Maybe it's not so bad...

This morning we returned the rental car--thanks Kathryn, that was a GREAT idea. Do you really want a recap of the weekend? Oh, all right.

On Saturday, we picked up the car and went off to Lancaster. We went to the Amish Farm and House. When we pulled into the Target parking lot, I thought this was going to be the worst tourist trap ever, but we learned a lot of interesting stuff about the AIM-ish as FIL and GF are calling them. Thought GF, judgmental as she is, finds the AIM-ish's changing lifestyle and renegotiation of the world around them to be...hypocritical. Yes, that's the word I often think of when I think of the Amish. We planned to go to the Central Market for lunch but it was 1/2 hour from closing by the time we got there, so we ate at a nearby restaurant which everyone seemed to enjoy. Then we went to Wheatland, home of Pennsylvania's only president, our only bachelor president, James Buchanan. (DD, I am so sorry your tour of Lancaster was so crappy, esp, since you love presidential-alia.) Then we drove around in the fading sunset looking at Amish farms before going to Good 'N Plenty for three helpings of buttered noodles dinner. Oh, but first, after lunch, we had to pull over to McDonalds so FIL could fight his IBS. While we were waiting, the GF starts talking about FIL's heart condition. She turns to the dude, the kindest most concerned person in the world, and says, "Were you at all concerned when your father [found out about his heart condition]?" I almost lept across the table and slapped some sense into her. What a malicious thing to say! She was on a roll, though, because at dinner she asked me, "How do you justify that [third helping of buttered noodles] on Weight Watchers?" I just said, "I don't" and then watched her eat two pieces of shoo-fly pie, two helpings of tapioca pudding, and a small scoop of ice cream. What is her problem?

On Sunday, I hightailed it over to Joann's because they had flannel on sale for $2/yard, and I picked out some cute stuff to make a rag quilt for my niece (photo at a later date). On the way out the door I told the dude he should have a plan to leave when I arrived. We shepherded everyone in the car to go to Valley Forge and we were trying to decide how to fit lunch in. There's nowhere to eat near VF, and we couldn't eat first because they had just finished breakfast (11:00). So the dude decides we should go to the Brandywine River Museum, even after I said I didn't want to go back there--it's a really small museum, and I've been there 5 times in the past two years. Six. But I did forgive him for two reasons. First, 90 year old Andrew Wyeth has a new (2007) painting in the gallery. Stunning! Worth the trip. And secondly, lunch there was cheap and fantastic. (I know, at an art museum!) Then we went to VF and walked a bit and rode a bit and hung out with deer a bit (seriously, they were so intent on the acorns, they didn't really care about us). Then my cousin invited us over for dinner, thank the baby lord jebus.

When we arrived, I walked in first, and my cousin's husband pulled me inside and asked what I wanted to drink. The next thing I knew I had a Manhattan, and things got better from there. It was weird because I tried to see the GF from their POV. And she's not really that bad. The dogs loved her (makes you think) and she liked them. She was genuinely interested in everyone. She hugged my sister goodbye. (She doesn't hug me.) It was crazy. So I'm trying to figure out if she's really okay, or if she's only nice to people who aren't related to my FIL....

PS--Alison, you did tell me three skeins of Concord but #1, I'd already bought only two and #2, I sort of doubted you since I had done the other stocking with only one skein of chablis. Sorry about that.