Meet the Parents

This was a busy weekend. We got up late (about when I usually wake up) and went shopping for some food and for cooking implements, so I could cook us lunch before we went to visit L's parents. I also got a haircut and shaved to look nice.

Her parents live nearly an hour and a half's drive away. Laura drove it all in one go while I rested. It rained, and we couldn't see very far in the mist. On the way L took me on a mini-tour through town past her childhood home, which she had not seen since she lived there. Her parents live out someplace at the edge of town, and when we got there they were just getting ready to go to dinner. We briefly met their three dogs, and L's brother, who was leaving for work. We also met her little sister E, who is three years old, cute and precocious. She proudly announced that she no longer needs diapers and can poop in the potty, and I congratulated her on that. She demonstrated how she does it by raising her little fists and scrunching up her face.

Dinner was at L's stepdad's mother's place. Her stepdad R works at a feed lot (where cattle are fattened up) and he decided we should have steaks for dinner. He burned mine well-done just as I like it. I enjoyed the dinner. R was under strict instructions to behave himself - someone must have threatened him in clear terms, because he was obviously struggling all evening not to make any dirty jokes or ask embarrassing questions. They were all nice to me.

Two sets of grandparents were there but L thought it was funny that only one grandparent was blood-related to her. The rest were step-parents: R's father, at whose house we ate, is his stepfather, so that's two steps of remarriage distant from L. Her little sister E demands everyone's attention all the time and L and I played with her a bit. I could write a whole entry just about all the cute things she did - like give everybody lots of shots with her toy syringe. L asked her to point where my belly button is, but it turns out I don't have one! I said, "It was just here a minute ago - where did it go?" and she tried for a moment to help me find it under the table.

After dinner we went back to L's parents' place because I had promised her brother we could play a video game together. We shot at zombies in the dark for an hour.

It was late at night when we left and L was sleepy from the long socializing and driving in the dark. So we stopped at a fast-food place to get her a soda and some mozarella sticks (that is breaded sticks of fried cheese! I think it's gross.) We stopped again at an abandoned gas station near home for her to nap for 15 minutes, because I could see she was still sleepy. A local policeman noticed us and asked me what we were doing there. I explained we were trying to rest and drive safely at night, and he just waited for the station to check our licenses and see that we had no records and then let us go on our way.