So, we’re home from our long weekend! Our trips to Canada are always wonderful. I’ve put together a little photo/video recap so you can live the fun along with us. Although you probably had to be there. Enjoy anyway! (you can click through to my Flickr stream to see additional photos and video)

We arrived at Maggie and Jeremy’s on Thursday afternoon. After a lovely dinner of grilled chicken Caesar salad, we popped open several bottles of wine and got down to business — Rock Band. Maggie and I took turns singing, Jeremy played bass, Alex on guitar, and the geekboy tried out drumming for the first time. When Maggie and I got bored, Jeremy took the mic. Here he is performing the Beastie Boys “Sabotage” — as Sean Connery. I couldn’t stop laughing (as you will no doubt hear for yourself):

We spent some quality time with Maggie’s cats (Cuba and Pippa - Jonah is not pictured because he is a princess):

Maggie and I made mint chocolate cupcakes with mint chocolate crisp M&Ms for the party on Saturday:

I gave Nicci a Skrull mask we picked up at Comic-Con:

Maggie, Nicci and I geeked out with our matching Flips:

other versions: niccij and maggie

We set off fireworks in the backyard, much to the chagrin of the neighbor down the street, who greeted us with obscenities, slurs against Americans, and a visit from the po-po:

Sandra enjoyed some wine and dazzled us with her movie knowledge:

We lit sparklers and remembered them being more fun when we were younger (and Natalie made a startling revelation near the end of the video):

We left around 11:00am Sunday morning. We arrived home at 11:59am Sunday night. Yes, that’s thirteen hours (as opposed to the usual nine). It took us close to two hours just to cross the Canadian/US border, and then construction in Pennsylvania set us back another few. It was awful. More awful? The rest stops. Each one worse than the next, as if a bunch of drunken monkeys had been set loose in the women’s room. Disgusting. At one rest stop, there were five toilets and no toilet paper. I had to go and I just went, who cares, but I looked at the line as I was leaving and noticed several elderly women. The thought of them with no toilet paper was too much, so the geekboy and I searched the area until we found some rolls stashed away, and that is how I became The Toilet Paper Hero of Route 80. You’re welcome!

The one high point of the trip home was that Duty-Free had a sale on Bombay Sapphire Gin, so I’ve got that going for me.

The geekboy took today off, so we are thinking of catching a matinee of Wall-E later, as we missed the drive-in on Sunday. I’m still sick — the bronchitis or whatever it was is working its way up through my lungs, and I’m REALLY enjoying the hacking cough. I’ve been unable to work out for nearly a week and still don’t feel strong enough and it’s making me crazy. I also have a HUGE article to write this week, but I need just one more day to relax. So I’m taking it.