Spring break with the boys in Myrtle Beach was a blast! I drove down to central Jersey last Friday and picked them up after school. We then hit the road. The drive down sucked because of rain and there were 2 accidents between Baltimore and D.C. and a third after we passed D.C. We stayed in a hotel in Rocky Mount, NC that evening which took us 8 hours to reach. Apparently I was so tired I snored all night and hogged the pillows from my youngest. We got up, had breakfast and hit the road to finish the trip. We made it to Myrtle Beach in about four hours, got to the realtor's office and the house was ready even though check in was not until 4 PM officially.
The house was great, 5 bedrooms upstairs and two downstairs. A typical beach house raised up on pilings and with a walk way out to the beach. I was psyched to have a bedroom on the ocean but that did not work out. While we were driving down the night before my youngest asked if, since I was paying for the house, he and his brother got to pick their rooms first. I said yes so when we got into the house Saturday they both made a bee-line for the two bedrooms upstairs on the ocean. They pointed out I said they could pick any room they each wanted. I realized it was their spring break and was caught with my own words so I let them have the rooms. My brother and his wife and children took the other three rooms upstairs which left one of the downstairs rooms with a lovely view of the street for me.
The boys hit the beach immediately and found something they dug up. It appeared to be some kind of weight for a line of some sorts on a boat. They preferred to call it buried treasure though.
Mom and dad got there about a half hour after we did and they took the other downstairs bedroom as they are getting old and too many stairs cause them problems.
That evening we went out for dinner and then my brother, sister-in-law and their three children got in. The kids went straight to bed but the adults stayed up late drinking wine and beer.
A good friend, BW, I had not seen since I graduated from high school lives down there. She came over Monday night and I made dinner (and introduced my sister-in-law to the concept of "cooking wine," i.e. wine one drinks while cooking) for the adults and we caught up on a lot of things. It was great to see her. She is engaged so I told her to bring her beau over later in the week so we could meet him. She came over our last day there and we got to meet him. Thumbs up from everyone who met him, he seemed like a really good guy and he hit it off with mom and dad too.
The weather was decidedly mixed. Saturday and Sunday it was nice but Monday and Tuesday it sucked ass. Wednesday was sunny but really windy and cold. Thursday, our last day, was picture perfect.
We celebrated my oldest's birthday too. I made a cake for him Thursday and told him he could pick whatever restaurant he wanted to go to for dinner. I suggested Hooters as he is now 12. I explained the concept to him- waitresses with large busts- and he got all embarrassed and told me he couldn't talk about boobies with me. He picked Olive Garden instead. That sucked as the night before I took my youngest out for dinner and he wanted Olive Garden. What really sucked was there were some seriously cute waiters but I did not get served by them. The hostess did recognize me the second night though.
The drive home was actually very good. My brother, sister-in-law and their kids had an early flight so they were up and out of the house around 4:15 Friday morning. Mom and dad were up and out at 5:15. I woke up the boys, told them to brush their teeth and get dressed and in the truck. They immediately fell asleep again as they always do if it is dark, they are riding with me and I put the Sirius jazz channel on. We stopped two and a half hours later for breakfast at MCD. Then we stopped around 1 PM in Maryland for drive through MCD lunch. We got back onto 95 and as they boys were eating I asked one of them to give me my quarter pounder with cheese. Of course we never got it. I called the people at MCD douchebags- outloud. The boys laughed- my older because he knows what it is and my younger because his older brother was. Both of them offered part of their lunches to me but I told them no. My youngest said he was going to save some of his chicken selects just in case I changed my mind.
I made back to their mom's house in a bit under 10 hours. As I was dropping them off my oldest asked where I was going. I told him driving home to Hoboken. He said that sucks for you and laughed. I said yep but at this point another hour and 20 minutes or so won't matter and besides he and his brother are worth it.
The husband had been down visiting ST and moving a piece of art down to his place for storage. He got home the same time I did and he had the kids. I had forgotten that while I was away the kids went to the groomer. Our older one had gotten so matted and snarled that the groomer had to shave him down. He looks really cute in a goofy (very goofy) way. I did not realize how skinny he was and he has huge paws relative to the rest of his body and big bean. The husband and kids were excited to see me. It was serious nap time. Then we got up, went and had dinner at our favorite local spot. We headed off into the city to see Ragnar and his bf Umberto for drinks.
We then came back to Hoboken and went to the local gay bar for some fun. The bartender was really cute and had a hot body. The husband commented on the heavily latino crowd and asked the bartender if it was latin night. The bartender informed him no, Saturday night is latin night to which the husband asked what that was like.
Hopefully we'll see JP this weekend. I texted him to see if he wanted to meet us there but I was late in my texting as he was at Urge "giving his paycheck to strippers." I believe he is working tonight and tomorrow night so ideally some time this week we can catch up with him.
The best part of the evening though was my oldest would not stop texting me as we went to dinner telling me how much fun he had and what a great time the beach was. I did well I think.
The one thing I did notice on my week off was that the Fed had instructed all banks who have undergone the "stress test" not to discuss it on their upcoming earnings calls. WTF is that all about? How can people value banks properly if the government is telling the banks not to give out the information? I think it is complete bullshit and does not bode well fro this bear market rally we have had.
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