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Friday, March 22, 2013

Take a Trip with Us

Much anticipated trip across the US...2000 miles to Portland, Oregon to see our little Full Moon Maiden Baby Zee 10 days ago.  Wonderful trip...great flights, great weather for this time of year there and nothing to do except to relax and gaze at 2 week old Zee.
As the grandmother and grandfather, we are expected to help the mommy... to make things calm and comforting.  PARTS of some days were calm....hmumph....I'll explain..
On the first night, Grampi KennyRogersLookAlikeBeforeThePlasticSurgeryWentWrong decided to get a midnight drink of water from the fridge, so he came out of the bathroom and CRASH.. forgot there was a step down...and of course just about went down but caught himself on an armoire in the hallway.  He made it downstairs while the mommy and daddy and Zee and I were upstairs sleeping...well, I was...I don't think the mommy and daddy and Zee ever slept. I had just turned over and ...CRASH!!!!  It was another awful sound.  I thought Kennyblahblah, had fallen over the coffee table.  The Daddy, being tall and a speed skater moved down the stairs at lightning speed..could have won a blue ribbon for that ....and found that the shelf in the fridge door fell out and contents went everywhere.  Kennyblahblah was found alright though a little startled...well, a lot startled, actually.  Ok, got that mess cleaned up and we went back to sleep and mommy and daddy and Zee continued to do what they do at night...hold baby Zee while she nurses and change diapers.
The next evening it was my job to prepare the supper...two red pepper and feta quiches..ok easy enough,  I can do that...well, doubling the recipe isn't the easiest thing for me to do and I was trying really hard to follow the recipe spot on..too runny and I should have made three but I didn't and I put them on a cookie sheet and of course when the cookie sheet gets warm it flips up on one side and out spilled some egg mixture..ew...that burns and it doesn't smell good so I opened the oven up and decided to try to remove the quiches to another cookie sheet...well, that wasn't the easiest thing to maneuver but I did it ....thick smoke went everywhere then the smoke alarm started going and lo and behold, Daddy had just arrived home from work and skated into the kitchen with an alarmed face and flipped on the range fan and swiftly glided to the smoke alarm button to stop the piercing sound and Baby Zee just nurses along.  After all that we had to cook them longer....I should have just made them like I do at home....SOOO, I caused the catastrophe that evening.
Next evening, Daddy decided to throw the old flowers out that he had gotten mommy and was carrying the big beautiful fish bowl of a vase across the room and must have tripped or something.   I was upstairs again and Baby Zee was eating again.... another big  CRASH!  I prayed...please God don't let it be Grampi Kennyblahblah again! We spent the next hour cleaning up water and glass while Daddy was dispatched to get some Mediterraean food. So Daddy was responsible for that catastrophe that night.
Next couple of days went fairly calmly...only burned the toast a couple of mornings setting off that darn smoke alarm.  I got used to the burn taste.
Night before we left we were having yummy tea in the baby's room before retiring for the night and thinking how calm things have been.  Don't ever think a thought because it can bite you in the butt.  Kennyblahblah went down the stairs to take his cup and lo and behold....another big CRASH!  He missed the bottom step and twirled around and caught...mind you, caught! a big bell jar terrarium in his arms...he went down, but the bell jar didn't!  The Bell Jar was sitting in a window niche on the left side of the stair case.  How in the world did he twirl around enough to get his arm up there and grasp that terrarium??  Daddy helped him up and we put him to bed!
Our last morning...I got up and dressed and took the sheets off the bed and put them in the washer.  Went back upstairs and noticed the toilet seemed like it was going to overflow..nope..thank goodness..it went down.  Mommy and Zee came down for breakfast and we chatted and I went back down to the basement to dry the sheets.  Hmmmmm, I don't remember seeing water all over the floor when I came down here about a half an hour ago...Could somebody come down here?  Mommy and Kennyblahblah came down.  Oh my.  Phone call to Daddy at work.  Daddy had to come home a couple hours earlier than  he was going to that morning.  He went to work early so he could come back home and take us to the airport by 1pm.  So Daddy stayed home and had the City come out to verify nothing was wrong with the water main at the street.  They said he needed a sewer scoper.  Well, we didn't have time to hang around for the sewer scoper.  The scoper had to be arranged for another day.  Kennyblahblah and Daddy sopped up the water and dried the sheets.
The DREADED GOODBYE went much smoother than I had anticipated.  I had anticipated a big cryin' jag with a fall to my knees and a crawl to the car...but because Zee was crying and ready to eat..it made it much easier on all of us.  We quickly ran out the door as it started hailing on us and we drove to the airport in the rain.
All was calm in the airplane ..our tickets came with a free new release movie and the airline attendant came by and swiped her complimentary credit card so we could watch.  With the roar of the engine I couldn't hear what she said and I goofed it up and disengaged the movie.  She had to come back to our row and help us two times till we could understand how to use the buttons on the armrest.  She gave me the evil eye with the eyebrow raised.   Midway through enjoying the movie,  I decided to recline my seat.  I kept pushing on the button but nothing was happening.  I glanced over at the man seated next to me and wondered why in the world is he rocking in his seat?  Is he going to get catatonic on me?   He grumpily said..'you are repeatedly reclining MY seat."       Owhhhh.
So here we are back home and missing our family and wondering if they are missing all our mishaps.  Daddy's parents came from The Netherlands the day after we left.  They will probably restore the calm although, Daddy's mother broke her right wrist  the week before their flight to America and has a cast up past the elbow....we'll see what the next chapter brings.