Pipalooza

After my day off, it was back to work on Friday, but luckily we got to leave early, as we were driving up to Portsmouth for a weekend cousin gathering, that instead of "Cousinpalooza" (our usual moniker for our cousin gatherings), we were calling "Pipalooza", in honour of my soon-to-be-born niece or nephew, who we refer to as "Pip" for "Pipsqueak" or "Personality in Progress."

The drive was pretty uneventful, even if I was a bit concerned with how much my cousin spoke on the phone whilst driving, not even using a hands-free headset. Once again, the reason that girl has been in so many car accidents is plainly clear to me.

We arrived up at my brother's house just in time to have homemade za (our word for "pizza") and greet the crowds as they came in. Besides me and my cousin Kate, there were my cousins Brendan and Hillary, and my parents as well. Everyone gathered around the table, we had a great dinner, and got playing with my new iPad, which my dad had brought up from New York. It was funny how the iPad functioned as a communal device, with everybody playing with it.

On Saturday morning, we decided to go to my brother's office and take the ficus tree that he keeps there home for the summer. Obviously, living indoors year-round is not the best thing for a tree, so we decided it was going to "go to summer camp".

To move the tree, we needed to get it out of the office, and then into a wagon, which we then carted through the middle of downtown Portsmouth on "Market Fair Day", so there were people everywhere, wondering why on earth we were carting a tree in a wagon! We got quite a few funny looks, but it was incredibly fun.

After our efforts with tree-moving, our labour was then enlisted to remove the chain-link fence at the side of their house. This involved digging up the posts deeply buried in cement, but with the group labour working on it, we managed to get it done in relatively short order.

Then my aunt and uncle arrived, and we then had an indoor cook-out, as the weather was not totally co-operating with us. But given that this allowed us to avoid mosquitoes and just enjoy each other's company around the table, we weren't complaining too much!

Sunday morning, we generally hung out, did some quick shopping at some of the outlet stores in Kittery (I picked up a strapless bra and a pair of jeans), and then before too long it was time for me and my parents to make the drive back down to New York. We got caught in some traffic, but it wasn't too bad, and before long we were home, sweet home!