the weekend in summary

What a weekend. Friday was such a whirlwind I'm surprised I had the presence of mind to blog, but I was so nervy that I supposed I needed something to do. I bought my once-every-six-months bottle of nail polish - OPI's Who Are You Wearing? - and put on my Dean's List Dinner dress and paced. Michelle and Scott had trouble finding parking, so I had to leave for work before they got in. Sean stayed home from D&D and made them a pizza, though, which isn't such a bad welcome!
The Grab was a big success. The basic idea is that our members donate goblets in whatever medium they work in, or, if they work in something that doesn't translate to goblets, they buy a goblet and integrate their piece somehow. We set up the goblets on five or six tables with brightly coloured tablecloths and as people arrive we give them a ribbon that matches one of the tables. Then, every half hour or so, we call out a colour and people with that colour descend on the table and grab the goblet they like best. It's pretty funny watching the upper crust of Fredericton shoving each other in high heels for blown-glass goblets, let me tell you. There's lots of wine and yummy food, and this year there was also a silent auction, which worked out really well. The star of the auction, to me, was a Gordon Dunphy goblet. He's an amazing woodworker, has had shows internationally and has pieces in all sorts of high profile collections. The goblet was turned from reclaimed wood - a tree that blew down in a huge storm. Gordon hasn't been well for a few years, but he managed to come in to the Grab and must have been pleased to see the goblet get up to $500 in the auction! Our treasurer Ralph won - he's a collector.
Anyway, at the end of the night we tore down fast and I brought home lots of leftover nibbles and tulips to the apartment. They'd been to the video store to rent Mario Party to try out our Wii, and already had the controllers well under control. We had a good night in - what with busy days and lots of driving, we weren't really in the mood for being out on the town, so Mario Party was a lot of fun.
I didn't have to work yesterday, for a change - nothing in the gallery - and so we slept in and then went to the market for breakfast. Normally I go to the market on the way to work, so about 9:30 - turns out it's much busier at 11! But we got what we wanted with the minimum of fuss. Michelle got her samosa fix and also tried the spring rolls that I've been getting lately. We didn't spend too long in the buildings, though, because it was really crowded and we needed to get moving.
In the afternoon we drove up to Saint John to see Patience and baby Aurora. Michelle's going to send me the pictures - she's gotten so much bigger already. Michelle and Scott were really excited to meet their goddaughter, and we got to see Patience's salon and her apartment (and cat, who looks SO MUCH like Sid). We didn't get to stay very late, though, because the weather started turning nasty and we didn't want to get caught in a snowstorm.
When we got back to Fredericton we went out to supper. I wanted to go to the Fox, but they had a half hour wait, so we decided to move on to Mexi's... a mistake. I'd like to say it was a great time, but I'd be lying. We waited for a table, which is fine, but after we were seated we were pretty much ignored by the waitresses. They were really busy at first, so I can understand, but the restaurant cleared out a lot and still... nothing. The table of businesspeople next to us were fawned over and after a mistake with one order, the waitress apologized over and over and then gave them the whole meal, drinks, dessert and all, for free - while we waited an hour and a half for our food and just got an apologetic smile. We didn't let it get us down, but it still sucks to be treated like subhumans because the people next to us are twenty years older and wearing too much jewelry.
Anyway, we spent the evening Wiiing and watching So I Married an Axe Murderer, and Megan stopped in for a visit. It turned out to be pretty quiet, because we were all sort of tired from the day in the car and lots of heavy food, but I had fun anyway.
Today we were going to go to Cora's for breakfast, but the lines are always unbelievable on Sundays, so I suggested to Fox instead, and we had a yummy brunch there. Definitely still my favourite restaurant. We stopped at the mall for a bit, because we meant to yesterday but ran out of time, and Michelle bought a present for a friend, but soon the kids had to be on the road. They dropped me here and... here I am.