Day 9 of Rummaging Photos & Cat Laced Football

I’ve survived a complete weekend with the FBR or I should say she survived. I will leave it up to you about which is the more surprising. After my journey through the Big Apple on Saturday morning I returned to find the FBR directing actions with her abuela and bis-abuela. Wingman had mentioned an Octoberfest at a local Elks Club would be taking place that afternoon and some of the FBR’s friends might be there. It turned out to be a fairly small fest with rotating musical groups and no FBR friends on a blustery autumn day. One of those days you want to make sure you’re standing in the sun or the temperature drops twenty degrees.

Painted Up FBR

The Work in Progress

Chilly for the Panamanians

The FBR made a bee line to the face painting station where the lady greeted her by name. I asked the FBR how she knew her, to which the FBR blithely replied that she could not remember. She made it sound like, who doesn’t know me around here? We then stopped by the bottle smashing event. Yep. She got to throw three beer bottles at some concrete blocks. I was then instructed to set up a large scale Jenga block set. In the ensuing game, the FBR soundly trounced me as the pile of blocks ended up in my lap. We declared victory and returned home for the veracity delayed movie night where the FBR took in the final Star Wars movie. She’s hooked.

The Jenga Game

Watching the Expert 

Don't Know How She Made this Work

Victor and Loser

Sunday was a little more sedate. We went out for lunch after church to what I thought was her favorite diner. She’d been there dozens of times prior to Covid but she claimed to have no memory of it. The memory bank of six-year-olds is a weird thing but she enjoyed the short stack of pancakes nonetheless.   After I figured out how to get the Patriots game on their television, I settled in to watch the game. I had four ladies on the couch with me but Wingmom was the only one actually watching the game. My Favorite Panamanian and her mom were deep into whatever their iPad was preaching (literally). The FBR sat in my lap and watched cat videos. She‘d call my attention to any (most) she thought were entertaining, usually when the Pats were trying to pick up a 3^rd and short.

The FBR and I snuck in a movie just before bed time by gong to to the theater to see Lyle, Lyle Crocodile. I guess this is based on a famous children’s book. My granddaughter was trying to fill me in on the story as we drove to the theater. We had a lot of fun, mainly because of the company we were keeping. I’m not sure a singing crocodile would be at the top of my list for anthropomorphism but there it was and I actually laughed a couple times. We made it back and got the FBR into bed only fifteen minutes after her scheduled bed time. I may be in trouble with my daughter for that violation. We passed the test this morning though of getting the FBR up, ready for school (that was mostly my Favorite Panamanian) and getting her onto the bus on time (that was me).

Let’s plunge into today’s continuation the memory rummaging with photos mined from the basement storage bins:

FAMILY

Great Aunt & Soxfather Visiting us in Annandale, VA Mid-80s

Favorite Panamanian, Formal Ball, Ft Campbell, KY 1998

Wife Doing Folklorico Dance 1996

Our Home in Leavenworth, KS 1996

Visiting Niagara Falls, Slowly We Turned

Wife, Kids DC Cherry Blossoms 1999

Breakfast Mom's Porch, Keene, NH Mid-80s

SON AND DAUGHTER TOGETHER

Ft Leavenworth House, 1993

Kids with Keene Friend Early 2000s

Ft Leavenworth House, 1996

Daughter BU Graduation Day, 2005

Visit to Panama Highlands, Early 2000s

Bathing in our Cranston, RI Home 1991

Great Aunt's Home Early 90s

Kids, Kidnapped Again by Great Aunt and Soxfather Early 90s

Popsicles in the Pool, Ft McNair, Washington DC Home, Late 80s

Great Aunt Visiting 90s

Kids a Little Bigger Now, Great Aunt's Home Early 2000s

Early 2000s

Visiting Nubble Light, York Beach, ME Mid-80s

Visiting Uncle Jack's House, Glens Falls, NY Mid-80s

Mom's House Late 80s

Helping their Grandma with Cookies Late 80s

Their Staging of a Christmas Carol, 1995

Watermelon, Grandma House 

Back to Panamanian Highlands

FAVORITE SON

Early 90s Grandma's House

Our Leavenworth, KS Home 1996

Track UNH, 2005

He Did Grow Up, 2005

Leading the Field

Won This Race

Namesake Nephew Visits us in Burke, VA 2001

Same Two a Couple Years Earlier with Great Aunt

Birthday Ft Campbell, KY 1998

Christmas Dinner Cooks 1997, Mom's House

Swimming at Grandma's House

Pinning Colonel's Rank on Dad 2002

Hanging with Dad a Few Years Earlier

FAVORITE DAUGHTER

Daughter's HS Graduation Party 2001

With Mindy the Cat a Few Years Earlier

At Mom's House 1988

Coming Home from 1st Day of Kindergarten,
Washington, DC 1988

Grandma's House a Few Years Later

Always a Beauty

HS Graduation, Carlisle, PA 2001
Curbside Origins

With Dad and Brother, Carlisle PA 2001

With Great Aunt and Soxfather

With her Abuela 1986

Ft Campbell, KY 1998

Mom's Piano, Late 80s

College Girl Early 2000s

Three movies fell in my A-Z effort, all keepers, Blade 2 (best of the trilogy), Blade Trinity (Ryan Reynolds stealing scenes and Blade not happy about that), and Blazing Saddles (talk about a radical shift in content – still amazed Mel Brooks got away with this, beans for dinner, taking oneself hostage at gunpoint, and cows getting decked)

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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; Connecticut Riverboat Captain – another close friend from high school, renowned sailor of the big river; 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); Namesake Nephew – son of Great Aunt and Soxfather named after me; 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