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Bruce and Mary are leaving for Boston where they will marry off their eldest, Sammy, to the lovely Annah, completing the wedding trifecta: Three kids married off in 9 months. Not much of a feat when you think of Seven Daughters, Seven Sons, but they are pretty tickled with it. Please join them on this trip. Oh, and the usual reminder that if you are an email recipient of this post and would like to go to Bruce’s site to read this, simply click here.

The alarm goes off at 4:45am and we kick into gear as our favorite one-armed cabbie, Roberto, will be arriving shortly. He whisks us to the tiny, two gate, Merida International Airport (MID) and the next thing you know we’re in the air and on our way to Houston for the layover and then onto Boston’s Logan International which we find to be a much smaller airport than we expected but then there isn’t a lot of room right there, nearly on the harbor.

We claim our luggage and make our way to passenger pickup and after just a couple minutes we spot Sam in his two tone (mostly white with a rusty bullseye on the roof) Chevy Lumina making just his second round of the pickup loop.

“You were right Sammy, pretty easy to spot.” “I didn’t think you’d have a problem, pops.” There is a heat wave in Boston right now, we can discern no difference from what we had just left in Merida. But it’s going to get warmer yet. Sammy says, “Sorry guys but the a/c doesn’t work and” Mary interrupts, “That’s okay, Sammy were used to it.” Sammy finishes, “and my car has been overheating a little so I have to put the heat on to keep her cooled down, at least til we’re out of the city.” I proudly pat him on the shoulder, “Glad you know that trick, Sammy.” as he maneuvers through rush hour Boston and finally out in the clear to Dover, NH, where Sammy and Annah live in a brand new house.

Annah greets us in the driveway of their Cape Cod home which is snuggled into a very quiet neighborhood and we haul our luggage in. Once again I am cursing our huge unwieldy new blue bag. Because it is such a monster we always over pack it. At check-in, while the Continental guy was processing our gate passes, I stood close to it and surreptitiously tugged up on a strap, successfully getting the weight down to 49# when he finally took a look. Anyhow, we haul our luggage upstairs and that’s when Sammy and I get into an argument. Because all they have is an air mattress in the spare bedroom he insists that we stay in the master. I end it by saying, “It’s a helluva offer Sammy, but no way, no how, we ain’t taking your bedroom and I’ll tell you something else, when you two come to visit us, you ain’t getting our master either, so that’s it.” And you know what, that airbed is pretty damn comfortable the whole week plus that we sleep on it.

After chowing down some damn good vegan food (sorry cannot tell you what it was) we relax in their living room and Annah entertains us for a couple hours playing guitar and singing. We had heard that she was musical but we are enthralled, her voice reminds me of Mary Chapin Carpenter. Sammy digs out a ream of her sheet music and I start going through it making requests. It is great fun.

The next day is a big one, we’re meeting the Moynihans – for the very first time! Sammy drives us to the wealthy suburb (the Edina or St. Louis Park of Minneapolis) of Wellesley and to the Wellesley Country Club, one of those $40,000/yr joints and that doesn’t count the monthly maintenance fee that has the members scrambling to treat their extended family to brunch the last Sunday of every month. Annah’s mom Kathy works there which is why it is available to us and when Patrick, a very fit twin to the late Ted Kennedy, arrives at Kathy’s station with the advertised, “How aaah ya?” we are off on the tour and it is impressive. We take Kathy’s car to the Henderson House, an old mansion maintained by Northeastern University. It is a lovely somewhat secluded massive stone block building with a staff and it is absolutely perfect with an outdoor venue that can easily handle this size wedding. Ironically Patrick had never heard of this facility but when he was sharing his ideas for wedding venues with a close friend. His buddy said, “Well how about the Henderson House?” “The Henderson House, never heard of it.” “Well you are a Northeastern U alumni right? They own it and it’s available to alumni for whatever you want it for!”

Then we’re off for a tour of Boston by car as we make our way by Fenway which you can spot from afar, by the famous Citgo sign, to

the wharf where we stop for lunch at the Venezia restaurant. Then it’s to the heart of downtown for a walking tour, and who better to give us a tour of the heart of Boston than Patrick Moynihan, former Sec of Transportation and MTA head. We take a portion of the

Freedom Trail, seeing Paul Revere’s grave (lived into his 80s!), the Old South Meeting Hall, the South Church, Faneuil Hall, and many more historical sites too numerous to mention here. We cap it with our first, country bumpkins that we are, subway ride. We’re on our way to Fenway for a Bosox/Indians tilt. At the gate Patrick divvies up the tix and we and the kids are in the first deck, excellent seats about 20 rows up from the third base dugout. I look at the tix, $47. Patrick and Kathy are up on the third deck (not able to get six seats together) with the thought that we would move around as the game progressed. After the 4th inning they come down and there are some empty seats available by Sammy and Annah for them, so we can all sit together, but they tell us that we really should check out these upper deck seats, it’s really breezy and cool up there. We’ll I’m thinking I’m in these great first deck seats, why would I want to go up there but finally Mary convinces me to go as Patrick’s seat down here is somewhat obscured by a girder (this ball park is really well maintained, but some things that the new parks don’t tolerate, obstructing girders, are part of the character of these old masterpieces). We make our way up through security (?) to the “Pavilion” and wow. Our oversized seats are right on top of the action and we have our own beer vendor, food stand, and bathrooms just steps away and the section just in front of us has their own servers with portable credit card processors. It is baseball heaven at Fenway. I look at the tix, $87. And Patrick simply said it was cooler up here. After the Bosox 6-1 victory we head back on the subway and to the parking lot and then onto the Wellesley Club where Sammy’s car is parked, taking the scenic route along the Charles river. And it is Harvard everywhere, I had no idea the campus is so extensive, and I just love hearing Bostonians say “Haaavaaahd”.

Friday we have the kids all to ourselves and we start the day off with a tour of Dover and then to an old firetower on the edge of town. What a view! We can see the White mountains to the west and all around us is thick forest with only the downtown of Dover cut out of the greenery. Sam points to other nearby towns but they are concealed by the forest. We drive back into Dover and we start a walk, going by the huge brick (is every structure built of brick out here?) building, originally a mill, on the river when my new sandal blows out. All the straps, one by one, each step I take, pull away from the sole and I am crippled. So we abbreviate the walk to a short stroll into Kelley’s Row (think we’d miss that?!) and take up a table on the patio overlooking the river. We order up some mighty tasty microbrews and I get into story telling mode, boring the crap out of the kids but one story Sammy has not heard before (that’s rare) that he finds interesting is the story of how, when the kids were small, we financed a new $200 freezer purchased at Wedum’s Supply through Wedum’s Credit and

made monthly payments for a year. Funny from my generation to that of my folks, not a lot of changes, but from our generation to our kids, lots of changes.

We head across the street to a Chinese restaurant and I have sushi, Mackerel in this case, for the first time and I try some Sake, again for the first time. I am glad to have Sammy and Annah’s expertise in my ordering, they are quite familiar with this place as they have many vegan offerings. I find, as I expected that I love Sushi, the Sake – not so much.

Back home, Sammy and I face off in chess. We’d been playing online where he has absolutely dominated me so I can tell that he has a lot of things on his mind when I beat him the first game but that was it for me. At least I got one out of what I hope becomes a regular home and home series.

Saturday is BBQ day with the Moynihans and Sammy, Annah and Mary are busy all day with the vegan components of the meal. Patrick, Kathy and sisters Sarah and Kerry arrive about 4. Patrick has a for-meat-only BBQ grille house gift that he just picked up at Wal-mart on the way here and we break it in with a few Bud Lights before we think about anything more strenuous.

Annah’s sisters are a delight! Kerry is just back from Costa Rica and Sarah is just settling into a new place and job in DC. After hearing their stories, Patrick and I have to tell a few of our, “Back in my Day” stories, which seems to be the signal to pack it up and head on out because we are going to Portsmouth to see the play Peter Pan, which Annah’s brother John is producing. We find a place to park

in this very cool port city and make our way to the site, right on the water. We are shown to our tables designated “Kenickie”. I find that John was quite acclaimed for playing that part in a prior play. John comes over and we are introduced and he is a little out of breath but he is one of those kids that you instantly like. He is happy to tell us that the “good” Peter Pan is playing the part as two women trade off the Pan and Hook roles and John is right as this Pan is very good with the wire work. We sneak beers from a basket we brought in. I’m not much of a play guy but this is a lot of fun.

Sunday is golf and Porketta day at the Moynihans. We stop on the way to pick up the pork loin and then to Tuttles, the oldest family farm in America (sadly on the market) for cobs of corn and other assorted goodies and then on to the Moynihan’s in the Boston suburb of Natick. We are greeted warmly and we have a few beers to prime our swings and then us guys head to the course right in Patrick and Kathy’s back yard (well there’s a little copse of woods in between) and get to golfing. Mike, Pat’s best friend, a quiet, funny guy joins us and it is a hoot to hear him give Patrick crap and it works as lefty Sammy with his patented grass cutting line drives beats us both. We don’t even ask Mike his score as he is in a different league from us duffers.

Back at the house we have some beers on the deck as the women prepare the dining room for Mary’s Porketta the aroma of which is wafting around the house. This is a very impressive house without being at all ostentatious.

Dinner is a hoot as the girls love keeping their dad on his toes and Pat relishes every opportunity to defend himself. Kathy’s folks are there as well, Kaye and John. Kaye is one of the finest conversationalists (a lost art, in my mind) that I have ever met and she is thrilled that Annah is taking the surname Kelley as that is her maiden name, and it’s even spelled the right way, with two Es!

Monday through Wednesday are work days for us at Sammy and Annah’s although Annah is in Natick with her folks working on wedding stuff. Wednesday is also when everyone is coming in. But Sammy gets a call from Joey and storms have canceled his group’s (Joey, Meryah, Helen, and my Mom) early morning flight and it’s been rescheduled to early-evening. Then Sammy hears from our other son Anton (practically grew up with the Kelley kids) and his Mpls flight was also canceled but he was able to rebook and fly out early anyhow, and he tells of our friends Ike and son Karl who drove the 60 miles from our little home town of Princeton without doing the due diligence of checking flight status and are rewarded with nearly instantaneous re-booking on the same flight as Anton. Sammy is thoughtful enough to text Joey of this with Anton, Ike, and Karl now in the air and the Joey’s responding string of four lettered words is pretty impressive, to say the least. “I guess he didn’t really need to know that.” Sammy says.

Sammy picks up Anton at the bus depot in the early afternoon. They pick up long-time friend Pete later, and Annah arrives shortly after. We all go for dinner at a really cool place, Portsmouth Brewery in downtown Portsmouth, and I am talked into a “rack” of beer, their 8 most popular microbrews in 3 oz or so glasses on a wooden rack with the name of each engraved on the rack. I like every one. The food is great as well but the company even better as we talk old times.

Back home we kill time on the deck watching the Twins on TV waiting for Joey and the gang to finally arrive. Last we heard they had been delayed another couple of hours and we don’t expect them until midnight or so. Sammy and Annah bustle about the house trying to find places for a total of 8 guests to sleep and do a remarkable job of it. Finally Joey, his wife Meryah, our daughter Helen, and my mom, Margaret arrive and we hear about their awful day of travel, courtesy TransAir, which adds insult to injury by losing all their luggage. We all toast TransAir, several times, and then off to our beds and couches.

Everyone is moving pretty slowly this Thursday morning but as soon as Annah’s brother John shows up we start drinking beer. I am pretty sure it is past noon. It’s a laugh fest as the boys start doing lines from movies and plays. John and Anton with their stage experience are really hamming it up.

Well finally it is time for the boys to head out for the big stag party. Now if you’re wondering what a straight arrow, non-drinking vegan does for his stag party (thanks to best man Joey and John’s planning) it is this: Whiffle Ball, Dodge Ball, and Bowling. Oh my!

It’s Friday, tux, check into hotel, and groom’s dinner day, so we’re all off pretty early for our appointment at the Men’s Wearhouse just up the street from our hotel, the Crowne Plaza, which we find to be very nice (Kathy Moynihan did a heck of a job to get a group rate of only $89 per night!). We all got pre-measured in Minneapolis so the tux pickup goes pretty quickly and then Anton and Joey help Sammy get the first suit of his life. You see, the promotion was rent 6 tuxes and get the 7th free or a new $300 suit, so it was pretty much a no-brainer to opt for the suit, plus it is great fun watching Sammy taking suit-buying class 101.

Late afternoon, the bus that Sammy and Annah had arranged, is queued and loading and Helen hears via cell that my sis Cheryl is on her way to the hotel via the Logan Express so Mary gets the bus driver to hold the horses for a bit and soon enough there’s Cheryl and also Bonnie and Deb! Deb is Mary’s best friend and Bonnie is Anton’s mom and good friend as well. They quickly check in and the last of our group including Ike and Mary Fran and their two kids Karl and Anja board the bus.

When we learned that all three kids were getting married we did our calculations and figured out how much we could contribute to each and the reason that the groom’s dinner is being graciously hosted by the Moynihans is because that was the only way to stay at Sammy’s budget, our gift. And the added bonus is that instead of a stuffy dinner at some restaurant with only the wedding party in attendance, the whole MN contingent is treated to this event.

We arrive and Patrick and Kathy are right at the curb to greet the whole MN group and Patrick, knowing me by now, shows me directly to the Samuel Adams keg. What a set-up! A huge canopy, catered food, nice sound system, and lots of Moynihans. I meet Kate, Patrick’s sis who is a riot, there is no filter on her, and also his brothers Denny and Robert. But before we get too far into the night we all toast Patrick as it is, coincidentally, his birthday.

As the the sun sets John and his cousins get a bonfire going and someone puts on “Just a Gigolo” which is the Moynihan family get-together theme song and everyone is singing at the top of their lungs. Then John and a couple cousins break out the guitars and bongos and play sing-a-longs throughout the

night, with Annah joining them after a bit. I am impressed that John knows every word of “American Pie”. We know the clans have melded when we see Bonnie and Kate up dancing.

Saturday dawns to a perfect day for this outdoor wedding. Cheryl, Mom, Mary, and I amble over to the nearby shopping mall where Mary gets her hair done in a french bun, I think they call it, and it looks pretty sharp. Back at the hotel we see Joey and Caleb, Helen’s husband who had just gotten off the Logan Express (he was only able to get a couple of days off from work) outside the door of the hotel and I join them in a smoke. Mary and I split a Backwoods cigar. Then it is time to get ready for the big event!

Mary dons her pink custom-made dress (Alexei again) and with her new ‘do she looks great. I put on a tux for the first time in 40 yrs (prom) and we are off on the bus to the Henderson House.

We get our corsages and Kathy, world class wedding planner that she is, even thought to have corsages for the godparents. In Sammy’s case that is my brother Mark and his wife Connie. Pete and Josh (Sam and Josh go back to 2nd grade) usher in the guests and then Mary and I do our walk to the front of this courtyard which serves the Henderson House. The last up the aisle is Patrick giving away his eldest daughter Annah and I hear him whisper to Sammy, “You take care of my Annah Kate.”

The ceremony goes off without a hitch, the JP is very smooth and practiced. And, I didn’t
screw up the Unity candle part which I had never heard of before. When Annah had explained it to me (Mary was totally familiar with it) I think she thought I was some sort of pagan, being ignorant of this tradition, as this is a big part of her folks’ anniversary celebrations.

We do the receiving line thing and I am surprised at how large Sammy and Annah’s circle of friends is. We board the bus, the locals hop in their cars (Sammy is driving Patrick’s new Camry as he is not allowed to drive his Lumina to the wedding) and we are off to the Wellesley Event Center.

We enter the building and are shown to a foyer area where there are servers dressed up like right out of a movie bearing all sorts of

fancy hors d’oeuvres. I see someone rushing towards me out of the corner of my eye, and it is Kathy, she wants to make darn sure that I am aware that there are lobster rolls. What a woman! I do find those and many other wonderful delights and of course the open bar. After a time we all move to the ballroom and we take our seats. The seating chart is done the way I like it, putting friends and family with their friends and family. Now it is speech time and Patrick, no stranger to crowds, tells of the phone call he got from his Annah Kate when she and Sammy were living in Boulder. He says, “I can’t wait to meet your young man, with a name like Kelley a good Irish

Catholic I am sure.” “No dad, he’s not Catholic.” “Well, that’s okay. Anyhow it will be fun to take you two out for a T-bone and chew the fat with your new beau.” “Dad, what makes you think he eats meat?” “Oh, ok, then we’ll get to know each other over a few Bud lights.” “Dad, what makes you think he drinks?” At this point the house comes down. Then Patrick charmingly welcomes the Kelley clan into their family.

Now it’s best man Joey’s turn and he starts with, “Yea sure, I have to follow Pat!” which gets a roar. And he gets a lot of laughs telling how his big brother’s favorite game when he was little was the “Trip Joey” game and then he reciprocates Patrick’s welcoming and it is a job well done.

We smokers hit the deck overlooking the golf course and I get out my Cohibas

and share them with John and several others and we admire the gorgeous evening.

The food comes and my salmon is delicious and that is the report I get on the prime rib as well. Mary had the vegan offering and enjoys it, I must be truthful and say that I have no idea what it was.

The music starts up and it is time for the father/bride dance and the only C/W tune allowed commences, it is “I loved Her First” and every time they spin towards Sammy, Pat good naturedly points at him. Then it is time for the mother/groom dance and it is the Beatles “All My Loving”. It is Niagara Falls after the spring melt for Mary as that is the tune that we would always sing as a

lullaby to the kids when they were very little.

Then the married couple takes a spin and then everyone is on the floor. Everyone is dancing with everyone. Sammy is dancing with Pete, then with Anton, I think that is when he did his slide across the floor. Caleb keeps up with Sammy by doing the MJ coat flip off and on thing and as the night progresses it is getting harder and harder to tell that Sammy is the only sober man there.

The Wellesley Event center gives us the boot about midnight so most of the crowd heads to the Crowne Plaza and continues the party at the very nice bar there. I spend a lot of my time with the cool people smoking outside, the bar is very good about letting us take our drinks out. Old farts that we are, Mary and I hit the hay about 1:30 with the party still in high gear.

Sunday we actually sleep in til 10 or so. We head to the restaurant for the buffet brunch that Pat and Kathy are hosting for our families. We greet them and then Kathy sees some Kelley family friends and generously extends the invite to them as well. It is a fabulous buffet with, naturally, tons of seafood. I show great restraint in not hurting myself. Sammy and Annah are first and then one by one people are off, and finally we have the chance to thank Pat and Kathy for their incredible hospitality and generosity.

Monday is travel day for many of the MN contingent and Cheryl’s flight is about the same time as ours, so we are traveling together to the airport. Mid morning we hop the airport shuttle to the Logan Express and onto the airport. We are fortunate to have some quality time with Cheryl as her gate is adjacent to ours and her flight to MO leaves the same time ours does. We find an airport bar with, for an airport, amazingly cheap Bloody Mary and beers and I find myself telling Alexandria (our home for 29 years and where the kids grew up) stories. The time comes for us to board and with hugs we do so.

Our flight into Houston is routine as is the layover. We’re getting to know this airport pretty well. Our flight into Merida goes without

a hitch and soon we are on the ground. Once again Mary is hassled about her insulin pump at customs but at least she wasn’t pawed by a security gal with dirty gloves like she was in Logan. We hang a left out the door to the taxi stand and 15 minutes later we are home. We throw all our gear into the bedroom, grab a couple beers and the Cohiba I had stashed and we sit on the promenade doing damage assessment til 2AM. What a trip!

Thanks for visiting gentle reader. Once again Bruce has subjected you to a very long post. If you made it this far, congratulations! And a friendly reminder that Bruce loves reader’s comments. To do so simply click on the title of this post and scroll down. Hasta pronto!

Bruce and Mary have just completed their annual pilgrimage to Minnesota with the highlight of the trip their daughter Helen’s marriage to Caleb Thilges. Please allow Bruce to take you on that whirlwind tour.

We flew out of Merida directly because I screwed up and didn’t book tix until the usually much cheaper Cancun flights had risen to the Merida prices, but both Mary and I were kind of glad because we hate that 4 hr bus ride to Cancun and all the messing around that goes along with that trek. So the flight with the automatic layover in Houston was nice and uneventful starting with a 5:00am taxi ride and ending with our youngest, Joey (the one who eloped with the lovely Meryah in November) and his new wife picking us up at Lindbergh Int’l and ferrying us all the way to Mary’s mother Harriet’s house in Princeton and then Joey and Meryah made us drink beers on Harriet’s deck until 2 in the morning, the buggers!

Luckily that was a Saturday night and we all could sleep in the next morning.

That next week we settled into Harriet’s place and set up our work stations for our online moderation jobs. Our friends posit that we are nuts to maintain even an abbreviated work schedule when we are on holiday, and maybe they’re right, but we have such plum shifts that we don’t want anyone else to get used to working them. We’ll see next time.

The first event is the three for one shower the first Friday evening we are back. Mary’s sis Sue is the party

planner for this rather unique event. As I mentioned earlier Joey eloped in November, Helen’s hippie wedding date is June 4th and our oldest Sammy is having a high society Boston wedding August 14th. Now did you get that? All three kids are getting married in about 9 months. I think we are setting some sort of record. Well anyhow, as the week progresses and Friday is here I find myself in the role of a happy mule, setting up chairs, tables, and other simple duties that even I can understand and I gotta say Sue is one helluva shower planner. The couples’ close relatives are seated on the deck and the shower begins with introductions around, and advice for the couples. Mine is simply to instruct couples that future kids should listen to their dad, but the one I liked best was Mary’s brother Bob’s, “Husbands, you need to realize you have a choice, you can be right or you can be happy.”

Then the games begin and Bob and I take shelter in the living room and proceed to commiserate about what the hell are we doing at a shower, neither of us has ever been to one before and has the world changed that much? Damn.

The gift giving begins and then people start making their goodbyes and heading out. Helen, Sue, Harriet, Mary and I end the night around the living room table recounting the event, with the women, directed by Sue, addressing thank you envelopes for every gift for every couple. I was happy that my only duty was to drink a martini.

We’re up early the next morning as this day is Mary’s 41st annual May 17th celebration (we’re not really that old, Mary started this at a very young age with the motivation shrouded in mist), or as it is more commonly known now, Mary Dahle Day (her maiden name, as this event precedes me). The event has changed this year as Helen, who has taken over as main organizer, has instructed people that this party is potluck, so instead of the 20-30 dishes they usually prepare they have it trimmed down to maybe 10 between them. So we’re out the door by 11 something and at Kevin and Rosie’s place in Sauk Rapids at noon sharp as planned. Since we have been MN homeless since our escape to MX two plus years ago, Kevin and Rosie have been so generous as to allow us the use of their home, a perfect party house with a huge backyard. Joey and his gang are already here, and partying. Joey had heard the stories about the original May 17ths which commenced at 10am sharp at River Side park in Princeton, our home town, with the cracking open of a case or two of champagne, and was thusly inspired. It is a beautiful sun-splashed day, in fact the weather our whole time back has been excellent, this is not your father’s MN weather. Helen officially begins the celebration by doing the traditional toast to comrades gone and the party begins in earnest. The food is excellent as everyone made good on their potluck responsibilities. After a bit our eldest, Sammy begins polling for a basketball game. My old guy dream team and reigning champs could not make it from Alexandria and it seems I am the only old guy willing to lace up this year so we just form two 4 man teams and we play at the neighbors’ hoop as we did not want to press our luck and haul our former neighbor’s (Pete and Judy) 800# portable hoop (base filled with sand) this year. In

prior years we have: nearly killed Judy’s dad when he helped us load it (boy, what a strong old guy!), scratched the hell out of Kevin’s nearly new PU, and last year we nearly took out the side of Pete and Judy’s boat with the damn thing. My team wins, with several breaks (Sammy and I wonder what is with these young guys, huffing and puffing?) but there is no joy in it as the old guy/young guy tradition has been broken.

Back to the party: Although the kids’ generation dominates, many of our old friends do make it, and we party until late, or I do, with the kids, as our generation doesn’t do “late” very often. Kevin, our host, is back from his wedding DJ gig at about midnight and he is happy to see the cops have not arrived yet. Someone, I’m not sure who, has done a good job keeping the patio sound system from broadcasting to the entire neighborhood.

Joey’s friends (and mine) Andy and Cory have been regaling me with stories of misdeeds from their youth, reminding me of myself doing the same thing with my folks. You know, the parties while your parents were out of town, thing. And they remind me of what a fearsome character their group thought I was. I remember that Sammy’s group loved to hang with us in the kitchen and talk politics and ethics. Helen’s group mingled with Sammy’s and had a bit of an artistic contingent but Joey’s buds, they would sneak into the house via the walkout and for some reason let themselves out through the front door. I’d be in the living room watching the Twins or T-Wolves as these kids would file out saying, “Goodnight Mr. Kelley”, and I would wonder who the hell these kids are, as they all looked the same to me, and I would wonder where the hell did they come from. Well anyhow Cory and Andy are telling me about some stunt that involved sneaking around our old master bedroom. Hmm, I thought, I wonder if I can still inspire that old fear? I say, “So you guys were in my bedroom?!!” Cory starts backpedal-ling, “Wwwwell, nooo, actually, only Joey, actually went in your bedroom!” I kept it up for a bit, winking to my nephew Simon, sitting next to me. Joey told me later that Cory had quickly found him and warned him to “Stay away from your dad, he’s really mad!” What fun!

The next day is cloudy and drizzly and we’re hoping the rain does not affect our Twins game. Joey, good son that he is, had gotten 11 tix for the sold out Twins V Rangers game this evening in the new outdoor Target field which has been raved about by everyone. After cleaning up and having a cocktail and cigar with my close friend and host Kevin we head to Princeton where we while away the afternoon with Harriet. Joey is with us and Sammy is with his contingent in St. Cloud and Joey is texting back and forth on his new Droid, his cell drug of choice. Finally it is decided that we will drive to Elk River and they will drive to Big Lake, both of us picking up the northern spur of the brand new light rail, to Target Field in downtown Minneapolis. Our trip goes without incident and we are very impressed with the new light rail but around Anoka Joey gets a call from Sammy, they missed the light rail and are racing to downtown via Pete’s car and beyond that, he is too frustrated to talk any further. At least they make it in time to catch opening pitch and we watch a great game that has the Twins coming out on top 6-3 but the game is marred by a game ending catch/collision between Span and Hudson with Span holding onto the ball to preserve the win. It is pretty cool that virtually nobody leaves the park until both players are on their feet and walking off the field. Target Field is very impressive and I invite you to check it out on other blogs. The special Twins light rail run is jam packed with standing room only when we board for our trip back. I find it curious that there are no handrails. Every rickety bus in Mexico has handrails. Eventually enough people debark that we able to sit and, all in all the day has been an excellent experience.

The following Wednesday has us heading up to the cabin to host Kevin and Rosie for dinner and to get a jump on prep for Helen and Caleb’s wedding there. On the way we stop at the “Meat Store” just outside Onamia and pick up some Rib Eyes. I am dazzled by the prices: $7/lb for the two remaining bone-in steaks and $12 for two more bone-less steaks. That is the one thing I don’t like about coming back to the States, sticker shock.

Finally at the cabin we start prepping for the meal and in short order K&R show up in brother Keith’s Tundra PU with our patio set which Pete and Judy have been very kindly storing, but we need it now, and also Kevin’s back-up Bose sound system which he has generously offered for the wedding, here at the cabin. K&R are properly impressed at the grand renovation of this old log cabin with a completely brand new lower level and cool new landscaping with a new ground level patio lakeside. Kevin, master BBQer that he is, prepares our steaks perfectly – Kudos to Kevin! After cocktails and watching the sun set over Captive Lake, a small, semi-private lake, K&R head to the nearby Indian Casino/hotel to ply his formidable skills at the hold-em table.

Thursday Mary spring cleans the cabin, I take care of outside duties, weedwacking and such and then Mary gives me other prep duties that I am capable of – the happy mule once again.

Roger and MaryLou, groom Caleb’s folks show up in their camper and trailer and after helping Roger set up we head to the patio fronting the lake and sitting at our patio set’s new home we start happy hour. I barely knew Roger before this day, but by the end of the day we are great pals. The kids all join us by early evening and Joe, Caleb’s best man and SO Kelly are here as well.

Friday, June 4th, wedding day, is abuzz with prep activities while Sammy motors the 130 miles to the airport to pick up his fiance. While Sammy has been done with work (math teacher at York Co. Community College) for a couple weeks, Annah, an el-ed teacher, is still working and Sammy says she does a pretty good job of not hating him as he sleeps in every morning. Joey’s better half Meryah runs the command post of this whirlwind of activity with total aplomb as we grunts do as ordered. I never dreamed that such a small wedding could involve so many details!

Finally all guests have arrived, immediate family, uncles, aunts, and grandmas and I do a head count for setting up chairs. Helen had projected 28 guests and there are 27. The ceremony begins with Helen, radiant in her dress, a white chiffon with blue sash, custom crafted in Mexico walking down from the second level deck and joining Caleb in his mod tan suit with matching custom made blue tie and a pair of extraordinary boots, at the lakeside edge of the patio. They are framed by Captive Lake and the summer blue sky and the scene is softly lit with the heavy sun behind them, low on the horizon. The Rev, Joey is officiating, now that he is official. He is still living down the fact that one of his co-workers had to point out that he’d misspelled Joseph on his online certificate which he was proudly displaying in his cubicle.

Joey reads the text that Helen had prepared and then the couple state their touching and heartfelt vows and they are one. And the feast begins. Everyone has brought a tasty dish and my trim brother Mark amazes me again. He is 9 months and 1 day younger than me and he can still eat like a teenager downing two heaping full large platters of food. If I did that you’d

have to call 911.

The evening winds down, the freshly minted wedded couple heads to the nearby hotel, and we see the individual parties off down the gravel road. And it is down to the hard core, Roger, Joey, me and Mary. Finally I am nodding off and hit the sack to find out that Joey and Roger told stories until 3am.

The next day, Saturday, is reception day but first we have to clean up and shut down the cabin. Thankfully, late last night Meryah had directed her minions in assisting her in food teardown but we still have a big job to do today. Finally everything is packed, cabin cleaned, and garbage stuffed into the Park Av. It’s a cloudy drizzly day but we have had exceptional luck, with every outdoor fest in our itinerary blessed by the MN weather gods.

Mary and I, Sammy and Annah stop off at Harriet’s in Princeton to grab an overnight bag and then head to our hotel in the cities. Mary and I clean up and she puts on the same gray custom made mother of the bride dress and I don, again, my tan linen pants and white custom made white Guayabera shirt. I think Alexei, the tailor, owes us a kickback by now. Sam hustles us over to the the reception hall, the rustic event center of a Twin Cities golf course as our early presence has been requested. When we get there though, we wonder why, as Helen has everything under control. This is fine by me as I share a contraband beer with Kevin who, with Rosie is supplying the music tonight.

Guests start to arrive and Kevin starts his sound machine. Then Kevin introduces the wedded couple and they do their dance to Johnny Cash and Fiona Apple’s version of Bridge Over Troubled Water. Then the moment I had been fearing arrives, the father/bride dance. When Helen had visited last November we had decided on Stevie Wonder’s I Just Called To Say I Love You. Helen puts me at my ease and we discuss a spin as we dance and we actually do one. Then with my confidence boosted we do a spin out and spin back. I am happy to hear that I did not make a fool of myself.

The dancers are filling the dance floor as the night heats up and I find myself truly dancing like a fool now, but Deb, my frequent partner, Mary’s best friend

doesn’t seem to mind too much. At one point I see Bill on the floor and his SO Mary sitting and I spin her onto the floor, get her dancing and hand her off to Bill. I am on fire! But not to be outdone, Sammy’s groomsman-to-be Anton puts on his dancing Jones and is wowing the crowd. Just to show there are no hard feelings, Anton and I do a cheek to cheek. Now we’re cool.

We’ll I am sweating like a pig, I need to cool off on the really neat patio out the front door. I grab my Cohiba genuine Cuban cigars for all the important, cool people. Best man Joe, nephew Ben, and others light up. These are Esplendidos and the deal is, I explain to my happy recipients, is that you have to smoke the whole thing as these cigars are about a foot long (slight hyperbole). Everyone is happy to oblige and I am of a mood to police this action and do. At this point Jen, Helen’s lovely bridesmaid asks what is our secret, why have Mary and I been together so long. After pooh, poohing her she remains insistent and I tell her and others what I told Mary on the way to the courthouse and this is how we have lived our lives together, “Well, babe, it’s just you and me now, against the world.” I don’t think she is very impressed with our “secret” but it is what it is.

The night has flown by and we are called into the ballroom for one last dance which involves some sort of

a scrum with Helen’s group. And then time to leave. There is a shuttle to the hotel but I want to help Kevin pack all his gear and Mary Fran is good enough to hang with me. Kevin is amazingly organized and it takes just a few minutes to get it done and then Kevin tails us to the hotel. Mary Fran and I sit in the back seat of their new Prius with good looking son Karl at the wheel with pretty sister Anja in her sleek red dress, at his side. I stay quiet as they argue over directions and Mary’s instincts trump Karl’s recall and we are in Deb and Bonnie’s party room shortly. There, we tell stories until 4am.

I am awake at 8 the next morning. That’s the problem with getting old. No matter what time you go to bed, you always wake at about the same time. Well I need to ferry my sis Cheryl to the airport for her gig in Santa Fe, anyway. She is presenting at the science conference there. So first we see Helen and Caleb off to their uptown apmnt on their way to their honeymoon cabin in remote UP, MI and then I find ma – Margaret, and Cheryl and we head out. Mary is meeting up with Bonnie and Deb for breakfast, I get a vending machine roll. Better luck next time.

Mary rendezvous’s with me and ma at Harriet’s and then we motor over to Foley where we will spend the last few MN days with Margaret decompressing and putting in a few work shifts. It is a very relaxing time and I am happy to do a few chores for ma.

Wednesday, is getaway day and nephew Simon with his one yr old son Jordan are happy to give us a ride to the airport which is a very good deal for us, as it is a good 80 mile trek and public transport is a little difficult out here in the MN sticks.

So, of Helen and Caleb’s wedding and all the other events, this is my story, and I’m sticking to it.

Thanks for visiting, gentle reader. Bruce covered a lot of ground and he would like to say to anyone still reading, give this reader a medal! But now that Bruce and Mary are back to their regular Merida routine, posts will be regular again, sort of, and much shorter! Hasta pronto.

Getting ready to leave for Minnesota for the holidays kind of ‘crescendoed’ for Bruce and Mary. Especially for Mary as she coordinated their work schedule with cleaning their 6,000 square foot house and last minute x-mas shopping and packing and coming up with the lists for all the stuff they can’t easily get here. Join them as they are logging off work on x-mas eve day.

We’re working holiday shifts and Mary got off at 4 and I am just logging off at 6. It’s been a hellish day working our online moderation jobs. We all know that most posters do their damage from their workplace and my theory is that these are the poor slobs that didn’t get the day off and they are angry!

Our suite and our work area, poolside just outside our suite, look like a tornado hit. Our stuff is strewn all over, sort of staged for getting packed or hauled to storage, about 100 feet away in the media room closet. You see, when we vacate for the owners we have to make our suite available for their guests which means all of our stuff is out.

I start to freak as we need to be to the bus station for the 8:00pm to Cancun. Normally the buses run every hour around the clock but today this is the last one to Cancun where we fly out tomorrow morning. But Mary has a plan and I just follow orders and we are on the street leaving behind a spotless house (Mary even has fresh flowers for the owners) at 7:15pm. There should be plenty of time to catch a cab for the two mile ride to the bus station. But, there are no cabs, at least no empty cabs, and it seems that the only cabbies operating x-mas eve are by appointment only. Oh boy!

So we put it into high, speed walking with all our gear, about 75 pounds of stuff, in the 85 degree heat. We manage to get to the station with about 10 minutes to spare, soaked in sweat.

The 270P (about $22US each) 4 hour ADO bus ride is uneventful but we are glad that we know to pack warm clothes as these buses are always over air conditioned. If fact, I see as we reach the outskirts of Cancun that all the windows are fogged up with condensation, on the outside. The driver has to run his wipers, which is weird when it isn’t raining.

We debark and we start marching in the direction of where I think our Hotel Margarita is. We’d made online reservations for this $40/night hotel about a week ago. Well, Cancun must have been laid out by the same drunken Irishmen who did St. Paul because in about 3 blocks we are lost. We walk by a hopping bar and a friendly gringo tells us where to go (Mary loves that bit, “Now you can tell us where to go!”). We were actually pretty close and we find it about 2 blocks later. The only problem, and now it is 1 in the morning, it is dark and the sign says it is boarded up for renovations. What now?

Mary calls the Hotel Margarita’s number from her cell and is informed that we should go to the Radisson, as they will honor the reservation. Well…ok.

We hail a cab and a 40P ride later we are checking into a $120/night 5 star Radisson for 40 bucks. Works for me.

After winding down in the bar we hit the sack about 2 and we’re up early for the next stage of our trip. After a quick breakfast we grab a cab at the hotel staging area and take the 50P ride to the bus station for the shuttle to the airport, about a ½ hr away. But as we arrive at the station our cabby volunteers to take us all the way to the airport for a total of 160P. Well that’s a no brainer as the extra 110P is only 30 more than the shuttle bus for the two of us so we have a fun time practicing our Spanish and English riding in comfort to terminal three.

Our flights are all on time, even the connecting one from Houston to Minneapolis despite the storm there. Naturally we’re going to be treated to a good old fashioned MN winter storm on arrival. Joey, our youngest, with his bride Meryah pick us up in her dad’s Tahoe and we’re off to their townhouse in New Hope a northern suburb of the Twin Cities. We relax with beer and movies and Joey, thoughtful son that he is, supplies me with a premium Vodka (his traditional , if a little early this time, birthday gift) for my nightly martini. He even has a proper shaker and martini glass. Such a good son!

The next day is Joey and Meryah’s party. Pam, Meryah’s mom, is throwing a party for the newlyweds and has

flown in from SC for this celebration. We have a bit of running around to do which includes picking up Mary’s mom in Princeton and bringing her to Joey’s where family and close friends are congregating prior to the event. I drink a couple beers and chat with Mike, Meryah’s dad. Then we head to the restaurant/bar, a favorite of the kids and we find a lot of people already there in the party room that is reserved us.

The food is served buffet style and is great with plenty of fare even for the known vegans (Sammy, Helen, and Caleb) and it’s great fun meeting and renewing acquaintances with Meryah’s family. I am glad to see Meryah’s grandparents, Kathy and Dick, again. Dick is a retired police investigator turned author who writes murder mysteries, naturally,

and Kathy is an artist with the uncanny ability of reading people. She’ll meet you for the first time and after an engaging meet and greet she’ll say something like, “I’ll bet you’re a martial artist, I can tell by the way you move.” And she’ll be right. Fascinating people. But of course all the cool people are out in the smoking shack. This is where Mike shows me the cool trick of dipping the end of my cigar (I have a spare Cohiba genuine Cuban cigar for him, as well) in rum. Uhmmm, good! I meet a guy named “Pepper” an admitted republican posessing a laugh like a Hyena, which drives Joey crazy but the guy cracks me up, he along with Karen, his SO, I think, only she doesn’t seem to like him much, calling him a “tight ass” and such which automatically sets him to howling. My Cohiba Esplendidos are about a foot long, so I make several trips to

the smoke shack before the night is out.

The night winds down and our eldest, Sammy, who was chauffeured along with his fiancé Annah directly

from the airport to the party by his good friend Travis, is our sober driver for the ride to Harriet’s house in Princeton.  In fact Sammy has been sober his entire life. Good friends and family wonder how far back in the line that recessive gene resides.

Sunday, the 27^th is another party, at Harriet’s. As we missed out on the traditional x-mas eve, here, Harriet has ordered up another one for us and Sammy/Annah. Mary’s side of the family, all much better people than I am, gather, again. We manage to finish off a $71 beef roast (I think I have gone native, when it comes to food prices, $71 for a roast just blows me away) and we get caught up with all the nephews and nieces and grand nieces and grand nephew.

At the end of the day we borrow Harriet’s 97 Park Avenue with 48,000 miles and Sammy once again is sober cab and we head to Foley to stay with my mother, Margaret, for a few days. This will be the third bed in three nights for Mary and me.

We are greeted with hugs from ma and my sister Cheryl, a prof at the U of MO. It’s always fun to see Cheryl as she doesn’t cut me any slack when I get to BSing. Only problem is, she is heading back to Columbia early Tuesday so our time together is short.

Monday we both work our regular shifts from ma’s basement (like many of the posters we moderate) and in the evening we have plenty of errands. First on our list is a stop at CentraCare, the medical outfit that owns St. Cloud, our former home, to get my medical records released. That ends up being more of a process than it should be but the gal is nice. I want my records for Lynn, my brother Paul’s wife, an MD. We made a deal that we will trade out her medical counsel for my personal training. Then we’re off to meet with our new tenants, Jon and Rhonda at our old house, which we find to be decorated way more nicely than it ever was when we lived there. They had originally moved in under a sublet with our original tenant Patrick and now we are meeting them for the first time. They are a wonderful couple with two lively boys age 10 and 8, I’m guessing, with a baby boy to make three. They would love to buy the house but they understand that we won’t sell until the market comes back to where it was, minus the realtor’s fee, since a realtor won’t be necessary this time. We ink a 2 yr lease with them and then we’re off to Target to get all the crap, like nutritional supplements, that is either unavailable or hard to find in Mérida. Then we have dinner at Red Lobster and then we’re home in time to watch the Vikings lose to lowly Chicago, in overtime, on Monday night football.

Tuesday we work again and this evening we have my deceased brother Neil’s boys over for Mary’s famous porketta. Simon’s and Christina’s boy Jordan is a little over one and what a load, he’s got his Uncle Eli’s genes. Eli, at 6’1” and about 280 is slated to be the starting center next season for D2 U of M at Duluth, the 2008 National Champs. After dinner I take on Amos the youngest in a best of three chess match. We’d been playing online chess but then he couldn’t log in, forgetting his username or password or something. He promises to get another gmail account and we can commence again. As this is about the third time this has happened I tell him to tattoo his password on his forehead, in reverse, so he can read it.

Wednesday, after work, we head over to Kevin and Rosie’s for dinner. We pull up at the same time as our good friends and former back yard neighbors, Pete and Judy. It is great fun getting caught up with our good friends as we eat aplenty: fruit salad and a home made pizza with a crust so good that Mary just has to have

the recipe. I’m glad that we make the effort to keep up with Pete and Judy, we’re usually not very good at that and of course Kevin and Rosie are life-long friends, in fact they are scheduled to visit us for a record third time at the end of January.

Thursday, New Year’s Eve and my birthday (who has a better BD than me, the whole world celebrates and has the next day off to recuperate) we take our show back on the road to Princeton and we have a very relaxing and fun eve at Harriet’s place starting with a nice dinner out, courtesy Harriet, and then we have Mary’s best friend, Deb and our good friend Bonnie over to the house to party. We are impressed that Bonnie has been taking drumming lessons for a year and a half and participates in jams all over the place. We are pleasantly surprised that both of them are planning on traveling to NH for Sammy’s wedding. We party until nearly 2 in the morning, almost a record for these old farts.

Saturday Mary, Harriet and I head up to the family cabin on Captive Lake to prepare for hosting the kids, sans Sammy who is already winging back to NH, for a long weekend. The first order of business is to shovel the foot deep snow on the 100 foot long driveway as this is the first cabin visit of this winter. A dramatic rebuilding of this lake cabin has included winterizing and with the Fuego Fireplace I Installed 30 years ago it is a really cool place to spend a MN winter weekend. The kids, Helen/Caleb and Joey/Meryah make their way up and we party the whole weekend, playing games, sitting in front of the fireplace telling stories and watching movies. Mary’s sis Sue joins us Saturday and she and Helen, the two English degreed women dominate The Dark & Stormy Night game which we thought Helen would enjoy for a gift, but not this much. Caleb is strong as well at a game that you couldn’t pay me to play; I don’t need a game to demonstrate my lack of knowledge. But at least Mary and I dominate, well we win at least, a couple games of Trivial Pursuit.

Sunday we bid adieu to Helen and Caleb at half time of the Vikings/Giants game we watch at the Blue Goose while downing a couple pitchers of beer. In the evening we share a big bowl of popcorn as we watch Avatar on the downstairs TV. I had downloaded the movie in Mérida and jacked my computer into the TV via S-Cable. Great movie, I recommend it strongly. BTW: James Cameron is another Canadian. Do Canadians secretly control our entertainment industry? hmmm.

Monday Joey/Meryah and Mary, Harriet, and I caravan to Princeton. We have lunch at the Finish Line and then we see Joey and Meryah off.

Tuesday is getaway day and we’re up at 4:30am and down to Sue’s at 6. I drive us in Harriet’s Park Avenue to the airport and we have a tearful goodbye at Lindbergh International and after a non-eventful flight, with a layover in Houston, we find ourselves in Cancun again for the four hour bus-ride to Mérida and finally we are home again.

Whew!

Thanks for visiting gentle reader. Bruce apologizes for this 2300 word post and realizes most of you probably never got this far. But hopefully family and close friends got some entertainment from this traditional annual if wordy account. And be sure to click on those Google ads. After a year Bruce is looking to crack the $20 barrier. Hasta Pronto!

We got a Skype phone call from Joey, our youngest, Thursday evening, November 12^th this last fall and as much as we like shooting the breeze and getting caught up on his budding career at General Mills we were a little surprised to be hearing from him that particular evening. Typically we have a chat after every Vikings game kibitzing Childress’ idiocy in not being able to figure a way to capitalize on half the opposing defense keying on AP and praising our new hero Brett Favre, so we wondered what prompted the call. So when Joey said, “Well the main reason I called,” we kind of held our breath, “is that Meryah and I are getting married tomorrow.”

As Keanu would say, “Whoa!”

We quickly told Joey that we love Meryah a lot, in fact, as we reminded him, if for some reason it came down to a choice between him and Meryah, we’d pick Meryah. We’re delighted with the news, we tell him, but why now?

Now to give a little context, it must be shared that our daughter, Helen, the middle one, had announced her engagement, last April, to Caleb, with their hippie wedding scheduled for this coming June, and our oldest Sammy had announced his engagement to Annah, last August, with their big Boston wedding scheduled for this coming August. And when Mary had eyed Joey with this ammo, in regards to their five year relationship, Joey had simply shrugged and said, “Don’t look at me, there’s nothing happening with us anytime soon!”

We reminded him of this (in his mind) badge of honor that he’d been sporting for close friends and family, to be told, “Well, things have changed.”

Joey went on to explain that Meryah’s recent malaise and discomfort edging into pain was diagnosed as a gall bladder problem that likely would involve surgery. They had done their research and found that said surgery would run around $12,000 and like millions of Americans, although gainfully employed as a pre-school teacher, she did not have health insurance. Joey, on the other hand, employed by a fortune 500 company has the gold standard in all benefits including health care.

We hear further that Joey had done his research with HR and with a little bit of paperwork and a very small bump in monthly pmts, Meryah would be covered the instant they are pronounced husband and wife.

Happy to admit that he is lucky to have found Meryah and luckier yet that she puts up with him and that their marriage was an inevitability, Joey does sum up the current situation by saying, “All I know is that if we lived in Canada, we sure as hell wouldn’t be getting married right now.” Ahh Joey, you’re such a romantic.

So, the next day, at 3:00pm, Friday the 13^th, 2009, Joey and Meryah took a half day off from work and got married in Hennepin County Courthouse. The honorable Judge Kline said, “This is a nice way to cap a week of putting bad guys in jail.”

Thanks for visiting gentle reader. How about that? Bruce and Mary’s three kids, in reverse order, are all getting married in the space of less than a year, que cosa! Stay tuned as Bruce pens his Holiday 2009 post listing most and least favorites, with Joey and Meryah’s party being at the top of the list. Hasta pronto!