Early? Well....

I suppose that a quarter to eight isn't particularly early, but it feels like it.

Last night, we went down to Gettysburg to have dinner out with my sister in law and her family. (Which word, so long as our guest has been here, I've been reading as famiLEE.) Initially, it was a bit rocky -- my permadaughter didn't want to go at all, was mightily aggrieved that she couldn't wear jeans (they were planning to eat at a local club that didn't allow them), and grumped about it. Then, when we got there, my niece and a friend, who were meeting us, came over, said hello, and immediately got into the club's pool. The far end of the pool. We waited. And waited. My sister in law is known for being late -- I think she honestly believes that when she's done at work, it's just a few minutes to home, even though experience has shown it's more like twenty minutes on a good day. Then we discover that the pool doesn't actually have takeout from the club restaurant (we weren't dressed well enough for the restaurant), and when we started thinking about just getting pizza, after she arrived, they started saying oh, we're pizza connoisseurs, we should go to-- oh, wait, they closed -- but there's this other place, its really -- oh, wait, it closes at 6, but there's -- well, I started wondering if I was going to get dinner at all.

We finally ended up in a strip mall pizza place (connoisseurs?). It wasn't all that bad. Nothing special. But then things started to improve. Because of the seating, we couldn't all sit at one table. I had been groaning, mentally, because I thought that my sister in law would start gushing over our guest (and, dammit, this is our guest; hands off!!!), but she was at the other table. Me and my daughters were at the other - we immediately called it the kids table - and even after my brother in law joined us (he's a nice guy, very quiet) -- it was still okay. We talked about computers, and the iPad, and things like that -- the guest couldn't really enter into it, but she seemed to be following.

As we were leaving, my fears started to be realized -- the sister in law began to talk to the guest, speaking loudly (Soda? Do you know the word Soda? Kes k'se Soda?) (For gods sake, the kids not stupid -- she just doesn't speak English - leave her alone!) but that didn't last too long. And then we left. Which is when what happened that really delighted me. Because all the way home, the two girls teased each other, doing the classic She's poking me No I'm not Oui! Non! Oui! Non! Oui! Non! With both girls muttering in French, and laughing. All the way home. It was great.

Damn, but I'm going to miss that kid.