Celebrating all Three - 54, 49 & 43

I slept in until 805am not waking even once until 730a or so. Mindy was sound asleep and didn’t budge as I headed out. I quickly prepped a pot of coffee then checked in with work and played around on the internet. It was cloudy with snow flurries and only 28 degrees. At times, the flurries were really heavy but brief.

I chose to let Mindy sleep versus delivering coffee and waking her. She got up on her won somewhere close to 10am. Soon after she was up, I took Eiknarf out for a walk. It was still quite cold with a stiff breeze blowing in from the west. Burrr! Wasn’t expected to get too far above freezing all day long, but after Monday it looks like 50s and 60’s as far out as one can look.

I didn’t bother readying for a run until 11am or so. That’s about the latest I’ve run all year long. While on my run the snow came down exceptionally hard for a spell, and was probably the hardest snow fall I’ve witnessed all winter. It wanted to stick initially but was melted off by the time the run was over. I was back at home near 1135am.

Mindy was texting with Lindsey letting her know that she could come over at 130p to do her laundry, though the texting feature on Mindy’s Droid was giving her fits. It's been dropped one time too many. Mindy planned to go grocery shopping before heading to b-in-law Craig’s. She was showered and ready to head to the grocery sometime around noon. We planned to leave for Craig’s around 2pm, and made arrangements to pick-up Jacob & Bella from Jimaken’s place on our way.

While Mindy was grocery shopping, I took a shower and then did some reading from the recliner. I had a very relaxing time. We were expecting Lindsey and the boys anytime after 130p. It was hard to relax as that hour neared. But surprisingly, it was Mindy who was home from the grocery first, but just before they pulled up. They arrived while we were carrying in everything. Mindy asked for help putting things away too. Not to be in the way, I debagged and prepped food items for stowing. That made most sense to me.

Lindsey started laundry while the two boys played Wii. Unfortunately, the two of them playing Wii is a recipe for constant bickering even when the no arguing ground rules are established up front. It’s at its worst when they play Super Mario Bros. because of the mutual dependency element of the game. 

Lindsey asked if she could go after Olivia before we left. We suggested she not. We didn’t really want our house overrun with children while we were away celebrating the 3 Thompson b-days. I packed up my laptop and we left the house around 210pm making our way north up

Riverside Dr

to

Bethel Rd

and eventually to Jimaken’s. On the drive up Mindy was lamenting over how crazy busy her birthday Monday would be. For one, she said she’d have to stop at  the BMV to renew the Pilot’s tags. Said she didn’t receive the notice by mail like most years past. I advised that they typically send it three months early, but then later seemed to recall her sticker being good through 2013. When I mentioned that as a possibility, she wasn’t sure. I planned to check once at Jimaken’s, though thinking back she could’ve popped open the glove box and checked the registration right then.

It was after 230pm by the time we arrived at Jimaken’s. Mindy headed inside to get the kids while I waited in the car. I jumped out to check the tags while she was inside. Yep, sure enough, tags are good until March 2013. That explains why she didn’t get a notice in the mail. I knew that would make her happy. Took them a few minutes inside. It was 245pm by the time we started off again towards Craig’s pretty much taking Sawmill Rd from its southern most intersect all the way up to its northern most point. Traffic was slow up Sawmill until we passed north of Powell Rd. Mindy mentioned it taking an unusually long time to get there.

We were some of the last to arrive, which was somewhere near 310-315p, almost a full hour after leaving the house. If memory serves, we hadn’t been to Craig & Jeff’s since June, I think, when we celebrated Gloria’s b-day. Completed a remodel of their kitchen since then, upgrading to granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances, a new tile back splash, all done in a warm tan color palette. Looks nice.

Jeff was busy making jarlsberg finger sandwiches as an appetizers in the oven just as we arrived and greeted everyone. Nephew Joe and his new pal David were last to arrive. They were a good 20-30 minutes after us. We visited and enjoyed appetizers for an hour or so before Craig & Jeff had pizza delivered. At 4pm a number of folks gathered in the sunken TV room to watch the final regular season OSU basketball game against Michigan State. If OSU won, they’d share in the big ten title for the 3^rd year in a row. The task seemed daunting, especially given that the game was at Michigan State.

I opted not to watch. As I’ve said many times. It does little more than get me aggravated. Pizza arrived a short while later. There were three varieties, pepperoni, veggie, and a veggie/meat combo. I had some of the pepperoni and the veggie meat combo. The pizza was good, but not Minelli’s good. Had a chicken tender, too. Now they were really good.

The Buckeye game seemed to go longer than usual. Jacob advised that they were down by as many as 15 points in the first half but were making it close in the 2nd half. In the end, somehow or another, they managed to pull out a win forcing a three-way tie for the conference championship. I was surprised.

We visited for another good hour (I actually even napped briefly) before b-day dessert was served.  I browsed the copy of Exaltation of Larks, by James Lipton, resting on the coffee table. A fun, conversation igniter type of book. Near 6pm Gloria took the wraps of the b-day desserts: yellow cake cup cakes with chocolate frosting, butterscotch pie (Mindy's favorite), and Boston cream cake. Candles were placed in the butterscotch pie. We sang happy b-day to all three of the birthday contingent: Jodie, Craig, and Mindy (54, 49, 43 respectively). Mindy blew out the candles.

I had a piece of the butterscotch pie and then one of the small, quarter-sized cup cakes. Both were really yummy. We hung out until just before 7pm when we, like others, readied to leave for home. It was a work night and both kids had homework and needed showers. We said our goodbyes then headed for home.

It was chilly and a dusting of snow coated the windows on most of the parked cars. Burrr! As we ventured south on Sawmill towards 270 west I was reminded of the conversation Mindy had the day prior with Chrissy regarding Jacob. I decided to quiz him on the topic and try and get his perspective without imparting guilt or blame. Initially, he denied any knowledge of the accusations, but as we dove in deeper he at least had some recall, but far less dramatic than the message conveyed. The long and short of it is this. One of the girls said that Jacob touched them inappropriately during play. We didn’t dwell on the conversation but needed to ask.

We arrived home close to 745pm. Mindy quickly dispatched the kids to the shower. While they were up bathing, I checked my work email for anything needing my immediate attention. Happily, there was nothing of an urgent nature. Mindy’s cell phone soon rang.  It was neighbor Kenny calling to talk about the ‘incident’.  Apparently he wasn’t willing to write it off as innocent horse play. And looking at it from his perspective, the father of the girl making the accusation, I can’t say I blame him.  I would’ve pushed the issue similarly, neighborly relationships be damned. 

Mindy shared openly what we discussed on our drive home and then Jacob’s take on it. Kenny wasn’t happy with the explanation so Mindy offered that we get the kids together and talk about it. As it was, the details were still very sketchy, at least for Mindy and I. After tad more drama, the neighbors decided to come down as Mindy suggested – all of them minus big Jake.

We called our kids down to the kitchen. The neighbors showed up around 820pm. We quickly and somewhat awkwardly gathered around the table for a discussion, kids included. With no one immediately vying for initial speaking rights, Mindy took the lead asking Lillian what actually happened. The logistics of her story were corroborated by Jacob.  In short, they were playing capture the flag in the woods and tree house. And as the story goes, part of the game involves taking prisoners. Apparently, Jacob would tickle prisoners if they tried to escape. And when Lillian tried to escape, Jacob reach out and grabbed her by her shirt tail, his hand slipping down the back of her jeans.

It all sounded somewhat innocuous, at least from the way Jacob described it. Lillian obviously and genuinely saw it differently, as did Kenny. I watched everyone’s body language carefully as the conversation proceeded. At times it got a tad heated, but cooler heads eventually prevailed. After all, we are talking about 10 & 11 year olds that so far have shown little or no sexual behavior.

After each kid shared their spin of the events and challenged the other, Mindy offered a simple (perhaps too simple) remedy. No more touching of any sort and no boys and girls in the tree house alone. That seemed to satisfy everyone, though Kenny wasn’t done. He gave Jacob a stern verbal warning about any reoccurrences. I was proud of Jacob for his response. He looked at Lillian and said he was sorry. It’s fair to say this too, there were a few other similar pile-on accusations, but we didn’t give them a whole lot of credence given that the story changed three or four times in the matter of minutes.

Everybody got up from the table still friends. Believe me, even that was in question at the outset with the way the emotions were flowing.  I shook Kenny’s hand and gave him a brief man-hug before he left. I know it’s not easy being the father of the girl in that situation.

It was 9p or after when the neighbors departed. Thoughts of our discussion were still swirling around in my head. We watched a little TV before heading to bed around 10p, but not before I finished the beer I started late Saturday night.