Beccano Birthday Bonanza, New Roommate

Everyone Being Themselves
Originally uploaded by sunasak.

So, Tuesday is Beccano's 14th birthday, but last night was his final night here until some time in July, so we celebrated then. We had the generous offer of a family dinner from Jeff, to thank us all for being patient while he found new accomodations and to celebrate the smooth transition (we are all SO very proud of ourselves). Of course, um, we wish he actually had ALL of his stuff out...but that will come.

The photo is my favorite of the bunch we took (go to my Flickr pages under "holidays" for more). It's all the men who have been sharing my life this year, each doing what they do. Jeff is being funny with Beccano's bokken present (there's a photo of him mock attacking the boy, too), Beccano is doing his Stephen Colbert imitation that Tuba Boy is his Emo Friend. Lee is "hiding behind a tree" (from the first photo I ever showed the kids of Lee, one from work where all the team was there, but Lee was behind a tree). Tuba Boy is wearing that new iPod I got him and that green hat he now loves so much, with his band t-shirt. They are all adoring the amp Jeff got Beccano for his birthday (they'll all end up using it). That was nice, since Jeff took all the amps. Lee has guitars, but no amp.

I got Beccano a ninja costume, of all things, because he WANTED one. It's very high quality for the price, I have to say. One for taking ninjitsu classes. Lee got him a really nice flat-screen monitor that Jeff found on sale at Fry's for us. That will make the office cooler--we'll only have one CRT left! Tuba Boy got him a bunch of his fave candies and picked out great cards.

We had a nice dinner at Red Robin, where we met a waiter who is also a drum corp consultant, then had ice cream cake at home. It was a great evening, and the boy was happy.

Today, sniff, we sent them off to Ireland, where they'll see all their aunts, uncles and cousins as they celebrate EXH's mother's 80th birthday. I sent my wishes. We will both miss them. Lee and I have so much fun with the kids! In case you forget my life story, they usually spend all of July with their dad. This year it's early because of the special event. I'll meet up with Beccano in NC at the end of June (and Lee too!) to spend time with my dad at last. Tuba Boy, in the meantime, will spend three weeks at his expensive debate camp in Dallas.

But...we have New Roommate

So, it's like we have a kid, only an older one with a job and a boyfriend. And pink hair. Yes, Tina AKA Chemical Pink (I will NOT call her "RM2") is with us for a couple of weeks, though she will be out for many of those days at her anime convention. Seems she was asked to vacate her previous living quarters, where she was because she was asked to vacate the one before that when she started seeing a new guy. And hey, we didn't want to let the guest bed be empty more than a couple of days, now did we?

Really, she was not living in a very fun situation (living room full of noisy pets, on air mattress on the floor). At least she has a real bed and her own bath (mostly de-scummed and de-baby powdered). We'll probably hardly see her, since we work days and she works mostly evenings at the video store. I could not let anyone who calls me "motherly" have to live under an underpass with her pet cactuses and balls of yarn!

So, we aren't quite empty nesters yet!