Baby Zoomer

 I had a couple Zoom calls this week.  The first one was with the FC boys, but I talked about them last time and they did not give me anything interesting to add here.  Then Thursday we had a good one with the extended family, with my kids and the in-laws and nieces and nephew.  Right off the bat I told my hippie nephew he had to get a haircut, but he took it in the appropriate spirit.  My bro-in-law called in from the road.  He had just played a round at the renowned Merion Golf Club, and I busted his chops by saying it is the type of place I am used to hanging around.  My kids busted his chops for watching the video call while driving.

But let’s not focus on the fact that mine is a family that busts chops.  There is so much more to us than that. I regaled them with a couple stories of my youth, and we discussed nuns of old, which SB1’s girlfriend’s mom, my sister-in-law and I all had to endure.  I was a model child and academic star, so my negative nun interactions were few and far between, but I did tell the Xmas candy story.  Back when I was in 7th or 8th grade, my mom told me I had to bring a box of candy to Sister Claire.  I told her I would not.  She pleaded further that I should do it.  Still I refused.  It was at that point that my soft spoken, gentle, kind mother pinned me against the stairway and said, “You’re bringing the candy, you little SOB”.  I brought the candy.

Since we were on the subject of my nephew’s unruly locks, I also shared a hair story of yore.  When I was 15 or so, my hair had gotten pretty long.  The days of me going with my old man to the barber were over.  By the way, my hair looked fantastic.  Ask the UK.  In any case, my father did not like the look but tolerated it. But then I decided to try out a ponytail.  As I descended the staircase, dear Dad got a glimpse.  “Get that god damn rubber band out of your hair!”.  That was the end of the ponytail experiment.

Gosh, is it all about me?  Mostly, but now let’s talk about the rest of the folks.  SB1 regaled us with tales of his research into the financial goings on of his organization.  It seems that the apple has fallen far from the tree, in that the kid makes a solid effort.  His girlfriend is working hard at her new job and was planning to meet her new workmates face to face for the first time Friday.  They make a cute pair, which comes across even on video.

My bro-in-law rejoined the call when he got home.  We had to call back in because of the 40-minute Zoom limit knocked us off, but we did another 40.  Fortunately, bro-in-law missed the hullabaloo earlier when a glass of wine was knocked down and broken.  My nephew is to blame for this because he got overly excited by my Xmas candy story. Who can blame him?

The whole in-law crew is at the Jersey shore.  We were supposed to be with them, but a pandemic got in our way.  We had an extended discussion as to whether it is safe to fly until my kids and I made a concerted effort to change the subject.  I’m not sure but that may be when I shared the ponytail story.

I had a good chat with my bud The Wig yesterday.  He will be a gampy come November.  The parents to be have just moved into more spacious digs on Cole in SF and his youngest will be moving out here soon as well.  The Wig mentioned that he was unimpressed by my last post.  I’m certainly open to fair and honest criticism and I’m glad he called. His phone number was therefore at the top of my queue, making it easy to find and block. Sadly, I also need to revoke my invite to his daughter to stay at our place during her move.

I did not watch the DNC, but as Trump might say, I heard good things.  I did see Brayden Harrington give his speech and found it moving.  Can you imagine Trump embracing and helping that kid out?  No, you cannot.  I had told the wife that maybe we should catch the RNC shitshow for grins, but the Wig and I agreed yesterday that it would turn our stomachs. On the plus side, slovenly, sunburnt grifter Steve Bannon got his just deserts this week.  I hope they throw the book at the son of a bitch.

Last night, we had The Bankers over along with #1 and Barbie. The discussion naturally veered toward my blog and since Mrs. Banker does not have a bar name, we discussed an alternative.  We bandied about “CPO”, as that is her job title, but I think we need to have further discussion before making it official.  And I want to stress that it is CPO, not C-3PO.

I made the ladies Cosmos and we served Robert’s Market Blackjack tri-tip, which our personal trainer highly recommended.  It is hard to find a personal trainer that is also a gourmand.  My wife whipped up a tasty corn salad.  She has stepped up her game quite a bit lately, at least when we have guests.  I’m still stuck with the quotidian culinary tasks.  Right now, I am working up an Indian chicken dish in the crockpot that should give us at least two meals. We six charter members of the FCMC chatted until about 9:30 and then it was Bedtime for Bonzo.  Everyone had a great time, or at least that is what they told me.