Acting Drunk Before We Got The Wine

Friday night we dropped the girls off at Rob's Aunt's house before heading out to a winery for a relaxing evening with his family. The girls were spending the night, so we loaded the van with sleeping bags and overnight bags, and three girls ready to play and eat loads of contraband snackage.

When we arrived at Kathy's House of All Girl Stuff, they were outside. So, after disembarking the van, the girls shot off to play with the dog and cats and Rob stepped over to chat with Russ and his brother. I headed inside to see their kitchen re-model in progress. I handed over a recent photo of the girls, and a package of golden oreos that Grandma Carol had sent along as a snack. We chatted for quite a while.

Kathy and I returned outside and then Rob went in to see the kitchen while I chatted with Russ (almost a month of no rain, and so on and so forth...). Rob came back outside and we said our good-byes; the girls barely registered our departure. As we were leaving I sent my mobile phone number to them by text message, because Rob hadn't brought his phone, in case of emergency and all that.

Then we enjoyed a lovely evening at the winery. After two weeks of 100-degree weather, the weather was balmy enough to sit out by the lake and enjoy some wine and music (although the music was too loud - we're so old).

We left the winery with Christine in tow, having convinced her to stay out with us after the parents when home. We parked in the garage at home and were headed inside, Rob making a crack about the presence of bugs as E1 often exclaims discontentedly about their presence in the world, when I rounded the back of the van and said, "OH. MY. GOD."

There, in the still-lit interior of the van's cargo space, sat three sleeping bags and three overnight bags. We had dumped our children for an overnight stay with nothing but Oreos.

Like the professionals that they are, Kathy's crew had outfitted the girls in t-shirts and whatnot, washing the girls' clothing items that were especially dirty (read: E3's), without nary a phone call or a text message to the theme of, "Hellooo?! DUH!"

All without the benefit of liquor. We are masterful.