Miller Time

The only thing worse than being the non-custodial parent is being the non-custodial parent of really active teens. So for the second visitation weekend in a row the older kids have commitmements elsewhere and I only get the youngest third of my offspring. And because of my Saturday tax class I don't even get her the full time. But so far it has been a good visit.

I picked her up after work, we did a little shopping, and then headed out to my folks for pizza and salad and general fun with...well, might as well give the entire cast of characters for tonight: the aforementioned seven-year-old daughter, Southern Man's sister and her adopted child (who is one of my daugher's favorite playmates), another nephew (the youngest son of Southern Man's brother), and Southern Man's parents. After the meal we headed out to the local high school football statium (the alma mater of Southern Man and his siblings) for the game, mainly because yet another nephew is first trumpet in the high school marching band and would be featured in the first portion of the half-time show.

You've never seen a crowd like that in your life. The home team (named the "Millers" after the once-famous flour mills that still stand in the center of town) was heavily favored to have their butts handed to them by the opposing team, but the home-team stands were absolutely packed. It was some kind of featured "game of the week" and one of the local UHF stations was broadcasting the game live (which we of course recorded back home). But a more likely reason for the crowd was that the other part of the half-time show was provided by about three hundred cute little elementary-school-aged girls who had just finished some kind of cheerleading camp. Each one probably had mom and dad and brother and sister and grandma and grandpa and God knows who else in the stands, where it was definitely standing room as half-time approached.

Anyway, the marching band was great. My nephew played a couple of nice solos. Then we walked around to where my brother was working the concession stand and pestered him for a while. We had a great talk, then gathered up the clan and headed back to my folks only to discover that the station went to either commercial or a sideline interview during both of my nephew's solos and they didn't make the broadcast. I left my daugher there to spend the night with her grandparents and headed back to Casa Southern Man to do my tax homework for tomorrow morning. Exposure to the consession stand had left me with certain cravings, so said homework was done with the aid of a big bowl of popcorn and a beer - and of course it was a Miller. That is definitely the best way to deal with taxes.

Tomorrow after class the plan is to head to the State Fair. Stay tuned for tomorrow's update...