Jersey Advil Discovery

Our New Jersey sojourn continued with another day of enjoying the FBR hijinks as she negotiates her summer camp and getting grandparents to do basically whatever she wants. That’s our job, of course, which she is old enough to realize and fully exploit. As I’ve said before, grandparenting, best job ever invented. However it hasn’t been all fun and games for the FBR; well, it has been for me. Her abuela, however, has taken it upon herself to school the FBR on room cleaning (both my son and daughter will report they remember this from their own indoctrination). When we arrived, the FBR’s room looked like a small nuclear device had recently detonated. This did not sit well with her very fastidious abuela.

The Morning Hojaldra Experience

The very coolest thing is that the FBR fully embraced the idea although some of that enthusiasm may have been generated with the promise of payment. The FBR came charging downstairs from the room cleaning efforts to demonstrate to her mother that she had learned how to expertly fold t-shirts, using a book. My Favorite Panamanian has been trying to teach me this for the forty years of our marriage and the FBR got it on her first try. It is so fulfilling to see the FBR finally establishing a close bond with her abuela after I got a free pass to her heart since birth.

Ice Cream in the Village

The FBR was a little upset that the ice cream truck was not parked outside the pickup point for her day camp when I went to pick her up. I assured her that, as directed, I had showed up with cash. Undeterred, she pointed out that there was an ice cream shop in the village of Maplewood that would adequately address her ice cream requirements. As I told you, I cannot deny her anything and an after-dinner foray to the village was announced. The FBR flew through her dinner in a blitzkrieg type approach that differed immensely form her usual delaying tactics. It was a fun time sitting on a bench with my daughter, my Favorite Panamanian and the FBR eating ice cream while watching all the commuters returning from NYC at the nearby train station.

T-Shirt Folding

Finally, for all of you wondering where the hell the title of this post came from, it involves my education. I wrote yesterday about the wrenching my bad knee took due to my idiocy. It was pretty cranky all day but I resisted all efforts to take anything for it outside of some ice. My daughter finally grew impatient with my reluctance and insisted I take some Advil. I’d never taken Advil before, always considered myself either a Tylenol or Motrin aficionado for the various aches and pains senior citizenry brings. I am now a complete fan of Advil. The persistent pain faded into the background and I no longer looked like octogenarian moving around. Better living through chemistry!

This Morning's Camp Drop Off

One more movie have fallen in my A-Z effort, a keeper strictly for the realistic action which was as great as the acting was atrocious, Act of Valor.

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RECURRING CHARACTERS:                                        

ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete - my daughter in law; BR3 – Blog Reader #3 – granddaughter #3; BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during her single days in Brooklyn; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter; First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Kindergarten Friend – friend since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd musquetera (musketeer); Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member; 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; Pittsburgh College Roommate– high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; Soxfather - my brother in law; Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course