Abner Reunion 2005 and a Cat No One Can Find

Droves of Abners and the like converged on the Bluegrass this past weekend for the annual family reunion. The first wave of arrivals was around 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Then....they came in bunches. I don't guess there are any funny stories to tell. I can only recap the events occurred.

My parents, sister Paige and her husband, David, and my brother Chase and his wife, Alisha assembled at my house to prepare some food for Sunday's feast. Chase and I strung (you might not understand the terminology) the green beans, Mom broke them, and everyone else sang "I Shall Not Be Moved". Later on, Mom and I sauteed onions and green peppers for the baked beans I would prepare later that night. Once having finished that task, we relocated to my family's hotel room in the Hamburg area to wait for the rest of my immediate family to arrive.

We had a pleasant surprise with my sister-in-law's parents joining us for dinner. After the dinner at Logan's we returned to the hotel room to be joined by a host of aunts, uncles, and a couple of cousins. NASCAR was on the television and the cards were on the table. I returned home around 1 in the a.m. Sunday to prepare my baked beans for a 9 a.m. oven date. I was just grabbing items out of my cabinets to throw in them. Syrup, garlic powder, onion powder, brown sugar, cayenne, liquid smoke, mustard, and cinnamon just to name a few. I am sorry I can't tell you all of them, but every cook has to have a couple of secrets.

The hour was at hand after eight hours of shut eye and two hours of car washing (while the beans were cooking, of course. And yes, I know the remnants of Hurricane Katrina will be here by Wednesday and actually the hint of what's to come from the massive storm is saturating my grass as I type. My car is once again dirty.) Beth returned from her parent's house right at 11:30 a.m. just as she had promised. Excellent. Let's roll to Georgetown, shall we?

My sister Laura can't drive. She has real issues when following someone to a destination. But, finally, we arrive with only a couple outburst of anger. And everyone is already there waiting on us. How thoughtful of them? Everything was spectacular--from the fried chicken to the well, I don't know what in the hell you would call that one dish, but it was still good. It was really great to see everyone. I am just tired of the question, "Are you ready for your wedding?"

Some played horse shoes, some played cornhole, some played cards, and other's, well, they just played. I am already looking forward to next year. Everyone was hearing a cat meowing, but they just never could find it! ;-)

Last week I had made a comment on an article by Dayn Perry, a FOX Sports News writer, that was on his website about his fantasy league football team. Well, this morning I was reading one of his current articles and he published my quote on his website. Here is the link to the article: http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/4818464 . My comment is the last one in the gray box in the middle of the page. Somehow, it left out the "J" in front of the "-Delicious". How rude!?!

It's that time once again to cut this off. I hope you all had great weekends. And please give your thoughts to the people in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. It's getting pretty bad down there right now. I'm out like tight black pants! PEACE!

P.S. My uncles think I should rename the "Cornhole game" because the think it's a little "funny" to say you're playing cornhole, plus Jess says he can't talk about it at work. So, I am taking suggestions as to what we will refer to it as from now on. Let me know what you think.