Long weekend epilog

Whew!  Even though I had no real agenda, no real objective, I got a lot chores knocked out over the weekend.  


Bugs taken care of.  Shower fixed.  I got some quality time with junior Saturday.  Stephen was in town this weekend for various wedding tasks.  Needed to meet with the minister this weekend, working on invitations.  On Saturday, I offered up to take him to St Arnold's Brewery downtown.  Now, for those not familiar with St Arnolds, please allow me to elaborate.  St Arnolds is a local Houston brewery that has been around for about 18+ years.  Started by a Rice University graduate, it has grown from a local home brewer to a regular craft brewer.  I have been in love with St Arnolds ever since we went to visit Stephen in Seattle.


While enjoying the moment with my son, I was given a mission - I was supposed to work the target to explore on their wedding plans, discover where they were registered, and determine what they wanted for wedding gifts.  I was able to get more intel on their plans, where they were going, where they were registered (nowhere).  It was good to get a beer into him to open up for a few of the details.  This is new territory for us.  We have been to a few weddings, even had one of our own although it was a few years decades ago, so we are trying to figure out what is our role as parents of the groom.  We have offered up to help certain aspects of the wedding.  Tradition has it that the bride's parents cover the wedding costs and the groom’s parents cover the rehearsal dinner, but we don't feel right with that.  So we are offering up to help with the shindig.  Since the kids have decided to get married at our church, we are covering the chapel and minister.  I think the bar tab at the reception is going to be ours (St Arnolds beer will be available).  Rebecca’s dad and I offered that the beer hall at the St Arnold’s Brewery would make a great place for the rehearsal dinner, but I don’t think the moms are quite down with that plan.  My son has not asked for help, but I did offer up my assistance with a few of the wedding logistics.   I proposed to arrange a limo to take them from the chapel to the reception (don't worry about transportation).  After the reception, said limo would whisk them away from the reception to an undisclosed location.  Since they won't fly out on their honeymoon until Sunday evening, we were going to put them up in a local hotel for the night.  That way they could relax and unwind from the day’s excitement and they could make the rounds the following day before heading off to the airport.
  

On Sunday, I drove up north of town to Rummy’s Beach Club.  This is the place that I visited last fall where they specialize in water training/exercise for dogs.  Lisa runs the place and built a custom pool for dogs to learn how to swim and dock diving.  Despite being two full blooded Golden Retrievers, neither one of them seem to have the aptitude or inclination for swimming, so I elected to take them to Rummy’s to get in the water with them and work their skills.  They did it last time, but they were very nervous.  This time was much better.  Claire has taken to swimming pretty well, and will swim out to the deep end, but I still cannot coax her to jump in from the side of the pool.  Grayson is still uncertain about the whole deal.  He did do much better this time, but needs more time in the water for practice.  I am planning to take them back again this summer for a couple more lessons while the temps are warm.  A number of the Golden Beginnings people have pools at home, so a lot of fosters/adoptees get to spend time in the pool.  

Jump?  Are you crazy?

Yesterday we hit the dog park again, took the kids out for BBQ lunch, cleaned out the breezeway and mowed the yard.  I took some time to tour the Memorial Day service at the local park where they had a mock up display of the Vietnam Memorial Wall.  Sobering display with lots of details/information, but it doesn't compare to the real wall in DC (seen it).  Was a full throttle weekend.  I need to go to work to catch up on my rest.