The French Bistro with the Class of 76

The group including spouses

Last night was another Class of 76 get together.  I think that everyone that was there had a great time.  Despite the fact that the restaurant we met in was not really prepared for us, it still was a nice evening.  We have to thank Cheryl for organizing these events, because if she didn’t, this would not be happening.  Sadly I had missed the Wine and Cheese party at Mel’s last month because I had suffered a TIA and was quite sick and could not attend.  It was really good to see everyone again and actually some new people.  For me, one of the exciting parts of the evening was when Darlene saw me and made a bee-line over to me and gave me just a huge hug.  You see, Darlene and I really grew up together in Spring City with our houses being very close to each other’s.  It was also exciting to see Barb Smith and to meet her husband.  Linda brought her husband, who was really a nice guy and then there was Denise.  

Both of these were prior to our really taking over the area

Eventually we got ourselves seated by adding an extra table with fabric table clothes.  The other tables were covered with paper, the kind you find in some Italian restaurants.  I was sitting next to Linda and no one on the left and then Darlene, Kathy, and Denise across from me.  Conversation was comfortable and easy, so it seemed.  I was lucky to sit with people I had not been around at the last one, so I got caught up with everyone.  Linda showed me her daughter’s cake business.  WOW is all I can say about her cakes.  These cakes were really amazing and of course they came at a price.  It looked like something you would see on Cake Wars.  Just amazing!!  Kathy showed me some pictures of her cat.  The fact that her cat was in a cupboard above the refrigerator was amazing.  I know cats are amazing, but that one was something else.  

I’d like to mention that there were others there as well including Len, Robin, Lou and his girl-friend, Barb’s husband, Cheryl’s significant other, Paul, Debbie, Mel, Tonya, and Brian.  I know there were probably others and I missed you, sorry I tried really hard to remember everyone.  

So service was really slow, because they were not really prepared for us and then the front of house was slammed as well.  Many of us did not get to eat until 9 PM.  I don’t know about my classmates, but eating that late is a recipe for a night without sleep.  I have to say though that the pulled pork sandwich I had was primo going down, coming back up on the way home was less than thrilling.  I did stop at Turkey Hill to get a coke, which helped tremendously though there was a good deal of belching going on in my car!!!  As we were patiently waiting, only known to a couple people,dear Linda decided to draw her food on the table cloth.  

Linda initially was sitting at a paper covered table, now she was sitting at a linen table cloth.  I believe it was Kathy who told Linda that the table cloth was linen.  I missed the facial expression Linda made when she realized she had defiled a table cloth!  This was hilarious! Poor Linda freaked out and immediately, virtually slammed the bread basket over top of the drawing so that the servers could not see it.  When Linda got her food, she intercepted her plate so the server would not see the drawing.  She stealthily moved the bread basket to slide the food plate over the drawing.  After she finished her meal, she placed napkins down on the drawing and put her food plate on top of that to make sure the server, again, would not catch the her art work on the table cloth!  Once the server took the plate away, Linda immediately placed the bread basket back on top of  her art work.  Fortunately, the pencil art work she did should wash out easily!  

In case you missed here is Linda's dinner.  Chicken leg, potato I think, vegetables and you can't see it put there is also a fork there too!   She was thinking of EVERYTHING!  BTW in case you don't know Linda's daughter's are artists - this gene must have come from their father don't you think??  LOL - sorry Linda!!

This was the real food that finally arrived for Linda to eat.  It was a pulled pork sandwich.  This is what I had and this is what caused the noises in my car on the way home.

This was after the food plate was removed and how Linda left her place at the table when she left!!  Boy will they be surprised when the strip the table to see Linda's drawings!!!

I was talking about some of the shenanigans Brian and I participated in when were in Junior High, just last week with a friend of mine.  My particular memory happened in Mrs. Galera’s Spanish class.  The class was on the top floor in a room that had a big wood door in the back to separate it into two small rooms.  For some reason, Mrs. Galera went out in the hall and we were able to lock her out of her room.  Brian and I snuck out the back between the wooden doors and then through the other class room’s door.  Both Brian and I high tailed it down to the cafeteria as it was our lunch time.  Rumor filtered down that Mrs. Galera was coming down to the cafeteria to let us have it.  I am pretty sure she knew Brian was in on it, but I don’t think she knew I was in on it.  When I saw her coming into the cafeteria, I went across the cafeteria to some friends and then hid under their table until she left.  Brian may have gotten detention, but I think he just apologized to her and all was forgiven.  It also sticks in my mind that Brian was somehow related to her as well.  It was ironic that Brian would show up for the dinner after I was just talking about him last week and had not talked about him in years.   He came over and sat next to me for a while and we had a chance to catch up.    

That is Brian talking to Mel.  Keith and Paul are having a conversation in the fore ground.

People slowly left as it appeared that many were having trouble pulling away from their old and new friends.  I have to say that I have never heard of any class any where doing something like this.  For me, as I am running into old classmates, it brings back the memories of time spent in Jr High and High School.  Many of us, by the time we were in high school, had moved into different groups of friends and started to move into the direction we planned to go once we graduated.  We have lived our lives, had our children and raised them, and now able to seek out former friends.  

This is Karen - our famous bus driver from the Class of 76!

Once again the Spring-Ford class of 76 had a successful evening at the French Bistro in Royersford.  

My Night and Morning with Mick and LU

I am such a bad father or it is really time for a queen size bed???  Last night Mickey seemed worried about the thunder storm, so against my better judgement, I permitted him to sleep in my bed. Once I jumped in bed and turned off the light, he moved from my feet to plant himself up against my side (were we spooning?  I have never spooned with a dog before).    It was not long after that LU jumped in bed and plastered herself on the opposite side of me. I was a Bill sandwich!  I might add here that LU likes to sleep long ways on the short side of the bed.  When I move over, she moves over.  This continues until I am on the edge of the bed, nearly on the floor!

 Suffice to say I was locked in place by my loving pets. No rolling or shifting for me last night. Needless to say it was not a very satisfying 6 hours of sleep. I awoke and really needed to shift positions despite the fact that my loving pets were still plastered against me. I moved in one direction and then in another and suddenly ........... I rolled Mick right off the bed and onto the floor!! I believe this scared the poop out of him (not literally) and of course me too. Still groggy, I jumped up and began my profusion of apologies directed at Mick for pushing him out of bed and onto the floor. I am certain he understood everything I was saying!   LU of course always  lands on her feet, so knocking her out of bed is less of a problem :-)

 My repayment for knocking Mick out of bed?  It seemed to be a very long walk this morning giving Mick the opportunity to mark an area of about a half mile.  Now this marking was in some cases real, but clearly by the end of the walk it was imaginary as his "tank" was clearly empty!   This has become one of his endearing little habits.

Lesson learned on this day ... time to put the bed on the floor ... time to get a queen size bed ... time to keep everyone out of the "pool" at night. 

Side note - the above was written in 2011 and it is now 2014.  The Queen size bed was purchased to allow all pets the opportunity to sleep in it without having the risk of being knocked onto the floor.  It was also purchased to give everybody room to enjoy the bed.  Mick, rarely sleeps in my bed anymore - only if he is not feeling well or he seems to need to be close that night.  LU throws an amazing amount of body heat off.  Even in the winter she throws enough heat off to give me a heat stroke.  I now keep her out of my room all night.   LU does on occasion jump into bed after I get up and walk Mick and then crawl back into bed.  This is because Mick sits on the 3rd or 4th step up to stand guard.  He frequently barks at intruders that only he sees.  I appreciate that he feels this need to protect me, but not so much at 6 AM.  I have to leave my bedroom door open so when he is done guard dog duty, he can come back into the bedroom.  This allows LU the chance to jump into bed with me.  LU has gotten good about not being to close to me in bed anymore, so the experience is more enjoyable.  She often stays on the bed for a while after I get up.

In the end, the one of us that learned the biggest lesson was: LU - she has learned that if you can control your owner, you can get whatever you want whenever you want it.  This includes but not limited to, pushing her owner out of bed whenever she wants.  LU is a smart pussy cat!