nephews, the BSC, and getting hacked

What a weekend it's been! I am sad to see it end. Except for being sick. If that could end, that would be great. And then if I could re-do the weekend, only not feeling like crap? That would be great, too, thanks.

Whatevs, though.

This was the long-awaited weekend that my sis-in-law Amy and bro-in-law Tom came to town and brought with them my new (and FIRST) nephew, Timmy!!! It has been almost two long months since Timmy made his arrival into the world. Unfortunately, he and his parents have the misfortune of living in Vermont, which is not actually very close to his Auntie Erika in Georgia...so it's meant I've spent almost two months not-knowing my only nephew. (Note: Why is there not a gender-neutral word to describe nephews and nieces? It's not that I want to be extra-PC or anything, it's just that by saying "he's my only nephew," you may be thinking "oh, she has some nieces..." but I DON'T!!! He's my only OFFSPRING OF MY SIBLINGS, which doesn't really have a nice ring to it. So may the record show that Timmy is the first baby of the next generation in both mine and Matt's families. Thanks.)

Anyway-- I know you are chompin at the bit to see those pics of me and Timmy, but I'm going to make you wait. Because I didn't get to meet Timmy until Saturday. And Friday night comes before Saturday!!

On Friday night I hung out with my sister/friend Catherine. We had an excellent night eating some yummy seafood and then we went back to her house where she had a most fantastical surprise for me:

source

THIS GAME!!! She purchased it at a consignment sale last week. It may help if you know that we (along with our other sister/friend Kristina) are were slightly obsessed with the Baby-Sitter's Club as youngsters. I personally started devouring those books with a religious fervor in about second grade, and pretty much didn't stop until....well, until Ann M. Martin stopped writing them. In college, when Catherine, Kristina, and I lived together, we combined our sizable collections of books and brought them to our college apartment, where we proceeded to re-read them and discuss them as though they were fine literature. Which they are. Now, back in the day I did own this board game (along with a lot of other BSC paraphernalia), but I'm pretty sure my mom got rid of the game when she decided I was "too old" for the BSC (which is impossible, by the way). Catherine saw this one at the consignment sale and just KNEW what we would be doing on our Friday night.

We might be almost 30, but you are NEVER too old to hang out with Stacey, Kristy, Mary Ann, and Dawn for the night. And you wouldn't BELIEVE how much of my brain is being clogged up with loads of useless trivia about the BSC. Seriously. If I could've cleared out all that stuff to make room for the stuff I was supposed to be learning in college...sheesh. Anyway. Mad props to Catherine for locating this gem of a game...and if there are any other super awesome people who would like to challenge either of us to some BSC trivia...do it at your own risk and prepare to lose. Also, Ann M. Martin, if you read this blog...I think you are the greatest author ever and Catherine and I wish you would write some new books and tell us what happened with all the girls. Also, we may or may not be writing our own fan fiction to do just that.

I know...how could the rest of my weekend EVER measure up to such a fantastic Friday night?? It was tough, but luckily...Timmy was up to the job. Are you ready??

 BABY TIMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! With his Aunt Erika and Uncle Mattie.

And with his Aunt Erika, his most favorite [GENDER-NEUTRAL TERM THAT ENCOMPASSES AUNTS AND UNCLES]. I am the best at getting him to sleep on my chest.
And at having a really obnoxious part in my bangs. 

 Me and Timmy had a lot of good times together. Mostly I held him and talked to him and he stared off into space or fell asleep. Actually, the previous sentence could easily also describe my relationship with Matt. HAHA. Just kidding, Mattie. Not that you read this. 

See, Timmy even has the power to wow and amaze groups of men! Look at them fawn over the cute little thing!

(In case you don't know, that would be Tom (Timmy's proud dad) on the left, Matt holding Timmy, and Matt's dad/Timmy's grandpa on the right)

We had a lot of fun hanging out with Amy and Tom (and Timmy, did I mention him?) and the rest of our family all weekend. We had a big surprise 60th birthday party for Matt's mom last night...it was a lot of fun and a TOTAL surprise to her. There were almost 40 people there!! We also had a family photo shoot today with a photographer. That was fun. Now that we're out of weddings (we had 'em every 6 months for awhile there), we have to think of other reasons to have photographers follow us around. Crazy.

The main thing we did, though, was spend lots of time laying around at the parents' house...eating, playing games, watching football, and HACKING EACH OTHER'S FACEBOOKS. No, seriously. 

See, the parents have a few iPads. Naturally, when we're all hanging out, we're passing the iPads around and around, checking emails and facebooks, playing Words/Hanging With Friends, and having photo shoots with ourselves: 

 I was thinking of making this my Blogger profile pic...do you think I would get a lot of new traffic from people seeing my pic on my comments on other blogs and clicking out of morbid curiosity? Or am I the only person on earth still fascinated/entertained by Photo Booth? Valid questions.

I always wanted to be a twin!! But maybe not a Siamese twin...in love with myself...okay, maybe not that.

Anyway. It's bound to happen, when you're just passing around iPads, that you forget to log yourself out. And someone, probably a well-meaning sister-in-law, will notice and take advantage of that fact. And then a little while later, you might notice that SHE forgot to log HERSELF out...so you return the favor. And then later...well, you get the idea. And then you notice the whole family congregating in the kitchen, but you're so doped up on cold medicine that you don't stop to think that they are probably conspiring against you, and when you finally wake up enough to inquire....you find this:

And you realize that everyone you know (that you're FB friends with) has had their newsfeeds BLOWN UP with your hacked status updates...and you want to apologize, but that would mean showing up AGAIN, and you start wondering how many people un-friended you as a result of aforementioned hackation. Ridiculous, for sure.

If you're my FB friend, I apologize. If you're my brother or sister-in-law...you better sleep with one eye open. And make sure you log yourself out of your facebook EXTRA GOOD next time. And if you're NOT my facebook friend, but you WANT to be...I totally understand. This has got to be better than seeing people's political rants, right?

So that was my weekend. It was great, and now I want to sleep for about 3 days. Unfortunately, instead of doing that, I will be working. Awesome. To make things even better, tomorrow is Columbus Day, which my banker-husband will have off. To add insult to injury, he is spending the day getting a MASSAGE (and then his weekly acu appointment). Let's review. I will be at work, even though I'm sick. Matt...who is not sick...will be spending the day NOT going to work and getting massaged/acupunctured instead. Life is so not fair.