Monday, June 19, 2006

Pater & Mater Familias

What a lovely weekend. The flight out to D-town on Thursday night was fine, and jumping back in to the talky-foody family life was great. Friday we drove way out to Manistee, MI to commune with Lake Michigan and each other. Friends of the family loaned us their very nice cabin (for free - HOLLA!), and their sandy beach was quite nice. The stairs down the bluff were terrifyingly steep, but the water was cold and clear. I kayaked for quite a while with Hubster, shared some great conversations with aunts, uncles, and cousins, started reading this book (which, pretty good, even post Tolkein), and ate WAY TOO MUCH GOOD FOOD. One of my uncles went to chef school, and the family is littered with untrained-but-not-untalented cooks, so meal times were the best. Grandpa and Grandma, whose 50th Wedding Anniversary was the occasion for the shindig, told some tales of their lives as well as those of our ancestors, and it was great. My grandmother's story of being told by HER alcoholic grandmother to tapdance on the bar in a local waterhole many an afternoon brought much mirth. Our conservative grandmother. Hee.

The setting was be-ee-a-U-tiful. I have some pics I'll share next week when I'm working off the home system. The lake and trees were lovely subjects. I think I got some good shots of the peeps, too. I'll have to see them I can rip them off my camara and get them up to full size. My tiny screen is NOT doing them justice.

I'm still in Michigan for the rest of this week, though Hubster will have to head home soon for work obligations. I've set up some times to hang with friends, and it's nice to have more than just a day here for that sort thing. Today, the pastor's wife from my parents' church (still consider it a home church sometimes) took me out for Thai and some Royal Oak shopping (the tagline on that website is "A Trendy Tradition" and I have to say, that's so senseless it makes me giggle). She's a wise and witty woman, so we had a fantastic time catching up and goofing off. She also gave me a gift (so sweet!) some mango body lotion and such and a book, A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, which I'm excited to start. The icing on the cake was her handwritten note and the fact that she noted her birthday in the book. Too awesome for words.

Tonight, Dadio shall take his place before the barbeque and the fam shall feast. Again. WOO, VACATION!

3 comments:

Justin said...

Ugh, Michigan. I'm not missing it.

Trey said...

we studied Dietrich Bonhoeffer briefly in highschool. The only thing anyone took away from the experience was a bunch of stupid kids giggling during the movie because he was naked when led to his execution.

Plankiest said...

That book? That you are reading?

The author was a child when he wrote it (late teens I think). And he was HOMESCHOOLED!

I so so so badly want to contact him and ask him if he used our stuff. And if he has younger brothers and sisters at home who could possibly need more of our stuff. And we could give it to him, in exchange for an autographed copy of the third book in the series. That would be cool.

And, they are making his books into a movie. Wow.