Back To Busy-ness: The Halfway Point of Best Week of Summer

At the halfway point of the Busiest Week of 2012 (working title), and I'm still breathing...for now.

What happens at Whirlyball...

The week started with a great bachelor party that was even better than I thought it would be. I forgot how much fun my family and Jeff's friends (which are also my friends in an inherited sort of way) are to hang out with, especially with a few Summer Shandys in the blood stream. While I failed to succeed at both the Whirlyball and Casino portions of the day, I did succeed at enjoying my time with everyone who attended. Thanks again to those who came.

Sunday provided a little lull for me and Jen to enjoy some TV on our new couch. True Blood is in full bloom, which I am trying to get into. I'm not sure how much of the back story I need to know to get the plot. All I know is that the main character Sooki seems to cause as many problems as the broad with a similar name in another TV show that I will not acknowledge supposedly causes on a shore. I digress.

The before picture of Ribfest. Sadly, not much different than the after

Monday was my first Rib Fest experience. I wore the white t-shirt that I promised in my blog from last week's B-List. Unfortunately (in terms of Facebook and the general public), the shirt did not get messy. A large part of this had to do with my ordering of sandwiches (a double boneless riblet sandwich and a BBQ chicken sandwich) as opposed to ribs. The other part, which I didn't give much thought to until the day came, was the incredible heat that we faced. It made staying at a Rib Fest and eating more food, including messy ribs, too much of a chore. So we left, with nary a stain on the shirt to speak of, although Jen's brother did pour water on my nipples. So there's that.

On Tuesday, we traveled to the La Salle/Peru/Princeton area of the state, occupied by Jen's wonderful family, along with a bunch of billy's of hill decent. I had a great time swimming at Jen's aunt and uncle's, along with watching fireworks for the first time with Jen right along the Illinois River as I had to drink to not only blend in but also provide my body with the necessary liquids to replace the sweat. I don't want to hear from any smart people with common sense that drinking beer can't do that, so yeah. Great night with a great gal and her great family.

A family of which I got to meet another member about 14 hours ago. Jen's dad lives in Cherry, IL, a small IL town that has about 500 people and is best known for a coal mining disaster that claimed the lives of 250+ people in 1908. Driving through a small town like that makes me think that it's about how it must seem to drive through my old hometown of Crystal Falls in Michigan. In our limited time at his place, I engaged in some chat about baseball and sports in general. It was nice meeting him finally.

After this, the halfway point of the busy week ended with hanging out with my family - definitely a theme of both halves of the week. Family stuff was fun as always. I love them all. Jen and I left there before they left for fireworks though, only because I was worn out from everything that I mentioned above.

Also, I am going to a Sox game tomorrow in 900 degree heat, with about the best seats I've had in a while. I needed to save some of my remaining energy for that. The next four days, with the wedding of the summer as the highlight, prove to be just as eventful.

In the meantime, if anyone can think of a great nickname for the week that encompasses as much of our week as possible, I'd appreciate it. Some ones I have thought of:

Business in Front, Party in the Back (of the Week)

RIBbed for Our Pleasure: The Greatest Week of Summer 2012

Ok...on that note, I'm done. Good night everyone.