Squeezing Every Drop of May

It was a busy month leading up to Wedding Day, so I will hit the small stuff first, then the more detailed stories.   So we saw US representative Gary Palmer at Superchix and he spoke with Ruby for a while, afterwards she asked "ok dad, who was that guy?"...Eli graduated from High School...Davis finally got to watch Hail Mary at the movie theater with Magan...After a visit to Tractor Supply, Ruby is excited to grow tomatoes and strawberries this summer.   So far she had eaten one of her strawberries, and the first tomato is pretty close to being ready...Davis moved back home after cleaning out the dorm room...A random day to clean off the back porch...All of us going to Alabaster to watch Michael...Small Group at Ginger Street's house...Marcia Birthday Day "freebies"...Belle inducted into the National Honor Society...Stamp collecting with Ms. Lisa...and last of all, a slow transition to Gilmore Girl evenings in my outnumbered female household.   

One night playing pickleball, I learned that I had failed once again as a father.   I was there with Ruby, Belle, and Davis, and we were hitting it around, and they (usually not me) kept messing up the volley.   So I told them we would play HORSE, with whoever messed up the volley getting a letter, and when they got the E, they had to drop out of the game until we had a winner.   The game began fairly evenly, as I think all had an H, before Ruby finally got to an O.   After a few more volleys, Ruby missed one again into the net, and said ok, I have an A.   We all laughed and picked on Ruby because she had miss spelled HORSE, but she looked confused and said, "No, it is spelled HOARSE", thinking that this game was played to spell out when you can't speak because of a rough scratchy voice.   Hahaha, I guess the basketball goal has been gone since she was pretty young, and poor girl has never played the classic basketball game.   

On the Sam and Noel move to Prattville day, they already had a full work crew, so we were able to stay at home, at least until we learned that they did not have room for the couch, and asked if we could bring it down.   I assumed that someone would have a truck we could borrow, so quickly found that Jonathan Bailey was willing to let us borrow his.   But that morning looked to be full of rain, and we slept in thinking it would be a full rainy day.   But at about 9:15AM, the day looked perfect for moving a couch to Prattville, so I woke Davis up, and we made our way first to Jonathans for the truck, then over to the Gray's to pick up the couch they were giving to Sam and Noel.   Loading the couch was no problem, but wrapping the couch with a tarp was a little tricky.   Davis is a wizard with the ratchet straps, while I just randomly hooked up some bungee cables.   And finally we were off towards Prattville around 11AM.

Then on Hwy 43, we quickly realized how poorly we wrapped the couch, when the tarp flew up in the air off the couch, and began flapping behind the truck like we were Super Tacoma.   I pulled into the next subdivision and we stopped in a Cul-de-sac and decided to redo the full strapdown, this time with the ratchet straps on top of the tarp.   And fortunately, all held much better when we were back on 43, Davis and I were just hoping for clear weather, as we noticed that the tarp was a little dated, and may have a few holes in it.   But we stayed on backroads all the way to Clanton, where we finally turned onto the interstate...directly into both an immediate traffic jam, and a sudden heavy rainstorm.   But nothing we could do at this point, but sit in line with everyone and hope the tarp did its job.   The rain ended after about 5 minutes, and our continued trip down the Interstate seemed to blow off any of the remaining water.   

Arriving in Prattville after the others had gone out for lunch, Sam and Noel sent us a picture of where to place the couch.   And in their cute first apartment, it was really the ONLY place that you could even put a couch.   We got all the pillows on it, and planned to head to Prattville where Sam was finishing lunch to say Hi, and then Davis and I had plans for lunch at Peach Park.   Sam called and said that if we wanted, they were going to Peach Park for ice cream.   "I guess so" we said, realizing that this was our plan all along.   So in the end, we got a fun visit with Sam and Noel.   We got to enjoy some BBQ, ice cream, and fried pies.   Oh, and the couch was fine.   Completely dry.   Truck returned, and Davis and I were back at the house by 4PM.   It was a fun day.   

So this month has been heavy on Monopoly Deal again, but Sequence has been moving back into the leader board as a fun game after dinner.   It is pretty well known by know that both Ruby and I will look at your cards if there is even the slightest turn towards our eyes.   We may also stare at your cards when we get the opportunity, and base our play on those cards, which is interpreted by Magan as cheating, but we think it is more just strategic planning.   We also tend to share information on the board, which again, Magan claims is cheating, but we believe more to be strategic planning.   Well on one game, I was strategically sharing with Ruby (my teammate) that one play was not required as Magan and Belle already had a sequence there.   But Ruby saw this as reverse psychology in that I was telling her she should play there, and she ended up using a red jack to play as a block.   Magan and Belle thought this was really funny as our "strategic planning" had backfired.   Then later in the same game, Belle played out of order and showed us the card she was about to play.   Me and Ruby see all of this misplays as opportunities to help our cause.   So Ruby laughed and made a play to block where Belle was about to go.   Ruby did not realize tho, that in that block, she also had unknowingly made a sequence and won the game for us.   

Making Anabelle a little upset while she was away at the cave, Magan took Ruby and Oliva to "The Devil wears Prada 2" at the theater.   But Magan said they were a little sad when they walked into the their movie and a group of guys had taken their seats.   So they had to move up to almost the top seats.   Ruby said "We should kick them out of our seats", but Magan said it was a group of big guys, and she did not feel like starting anything.   She was also wondering why this group of guys was here to watch the Prada movie.   Then the lights went down, and "Beat It" started playing...then a pair of classic dancing feet started moving on the screen, and they realized their error immediately...WRONG movie...We are in the "Michael" theater.   So they grabbed all their blankets, and ran barefoot (theater floors...yuck!) over to where Prada was about to begin.   

And last month, Davis learned that he was awarded another scholarship at UA that could be used for his last 3 years.   This month, he learned that one of the Coca-Cola sweepstakes that he entered on Instagram won him a Powerade cooler.   Davis ran through the house proudly showing off his new cooler.   Then towards the end of the month, he was surprised once again, when Coca-Cola sent him notification that he had to sign an avadavat because he won the Grand Prize in that same Coca-Cola prize.   Would you believe he won $1000?   I am seriously thinking of taking him to Tunica to see if we need to move on toward Vegas.   Where is that $1000 going?   He already had a plan...a subwoofer in his car was the bulk of it, then the remainder would go towards his summer Honduras trip.   A subwoofer has never been in my plans, but for him, it is the perfect thing for his prize earnings.   I guess we will have more on the subwoofer in June.