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TUESDAY
I flew out at 1am trapped between a large white haired man who reeked of whiskey and coughed constantly and the tallest man in the world who didn't speak english. It was an exit row so i should have had extra legroom but the tall guy took up a good half of mine. It's hard to sleep in the middle seat. I dozed a few times, head back but I woke myself up with my snores. ( sometimes I snore. Deal with it. ) Still, I think red eye flights are the best. lights are off, everyone is sleeping and the baby noise is at a minimum. it's pretty calm. it works for me.

I screwed up the times and arrived an hour earlier than I thought ( 5:50am, not 6:50 am ). My sister got there within a half hour, though. While I waited, I grabbed a blueberry scone and a hot chocolate from Starbiz., and that was some damn fine hot chocolate. these sad looking woman in shorts looked at my chocoa longingly. I offered to buy her one but she politely declined. and looked embarrassed.

My sister arrived and dropped me off at her house. I got reacquainted with Her various pets : Giant newfie Zoey. Senior citizen Golden retriever Hank, and fluffy cat Jasmine. I then took a brief 2 hour nap on the giant couch in the basement.
It was some weird partial day for her kids, so I picked up luke at 10:15 and Tom at 2:30. Between those pickups, I ran downtown and had Lunch with my old pal Paul at chipotle. we caught up and I managed to NOT get a parking ticket.

We had pork chops for dinner and then watched one of the various CSI shows. I went to bed early but had a hard time sleeping, as always.

WEDNESDAY
got up early and went down to the basement and lounged on the giant couch and watched Batman Begins on the giant tv. I enjoyed it immensely, but had a tediously slow beginning.

Around noon I filled up the truck and headed south to my parent's house. Arrived 2.5 hours later to the house I grew up in to find it half empty. my parents were glad to see me but a little alarmed by the weight loss. my parents had been making off with every this and that. the knick nacks were gone and all that was left was the furniture. We packed up a trailer my dad had borrowed and took a trip over to the new house.

i had seen pictures so I knew what to expect. it was roughly three times the size of the old house AND it had a full basement ( unfinished but HUGE! something my dad will spend the next few month's working on ). Ginormous kitchen, which I'm sure convinced my mom to buy it in the first place. huge master bedroom. new houses all around them and no one living in them. Giant 3 stall garage with plenty of room for all my dad's toys.

Drove to a small hub town and had fried chicken. there was a bar and small children and everyone was smoking. It made me want to scream "you have a baby. In a bar!"

Went out with Markie and Scoottie to Toast. drank too much and then went down to Laredo's and drank more. Blah.

THURSDAY
More Moving including the Giant Hutch you see in photos below. It comes apart but a still weights a lot. at one point it suddenly landed on my foot which is still black and blue. Lunch at Wendy's with parents. did some mason shitty shopping with markie. the dollar store? went and hung out with mark's mom, Cheryl and listened to her stories. Mark dug out an old comic book that he and I used to draw together. it was fun. bitchy superhero drama full of swearwords.

FRIDAY
More moving! Yes! it's true. did 4 or 5 loads. my sister, Teri and her husband, pierce and my bother, Tony and his wife, Tammi and their youngest daughter Leah showed up around 9:30pm ( they are all in MN ). there was family chit chat and snacks and then everyone went to bed.

SATURDAY
everyone Up Early and Moving. a mini van, 2 SUV's, 2 pickups and a trailer. 4 trips. everything done by 2pm. unpacked and napped. Dad took us all out for an awesome steak and it was Divine.

markie called and we went out to some place having 80's night and a 10 dollar keg cover. It sounded awful but end up being pretty fun. Jacula showed up with her skinny ass looking fab and Mark's cousin, Andrea was there as well. Mark calls her ANGRIA when she gets tipsy. Angria's fab mother Charlotte was there as well.

Some napoleon dynamite looking geek with no chin said something to mark about sucking cock and all hell came close to breaking loose. All these people were going to kick Napoleon's ass and it was a little surreal for a small town like that.

of course, We then had to leave and went to the most revolting bar on Earth, sportsman's. why I allow mark or any one ever to take me there is beyond me. Seriously, I feel like I acquire a new disease every time we go there. mark stayed to catch diseases and I went home. home to the empty old house where I slept on a futon on the floor. it was a bit creepy.

SUNDAY
woke up and drove over to the new house. we had breakfast and then headed back to old house to clean out the garage, which we had forgot. in the attic of the garage we found a plethora or forgotten toys, including a ventriloquist dummy who's body had magically disappeared ...like totally missing. I kept the head and brought it home, even thought that thing always scared me to death. Everyone left around 5 and I napped. I then drove 45 minutes to my brother's as they Had forgotten a cell phone and Hung out with them for a few hours. My legs weren't really working and my Nephew Mason had to pull me up off the couch. I stood after that and felt fine after a bit...
Home and to bed for a decent night's sleep.

MONDAY
some early morning shopping with Blanche and headed back to MN around 1. stopped for some shopping in roseville and then to the other brother's for a bit. did some shopping with them and then down to downtown and stopped at Jeremy and Tony's for chit chat and a couple cocktails. It was good to catch up. I'm finding it impossible to see all my friends each time I'm in MN and will have to settle for alternating friends, I guess. Back to Teri's and Watched "creature" - a bad but fun early 80's ALIEN ripoff.

TUESDAY
up early and watched Man Thing ( which I will review later ) and then joined my friend dave for lunch and shopping for a MPLS Starbucks mug for steve and cheese curds for Pat. found both and then dave dropped me off at the airport.
Flight was ok, and a co-worker was a few rows away. sat with a really cute guy and a nice lady from Indianola, Iowa. Steve and Jenny picked me up and went back to steve and pat's to tell TanQ we were leaving. i don't think she ever wants to leave that place. it must be like a resort to her or maybe rehab.

when we got home she just howled and howled as if to tell me how much she hated me. She got locked out of my bedroom as well around midnight.

I'm glad to be home but I did have a good time. Iw as very pleased that my siblings were able to show up and help as well. I think it meant a lot to my parents.