This is too good to not write...

Boo Ya! YAY SUMMER!

Last night we celebrated my dad's birthday at a little restaurant out in Wayzata called "Black Ford's". It was going to be me, my dad, and my mom until my mom called me at 4:30 saying that RSvP and Co were going to meet us at the restaurant as a surprise. Now some of y'all know that it took an act of Goddess to finally settle on where we were gonna eat (With dad perpetually pawning off the planning on P the lesser.) but we chose the aforementioned cafe. So, I call Ro and Co to confirm a 7:00pm meeting.

I show up, gussied for a Wayzata dinner. Mom and Dad are appropriately gussied as well. When dad "pops" open the back of the Explorer showing two dirty old lawn mowers he had brought home to fix.

"Mikey, gimme a hand here and help me get these out of the back of the car."
"Dad...they're kinda dirty and we're kinda dressed up"
"Gawdammit Mikey, throw on some gloves and help me out here"

So we frassed on getting them out, Dad providing me instructions on actually lifting: "Dad, for fucks sakes I don't need a tutorial in manual labor now this'll go faster if you use your breath for breathin' and not bitchin'!".

Already...Happy B'day, Mr. P

So this restaurant closes at 8:30. By the time I got to their place, mower-frassed, spot cleaned the grease/dirt from my clothes (Dad didn't bother. He's all man.) we were heading out at 6:59.
I get a call from Ro saying "Where R U & how long?". BTW- The vibrating buzz of my cell phone freaked my mom out. She thought there was a bee in the car.

Now, they technically only live 10 minutes away from this place. Dad, however did 2 Dad things which are par for the course.

1) He hates stop lights. He'll make a big circle just to ensure he doesn't have to wait behind the rabble. This has been playfully called "The scenic route", or "Pat, I'm gonna show Mikey some of them houses we drove past when we took Rocky to the park"

2) He was flipping through his coupon guide (While driving) when he came across 5 other restaurants that he thought were a hot ticket (Including Pannekoeken Huis) "Hey, we're right down the street from the Istanbul Cafe'!!! Mikey you like ethnic food!" Fearing we'd never make it, from the backseat I snatched the guide out of his hands and said "Dad, I think Honky Chevy's (mom: "Mikey LANGUAGE!") sounds like a hot ticket. And besides, this place closes at 8:30 so maybe we wanna just check it out quick to decide" (Subtly trying to get him to the restaurant and to the waiting Ro and Co.)

"GAWDAMMIT Mikey, you are being a real pain in the a$$ tonight!"
"Look dad, it's your Gawdamn Birthday (MIKEY, LANGUAGE!) if you wanna go to the frassin' McDonalds I could give a s#it. I'm hungry, frassy (What?), and I just wanna sit down at this place to celebrate your gawdamn 46th birthday"

Silence. 'til dad says:
"Denny Berry has a studio in this mall up here"
"Really? How's Whitney doing?"

And yes...he was surprised as hell when we got in there. And I got an apologetic hug before dinner. We did the P thing, and all noshed off of each others plates (Walleye sandwich, Sicillian Enchilada, Reuben, Spinach Ravioli, and a Raspberry Chicken Salad...just guess what I had) before heading back to mom and dad's for some wine, cake, and a recitive of the newest comedy show that Mom/Pop P discovered: "Man Bites Dog". Seriously. They did an entire episode. And you think I'm bad?

Love you guys! Happy Summer! Happy Wednesday! Happy birthday! My 1/2 Birthday is days away! Gifts can be in the form of pretty perrenials! (I keed, I keed)