It’s been another beautiful day, and while
it hasn’t been birthday party fun around here compared to yesterday; I have had
a really great day! This is a double
report, though; so let’s back up a day and get this thing started!
Wednesday morning Tai Chi by the river was
especially great because Miranda got to sleep in late instead of being at the
Inn for the breakfast prep work; and she came out with Michael to enjoy the
entertainment with her morning coffee.
Yes, we’re out there early, but that still was sleeping in for her. I was just glad that we got to do good
morning and birthday hugs and kisses with her – and help to make the start to
her day just a bit more fun.
Miranda did need to get to the Inn
eventually, so she went home to get ready to do that after our Tai Chi, but
Michael stayed to have breakfast with us before going home to get ready for his
football practice. I helped out with
both sides of the breakfast work; got ready for cheerleading practice; and met
up with Rowen at her house before going on to the school. Michael had needed to be there a bit earlier
than we did; but only because he was taking a turn helping out with hauling
equipment out to the field. Our
cheerleading practice went great, and I had fun with that; but then it was time
to get to work for the afternoon – and that didn’t end up being much family
business work because Mom and Aunt Leanne drafted me to help out with kid
control and holiday weekend chores at two houses. That kept me busy through until we all needed
to get ready for Miranda’s birthday dinner party at the Inn, and while there
was a lot going on, the work details are really boring; and I won’t put you to
sleep with them.
The dinner party wasn’t starting until
six-thirty; with the meal at seven; so we were able to work late too and even
get a bit of help from Dad after he was finished at the office for the
day. We were all cleaned up, changed,
and at the Inn a few minutes before six-thirty; and I went into the kitchen to
hang out with Michael and Rebecca while Mom and Dad were busy with the meet and
greet in the dining room. We’d already
planned on springing a kid-free night sleepover on Miranda and Jacob long
before then, but that plan turned into a teen camping adventure by the time we
all headed into the dining room to have dinner with our families.
Lucas had come back into town for the
dinner, and since he had football again in the morning anyway; it was easy to
get him added to the camper guest list; Mom and Dad approved the change in
plans; and we added Tim, Rowen, Jenny, and Joel before dinner even
started. The biggest issue we had at
that point was getting the camp set up and putting everything together for that
when we couldn’t even start doing it until after the party.
Miranda’s dinner was next, though; and we
all had a really great time having that meal together. Jacob split his time between the kitchen and
dining room while the food was still being cooked, and quite a few members of
the staff took turns working and having dinner with us; but Miranda, Michael,
and Rebecca were all off-duty during the meal – and Miranda was done for the
day by then. Most of the Bassett clan was
there for the meal – or at least everyone in and around town was. Add in fifty or sixty friends and their
family members; and it was quite the little mid-week event. The full menu wasn’t available for our
dinner, but the half-dozen options that Jacob had picked to make the work
easier covered the needs of all of the guests – including the younger kids.
The dinner, dessert, and all of the usual
birthday fun took about an hour and a half to get through. I wasn’t in the middle of the action for that
because Michael and I were on kid control duty with some of the other teens;
but the parents had fun roasting Miranda; and she loved her gifts that ranged
from gag gifts and cute little trinkets to the beautiful and sparkly. Michael and Lucas had let Rebecca and I take
care of our gift choices; we recruited Abby to help out with that; and Miranda
loved our gifts a lot too.
Ours weren’t the only gifts from Palmer’s
that Miranda was given; but she wasn’t allowed to open one of them in front of
everyone; so I’ll guess that there’s a good chance that our gifts weren’t her
favorite new additions to her wardrobe – or Jacob’s. Let’s definitely not take that thought any
farther and move along!
Michael and Rebecca still needed to help
with the clean-up at the Inn after dinner; so the rest of us campers got to
work at my house – and ran around getting overnight bags packed and rounding up
everything else we needed for our last-minute camping adventure. I helped with getting the tents set up; Dad
helped us with getting a fire ready to go and lit; and Mom rounded up some
snacks and drinks for us to have at the campfire. We had all of the work done by the time that Michael
and Rebecca joined us after getting their own overnight bags from home; and we
were all ready by then to just sit around the campfire and relax for a
while. Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana
joined us there for a little while, but then headed inside so that the twins
could go to bed and Mom and Dad could get started on the work they each needed
to get done tonight.
Michael and I took turns playing music on my guitar; we all had fun singing
and telling campfire stories; and we sat up and talked way too late before
putting out the fire and going for a bedtime swim. It was heading toward two o’clock by the time
we split up and went into our tents; and now we’re to the part of the night
that explains why I didn’t even have my computer with me out there – and didn’t
get around to my last update until Wednesday morning.
That’s right; we had a co-ed camping night!
Jenny and Joel were particularly happy
about that because he’ll be heading home on Friday after work and they’ll both
be moving on to other relationships after that.
I’d be a mess if I was in that situation, but it actually seems to work
for them just fine; so it doesn’t matter whether I could have a relationship
like that or not when they’re happy. That
isn’t exactly the right word for them when it comes to Joel’s return home; but
I can assure you that they were and are happy about getting to spend the night
together.
Ditto that for Rebecca and Lucas, Rowen and
Tim, and Michael and me; though it is obviously different for the six of us
because we’ll all still be together next week.
That doesn’t change the fact that an all-night cuddle-in-sleeping-bags
session wasn’t amazing, and for Michael and I; there was a fair bit of
teen-rated play time for two that kept us entertained until we eventually had
our little nap until dawn. With nearby
tents around us, that play time needed to be very quiet; but it was also fairly
high on my personal hot meter and I am so glad that I have a photographic
memory! ;^)
We were still fairly tired when we woke up
and got ready for Tai Chi; but we managed to be out of our tent before Mom,
Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana met us by the river.
The workout helped to get us going; Mom and Dad went back inside right
away and pretended that they didn’t know that their backyard campers had been
paired up for the night in boy-girl couples.
They cooked breakfast while Michael and I started working on the camp
clean-up by tearing down our tent and making sure that we made enough noise to
wake our friends.
The work part of the morning wasn’t
newsworthy; but we did all have fun. By the
time I wrote that last micro-update, we’d had breakfast in the middle of the
camp teardown; took turns having bathroom time and getting ready for the day;
and dealt with all of the work in the kitchen too. Moving on from the end of that little update;
Rowen, Jenny, and I headed for the school and our cheerleading practice. The boys were either off to work, at the
school, or ready to go there with us by then; and Rebecca headed home to do
some work there before going on to the Inn while we were busy.
Anna-Marie decided that we were ready for
the game by the time tomorrow night by the time we were finished our practice
today; so we’ll have the day off on Friday until we need to be at the school
for the trip to Maple Valley. That
worked for all of us; since we’ll be busy with getting ready for the holiday
weekend too. Most of us are juggling
work, family, and part-time jobs in addition to the football game and weekend
baseball games; so one less thing to do really helps a lot.
I’d suggest that we keep Anna-Marie as team
captain for another year or three, but I doubt she’ll opt for repeating her
senior year a couple of times over going off to college.
While I’ve skipped over the details of our
practice, the important news is that we had fun; and I think we’re having an
even better start to our season than we had last year. The fun level is really high; our routines
are stronger; and Anna-Marie lets Rowen and I play around with some sideline
improv and cooler tricks for our routines that feed our apparent need for
extreme action.
Don’t worry, Mom – if we mess up and get
hurt; I can take care of healing either of us! ;^)
Moving along, I was home in time for lunch
with Mom, Aunt Leanne, Grandma, Grandpa, and the twins. They were having a planning lunch for the
holiday weekend work; and Mom was happy to find out that I have Friday morning
off – from cheerleading.
Maybe I shouldn’t have told her about that,
but she’d have found out anyway; so going and hiding somewhere for a morning
off wouldn’t have worked anyway – even if it is a nice thought!
Taking the afternoon off today might have
been nice too, but I did yard chores instead.
I mowed the lawn and weeded gardens while Mom was busy with other chores
and a shopping trip to avoid as much of the busy that’ll be happening around
town all day tomorrow. She’ll still need
to do the bakery order pick-up and some other running around tomorrow anyway;
but at least she won’t have to fight the crowds at the grocery store or
Emporium.
I wrapped up my yard work by dinnertime;
went for a swim with Ethan and Ehlana; got changed; and then we had dinner out
on the back porch – a burgers, hot dogs, and cold salads meal that was quick,
easy, and didn’t require much of a clean-up.
That was a good thing because we had two baseball practices going on
tonight. The coed practice was moved due
to Miranda’s birthday dinner; since most of the players were at the Inn
instead. The change wasn’t an issue for
ball diamond space, since the only teams needing to practice this week are the
ones in the championship games. The only
issue we had was with babysitting services; and the available grandparents, and
two aunts were drafted to help out with that at the park while Rowen and I were
busy at the school ball diamond with our practice.
The Piranha are ready for our big game, and
while I missed most of Mom and Dad’s practice, from what I did see; they look
ready for their game too. While I’m
really glad that we had a good practice and it was fun spending that time with
Rowen and the rest of our team mates; I also wish that I’d had that time
available for some of the family business work I needed to get done
tonight. Mom, Dad, and I didn’t even get
started on our ‘homework’ until nearly nine-thirty; which is why I overdid it
again today by using a time phase to get all of my work done without staying up
all night again to do that. Even doing
that, I still had to skip spending any time with Michael; and he went home
after the Inn closed for the night instead of coming over here for a couple of
hours first.
After keeping him, um, awake late last night;
he needed the extra rest, but we’re also running out of summer fast; and won’t
get to have a lot of alone time during the holiday weekend. We’ll be wishing that we’d had the extra time
together by next week; but then we feel that way most weeks anyway. Instead of getting side-tracked, though; let’s
keep moving along so that I can wrap this up and get to sleep soon.
I worked in the office, and Ethan and
Ehlana played in the archives while Mom and Dad worked too. My time phase included all of us; we all got
a lot done; and Mom ordered me to let it drop at eleven o’clock – once we’d all
done a full night worth of work. Dad
might even be able to leave work early tomorrow thanks to our high-powered work
session; so I’m glad to have helped out with that even if I am exhausted
now. Mom, Dad, and I all got in on the
bedtime scene with Ethan and Ehlana, and after getting them tucked in for the
night; I came up to my room and got ready for bed.
There weren’t any new email for me to deal
with as I got started on my nightly computing, but I did do a Hathorne
Industries check ahead of the long weekend to make sure that there weren’t any
imminent plans to travel our way. I know
that we haven’t had a problem with them in years now; but we won’t stop trying
to keep an eye on them anyway; and we will keep learning everything we can
about their operations around the world so that we can intervene whenever
possible.
Okay, that’s pretty much it for now. I’m going to have another really long day
tomorrow between the work around here and the football game in Maple
Valley. I’ll miss most of the inbound
family fun tomorrow night, but even time phasing can’t help me out with that,
and if Mom knows a way to be two places at once; she hasn’t taught me how yet.
How cool would that be if we could? ;^)
I’m too tired even for some science fiction
or fantasy musings, which means that it really is time for me to crash now; so,
until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
