Life with Boose and Finch

I had been trying to plan a trip to visit my Aunt Jane and my Aunt Jean in Illinois for awhile.  Eventually, I heard that one of them was having dizzy spells and other health problems.  I figured that now would be better than later to go -- even if it was in the middle of summer time.  Ro will be starting pre-kindergarten in a few weeks and airplane tickets were just going to get more expensive until next February.   Day 1: We left Fresno Saturday just before noon.  Ro was raring to go on the trip until he realized how long it was going to be.  It didn't hit him until we got on the ramp to go from 99N to 152W.  Then he needed to use the bathroom and we tried to use a side road to convince Ro to go to the bathroom next to the road.  He's told us jubilantly before that one of the grandmas let him pee on a tree, but he just couldn't pee or defecate on the ground next to the car.  We packed him back into the car until we exited...

I hope you had a good Independence Day!  We definitely did. It was long and tiring, but we made only good decisions with low expectations. Other than being Independence Day, it was also my mother-in-law’s birthday. I invited her over earlier in the week for an indoor barbecue. Ro had spent the night with her and so B woke me up at 7am (I could have slept until 9am) anxious about getting the tri-tip ready in time. I had already marinated the tri-tip in soy sauce, garlic, and olive oil per  this recipe . Of course, I realized that I forgot to get spinach for a peach salad. And then I forgot to buy a cake. So, I had to run to the store a couple of times during my preparation time. During the whole time, B had Caddyshack (1980) playing on the tv, but he helped arrange the food and serve everyone. .  In the end, I managed to grill the tri-tip, chicken sausage, shrimp skewers, aspasagus, and corn. I tried to do squash, but burned it all. My mother-in-law brought over Ro...