Daddy Daughter Weekend and Inside a Knee

My Favorite Son survived an entire weekend under the supervision of the BRS and BR3 while the ABFA was away for a Ladies Weekend on Long Island. While he tried his best to sound put upon, I could tell he was sneakily enjoying the quality time with his favorite young ladies. The only one whose act I believed was Riggins who, as usual, tried to seem as pathetic as possible. The girls took their dad grocery shopping. I know from recent experience that is not a task lightly approached. He also had them clean up their play room before taking them out for a round of miniature golf. It is now a family rule, approved by all three granddaughters, that miniature golf must be followed by ice cream. My son acquiesced to that rule as well. He’s a very good dad.

Post Golf Ice Cream

Son's Supervisors

The BRS was the star of the weekend though. On Friday my son removed the training wheels on her bicycle in the face of her stated goal to learn how to ride the bike without them. This is a transition every parent goes through, fretting about skinned knees while admiring the confidence acquired when their kid masters the balancing act. The BRS proved to be an apt pupil and was riding her bike serenely around the cul-de-sac before the weekend was over. I wasn’t there but I am so proud of her. As I said above, I think my son truly enjoyed this time with his girls although I’m also sure it impacted on his ability to watch the opening NFL weekend (and a hugely surprising Patriots win).

Grocery Shopping

Then Golf!

Cutest Golfers Ever

Since the NFL started that means the Family Fantasy Football League also kicked off. I was up against my daughter and snuck out a win (I only brag when that happens) but only because one of her last players dropped a sure touchdown pass in the closing seconds. The only other excitement I had this weekend was an outside cleaner in the house on Saturday. Since my Favorite Panamanian’s lack of mobility for the past month has impacted on her ability to keep the house to the surgical level of cleanliness she usually maintains, she campaigned to hire someone to come in. The Neighborhood Mafioso recommended one and Saturday was the day. The whole concept was to keep my wife off her surgically repaired knee but that didn’t work out for a couple reasons. One, the cleaning lady was also a Latina, which meant my wife kept up a running conversation for the entire day following her around. The second reason was she was keeping an eye on the cleaner to ensure her lofty standards were being met. I know what that is like, from forty + years of the same. My wife ended the day with the knee barking at her a little bit from too much time standing up.

Graduation Bike Ride

She was fully recovered by Sunday morning and we were able to attend mass for the first time in nearly a month. That’s a very long time (for her). We received a large envelope from The Surgery Center which turned out to be a series of photos from inside my Favorite Panamanian’s knee, taken (obviously) during the surgery. It was fascinating to see the difference between the first and last photos. I’m no doctor (vast understatement that) but the damage evident on the first couple was startling. The last photo showed the pristine aftereffects and explains why the pain has disappeared for the most part. I still find myself semi-amazed at what medical technology has evolved to.

Inside Wife's Knee - Damage Obvious

Then, All Cleaned Up

My wife granted me a break from nurse duty last week to take in a movie, Alien Romulus, because I was seriously jonesing from my lack of cinema time over the past month. The granddaughters probably wouldn’t have truly appreciated the chest bursting aliens as much as I did. The movie is pretty good although it follows what has become the standard alien formula. A plucky female lead is marked early on as the dedicated sole survivor while her plucky band of co-stars fall, one by one, at the hands of either the alien or a conniving corporate android. The evil Weyland-Yutani corporation is back as this actually serves as a direct sequel to the first Alien movie with the alien Ripley pushed out of the ship in the final moments serving as the progenitor for the latest squad of face huggers and chest bursters. While the plot was more than fairly predictable, there was genuine tension throughout and some really scary moments as the film winds towards the inevitable climatic battle which is very good. I liked it.

Four movies fell in the A-Z watch, three keepers and one ejection: The Lion in Winter, one of the best acted movies you will ever watch, with O’Toole and Hepburn at the top of their games, Hepburn has some of the best lines in cinema history; Little Big Man, comedic/dramatic retelling of history of the Indian wars and Custer’s Last Stand with Chief Dan George stealing every scene he’s in; Little Nikita, still mystified how this came into my possession, cringeworthy dialogue, eject; To Live and Die in L.A., Friedkin at his best, snappy cop drama, with stellar cast and stunning death during the climax.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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; CRC - Connecticut Riverboat Captain – another close friend from high school, renowned sailor of the big river; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during him 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; PCR - Pittsburgh College Roommate – high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; PCR+1 - Pittsburgh College Roommate’s wife; Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; Seis Amigos - two couples from our condo complex and my wife and I; Soxfather – my brother-in-law (whom I miss more than I can ever explain); Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course