Blogger 365 Day 197 - Let's see how this goes

     First off, apologies for yesterday, but by the time I got home I was in no shape whatsoever to actually try to blog.  I made the mistake of deciding to go out after work and have a beer or two, which turned into 8 or 9.  I managed to keep enough of my equilibrium that I fried up a couple of steaks for dinner and actually had my laptop open and wrote what was supposed to be yesterday's entry (which basically said I was in no shape to blog) but stupid me forgot to post it before I passed out and so the entry went up late, I think I woke up around 1:30am or so.  Not that I was sober at 1:30 either, but more sober than when I was originally typing. 

     I believe the last time when I was sober and typing (not that I am sober now, I went to the bar again tonight, but drank less so we will see how this goes) I was writing about my weekend although I got no further than Friday night before I realized I had rambled on quite a bit and stopped for the day.  So I will try to pick up where I left off if that is okay.

      Because of the fire damage to the house, my mother and I ended up sleeping on the couches in the living room.  Not sure which one of us fell to sleep first since she was busy watching Christmas nonsense on Hallmark and I was staring at my computer screen, fight to keep my eyes open after working a 10+ hour day and then making the trek home.

     Saturday morning I was up early, like 5:30am early, so I went outside and had a cigarette and tried to get my bearings for the day.  I had told Amy that I would help set up for the family reunion and clean up afterwards if she needed me to, so after smoking a cigarette and lounging for a bit and a cup of instant coffee (yuck!) I started getting my stuff together for the reunion.  My mom woke up around 7:30 or so, Mike was still either sleeping or being antisocial in his room when my phone rang a little after 9am.  It was Amy.  A tragedy had struck.  We were going to be short plastic forks at the family reunion.  No problem I said, I would get them on the way there, so my mom and I hopped in the car and went to WalMart where I bough two packages of forks (100 each) and grabbed a couple of bags of Doritos also, thus showing the extent of my cooking talents for the reunion, 3 dozen store bought cookies from Giant Eagle and two bags of Doritos.  Can I get a hell ya?

     So we grabbed the stuff, my mom tried paying for it but I went all Dennis Rodman and boxed her out at the register.  It wasn't all that much money to begin with and I still had about $7 on a gift card from Christmas for WalMart, so it was even less for me.  We then head back and go to grab the stuff from the house we will need for the reunion, the gifts and covered dishes and what not and start to load the car.  But getting my family moving is like herding cats, so while the reunion was scheduled to start at 12pm, Amy was going to be there at 10 to start setting up.  We didn't get there till almost 11am., and by the time we did most of the setting up was in fact done.  I even missed the first argument of the family reunion, when there was a dispute on where the prizes for the raffles and Chinese auction would be set up and if they would be displayed on a table or a bench.  I know, pretty heady stuff right? 

     Most everyone else started arriving around noon, and the event went off pretty much hitchless.  I didn't buy any tickets for the auctions or raffles, usually some of that money goes back into paying for the next reunion, but I just have no desire to buy tickets for prizes that either I don't want or have no place for in my miniscule apartment.  And I hate to buy tickets for a 50/50 raffle because I didn't show up at the reunioj to potentially make money off of my presence there.  If you need me to donate x amount of dollars for the next years festivities, just ask me, if I have it it's yours.  No big thing.

     I do need to get Amy's recipe for buffalo chicken dip though, that stuff was amazing.  I ate way too much of it, but I couldn't help myself, I kept going back for more, originally using it on some tortilla chips and later Doritos.  That dip may make Doritos even better than they normally are, which is quite an achievement.

     I even learned a new game, well it is new for me, I have seen other people play it before but I have never participated.  It is called ladder ball (at least that is what everyone there called it) and involves having to targets about 20 or so feet apart, each one is two bars that go up vertically and are connected by three horizontal bars.  Each person (or team) is given three attempts to hit the other target with these objects that are thrown, the best way to describe them would be two golf ball sized balls, with a 6"inch (approx) piece of rope connecting the two balls.  You throw this almost bolo like object at the target opposite you, trying to land it (and hopefully wrap it around) one of the three horizontal bars on the target, the bottom bar is one point, middle bar is two points and the top bar is three points.  Each game goes to 21 points, the trick is you can't go over 21 or you lose points.  It is a variation on the horseshoe concept, but it is fun and I did okay for my first time playing (I think).

     While I didn't get to help set up much, I at least got to help with the clean up, getting the trash taken care of, helping load cars and moving some tables and benches back to where they were before we started, so I wasn't completely useless but admittedly I easily could have done more.   Still it was nice to see some family members that I haven't seen in literally years, and some whose names completely escape me.  Perhaps it is just early Alzheimer's, I don't know.  Turn out seemed to be a little less this year and I still think I heard there was a head count of around 50 or so.  Yes I am the genetic freak of the family because I do not have dozens of offspring of my own.  Not that I want dozens of offspring, hell I can barely take care of myself, last thing I need is dozens of little me's running around.

     Everything wrapped up around 5:30 or so, we went home and I once again hid my head in my laptop as opposed to being subject to Christmas movie weekend on Hallmark.  There was a slight break in the Christmas programming, but it was only because my mom wanted to watch reruns of The Nanny and Big Bang Theory for a while.  IT was the first time I have ever seen the Big Bang Theory (told you I don't watch TV much) and it was okay, not sure what all of the fuss is about.  If that is one of the better comedies on TV right not, that is saying more about how crappy TV is in general then how great of a show that is.  JUst saying.

      We did cook out on the grill Saturday night, steaks (yum!!! yum!!!) and there was Angel food cake w/strawberries for dessert, which help alleviate the bad TV pain I had been suffering.  Again I was somewhat rushed in blogging, I still had no privacy and the internet connection still sucked, so I did what I could given the circumstances.

     There, I now have two days down, only one to go, but before I deal with Sunday I am going to go grab a shower and do some paperwork so I am not completely drowning in it by Saturday.  Looks like this story isn't over yet.