I've been having a bit of trouble opening this blog the last few days, which is why I didn't post this sooner. 

Last week, our friend Geoff and his wife and kids were coming to town.  Jay and G have been friends for almost fifty years.  They still get together a few times a year with a bunch of the kids they were in high school and grade school with.  I've been hanging out with them for  so long that I swear I have memories of Daytona in '73, which is ridiculous; I was 13. 

A standing joke in this crowd is that Jay never invites any of them to our house.  He has repeatedly explained to them over the years that as much as he loves them, they are simply not the sort of people he wants in his house. 

Well, this time Jay invited all of them over for dinner the night G and Joyce came into town.  So Saturday night, we had about a dozen of the old crowd over for brats.  Geoff and Joyce couldn't attend, as their older son got sick the morning they were supposed to fly out and they couldn't get a later flight.  We had their dinner without them and it was a blast.  Two of the couples have little kids and so they brought them.  While the adults ate and drank and talked on the deck, the kids ate, watched the twins game, played outside, watched the Princess Bride and played tag in the dark.  At 11:30, Josie whispered in my ear "Can I go to bed now?"  She had to sneak away from the others to try to get to bed.  It didn't work.  They followed her upstairs.

While we were having our party in the back yard, Zack and a handful of his buddies were having a party in the front yard.  It was one of the perfect nights we've been having this summer; warm, no humidity and no mosquitos.

In the middle of the party, Josie brought me the phone.  It was MJ, who was in Vegas.

"omigod, my mouth is completely dry.  Is this normal?" she asked.

"Are you married yet?" I asked her.

"No, we will be in about an hour.  I feel sick."

"Are you nervous?"

"Yeah, I guess I must be.  I'm also afraid that I look beastly."

"You're just nervous, a dry mouth is normal and you don't' look beastly, you look beautiful.  Go get married."

"Oh. Okay."

An hour later, Kent and MJ were man and wife!  Yay!

Sunday, we had salmon for dinner, which a friend had just brought back from his fishing trip.  It was delicious.  My brother Woody joined us and later, Mr. Curry showed up.  It was another perfect evening.

Later on, after her second shift, Katie stopped by after work and told us that she had called Minnesota and accepted their offer of a full law school scholarship!  We had spend the better part of the last few weeks trying to explain to her how great it would be to get a law degree for free.  She seemed unconvinced that this was a better deal than going 200k in debt just to go to Columbia. 

I know her.  I know for a fact that if she sets her mind to it, she will be a Supreme Court Justice someday and it wouldn't matter if she got her degree from Sam's House o' Law.

When she was in fifth grade, her teacher, a Mr. David Lochbiler (who had been a lawyer before becoming a teacher and as such, had argued in front of the S. Court), told us that being her parents was a huge responsibility.  That it was our job to make sure she got all the advantages of a first rate education so that nothing would stand in her way.  Jay and I left that conference thinking "He seriously underestimates Katie.  Does he really think there's anything we could do that will prevent her from taking over the world if she wants to?"

Katie did tell us that since she will be saving 70 grand next year, she plans on taking many opulent vacations instead.

I think that's a grand plan!