Daddy dearest

Hey all! We're from vacation, and we had a fantastic time on the rocky shores of Maine.  Walking on the beach and through the woods, and just generally lounging about. We even did some badly-needed shopping. It was wonderful.

Unfortunately, we also returned armed with new (old) knowledge about my father: he is never going to change.  He is rigid, unreasonable, angry and controlling.  And those are his good points.  While we-- Speedy me & the Boy, as well as Ex, PA and la Prima-- had a great time in general on vacation, the moments of interaction with him were miserable. Even though he insisted on booking our tickets in July just to ensure that we would actually come, from the moment we set foot in the vacation house he acted as if we were unwelcome intruders.  Even though in July he was just thrilling in anticipation of five days to spend with the Boy, he was appalled at the reality of spending even a minute with the actual boy, who makes noise, gets cranky, drops food. 

In short, my father is a much better grandfather in theory than in practice.

On the last night he was there (he left a day before we did), he barked at me for taking a few noodles out of the serving dish to set aside to cool for the kids, and then suggested we feed the kids before dinner "because they get cranky" (apparently he was under the impression that the vaporize after feeding.)  During dinner itself, the Boy did indeed get cranky, and I promptly removed him from the table with Speedy, so we could put him to bed. When we returned, everyone was through eating, so we grabbed a plate (literally, we shared a plate because one of ours had vanished in the interim) and put some salad and the rest of the pasta on it. It was then that my father exclaimed disgustedly, "Well, there goes dinner!" Because apparently we had forfeited our right to eat dinner when we left the table, and were practically taking food from people's mouths by finishing the pasta after everyone else had eaten. 

I was shaking with rage at this point, and Speedy had had enough and left the table.  The next day he left without an apology, or even a goodbye. 

*Le sigh*

In other news, our buyers are approved, and we are working on finalizing the closing.  My last day at work is tomorrow.  And we still have no idea where we are going.