Busy week, busy weekend

Sorry about the lack of posts. It's been busybusy for us here. Amanda lost her phone and we had to get a new one (spiffy sleek black with a camera!) and Kevin and Nikki both came to visit and Christopher had to go to Billerica to count boxes for work. (Nikki, ever the fabulous Godmother, held May and helped pull together the two birthday cakes for the party on Sat., more on later.)

We also signed the p&s agreement for the condo on Monday. It's essentially a down payment (5 percent) and a big long 35-page document that we had to sign and initial every page of. For five copies. Took friggin forever.

We haven't had it inspected yet, which is unusual but it's us, so what do you expect? We do have a get-out-of-jail-free clause in the agreement that we get all our money back if we inspect it (or read the condo bylaws, also not supplied) and don't like anything. Our lawyer is working overtime on what's usually a basic boilerplate agreement because the developer is a bit of a p.i.t.a.

And then Tuesday, our garbage dispos-all backed up into our tub, causing us some small amount of consternation. Our plumbing has never been fabulous, but that was a bit much. Still, Rose fixed it with a gallon of bleach down the drain. As it followed an application of Drano, we were a little concerned with chlorine gas build up but ran about a million gallons of water down the drain.

Saturday, we drove to Conn. for Cathy's 60th birthday party, a delightful shindig pulled off with grace and aplomb by Barb. The menu was two kinds of stew (Ina's chicken stew and Christopher Kimball's beef stew) and two kinds of cake. (Chocolate truffel tort and apple cake.) We also made caramel sauce. And then didn't share, as is our perogative as adults and cooks.

Donna Parisi is coming tomorrow and C has Tuesday off so we can do laundry and whatnot.

Finally, the fabulous photos of this post have been supplied by brother-in-law Mike LeBlanc. If you want to see more of a longish slideshow, please click this paragraph. As always, ignore the log-in (if you want to) and click "View This Slideshow" once the website opens up.