This weekend was one of the busier and scarier ones we've had in a while, and that's saying something considering how our lives run.

The two big items that had been on my plate recently can now be discussed in the open...sort of.
First, my Dad and I concocted, planned and pulled off a surprise 60th birthday / retirement party for my mom. I didn't think in a million years that we could do it, and we tried many times to screw it up and ruin it, but it went off more or less without a hitch. Also, my paternal grandfather and his wife were in town for my brother's high school graduation this past Friday. As you can see, we had many irons in the fire.

We had the event catered by La Frontera and had it at our house, and about 50 people ended up attending. My favorite part of the La Frontera thing is that there is leftover kickass food for about three more days of eating.

The "SURPRISE!!!" picture the wife took is perfect, even if it is a little far away. But even from that distance, you could still tell that the guest of honor's jaw was on the floor.

I was glad that so many of mom's friends could attend and everyone was complimentary and seemed to have a great time.

The whole event was on the brink of not happening Friday morning, however, when as I was talking to my Dad on the phone about final arrangements, Molly informed me that she was bleeding and thought something was wrong with the baby.

Automatic man-mode ensued, which entailed comforting her and assuring her (and myself) that everything would be okay. We pawned the urchin off on Heather at a moment's notice on a quite busy day for her as well, and she didn't flinch when I asked, which was greatly appreciated.

We got to the doctor's office per their advice, and we waited. Molly finally got an exam and then the Doctor started a sonogram. She tried for about five or ten minutes but could never hear anything, which she said in and of itself didn't mean anything. She also said that whenever they can't hear a heartbeat, they would do an ultrasound, even under normal circumstances.

At this point, I found myself saying things like "God I hope everything will be okay" and other things that sounded remarkably close to prayers, which most of you know simply isn't like me. I only did this a couple of times, but I felt a little better as we went.

We then waited in the ultrasound area for not one but two women to get them done, and by then I was started to panic a bit. We finally got in, the tech was great (we knew her from the last one) and after about 15 seconds or so of looking, she found a healthy, very active baby a little over 5 cm long waving, hiccupping and kicking along the very back of my wife's (get ready) uterus. It seems that it's tough to get sonograms at that point when the baby is so far toward the back.

What amazed me was that I was totally fine the whole way through getting to the doctor, them not finding anything initially and everything else, but I could not prevent the tears that came immediately after she said that everything looked normal and seemed fine.
It was at that moment that I realized how much my wife and unborn child meant to me, and that's saying something.

They told the wife to take it easy and not lift anything for a few days, and that was totally fine with me. She wasn't quite as understanding, but reluctantly agreed.

Later that day I caught myself saying "I pray the weather stays nice," and then I immediately caught myself and realized how selfish that was, considering the fact that I'd had two prayers answered that morning.

We then (unfortunately) had to inform my brother that we wouldn't be attending his graduation, which made me a little sad. I am very proud of him for accomplishing what he has so far, and I wish him great luck and success as he heads to Statesboro, Georgia to attend Georgia Southern.

Saturday brought way more work, many trips to Wallyworld, and finally the party. It was great, everyone had a good time and the guest of honor was thrilled.

I did have the unfortunate honor of having to go to work Saturday. At 8:45pm...during the surprise party that I was hosting...and while I was pretty drunk to boot. Luckily my friend Paul was there to drive me to work, wait around for an hour, and then drive me home. He would NOT, however, stop to let me get a beer for the ride home, the bastard.

When I got home, Cooley and Pete and Pat were there and it looked like phase two was about to begin.

That part cleared out by around 11pm or so, and after the wife went to bed, that left me, Cooley and my brother in law to fight over all the beer that was left, and we did our best to get rid of it all. I believe I ended up heading for bed around 2:30am, and in an effort to rewind the tape to watch The Winston (which is ludicrous considering my condition at that time) I rewound, hit record, changed the channel and went to sleep, so I had no race to watch yesterday and the only thing I've seen of one of my favorite races of the year is the 30 seconds they put on SportsCenter.

Damned beer.

Yesterday we also went to my Mother In Law's to plant stuff and cut up yard stuff and do general cleanup. (Yuck!!)

We passed on a trip to the lake to have the family over again for leftover Mexican food, a little pork tenderloin and to apparently laugh at my urchin. See, she went balls to the wall starting Thursday despite fighting a cold since earlier in the week. She was up in the middle of the night Wednesday and Thursday, got up early Thursday and Friday, we took a hot tub on friday night which should have helped but didn't, then Saturday was non-stop running around that culminated with three hours in our neighbor's new jumpin' thang.

She scuffed the back of her thigh falling off the porch, she got hit in the nose by something in the jumpin' thang, she scraped both hands when I knocked her over in the driveway, she skinned her knee TWICE that day, and then she blistered her foot in the jumpin' thang. She didn't go to bed until after nine on Saturday and was up early Sunday after a pacifier fell out of her crib.

She ran around at Mee-Mee's house for a couple of hours and ours when we got home. Then, at about 4:30pm, she crashed. Hard. She fell asleep on the floor in the den.

I picked her up for pictures with my dad and grandfather, which she never woke up for. I then put her on the sofa to continue her two hour nap.

Woke her up at 6:30ish, fed her rice, beans and pork meat, got her suit on, hit the hot pool (her words) again, then home, pj's, two stories and bed. I don't think I've ever EVER seen her so tired.

note: Babies / kids are beautiful when they are asleep.

The other amazing thing that happened this week (actually about three weeks ago) is that I was offered a professional writing job with Turner Sports writing for www.nascar.com!!

Whether or not anything ever comes of it is irrelevant. I got offered a professional writing gig. Not bad for a network administrator who majored in management and finance before not finishing college at Auburn.

This week is a big week since it's a long weekend and Sunday is the greatest racing day of the year. I am expecting company Sunday for the Euro Grand Prix, Indy and the Coke 600 which will entail cooking all sorts of things on the egg. Hopfully the weather will cooperate in all four cities that day.

More to come later in the week.