Busy weekend.

Friday saw Sarah's family come into town for things we did on Saturday. I had the day off (our flex time Fridays off during the summer) and got to clean and stuff (woo!).

Saturday brought together all three of Sarah and my nieces to get them dresses for the wedding. Sarah's dad and I went to get him measured for his tux, and then we killed time rather than go back to the dress shop. Thankfully, the suburban sprawl of Route 9 west in Natick and Framingham offered plenty of distraction.

Not surprisingly, the girls found dresses they liked pretty quickly. It's just that they found several of them. From descriptions I kind of wish I'd been there to see the carnage... kind of. We then had lunch, my sister in law took off with my two nieces, and we then returned to Babson. All the Harriman women went back to the mall, while the guys did the typical Saturday afternoon thing - sports and sleeping while watching sports. I nodded off during an ESPN Classic replay of game 5 of the 1982 World Series. I'd forgotten how hideous the Cardinals' light blue away unis were.

Saturday night brought the fun point of the weekend - getting the wedding invitations squared away. I had a supportive role in the operation, as Sarah's handwriting is several orders of magnitude better than mine. But it's done, thankfully.

Sunday was an early day for all, as Sarah's family hit the road to beat race traffic (the NHIS 300) and we went out to western Mass for a baby shower for Scott Monty's wife Mindi. Sarah actually attended the shower, I just came along to provide moral support to the father-to-be.

The event was at Scott's parents' condo development in Agawam, making this the first non-Six Flags and non-Couture related trip to this place of tradition and opportunity.

I did get to revel in some of the shower fun, mostly related to getting food prepared and delivered to the development's clubhouse. I did not get to participate in the games related to guessing baby food flavors (though I understand it was scrapped due to time), but I did get to see some items from Scott's youth, which puts some things into perspective. :)

On our end we grilled a bit and took the Monty reality tour, as Scott drove and his dad narrated a trip around Suffield, Connecticut, where they both grew up. Nice town, some great houses, lots of tobacco (for New England, at any rate), and a hint of controversey (I'll let you decide if you think the new high school is ugly or not).

Oh, one thing I have to mention: playing at the shower was a CD of songs that were accompanied by what I believe was a fetal heartbeat. What's that about?

Anyway, after the shower we got home and just relaxed. Finally.I wound up passing over the first episode of The Restaurant for Tour de France coverage. From this article, I suppose that's a mixed blessing. For what it's worth I did see the episode of Into the Fire that covered The Cheesecake Factory, and have to agree on its infomercialistic feel. Of course, Sarah and I wound up eating there the next night. Damn you Food TV!