A, driving, sisters, champagne, food, water, music, and some gardening: A really long post

This weekend , which was thankfully a long weekend, was largely dedicated to my friend A and her upcoming wedding to J in Colorado. A traveled to her sister's house in New Jersey, as did her family. J and I drove in on Saturday morning. We left Boston at just after 7am and arrived there a bit after 1pm.
Once there we were at the pre-shower portion of the day. The party was being held at A's sister L's house, which is a converted church. It rocked pretty hard, and there was a church bell, which I was allowed to ring. We dallied for a bit around the house, smothering A with kisses and chilling with A, L and C (another sister and co-hostess) until it was time to check into the ickiest hotel ever, the Econolodge in Bordentown.
Oh hell people. This Econolodge smelled of Play-Doh in the halls, smoke in the rooms, and I'm pretty sure someone had been murdered in the shower. When parking on the side of the building, J said:
"Um, maybe we should park on the side of the building with cars. And lights. That isn't bordered by an overgrown vacant lot."
To which I replied:
"You mean you don't want to park in the rape spot? I can't imagine why not..."

Anyway, after changing into pretty pretty dresses, C came and picked us up (so that L's husband could drive us back at the end of the revelry and debauchery - it was all very well thought out...).
We arrived to find everyone else there, two of A's other friends, her mother, and all three sisters in attendance. The estrogen: it was strong with us.
We drank champagne almost immediately, toasted A, told stories, watched her unwrap presents, and heard more stories. A's sister A (hmmm this initial thing could get confusing) played a song for A on her guitar, to which we all danced (as it was a song with instructions about how to dance: on tippy toes, turning, with arms out-stretched, TOGETHER).
Once we could no longer last another minute without food (just kidding, we had plenty of appetizers), L's husband brought the dinner and we chowed enthusiastically. We then retired to the outside so we could play some games and laugh and drink coffee in the sunset.
While the bugs were considering dining on us, we made the decision to go to the beach and dip our toes in the water, which we did and it was glorious. And we were tired. Back to the house for laying ourselves on various bits of furniture!
C, who worked for a well-known food store whose name rhymes with Mole Dudes, was so kind as to bring us some free samples of beauty/body products, and we delightedly picked and chose.
We listened and sang along to C's ukulele and I may have nodded off just a little bit.
Once in the hotel we thankfully ignored the Play Doh, smoke, and murder-shower in favor of sleep. Well, as much sleep as you can get in the Bordentown Econolodge*.

Sunday morning (did I mention how great it was that this was a long weekend?) J and I got up, checked out, and went back to L's house to scoop A and head to a tiny town diner near by. J and I both had a breakfast called "the sampler", so named for its sampling of pork products:
Bacon (a generous three strips!)
Pork roll (kind of like Canadian bacon, only slightly more processed)
Pork sausage
(plus some eggs, toast, potatoes and large coffees).
If you're ever in Allentown, NJ and find yourselves near Woody's, I can highly recommend the food and service.
Our bellies full of caffeine and salty pork products, we reconvened at L's house to rest before leaving and driving the six-ish hours back home.

But first: I left out a detail of the previous evening. L had mentioned that she and her wonderful husband would likely be moving to a smaller place where they couldn't bring their beloved coffee-table/giant drum. Emboldened by much champagne, I claimed it. So, we had to load it into the car. First, though, it seemed crazy not to play it a bit...

Here's me, carrying the drum in order to show you the scale. It's not small.
Yes, those are mallets in my pants. And I am happy to see you.

Here are, from left to right: my knee, A's sister C, my traveling companion J, the lovely A, and her mom.
Next, I wanted a solo. I believe here I am screaming: "ANIMAL!!!!"
All-chick drum circle. They're really concentrating...
A's mom joins in!
It was a beautiful wedding shower/bachelorette party/brunch/sing-along/drum circle. Let me tell you, A's family knows how to show you a good time.

Sunday night was lazy and Monday was largely the same. The Man and I were supposed to go to a BBQ, but skipped it in favor of getting many things done. We worked a bit on his garden, of which he is very proud.
From left to right: radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers, marigolds, green beans.

And here's the Man being all green-thumby. He's stapling on his new anti-pest fence to combat the annoying, veggie-eating skunk he encountered a few days ago. There was some talk of electrifying the fence, but that did not come to pass.
He thinks these shorts are too short so he calls them his "Tom Selleck shorts". Oh baby, you're finer than Magnum PI any day!

I can only hope that you all enjoyed your weekend as much as I did!


*cue terrifying slaughter-scene horror movie music!

EDITED TO ADD: Though yesterday was lazy, early this morning was NOT. Around 4:30am, my Man and I were sleeping (at his house) until he cuddled up next to me and swung his leg over me. This would have been delightful, except he put pressure on my apparently quite full bladder and I woke right up. I heard what I at first thought must be someone dragging their trash out to the curb. Except it wasn't; it was lots of thunder. And all of my apartment windows were open. D'oh!! I looked outside to confirm the weather (it was pouring), kissed my man goodbye, got dressed and hurried home to find hungry cats and damp window sills. Luckily there was no damage or puddles. I fed the kitties and jumped in bed for another hour and a half.
Note to self: Invent remote control windows!