This last weekend Crysta and I got in the truck and made the drive down to Milwaukee to see my parents. Several family members on my Dad's side of the family had flown into town for what is, normaly, a weekend where we go to a ballgame. Unfortunately, with the Brewers playing the Cubs, those tickets were way too expensive, so instead we watched the game on a TV in the garage and just turned it into a fairly nice family party.

It was nice, as I haven't seen some of these people in years, and it was good to get together.

A lot of my contact with that side of the family used to be through events at my late grandmother's house, so things have been a bit more loosey goosey over the last few years. Honestly, folks are just pretty spread out, so it's hard to do a lot now that there isn't a midwestern home base for people to stay at.

Of course, it wasn't an exactly pain-free trip.

On Friday night, when we were about an hour away from my folks' house, I got a text from my mom that the water had been shut off at their house. They'd gotten a notice while they were out for dinner, as something had apparently gone wrong. When we rolled in a little before ten, halfway down the block there were a bunch of workers doing probably their least favorite tihng to do on a Friday night.

So that meant we couldn't take showers until after midnight, which, y'know, wasn't great.

And then, of course, we got woken up by construction across the street at six thirty in the morning, which I'm fairly certain is against local ordinances, but what the hell do I know. I kind of get why they were doing the work then -- we've since been hit by an obnoxious heat wave -- it still sucked though.

But, with all the minor frustrations, the party was good, and I was happy to see my family.

Could have done without being woken up on Sunday by the same construction crews too though.

Oh yeah, "The Perfect Host," Book 5 in the Mia Graves Saga is now available for pre-order on Kindle, Kobo, and Paperback!