When the House Becomes a Zoo

Happy 6th Birthday Rocky - we love you!!! I was up around 7:30am to another cloud-filled sky. For the time being, however, it wasn’t raining. Yippee! I did my normal exercise routine and then headed out with Ykraps. It was wet & cool – certainly not very July-like. I took advantage of the quiet morning to relax and surf the internet. This was Rocky’s 6th birthday and we planned to take he, Landon, and Lindsey to the zoo to celebrate the occasion. Of course, Jacob & Bella would be going too. I took Mindy coffee after my run. She was up soon after. We discussed the viability of the zoo trip with the pending rainy forecast. Lindsey called mid-morning to see when we were coming to pick them up. Mindy headed out to shop for Rocky’s b-day gifts before stopping by to pick all of them up. While she was out, I took care of a number of chores, including unloading the dishwasher & dealing with the trash. I also downloaded all of our camping pictures. She was back by 1pm or so with the entire bunch. She brought home Wendy’s. The house went from quiet to noisy in a hurry, but that was expected. We made the decision that the zoo was out. It sprinkled and threatened even heavier rain. We still partied for Rocky, however. We did a cake and candles and then birthday presents. I took Landon outside to play on the tree swing. He could seemingly swing for hours. Mindy eventually joined us. We fed the ducks leftover buns. He enjoyed that too. Once we headed back inside I took a brief nap. I was awoken by Mindy saying that they were heading to Galaxy golf & games. It must’ve been near 3 or 4pm by then. Also, the sun began to show itself some. Yeah! I was still half asleep and begged out of the Galaxy golf & games. Mindy didn’t seem to enthused. While she was gone I contacted Denise, my mom’s friend, after seeing a missed call. She wanted to know if one of us boys could drive my mom home on Friday from the New Albany Surgical Center. I assured her that one of us would and most likely me. She’d already done plenty. I promised her a call back once I had firm plans. I got a hold of Tommy around 5pm or so. He said he could pick-up and deliver mom but had to be back in town by 2pm to run one of his stores. I couldn’t place that burden on him. I assured him that I would do it. I phoned Denise to let her know my intentions. Mindy returned home after dropping the boys and Lindsey around 6pm. After discussing my mom’s situation with Mindy, we decided it best to offer my mom a week’s convalescents at our home. Mom didn’t care for the offer. She was insistent on going home. Fine with me. It would be difficult enough with her willing. Having a unwilling crabby patty on our hands would only make it worse. I agreed to run her home. Mindy & the kids wanted to go out to dinner. I wasn’t that hungry after having Wendy’s earlier in the afternoon, not to mention the other junk I snacked on prior and after. But I was out numbered. Jacob really wanted Barley’s but Mindy & I were there Wednesday and planned to be there Friday as well. I couldn’t see going there three nights in a row. I offered El Vaquero instead. Everyone cheered the selection. The Vaq it was! We headed there around 6:30pm. Mindy got us an inside table while the kids and I parked the Honda. The patio was full with a 30-40 minute wait. Eating inside was OK by me. I refrained from drinking and alcohol. Mindy ordered a margarita. I stuck with water. I ate lots of the complementary chips and salsa – always do. I ordered beef nachos for my entrée. Bella didn’t want anything besides lemonade. Jacob and Mindy ordered combination platters. Everything was good and the service fast as usual. We got out of there for $38 plus tip. Not bad! We were back at home before 8pm. By then the sky was almost entirely clear – a precursor to Friday’s lovely weather, or so we hoped. This was Thursday, the evening we were supposed to talk with neighbor Mike about the Jake’s. Mindy headed down to Chrissy & Kenny’s while I read about Brett Favre’s intentions on ESPN.com. Mindy returned a few minutes to refill her wine and asked me to come down. I was just making a rum drink and planning to head that way anyhow. Apparently they had already discussed the issue and the lat thing I wanted to do was rehash it. Mike seemed happy and all the kids were playing nicely together. He was more than cordial. As I later learned, Kenny was very direct with his opinion as to how the whole thing came about. We both agreed that Shane, other boy’s father, might’ve fabricated some of this. He seems to be that type (slippery). We ended up having a grand time out front of Kenny’s garage hanging with all the neighbors (all five houses). We hung out until well past 10pm.