The most wonderful day of the year

This weekend involved a lot of driving. Thursday night I drove out to the in-laws after my four mile run. Friday morning as Earl was (unbeknownst to us at the time) was losing steam as it came towards us, we picked up the sixteen foot moving truck, packed it up and drove down to central Jersey.. The cloud line was black to the south of us and I wanted to get ahead of it. Unfortunately we could not take any of the parkways. I took the advice of the rental guy and took the Sunrise Highway all the way to the North Conduit- big mistake. Thankfully I handed the husband my crackberry and told him to use the GOOG maps app to get us to the Verrazano. It took us through Brooklyn. Sadly the drive took us about four hours. We got to the cottage and unpacked everything, ran across the street and showered up then picked up the boys. We stopped for dinner near the cottage, then got back on the road and drove back to the in-laws. We arrived around midnight.

Saturday we were prepared for the worst and of course Earl fully disappointed it. It was sunny and nice but the water was rough. I also had to do a twelve mile run. Holy crap after sitting on the beach all day reading (more on that in a bit) with a dip in and no lunch makes for a tough ass long run. By mile nine I was cramping in my calves and had to take a few breaks. The run took me almost two hours. The cool thing though was I ran into a raccoon right in front of the in-laws house. Of course what immediately came to mind was is it rabid- thanks Mr. Barrett.

Sunday the water had calmed down enough that my oldest and I braved it and went clamming. The water was cold. We got enough clams though for my mother-in-law to make great paella.

Sunday we also had to go get my oldest his first blazer. The ex' cousin is getting married this weekend and the boys are going. She took them shopping for dress pants and dress shirts. On the way home my oldest apparently asked why no blazer. So Sunday we drove two towns over and went to Burlington Coat Factory and got him a blazer. Yes, Burlington Coat Factory and yes it is polyester but he is thirteen and growing; there is no way I am paying for a really nice one that he will grow out of in a year or less.

Sunday night we went and saw The Last Exorcism. It was a pretty good flick and I won't ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. The funniest part was that the boys both complained they thought it sucked yet they both came in to our room in the middle of the night; my oldest complaining it was too hot in the room and my youngest complaining he just couldn't get back to sleep. My oldest woke me up by shining his Droid in my mug. My youngest actually woke up the husband who woke me up. My youngest also said I sleep so heavily that he considered slapping my face my to wake me up.

I hit the gym this morning and holy crap #3 at the gym is smoking! His legs a re a bit too skinny in proportion to the rest of his body. He is apparently also friends with the hot guido who wears his baseball cap at that irritatingly skewed angle thinking it is cool- but he is still hot.

Nothing to note on the bus ride in this morning.

Tomorrow is the first day of school for the boys. I always think of that Staples add where the parents are dancing though the aisles singing "It's The Most Wonderful Day of The Year." The boys are not happy with it but it gets better. They have Thursday off and they are taking Friday off as well as Thursday morning they are leaving for Michigan to go to the wedding. I told them they are being babies and need to toughen up.

Now that summer vacation is over for everyone it seems like people are again focusing on the facts of the economy and what the deleveraging entails. People seem socked that the EU crafted the stress tests to completely avoid the elephant in the room.

I am completely befuddled by the President's new plan for a $50 billion infrastructure plan. What the hell was ARRA for? I thought that ~$900 billion plan was for all these shovel ready programs that would employ people and stop the downturn? So if that was not the case and the President has a measly $50 billion plan for infrastructure where did the ~$900 billion go? The cynic in me says it was used in the grand Chicago political tradition- pay off your allies.

Mr. Clifford is visiting us this weekend with his new bf. It will be great to see him and hang as it has been quite some time.