Busy Weekends, It Seems...

Our basement's still pretty dry. There are some wet spots, but no more than we usually get this time of year. I'm not crazy about taking the Kennedy Bridge detour twice a night, but at least that'll be done soon. On the plus side, I get to listen to more songs going to and from work.
The weekend before last, I took Isabella to A Knight For a Princess, a father-daughter dance. It was fun, and Isabella immensely enjoyed herself. We got there and ate the dessert sitting on our table before realizing we were supposed to wait and eat it after our supper, but oh well. We did the same thing last year, you'd think we'd learn. Next year, though, I'm definitely bringing company along.
Last Friday, Karissa and I got a new washing machine, but couldn't get it delivered (like we were told earlier) because Best Buy lost their delivery diver. So I had Kevin come with me the next day, thinking it'd be no big deal to stick it in the back of the van, but again-no deal. The box was 2 inches taller than the back door of the van, and I was told I could not put in on its side. Ben was nice enough to let us use his Durango, but when measuring it found it was also too small. I finally had the idea to call my cousin Cory, who was in town from Minneapolis for the weekend, to use his pickup (why we don't know anyone in town with a pickup is amazing!). Of course, his sister drove him, so no pickup. But his dad had one, so I convinced to Cory to help me and Kevin move the stupid washing machine.
It was was pretty cool to see my cousins when I stopped in. My uncle Paul lives in town, and I still hardly ever see him. He's got kind of a big family, and I haven't seen them in what seems like years. Cory was in town a few weeks ago, and he and I hit Mike's. They all went out on Saturday night, and I would have joined them (and Kevin & Butto later on), but I was really tired and went to bed like an old fart.
I found out the next day that my manager Becky had tried calling me the previous night because our weekend night auditor no-showed again. Unfortunately, she ended up doing the shift herself, and our weekend night auditor no longer works there.
On Sunday, we let Isabella hunt for Easter eggs outside, since the weather was nice. Later on we had a ham dinner and angel food cake with homemade sauce for dessert. You want to know how good that sauce was on the cake? Picture the best orgasm you ever had. Are you picturing it? Yeah, I bet you are...now picture it strawberry flavored.
This coming weekend, Karissa is going with her mom & sis to Minneapolis for a little mother-daughters vacation. I'm planning on helping my dad & brother move into their new digs, so Isabella & I are heading down to Devils Lake that weekend. I'm sure it'll all go okay, I'm still trying to adjust to the fact that my dad won't be living in that house anymore. I love that it's staying in the family, it's just that we've been driving down there at least every other month and staying a weekend with him since 2000. We can still do that, but now we go to his apartment instead of his house. I think it's just one of those little reminders of his mortality. He's been handing the holiday tradition duties over to Ang, the house (with all its chores and upkeep) to Jas, the family couch (which is unfortunately great for sleeping off hangovers) to me, and he's retired and going to live in a senior apartment complex a block from a cemetery. Gee, thanks Obama--all your talk about change and it's happening!

A Message To My "Friends"...

Haha, I bet you guys saw the quotations around "friends" and thought I was gonna say mean things! Seriously I have great friends, but I'll get around to the why's later.
Earlier last week, I asked Isabella if she remember who the new president is, and she replied Brok-Amama! She doesn't quite have his name down yet, but she's getting there. We then proceeded to have a serious conversation about Martin Luther King, Jr. I guess her teachers already told them about him in school, so all I had to do was fill in some details. We also had the "people with different skin color" talk, and it was actually harder to get her to stay focused on the conversation than it was to get her to understand what I meant. I guess I have to accept that she's already two steps ahead of me.
Later last week, we went to Grizzly's with Kevin & April, and Isabella and Aiden raised holy hell--but in a happy good way, so we all had fun.
Quick note: This past week, I posted 2 pages of Golden Brown, little present from me-to-you.
We headed to Devils Lake on Friday, had birthday Rhubarb pie, and just chilled at my dad's that night. For those who don't know, my dad has the best living room to just chill out in during the evening. It has tons of chairs all sourrounding a tv, and if you get tired (and you will if you stay in the room for longer than 10 minutes), nobody cares if you take a little nap or watch a movie.
On Saturday I got together with Derek and Kevin to practice in Derek's garage. There's really no way to sugarcoat it, so I'll just say the whole practice was a mess. We never have a permanent place to play, the places we do play aren't heated, and there's 90 miles that affect our communication skills.
Later on, in a fit of unusual clarity and lucidity, I managed to order 7 subs from subway and got the whole order right! Ask Karissa, I fuck up simple orders from McDonald's, so this was truly an accomplishment.
We met April/Kevin/Tab/Derek at the Paddlewheel Lounge that night, where I got a death balloon and badly humored birthday cards, right up my alley. Oh, and there were also silly hats involved. No, you fuckers, not the hats I usually wear, these were official National Doug Day party visors, which I still have and Isabella has taken a liking to. Later, after we officially took over the jukebox, Tab brought out the cake she made for me. It was a zombie skull on top of dirt (oreo crumbs), it said "Happy Death Day Doug" . The eyes were marachino cherries set into marshmallows and the teeth were made of chicklets. The cake itself was red marble (right?) and when I made the first sacrificial incision, strawberry(?) jam oozed out the top. I got so excited I went Borneo on it and ate the top of his head with my hands.
I was VERY appreciative that Tab went to so much effort with my cake, and it turned out awesome, tasted even better. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pics on our camera, so if you want to see how it all turned out, you'll have to wait for April or Tab to post their shots.
The whole party was great, and I would have loved to have gone on longer with it, but I had 3 shots too many and made friends with a toilet. I was a bit groggy/headachey/nauseous for most of Sunday, but it was totally worth it. For those of you who would have liked to come but couldn't make it, we took a shot in your honor.
See? This is why I make such a big deal about my birthday. It gets everyone else excited, and we end up having a big ol' shindig over me. Just a heads up, Tab--how are you at naked-lady cake? Just a thought.
So the message to my "friends" is simply thanks for giving me a fun birthday and putting up with me going off the deep end with my megalomaniacal, super undeniable, wonderful, fantastical self. I was humbly honored.