The weather was just a little nicer than what it has been. Gloomy and around 40 degrees. Roommate Steve and I took the dogs to Washington Park today. Of course you’ll recognize Buddy & Clancy; the other dog is Steve’s gf’s dog Sadie. She’s a super hyper dog and snorts when she gets excited.

By the end of the week, the intertubes is going to be so tired of wedding pictures.

Sterno, Benny, Roommate Steve, Shoo, TheEd

Benny was the life of the party. He feared nothing. He talked to everyone. I think he even made some money off the dollar dance.

Christy, Jen

I had never met Christy before the wedding. At the rehearsal dinner I offered to buy her two beers, she immediately proclaimed that she gave her approval of me and I could marry GTG. She drives a hard bargain.

Just a bunch of fudge packers.

A 130 pieces of individually wrapped fudge did not make it out to the wedding till it was too late. Sterno did not want to pack the fudge.

Dad & Mom

My mom was upset that there wasn’t a Mother-Groom dance. I made it up to her by dancing with her to Soulja Boy’s Superman song. She had no idea what she was doing.

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The sound clip above is a voicemail from Roommate Steve. Being the good groomsman, he tried many different ways to break me down, make me cry, get me to run, but the best prank he pulled was getting the tux rental lady to do a little switcheroo.

I was suppose to pick up my tux by Thursday afternoon so that if there was a problem with the tux they could overnight whatever was needed by Saturday. I spent Saturday afternoon cleaning the house and then leaving at 4 for St. Louis so I could pick up a bridesmaid and groomsman from the airport, leaving me no time to get my tux.

Friday I head over to pick up my tux with my dad and brother. Inconspicuously, the lady sends me to the changing room while holding my brother and dad up front so she can tell them about the prank. I come out of the dressing with everything on but the coat. I start to put the coat on when I realize that something wasn’t right. The coat was about 3 sizes to small. It was so small that my arms were almost pulled up horizontally from my body.

The lady comes up to me, “So, how does everything fit.” At this time I am starting to sweat bullets, “Everything is fine, but the coat is a little small.”
“Umm, do you think you can lose some weight? This is why you should have been in on Thursday.”

She let me sweat bullets for another 20 seconds and then proceeded to hand me the correct coat from behind the counter informing me that I just put on a kids coat.

That was about the only time I was truly nervous.

Okay, almost a week later I feel like I’ve recovered enough brain cells from the bachelor party to recall what happened. First of all, above the guys, from left and back around the table: K, The Ed, SternO, David (lil Shoo), Josh, Roommate Steve, barely functioning Shoo, and Philly G.

The day started out by going on a tour of the Anheuser Brewery in St. Louis.  The place is like the Disney Land of beer. Seriously. Two, very good looking, from what the guys tell me,  guides take a group of 50 or so camera toting tourists around from building to building. On the tour, we passed the Clydesdale’s, some massive tanks that hold beach wood and beer, some historical sites, the bottling area, and then a multimedia video about Anheuser the company, which isn’t anything more than brainwash material with pretty people. At the end though, they make it worth your while and serve you free beer and pretzels.

Afterwards, we headed over to the Schlafly Bottle Works brewpub. We feasted on venison, bison, goat cheese, and beer bread; all foods of the manly food group. Oh, and drank more beer. After the feast, we took a tour of the brewery which was more like a pony ride at the state fair compared to AB. Our guide, not hot because he was a dude- or at least that’s what the guys tell me, was super knowledgeable. The one tidbit that I learned, and will remind myself each time I order a Bud, is that the rice, considered a cheap filler, in cheap beer (Natty Light, The Beast) is what causes splitting headaches after a long night of drinking. That’s not to say that you won’t feel like crap with a hangover if you just drink good beer. It just means no splitting headaches.

With that knowledge in hand, we headed to the liquor store for cheap booze to take back to the hotel. At the hotel we bonded over old drinking stories, watched the World Series, and ate the best TWO Papa John pizzas, eve-r.

Now this is the part of the story that gets fuzzy, but I will do my best to recall censor what happened.  We hoped a shuttle headed to a casino that we fully intended not to go to. Our decision as a group to which bar we would go to was decided by the hottest officer, as the guys tell me, on the street as she passed us by. “Officer, no.” I won’t even try to recall the name of the bar as to protect those that might have witnessed the dancing Shoo. But this unnamed bar contained a waitress doctor named Dr. Anita Hardon, which leads me to the next day, as I am totally not blogging about the rest of the night, when we’re recuperating at Steak N’ Shake in Collinsville and Josh is trying to recall the name of the good doctor in front of the, not so hot- I can verify this one, waitress.  Josh who is notorious for his projecting voice questions the rest of the group, “Dr. Ani… Dr. ANITA HARDON!”

Yes, the whole restaurant gave us the evil eye.

Guys, it was awesome weekend. I hope you had as much fun as I did.

Bet you didn’t know that Roommate Steve played rugby? I finally made it out to a game today. They have another home game next Saturday if anyone is interested.

I got some good shots, but I am going to borrow the big lens next time.

Hail Mary

Roommate Steve & GF

Walk is the magic word with Bud. He could be passed out dreaming about fire hydrants and an endless supply of bones, but as soon as I say ‘walk’ he’s up on all fours. (He just perked up as I read that out loud) We had some bonding time this week where it was just him and I taking a stroll through Washington Park. It’s like a candy store for him. Dry crusted dead animals stuck to the road, goose poop, and tons of dog tail. He was in doggity heaven.

GTG has been taking Clancy out for walks in the morning and I thought I owed Bud one. Handling both dogs at once is almost an impossible chore (unless you have treats). But while we were gone, Clancy whimpered around the house looking for us.

Anyway, I am yet again blogging about the “boys.” I don’t want to sound like one of those clamoring animal nuts, but this week has been one of those weeks and it’s just nice to come home to GTG and a couple of buddies.

Okay, and Roommate Steve is kinda nice too when he’s not kicking my butt on the 360.

No, we’re not for hire.

Roommate Steve helped me extract the rest of the stumps from the front of the house this afternoon. It was one of those “extended” projects that got put on hold from last summer. Although he looks like a pansy in the picture above, Steve was a tremendous help and I owe him dinner.

I think I am just going to plant rocks in place of the stumps.