I am soooooo not looking forward to going to Rochester next week, my mother-in-law is already making it more trouble than it needs to be. She made all these little comments to Willem like, "Well, I hope Kate understands that I can't just babysit the kids for her eight hours a day while she's out," and "She's staying a week? I thought she was only staying 5 days," and "Well, since they're coming out so close to Emily's birthday, I don't know if I'll go to her birthday party. She'll be all Grandma'ed out."

First of all, I never thought for a second that she would babysit the kids - I would never ask in the first place, and if I DID need her to do that I would have asked already, I would never assume it. Second of all, I'll only be in her house 5 days - the Thursdays on either end are travel days so we won't be there, awake, an appreciable amount of time. More to the point, I always said a week. The fact that she never listened, I can't fix that. Third of all, if SHE doesn't want to come out here for Emily's party, then she needs to say so. *Emily* wouldn't understand the concept of being tired of Grandma and she'll be sad if Grandma's not at her party - but she'll cope. So GRANDMA needs to make up her mind and not blame it on the kids. And fourth of all, bite me.

She also made a point of sending home a carton of cat treats and two wedges of Gouda cheese. Which seems innocuous enough, but they're both stupid. I don't give my cat treats. Not, as she might suggest, because I am mean and unloving and essentially Satanic, but because if you put a couple cat treats on the floor, the cat will sniff them, lick them, chew them briefly, and then spit them out onto the floor again so that 20 minutes later they get mashed into your sock because they blend into the wood floor. And the cheese, somehow she just has it in her head that "you can't buy that cheese out where you live." Huh??? I can buy any kind of cheese I want. We've told her this. We've SHOWN it to her in stores out here. And yet - she sends some home each time.

Argh.

Argh.

Argh.