Mild Amusement

Every now and again, I travel for work. Normally, this is a pretty uneventful transaction, though on occasion it can lead to a little bit of hijinx. Apparently, the latest work trip I took was one of these rare exceptions, because it led to not one, but two separate stories. First, there was the story of the scarf that never quite saw any action . This post is the second of those two stories. The Mild Girlfriend and I had made plans to have dinner with some other folks, so I was trading emails with a bunch of them. However, since I was preoccupied with work, I was a little bit spotty about responding in a timely manner. In order to make sure no one was waiting on me, I let people know that I would be out of town. Specifically, I happened to mention which town I would be in. It wasn't an intentional phrasing, I just nonchalantly mentioned that I'd be in town X so that everyone knew I wouldn't be in town Y during the next few days. As it turned out, though, one of the fol...

So, I like to travel (I got curious, and the travel tag gets used fairly frequently on this blog). Most of the time, I travel for fun, and I end up with funny stories about my clothing  or experiences as a result. It's not like I go looking for adventures or shenanigans, but these things tend to happen when I'm somewhere other than my home town. Occasionally, though, I get to travel for work. It used to happen a little bit more in years past, but these days, it's a little bit more rare (apparently they realized that having me represent the company wasn't the best idea). Even so, I still end up with funny travel stories on those trips. Those stories are a particularly rare breed, but they're all the more fun as a result. In this particular case, I was traveling to the East coast for a conference. The timing of the trip wasn't particularly important, other than the fact that it was some time in the fall. Me being me, I didn't really think too much about ...

I like to stay active, if possible. It's not like I don't have lazy days on the weekend, it's just that I prefer to play basketball during the week and I like working out with my friends . I enjoy hiking , I've been known to go to a salsa class or two , and I've had my share of running adventures . All in all, it keeps me relatively healthy, so I can't really complain. Most of all, I like doing it. Plus, it has some added benefits, like being able to compete with my siblings when they decide to start FitBit challenges during the week . There are some downsides to the activity, though. I end up really freaking sore some times, and then mundane objects like stairs and chairs become obstacle courses that I have to navigate. Worst of all, though, are the injuries. I've been lucky so far, because I've yet to have any major injuries. I've rolled my ankle or stubbed a finger plenty of times, but in the grand scheme of things, those are all little things....

I went on vacation to Mexico with some family a short while back. It was a lot of fun, but it also led to all sorts of hilarity. This particular story only tangentially involves me, but it was still all sorts of fun. Due to some scheduling issues, the Mild Girlfriend didn't join us on the trip. The magic of WiFi still let us communicate, but she had work and family obligations. I finally made use of some of the apps on my phone, and we were even able to manage video calls a couple of times. The funniest part was that I often made these calls from the comfort of the hotel room, and my brother and sister-in-law were present for some of them. They would very helpfully add commentary at times; I had my own peanut gallery. Anyhow, on one of those calls, the Mild Girlfriend informed me that she had decided to visit her family, including her nephews. Her nephew was really excited to see her, and he kept asking her to hang out or do things together (little kids like to do that). At on...

So, I went to Mexico with some family a little while back. It was a fair bit of fun, but as usual, it led to quite a bit of hijinx. As a reminder, this is the same set of people that made me laugh out loud about football statistics and created the "court of life" to judge the quality of decisions we saw being made . This time around was no different, really. In order for this post to have the maximum comedic effect, we have to start with a little bit of back story. This was not the first time that my brother and his wife had been to Mexico. They'd actually been there with my brother's in-laws a few years back, and they'd thoroughly enjoyed the experience. That's actually part of the reason why we went this time, because they liked it that much the first time around. For the purposes of this story, though, the important part is that one of my sister-in-law's older brothers had gone with them. He is a good guy, and a generous tipper, so the staff all love...