It was a pretty good weekend.  The driving is the only thing that sucked.  I’ll admit, I’m not the one that drives when we go on long trips. The road tends to put me to sleep.  So, Jamie gets stuck with the driving duty most of the time.  We arrived at her mom’s house at 12:30 Friday night/Saturday morning and immediately went to bed.  Saturday, we had a light breakfast and went to the city for lunch and shopping.

The lunch was the highlight of the shopping trip.  We went to the FlatTop Grill, which is an amazing stir-fry place.   I ate way too much, but it was wonderful.  Saturday evening, we spent a bit of time teaching her sister to play Magic: The Gathering.  Sunday we had a big family lunch, made by Jamie’s sister, and then gathered around for gift opening.

Jamie’s first surprise from me was a Cthulhu Dice Bag, hidden in a large D&D Miniatures booster pack box.  She was a little disappointed it wasn’t minis, but loved the dice bag.

After an all-too-short weekend, we got back on the road to head home.  We made a pitstop at Fry’s along the way.  I’d never been to a Fry’s before.  Holy Carp!  That place is huge.  We picked up a couple of useful gadgets, the new Photoshop User magazine, and an overwhelmed feeling.  The second surprise came after our long drive home.

First a bit of backstory:  In the fall of 2009, our roommates (a couple) at the time offered to remodel our smaller bathroom.  We tore out the flooring, the upper cabinets, and they took down all the tile.  Then the couple broke up.  She moved out, and he stayed behind.  Over the course of the next year, bits of work got done on the bathroom, but it never quite got finished.  When we left for the weekend, the drywall was up, but not finished or painted, trim wasn’t the light fixtures weren’t up, the tub wasn’t properly sealed.  But we had the new flooring down, the new toilet in, the tub-surround, etc.

When we got home, Jamie found that the bathroom had been painted and the tub had been sealed.  It wasn’t QUITE the finished product I had hoped for, but my friends were only able to come over on Saturday and not Sunday. So we’re closer, and it was a good surprise.  Her other surprises aren’t anything spectacular, but I’m sure I’ll mention them in a future post.