Weekend Notes: Grad Party SZN

Quick Blog Note

You may have noticed that I updated the header image of the site. I actually did a little bit of Dicking Around™ with the entire site over the weekend. I installed a couple new themes and played around with them for about five minutes before switching back to the one I’ve been using for five years. I was content to swap in the new image, stolen from one of the themes I sampled, and call it a night.

I’m sure my readers will appreciate that, and that I’m not returning to the “completely redesign and/or move the blog to a new platform every year” cadence I was on back in the day. I’m pleased everything has worked well since my last host move, design update.

Final Grad Party

M had her big open house with two buddies on Sunday. After one of the driest springs in Indy history, it decided to pour much of the day. Which sucked in a lot of ways. It also made me thankful that we told M over a year ago if she wanted a big party she needed to either find a friend to host, or a friend who had a neighborhood clubhouse we could borrow for the day.

Our original plan was to do the clubhouse option. We even had a deposit down. But for some reason I’ve chosen to forget, that fell through. One of the other families volunteered to host everyone, which was a very nice thing to do. I think that mom is still recovering from a bunch of kids cramming into her house when the third downpour of the day rolled in during the last half hour of the open house. It was very packed and very loud for about 45 minutes. I barely had a voice Monday. It was like going to bars again!

Things in general went well. The food was great. The cops never showed up. I don’t think any of the neighbors complained. Us dads all got totally soaked in the setup process. I made the mistake of running the 10 feet from the gas station door to the ice machine and then to my car without an umbrella during the heaviest rain of the day. I might as well have jumped in the pool. Fortunately we had changes of clothes, although I don’t think I completely dried out until Monday morning.

We waaaay overestimated how much both food and drink we needed. We were left with at least four coolers that were totally full of various beverages, alcoholic and otherwise. Someone is going to have to host another party, this time just for adults.

It was fun seeing a lot of parents we don’t see often. Chances are we may never see some of these folks again as our kids go different directions.

The girls seemed to have fun. Other than the rain the only bummer of the day was M getting a little bitchy with S. Not the best time to do that, after your mom has busted her ass for weeks to make the party everything you wanted it to be. Oh well, kids gonna kid I guess.

There are just a scattering of parties left. Two of M’s good friends have one this coming weekend, and I think she may pop into a couple more. Then graduation season will finally be over.

Now S and I have two years to rest up until C’s class goes through the process. She needs to start planting the mental seed with one of her buddies so they volunteer to host.

One completely unrelated note from M’s party. Our small spring break group of parents was huddled in conversation, enjoying drinks. Several of us had 3 Floyd’s Gumballhead, a hoppy wheat beer. One of the dad’s commented that he liked it but, “I like that, what is it, 90 Acre? 80 Acre? better.”

This made me very happy, and we had like a 10 minute conversation about Boulevard beers, why they stopped making 80 Acre, how they changed their distribution a few years back, and how I was bullied by that girl at the bar in KC last year for suggesting that Boulevard was local.[1]

For the record Gumballhead and 80 Acre are indeed very close in taste. I, too, preferred 80 Acre, but am happy to drink a very good, similar beer made here in Indiana. Glad to find another aficionado.

Housing Assignment

M just got her housing assignment at UC this morning. She will live in the old school, kind of crappy building. She’s bummed about it, but I am laughing. It will be good for her to have to deal with a communal bathroom. Builds character. Plus someone cleans it for her. S lived in one like it. Hell, I did it for two years! She didn’t even list this dorm in her options, but I told her that’s the breaks of being a freshmen. All the older kids staying in dorms got first dibs and there were only so many spots left for the newbies.

She did get the roommate she had requested, and they will have a room to themselves, which is kind of cool. As long as they get along as well living together as they have through their online interactions and one meeting over the past four months.