nothing like a weekend with friends and family for stories for the blog

some highlights:

- e may be better at pilates than me. else, he's a fantastic motivator. as i pulled myself into the jackknife position, he proceeded to slap my elevated bottom, as if to say, "you've got a long way to go, auntie sj. keep it up! i expect you to carry me all around disney and give a piggy back ride to goofy!" (we're headed to disneyworld as a *family* including anonymous and her husband sometime soon -- ray, you may expect me *nightly* at jellyrolls).

- e did not inherit his musical talents from our mother. or, well, maybe he did. but really, it seems e may have a better sense of rhythm than our mother. but then, her rhythm may have been affected by the highball glass of wine anonymous gave her when she first walked in -- which i find ironic, because my musicality gets way better once i've had a few glasses of wine. after a half bottle of pinot noir, i'm barbra freakin' streisand. one thing's for sure -- mom was probably asleep by the time dad pulled in the driveway. and e was probably up way past 10.

- happy birthday, anonymous! my sis turned.. um.. 30-something yesterday, but still doesn't look (4,5,6 or 7- take a guess) years older than me. which is great news for her, but bad news for me and my 235 look-alikes on blogger. j and i went to cabela's and found her a worthy reel for the great fishing derby of 2008 (when our family vacations in upstate vermont in a beautiful cabin in the middle of nowhere on a lake, and about 40 minutes from montreal.) my oldest sis and i have had our share of giggles and squabbles over the years, but i'm particularly happy that we have grown closer over the past 5 years or so. the fact that we could make a sitcom out of our family is made a little easier knowing that my sister and i would absolutely be able to commiserate at the end of every episode.

- saturday night we went to dinner with KAT and the PH (just like old times! except that it was at 5 p.m.... but still similar to the old days when we'd stay up till 2 playing cards).

we went to one of our favorite connecticut restaurants that sits in the middle of the state in the same town where i happened to spend my childhood at 4-H camp. (which has *nothing* to do with this story, but how often have i mentioned that i went to 4-H camp growing up, eh?)

first, KAT and I may have gotten off to a bad start with the hostess when she asked us if we wanted to hang our coats in the coatroom downstairs ("No, thanks.") She pressed on to tell us "but it's really warm in there. there's a fireplace, so it gets toasty." Still, we preferred to keep our coats *with* us, but had no intention of keeping them on. but apparently to this girl, it's a one way street. either let us take your coats or you wear them. no taking it off at the table! this probably wouldn't have been an odd exchange for anyone else but the two of us, i realize.

second, j ordered a salad for dinner -- with no tomatoes and no onions. which we thought was fine. good for him, being healthy and all. and the rest of us ordered various entrees, that apparently, come with a small salad. so imagine our surprise when the waitress came back to the table to find out if he didn't want tomatoes and onions on his dinner salad - "I kind of picked up that you didn't like them..." she said. Really? What gave that away -- the fact that he ordered a salad without them? even more odd- was he going to get a warm up salad to his dinner salad?

he very nearly did, although KAT had to ask for hers. the moral of the story for KAT: you need to build your upper body. that waitress had eyes for j.

oh - and one more thing. how do you think we could best recreate the dessert KAT nad I shared: a fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich (or as i like to call it: 58 extra minutes of folding myself in ungodly directions)?