I just finished cleaning the house. So that sucked.
The housekeepers are coming tomorrow so I had to clean up first. I know. It sounds counter-intuitive. But I don’t do bathrooms. Oh, who are we kidding. I don’t clean any of the things.
Technically, Jon cleaned the whole house. I was responsible for the living room. For the record, this is a bigger task that it may seem. It is also impossible to clean the living room until after the muppets go to bed because of their superhero powers to spread the remnants of the whirling dervish known as Hurricane Muppet twofold for every item put back in its place. Continue reading
I’ve got lots of ideas.
And I keep coming up with more. I won’t hold back on you – I think my ideas are pretty swell. Continue reading
I can’t wait to tell you all about the muppets big day, but Santa brought Mommy an early night’s sleep.
Sending my love to you and yours – be you right next door or across the globe. These interwebs are an amazing thing… Continue reading
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Either much to your dismay or relief – depending on you feel about these adventures, we have reached the final day in paradise. Tomorrow we will return you to your regularly scheduled muppet adventures.
Conversation that occurred Friday afternoon:
Jon: I just looked at the camera. There are only pictures of turtles.
Me: Have you met me? Continue reading
On Sunday, we caravanned down to Manhattan Beach to visit Uncle Paul and Aunt Steph. In preparation for the muppets first beach vacation, Mother Nature decided to play along and the weather was a picture-perfect, sunshiny, 70 degree day.
G.G. had not yet seen Uncle Paul’s new digs either. Paul has spent the past five years living in the ultimate bachelor pad. Four blocks from the beach, bachelor Paul lived in the downstairs “apartment” of a four-bedroom townhouse. In reality, this “apartment” was the townhouse’s mother-in-law unit with an external lock put on its door.
While the 900 sq. ft. room would have been quite spacious as a guest area, it made for some tight permanent living quarters. The bedroom consisted of…a bed – the queen size mattress filled the entire space. His closet consisted of a divot in the wall the height of his waist. (Even 4’10” Steph had to squeeze into the closet.) The bathroom door did not fully open, as the sink was in the way, so one had to scoot around the plumbing for any desired cleansing. True to form for a bachelor pad, a black leather couch graced the living room. In front of the stereotypical settee was the state of the art, all encompassing entertainment system. A lone tiny plastic plant languished in the corner.
But now that Paul is marrying his better half, the two of them now reside in a gorgeous (full-sized) home with panoramic Pacific views. There is still no living greenery in their home, but the palm trees bordering the Strand more than make up for that particular omission.
Manhattan Beach is not known for its stellar parking situation. So we played a Rubik’s Cube game of fitting the whole family into the Pilot. Ultimately, the stroller was banished and the third row got its inaugural passenger. GrammaJ kicked off her shoes and climbed over the muppets row, gracefully tumbling into her seat. GrampaStavo planted himself in between the boys where he could commence cooing over his grandsons. (We are not sure who babbled more during this trip – Grampa or the muppets.) G.G. rode shotgun.
After the circus-like attempts to get the whole gang together in one vehicle and an Abbott and Costello themed performance on directional navigation, we turned down a narrow alley (allegedly a street in MB) and parked in front of his garage. The six of us piled out of the SUV in clown car style only to revise the seating arrangements shortly thereafter so we could walk the Strand. (We drove to the beach because the stroller was left behind; muppets had to be carried.)
The muppets were giggling away in their carseats when Steph decided to climb in. One moment she was standing beside us, the next she had ducked beneath the carseat – crawling through the minuscule leg space – reappearing between the muppets. This inspired GrampaStavo to attempt to hurl himself from the back of the car into the third row. He was luckily thwarted in this endeavor, and sent with Paul and GrammaJ to walk instead. GrampaStavo is a lot larger than the pocket-size carseat crawler Steph.
Speaking size, both muppets are now officially chunky. Without the stroller, our family took turns acting as human strollers – carrying the boys along the beach. Search was in his element, enjoying every moment of the ocean air. The rest of us admired the multi-million dollar homes adorning the beach front, making fun of some of the more eccentric architectural choices.
On Monday it was gloomy again. Even Mother Nature was sad we weren’t still at the beach. I bet the muppets will absolutely love Maui too…
