So Thursday, I had to hustle out of work to drive the dog across town and drop him off at his dog jail. We still go to the same dog jail in Lakeview as when we first moved here because it’s cheap and dependable and beats the hassle of having to find him a new place somewhere closer. I get home and negotiate packing with Bethie, trying to economize the amount of stuff we bring.

Friday morning, we take the bus to the train to the plane. We were flying out of Midway, which is pretty convenient, save for one excrutiating detail - the outright lack of Starbucks. I’m not trying to promote for Starbucks, but in an airport setting, you can always count on their consistency compared to some of these other more “fly by night” (pardon the pun) coffee operations. Actually, we didn’t need the caffeine because we both slept on the plane. Upon arriving in KC we DID go to the Starbucks, but Bethie poured a ton of sugar in my pre-sweetened drink and so I had that to deal with.

My parents picked us up along with my sister who got there at the same time. We went to a big ol’ Missourah fireworks combo liquor store. They had some great old-timey looking bottles of $7 bourbon, like “Cabin Still” and “Old Grand-Dad” but I obstained. I spent $40 in the fireworks tent and Bethie, as per usual, thought I was crazy for blowing up that much money.

We stopped in Lawrence for lunch, and I found the food at Free State to be better than usual. The beer is always good, but the food can be hit or miss. Bethie has decided she’s a KU fan now, so we went up the Union on campus to do some T-shirt shopping. The less-refined K-State-supporting side of my family had to grit their teeth as we walked up that big hill.

We got to Junction City, and had to get Bethie right to that pool. We had some beer and I alternated between reading old issues of the New Yorker and People magazines. For dinner, my parents boiled up some crab legs. Good as usual. We spent the rest of the evening doing some fireworks and planning out how we could get rid of 200 or so sparklers that we had left over from the wedding.

Saturday was the big parade day, and Bethie and I were planning to go visit my grandma. We walked downtown, got some coffee and went to the Senior’s Apartments. Had a nice visit, then walked home, just missing the parade. Apparently, they changed the rules of the parade this year and nobody could throw candy from their float. I was imagining this a pretty politically-conflicting decision. On the one hand, free candy… on the other hand, a kid could get run over. I don’t know what side I’d fall on.

Bethie and I go back to the pool. The sky was going to fall soon, so we needed to do as much swimming as we could get in. After the pool, we go down to the park for about 20 minutes. Bethie reckoned that was the perfect amount of time. I reckon I could have spent a little more time, but it started raining so we went home. We played dominoes for a while, listening to Stevie Wonder. For whatever reason, we were waiting until super-late at night to eat ribs and shoot more fireworks. The ribs were great, but we didn’t eat until 10:30.

Sunday was the big party, but it was a total rain-out. Everybody stayed inside and ate. Nick, Kayley, BJ, Kelly and Chris came over and we proceeded to drink it up. Did wind up going swimming despite the pouring rain. Got pretty drunk.

Nick gifted us a .380 to celebrate the supreme court overturning our Chicago handgun ban. We all sat at a picnic table looking at this gun. Bethie would freak out whenever anyone would touch it; which was pretty funny because she’s actually said more than once that we should get a gun. Nick was real excited, telling us how it was the perfect condo gun. I thought it looked more like the perfect “in my parent’s basement” gun, which is where it is now. Hopefully, next time we’re in Kansas, we can shoot some cans or something. I bet Bethie throws up.

So then, we got my mom to drive us over by Jake’s parents house to see him and Kristin and Ben. Jake had made some fantastic beer. Even in my heightened drunken state I could tell it was really good.

We got back to my parents around 11 and ate leftovers, whilst everyone was in the driveway doing even more fireworks. My mom was talking a bunch of stuff about “sparkler bombs” and how dangerous and stupid they were. So, I went ahead and conducted a little social experiment, wherein, I made one and handed it to my mom, then went back inside for five minutes. As I had hypothesized what would happen, despite my mom’s initial protestations that it was dangerous and stupid, I went back outside in time to see three of them running across the street to light it. Point Proved. Despite how dangerous and stupid something is, the curiosity to see what might happen will overwhelm common sense! My construction was a little off, so it wasn’t as impressive as the ones we had made in high school, but it was still a rewarding process.

On Monday, Kelsey and I went with grandma to visit grandpa. Then, Bethie and I left for Kansas City, stopping at the mall so that I could buy this video game she’s been wanting me to get. We got back to the CHI, I went across town to pick up the dog, and shop in a practically deserted grocery store and then the weekend was ovah.