And they'll continue singing it forever just because...

I'm torn between cool witticisms and decidedly uncool excited flailing of arms. It's a bit more pressure to write here when people seem to be reading what I write. I mean, I already felt a significant amount of pressure after acquiring my first reader (Hi Jenny!). I think the solution to my anxiety is to turn around, face the wall, and pretend you all don't exist.

Hello wall. You're a pretty, pretty wall.

After Thursday's UTI onset, I started taking antibiotics immediately. The 7.5 hour drive to Cape May, NJ was more bearable, but we still stopped fairly often... by fairly I mean every chance we got. I think I have now left my mark in every service station on the turnpike from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia.

All in all, our stay was relaxing and nice. The antibiotics I was on prevented me from being able to drink any deliciously relaxing cocktails, but I just substituted that with salt water taffy and extra crab cakes.

My mom's birthday is August 6th, and my dad's birthday is September 9th so we usually bring birthday gifts with us to this vacation. However, my parents don't want for much and hence are difficult to shop for. Despite all odds, this time I struck gold. Months early, I placed an order for a Miracle Berry plant and some Miracle Berry tablets. Ever heard of Miracle fruit? It's going through a news cycle renaissance, everybody wants to talk about them so excuse me for a moment if you already know what they are and what they do. They grow on bushes that actually make great indoor plants. They originate from Africa where natives use them to help eat the bitter greens that grow in the area. The fruit is about the size of a grape and you only need to eat one. It numbs all your bitter and sour taste buds. It really works. Each plant produces 150-200 berries in one season (summer). My parents' new plant will start producing next year.

Surprisingly, to me at least, they were NOT excited about trying these taste tripping tablets (Freeze dried, compressed form of the berries with a longer shelf-life). The more I push with them, the less they go along with whatever I'm pushing for, so I didn't know what to do. What I forgot is that my husband is basically the golden boy. He can do no wrong. So when he got up, in the middle of a card game, to start slicing and dicing lemons, limes and grapefruit, they didn't get upset with him or become resistant. He brought the odd food to the table, and everyone allowed a tablet to dissolve on their tongue while maintaining cool boredom and concentrating on the game. That facade quickly disappeared after people took one tentative bite of a lemon or a lime and found them to be sweet and delicious.

This may not sound surprising to you but eating a pickle, a lemon, a lime, 2 key limes, a quarter of a grapefruit, a handful of salt and vinegar chips, sour patch kids and some cranberry juice can result in a mild stomach ache. And by mild, I mean stomach churning, acid burning, something is alive in there, get me the shotgun it's about to burst through, ache.

Regardless - it was a big hit and for the rest of the night my mom filled any silence with a random stream of, "I wonder how water would taste....", or "I wonder how chocolate would taste...". The numbing of the tablet wears off after 30 minutes (the fresh fruit is supposedly more potent) so she'll just have to try it again some time and make sure to keep that plant alive.

It was definitely a nice vacation. Come Monday morning, I was ready to go home.

We got on the road at around 10:30 a.m. and headed towards Lancaster to stop at PA Fabric Warehouse on the way. I love that place.

On our way we paid for someone else's toll. Have you ever done that? It's a euphoric feeling. You get to one of those fixed amount tolls (in this case, $2) and tell the nice toll person that you're ALSO paying for the car behind you and would they please convey the message to have a nice day? And then you speed away off into the sunset, giggling madly and feeling like a charitable bandit.

Unfortunately, the good-will-towards-men feeling wore off an hour into some standstill traffic. We ended up making it back to Pittsburgh by 7:00 p.m. - not bad for having also stopped at the Fabric warehouse.

This week will move at a brisk pace - as evidenced by the fact that it is already Wednesday afternoon and I have no recollection of the last 36 hours actually passing. On Friday we will be invaded by 10 of my in-laws. They are coming to tear down our existing (admittedly poorly constructed, ugly, tiny, useless) deck, and intend to put up a new one. I'm not sure when they're all arriving. I'm not sure where they're all staying. We don't have lumber yet. The house isn't clean. We have sour patch kids and a few extra lemons from our vacation - there is no other food. I don't know how I'm going to keep the lady-folk entertained, nothing is child proofed.

I have an overwhelming urge to plop onto a comfortable couch, stick my fingers in my ears and sing the lambchop song over and over again till this weekend is done.

At least I'll be able to drink.


***In other news I have set a goal that in 2 weeks - tentatively 14 days - that's 8/20/2008 baby - I'll be opening up an etsy store! There will be at least 10% off on everything for the first 3 days!!!! Head on over to my flickr account and give me a heads up if there's a particular product/craft I make that you think would sell well! If I feel the love, I will plan a give-away just for you very speschul people!***