The Day After

I have been waiting for my little brother Mike to do a post on the fabulous time we had at his place the 5th of July. He is going to put together a little video of the big to-do we had there that night. Unfortunately he has been pretty busy and hasn't done it yet. When it comes to things like" little videos" Mike is a Master and that makes him a bit of a perfectionist. So I will patiently wait. And I will write about the night of fun we all had on the 5th without the use of audio-visuals.

I'm not sure when it first came up for Don and me and all of our kids and grandkids to spend Saturday evening at Mike and Cindy's. But I am really glad that it did. Up until now I have only heard the stories of the great fun that can be found while visiting at their house. Well I am here to say that the stories are true.

We left Richard and Dorothy's cabins around 4:00 Saturday.

Side note: This reminds me. My brother Mike is so clever and funny that he quite often comes up with some really good ones. This one he figured out when he was somewhere between 15 and 17 (i don't need to be too specific because if I'm off he is sure to correct me.) One day we were talking about places he liked to go, and out of the blue he told me that he always loved hanging out with Dick & Dot. I had NO idea who these two people could be. He informed me that it was the little nicknames he had come up with for Richard "Dick" and Dorothy "Dot". It really cracked me up. For some reason Richard and Dorothy didn't appreciate Mike's creativity. Dorothy especially was annoyed by it. So Mike kinda had to keep the whole Dick and Dot thing under wraps, but I still sometimes think about them by those names.

All right back to our story.

It took maybe 45 minutes to reach Mike and Cindy's. We had never been to their house yet. They bought it a few years ago because the house they were living in at the time was too small and the neighborhood was, oh shall we say, not entirely, decent people friendly.

Their new (new to them, old to everyone else) house was so cute. Cindy gave us the tour and I just loved it. The people that they had bought it from had a really good eye for decorating, and parts of it look like pictures in a magazine.

I also met Rusty.

Rusty is Cindy's guinea pig. I have never had much fondness for pets of the rodent variety, but if anyone could change my mind it would be little Rusty. He had such a cute personality and he apparently considers himself to be quite a momma's boy. That would be Cindy as Momma.

Mike and Cindy also have chickens. Yes, real live chickens, although they also have a few ceramic ones. And my Granddaughter Lindsay fell in love with them. Who knew that Lindsay has been channeling a chicken farmer for all these years. She spent a lot of time outside waiting for eggs to be layed. And it payed off. She was the proud carrier into the house of four eggs. Cindy even let her bring "her" eggs home with her.

Well we got settled in and pretty soon dinner was ready. Mike had some tri-tip steak that he had grilled outside. It was so good I actually ate some. That might sound weird to say but lately I can barely eat meat. After a few bites I can't stomach any more and if I tried I know it would all come back up. But this was some of the best meat I have had in A LONG TIME.

This is also the place I was at when I did my, Hey Look! Pictures of me Blog.

The fun didn't really start that night until after dinner. That was when Alicia and Daniel showed up. That would be my niece and her husband of two years. I think two years at least. Another thing that I'm sure I will be corrected on if I am wrong. (See how helpful family can be.)

Mike has a wii. Heidi has a wii. Donald has a wii. And ME? No wii.

Heidi has American Idol for her wii. Mike has American Idol for his wii. Apparently American Idol has (unbeknowest to me) become everyone's favorite game on wii. So there was NO doubt that sometime during the evening there would be some American Idol wii-ing going on.

It all started out, in what I am sure is the normal way. More than eight people were wanting to play (not me I was at the computer doing my own thing. And if Donald and Lisa hadn't already left to go home by that time, I'm sure the word party pooper would have been flying) Well Cindy and Alicia teamed up so that there would be only eight contestants.

They began. I didn't pay much attention. They continued. Still no attention paying on my part. For some reason though, I suddenly started to pay attention. And suddenly ( I don't really understand why) I had a huge urge to get up there and sing my guts out. At first I thought the feeling of wanting to be in front of these family members, doing something ( namely Karaoke) I had maybe only done once before ,would go away if I didn't announce my intentions.

I guess my mouth had different thoughts though.

I announced to everyone, that I would like to try my mouth, at wanting to sing a few.

It took a moment for it to sink in that, hey, Susan wants to join. It was decided to shelve the game that they had been playing and open it up to what would basically be "Open Mike Night." So here I am suddenly, in front of the TV, and everyone in the room, scrolling down the list of songs available.

It was a pretty short list.

You would think that the wii people would have put more songs on that list or at least more "singable" songs. "Hello?" "What's this?" "Put Your Records On, by Corrine Baily Rae ?"
I LOVE that song! And as luck would have it I even already know all the words. (Gee the first time I buy a CD that I turn out to only like one song on it, finally pays off.)

I sing. I do really well. At least much weller, than I would have ever thought possible. I start to realize that "Hey, singing in front of a group of people can be FUN!" And the fact that they are all family members so there is nothing to fear, barely even registers.
Okay, now I am really into the spirit of the whole thing and I want to do another song. I again scroll through the list of songs, that now seem even more limited than they did five minutes ago.

"Whoo whoo." "What's this?" "SATISFACTION?" "By the STONES?" "YES, YES, YESSSS!"

After all I do know the words.

All right I get into pure Rock Star mode. I am even DANCING!! It starts a little slow.

That's good!

All of a sudden I realize that just because I know the words it doesn't mean I can sing in this particular register. I cannot quit now, though. I must save face. I do the best I can through the first part and then I realize, "Hey if your going to do it, then REALLY do it.

I start to scream sing! Yeh!! " WHEN I'M DRIVING IN MY CAR. AND THAT MAN COMES ON THE RADIO! AND HE'S TELLING ME MORE AND MORE . ABOUT SOME USELESS INFORMATION, SUPPOSED TO FIRE MY IMAGINATION"

THE CROWD GOES WILD!!!!!!

Well, at least Alicia and Daniel and Mike and Cindy seem to be enjoying things.

Now I am really in the spirit of it all. I get Shawn to come up. He's really got a nice voice. He really loves it and does two more songs. Then Mike and I do a duet to "Sister Christian". Jeff and Heidi do a killer duet to "Bohemian Rhapsody." I do a duet with my grandaughter Lindsay to "Walking on Sunshine." Linds' is a little nervous and I try to bring her into it because by now I am fully into "Shaking My Groove Thing" I have'nt had so much fun since.........

...................well, since the day before.


Well, as all good things must come to an end, so did this evening. We all got to bed around Midnight.

Ooops. I forgot this little detail. It was Shawn's 22nd Birthday, so we took a little break between the singing and sang Happy Birthday to him, and had the cake that Sweet Dick and Dot (ooops again) had bought for him. He was quite pleased because, after all, it was his birthday.

The next morning Mike and Cindy served us a great breakfast of whole grain pancakes and farm (oh I mean yard) fresh, fried eggs. We hung around and visited for a while and then it was time to leave. We left with promises on both sides to get together and do it again. And I really hope we keep these promises.

And one last little side note: Mike will be putting the footage of our American Idoling on his blog so if you are interested go to his blog and keep a watch for it. He writes a crackin' good blog and trust me you will like it.