First, some anger needs to be vented. (passive voice - would MS Word object?) We drove back from North Carolina yesterday. We left at 2 PM and arrived home at 1 AM. Driving at night is a little less fun, but the kids slept most of the way. Verdict: try to make some of children transporting longer car trips at night.

Anyway, we were coming through DC at about 10 PM last night. I pulled off to take a leak and get some gas. We went to three different gas stations and none would let me use their bathrooms. They said, "sorry, door locked." I said, "please give me the key." They said "no." I said, "I will not buy any gas here. goodbye." They didn't care. Moral of the story: You Cannot Pee in Washington DC.

We were visiting my aunt and uncle, grandparents, and Jill's cousin in North Carolina. The weather was very nice. First we spent a few days in New Bern, NC, and then we went to Kennels Beach to visit Jill's cousin's cottage. Had a great time at both locations. My aunt and uncle live next to a couple who keep bees as a hobby.

I showed May the beehives and she kept wanting to go closer to the beehives. Later that day, we were inside and May wanted to go 'pet the bees.' I was shocked and upset. My aunt, however, had the clever suggestion of calling May's bluff. She said, 'you can go pet the bees but you might get stung.' May said, 'Will I get a band-aid?' Aunt Carolyn said, 'Bee stings just hurt; they don't bleed. If there's no blood, you don't get a band aid.' Then she found a dead wasp and got May to try to pet it. After we learned there was no potential to earn a band-aid and we actually had an opportunity to pet the bee, there was much less general interest in petting the bees.

In Kennels Beach, I especially enjoyed tooling around on the beach with Jill's cousin's husband. We set a net and caught some flounders. I never thought you could fillet a fish as skinny as a flounder, but Brendan proved me wrong. I got to scale the fish, and he filleted them. He has a brilliant talent for this that must come from many years of practice. I'm going to grill them outside tonight on my George Foreman grill.

Ben was happy to be home today. He was too excited to eat. He wanted to play right away. He now likes to get behind a chair and push it around the room. It's great fun. May has been sleeping on the couch all morning. She's feeling a little under the weather.