Lordy, Lordy, We're All 30 (+)
GeekBro, aka my youngest brother & youngest sibling, turned 30 on the 10th. As has become his custom, he had a big party on Saturday with much wonderful food courtesy of Adopted Son #1, jrtheotter. GeekBro commented, "The food's so easy to take care of. I just throw a bunch of money at JR & tell him to make something good." JR, it must be noted, is a *FABULOUS* cook, & this year he had an equally fabulous hat. I had forgotten about the "crazy hat" theme for this year so I did not have one (although it occurred to me while at the party that what I should have done was use one of my many belly dance scarves as a head wrap. Ah, well) GeekBro's hat was aluminum foil crinkled up & shaped to look like a Hershey's Kiss. There were florescent golf hats & sombreros & cowboy hats, not to mention a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hat which earned it's wearer the nickname of Donatello. An extra added bit of coolness this year was that Sis came up with Amazing Niece to join in the celebrations. Niece managed to prove that she is indeed Mom's revenge by throwing several spectacular temper tantrums- enough that even my Mom was ready to spank her (much as Mom was always ready to spank us, she's not at all into spanking the grandchild.). Wow. But most of the time she was her amusing, silly & utterly adorable self, making us giggle & laugh with her antics.
Unfortunately, yesterday it rained quite a bit so attendance was down from previous years. In a bid for cover, GeekBro sent a few friends out for some shelters from the nearby K-mart & managed to also make a make-shift shelter out of some old tent poles & a tarp he had in the basement. I'm surprised the thing stayed up as his roommates some strange aversion to using actual stakes to hold the shelters down with, preferring instead to tie the lines to various stationary objects, like a fence or a tree that was eight feet away, putting the line at just the right height to clothesline anyone who walked by- which happened frequently with some of them, as they hadn't bothered to consider that people might need to walk through certain areas. They contemplated using the line-maze created between the three shelters as a sobriety test until it was pointed out that the sober people couldn't get through it, either. :-)
I was very proud of the present I got GeekBro this year- a print of a Neil Gaiman poem as lettered & illusgtrated by Todd Klein. It's pretty sweet. I'm glad I had the foresight to purchase two copies- one for him & one for myself. I got frames for both of them, too. I was especially pleased when it arrived & the poem had a line about killing some zombies. He seemed pleased, too. I love it when I stumble onto things that are just the perfect gift for someone. If I ever win the lottery, I'd have a field day buying fun things for my friends & family. :-D
And speaking of family, there was a surprise visit from one of our cousins who was passing through with his partner. Somehow, most of us hadn't realized that he was gay, largely because Uncle G doesn't really make an issue out of such things. Adopted Son #1 was very happy to discover "There's family in the family!", as he put it. Cousin's partner was very nice, although he didn't talk much (not a surprise, considering).
Shenanigans broke out after dark. The rain had let up so we were mostly outside. At one point, one of GeekBro's friends decided to arrange a prank on one of Bro's roommates. He got Roomie #2's glasses away from him & Bro smooshed a very melted piece of ice cream cake in his face. Roomie #2 retaliated by sneaking up behind Bro & dumping a bag of flour over his head. Then Bro & Roomies #1 & #2 all conspired together to get the instigator of the whole thing, with Roomie #2 dumping a bag of sugar over his head. Much hilarity ensued. :-D
Today was a bit sad, though. Sis took Hannah the pooch back home with her so I'm once again dog-less. Cousin was supposed to call & spend some time with us today but he didn't. (We're not exactly surprised by this, as that seems to be his way). I did manage to get more cleaning done in the basement as Mom picked up a couple more shelves. She's planning on getting some cleaning & organizing done next weekend while I'm at Sirius. I also managed to read the Serenity "Better Days" comic book miniseries that GeekBro lent to Mom, which was wonderful-- it completely read like an episode of the show. And I managed to read a book Sis had picked up from the bargin shelves at B&N & had left lying around the kitchen- Beasts of No Nation. It's a really good book about a boy who gets drafted into a guerrilla unit in West Africa- very intense. The way he writes is really impressive- the story's told in the boy's voice, pigeon English & all. It made me feel like I ought to be doing more to make the world a better place.
Unfortunately, yesterday it rained quite a bit so attendance was down from previous years. In a bid for cover, GeekBro sent a few friends out for some shelters from the nearby K-mart & managed to also make a make-shift shelter out of some old tent poles & a tarp he had in the basement. I'm surprised the thing stayed up as his roommates some strange aversion to using actual stakes to hold the shelters down with, preferring instead to tie the lines to various stationary objects, like a fence or a tree that was eight feet away, putting the line at just the right height to clothesline anyone who walked by- which happened frequently with some of them, as they hadn't bothered to consider that people might need to walk through certain areas. They contemplated using the line-maze created between the three shelters as a sobriety test until it was pointed out that the sober people couldn't get through it, either. :-)
I was very proud of the present I got GeekBro this year- a print of a Neil Gaiman poem as lettered & illusgtrated by Todd Klein. It's pretty sweet. I'm glad I had the foresight to purchase two copies- one for him & one for myself. I got frames for both of them, too. I was especially pleased when it arrived & the poem had a line about killing some zombies. He seemed pleased, too. I love it when I stumble onto things that are just the perfect gift for someone. If I ever win the lottery, I'd have a field day buying fun things for my friends & family. :-D
And speaking of family, there was a surprise visit from one of our cousins who was passing through with his partner. Somehow, most of us hadn't realized that he was gay, largely because Uncle G doesn't really make an issue out of such things. Adopted Son #1 was very happy to discover "There's family in the family!", as he put it. Cousin's partner was very nice, although he didn't talk much (not a surprise, considering).
Shenanigans broke out after dark. The rain had let up so we were mostly outside. At one point, one of GeekBro's friends decided to arrange a prank on one of Bro's roommates. He got Roomie #2's glasses away from him & Bro smooshed a very melted piece of ice cream cake in his face. Roomie #2 retaliated by sneaking up behind Bro & dumping a bag of flour over his head. Then Bro & Roomies #1 & #2 all conspired together to get the instigator of the whole thing, with Roomie #2 dumping a bag of sugar over his head. Much hilarity ensued. :-D
Today was a bit sad, though. Sis took Hannah the pooch back home with her so I'm once again dog-less. Cousin was supposed to call & spend some time with us today but he didn't. (We're not exactly surprised by this, as that seems to be his way). I did manage to get more cleaning done in the basement as Mom picked up a couple more shelves. She's planning on getting some cleaning & organizing done next weekend while I'm at Sirius. I also managed to read the Serenity "Better Days" comic book miniseries that GeekBro lent to Mom, which was wonderful-- it completely read like an episode of the show. And I managed to read a book Sis had picked up from the bargin shelves at B&N & had left lying around the kitchen- Beasts of No Nation. It's a really good book about a boy who gets drafted into a guerrilla unit in West Africa- very intense. The way he writes is really impressive- the story's told in the boy's voice, pigeon English & all. It made me feel like I ought to be doing more to make the world a better place.