The Terrible Catsafterme

Parents come to expect a few minor mishaps after returning from a week’s vacation out of town: spilt milk, a broken dish, even a kangaroo in the living room – but I wasn’t quite prepared for the surprises that awaited me when I got back home after my Italy trip. Ashleigh – against strict instruction - had taken it upon herself to let my house serve alternately as party central and a hotel for her band of worthless loser friends.

But the true ugliness of the situation was that I discovered that no less than 16 DVD sets had been stolen, along with my two guitars (one signed by Better Than Ezra). Even Ashleigh was not immune to this group of so-called friends when her iPod, Nintendo, and some cash was taken from her. After we discussed this and my voice returned, she did make the effort to call the police and report the friends whom she ‘suspected’ had taken the loot. Ashleigh vowed to mend her ways – but apparently she needed yet one more lesson which would come a week later…

Oh, and one of the cats had peed in my bed, since Ashleigh hadn’t touched the litter box since my departure. For all I know, her friends were using the litter box as well. I hate them.

But despite this very rough start to my homecoming, the weeks surrounding the Memorial Day holiday did include some good times as well. In fact, almost from the word ‘go’, I was finding every conceivable excuse to postpone my unpacking – including two great reunions with former classmates from my Ankeney days – Ashleigh Heath and Steve Johnson, which occurred respectively on Monday, May 18, and Thursday, May 21.

Since I was meeting Steve at the Pub nearby, I stopped over for a quick post-Italy visit with Heidi on that Thursday, which was fortunate because although we tried to meet up over the weekend, it never worked out. In fact, she was going to come out for a cookout at my Mom’s the next day, Friday, May 22, but things fell through on her end. You know, three kids and all…

But I still had a great time over at Mom’s as Bob roasted up some chicken and pork chops on the grill and Mom made some corn on the cob, au gratin potatoes, green bean casserole, and poppyseed cake.  Naturally, the most fun though was playing with Adam and Megan, whom had come to town for the weekend with Denise and Aaron. Although adorable as she begins to smile, talk, and coo, Megan is becoming quite the drama queen and will go from a big smile and giggle to an outrageous cry in the blink of an eye. Only Mommy and sometimes Grandma can console her.

Megan and Mommy, happy as clams

Aaron, Denise, and Bob chew the fat…and the pork…while Megan looks on

Adam, master of the tricycle

Another classic pose captured by Uncle Brad

Adam has nearly mastered the art of avoiding the flash

Adam has also nearly mastered the art of avoiding bedtime

Megan wide-eyed and bushy-tailed

A kiss goodnight

Saturday was a beautiful day in which I was able to get out and begin my summertime ritual of mowing the lawn and laying out in the sun, catch up on some website posting, and generally just let the breeze blow through the house and enjoy a real live Summer day. Christi and Creed came over that night and we hung out and watched The Heartbreak Kid and ate cheese.

Sunday, May 24, was the day of Karen and Joe’s big Memorial Day gathering. I much prefer these cookouts that come before the holiday itself so that we have a day to relax after the event before returning to work.

Ashleigh, Christi, and Creed all went along and I brought along a couple of pies: apple and marionberry (and no, it was not named after the mayor of Washington D.C.) The food was amazing and seemingly never-ending - and included much more than hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken, oriental salad, cheesy potatoes, corn, chips, Karen’s best cookies ever, Mom’s poppyseed cake, and peach cobbler. At the end of the meal, there was still the largest stack of burgers, dogs, and chicken that I had ever seen.

Darlene, Brittney, and Mom

Ashleigh, Adam, and Susan

Bob explains how bottles are made

Debby and Mike after polishing off their plates. Styrofoam is hard to polish.

Baby Tori and the other white Brad

Murphys extraordinaire

Joe capably grills up the third or fourth round of flesh

Grandpa Murphy and Bob hold vigil over the taco dip

Me and always-pretty Christi

It’s a fine day to dress up – as Andrew/Andy/Spider-Man and Abby demonstrate for Creed

Bob keeps Tori out of trouble…and visa versa

Megan digs deep for the tortilla chips

Creed comes up with the lazy way to blow bubbles

Aaron takes another phone break to consult his bookie

Bev organized a water balloon game where the kids had to get the entire insides of a circle wet from popping water balloons inside of it. For the older crowd, she arranged a warm-up game of Frisbee golf using a Frisbee and beach towels (I scored 8, but Ed beat me with 7) and a double elimination cornhole tournament.

Let those without geckos cast the first balloon

Debby gets Tori primed for road destruction

Christi and Yaht stand behind their candidate

Charley and Susan: The Blues Brother and Mother

Pandemonium on Coke Avenue

Some Great Reward will be coming my way…

The cornhole games were fun but it was so hot in the breezeless air that the games seemed to go on forever. There were also delayed as the parents always had to see about their little ones. Ah, to be free from that! My partner through random drawing was Denise and we were victorious over Jan and Brittney. We then missed our next game because Denise was tending to Megan. So we took on an extra team in the losers’ bracket to make it fair, but we lost to Bob and Eric. Finally, we were doubly eliminated when we lost again to Karen and Aaron.

Grandpa tosses a beanbag while Ed dreams of maps

Ashleigh tosses a bag…and lives long and prospers

Jim merely waves to a friend

Debby and Darlene become frozen in cornhole time

Christi squares off against Aaron, who is attempting to remove his nose

Doug, Bob, Brittney, Denise, Aaron, and Christi and the Cornhole conga

Bean bag line dancing with Charles, Mike, Jan, me, Bob, and Eric

This was our cue to exit, but it had been another great family picnic where socializing – as always – is the best part of all. In attendance in addition to us had been Grandpa Murphy, Debby & Mike and Little Brad and Tori, Mom, Bob, Denise & Aaron and Adam and Megan, Bev & Ed, Ed’s sister Virginia, Susan & Charles and Charley and Sam, Joe & Karen, and ’Andy’, Abby, and Allie, Jim & Jan and Eric, Lois, Bob & Darlene, Brittney & Doug

That night as we creeped past the midnight Memorial Day hour, Ashleigh was busy re-learning the lesson about the nature of her friends as she attended a party where her phone got stolen. Demanding that the perpetrator turn over the phone before she left, she was then sucker punched in the mouth by some hag with no last name known to her friends as ‘Hitler’ (I’d love to see this train wreck when she’s forty).

The good news is that Ashleigh then fled the party and got pulled over by the police for speeding. Good news, you ask? Well, it turns out that she told the cop about what had happened and he returned to the party and arrested not only Hitler, but the person who stole the phone, which was safely returned to her. At least that’s one expensive gift that I’ve given her of which she still has in her possession. We didn’t do too much on Memorial Day itself. Ashleigh cut the grass and Christi came to see the lip.

Tuesday the 26th was a sad day as Christi and I attended the funeral of Jackie’s father Doug Moore who had passed away on Thursday, May 21. He had been in poor health for quite some time, and Jackie being the wonderful and giving person that she is had been taking care of him for the last couple of years and living with him for almost a year. It was a very sad occasion and my heart really bled for Jackie. This was actually the second death since I had returned from Italy, as my aunt Dottie’s mother Ruth Fudge had passed away on May 16 at the age of 92.

The next weekend was one where I finally took most of it just relax and not do much. I did have to work 8-noon on Saturday, May 30, so I spent the night at Mom’s the night before so I would be closer to my office. It was a nice time going out to Steak ‘n Shake and watching Mad Money with Mom and Bob. It still took me an hour to get to work thanks to an overturned truck blocking two lanes.

I tried to lay out on that Saturday after work, but the clouds didn’t cooperate, so I lazed indoors and watched Slumdog Millionaire and The Year of Living Dangerously. Sunday was nicer out so I laid out again and then had yet another double feature of Bang the Drum Slowly and the Dark Knight. After the many busy weekends I’ve had this Spring, doing nothing was a pleasant change – but not one I plan on repeating for a while!

My friend Ashleigh Heath was still in town the following week, so she and I met up to Delco park on Monday, June 1, to greet our old mutual friend Missy Fodor, who was there with her four boys to watch her husband Paul’s softball game. Ashleigh, Missy, and I had a great time catching up even more, while Ashleigh’s Dad, who had come along with her, really was enthralled and greatly enjoyed the game itself and the ensuing victory of Paul and his fellow Dayton firemen players.

After twenty years…the lovely Ashleigh and Missy

Being the middle child is a nice place to be

Afterward, Ashleigh and I went over to Missy and Paul’s house to hang out for a while. We took a tour of Missy’s awesome house and I played her a game of air hockey and Foosball. I didn’t stay cocky too long after my air hockey win after she demolished me in Foosball. Missy’s husband Paul was a lot of fun too as he continued to tempt us with snow cones, cotton candy, and soft pretzels, maintaining the carnival atmosphere of the evening. Missy has four great boys, who obviously really enjoy being boys. What a great family they have!

Gloating after my air hockey win. Missy began to catch up after we introduced a second puck to the table

Ashleigh keeps herself busy during our gaming contests

Missy’s chance for revenge with her lucky Huggies giving her good karma

The thrill of victory

The agony of defeat

Elijah and Paul whip up one of many carnival treats

Everything I needed to know, I learned in eighth grade

Just before we left, Missy pulled out a video tape that she and some classmates (including my old pal Sunil Doshi) had made in ninth grade at Ankeney. It was an unintentionally hilarious soap opera that they had created for their English class. Even the boys got a kick out of this.

Ashleigh also stopped by for a bit on Tuesday night so I could help her upload my photos from the night before on her Facebook account. I think she enjoyed the tutorial and saw the power in conversing with old friends through this medium. We even found another old friend Alicia Keeton online and chatted with her for a while. It has been fun having Ashleigh in town and hanging out a few times.

So now that we are full-fledged into the ‘J’ months, I am preparing for my upcoming adventures which will begin quickly. Summer is here ~ and I couldn’t be happier about it!

Next up: the first Summer road trip…

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at 6:09 am and is filed under 2000's - Late, Family Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.