Summer birthday parties & meeting Omar

Omar Rodriguez, now solo performer, formerly vocalist/guitarist/bassist with
At The Drive-In.

The first Omar (that I know of). He was Barbra Streisand's co-star in Funny Girl and Funny Lady. Way back in the day he was Dr. Zhivago. More recently he was a sheikh in the movie Hildago. Did you know he is of Egyptian and Palestinian descent?

It's not easy to get the Nelson crew together in the summer. Planning around summer vacations, baseball games, kids activities, etc. makes it tough.

So, when I planned Luke's birthday party (kind of last minute--his real birthday on July 7 happened while we were at Cornerstone) I set it for a Sunday, thinking that would be best for everyone. Luke was working at night (delivering pizzas) so I scheduled it for 1 pm, after church.

Turns out Tim's brother Jeff and family were leaving town Sunday morning. His other brother Greg was prepping for a major kitchen remodel which was to take place today. Maybe a couple of Luke's cousins could make it.

Then the morning service went long on Sunday. And, ironically, after church there was a birthday party for another boy who was turning 21. I had to drag Tim away from cake at church at 12:40 when I needed to get home to prepare a salad, set Mark to grillin', and have Tim pick up the DQ birthday cake for his son.

We made it home before 1. I coaxed Christina into helping me assemble the chicken cashew salad. Mark set to flipping burgers. 1:15 came, and nobody had arrived. I guess I was grateful, because we needed the time, but I was a little nervous too. Had everyone forgotten?

Well, Tim did come home with the cake, and then Grandma and Grandpa Nelson arrived. Our friend Judd came, and Luke arrived with his girlfriend Katie. Cousin Terry came on the scene a bit later.

It was a nice gathering--Luke also brought his new cat Omar. Of course, all the adults thought he was named after the famous actor Omar Sharif (see picture above), but I guess there's a well-known (?) guitar player named Omar Rodriguez (photo also above). Anyway, we had to put Raven in the office--Omar & Raven's first meeting didn't go to well. (Omar hissed from under the table and Raven barked like crazy). Finally we let Raven out while Katie held onto Omar. They seemed to have arrived at a sort of truce. (This after Raven checked out--I won't go into more detail than that--Omar's litter box that Luke had brought along.)

Everyone was able to fit into the living room and we had enough food--not too many burgers or brats, but enough. There was a little bit of cake left, but since we have a new freezer, it fit nicely inside it.

Our next summer birthday party is this Sunday--niece Nicole will be ten! Nephew Alex and Tim have August birthdays, and then we get ready for the fall lineup of parties.

I'm glad we're still making the effort to get together even though the kids are getting older and schedules more crazy. Even the animals are making an effort. I wonder what Greg & Kari's dog Avery (a toy poodle) would think of Omar--they are, at least, closer in size...

Till next time,


Suzi