here are terrible versions of all the great photos

I don't even know what happened to the whole first day, I had photos that I swore were uploading on the fast computer at work, but now that I'm home (Thursday night) it just starts right in the middle!

Much like this blog post just did. Oh, hi.

It's okay, we don't have to be organized, right? The main point of this post is not to belabor the fact that I am a terrible photographer, it's not aBOUT me for once. This is about my mom, and her magnificent birthday! Ellie will surely continue to regale you with perfectly framed captures of the most special moments, but I'm here to keep it real, man. These are the moments no one even knew they wanted to see until they were forced to endure them on a jetlagged Friday blog dump. It's okay, I got you.

We arrived at the buttcrack of Saturday's dawn, and went directly to sleep in all of mom's beds. I could have slept all day, but the moment I was even slightly roused by the tossing bobcat in bed with me, I remembered that MOM was out there in her house, and I was going to be damned if I stayed out of her arms even one more moment. We had a nice little visit, just the two of us, keeping an eye on the timetables and the time until our beloved rif raf began to appear.

We headed up to the clubhouse late afternoon, I think. Look, it was still daylight:

crazy people in the pool

normal people in the doors

Dowd drop-in

I have about 700 photos of Julie and her kids. Guess how many photos I have of me and my kids? That's right, Zero.

Exactly the Youngsters

Oh, here's a really good one:

sigh

Is Colleen giving me the finger? Rude. 

Assbags

What follows can only be described as.... indescribable. Julie went into the closet for some reason, and she came out like this:

While everyone else went like this

then since she couldn't beat them,

Mom joined them. She told us all to get out.

So off we went! To Milford

 Metro North, 11 pm (ish)

Metro North, 11 am (ish)

What a difference a day makes. Here's me with my secret service agent

When we got back to Southport, it was fall!

And things started getting really exciting!

Whenever we didn't know what to do, we went to the driveway

Our ride to Norwalk... MB was laying low atop the laps like a common criminal, but just look at her angelic reflection!

Then it was party time! Imagine all those pretty photos Ellie showed you from outside in the sparkly sunlight.

That's the end of the party shots. I think I really captured it, don't you?

Fear not, there was an afterparty! With live music and dancing and a private room and everything.

See?

The next morning, we got packed up for final day's adventures. Look how much stuff Schlekina brought for the one night:

No really, look:

Mom had a really special dessert for her big day

Then we tried to leave again, but Bill decided to git down a little

I'm going to save the rest, you guys. I'm worried about doling out this level of awesomeness all in one serving. We had a really great last day, too, and a million laughs and memories that I don't need photos to chronicle. I want to get it all done for prosperity, and I will. But for now I'm just going to start and stop right in the middle.

Love,
Uncle Merv