Father's Day Meanderings

A great weekend is in the books. Father's day is a day without kids for me, which is perhaps backwards in the scheme of things, but the way it works when divorce is part of the equation. The boys joined us for church and a great sermon on the role of women in Christianity as the pastor continues to debunk the myths and half truths portrayed in the DaVinci Code. The book, by the way, is a world-wide phenomenon which shows how far this world has come from a world of intellect and common sense to a world basically run by celebrity and cattle drive mentality. I've heard that many of the DaVinci Code movie goers have been heard "mooing" as they stand in line to get in to see one of the world's great farces played out. Dan Brown has reached the pinnacle of celebrity, but likely will face his eternity in a hot dungeon if he believes half of the nonsense that he writes. As to his premise that the early church was a religion that believed that God was a woman. Frankly, the Old Testament does not give God a gender. The only time that God receives a gender is after Christ is born and he refers to himself as the Father and Christ as his son. As to the notion that Mary Magdalene was Christ's wife, look at the Bible. The disciples were perplexed as to why Jesus was so affectionate with Mary Magdalene. If indeed, he was married to her, would the disciples wonder why Jesus and Mary were so close? No. It is again a myth that Brown has thrown onto the guileless public, whose brains have turned to mush in this celebrity driven world. Father's Day is to me a time to thank my earthly father for the guidance and love and support that he has always shown me, but more so to celebrate the fact that God accepted me into his family through the death and life of Jesus Christ. Praise God.

The boys did head over to their Dad's house after church and Darla and I packed up and headed to the Lake. We did NOT bring the jet ski, but simply spent a relaxing afternoon on the beach with a good book, some drinks and a Subway sandwich lunch. The lake continues to be full and there is only a small strip of beach. We were bombarded by frisbees and footballs and even the volleyball from a game going on down the beach. The weekend saw temperatures in the mid and upper-nineties and Summer is in full throttle although it doesn't officially start for two more days.

I went out to the Thunder Valley casino on Saturday night for Anthony's bachelor party. Anthony was my assistant until I promoted him to an underwriter position last Spring. I have pictures of he and his betrothed, Erin, on the blog a few weeks ago. His brother set up a golf day followed by dinner at Austin's steakhouse in the casino and then a round of gambling. I had a qualifier tournament at my club on Saturday (I shot 84, ho hum) so begged out of the golf, but told them that I'd meet them at the casino for dinner. Austins' was awesome and I had their signature prime rib dinner which is a 26 oz prime rib, bone in, with a thickness of about three inches. It was huge and delicious and Buddy certainly enjoyed the leftovers as I had the bone and about 8 ounces of meat left for him to gnaw on. The restaurant is very nice and I'd like to take Darla there soon. I know that we can share a Prime Rib or one of their Filet Mignons as the portions are enormous. It cost $270 for five of us. There were ten at the casino, but half of the guys kept gambling and wouldn't join us for dinner. Perhaps they were confuased on the concept of a bachelor party. These guys are all in their mid to late twenties and the concept of "me first" apparently rules their lives. Anthony wanted to get the group together to play blackjack after dinner, but I begged off as the tables are all minimum $25 at Thunder Valley and you pay for the cocktails on top of that. My gambling chit was about $100 and I didn't want to spend it all on four hands of blackjack. I played nickle slots and got hammered pretty good by the casino, but finally hit four aces with a three on a double-double poker machine for a $100 payout on a 25 cent bet and walked away. I was able to pay for dinner and bring home about $60 of my $100 stake. I left the gang about 11:15 and headed home as Darla and the boys were back from Almanor.

Darla and the boys had a cabin up at Almanor for Friday night and stayed over Saturday and wake boarded off of Earl's boat. I had my golf tournament and Anthony's bachelor party and stayed home to attend to those things. The weather was finally great at Almanor and they had a really good time. We have a reservation at Almanor over the July 4th holiday and will spend five days at the resort. We'll bring the jet ski and camp out for the long weekend. I have both July 3rd and 4th off and we'll stay over until July 4th. David may have to drive up himself and come back himself as he has to work on July 3rd. I may even bring my golf clubs and play golf on July 3rd. I will have to miss the Firecracker tournament on July 1st. In fact I'm missing two tournaments this weekend for the wedding. Who says that golf rules my life? We will not have a cabin over July 4th and will be dirt camping. I will survice that, but I can't say that I'm excited about the prospect of slumming it for a weekend. I think we evolved to building houses and having indoor plumbing for a reason.

Jennifer has started a new blog and I have the link at the bottom of this page. My blog is about the comings and goings of a middle class family in suburbia. Hers is the adventures of a generation X'R living the dream in the middle east. Her story of the climb of the mountain in Korea is good reading. Way to go, Jenn. You make your old man proud. Jennifer, by the way, bought me an eclectic group of gifts for Father's Day including a travel alarm clock/flashlight which is about the size and shape of a cigar cylinder. She also got me a chiller, which is a device that you hook up to the USB port of a computer and it keeps cans chilled to 45 degrees (cokes, etc.). The piece de resistance was a basket of home made root beer and snacks. I have waited to try the root beer as I wanted to get a half gallon of vanilla bean ice cream and make a root beer float. Thank you, Jenn.

Darla and the boys also bought me a set of golf shorts and shirts by Izod. Izod has the best golf shorts around with knitted stretch waist band and large pockets for tees, etc. It was a nice celebration for sure.

Well it is time to do payroll and I have to get at it. I hope you all have a great week and take the DaVinci Code for what it is, a piece of fiction and not a code of ethics. Ciao.