Lots of food and even more driving...

Well Thanksgiving was fun, as is any day when Michaelene's family gets together in large numbers. There was her grandmother and her 2 sisters, who are as different as 3 sisters can be. One is loud because she's always yelling, one is loud because she is so happy, and one is the quiet voice of reason. There was her brother, who at one point ran out to the garage, .22 in hand, set on killing the mice who'd gotten into his car. There was her two little cousins, 6 and 8, riding her brother around like a horse. There was her mother whose job was to stress out over making everything perfect. There was her father, whose job was to make sure everyone's wine glass was full (as a wise woman once told me, "There's always enough alcohol to make family tolerable.") There were the arguments about which traditions came from which country, accompanied by angry accusations that the Lithuanians stole everything from the Polish anyway. It was like a dinner show, Medieval Times-esque. When everyone finally left around 7 pm, the silence that filled the house was like an auditory massage.
On Friday we went to Michaelene's brother's new house in Hopatcong, NJ. We started the night eating dinner sitting on the floor and using a large trunk as a table. We finished the night eating dessert on a full living room set. In between, a quick trip to Wal-Mart turned into Michaelene's brother talking a furniture salesman into selling him an entire living room set for less than half price. It was really a thing of beauty, the way he haggled. On top of the clearance prices, he talked the guy down another $1000. And as impressive as that was, getting the couch through his door was even more impressive. It was an elaborate combination of tilting, twisting, turning, and shoving that finally got it in, and I'm not sure I could do it again.
Back at the ranch here in PA, we've got just about everything boxed up and ready to go. I can't even believe the amount of crap we've accumulated in just over a year. I'd have to say the highlight of our packing was when we took apart the dining room table. Being as unmechanically-inclined as we are...we decided it was best to take the legs off with the table standing up, instead of upside down. So Michaelene unscrewed them as I held the top of the table up in the air. How could we be so stupid, you ask? Who knows. It just goes to show that 5 years and $150,000 worth of college education can't buy common sense.
Ok, one more random piece of information. I just heard on the radio that David Lee Roth is training to become a paramedic. That's the most disturbing thing I've heard in a long time. And on that note...