We woke up by nine to start packing up to go home. I had put in a load of laundry the night before and switched the clothes around. I love having nice, free, on-site laundry. I'm sick of traipsing to the laundromat every week. Our laundromat has some good points--it's close to home (only a few blocks away), clean, and has reasonable hours. But it also has its bad points--for starters, it's still a laundromat, but the biggest problem is that the washing machines have been staining our clothes. I think it's grease stains--they don't have any particular color (sort of browinsh greyish) but they are fairly dark. We've tried avoiding certain washing machines, but most of the time we don't have a choice and it seems like it happens no matter which machine we use.

My aunt felt the need to cook an enormous breakfast for everyone. We told her we were planning on going out to lunch, but she insisted. It was great (quiche, sausages, coffee cake, fruit salad, juice, coffee), but unnecessary. Needless to say, we cancelled our lunch plans.

T. (the two year old, not my uncle) wasn't up yet, but most of the adults hung out in the kitchen trying to figure out what to do about S & A's car. S. decided to call a tow truck, but by the time I was done with my shower, drying my hair, putting on makeup, and doing more laundry, he hadn't called. So there still wasn't a firm plan of what to do. The Scientist and I couldn't believe that he wouldn't try to get this fixed right away. We were going to be leaving in the early afternoon and my aunt and uncle had just hosted them (and their two big dogs and their very active two year old) overnight after a very full holiday weekend. Eventually S. called found out that their dealer wouldn't be open until Monday and that there were no tow trucks available on the Sunday after Thanksgiving (except perhaps for a dire emergency and an extra-large fee).

Meanwhile, A's college friend L. arrived from Washington, D.C. Yeah, that's funny. Yet another unexpected person at my aunt and uncle's house! L. was supposed to meet A & S somewhere in the Cities and then go back to Duluth with them. L. and her husband are moving to Duluth in a couple of months and L. is on a reconnaissance trip to start figuring out what neighborhood they want to live in. She drove straight through from D.C. to St. Paul. Yikes.

L. has an SUV too, so she and S. worked to transfer stuff around so they could all get back to Duluth. It was arranged that S. would leave his keys with my grandma (who was leaving the next day at noon to go home to Iowa), call the tow truck first thing Monday morning, and hopefully get the car towed away before my grandma had to catch her flight.

The Scientist and I packed up our car and A. got T. bathed and ready to go while S. got the dogs in the car. We all went out to our respective cars at 1:00, after saying goodbye to everyone. The Scientist and I hit the road and got home (no stops!) at 4:30. There were lots of cars on the road, but we only slowed down significantly once (because of drivers gawking at the unusual sight of...a tow truck). During the drive back we were treated with the sight of all the hunters returning from their weekend of deer slaughter. There was truck after truck with one or two or five dead deer in the back. Right out there in the open for me to get squicked out by. There's a serious deer overpopulation and illness problem in the Midwest right now and I'm supportive of hunting. I just didn't want to see the results up close.

It was good to get back to the apartment. The cats behaved while we were gone and we didn't come home to any nasty surprises like in times past. We spent the evening watching shows TiVo had recorded for us.

^* Can anyone name that song lyric?