Rien, Vraiment

I did a lot of reading this week, puisque my books came in at the library. They were just as good as I'd hoped, but now I'm dying to read the next ones. And although I'm not super into the romantic parts, I found it interesting that in one of the books, the handsome prince of the first book was replaced by an actual friend in the second. I liked that. Relationships should have more substance than what 'Prince Charming' can afford.

In addition to fiction, I finished a book on habits that finally inspired me to create a personal motto for my life. And true to form, it's both amusing and inspiring. I quite like it, although I'm debating some small tweaks.

Xander and Hannah left for UT, Kevin for Europe, Dad for NY, so it was quiet at home. Those of us left went out to dinner one night and it was almost like a civilized family. Almost.

Dad came home and I ate an entire loaf of bread with cheese for dinner. Then the parentals left on date night, Trevor went...somewhere, and the girls and I built a fire. S'mores all around.

Saturday, while the rest of the family went to NH for a 'secret adventure', I headed to the temple, for some much-needed refreshment. Which only continued when I then arrived in Northborough for dinner with Aaron, Grampy, and Mimi. And that's all, folks.

Please, More Dad Jokes

Although the work at Pfizer is a bit more tedious this summer, I am enjoying the company significantly more. Stu and Alex are hilarious and the rest of them are almost as fun. We play games at lunch and Stu tells wildly inappropriate stories and sometimes we all decide to go to the zoo. Look forward to those stories....

Due to the complete overhaul of Pfizer's infrastructure, Mr. Le Chin himself started working with Stu's mom and they made the connection. (We're friends, our kids are friends, let's make a play date.)

Hannah built a fire with little technique, but lots of success. We roasted lots of marshmallows, but ate only a few s'mores. The rest were donated to the fam because we like to roast them, but like eating them less.

Thursday we took a half day at work and went to the Red Sox vs. Orioles game. We got crushed. But the weather was perfect, the company was medium good, and the Boston experience was a dream. We brought Alex Lourenco and P. Monson along for the ride.

We projected Zootopia, which we enjoyed in the theater seating we still have set up. The film was too hyped for me and reminiscent of Hoodwinked. But otherwise, pretty enjoyable. I called being Nick. Lavinia was laying on top of me for a good part of the film, so I started clenching my cheeks to see how long it would take her to notice. About ten seconds, if you were wondering.

This giant blue bug is the essence of my childhood.

Saturday, Hannah, the Mom Lady, and myself took the train to NYC. I have 2 parent vacation pet peeves: first, that they always start group text messages and send a bunch of pictures, bragging about their exploits. The second, is that they always want to get to their destinations as quickly as possible, just to make sure they aren't late. Both were kept to a minimum during this trip, thank the stars.

We ate delicious pizza, meandered around a tad, and only got to the theater an hour early. (Sidenote: We were supposed to meet up with a mission friend visiting from Scotland, but he totally slimeballed me and will be getting a talking-to in the near future.) Les Mis was great. The Thenardiers were hilarious and I liked Valjean a lot more than the Wolverine version. Also the drunk school boy. Classic.

Today, I'm tagging along with El Presidente Le Chin at the newly incorporated Cromwell ward. I took a long nap in a classroom, after an early arrival. Then got invited chez-les Cramers for morning crepes, as learned from his mission to northern France. After church, there was a father's day ice cream sundae bar that I invited myself to. And now I'm just hanging out at the Bell's house, which is clean and wonderful. I'm excited for this ward to join the new stake.

Speaking of dads. Hats off to the great men of the world (like Phil from Modern Family or Andy from Parks and Rec) that have such a special sense of humor.

El Presidente Le Chin, round two.

What an incredibly boring week. Work was standard. I'm working out the kinks of a pediatric dosage device and turns out if you try to dose the same material a thousand time, it gets crushed so more of it gets dosed out each time. This is annoying because it means I have to do a lot of work over again, but at least the results are looking much better this time.

Monday, I took Xander to get his tooth fixed before the parentals returned. He says Tim did a much better job than his other dentist.

We also finished this gem of a remake:

Other than that, I was just dying all week. Maybe it was the weather, or the dull monotony of re-doing a bunch of work, or how ridiculously tired I was. I ensure that I get a full 8 hours of sleep per night, but this week I was just burnt. I took several naps and slept half of Saturday to recover from whatever spicy sickness had taken its hold on me.

It was not my stimulating lunch company, however. Nor my nightly crew that found a theme song even The Chin loves (although he'll never admit it). Please click on this link. Really, though.

News of the week is the reorganization of the Providence, RI stake and creation of the New London, CT stake. Because Slimy Dad was busy with Kelloggius at mysterious meetings all day Saturday, I knew that food shopping would not get done. And we would starve. But mostly, I would starve when I had nothing to pack for lunch on Monday. So I did some emergency food shopping with the expectation of reimbursement.

If you're wondering, El Presidente Chin was reelected for the new CT stake, having diplomatically chosen counselors Bell and Balcarnie (? on those names) from the units acquired from Hartford and New Haven stakes. Having heard The Chin's talk including some Princess Bride quotes last night, one counselor requested we hear Monty Python next, the other made his own Princess Bride reference, and like *that* they have been accepted.

The bad news, as previously mentioned (I believe), is that all YSA members now living in the CT stake are still supposed to go to the RI YSA ward. Ugh. However, because we live in the Groton ward boundaries, we're kind of dual citizens. And I think I've attended both places equally since my return. Which leaves me in quite the confusing conundrum, although the problem is not worth too much pondering.

Flossoraptors and Others Dinosaurs

Life seems a lot less stimulating when you've got a 9 to 5 job. It takes up a large portion of your day with the same stuff, week after week. The only news this week is that I've been promoted to unofficial good news gatherer of the interns to counteract the kid that has claimed the duty of keeping us up to date on all worldly progress.

Monday was a holiday. Let freedom ring. And by that I mean freedom from all governmental responsibilities because you know we didn't have school or work. Instead, I helped Lavinia pick out some clothes for her birthday and had a BBQ.

Theme of the week: teeth. Hannah got her wisdom teeth out and I don't know what kind of drugs they had her on, but they were strong. And she was hilarious. I went to the orthodontist again and he was on one, and it didn't seem like he really knew what he was doing. Xander not only broke his braces again, but he chipped his tooth off in some kind of freak accident that seems to be commonplace for him. And in other news, who put those teeth in the milk behind the toilet?? The world may never know.

Kelloggius and The Chin are away on business, so we got the run of the house. Kids have to get their own rides to sports, we all take turns making dinner, the house gets cleaned regularly, and fun is had. Just like the good old days. And I get to sleep in a real bed, so, not mad about that.

Trev, Hannah, Moriah, and I went to Kevin's POPs Concert. The award for the best song musically goes to Chamber's "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd". Award for the best presentation goes to Final Cut's "Dude Looks Like a Lady". All is right in the world. And Kevin is happy because he was in both groups.

Photo cred: Funcle Aaron.

After dropping Hannah off at a friend's house in RI, the girls and I made the rest of the trip up to Funcle Aaron's house for a BBQ and boating. I forgot about the existence of water sports and their abundant availability in Northborough. Nevertheless, Moriah panicked on a boat, Lavinia swam in a lake, Isabelle went tubing, I tried my knees at knee boarding, and Anna actually succeeded. Many thanks to Aaron for a day well spent.

Upon our return, the kids were fed and bathed while I went running. Then I was fed and bathed. We all relaxed and watched Jurassic World on the big screen. 10/10 would watch again. Especially if I had some more PB/Chocolate ice cream to feast on.