Return of the Shepherds

What's up, gang.

Happy Veteran's Day. . . I guess.  We're not doing anything to commemorate this 'holiday' per se - because I refuse to thank the military for their service unless they're defending us from a serious threat, which they haven't done since. . . oh. . . World War II.  We did, however, end up doing something completely unrelated this evening.

Our old friends, the Shepherds, recently returned to Midland to visit family, something they do once or twice a year, perhaps.  The Shepherds were once one of the ten or eleven families that were part of this friend group of ours, but moved out to New Jersey in 2019 when Pete landed a sweet promotion with his company. So, accordingly, whenever they pop back into our neck of the woods our group makes an effort to hang out with them.

This evening, they rented out an entire private VIP room at Valley Lanes - an entertainment venue across town with a bowling alley, arcade, laser tag, bar/restaurant, etc. - and hosted all of us (they are, well, pretty rich now.)  Five of the families were able to make it out for the evening - coincidentally, the Inner Five families, if you will - and we spent the night feasting, drinking cheap beer, and watching the kids bowl while catching up with our long-lost New Jersey compatriots.

Check it out. . .

We placed all of our food orders around 6pm - several pizzas, appetizers, wings, etc. - but it took quite awhile for it all to come out (they were pretty short-staffed.)

Abby, mid-flight

There were a few other families there that none of us knew - friends of theirs from Mt. Pleasant (both Andrea and Pete are CMU alums), so we didn't get to hang out with them as much as we would've liked, so our group just kinda hung out as usual.

The wives, cluckin' away as usual - Danielle, Kris, Mees, Kelli, and Courtney.

The dads just stood around in a circle and drank multiple pitchers of Miller Lite - par for the course with this group.

The pizza arrives, and the Cannonball wastes no time in loading up the first of many plates.

Wouldn't be a hang-out with this group without attempting to get multiple group pictures. . . 

The moms with Andrea. . .

. . . and one with one of Andrea's friends (not sure who that is.)

The Dads, feat. Pete.

After a few hours at Valley Lanes, we said goodbye to the Shepherds and, wanting to hang out some more, headed back to the Collier residence to have a few drinks.

Moms holding court at the kitchen table, as usual

We ended up having a wives vs. husbands game of Mind the Gap - a multi-generational, trivia game we've played in the past, and one that we dudes always dominate.

This game wasn't even close - Erik and I are pretty much unstoppable when it comes to trivia, so it came as no surprise that we absolutely slaughtered the womenfolk once again.  So ends another fun evening with our local squad.

- Brian

The Week in Review: Fevers and a Shuttle Launch

if its one thing i'm sure all of us can appreciate, its a three-day work week.

that's what i had this week. three days of teenagers and textbooks, two days of pajamas and DVDs. tuesday, as we all know, was veteran's day; and yours truly, being the humble public servant that he is, obviously got the day off of work. cowabunga. i ran a few errands with the kid, got some stuff done around the house - the usual boring stuff boring adults like me do on their days off. this particular day off, however, soon spoiled when the cannonball - who had received a DTAP vaccination the previous friday - began showing a temperature. and sure enough, at 2:30am wednesday morning, she woke up with a 102 - 103 degree fever.

kris had to stay home with her all day on wednesday, and alayna seemed to be doing better there for awhile, but then, sure enough, late wednesday night her temperature spiked again. and so, once again, yours truly got to take yet another day off of work. what i should point out here is that, as a teacher, i'm given ten paid-days off a year - after that, i can still take days off, but i'm no longer paid for them.

as of right now, i've officially taken off six of those days. and its only november.

how awesome is that?

anyway, we finally decided on friday that the kid was well enough to hang out at daycare. we both went to work, the kid went to daycare, and all normalcy resumed in realm of the houghs. i should add, by the way, that its pretty cool paying a full week of daycare when your kid only shows up for a one Goddamn day. i think that's just swell. i really do.

in closing, dear readers, kris and i finally got to see a shuttle launch. finally. being in central florida, with cape canaveral and NASA's shuttle launch facility only a quick drive away, its possible to see shuttle launch's relatively up close and personal. now, we've been down here in florida for nigh on two years, and we've never seen one in person. not once. and its not as if there haven't been shuttle launches to be had, either - they practically have them every few months. instead, rather, we just consistently forget about them, and miss out on them every single time. but last night, at 7:55pm, the shuttle endeavor blasted off from florida and into space with its very important cargo (the toilet they were carrying to install in the international space station).

...and we got to watch it from our veranda. which was cool.

happy pre-holidays,

- brian