Queen weekend Part 1 – Family matters

Friday night, Jill made soup, and we rushed around like banshees cleaning and packing. I misplaced my Brian May t-shirt, and spent at least 30 minutes looking for it. We watched Threshold and Bill Maher, but didn’t get any other time to attack our backlog of TV. Jill noticed a little after 11 Illa hadn’t gone out since 5:30, and I was getting ready to take him out when I noticed a suspicious spot on the dining room floor. Sure enough, he’d gone without every letting us know he needed to go. Not sure if it was us rushing around or something else.

Saturday we got up and going. I made breakfast, cleaned up and printed boarding passes while Jill took Illa to club vet and got some coffee. We got to Dulles right on schedule, got to our gate with plenty of time to sit back and read. The flight on Independence was fine, and we were in Newark right on time. We got the rental car from National (would have used Enterprise, but all the rentals were expensive in New York, so I used Priceline), and got on the road. After a couple mixups (AAA wanted to send us through downtown Newark and there was traffic on 280 and unclear directions after we got off), we got to the retirement community where my grandmother lives (technically step-grandmother, but my mom’s mother passed away before I was born). My uncle and aunt were waiting there, and we went in to see her. Nice apartment, pretty sizeable, and I took some pictures of the group. Soon my cousins with wives and children in tow arrived, then we went out to dinner at Frank’s Trattoria, where we split some NY style pizza (though Jill opted for a calzone). Afterwards we followed my uncle and aunt back to their place and hung out for a while, then went to my older cousin’s house for coffee and dessert. A little more chatting back at my aunt and uncle’s, and we were ready for bed.

Sunday Jill slept in past 11 as she’d had a tough time getting to sleep. I talked with my aunt over tea, then Jill got up and had breakfast with us shortly before my uncle got back from church. It was good to see them, hadn’t seen any of them since our wedding, but 1PM was time to go…