All In The Family

My sister stopped by Sunday morning. She brought a wad of bills with her to give to my older son, who is heading off to George Washington U. Friday. It reminded me of the days when my aunt would press a five or ten into my hand and whisper conspiratorially, “Don’t tell your mother”. Sis had a delivery to make so she decided to stop by the ATM on the way to my house. Holy cow! That beats the hell out of 1-800 CASH CALL. Plus she’s a whole lot better looking than Gary Coleman. She’s always been generous with us, including my ingrate kids. I’m generous with my investment tips. I told her to get into WAMU. I’m a contrarian. But Sis did not have copious praise for the blog. In fact, she said she needed to be featured more often. Hey, bring dough to my house and I’ll write about you all you want. However, it seems she prefers the company of my older brother. They go hiking all the time. So what about middle man DJ? Both of you need to get the hell out of the East Bay once in a while and come over to the beautiful mid-Peninsula. We do hiking.

Since I was in a familial mood today, I decided to call the big bro. I was wandering the stately parking lot of my beloved Silicon Valley company as I chatted him up. According to him, he had just gotten out of a hearing. I think he was sipping a Corona in his backyard. We discussed the presidential race and then it was time to go. I told him as we parted that I wasn’t sure if I should go back to my cube or run for the hills. I went back and stared at my screen for a couple hours, with a few breaks to schmooze.

As mentioned, this past weekend was the last one at home for Sonny Boy. We had a going away breakfast in the middle of the afternoon Sunday at Hobee’s. I was not at the top of my game, due to #2’s party, on which I will elaborate shortly. We enjoyed our grub, although I think the staff was not especially glad to see us enter half an hour before closing time. Fortunately for them, I am an extravagant tipper. After the chow down, we dropped my daughter off at practice and headed to Target. Sonny needed a back pack and a few other items. I am not a fan of Target. Shopping as sport does not suit me. But we were in and out quickly. As soon as I dissuaded my son from getting the Hello Kitty backpack, we bolted.

So we had big fun at #2’s house Saturday. It was fund raising event for one of his daughter’s school groups. The vittles were top notch and #2 was mixing some particularly tasty margaritas. I switched over to beer after a bucket of those. We were there for several hours so The Exec and I did a fine job of representing the obnoxious wing of the village. #1 and TCG were there but we didn’t gab as much as usual. #1 was holding down the fort, waiting for the wife to come home from DC, where she dropped off their son at Catholic U. So #1 was not in full party mode. As far as TCG is concerned, I don’t know what his story is.

I got a couple calls while I was there. ATT was working on fixing my DSL connection. I almost played the bandwidth czar card but it proved unnecessary. After they hung up, I kept talking. I walked back to the party group, saying loudly, “Senator Biden, I’ve asked you several times not to call me here.” I’m a laugh riot. Then #2’s best bud pulled out a guitar and the hootenanny started. He was very good but I’m afraid the harmonies of DJ and The Exec were not up to par. We mangled “Blowin in the Wind”, “Hotel California” and a whole host of classics. When we decided he didn’t need accompaniment, we went in the house to do a gratuitous shot of Ketel One.