A couple notes from a weekend with my family.

So, yeah, we spent the weekend up in Vermont at my grandparents' cottage in Ludlow. All four grandparents and my parents were there, and it was quite nice.

Anyway, just a quote from breakfast this morning. The house next door to my g'parents is under construction.

Nonnie Grace: You might think I'm crazy, but I think that the contractor who was working on that house has packed up and left.
Papa Ralph: The two things have nothing to to with one another.

Yeah, my grandparents do a fair bit of insult comedy with each other. Actually, all four of my grandparents do. You really need a quick wit to do well.

Fortunately, Lis does fine. Last night, at dinner, we were talking about the bris that we were going to today, for tigerbright and teddywolf's baby, about which I'll post later.

Lis asked my parents if they'd heard about some of the weird and funky bris customs that have shown up in Alaska recently. They hadn't.

Lis said, "Yeah:

There are strange things done under the midnight sun
By the men who mohel for gold. . .

Father looked at her, then banged his head repeatedly on the table. I think Dad likes and respects Lis.

Okay, a little more on my weekend

So, Lis came home on Friday, fell on the bed, and fell asleep for a couple hours. So we got on the road a bit later than we intended. I'd rather hoped to be in Ludlow, VT by around 9 at night, but we actually got there closer to 11 pm. On the drive up, Lis read to me to keep me entertained while I was driving. It was the sixth book in the Princess Diaries series, Princess in Training. I like those books. They're much, much better than the movies. Actually, in this book, Mia takes a couple jabs at the movies. . .(yeah, in the world of the Princess Diaries, the movies have been made. It's just that they're fictionalized versions of a real person rather than a book.)

This was, in large part, an anniversary celebration for my parents. My folks have been married for 35 years. They've been together for 37. And they've also been married for about five years, since they got married after Dad converted. But this one was for their thirty-fifth anniversary.

What Mom and Dad wanted to do to celebrate was to go up to Ludlow with their parents and us, and the eight of us would go to the Ludlow Zucchini Festival.

What is a zucchini festival, you ask? Well, as far as we can guess, about nine years ago, someone realized that EVERYONE hates zucchini, and thought that a festival to help celebrate how much everyone is sick of zucchini would be a good idea. There are zucchini baked goods (e.g. zucchini muffins, breads, and cookies), zucchini fries (which are actually really good), a prize for the largest zucchini, Mr Zucchini-Head contests, zucchini carving contests, zucchini races, and so forth.

And the centerpiece of the whole thing: the Zucchapult Contest!

More about that later.
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