Amusing things from this weekend...

Did you know that they make kosher pez?

No. Really. I'm dead serious. Kosher pez. While I'm all for being strict about religious conviction and eating according to your faith, I just can't see how the Rabbi would justify blessing pez candy. It just seems so... frivolous. And it's giving me very strange images of the Rabbi blessing a pile of pez candy on the altar.

Heh.

Anyway. I discovered this weekend that there is, in fact, kosher pez. And where do you find it? At the Pez museum, of course! Conveniently located in downtown Easton, Pennsylvania-- right next to the Crayola museum.

Sadly, we did not have time to go into the Pez museum, as we were decked out and on the way to my grandpa's party. But next time we're at my mom's, the Pez museum calls. And we're bringing back kosher pez for all of our friends so they can be good during Purim and Passover.

Anyway... the weekend went great. The only bad thing was that the drive killed me, intensified by attempting to sleep in a double-sized bed with Erich (when we're used to sleeping on a king). Poor Erich had to drive home by himself because I just was not awake enough to drive safely.

Photos will come soon-- my battery has run out on my digital camera, but the charger was left in the hotel room by accident at Arisia (and not realized until weeks later)-- so we need to get another one.

Grandpa's birthday party was a great success. It was held in a former bank in Easton, which apparently had been a jewelry store for a while before it sat empty for many years. It's a very big old building with lots of detail on the ceiling, a fantastic balcony, and plenty of space for function renting. It's one of the possible places for our reception, should it wind up being in Pennsylvania.

About seventy people were there-- all of the grandkids and kids, plus many friends of the family (young and old). My granfather said that he sensed something was up when he was driving downtown, but he was quite surprised and flattered-- he had tears on his face when we all started singing to him. (he's so cute). The native Polish speakers then immediately started singing "Sto Lat," which is a simple song sung for birthdays (although I've heard it over the years for other happy celebrations in our family, too-- it's a cheer wishing a hundred years of blessings on the individual). They even raised my grandfather in "The Chair" singing it later in the evening. Thankfully, though, they didn't throw the chair up in the air as they had years ago at Katie's baptism.

It was a great evening. Erich and I did some slow dancing, and I felt VERY accomplished to get him on the floor for one of the few polka songs, although he was confused as hell as to what he was doing (this will be a mission for me-- because he'll have to learn it for any family wedding celebration given that he's adding Polish culture into his family now!) It had been a while since I'd done a polka, though-- and I was dizzy very quickly.

One of the cutest moments was seeing my three year old cousin, Clarissa, trying to catch light from the disco ball on the dance floor like a kitten. She's so adorable-- a head full of blonde curls, always smiling, and completely fearless. She's the life of the party. When she's a teenager, she'll be the one they have to watch out for!

After the party, we went home and rested for a few minutes. Mom headed to bed, and we decided to jump out and get our Holy Experience at the Grocery Store taken care of because we never have time for it the morning we leave. Wegmans IS the religious experience shopping store. Just the prepared foods section... They seriously need to come to Massachusetts! We bought three different cheeses, two wonderful breads (pepperoni and cheese bread!!!), birch beer, and a few knick knack things.

On Sunday morning, Mom helped me get some of my stitching stuff squared away. She has a serger sewing machine and edged every piece of fabric in my stash for me, including my WIPs that were taped on the edges in old Quaker sewing style. I hated the tape-- I really did. If any of it peeled back, it stuck to everything. Ick, ick. Having a clean stitch around the edges will be SO much better.

Then everyone came over for brunch (ham and pasta salad). It's pure chaos when everyone comes over, but it's nice to see everyone.

A couple hours in, Erich and I left. The reports of heavy snow coming to New England made us hurry to get home-- while we don't mind the snow, driving in it for hours in the dark was unappealing. We decided to try to stay ahead of the storm by driving I-95, rather than going up I-87 through the Catskills. The only problem that worried me about I-95 was that it took us directly into New York City, going over the George Washington Bridge and through the disaster that is the Cross Bronx Expressway.

Miracle of miracles, the traffic was NOT bad at all. Sure, it was tied up in the Bronx-- there's just no way to avoid that. But there was no line to speak of going to the GW. And it was heavy traffic in lower Connecticut, but it was moving at full speed the entire way. We saved two hours off the NORMAL drive down there by taking I-95 the entire way home. It took 5 1/2 hours. We were home at the respectable time of 7:30 p.m.

Not too bad. :)

It's taken me the last couple nights to feel caught up on sleep, though. Two nights of scrunching with Erich as I try to curl my fat ass up is just a bit too difficult. Next time we're at Mom's and Scott's there? I'll go camp out downstairs with the doggie on the couch. We might get more sleep that way!