Aaaaaaaaah

The houseguests have left and the house is back in order. It's always nice to have visitors, and it's nice to have visitors......leave. A great visit, lots of fun and good food and drink, but now it's back to what Carlos and I call 'normal'.
His Aunt Gloria, who lived in Miami for many years before retiring back to Mexico City, arrived last week with her friend, Luz Maria, for a week-long stay. Carlos calls Gloria his 'Second Mother' and, one day this week while she and I were chatting, she told me that Carlos is the 'Son of Her Heart.' Very sweet way to put it.
Gloria has always loved hearing Carlos play the trumpet, so she planned her visit to coincide with the Camden community Band's Winter Concert to hear Carlos play. It also didn't hurt that the visit would include the day of her 83rd birthday.
Eighty-effing-three. Amazing. And she still drives. In Mexico City. Where traffic is a nightmare of epic proportions.

For her birthday we took the ladies up to Biltmore in Asheville. I thought she'd been before, but it was her first visit and she was thrilled to tour the house and gardens--and, as thrilled as I was to do some wine-tasting. Hopefully, when she comes for another visit, we can tour the house in Spring, when the flowers are blooming, or in the Fall, when the leaves are turning. And, well, Christmas is beautiful there, too.
One of Gloria's favorite holidays is Thanksgiving, which she began to celebrate after moving from Mexico to Miami. She loves the turkey and every single thing that goes along with it. But, sadly, her last visit here, for a Thanksgiving--several years back--was so cold that she was miserable. So, we told her that since Thanksgiving is about appreciating and enjoying many things in life, like family, that we could have a Thanksgiving Dinner whenever we wanted one. Which we did, on her birthday.

So, Thanksgiving in March-slash-Tia Gloria's Big 83 was a wonderful meal. Turkey. Stuffing. Gravy. Homemade cranberry sauce. Margaritas and Mediterranean Sidecars, and wine. And good friends David and Neal, along with David's sister, Barbara. Such a great meal, after which Carlos presented the aunt he calls 'La Bruja'--the witch--with an actual witch for her birthday. And she loved it. And loved touring Smallville, and the surrounding Smallvilles, as well as going in to Carlos' job and meeting his co-workers.
All in all, a lovely, lovely visit.

I'm still getting teary over that whole 'Son of My Heart' business.

Checking In.....

Just a quick drive-by this morning.

The houseguests--Carlos' Aunt Gloria and her friend Luz Maria--have been here since Friday and having a lovely time. Gloria came for two, maybe three reasons. 

Carlos started playing trumpet with the Smallville Community Band and they were having a Winter Concert last Sunday. She's always loved listening to Carlos play, so she definitely wanted to see that. 

In addition, she loves Thanksgiving, but November in Smallville is too cold for her, so we told her we'd have Thanksgiving Dinner whenever she comes; and luckily, except for a trip to Asheville yesterday where we got some snow--our Smallville weather will be perfect.

Thirdly, and more importantly, tomorrow is Tia Gloria's 83rd birthday. So, our "Thanksgiving" will be for celebrating that. Around the way gays, Neal and David, as well as David's sister Barbara, will be joining the celebration.

Yesterday, also as a birthday gift, we took The Ladies to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville. They had never been before and loved touring the house and gardens, and, of course, doing some Biltmore Wine Tasting. 

Afterwards, we drove into Asheville and had dinner at the Tupelo Honey Cafe. Fried Green Tomatoes over Goat Cheese Grits, Mama's Meat Loaf, Southern Fried Chicken Saltimbocca with Country Ham and Mushroom Marsala Sauce, Stroganoff, Y’all, and because I cannot see Ahi on a menu without ordering it, Gingered Ahi Tuna Steak. Banana Puddin' for dessert and that was all she wrote.

All in all, a good day, and now we begin preparations for La Brouha's [Spanish slang for witch, not because Gloria's a real witch, but because she likes witches] Thanksgiving Birthday Feast.

Hope y'all are doin' well, and, after some more pre-planned rants and stuff, I'll be back, fresh, on Monday.

Explosion

Carlos blew his top.

We had been out with "the ladies" looking all over for a particular CD they wanted. We had driven out to Columbia, and looked all over until we finally found it; at a place called 'Sounds Familiar' a funky old new and used music store. I myself stocked up on a new BoDeans and a Billie Holiday I didn't have.

But I digress.

After going around looking for, and finding the music, we drove into Columbia and headed for West Columbia. Carlos asked if the ladies were hungry. "No." said La Bruja. So we drove on. Carlos then suggested a place for a coffee and pastry.

"We'd like to have salad," ordered La Bruja.

So off we went for an short, uncomfortable lunch at Cafe Strudel in West Columbia, after which we headed home. It was cold and rainy, so La Bruja decides to sit in the sunroom--surrounded on three sides by glass with two skylights overhead. The heat comes on and La Bruja waddles back to Carlos and says, "We'd like more heat."

That was all it took for the Carlos Bomb to go off. He went out to the kitchen and did his version of the dressing down. He ranted about spending six hours shopping. He railed about La Bruja wanting to waited on hand-and-foot. He roared about the absence of Please or Thank You. He was loud, but not as loud as I would have been. I was in the back of the house and I heard the raised voices. I crept into the hallway just in time to hear: "We're going out to a nice dinner and tomorrow we'll drive you back up to Charlotte so you can go home!"

My man. He's a sweetheart, but you can only push him so far before the TICK TICK BOOM!

Aftermath

So the dinner is over, leftovers stored, wine bottles emptied and dessert and coffee served.

What do we have to look forward to now?

Oh yes. The guests getting the hell out of our house!

Carlos' aunt and a friend of hers, whose names I will keep to myself--oh hell no, it's Gloria and Luz Maria--arrived on Monday and were staying until Monday, but are now leaving Sunday morning. And that won't come soon enough for me.

It's not that they're awful women--at least one of them isn't, for Luz Maria speaks very little English. But as for the other one, La Bruja (The Witch) as Carlos calls her, can be a demon spawn. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, because she's almost eighty and quite set in her ways, but she can be brutal.

On Tuesday, Carlos took the day off from work and took them to Columbia to go shopping. Carlos. Hates. Shopping. But it was his aunt and her friend, so off they went, for SIX HOURS. He watched them buy key chains, and nail clippers, pens and comb sets, three-dollar T-shirts and anything shiny and made of plastic. I think they were buying souvenirs for all of Mexico City. And upon their return, how thankful and gracious was Gloria? Um.............................Not.

The next day I was off and Carlos worked. I was staying home to do some pre-Thanksgiving dinner prep, but the ladies wanted to go shopping again! I suggested the nearest spot, and offered to drive them down there; I gave them my cell phone so they could call me to come get them. In the short drive to the shopping center, La Bruja must have thanked me, and told me I was the sweetest person ever, about twenty times. But Carlos? Bupkus! Nada. Zip. Zilch.

Thanksgiving Day Carlos and I cooked and baked and set the table and poured the wine and served the dinner and prepared his dessert and served his dessert and cleared and washed and scrubbed and rinsed, and wiped down counters and stoves and the table.

La Bruja? Left the room....but not before she asked in that voice of hers, "Can we have some more heat please? We'll pay the difference."

Where's my gun?

The next day, Black Friday, they ask to go shopping again. On Black Friday! With all the lunatics and soccer moms. Well, Carlos and I are shopping for a new flat screen TV, so we went. We drove into Columbia, to the Target store, and dropped them off while we parked. We walked the half mile or so back to the Target and La Bruja and su amiga are waiting on the curb. "What are we doing here?" she asked. "We have no more shopping to do!"

Again. Gun?

So we let them loose in Target while we looked at Circuit City for TVs. Then it was back to pick them, oh yes, and their purchases up, and head home. Gloria passes out in the sunroom for a couple of hours and, upon waking, asks where we are taking her now. Mind you, the woman doesn't want to do anything but shop.

So, Carlos offered to take them into town and wander through the antique malls. La Bruja agrees, and Carlos gets ready to go. Then she changes her mind and says she's hungry. The she asks us to make whipped cream for her dessert. Make. Whipped. Cream. If I could have made it into a gun and used it, I would have.

Drop everything and feed her. Gun? Anyone?

Again, not a lacquered fingernail is lifted in reheating their food or setting the table, serving, clearing washing..........it's like Groundhogs Day because I'm reliving the day before exactly as it happened the FIRST TIME!!!

They had coffee with dessert. I got the big wine goblet out.

T-minus 41 hours and counting.