the GRAPE JELLY family blog: V

Yeah, like the show "V" for "Visitors." No, I don't watch that. I stick to one fantastical ABC show at a time that overstays its welcome, writes itself into several storyline corners and, seemingly, with a couple episodes left has no way to cleanly conclude itself. But I digress.

We've had a few more visitors. Some for several days, some for not even 24 hours. And more are coming . . . just like the smoke monster. Stupid 'Lost' with its stupid unanswered mysteries with stupid non-inquisitive castaways who have yet to even ask the most basic questions to their captors/saviors/leaders and with stupid perma-cologne-model ad Sawyer (credit to Andrew) and his "son of a bitch!" catchphrase. Anyway, where was I? Right, visitors.

So the Cornhuskiest chick in DC - Jill - came down for a few days a couple weeks ago. She was welcomed by some cold, cloudy skies and a home project that was thought to be quick and easy but took all day -- laying some concrete for a mini-driveway under our carport. Witness the colossal cement trunk that wet itself all over our property:

The crew didn't leave until literally night fall (almost 9p nowadays), but in the end they did a great job and we no longer have to drag 4 pounds of gravel onto our cars' floorboards daily. Hip hip, huzzah! Anyway, the weather and excitement (what's worse than watching paint dry? watching concrete dry!) picked up the rest of the week. The ladies and Gracie headed into the Hill Country for some wine tastings

and we all enjoyed some good eats in town. Plus just some hanging-with-Gracie time. Look: the Nebraska fan gets to sit in a big red chair! Yes, amazingly not all of our furniture is burnt orange.

But, speaking of burnt orange, Gracie (we swear...on her own) has declared her fandom for the Horns already. Witness her soothing herself with a message:

Later in that same week, our favorite Cock ...err South Carolinian... Gavin (sorry, co-favorite Emma) came to town for a very quick bidness trip and we caught lunch. Gracie has now seen her tallest person ever at 6'7" and probably won't break that record for a while. Witness:

In between and since then we have been so happy to field continual local visitors too. Nana is visiting twice a week to watch Gracie now that Kelly is back to work full-time and dad is staying home two days a week. So far, so great. One of the ongoing tasks while at home is to figure out what we do or do not need in the house anymore as we start to fill up with another growing member of the household. Case in point: my giant Simpsons beer mug. Sure, it recalls very fond memories of the "big ass beer" at Salerno's in LexVA. (Yes, there's a yelp page for Lexington VA!) But it is a less practical piece of barware these days. So I used it up one last time for fun. Recipe: two tallboys of LoneStar...