Home again...I like to be here when I can

D1 and Wifey cruised back to town yesterday, so know all four of us are here together again. It's funny, though --when your daughters become grown women, or nearly, there also tend to be young men sniffing around, too, and D2's fine boyfriend has been here a lot lately.

Last night, I stopped and picked up Canton on my way home. Wifey and I used to eat there all the time when we were first dating, and we're still loyal customers of the always good, never changing food.

We sat in the living room, Wifey, the Ds, D2's boyfriend Michael and I, and chatted happily about D1's graduation and the coming college careers of the high school seniors.

Wifey was, as usual, the butt of their loving barbs and jokes. She HAS become more Mr. Magoo-like over the past several years. Apparently, on the way home from Gainesville yesterday, D1 thought there was a reasonable chance that Wifey would miss the unmissable Turnpike entrance, and reprise her legendary bungled directions of last year, when she drove from Miami to Gainesville via Tampa (leaving out only Key West, Jacksonville, and Pensacola on her circumnavigation of Florida).

Alas, she made the right turn (or actually lack of a turn) and made it here in 5.5 hours. Wifey good naturedly accepts the jibes.

I defended her, reminding the Ds how one of D1's roommates, left motherless as a child (the rare Jewish mom who lammed it on 2 toddlers) adores Wifey, and would give anything to have a mother like her. I saw it over the last trip: Lauren lit up when Wifey came into the cottage, and embraced her warmly.

The Ds backed off Wifey a bit after that, although took up again when the subject of bathing suits came up...

So, our house is properly full for now. Wifey and D1 are sleeping late; D2 is off taking her 2nd of 5 AP exams, as she winds down her high school career. The dogs have been fed, and our granddog Madeleine, who spend the night sleeping on my pillow, above my head, is now somewhere about the house, looking for socks or underwear to vandalize.

I know it's only for awhile, though. D2 is chomping at the bit to start UF and move to Gainesville; D1 is looking forward to moving to an apartment with a fellow Gator grad, and commencing grad school.

That'll leave just Wifey and me. I'll do all the driving.