Last night Allison and I along with Neil and Andrea went to Derek and Michelle’s house to have a night where the couples could get together because we hadn’t seen each other since February and that was before we knew that Michelle was pregnant. So we got to see the mom to be and be excited for them. And we are very excited to have a baby on the way among our friends here near us.
So we arrived with a garden salad and the Sparks famous pasta salad. Pasta with a bottle of Catalina dressing (One bottle per lb of pasta) and cut peppers and sometimes onions or whatever veggies make you happy at the moment. Derek and Michelle had an assortment of Omaha Steaks treats like Burgers, Hot Dogs (Gourmet Franks) and Brats. Neil and Andrea brought a fantastic spread of sundae fixin's. They brought not only Edy’s Vanilla Ice Cream but Edy’s French Vanilla as well. So I’m not sure if we ever were able to discern whether or not there was much of a difference in the tastes of the two. Andrea even made homemade chocolate sauce and caramel (deadly caramel).
So the guys went out to the garage and we all contributed to the cooking of the meal. Derek adjusted the heat to perfect cooking temp, Neil and I ran back and forth to the house for additional items. There was only one casualty (A rogue Hot Dog leaped off the grill to the floor, and it was a damn shame because as I learned later they were the best Hot Dogs I ever had.)
Then we had dinner and talked about old times, (And we never do that.) Then we debated about what movie to watch and eventually we let that conversation die and then had the Sundaes. Andrea and Neil brought the two ice cream flavors (Vanilla Bean and French Vanilla to see if there was a difference we could taste, I don’t think anyone could.) and so many great fixin's. The idea was to make a few mini sundaes. Andrea brought miniature brownies that were to be used as the bases for the sundaes. A miniature ice cream scoop to choose either French or Bean Vanilla. That was a great idea. You got to have little tastes of all the toppings on multiple mini sundaes. There were peanuts, pretzel pieces, sprinkles, Oreo cookie pieces, chocolate sauce, caramel, fluff, mini M&M’s, and whipped cream (I’m sure I missed something, here was such an abundance of choices.)
We ate our Sundaes and then talked about watching a movie again. We debated about the final picture on this page about whether or not the guy on the right side was me or not. Turns out that the more we looked at it we realized that it was me. I saw this picture at New Year’s and figured that it was not me, and was adamant about it. But turns out that it was me, It looks nothing like me now, I had really short hair and a full styled beard and bigger glasses, but I was there with the guys at Grumpy’s for karaoke that night. And I used to have the watch and I sit with my hands like that in pictures. But look at how wide across I am. I can’t remember being that wide across. Anyway In the picture there is Neil, Bill, Jeff, Derek, Mike and Me. We also discovered last night that the short Neil was wearing in the picture is the exact same one he was wearing last night. That is 10 years. He keeps his clothes in very good condition. So I scanned the picture in so I could post it today per Derek's request. The man has a memory you would not believe.
The guys went to the den and watched this clip from Robot chicken. Then we went and tried to figure out what movie to watch. The wives were talking in the kitchen so we put in Death Race 2000. This is a Roger Corman classic and "The Greatest Movie Ever" (according to Derek).
The premise of the movie is a satire on the world and love for violence. A world that tunes in to watch a cross-country road race where the drivers score points by mowing down pedestrians. The movie stars David Carradine, and Sylvester Stallone at is unintelligible best. It also had Martin Kove. Who is that you may ask. He was John Kreese from the Karate Kid. The characters are totally clichéd like Matilda the Hun, Frankenstein and Nero the Hero. The cars are souped up corvettes and other fast cars but are painted garish colors and have spikes and giant knives on the front of them. Stallone's car even has some Tommy guns but they are never used. The racers have to actually mow someone down to score points. All through the movie there are these people from a resistance to the dictatorship type government and the sanctioning of this race, they attempt to kill the drivers to put a stop to the race. This movie was basically a Mystery Science 3000 candidate. But it wasn't too bad. And IMBD still shows a 2008 movie called Death Race 3000.
There were however two nude scenes in the whole movie, two interspersed between that "awesome" driving action. Guess when the wives decided to come ask us questions? Yep at the exact moments. First was Michelle and the second time Andrea came in to see how much longer the movie was going to be. We figured that if there was another scene that it would be Allison's turn to come in to ask us something. It is like they had a sixth sense or something. The same thing happened to me in junior high when I was watching 18 Again at my friend Jonathan’s house. His dad came down at the one scene where the main character (George burns in Charlie Schlatter’s body) is taking an art class and they are doing nudes. It was a 30 second scene and the only one in the whole movie but Jonathan’s dad came down at that moment and saw the screen and took the movie away from us. Sixth Sense I tell you.
So we finished watching the movie and then it was time to get home. We had a great time talking and laughing and sharing a great meal. Good times, good times. Here are some pictures from the night. You can click on them (except for the last 2) to see a bigger picture.
