potter.

Midday – We headed out to the suburbs.  A slow crawl in Saturday afternoon traffic to visit "The Blonde" and her family.  They have 4 kids, and her oldest daughter is Gwen's age (MG), and they have similar interests.  But before we go, we have one stop to make.

Crate & Barrel looking for wine glasses for our first wedding toast.

Flutes Gwen was a little nervous in there.  Not anything to do with the wedding, but she was feeling a little clumsy, and there was just all that glass stacked around.  (Truth be told, I use my super powers to shrink about 10% when I enter too, to avoid the "bull in the china shop" thing.)  And we found exactly what we were looking for in the "Verve Flute" (see left).

After the quick stop and success, made it out to our friends'.

Good food.  Good conversation.  A little drama (MG had an accident on a a rip board. A couple of raspberries, nothing serious), and then watching "The Blindside" in their home theater.  Well, trying to watch "The Blindside", but there was a scratch on the disk, so we resorted to Nerf dart / foam disk battles and watching movie snippets.


Sunday: Rats.  This got here WAY to quick.  As we all moped about, saddened by the fact that the family was going to be split up for a while.  But not too long.  And not for much longer.

We loaded up the car and headed for a lunch visit with my parents.  This was Gwen's first time to meet them, but thought it was important that it happened before the wedding.  Despite the fact that we were about an hour late, the meeting went well, but soon, I had to get the girls to the airport.

:-(  Lots of group hugs, a couple embarrassing (for Gwen) smooches and then they disappeared thru security.

And I went home to a condo that suddenly felt very, very quiet and empty, and moped about for a few hours.

Until I got the quick email from Cora.  Which led to a phone call.  :-)


4 comments:

mo.stoneskin said...

'While not distracting her from her job'

I hope you were able to demonstrate that with a fair test.

I.e., monitor the crossing guard's performance without you distracting her, then monitor her performance with you distracting her.

Cora said...

*sigh*

It really was magic, wasn't it? And that had NOTHING to do with Harry Potter.

SkylersDad said...

Those are some very cool looking glasses.

J.J. in L.A. said...

I feel for Gwen, I hated smooches when I was a kid. But I'm assuming your mom still has her teeth...my grandma didn't. lol!