So, this weekend I headed up to Scranton, PA to see Goose participate in the Tournament of Bands ACC championships.  He is in the pit and plays some instrument that looks like a cross between a xylophone and a pipe organ.  No idea what it is called.  He was great, and the BMHS Marching Mustangs came in 7th out of 26 bands.  Not bad, I say. 

On this trip I learned that the CD player in my car is apparently controlled by Clear Channel Communications.  I had a mix CD in, and had set it to  "random".  Well, certain songs were played many times, and others were sadly not played at all.

Friday, after my cardiologist appointment (No, I don't have  a serious disease.  There is nothing wrong with my heart.  What there is a problem with is the transcription skills at my doctor's office.  Well, former doctor's office.  Because , seriously, when you send me a letter saying that I have a serious disease but you aren't going to treat it and it turns out to be a typo which you could have told me before I went to the cardiologist but you couldn't be bothered to return my damn phone call I am going to switch doctors.) I drove up to TRgirl and the BIL's.  TRgirl had the quote of the weekend.  "I don't think the Pope has ever pedophilia'd anyone."  We had excellent Mexican for dinner.  The next morning we met the BIL's father and nephew at the Waffle House for breakfast.  This is where my bad restaurant karma started.  The waitress dropped a plate of scattered, smothered hash browns on my leg.  On my one pair of jeans I had brought.   So, we went to the BIL's parent's house, where I washed my pants leg with dish soap and then got on the road to Scranton.

The cool part is I made hotel reservations about a month ago, when Mom first told me this was a possibility.  Not knowing where the competition was to be held (well, beyond "Scranton, PA") I picked a hotel 0.5 miles from the competition site. 

Anyway, long drive, (pretty though!), arrive at hotel, give clerk my name (Note:  there were no vacancy signs on the door.  Computer paper with "No Vacancy" written on it taped to the door.), and he says, "Oh.  I gave away your room.  They told me you weren't coming."  Me (panicky vocce), "No, I only canceled Friday!"  Clerk, "I know.  I'm just kidding." 

So, I go up to the room, and Mom and Bud arrive momentarily.  They give me my cool Canon A75 camera (birthday present!  early!), and I took this picture of Bud.  Then we went to dinner at Ruby Tuesday's, where the karma kicked in again.  Slow kitchen!   Then we went back into the room to put on our warm clothes to go to the band competition.  Also, I got to drive the new Explorer.  Jealous!

Anyway, we soon found out that our warm clothes were not warm enough.  Holy cold, Batman!  But I did get this picture.

Sunday we had breakfast at a local diner, and I headed back to NC.  I stopped for lunch at an Applebee's in Damascus, MD where it took me  an hour to get a soup and salad.  Also, 15 minutes for a refill on my soda.  My waiter kept apologizing, saying they were very busy.  How odd for lunchtime on a Sunday!  Gah!

However, I did learn that the Starbucks Peppermint Mocha is very yummy.