We are Strange Folk, but we have Fun

I'm drinking Dark Horse Brewing Company's Special Reserve Black Bier Ale. It is one of many fine bottles that my brother-in-law brought to me. He and my sister came down from Michigan to visit. Their stay at our house was a total of five days (three whole days, with the outer two days being mostly occupied by driving).

Marvelous. Perfect. It seems they had a fine time, but I really needed this, too. Here is what we did:

1)I was given freedom to cook a lot for people who appreciate it
2)We ate well but not gluttonously
3)We all drank beer (good beer and often)
4)We (all of us except Lindz, who has limited stamina for this) spent many hours perusing a restaurant supply store and A Southern Season, a gigantic emporium of epicurean delights. I included the hyperlink for educational purposes, but it does no justice to the overmastering might of that store. We spent quite a while in the chocolate department alone. We get a big jolt out of stuff like that.
5)We took walks in excellent weather, admiring verdant growth that is many weeks away in Michigan.

It was all so perfect. The only eating out we did was at places that have no dinnerware that isn't styrofoam or plastic (we sat at a picnic table outside of the seafood company at the Raleigh Farmers' Market devouring excellent, copious and cheap food, and we got some very fine takeout barbeque from Lewis Barbeque on Lumley Road). We never did anything touristy or complicated. We walked, talked, ate and drank. I was allowed to retain blissful mastery of my kitchen, and I cooked a number of meals (from grilled kebabs to biscuits to cheese grits to bruschetta).

I hadn't seen my sister or her husband for four years or so. They hadn't met Lindz, their new sister-in-law yet. The whole thing was deeply satisfying for me. It started before they even got here on Wednesday. I literally did nothing that I dislike for four consecutive days. Incredible. I suppose the worst thing was when one of the biscuits accidentally fell into the dishwater in the sink when I turned them out of the pan. During their stay, I mentioned, more than once, my belief in how great it is to be where you're in the mood to be. One of the times I talked about that may have been when my mouth was full of fried crawfish, or perhaps while drinking beer with them in the pleasantly warm, spring-perfumed breeze.