Birthday at the bowling alley (home of the pickle dip)
My cousin Kevin's son turns 2 tomorrow. They held the party yesterday at the same bowling alley as last year. His wife's family has ties there so I'm sure that makes it easy. Plus, this year, no smash cake.
Unlike last year, the weather was seasonably warm. Whereas it was 15F for his first birthday, it was more like 51F for his second. Guess which one we preferred? It was sunny and really decent yesterday, and given the length of our trip, we were perfectly happy about that. Dad had been sort of ambivalent when the invitation first came through, but we were like, we should go, and when the weather looked promising, it made the choice obvious. If the weather had been scheduled to be crappy, there'd be no way. I may have mentioned this last year, but I-57 is notorious for being terrible when the weather is bad. Just recently, there was a bad accident along part of the stretch we rode, with two white crosses on the east shoulder at one point. And, overnight, there was a fatal accident a little north of where we were. So, yeah, glad our trip was uneventful.
The other good news was that our other cousin came with her mom (Aunt T) and her two youngest daughters, plus Aunt D's sister has been in town for weeks, a combination of vacation and work, so she was able to join us, too. We commandeered two whole tables at the party, pushing them together as best we could since they're round. My seat happened to be at the junction of those two tables, so I kind of sat between them, but it was nice to be able to visit with both.
CC is still on me about being single, and threatened to put me up on some sort of dating site. Good luck with that. She said, I just need your phone number! I went, 555-1212. She said, that's incomplete! Okay, it's 630-555-1212. Her mom had stepped away from the table and was just sitting back down right then, realized what I was doing, and laughed. Aunt T then said, don't worry, I'm single too! Heh, thanks.
My parents had a recollection that the food last year wasn't really food, but more snacky stuff. We were sort of making contingency plans in case we needed to stop somewhere for dinner. The good news is that there was some more substantial food this year, so you could have hot dogs or one of the two kinds of chili (regular or vegetarian). I ended up with a partial bowl of the vegetarian chili, which was pretty good. My cousin C had three or four bowls of it, and not partial bowls (then again, she's not about to have a hot dog--both she and CC are vegetarians), and I was like, I might have to cut you off there. Oh, and when I was up in line to get food, Kevin's wife Leah ended up behind me and likely wanted the regular chili, except...where's the ladle? There had been a plate next to the slow cooker for it, but the plate was empty. Oh, crap, it's probably *in* the chili. Sure enough, she grabbed a plastic spoon and dug around, and out came the chili-covered ladle. She took it away to clean it and left the plastic spoon for the time being. Meanwhile, a couple guys she knows come up and get behind us in line, and, like, had they bothered to pay any bit of attention, they'd have seen what was going on...and I TOLD them what was going on...but they must have been a bit thick or something because they just wanted to complain that they were left with a little tiny spoon with which to scoop their chili. At that point Leah's mom came over and slid out this large tote from under the serving tables--this was on my other side--and pulled out the emergency ladle. It was pretty much, here you go, shut up. And I think what had happened was explained...AGAIN. At that point they finally got it, especially when Leah returned with the now-clean ladle. Seriously, guys, it wasn't that hard to figure out.
When we'd arrived, there was this guy walking in front of us holding a bag, like a Jewel bag, not a gift bag. He walked right into the side door, which we knew from last year led right into the party room, forgoing the trip through the bowling alley. I don't know if he's a family member or what, but he brought the famous pickle dip. I remember it being there last year but I don't know if I tried it (and, frankly, hadn't been looking to try it this year, either). The man ended up sitting at an adjacent table, and Aunt D and her sister (I think I've called her Double D in the past) were talking to him, including about the recipe, so I gave it a go. It's not bad, but not something I'd generally seek out. It must be a delicacy in these parts as when he explained the recipe, it's still not something I'd really heard of. I guess some people take this pickle dip and put it on ham and roll the ham up, then maybe they chop everything up or something. He just chops it all up to begin with. And, it's his thing to bring to parties; apparently he can't come without it. (Later, Leah's mom said, it's nothing special to us anymore; it's at every party we have.) Well, I'm glad I tried it, but I'm okay with it being a once-a-year thing.
We had cupcakes again this year; there were two number 2s all stuck together with icing, with a train logo on top, plus maybe a dozen or so normal cupcakes set between them. The party's theme was Thomas the Tank Engine, and the little guy loves trains and cars and things. Leah's sister-in-law helped with undoing the cupcake 2s and ended up with a plate filled entirely with several inches of frosting. I wasn't quick enough with my camera to get a picture of it, but it was quite the sight. The icing colors were blue and green, and anyone who had blue looked like they went outside at last year's party and were still cold. At one point, CC pulled out her earbuds and spent the rest of the party listening to music, and when Kevin came over, I said, how nice of you to match the icing to her earbuds. Sure enough, her lips and her earbuds were the same color, which was a little frightening. Remember how I said I'd have to cut C off of her chili? Had to do that with my dad as well, only with Pepsi. He used to drink Pepsi all the time, but now mostly drinks fruit-flavored ginger ale. He had a cup of Pepsi on a table and started showing weird internet stuff to us on his phone, including showing something to me. I said to show the girls (SJ and CC), and in doing so he sort of swept his hand over and spilled his nearly full cup of pop. Great. I had a couple napkins, as did Aunt D, so we tossed those over; Double D went to the nearby bar and got a towel; dad went and grabbed a garbage can, and he and Double D got everything into the trash. Okay, no more for you; you're driving. Hey, I was just excited that there was a pitcher of water; I don't know if they'd had one last year.
There was a controversy with the gifts. One family had to leave before everyone else, so Leah opened their gift first--a Dalmatian that could walk. It had a remote and a leash. The tail even wagged. It was super cute and the little guy loved it...as did his cousin, who's only a year older. Well, she wanted to play with the walking puppy. But, of course, when the little guy saw that she was playing with the puppy, *he* wanted to play with the puppy. The next thing you know, there's a bit of wailing, and they're being picked up and taken away, and the puppy is put behind the other gifts on the gift table. Once the full-on gift opening was happening, and the little guy was preoccupied, that's when his cousin was able to play with the puppy for a bit. Leah and her brother are very close, so it sounds like the families spend a lot of time together and stuff like this is a regular occurrence. Since we just had Christmas, the little guy was an old pro at the gifts, especially anything in a bag. We must have been the only people who only gave a card and cash. I plum forgot to go out and get anything, and mom was like, I doubt he's hurting for toys and clothes, so yeah, cash it is. But Leah put our card in a gift bag for safekeeping, and Aunt D was like, wait, what did you get him? I didn't see! Don't worry, there wasn't anything to see. You have to understand, we had some of the best seats in the house, but we were on the other side of the table from the festivities and the little guy was on the floor--the table blocked a good portion of our view. Oh well. We got to see a decent amount. Last year the gift portion was up on the stage since the front area was blockaded for the smash cake, but with no smashing this year, they were sitting on the floor. Also, it turns out the guy's a little ham. At some points I was trying to take pictures of him, and he'd see me with my camera and look right at me. He's such a happy guy, too. The only crying had to do with the puppy, and that was literally it. We'd also realized that last year's party was the last time my parents saw the family; they'd been unable to make it to the couple of parties C had last year. The little guy really grew. He's not a baby any longer; he's a little boy.
Aunt D and Double D had to leave early. Aunt D volunteers for her church, and it just so happened that there was going to be a dinner with the bishop last night that both of them were going to attend. They had to go home, partially change, grab a dessert, then head to the church, which is by Aunt D's old house. Their timing had to be pretty good, so I hope it all worked out for them. With a couple fewer people, we were able to condense down to one table, so we moved the first table forward and my parents came to join the second table. This was when C pulled up videos of her daughters singing. CC was not thrilled and basically buried herself in her hoodie. SJ was not phased, but then again her mom only showed the one video of her; we saw two or three videos of CC. Mom was all, you sound good! And that takes a lot of guts! We also learned that T was at her tutoring job and that's why she didn't come. She does have a part-time teaching position, now that she's done with school, but rumor has it that she would love to go out of state, somewhere in the Southwest like California, Arizona, or Texas, I think. It may have more to do with escaping her family, but I've long heard that there's a dearth of music educators in that area.
Toward the end, most of them had their phones out and were checking Facebook and the like. Dad had made sure to take a few pictures (and Kevin photobombed them while holding his son, which was even better) for his sister out west, and mom and C were checking their feeds. Mom kept coming across quizzes while C was like, I'm so boring--my feed is all, Tom Skilling! National Weather Service! Tom Skilling! And I used my bible app every day last year! And what quiz does my mother take while we're there? What Witch am I? (Except, of course, it wasn't "witch.") When we went to leave and we were saying goodbye to C and her family, C was all, you're my favorite witchy aunt! My mom was horrified. Uh, mom, you *just* took the quiz, and you were like, yeah, I definitely don't have the bible app on *my* phone... Anyway. Yeah, don't get offended by stuff you bring up yourself. Oh, and of course they're coming across political stuff, and my father had warned us not to talk of anything political. It's clear where C stands with the president, and I don't disagree with her...but we're clearly in red territory here. This likely is NOT the venue to start saying loudly how Trump is an idiot. Just, seriously, it's our cousin's son's birthday party and we are the outsiders here. Let's not piss off everyone his wife knows. C finally backed down. Besides, I'm pretty sure she lives with a pro-Trump person (her husband), so she gets to have those fights at home, not in public. That's probably wise.
Unlike last year, the weather was seasonably warm. Whereas it was 15F for his first birthday, it was more like 51F for his second. Guess which one we preferred? It was sunny and really decent yesterday, and given the length of our trip, we were perfectly happy about that. Dad had been sort of ambivalent when the invitation first came through, but we were like, we should go, and when the weather looked promising, it made the choice obvious. If the weather had been scheduled to be crappy, there'd be no way. I may have mentioned this last year, but I-57 is notorious for being terrible when the weather is bad. Just recently, there was a bad accident along part of the stretch we rode, with two white crosses on the east shoulder at one point. And, overnight, there was a fatal accident a little north of where we were. So, yeah, glad our trip was uneventful.
The other good news was that our other cousin came with her mom (Aunt T) and her two youngest daughters, plus Aunt D's sister has been in town for weeks, a combination of vacation and work, so she was able to join us, too. We commandeered two whole tables at the party, pushing them together as best we could since they're round. My seat happened to be at the junction of those two tables, so I kind of sat between them, but it was nice to be able to visit with both.
CC is still on me about being single, and threatened to put me up on some sort of dating site. Good luck with that. She said, I just need your phone number! I went, 555-1212. She said, that's incomplete! Okay, it's 630-555-1212. Her mom had stepped away from the table and was just sitting back down right then, realized what I was doing, and laughed. Aunt T then said, don't worry, I'm single too! Heh, thanks.
My parents had a recollection that the food last year wasn't really food, but more snacky stuff. We were sort of making contingency plans in case we needed to stop somewhere for dinner. The good news is that there was some more substantial food this year, so you could have hot dogs or one of the two kinds of chili (regular or vegetarian). I ended up with a partial bowl of the vegetarian chili, which was pretty good. My cousin C had three or four bowls of it, and not partial bowls (then again, she's not about to have a hot dog--both she and CC are vegetarians), and I was like, I might have to cut you off there. Oh, and when I was up in line to get food, Kevin's wife Leah ended up behind me and likely wanted the regular chili, except...where's the ladle? There had been a plate next to the slow cooker for it, but the plate was empty. Oh, crap, it's probably *in* the chili. Sure enough, she grabbed a plastic spoon and dug around, and out came the chili-covered ladle. She took it away to clean it and left the plastic spoon for the time being. Meanwhile, a couple guys she knows come up and get behind us in line, and, like, had they bothered to pay any bit of attention, they'd have seen what was going on...and I TOLD them what was going on...but they must have been a bit thick or something because they just wanted to complain that they were left with a little tiny spoon with which to scoop their chili. At that point Leah's mom came over and slid out this large tote from under the serving tables--this was on my other side--and pulled out the emergency ladle. It was pretty much, here you go, shut up. And I think what had happened was explained...AGAIN. At that point they finally got it, especially when Leah returned with the now-clean ladle. Seriously, guys, it wasn't that hard to figure out.
When we'd arrived, there was this guy walking in front of us holding a bag, like a Jewel bag, not a gift bag. He walked right into the side door, which we knew from last year led right into the party room, forgoing the trip through the bowling alley. I don't know if he's a family member or what, but he brought the famous pickle dip. I remember it being there last year but I don't know if I tried it (and, frankly, hadn't been looking to try it this year, either). The man ended up sitting at an adjacent table, and Aunt D and her sister (I think I've called her Double D in the past) were talking to him, including about the recipe, so I gave it a go. It's not bad, but not something I'd generally seek out. It must be a delicacy in these parts as when he explained the recipe, it's still not something I'd really heard of. I guess some people take this pickle dip and put it on ham and roll the ham up, then maybe they chop everything up or something. He just chops it all up to begin with. And, it's his thing to bring to parties; apparently he can't come without it. (Later, Leah's mom said, it's nothing special to us anymore; it's at every party we have.) Well, I'm glad I tried it, but I'm okay with it being a once-a-year thing.
We had cupcakes again this year; there were two number 2s all stuck together with icing, with a train logo on top, plus maybe a dozen or so normal cupcakes set between them. The party's theme was Thomas the Tank Engine, and the little guy loves trains and cars and things. Leah's sister-in-law helped with undoing the cupcake 2s and ended up with a plate filled entirely with several inches of frosting. I wasn't quick enough with my camera to get a picture of it, but it was quite the sight. The icing colors were blue and green, and anyone who had blue looked like they went outside at last year's party and were still cold. At one point, CC pulled out her earbuds and spent the rest of the party listening to music, and when Kevin came over, I said, how nice of you to match the icing to her earbuds. Sure enough, her lips and her earbuds were the same color, which was a little frightening. Remember how I said I'd have to cut C off of her chili? Had to do that with my dad as well, only with Pepsi. He used to drink Pepsi all the time, but now mostly drinks fruit-flavored ginger ale. He had a cup of Pepsi on a table and started showing weird internet stuff to us on his phone, including showing something to me. I said to show the girls (SJ and CC), and in doing so he sort of swept his hand over and spilled his nearly full cup of pop. Great. I had a couple napkins, as did Aunt D, so we tossed those over; Double D went to the nearby bar and got a towel; dad went and grabbed a garbage can, and he and Double D got everything into the trash. Okay, no more for you; you're driving. Hey, I was just excited that there was a pitcher of water; I don't know if they'd had one last year.
There was a controversy with the gifts. One family had to leave before everyone else, so Leah opened their gift first--a Dalmatian that could walk. It had a remote and a leash. The tail even wagged. It was super cute and the little guy loved it...as did his cousin, who's only a year older. Well, she wanted to play with the walking puppy. But, of course, when the little guy saw that she was playing with the puppy, *he* wanted to play with the puppy. The next thing you know, there's a bit of wailing, and they're being picked up and taken away, and the puppy is put behind the other gifts on the gift table. Once the full-on gift opening was happening, and the little guy was preoccupied, that's when his cousin was able to play with the puppy for a bit. Leah and her brother are very close, so it sounds like the families spend a lot of time together and stuff like this is a regular occurrence. Since we just had Christmas, the little guy was an old pro at the gifts, especially anything in a bag. We must have been the only people who only gave a card and cash. I plum forgot to go out and get anything, and mom was like, I doubt he's hurting for toys and clothes, so yeah, cash it is. But Leah put our card in a gift bag for safekeeping, and Aunt D was like, wait, what did you get him? I didn't see! Don't worry, there wasn't anything to see. You have to understand, we had some of the best seats in the house, but we were on the other side of the table from the festivities and the little guy was on the floor--the table blocked a good portion of our view. Oh well. We got to see a decent amount. Last year the gift portion was up on the stage since the front area was blockaded for the smash cake, but with no smashing this year, they were sitting on the floor. Also, it turns out the guy's a little ham. At some points I was trying to take pictures of him, and he'd see me with my camera and look right at me. He's such a happy guy, too. The only crying had to do with the puppy, and that was literally it. We'd also realized that last year's party was the last time my parents saw the family; they'd been unable to make it to the couple of parties C had last year. The little guy really grew. He's not a baby any longer; he's a little boy.
Aunt D and Double D had to leave early. Aunt D volunteers for her church, and it just so happened that there was going to be a dinner with the bishop last night that both of them were going to attend. They had to go home, partially change, grab a dessert, then head to the church, which is by Aunt D's old house. Their timing had to be pretty good, so I hope it all worked out for them. With a couple fewer people, we were able to condense down to one table, so we moved the first table forward and my parents came to join the second table. This was when C pulled up videos of her daughters singing. CC was not thrilled and basically buried herself in her hoodie. SJ was not phased, but then again her mom only showed the one video of her; we saw two or three videos of CC. Mom was all, you sound good! And that takes a lot of guts! We also learned that T was at her tutoring job and that's why she didn't come. She does have a part-time teaching position, now that she's done with school, but rumor has it that she would love to go out of state, somewhere in the Southwest like California, Arizona, or Texas, I think. It may have more to do with escaping her family, but I've long heard that there's a dearth of music educators in that area.
Toward the end, most of them had their phones out and were checking Facebook and the like. Dad had made sure to take a few pictures (and Kevin photobombed them while holding his son, which was even better) for his sister out west, and mom and C were checking their feeds. Mom kept coming across quizzes while C was like, I'm so boring--my feed is all, Tom Skilling! National Weather Service! Tom Skilling! And I used my bible app every day last year! And what quiz does my mother take while we're there? What Witch am I? (Except, of course, it wasn't "witch.") When we went to leave and we were saying goodbye to C and her family, C was all, you're my favorite witchy aunt! My mom was horrified. Uh, mom, you *just* took the quiz, and you were like, yeah, I definitely don't have the bible app on *my* phone... Anyway. Yeah, don't get offended by stuff you bring up yourself. Oh, and of course they're coming across political stuff, and my father had warned us not to talk of anything political. It's clear where C stands with the president, and I don't disagree with her...but we're clearly in red territory here. This likely is NOT the venue to start saying loudly how Trump is an idiot. Just, seriously, it's our cousin's son's birthday party and we are the outsiders here. Let's not piss off everyone his wife knows. C finally backed down. Besides, I'm pretty sure she lives with a pro-Trump person (her husband), so she gets to have those fights at home, not in public. That's probably wise.