It was the best of weekends, it was the worst of weekends.

So...have I mentioned that we are having an unseasonably cold October? And of course I have no heat on the first floor of my house...because of the dreaded basement project. The bedrooms upstairs are on a separate unit so we are toasty up there, but the temp in my kitchen and living areas is around 50 degrees most of the time. When Dave gets the fireplace going, it can reach as high as 55, but that’s still a bit on the cold side for me. Which is why I put on my leggings, wool-lined boots, and several layers of shirts, sweaters and jackets, before descending to the first floor in the mornings. And this routine is getting a bit old.

And then some of my family came in for the weekend...ostensibly to see the girls cheer at our football game Friday night...but in the end, it’s always about THE GARAGE SALE. My sisters and I are, and have been for as long as I can remember, garage-sale-a-holics. And apparently it’s a genetic disorder, because our kids seem to be affected as well. But don’t tell anyone. It’s our dirty little family secret and we aren’t exactly proud of it. But the truth is, we LIKE to set up and hold garage sales. We have the usual garage sale merchandise, including a well-stocked holiday table, a lovely array of used makeup and jewelry, and an outstanding selection of bags, purses and shoes. But then we also like to put out embarrassing things, like our sons’ boxer shorts, to see if they will sell...and they always do. And we find this entertaining for some reason.

So anyway, we held our garage sale this weekend in a rented building because the weather forecast indicated below freezing temps and sleet for Saturday. And this turned out to be a good thing because we needed a warm place to go. But eventually we had to pack up and go back to my cold house. I suggested that we spend the evening in my bedroom playing cards around my king-sized bed, but several people seemed uncomfortable with that plan. Instead they liked the idea of gathering in the living room by the fireplace so that’s what we did. We made s’mores and huddled together under blankets, and even listened to and critiqued Luke’s reading of Memorial Road’s October 10th scripture selection (via the internet of course).

Then we wanted to play cards but couldn’t bring ourselves to leave the fireplace room. So Dave went outside to the garage and found David’s old hovercraft that he made for the 7th grade science fair, which is really just a big round piece of plywood and I thought we could set it on the coffee table and it would be a perfect game-table for Nertz. Sure enough, with a tablecloth, it proved to be a great surface and size for 10 of us to play what we then termed Hovercraft Nertz. So it turned out to be a nice evening with surprisingly few complaints, although a few people said the hovercraft dug into their knees and, obviously, we all could have used those gloves with the fingers cut out.

And for those of you concerned about our health and safety, you should know that Luke also read for us the signs of hypothermia (from the internet of course) and none of us ever passed from the shivering stage into the panting and shortness of breath stage. And while he was at it, he also diagnosed Susan with a few more disorders that she’d been wondering about.

Oh and I almost forgot another entertaining moment of the evening. At about 10 o’clock, David comes stumbling in (from a birthday party) and falls to the floor beside our game, moaning and complaining that he felt terrible. Unfortunately, due to the nature of our Hovercraft set-up, we were basically trapped in the circle and no one could get to him without moving furniture or climbing over things, so we all just pretty much stared at him. Finally, he roused himself and went upstairs to lie down, and soon Emily (who worries about everything and everyone, bless her heart) climbed over some stuff and went up to check on him. But she came back and reported basically nothing, as she is wont to do, and I started thinking he might have meningitis, as I am wont to do, so I moved the love seat to escape the circle, and checked on him myself. And he was feverish, but not delirious, so I dosed him up with Advil and returned to the game.

And I don’t mean to get all sentimental here, but I’ve been thinking about my family lately, and especially about the troopers that were here this weekend. And I can’t help but feel blessed. Yes, even though I don’t have a warm house or kitchen cabinets or a working washing machine, and even though my exposed pipes are freezing up and Fidel doesn’t answer Dave’s calls, and even though I have a pain in my neck, pack-rat tendencies, and unpaid fines at the library. My mom always said "everything in life is a trade-off" and although I usually rolled my eyes at her when she said it, I knew it was true. So maybe if some aspects of my life are not so perfect, it’s just the price I have to pay for having a truly great family.

And Dave made this tortilla-like soup stuff last week and I had some of it for lunch, with chips and cheese. It wasn’t bad, even though the beans weren’t fully cooked