The Social Life

Some weekends we book ourselves to the limit with social engagements.   This coming weekend contains like 30% of all birthdays in the world, including Jesus'  (well, the second time anyway).   This past weekend our engagements were concentrated on Saturday; so let's examine in detail a day in the life of two glitzy 20-something white educated well-dressed nouveaux riche Grand Rapids socialists socialites. Just a heads up, this is going to be one of those really long posts that is mostly pictures.  Glad we got that straight.

If you don't recall, Cassie has a FIANCEE named Curtis!  We took them out to San Chez for brunch.

Yes, we all like him. In fact he's so cool he makes me want to snitch.  Not on you though, I swear.

This brunch is missing a tiara! I think it's because we've yet to find one pretty enough to even consider placing on the bride's head.

After San Chez we walked to the Grand Rapids Art Museum, where we met my parents for a quick walk-through of the Andy Warhol exhibit that's in town.

There was no photography allowed in the exhibit, or else this post would probably be about 50 pages of endless photos of pop-art. In the end, I just took a photo when Jason met us there too.

On the way back from the museum we got to take a warm, sunny stroll through Monroe Center.

Jason went back with us to our apartment, where Erin prepped some absolutely fabulous redskin mashed potatoes. There was garlic, and cream, and paprika, and I don't know what else but they were good. 

This went well with the baked Tilapia at Kirk and Michelle's place. I'm going to put my arms out to indicate how much I love fish. Imagine they're fully extended. That much.

Dinner there always includes good conversation and ample quantities of wine. I wonder if those two are related in any way. Ha.

Kirk is very thoughtful. His thoughts, let me show you them:

Oh, there's some of the wine I was telling you about. Funny, it was right in front of me.

It was my turn to be the DD though, so Erin got to kick back and enjoy her improbably sweet Moscato. 

For an appetizer we had boiled artichokes. I never knew they had such a pretty heart, though it is lined with spikes. There's some metaphor in that isn't there? 

Nina is one of the most adorable animals on the planet. Except for her uncanny knack for finding male genitalia with her teeth; not so adorable, that.

Jason met Kirk and Michelle briefly at our wedding, and also went to a New Year's Eve bash they hosted this year. This is the first time he met the kids, though.

After dinner we stumbled over to the living room for some low-cost Pictionary. It was guys versus girls. Yeah we did win, how did you guess?

I'm not sure what this is a depiction of, but it's cool.

Kirk really has a massive frame. He's taller than me, ripped, and has shoulders like comic-book superman. 

But as it turns out, there are some controversial opinions about him in the Dewinter household. Here Caden visually depicts the word "drunk":

I think maybe Nina's the one with the problem though. When you resort to groveling for your wine maybe it's time to pay Betty Ford a visit.

After Pictionary, Caden showed off his Guitar Hero skillz to me and Jason. Then he let me try, just so I know how much better he is.

The girls went off and talked about some fashion type stuff. I don't know, girly things, I guess. Gentry made these adorable little craft animals though that I suspect there is a market out there for. She's quite the designer!

We ended the night with a viewing of Across the Universe. The writers took almost every great Beatles song and used the lyrics to reverse-engineer a surprisingly coherent narrative of love and friendship in the 60's. They also did some interesting arrangements of the songs themselves, which was refreshing. I would suggest it, especially if you're a Beatles fan.

Then we drove home.