Last week we traveled to Maryland for Brian's dad's funeral. The car rental did not go as smoothly in the beginning as usual, but in the end I managed to procure a swell PT Cruiser and while I was not impressed with its gas consumption it was pretty fun to drive. So we got to Rockville and some neighbors had brought a bit of food by the house. We ate and went through albums and boxes of pictures to find photos of Ted. This is a well-documented family and just this portion of the project took hours, but the pictures we found were great.

By this time Brian had joined us so he took V back to Takoma Park while Jennifer and I spent the early hours of Wednesday morning at Kinko's scanning photos. Then back at the house I wrestled with her laptop for a few hours figuring out how to make a slideshow with all her new-fangled software and what-all. Then I fell ill in a terrible way and spent the next twelve hours curled under half a dozen blankets, completely useless. Very weird. I swallowed three aspirin with some ginger ale and went to the rosary service at the funeral home.

I have never been through an entire rosary prayed before. My advice for attendees is wear comfortable shoes and if you are feeling the least bit punk bring something to lean on. I forgot to follow the latter myself and it was a struggle to remain vertical. It was a family-only thing but we brought the babysitter along because she wasn't able to come to the funeral the next day and she wanted to pay her respects. Plus she's pretty much family by now anyway. B & V went to her house next to eat while J & I went to scan more photos (other people had found some more) and finish the slideshow.

The funeral was nice, everyone had a chance to say hi before the service and everything went smoothly. Then we went to a restaurant (That's Amore) and ate for a few hours as the slideshow played and a dozen cousins chased each other around the room. After that we went back to Rockville, where the house was now stuffed with flowers, children, and more food. Jennifer was planning things for all the cousins to do together while we were in town, but I took V back to TP with me to sleep just to make some room.

I had just straightened up the place and was preparing to take V to her favorite diner for breakfast when J called and told me to get to Rockville ASAP, that yet another shipment of food had arrived and they were attempting to shoehorn it into the house. I have documented this below:



So we had a bite to eat and then took a bunch of kids to the zoo. That was my idea and I am telling you now that it was a brilliant one. The real genius was in having the temperature in the 60's (teens for you C people). Then we drove them up to a bowling alley, where the kids who were not skipping school were going to meet up with our band, but that's where I had to say goodbye and start hurtling westward. This was a tearful parting for V, who was still crying well into West Virginia. I did not realize that bowling is in fact her favorite sport.

Anyway, we got back in time to put things back together over the weekend and last night Brian had a coworker stop by the house and we fed her and some neighbors and it turned into a little party. And I am done eating. Maybe for the month.