At last the Weasel returns

So the wedding weekend was magnificent. I don't even know where to start. July 4th we had a dinner with Debbie, Gabe, their baby Paralee, Kenneth, Stanica and Issac, John and Nancy, Emily and I at Elmers.

John is so funny. He introduces himself as Dr. John. It was the first time they had met my brother, sister, and their respective spouses. Did not take long for everyone to gel together really well. In no time at all Kenneth, John and I were involved in a series of increasingly bad puns ("I need to jam a comment in here." "Hey, that is a grape idea!" "ooh, that did not earn a jelly laugh" and so forth even worse, working our way through breeakfast foods, silverware and even worse things) bringing lots of A) laughs, B) groans, and C) comments about "You guys aren't funny."

After breakfast I headed out to St. Helens with Deb, Gabe & Paralee while Emily & her folks went to the airport to pick up some people. We hung out with Kenneth, Stanica & Isaac for a bit the next couple days. Friday Phillip, Gabe, and Bob went golfing. Bob is a great guy for a couple reasons; he has been an excellent father in law to Phillip (and, obviously a good dad to Tracy) and he stepped in at the last second to perform our ceremony. The golfing was incredibly fun, just a few more or less related guys...Phillip, his father in law, and our brother in law, all of whom complimented each other on their good shots and did not make mean-spirited remarks about bad ones. yes, it was good golfing...but it was better interpersonal interaction.

After the golf I jetted across town to grab dinner with a bunch of Emily's family and friends. Her uncles Mike and Don were there. Mike is one of those super friendly, relaxed, joking, happy type guys that I instantly took a liking to. Don is more reserved and serious but a nice guy nevertheless. Emily's bridesmaids had arrived so Amanda, Nicki, Heidi, and Natalie were all there. It was a nice and fun dinner but over all too soon.

Saturday was one of "those" days. Emily called pretty early and needed some help gettting stuff to the ballroom so we set up a time to meet. I thought it would be fun to surprise her by getting there early. I also thought it would be funny to wear a similar suit to the one I was getting married in so I put that on, threw a change of clothes in the car and headed on over.

Of course, when I got there, nobody else was there...they were getting their hair done...which I knew about and blanked out of my mind. So I ran a couple errands and finally made it back to meet them. Well, we were supposed to run the stuff to the ballroom about 12:30 so I had set up a lunch with Kenneth, Stanica, Phillip, Tracy, Deb, Gabe, Brenda, Bob and his wife for 2:00 thinking that would get us all over to pictures at 3:30 in plenty of time (even though pics were REALLY scheduled for 4...something only the photographer, Emily and I knew...we figured by telling everyone a half hour early they would actually get there on time).

Here is where stuff started to go REALLY wrong. Apparently my hearing was bad because there is no way we could do the ballroom run at 12:30...they did not open for stuff until 2. But we worked out a magnificent and helpful back-up plan...we packed and loaded the car so after the wedding we could go straight to the hotel where we would take a shuttle to the airport and Natalie could take the car back to Emily's the next morning. (We later found out John drove it back...and LOVED the ride.) So it worked out but there were the least pleasant words there had ever been between Emily and I. I hope all our disagreements are so gentle and meaningless. Not that it was meaningless...more that it was not a serious disagreement, no feelings were hurt, there were no lasting effects. ***

Well, things went back to going very, very right. The lunch at Red Robins was fantastic, a really good time of visiting and getting closer to the Wisnieskis (Tracy's parents). They are really good people and we all mesh very well. Plus it was a good time to hang out with Deb & Gabe since they were here and to have as many siblings as possible together.

Pictures...well, as a general rule Emily is so awesome because it takes her 10 minutes to get ready for anything. Well, this time, everyone was ready for pictures by 3:30...except she and her companions. We did not get started with pics until about 4:30. But that was okay too. More hanging with the sibs time.

My Dad and John seemed to get along pretty well which was nice. i was nervous about it. John is super proud of being a psychiatrist and Dad has...well, a diametrically opposed view. It is not a huge secret I also have a not too high opinion of the effectiveness of that profession but I also (usually) work to avoid offending other people with my views. Dad USED to but as the diabetes and Arlenitis have progressed I worry. I wanted everyone to get along super well.

I should not have doubted. Dad has always been a master at putting people at ease, at getting along well with just about everything. It is one of his attributes I have always admired and striven to emulate but never been able to do.

So there was peace and harmony between the families and finally it was time for the wedding. It had been a long wait and hard to do it "right" but at last, the moment was here.

*** Lest you get the wrong impression...they were not mean or fighting, they were just, "Oh, I thought you meant thus and such." "Well no, I meant this." "Oh, that will be tough for me to do." "Fine, do whatever you need to do." "Hey, here is an alternate option." "oh, great idea! have fun with your family, see you at 3:30!"

So it was not really a fight, per se...just less pleasant than we are used to, although I am willing to bet it was still far more pleasant than the better conversations held by some spouses.