Day 2 festivities
got off to a perplexing start with my son and I attempting to make pancakes for
his mother, my wife. We had a recipe
specifically pointed out to us by the recipient of the impending meal and felt
semi-confident in our ability to execute the mission. We ended up with pancake batter with a lot of
chunks of cream cheese floating around in it.
This didn’t seem normal but we presumed they must melt from the heat
while cooking. We fished the largest
chunks out ahead of time and went for it.
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| My Son With the Chunky Pancakes |
It turns out we
were supposed to use the blender versus the mixer although the recipe clearly
gave us the option of either. For the actual
cooking I pulled rank and delegated the task to my son who pointed out that he’d
never cooked pancakes before. I blithely
informed him that we shared the same qualification level and he had younger
reflexes. While the pancakes were not an
artistic success my wife deemed them edible while opening her Mother’s Day
gifts. The gift and card opening held the customary attendant water works. My son and I were hoping the crying was
emotion-based rather than a reaction to our breakfast efforts.
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| Looks Great Even When She's Crying |
Despite what
you read here fairly often, my wife does a serious character flaw – she doesn’t
think she was a good mother. She thinks
she was too tough on our kids when they were young and that they resent
her. While nothing could be further from
the truth she always gets overcome with emotion when she realizes just how much
they truly love her. When you consider
she came to this country without speaking the language and was “blessed” with a
husband who disappeared for long periods of time to play with his well-armed friends
I am amazed she can even conceive that she wasn’t a great mom. I always offer as conclusive evidence of her
maternal capacity the two children she raised – case closed.
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| Son in Law, Daughter and Bro in Law at the Mets |
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| Bro in Law, Sister, and the In Laws on the Other Side |
My daughter
couldn’t make it up due to baby shower commitments (lamentably not her own J) and
she was sorely missed although we did get to Skype with her from her NYC
bathroom (everyone else was still asleep in the apartment and the wife does
tend to vocalize). I know she missed
being with us but those feelings were softened to a certain degree when she
linked up with my sister and the excellent Rhode Island in-law clan for a New
York Mets baseball game. I was happy she
got to spend at least part of the day with family and she probably wasn’t asked
once about our future grandchildren.
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| Heading to Church in Dress I Bought her for Mother's Day Luckily I was not Involved in Purchasing Process |
Back in
Massachusaletts, after a hurried journey to church, our next mission was a trip
up to New Hampshire to spend the afternoon with the MEF and her equally most
excellent parents. They always invite
Buddy the Wonder Pooch when we come up but I have resisted due to Buddy’s well
known aptitude for chaos and the resident two rather large cats. Since it was Mother’s Day and we could not
refuse her anything, my wife declared that Buddy would join us. He was almost as excited (meaning just short
of apoplectic) to get on the road as my son was, who was seeing the MEF for the
first time in ten days.
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| The Two Moms Out on the Deck |
We spent a
fantastic afternoon ensconced on a sun lit deck with some of the nicest people
in the world. I’ve written before about
how much fun we have whenever we’re lucky enough to hang out with the MEF’s
parents. Granted our kids were there to
add to the enjoyment but the MEF’s parents have that rare ability to make you
feel so welcome that it’s like you’ve known them for your entire life.
We did the barbecue
thing and took a short walk around the neighborhood to prepare our bodies for
the nutritional shock of one of the MEF’s signature moves – chocolate cake with
ice cream. She added a twist this time
by adding a special wine poured over the ice cream.
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| The Fun Bunch |
The Buddy
experiment was a mixed and extremely limited success. The shocked cats disappeared
upon his arrival and when they did wander back into sight Buddy welcomed them
by hurling himself against the door of the deck trying to get at them. He did settle down and only knocked over one
plant but he didn’t distinguish himself as a house guest. I’m sure the MEF’s parents will not be as
liberal with their canine invitations in the future.
We made our way
home after a truly pleasant day spent with these excellent people and my wife
immediately got to work on catching up on her backlog of Mother’s Day phone
calls. Since she decided to do this
right next to me on the couch and I couldn’t say anything (Mother’s Day!) I
donned the head phones and attacked the DVR list. It’s testimony to how involved her phone
calls were that she didn’t even flinch when Dean Winchester beheaded a couple
demons. I wasn’t brave enough to try
Hannibal out on her though; there has to be some limits.
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| Wife and Son |
So, a great
day, if a daughter short but we get her for a couple weekends straight near the
end of the month.
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