Listen to the Rain

I'd love to say that we had great weather for the weekend, with sunny skies and warmth, but it would be a complete lie. It was cloudy and rainy for the majority of the weekend, with even the least-rainy day (Saturday) still having some rain. Sunday it thunderstormed for most of the day, and there was rain the middle of the day on Monday too. sashagee spent a chunk of the weekend lying down with a headache, but thanks to her parents taking Laila for a ton of fun adventures, we had a baby-free weekend and plenty of time to ourselves.

Saturday, we went to cillic and heather.eisele's Memorial Day barbecue and in the evening, to afschifler's birthday party at lisekatevans's place, and on Monday we went to maptekar and her boyfriend's place out in the suburbs for a last-minute barbecue. A lot of travel involved--train and bus to the fist barbecue, bus and train (actual rail) to the suburbs, and some walking--but worth it.

There's not a lot to actually write about here, though, because most of what happened was "we talked with people and had a lovely time." One of the people who came to the Saturday barbecue was married to a Japanese man, so she brought a soba noodle salad that was delicious (disadvantage of most barbecue--I can't eat it since if it's not pork, it was probably cooked together on the same grill as pork), as well as a farro salad and a bunch of fresh fruit, plus some delicious seven layer bars inside. At the birthday party, while joseph.harnden was telling sashagee how much better I looked now that I was wearing more colors and how she was such a good influence on my fashion, hazel.flowersmccabe was talking to me:

Hazel: "You're wearing...colors."
Me: "Well, I'm a dad now, I changed up my style."
Hazel: "You can be a goth dad."

at the barbecue on Monday, we met someone that maptekar had met through Bumble BFF (which I didn't realize was a thing). She was very reserved, but she's also Romanian, so I figured it was just her being from Eastern Europe. maptekar's boyfriend made some chicken with a honey and vinegar glaze and I had it with a bunch of salad. We would have stayed longer, but since it was a holiday weekend they were running holiday trains, so we had to get back to the city on the 7:32 p.m. train. Next time we'll be able to stay longer.

We were asked at one point if Memorial Day barbecues were a tradition in my family and I said no. But maybe I should reconsider.