Theresa and I spent the weekend in Frankenmuth, MI on family business.
Her grandmother passed on last week. A sad occasion, but it was nice to see her family again. Audrey passed on Feb. 12 this year. Two of her grandchildren were born on Jan. 31 just a few hours apart. She was actually staying in the same hospital that one of her grandchildren was born in, so she got to see him before she passed. The other grandchild, born way down in Georgia, she still got to see through pictures sent via cell phones.
It’s nice when technology enables us to do what was once impossible.
Some highlights from the weekend:
My soon-to-be-nephew that’s 18 months old has been taught some simple sign-language type stuff so far. The symbol for “I’m done eating” is putting his hands on his head. It works pretty well. Well, it did until he got old enough to eat with his hands. Imagine what a blonde-haired blue-eyed kids looks like just after giving the “all done” sign after mowing down on a plate of spaghetti. Hint: It’s hilarious if you’re not the one that has to clean him up.
The same almost-nephew recently learned how to squeal. He has a happy one and not happy one. It’s cute, and he really doesn’t do it too often. On Saturday we had lunch in a bar/pub/tavern type place and he let out a few of them. The place was pretty packed. It wasn’t a quiet evening dinner type event. Some crotchety old bitch at the next table actually yelled “SHUT UP!” at him when he did it once. He wasn’t howling at the moon or anything. He grabbed a French Fry, squealed with delight, and bit it. Big friggen deal, lady. You have issues.
Two week old babies sleep a lot. That’s nice.
My almost brother-in-law from the area invited the almost-brother-in-law from Georgia and I to a Texas Hold’em Poker game. The Georgian and I showed up late (because of me) so we just played in the cash game going on. Unknown to us the cash game was actually the one where more money was at play. Minimum buy-in was $50. I’m not used to that. I’ve played very little poker in my life. It did not go well. On the ride there the Georgian told me he had played a little poker. I didn’t realize how little that actually was. When the terms “big blind” and “small blind” are foreign to you, well… he did even worse than I did.
We were late because I needed some time to try and fix my back. I mucked it up on Tuesday and by Thursday night I couldn’t even sleep right. Friday morning I snagged some Ibuprofen from the drug store along with some cough syrup. The active ingredient in cough syrup, dextromethorphan hydrobromide, is a dissociative which puts it in the same class as Ketamine. In my experience if you double up on the dosage (don’t get the stuff with ancetametaphin in it if you do this) it can work as a cheap muscle relaxer. It didn’t work. So, Friday night I did the fail-safe treatment: A good belt of whisky and 15 minutes in the hot tub. Viola. I’m back to 95%.
