Late Morning Weekend

Birthday Girl and her Biggest Fan

This weekend was something recently unheard of for my Favorite Panamanian and I. We were able to sleep late both mornings and it was sorely needed after the sleep deprivation enabled by the Red Sox playoff games on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Then there was the de rigueur celebration of First Friday which my wife also partook of. A wiser pair would have counted their blessings at that point and returned for the night.

I had the Sun Field at First Friday

Which my Wife Loved for Some Reason

So you know we didn’t. The Panamanian Mafia had other plans as one of the members had a birthday that couldn’t pass unchallenged. We returned to a sneaky favorite place of the group, a local VFW post. It could be we like the place because we are always the youngest of the crowd, a truly rare occurrence for us. We arrived to find the Neighborhood Mafiosos as the only ones there. We were thirty minutes late so after another half hour we decided to order food after we heard the rest of the group was still in Framingham, 45 minutes away, it’s a Latin thing.

Panamanian Mafia

Wife Selfie

The Vertically Challenged

They eventually did show up and the fun began. The rest of the crowd seemed to be part of a regular crowd and had trained the DJ to play songs to which they could do serial line dances for. Maybe this is the newest thing for the senior citizen circuit. If so I could be in trouble because I steadfastly refuse to engage in that tribal behavior. We eventually did get some fairly recent music (1970’s era) played but the baseball induced fatigue was rapidly closing in on us. A fair observer would probably conclude the beer consumption contributed to my drooping eyelids but I’m blaming the Red Sox. We declared victory and left just before 10pm which was an early night for this crowd.

Damned Line Dancing

Panamanian Birthday Girl

Progress at the House

We had a very full house on Saturday as Deckzilla Dude, the electrician and the plumber all showed up to push the renovation project forward significantly. The indignities of my Man Cave were embellished as we sought out a mystery pipe down from the attic that would be  boon if it could be located in the basement. The Man Cave was created by the prior owners and the drop ceiling covered the entire expanse. The electrician probed from the attic while Deckzilla Dude and I tried to track down the scratching noise. Eventually we found it behind a shelf and in probably the most inconvenient location possible. It will however make the connection to the electrical panel so much easier. This was only part of the intrusion into my sanctuary as the plumber also drilled into the ceiling from the garage to connect the drainage pipes from the new bathroom.

Plumbing Almost Finished

Man Cave Indignities - Wire Found Behind Shelves on Top Left

By the time the dust had settled my wife and I set out to try to find a restaurant but it turns out Saturday is fairly popular with the general public. We tried three different locations but they all had long lines that our (mostly my) patience wouldn’t endure. We ended up back in the compromised Man Cave watching movies which was kind of perfect to decompress and further address the needed rest.

Two Beautiful Ladies

Sunday was an auspicious date as it marks the birthday of the Absolute Best Family Athlete and her first with the BRS around to celebrate with. The other grandparents did the babysitting requirements so my son could take his bride out for a birthday dinner. By the time we caught up with them they were just about to cut into the birthday cake and the BRS seemed to be caught up in the celebratory mood. The ABFA has obviously had an eventful year with the arrival of motherhood but as with most things in her life she’s dominating the experience. You only have to see how the BRS lights up when her mommy walks into the room to know that the BRS joins a long list of people the ABFA has won over. She’s such a nice person that she’s impossible to resist; not that I or anyone who’s ever met her has tried, at all. So happy birthday ABFA, and please, many, many more!

Jarring to See She's Now Taller than her Crib

The FBR was decisively engaged for most of the weekend as the accompanying photos will attest. We talked to her late on Sunday and promptly got her into trouble when she tried to copy me by diving on the couch. I know this might lead to questions why the grandfather in the equation was the one diving on the couch in the first place but that’s how the FBR and I roll.

Can be a Bit of a Ham

Sunday was a chore day including what I hope will be my last ever trip to Lumber Liquidators to order the wood we’ll need for the floors in the addition. I say last because this will complete covering the entire non-bathroom space of the house. Today also saw the annual migration of my wife’s dahlia collection inside for the winter. Each year I go out and dig them up so my wife can rescue the bulbs for next year’s gardens. I love the foliage which is just about peaking around here but it’s always sad to see my wife’s vast gardens go into winter hibernation.

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RECURRING CHARACTERS

BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter, ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete = my daughter in law, formerly known both as MEF – Most Excellent Fiancé & MEG – Most Excellent Girlfriend; Wingman – my son in law; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Soxfather - my brother in law; Great Aunt = my elder sister; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; Pittsburgh College Roommate – high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involed in planning; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rdmusquetera (musketeer); Buddy – AKA the Wonder Pooch – family dog, a black lab – hates squirrels, died in 2017; Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog, surrogate grandchild while awaiting arrival of the BRS; PanaGals – female relatives/friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member, Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Excellent Boss – my former direct boss at work; Voices of Inappropriate Worth - members of public who come to every Worcester public meeting to complain, all are on public assistance along with demeanor issues