Coll'Euchre

What's up, readers.

The dudes eating some Mexican before the tourney started. 

We're in the slums of winter still, and it's been relatively dead around these parts for weeks, but tonight we had ourselves a slight break in the monotony: the Colliers' annual Euchre Tournament.

This one has never been one of my favorite parties our tribe throws; as much as I enjoy a good hand of Euchre, playing eleven rounds of it (or four hours of it, whatever comes first) is a bit excessive. I'd be cool with, like, half that amount of playing cards - after a few games I'm over it and ready to call it a night - but Collier loves hosting this so we all buck up in order to help the guy out.

Mitch the Pro and Mr. Collier partaking in some jello shots.

After all, Kris and I make all of these assholes dress up in themed Halloween costumes every year, it's the least we can do.

Kris, of course, never plays at these tournaments. Sometimes she makes up an excuse, other times she's just like, "Nope, I'm not playing," but this year she had a legitimate reason for bowing out of the tournament at least. Abby and Ella each got a few tickets to the Saginaw Spirit (the 'minor league' hockey team in our area) for Christmas, considering they're both huge hockey fans, and neither us or the Johnsons were cool with Ella driving them both into downtown Saginaw after dark. She volunteered to drive the girls down to the Dow Event Center for a game tonight, and then pick them up about three hours or so later so the Johnsons and I could participate in the tourney.

Out of the twenty or so players who pay the $10 buy-in for the winning pot, I usually place somewhere in the 8th - 12th place, comfortably in the middle of the pack. I know how to play the game and am competent at it, but I don't take a lot of ballsy risks like Going Alone, etc., so I never place in the top five. Honestly this game is like 95% luck of the draw, so that doesn't even really matter. This year, however, I was on fire, and was in the top three spots for most of the night. Ultimately, I ended up placing in 4th place, which meant I made my $10 back plus an additional $10 - not bad for a night's work of playing cards and drinking beers.

So here you go, folks - this year's Coll'Euchre (something Ryan's AI came up with, don't ask me.) Enjoy. . .

Some of the wives grab some shots of something or other that Mitch whipped up. Left to Right: Kirsty, Courtney, Mees, Lori, Beth (the wife of one of Collier's college friends who comes out to the Euchre tourneys ever year), and Danielle.

Grazing on some Mexican food.

Collier sets up the tournament's spreadsheet (a crap-load of formulas go into this thing, I have no idea how it works - Cory set it up for him.)

Morgan, Mitch and Erik talking among Collier's famous homemade cookie spread.

The taco spread they set out for these tournaments is pretty impressive. A few clicks up from what we usually do for our family on any given weeknight.

Different types of proteins.

I'm always grateful so many folks in this tribe of ours knows how to operate a grill - the food is always top-notch.

As we approached the 7pm start time, Collier once again went over the House Rules for all those in attendance (not that we needed a refresher, we're all old hands at this by now.)

Cory has won the last couple of years and is a notoriously aggressive player. Collier wanted blood.

The tournament begins. . .

After each round, as various tables concluded their two rounds, folks would come back to the kitchen to continue grazing on the spread and observe the scores as they came in.

We noticed at one point in the evening that the Collier's family room windows had plastic on them. Mees tried telling us this was probably for energy purposes, but we told her that that's not really a thing. When she told us that they had been up since they had moved into the house back in like 2017 or whatever, we tried telling her that the plastic wrap was probably just never taken off during the installation process (because the previous owners had installed the windows shortly before selling the house.) Mees had to run outside to investigate.

Holty and Morgan face off against Lori and Danielle.

Kris showed up shortly into the second or third round after dropping the girls off in Saginaw.

I brought my Oredock stein along for the night 'cause Collier had a keg of Miller Lite primed in his kegorator. The flip lid is awesome for events like this where folks are constantly knocking drinks over.

He had five tables set up throughout the main level of his house. We had eighteen players this year, so we didn't have to set up any tables in his basement (which is usually like twenty degrees colder than the main level - no one was complaining.)

I came roaring out of the gate this year, and was in first or second place for the first several rounds. Mees was on fire, though - she kept getting insanely good hands all night.

Erik, Kelli and Mees gang up on some over-zealous petting of the Collier family dog, Winnie.

Collier adjusts the spreadsheet as the tournament drags on.

I fell to fourth place in the last stretch of the tournament and remained there for the rest of the night. Would have been cool to make it to third place, which paid out like $30, but I was cool placing as high as I did - probably won't happen again.

At the end of the tournament, we were met with an unprecedented anomaly: a tie for first place.

Mees and the infamous Cory had tied for the top spot, so Collier decided to hold a final, sudden death round to determine the night's winner.

Stakes were high for Mees, who was the tribe's best shot at unseating the usual champion.

But there was no stopping the juggernaut - Cory came out on top once again.

Mees concedes defeat. Cory won a trophy mug for nabbing first place, but he was nice enough to bequeath it to Mees for her efforts.

Being inappropriate with some Vienna sausages. . .

This lil' guy is super excited about Collier's cookies. . .

Courtney tries dislodging something from Winnie's mouth. Dogs are a-holes.

Collier and Cory

An attempt at a group pic towards the end of the night, right before the vast majority of folks took off for the night.

At the end of the night, it was us, the Johnsons, Amy, and the Colliers remaining. The wives took up singing karaoke to the music Collier had playing in the background, which is pretty typical for midnight-ish around these parts.

So there you go, gang - this year's Collier Euchre Tourney. Hopefully next year Yours Truly will crack the Top Three, but I'm not getting my hopes up. . . 

- Brian

A Very Long Martin Luther Krang Weekend

Wakka wakka wakka.

Happy Martin Luther Krang Day, America.

Folks, you can't complain with a three-day weekend.  And you definitely can't complain with a four-day weekend.

From a project I had to grade on Friday. . .

No school today, seeing how it's a holiday and everything, and I didn't really have to work last Friday since it was the end of the second quarter on Thursday and we get a Teacher Work Day the day after (and honestly, Teacher Work Day is really just 'Teacher Hang Out Day' - I go in and hang out in my buddy's classroom with a few other teachers and play Nintendo, work on my iTunes library, etc.)

I'm a hard worker, I know.

On top of that, Abby caught a stomach virus, or the flu, or SARS, or something along those lines last Wednesday.  Kris took that day off to take her into the doctor's and let her rest up at home.  The next day, Thursday, I took off of work. . . bring my total number of days off this weekend to FIVE.

I'm not complaining.  At.  All.

So how'd I end up spending my ridiculously-long weekend off of work?

Observe:

Watson shreds another toy.  This dog's a machine.

Miller Lite - my watered-down beer of choice - re-released their original can design recently.  I'm a sucker for all things vintage.

Who knows.

The girls set up a Vet Clinc.  Alayna performs what I can only assume is some pretty groundbreaking medical techniques, while Abby - and her pets - wait in 'the Waiting Room.'

Abby and I constructed a fort so she could have a sanctuary for book-reading and whatever else while she was feeling like crap. . .

Once Abby was on the mend we took the kids out for some food McDonald's.  I've been overly-obnoxious lately with playing around with my new phone's camera settings. . .

Kris loves taking the kids out to eat.

We found this in Alayna's backpack.  I would've rather found cigarettes.

Playing princesses with Abby - these are the ones she said I could play be.  Notice something a little off-setting about this?

Watson's new favorite hangout spot in the house:  the window in my Study. . .

It has been cold as shit here the last couple weeks, but this weekend it sort of heated up a little. . . so we seized on the opportunity to get the kids outside and let them burn off some steam.

The girls got some pink Razor Scooters from Dad and Cindy for Christmas, and the weather has been so cold down here lately that the girls haven't wanted to take them out that much.  With a warm front coming in, however, the kids were eager to try them out. . .

Alayna is the more reluctant of the two to hop on a scooter - Abby's pretty fearless.

One of our neighbors apparently owns a G.I. Joe vehicle.

Swingers

The playground at Ginger Mill Park has had some work done to it recently, so it's not so much of a death trap anymore, but it still looks like a hobo's butthole. . .

- Brian