This was another weekend for putting a bunch of miles on the car, but as is usual, there’s some pretty cool stuff at the other end of the drive.

Friday night, we drove out to SBC for the fall dance concert, where Mary had a couple of performances, including a self-choreographed solo piece that was really very cool. My kid is a hell of a performer, and leaves it all on the stage (she even made the poster advertising the event, even if you can’t see her face), and she rocked it.

Saturday was both low-key and not. I did my usual morning errands, running out to grab fresh veggies from Jerry’s farm stand and the other usual weekend errands (managing to find fresh bottles of 2018 Hardywood GBS before the rest of Richmond starts following distributor trucks around to get hold of some) while the rest of the crew did cleanup around the house. In the early afternoon, we took a trip out together and came back with this:

Meet Lebowski, or the Little Dude, or El Duderito, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.

Our original plan, after losing two beloved pets this year, was to have Colleen and Catherine scope out potential candidates while volunteering at the RSPCA, and we’d adopt somebody over the Christmas break; kind of a family gift. Life, however, offers different options sometimes. A friend of Andrew’s had come upon a feral litter in their neighborhood, and this little guy needed a home, so we audititioned him on Saturday, and ended up bringing him home. He’s amazingly well socialized, already litter trained, and has a wonderful, laid-back, friendly temperment, just like his cinematic namesake. We’re guessing he might be three or four months old. We quite like him, and he really ties the room together.

Sunday, Colleen and I took a drive down to Cary NC for The Beer & BBQ Ball at Bond Brothers Beer Company, where the Humdingers played a set in the beer garden in support of the local Fireman’s community charity (the firemen were uniformly awesome and we really appreciated the support and being made to feel welcome). We played a pretty great 90 minute set (if I do say so myself), had some great BBQ and beer (Raspberry Vanilla Variant of their imperial stout? Amazing), and I got to hang with my friends a bit and make music, which is always a wonderful, life-affirming thing. I really, really needed it.

Monday I had off for Veteran’s Day. The kids still had school, so I got to spend another day with my wife, which was nice. We did a little shopping, got some quality kitten time in, and I made a pretty decent sweet potato, spinach, and butter bean stew using fresh ingredients from the market (I’m hoping it’s even better for lunch today), and we closed out the evening drinking a toast to Stan Lee, and watching The Big Lebowski with the Little Lebowski.

Not a bad way to spend a day.