What? Some families have quiet meals together that were planned in advance? That's so weird.

I thought I was headed home yesterday to hang out with the dogs, make dinner for the Pretend Husband and hang out until we went to bed. That was, until I got a phone call from my dad while on my commute home. One thing led to another, which led to another, which led to me picking up the dogs and deciding to go visit my brother and his house, neither of whom I've seen in awhile.

My brother was a bit weirded out when I called to say I was on my way over and was convinced I was going over to break some bad news to him in person or something. But really, I wanted to see his house before his kitchen gets remodeled today and I thought it would be nice to drop by on him, like he sometimes does to us. And so, lil bro said I could come, but added, "Bring food." (I wasn't offended because I know where his priorities lie. I also wasn't going to bring him anything because I was already on my way and there are no stores between our houses).

Then my dad got involved again and offered to bring over a pizza and wings to lil bro's house if the PH agreed to meet us there. I would get to see lil bro's house, the dogs could all play together, my brother would get his food and we could catch up. It sounded like a good idea-- until lil bro pointed out the fact that his kitchen is undergoing a renovation so he had no table, no way of washing plates after we used them and nothing for anyone to drink.

After a flurry of phone calls, we got the PH rerouted to my dad's house, had my brother agree to pick up the food my dad had ordered and we all made our way to my dad's house since it was the closest place with both chairs to sit on and plates that could be washed after we used them.

A few minutes after the PH and I arrived at my dad's house, my brother came strolling in-- with three pizzas and two containers of buffalo wings. We all looked at my dad like he was crazy as lil bro said, "Why'd you order so much food?"

We're still not completely sure what happened, but we pieced together that my dad had a few drinks in him when he called the restaurant, the man taking the order didn't understand English well and my dad had started the conversation off with "I need three items" (which may have gotten translated to "three pizzas"). The four of us did our best to eat two large pizzas, one medium and 24 buffalo wings while mocking my dad mercilessly about how he managed to order $66 worth of food for four people.

Not quite the quiet night I imagined but, then again, whenever my family gets involved, it's rarely the experience I think it's going to be anyway. I'm just glad I wasn't the one who agreed to pick up the pizzas and got stuck with the big bill.