Family is coming to visit. Raise shields.

[bjarvis]

My eldest sister ("Three of Six") just called to update me on their pending visit next week. Her husband, Ted, is coming to Laurel, MD, for training next week so they were planning to cash in some air miles to bring her and their two children down to be tourists around DC. We had chatted about this a month ago and I was arranging work to allow some time off to spend with the family.

News flash #1: they've decided not to stay in a hotel and will instead be staying chez nous Monday through Sunday, Oct. 24-30.
News flash #2: Ted's mother, Kathy, will be joining them.

I haven't seen Kathy in about 20 years. During my teen years in northern Ontario, my best friends on the planet were Lynn, Kathy & Mickey, three then-middle-aged mothers of my parents' generation. I used to babysit Mickey's three kids; my brother was engaged to Lynn's daughter; Kathy is now my sister's mother-in-law. When I moved to southern Ontario for university in 1986 and my trips home became more infrequent, we gradually lost contact.

I visited with Mickey the last time I went back to the family farm, Lynn now lives only a few miles from me in DC, and Kathy will be coming to visit! I'll now see about getting her and Lynn together for dinner some time during the week.

Since we're going to be off to Roseland to winterize the trailer this coming weekend, I have to move faster than anticipated to (a) de-gay the place a little for the sake of the children such as hiding the porn in the attic or something, (b) lay in some supplies and (c) figure out accommodations for the lot. I figure I can stuff Irene & Ted into the main guest room, then quickly clean up the sewing room for Kathy; the kids can either camp out in the basement or in with their parents as they please.

Oy!

Comments

[tdjohnsn.livejournal.com]

Wow.

That so doesn't sound fun. Or at least, if it were me, the stress would far out way anything fun about it. But then, I am a pretty serious introvert. Having my space invaded for that long would send me into a catatonic state.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

I'm of mixed moods & impressions. It will be nice to see everyone again and I've never met Ashley, the newest spawn at 7 months old. It'll be a great time to spoil the niece & nephew rotten before packing them back to another country. And to remind my dear sister at the most public & inopportune times that I used to change her diapers. :-)

If nothing else, I can always retreat to my office to relax, unwind and catch up on sleep.

[paigemom.livejournal.com]

my prayers are with you!

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Pray harder! :-)

straightening up the house

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

good luck with the de-gay mission.

I got myself a number of dogsitting gigs when Ian went off for Mexican weeks in february with David - it turned out that it is MUCH easier to move one human (me) than two large dogs (Ben, old english sheepdog, and Copper, idjit irish setter). Moi doing it meant that Ian didn't have to straighten up the house, as otherwise his secretary Audrey would come by 2x a day. My reward? access to Ian's exTENsive video porn collection.

You'll have a number of heteros and chillens to -um- not-be-in-the-face-of. good luck. (but how hetero-unfriendly IS your place? shirley not THAT much)

Re: straightening up the house

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

I'm not too concerned about "straightening" the house... neither of the kidlets are reading yet so the printed works in the guestroom are beyond their ability. I don't think we have any video materials in shelves below an adult's shoulder height so those should be safe too. I do intent to pack away the lube, condoms, handcuffs, etc., so that four-year-old nephew Daniel doesn't delight his parents by trotting them out to ask "What are these?" after dinner.

My biggest concern is making sure that sharp objects and chemicals are out of the reach of little hands, as well as blocking off the stairs so that Ashley doesn't accidentally roll down the spiral staircase to the basement if she becomes suddenly mobile. To a lesser extent, I'm also thinking about fragile and/or breakable items but since those are mostly Kent's, I'm not losing much sleep on that issue. :-)