Wacky weekend

After Joe's phone call with Harvey and our visit from Betsy we decided to go eat dinner at the Taco House and let all the news sink in.

Initially we had not planned to go to the beach this past weekend. We'd been up there the last 4 weekends in a row, and I figured this weekend we could stay home and do some of the fix up projects to ready our house for listing. But with Friday's weather being so absolutely gorgeous and the weekend forecast for more of the same, we decided it would be a downright shame not to go to the beach.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day Joe's brother Frank called and asked if he and his friend Liz could go to the beach with us for his birthday. Joe explained that we were still undecided about going, but he would let him know later. When Joe talked to me about this I was NOT excited.

I do not dislike Frank, but Frank is not a person I would choose to be friends with. We really don't have much in common. He drinks too much on a consistent basis (read: alcoholic), he smokes the worst smelling cigarettes in the world, he can't keep a job, he can't support himself financially, and he always thinks of himself first and maybe others second. Oh, and did I mention he owes us several thousand dollars which he promised to pay back 6 years ago? But he's Joe's brother so of course I am polite and friendly to him.

Then there's Liz. Liz and Frank used to be romantically attached like 18 years ago. Frank has made it abundantly clear that he is not romantically interested in her anymore, but she continues to live in an alternate reality where they were still 'together'.

When Liz's parents died she and her brother inherited their parents' money and house on waterfront property. The brother was a good steward of his money and land, but Liz squandered hers. Despite having once been a licensed attorney, she stopped working for over 10 years and took long vacations all over the world. It took several years but she finally blew threw the money and was unable to pay the taxes on the family house and land. Eventually she lost them both and would have become homeless if Frank hadn't taken her in. She now has an entry level job with the Federal government and rents a basement room in a crime-ridden, drug dealing area. Since she and her brother are estranged and Frank has been the only friend she's had (apparently), she has adopted Frank's family and invites herself to Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter every year. Once again, I do not dislike Liz, but she is not a person I would choose as a friend. We really don't have much in common.

Perhaps now it is more clear why I was less than enthusiastic about the idea of Frank and Liz coming to the beach with us for the weekend.

I suggested to Joe that he tell them we were going to be tied up most of the day Sat with our realtor. I suggested they drive up for the day on Sun, since its only 2.5-3 hours away. I suggested they come a different weekend when we wouldn't be in and out so much, hoping they'd eventually forget about coming.

So after dinner at the Taco House we tossed a few things into a suitcase, put Jordan in the back seat and headed to the beach with the top down. We never heard back from Frank that night.

Sat morning we didn't hear from Frank by the time we were ready to go to the beach so Joe called his cell phone to see if they were coming or not. Frank said they were just leaving Dover.

"What are you doing in Dover?" Joe asked. Apparently it was a story too long to tell between cell towers, but we would eventually hear all about it.

We went to the beach and it couldn't have been more beautiful. It was about 80 degrees, breezy and sunny. Perfect beach weather! I hated to leave, but since we had an appointment with Lee Ann the realtor that afternoon, we had to come back. Oh, and Frank & Liz were coming.

Several calls for directions later, Frank, Liz, and Joe's mom arrived. We let them in and explained that we were quickly showering and leaving to meet the realtor. I drew them a quick map to get the to historic Lewes and we were out the door.

We met Lee Ann at the "water house" for a 2nd look. I'm glad we went, as there were several positive things about the property I had not noticed the first time. Despite the current owners furniture and belongings, I really felt 'at home' there and I knew it was the house for us. However, Lee Ann discouraged us from making a low offer with a contingency on selling our house. I didn't realize it but when a seller accepts a contingent offer, there is a 72-hour period during which they can solicit and accept other offers! Lee Ann said that just because there had been no other offers yet didn't mean there weren't any other buyers considering making an offer like us. So we decided to trust in the Universe that the house was meant for us and wait until we had an offer on our house. Then we could make our offer without any contingency.

Afterward we met up with Frank, Liz, and Evelyn for an early dinner. We all had entrees and desserts, and of course Frank had 2 bottles of beer and an after dinner Frangelico and coffee. When the bill came and Evelyn and Liz had contributed, Liz handed the folder to Frank. He looked at her for a moment and said "I thought I wasn't paying since it is my birthday." After an awkward silence Liz responded "You want me to pay? I already gave you a gift." After another awkward silence Joe broke in and said "We'll pay for Frank." With tip the bill came to $140. Evelyn gave $20. and Liz gave $20. Joe & I paid $100. I immediately thought of saying something wicked sarcastic to Liz and Evelyn, like 'I hope you both can still afford to pay your electric bill after such an expensive lunch', but of course common decency and my love for Evelyn kept me in check. They could have at least offered to pitch in a few extra bucks for Frank. But rather, they didn't even cover their own cost once the tip was included. I mentally filed this away and later I told Joe that we were not going out to eat with them any more this weekend.

Sun Joe made breakfast for everyone, and Frank & Liz went to the beach. It was so gorgeous I would have liked to have gone too, but Evelyn didn't want to go and Joe didn't want to leave her at home alone, so I preferred to skip the beach with them than to go with Frank & Liz. We drove around a little and showed Evelyn some of the houses we had gone into. We stopped for lunch and eventually wound up back at the house. Frank & Liz were eating hoagies on the screened porch, which was just fine with me. At least I didn't have to pay for them. We hung out for a little while and the 3 of them left at 5pm. Joe & I cleaned the bathrooms, kitchen, vacuumed, and stripped the beds (since they didn't bother to), packed our stuff and got on the road at 7:20. It was a lovely ride home with the top down and the wind blowing over us.

When we got home at 10:15 we realized we had no toilet paper in the house! We got back in the car and picked up some stuff we needed for the week, and then had a snack of corn dogs (oh how white trash) at 11:00. The title of this entry warned you it was a wacky weekend!!!

Drag Queen name of the day: Crystal Clear