Viva!

This is already a heck of a good day (take note, last Monday). Not only did I get to pick up the new family truckster first thing, but it's my niece's 2nd birthday and we just found out my cousin's wife gave birth to their second beautiful boy in the wee hours of the morning. So good on you, August 27th. The extended long weekend leading up to it was not too shabby either.

It started with some of this,

and a little of this

and just a bit of this

and wrapped up with this (actual level of photographer's blurriness at the time)...

Followed by a bit of a hangover. Oh, but it was worth it. The couple of days on the beach with Mike's family was extremely laid back and restorative. We lounged on the across-the-street beach and caught up with everyone and ate cupcakes and massive lobster rolls and enjoyed outdoor shower beers and HR had a blast playing with his aunts and uncles and grandmother, but especially his big and little cousins (and cousins of cousins). The rides up and back were blessedly non-traumatic, and my parents popped into town to watch the boy so we could go to a proper rave-up in honor of some friends' 40th birthdays (even if one of them was the third time around) on Saturday night. There were wonderfully loud sloppy bands, free-flowing drinks, and chats with people I haven't seen in ages. I'm still paying for my night of acting like I was me ten years ago, but I had so much fun I'm reminded that I do have to get out more often.

I also realized as I watched the first band's set--it was a bunch of joyfully free-form garage-punkers--that 1) that's the kind of music I'm almost always in the mood to hear, and 2) if I had to do it over again, I'd have picked up a guitar as soon as possible and formed all the garage bands of life. I was sorry to hear the performance was the last for that band (when I had only just discovered them), but luckily Joan Jett lives on. They ended with this one.