AND A BURGER THE SIZE OF MY FACE

huck waiting to be the first to see grandma + grandpa when they pull up the drive. he has no pants on. but at least he's wearing his mickey mouse slippers.

My parents came into town on Friday for the Labor Day weekend and got to witness up close + personal the cold sore of my life that had taken up residence on my lip from all this stress of us trying to find us Holbrooks a second car. 

Trying to find a second car when you are a Brandon is an adventure fraught with peril, and we should all extend unto him our deepest sympathies. Because I  am an emotional car shopper. I know what I want, and for whatever reason that does not include power windows, and you just can't reason me out of that one, okay, so don't even try.

You know, what I really want is a late-70s Chevy Blazer. Or a Ford Bronco. Or an International Scout! The beastlier the better. Craigslist was a lot of help. Brandon's eyes would twitch any time I'd get on my phone in case I was about to get on my Craigslist app and stir up a lot of trouble. 

I fell in love with a forest green 1968 Ford F150 in Spokane the other day, but Brandon wanted something that wasn't going to land his wife and son in a ditch on the side of the road, which is admirable, except he DOES know we've been riding around on a death bike in the rain + wildfire smoke all month, right? I mean, I could go bungee jumping in a rusted out old Land Cruiser with bad brakes and no functioning speedometer and STILL be safer than I am riding my bike across Sixth Street, but bygones. 

I guess I just want my Betsy the Flying Potato all over again and that's all there is to it. Oh, Betsy.

So we compromised on what we are now calling our Wrangler-With-Warranty Special. She reminds me of my old Isuzu Rodeo, Suzy Q. So we are also calling her that, too.

Suzy Q Two, the Wrangler, and Minnie the Marshmallow, our Prius. 

I know, it's super precious, isn't it?

Papers signed, next we celebrated with an Effie burger. As you do. Have you been to Effie's? It's the kind of thing where you'll happily land in Idaho all your life so long as Effie is there to make you a burger the size of your face and then get impatient at you when you aren't sure what kind of fries you want to go along with it. 

This burger has a larger hat size measurement than I do. Here. Here is a soda for reference. 

Bless you, Idaho, for understanding the necessity of the DDP. 

You'd think nothing this large could taste any good but actually, it is divine. Even Huck was into it, and Huck is into nothing these days. (Being four is an ornery endeavor. I get it.)

You know what is weird? Going into the bathroom at Effie's with Huck when the last time I was in that bathroom with Huck (at Brandon's graduation dinner), Huck wasn't born yet. And yet, there were still the same number of humans in there the last time I was there as there was this time I was there, except this time one of them was just . . . bigger.

And outside.

No, I mean, that's really weird, huh.

And anyway my mommy got me this antique marshmallow tin at the antique mall while she was here for an early birthday present, and this reminds me that I never shared with you all the last time they had visited us at our house, back when our house was in New York City, lo these many weeks ago. We did fun things and took dorky pictures, so now I am going to share all of THOSE with you, too.  CONTAIN YOURSELVES, PLEASE.

Hey remember when I lived here? Weird, right??

One of the fun things we did the last time my parents were in town is buy all the fruit for sale in Chinatown and hold ourselves a fancy tasting party. A lot of Googling went down to figure out how to open most of these suckers and which parts of the fruits we were actually meant to eat. 

And then we browsed some of the famous Americana art-turned-street-statues along Broadway between 34th and 42nd Street.

And now we get to have a vote on who did it best.

Eh?

Here, vote wisely.

Huck and I win, though. Right?

Thought so.

And thank you to my mother for this picture of me needlepointing on the subway. 

Sigh. And then we left Brooklyn . . . 

Stayed a night + jumped on beds in Queens . . . 

And then moved our butts on out to Idaho.

Where we stand now, pantsless.
Whelp, I'd say that about does it.
Come back again soon, Grandma + Grandpa!