You may now apply your 3D glasses, as we proceed..

Before I write anything, I have to say… I smell shit. And it won’t go away. I think the scent is in my nose now! Blah. Earlier today I thought it was just the smell of the potato cheddar soup that was made/served at the restaurant downstairs, because that always smells disgusting, but the scent hasn’t gone away and the restaurant shut… 7 hours ago. Yes, our bathroom is adjacent to the kitchen, but when I enter the bathroom the scent goes away. It’s like there is an invisible dump in the middle of the kitchen floor. Jake can’t smell it. I think I am going insane. Well, more insane. I don’t know why I’m telling you any of this. I’m chewing gum to get rid of the smell and all it is doing is adding a layer of mint to the top of it. Plus, because the gum was from Jake’s packet, that he keeps in his pocket all day at work, there is also the faintest flavour of gross sweaty man. It is… well it should be disgusting, but it is distracting so it isn’t as bad as it would normally be.

Sorry, that was rambly and gross. And not at all why I opened this window…

Last night, we headed to the Chinese buffet place nearby to meet Gale and Nancy (Jake’s Dad and stepmother.) We are never told who else is coming, so we assumed it would be the same as always, just the 4 of us plus Nick and Stacy (Jake’s brother and his wife.) As we were waiting outside, because we are always early (well, I’m always early, Jake just gets dragged early), we were watching the few other people moving around. A family walked by us, and I told Jake that the woman looked like his stepsister Diana in 5-10 years. She walked by us 3 times, and he looked and agreed.

Eventually this guy on a phone is standing near us and says hello. Neither of us know him. Turns out he is Andrew, married to Diana. Who was also there. As were their two daughters – Isabelle and Kassandra. I’m not sure but I think Issy is 2 and Kassie is 2 months? Cute kids. We all go inside and it turns out there was a reason the woman looked like Diana+10. It’s her older sister Andrea!

We hadn’t seen Andrea since our wedding 4 years ago (and I’m pretty sure that is the only time I have seen her) and I only knew what Diana looks like because of her facebook picture. I saw her once in real life, at the mall one time. Although I didn’t know who she was until after we had walked away, so I don’t really count that as meeting her. We had never met either of their husbands (I don’t know the name of Andrea’s man, or even if they are married. He never spoke to us) and out of the 4 children we had only met Isabelle before, so there were many unknown faces at the table of 12. (Andrea had 2 boys… Caleb and Rory? I think. 8 and 1.)

Buffets are not a good place to take me, I eat very little. I had a plate with fried rice and 3 little bits of chicken, and a few bits of broccoli that I quickly gave to Jake because they tasted like fish again. Even though I got them from a pan labelled CHICKEN and broccoli. And I had another plate of chocolate pudding with a sugar bun on top. That was pretty tasty but made me feel ill pretty quickly.

Except for the few occasions when the girls would ask us if/when we are having kids (or tell us not to and all the "horrors" of having kids…) we just sat quietly in our corner for the evening. I got to hold Kassie for a bit, which was lovely. She just sat happily in my lap, I think because I was in the corner of the room so we could see everything going on. I’ve never held a baby before. Such a cute little tiny thing.

When we left at 9, I was exhausted. But that’s because I am old. And also when I eat a lit and having to stay in the seat I feel restricted and don’t get as much air as I should be, so I yawn a lot. Both girls kept saying how we should get together more often. I kinda doubt it will happen. Although, "more often" just means more than once. So if we see them ever again, that counts, pretty much. If they organise something or invite us somewhere I’m sure we’ll go, but we aren’t the kind of people that initiate that sort of thing. We rarely see Nick & Stacy, and we know and love them and live rather close to them. If we were going to improve that about us, it would be to spend time with people we (or at least Jake) have things in common with.

Mmm, massive chunk of text and no pictures.

We had yummy sweet potato soup for dinner tonight. It was so good, especially after eating out 2 days in a row. We rarely eat at restaurants so doing so two days in a row is not good for our bellies. Lovely homemade soup is a great treat after that. I wish the kitchen smelled like spicy sweet potatoes. Or that I liked/used air freshner spritzy things. Anything to mask…

(my title is so lame, at least by my standards. It is just the start of the song I was listening to when I opened this window)