Said it before, say it again

The only thing worse than blogging about how I haven't been blogging lately because I've been too busy is blogging about how I haven't been blogging lately because I've been sick. And yet, here we are.

My wife and I took the kids on an epic roadtrip over Memorial Day weekend, all the way to the northern wilds of New York state to visit Little Bro and his wife and daughter, see their new house and introduce the cousins. A good time was had by all. The kids are very eager for a repeat visit, and in fact have already begun openly questioning why we can't do it all again in June.

We left Friday night and drove a few hours to a hotel where we did nothing but check in and crawl into bed. The next morning we availed ourselves of the continental breakfast and then drove a few more hours to arrive at Little Bro's. We got the tour of the house, walked to the local playground, met his neighbor on the way back and got to see the airplane under construction in the neighbor's garage. We had tacos for dinner and everybody went to bed. Sunday morning we visited Little Bro's other neighbor, who has not an airplane but several vintage cars in his garage, went to the playground yet again, had a burgers-n-dogs-n-smores cookout for dinner, and let the kids run around the backyard after dark with glow sticks and flashlights. My brother and sister-in-law also set up a tent for the kids, and they were basically in heaven. One more good night's sleep at Little Bro's and then on Monday we got up, had breakfast, got packed, and hit the road to drive all day and wind up back in Virginia with just enough time to feed the kids and send them off to bed.

All well and good until some time on Tuesday when my immune system finally crashed and I broke out in nine different kinds of cold symptoms which may have been due to an actual rhinovirus or may have just been a manifestation of sheer exhaustion. Apparently I am getting a little too old for these kinds of adventures, or at least to enjoy them without repercussions.

So today is Thursday and I am barely turning the corner to feeling like my usual self. Meanwhile all my best intentions about paying more attention to the blog have been scattered to the winds. The fact that being out of town for an entire weekend throws off our entire routine of housework and food shopping and so on certainly hasn't helped.

TL;DR: been playing catch-up and under the weather. More later, whenever things get back to normal.