Fun times!

On Friday night, I drove up to Pennsylvania to visit John E. and his family. I arrived late on Friday night, close to midnight, and then John, Paul and I chatted for about an hour. After that, we turned in.

On Saturday morning, we went to Mass bright and early, came back and had breakfast, and, then I began the long process of meeting the entire family and trying to remember names. Sadly, the names I so dutifully memorized have become a blur, and some aren't even there anymore. If y'all are reading this post, I send my humblest apologies.

After chatting for a while, Mrs. E., John and I went to the farmer's market. It brought back some memories of when I used to do that with Mom and Dad when I was little. Ah, the age of innocence, where everything is taken straight from the ground or the animal, instead of processed in huge centers.

After this, we came back to their house, John and I ran out to get bagels, and we brought them back for lunch. Lunch was, of course, excellent. I wouldn't have thought that bagels for lunch would have been a normal family thing -- I figured that it was just a bachelor thing. {grins}

Following lunch, John, Paul and I went for a drive. We were going to go for a hike, but we never actually found the place. I was asleep for almost an hour of this trip, so when I woke up, I was surrounded by bearded men, bonneted women, and horse-drawn-buggies. I thought that I had gone back in time until I saw a bumper sticker that said, "No, Anthony, you have not gone back in time. You're in Amish country." (OK, so there was no bumper sticker that said that, but it makes for a great story.) We finally found where we were wanted to go hiking, but it was already almost dusk, and the car was almost out of gas, so we just drove back. In order to get some exercise, though, John and I threw the football around outside for a bit.

Dinner was interesting. A word of warning to new visitors: in order to get food for dinner, you have to sing our national anthem. For anyone who is confused, this is the national anthem of the United States of America. I began the Canadian one, and there was a bit of a ruckus. But it's a good thing that there was a ruckus, because I don't know any of the words aside from "O Canada!" Dinner was excellent, by the way...

After dinner, I sat around and chatted with the John and his siblings for a while. Clare (right? The youngest?) kept attaching herself to my leg, so I asked both of the littlest (Mary and Clare?) to sit on my feet and I'd give them a ride. As I walked around, I was told I looked like a transformer, so I grabbed a banana to use as a transformer gun.

I'm not sure how it got started, but John did some pushups with Clare on his back. Not to be outdone, I did the same, but I did a second set with Mary. And finally, for the heck of it, I had both of the youngest on my back. I could barely do one...

We fired up Stealth for the older kids and most of the adults, while the younger ones and Mrs. E. watched The Three Caballeros.

Sunday morning, I drove to Front Royal for Mass, and I sung at St. John's for the Tridentine Mass, Gaudete Sunday. We had a small choir to sing. After Mass, I went out to brunch with Dr. P., Christine, Draper, Ken, and Alaina. After that, Ken, Alaina and I went to Rappahannock winery to hear Danny and visit with Sarah. Danny S. was playing there. He plays and sings very well, so I highly recommend that if you have a chance to hear him in concert, you should go. Alex joined us after a little while, and we had a birthday cake for Sarah. Being tired, I left for home instead of and then played Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for a while, and then went to bed.