Showered and Completed

Proud Gramma to be With New House Rules

I’m going to try and capture some of the fun and adventure yesterday. I will fail completely to fully describe how much fun we had. My wife’s planned baby shower ran into a few arrival glitches as the town of Holden had their annual town festival at the same time. This led to a detour that changed the 10 minute drive to 45 minutes. Keene Friend, Favorite Son, and I were preparing to go out pub crawling for the shower duration when I received a frantic phone call from my wife declaring she was lost and that I needed to help her.

Cali-Daughter and ABFA Just Before their Rescue Mission

Maine Musquetera Who Created all the Pastries

Daughetr in Conversation with Fellow Curbside Gal Who Came up from NYC

I was a little dumbfounded at how I was going to accomplish that from my distant location. I asked the obvious question – where she was located? Luckily the ABFA, in full rescue mode, arrived on the scene along with the Cali-Daughter and they guided the frantic Panamanian to the shower site. By all reports the shower was a distinct amount of fun as the female side of the family and friends showed up to celebrate with us. This is one of the very coolest things about being back in New England – there’s actually family around to accomplish gatherings like this.

My Sister With the Cousin Contingent

Daughter and a Couple of Rhode Islanders

The Two Stars of the Show

Meanwhile the male element, now joined by my excellent boss, headed into Worcester for a mini-pub crawl. We started out at Five Guys to lay the proper groundwork for our efforts. We then wandered up to the Texas Roadhouse to commence adult beverage operations. It was an excellent stop as we were able to solve all the Red Sox problems while watching a recast of the Friday night game. We walked next door to Ruby Tuesday’s where the bar tender seemed confused about our presence. We were the only ones in the bar which felt more like a diner than a true bar.

The First Stop - In my Defense This Was Before I had a Single Beer

The Diner Bar

We then took out life in our hands and crossed busy Lincoln Street to the Press Box which is at the exact opposite end of the spectrum. It had that stale beer smell in the background that permeates only a true “bar”. We had hoped to ambush some of our employees who are known to frequent the establishment but failing that we focused on the extreme stress level certain blouse buttons were undergoing. I’m thinking the bartender bought shirts a couple sizes too small to help in the tip department.

Diving into the Press Box

All too soon we received a text from the Cali-Daughter that the shower was finishing up and we were summoned back to the homestead. While the afternoon was a lot of fun, both at the shower and certainly at the crawl, the after party was the best part of the day. Our house is a little too small for all the gathering, so the next door Mafiosos stepped up again and my daughter’s ability to deflect promised rain allowed us to spend the evening outside for the most part.

Gathered Panamanians for the After Party

The Next Door Mafioso and I (in Panama hat) Conferring on Stone Wall

My Wife in the Background

Fabulous Sunset and Beautiful Women

Wife Making one of her Many Salient Points

My brother in law joined us for the after party and the day was as complete as possible, with the lone exception of a certain rock star winging his way to the land down under. I think people misinterpret how happy I am at these type gatherings. My normal reserve does take a serious shock to its system and with inhibitions suppressed by a couple beers I fully express how happy I am to be around these most special people in my life. Everywhere I turned last night was someone I thought the world of, that’s more than enough. It ended all too soon.

Daughter Executing the Cake with Bonecrusher

Fun Times with Sister and Bro in Law

Party Eventually Moved inSide