"It's like a little mini-honeymoon!" -- Himself

So I warned anyone expecting work from me next week that I was actually going to take the whole weekend off (because otherwise they'll assume that of course I'll work at least part of the weekend) and I bundled up the dogs and took them off to their five star resort where they happily trotted off without looking back. It's *really* nice there. I don't blame them.

From there we headed back home where I gave the twins to Chris and then took Max to piano. That went well, and then it was back to the house to finish packing. We locked up the house, turned down the thermostat (but I checked to be sure there were wood pellets in the stove just to be safe), and headed to Baltimore.

Our first order of business was to check in, because although we were using Chris' "Oh I'm Such An Important Businessman Points" that didn't mean we couldn't end up in a sucky room overlooking the restaurant trashcans. We were in luck. We popped back in the truck, braved traffic to get to my brother's house, and delivered to them, our kids. Again with the not looking back. (Okay, trying not to start taking it personally.) Jason and Karen fed us pizza. It was really good pizza. At this point we were supposed to trade cars with J&K and take their wicked cool miata for the weekend, but the Marriot wanted to charge us $20 to park and frankly, no. So instead Jason drove us back to the hotel and dropped us off.

They gave us an upgrade, found us a room WAY up high, and it had a superfantastic view. Not a big room, but that's okay, we didn't intend to dance in it. We bounced on the bed, punched all the buttons on the phone, ate the chocolate on the pillows, opened all the fancy soaps, and took a shower in a bathroom that didn't have soap crayon spelling out real and imaginary letters of the alphabet all over the walls.

We watched TV, we did spontaneous things you just can't do when your kids might walk in on you at any second, we talked, we just hung out with each other. The first night we were still tired from driving and life in general, so we crashed kind of early on.

The next morning we were up bright and early. If bright and early is 11:30 am. (Boo-yah!) After a bit we headed out to Little Italy and lunch at Amici's. Chris demonstrated the muli-spec look.



And from there to the sweets store where we got some cookies.



Check out the truffles though.




From there we decided to do some sight-seeing.



Oh, c'mon. Like it's not the first place YOU find when you hit a new city? Sheesh.

I couldn't decide on a book, although I spent a good long while flipping through books and reading some. We left without buying anything. For the time being. From there it was back to the hotel.



Where we goofed off and watched football. We went ESPN's to see if we could watch the last twenty minutes of the game there and eat dinner, but they said the wait for a table was TWO HOURS (what, were we supposed to tip them just to get a table?) so we left. Around this time I realized I kept thinking back to the first page I'd read of Passing for Thin so we stopped at B&N again and got the book. Then we went and found an inexpensive Japanese place where we got take-out and then went back to the hotel.

More spontaniety. More goofing off. Back to the sweets place for desert. Then back to the hotel where Chris watched TV and I devoured the book. I can honestly say that it's the first time in a very, very long time, that I've started and finished a book that wasn't parenting oriented. It was worth it. I finished the book this evening with a great deal to think about. I highly recommend it. Anne Lamont wrote passionately and honestly about the great difficulty and joy of her son's first year on the planet and her first year as a single mother. I'm so glad I read it before my first son was born. It just forced/permitted me to be that baldly honest with myself about my mothering. This book offers something like that for eating disorders/obesity/fundamental change.

But I digress.

At some point we both had to admit that it was pretty darn late and the next day would come whether we were ready for it or not. So we slept. I had heartburn, so I was really grateful for the gajillion pillows.



When I got home, my own bed looked tragically pillow bereft.

We woke again at 10:30, got around to breakfast at 11:00 -- we tried the hotel restaurant, but when we got the menus I was astonished to see that what amounted to a bowl of oatmeal with raisins and two pieces of toast -- $10.95. We left. Instead we found Chipolte's where we spent considerably less for considerably more. From there it was back to the hotel. We packed up and met Jason downstairs. They'd survived the day and a half with the kids nobly, albeit by feeding them every sugary treat known to kid kind (I believe they started off each day with poptarts). I was amused and no, I don't care. The kids were happy, happy to see us, and in no real hurry to leave. We took them anyway.

The ride home was beautiful.



But not as beautiful as our own backyard.



And may I say it again.

We are never, ever, ever moving again. But WOW that was a great weekend with my sweetie. Thanks again Uncle Jason and Aunt Karen. My kids will grow up worshipping your uber-coolness and the sweet availablity of chocolate pudding at your house. See you at Thanksgiving.