In my mind I'm going to

PARIS

BTW -- 200 cool points and a big shout-out for you if you automatically filled in "Carolina" after reading that title. 'Cause that means you got my intended homage to JT. (100 cool points for even being familiar with the JT classic and a bonus 100 for knowing me well enough to know that's where I was headed)

Anywhoo, yes, we were supposed to go to Paris this weekend. It's a holiday weekend here -- Carnivale (think Mardigras on an even larger scale that what New Orleans does MardiGras). D has off and as we , surprise surprise, aren't really party-hardy folk, we figured we'd head off somewhere where Carnivale is less of a deal. The only such place within 3-day weekend proximity would be France, so what an awesome excuse to take our first excursion to the City of Lights.

However...... (and isn't there always an "however") B's just getting over strep. D's getting over feeling puny too. The Grands get here on Thursday and their room is still more storage than room -- which I was supposed to remedy this week, but with my boys being under the weather soooooo didn't happen, which means we put Paris on hold for another time and opted to be homebodies this weekend.

Yes, homebodies really is the word. I ventured to a Carnivale party Thursday evening with my German class. Far crazier than any college party I ever encountered OR any college party I overheard my students discussing as they shared their weekend misadventures in my 8:00 AM Monday classes (which is saying something as for a time my Grad School Alma Mater topped playboy's partyschool list).

D's work ended at 11:11 AMon Thursday morning. I'm positive the beer started flowing at 11:12. By the time me and my German Class buddies rolled in at 8:15PM, well let's just say it was one lit crowd. I only stayed an hour or so and on my way home had to avoid three pedestrians who couldn't keep to the sidewalks and saw more than one partygoer having a laydown, bottle in hand, wherever he happened to fall. But....

Friday at lunch, ran into a friend who told me she and her family had stopped into the gas station Thursday evening and had to call the German police 'cause some Carnivale reveller was Uber determined he was gonna take a ride in their minivan. AND we live in small villages, with celebrations that are tame compared to the monster celebrations in places like Koln. They do have designated kids parties and kids parades throughout Carnivale week(end), but as we *thought* we were gonna be away, didn't bother assembling costumes or making plans to attend.

Maybe next year?

Anyway, have read my "Take the Kids to Paris" guidebook and figured out where we'd like to stay in Paris as well as how we'd get there, so maybe soon Paris will be more than in my mind. (Although in an effort at full-disclosure I did spend 3 days in Paris as a highschooler [close to 20 years ago--OUCH] and I clearly remember Montmarte, the arc de triomph, the Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower and if I dig up my photo albums am sure I'd remember even more, so at least the Paris in my mind is not totally movie produced)

until then, Alaaf! (The cry o'Carnivale-- loosely transalted Hurray!)