- alright already people. for some reason, some of you actually want to know what goes on in my life. i think its just so that you can feel better about your own.

- but anywho… we catch up with our hero last tuesday night. he was expecting his parents to arrive from pennsyltucky at approximately 12:30am but was bold enough to try and fit in a show at the visualite theater beforehand. citizen cope.

it was cold and raining like ten sonsabitches. not good. especially since there appeared to be a line as rome and i approached the front door. doors were at 8pm and we got there around 9pm, so this was confusing. to add to that feeling, the roid monkeys working the door didn’t have any answers as far as when they were going to start letting people in. the show may have been sold out. but they don’t know?

after twenty-five minutes of standing behind slews of teenagers who could finally smoke because mom wasn’t around, rome and i cut our losses and bailed. good music not listened to by these ears.

but that allowed me to go home and finish folding some laundry before the rents got there. a beer and a half later, i passed out on the couch, thankfully awaken when they called from my neighborhood. god, its good seeing family.

- wednesday was a cold and ugly day in the CLT. doesn’t make for good sightseeing.  so we did what every red blooded amercian does when the weather sucks.  we went to the mall.  a little bit of shopping and people watching at southpark, and we were good to go.

after that, we headed back to la casa delYerg(s) and got cleaned up to go to dinner.  of course, we hit cabo fish taco followed by a few drinks at dolce vita.  where else am i going to take my family?  seriously.

rome joined us for a few glasses of vino and irma and molly kept it entertaining.  it was a good night, but an early night for us.  after all, there was the impending turkey day…

-  it seems like we got up at the butt crack of dawn everyday, but that could have just been the way that i felt since i didn’t really want to get out of bed, but found myself having to since my guests had arisen.  the whole obligation to wake up thing.  that led me to not sleeping in all five of the days that i had off.  poo tinky to that.

we eased into our day though after getting the bird in the oven a little before nine.  and we continued our food prep around ten thirty, keeping in mind a two o’clock dinner time.

the television never really came off the speed channel after i found the show “pinks!” while flipping through.  it kind of took pop back to his yesteryears with the whole drag racing thing.  yeah, dad was a little of a motorhead.

but thankfully, he is also a plumber.  you see, if it is la casa delYerg, the house is fine.  one singular sensation residing under the roof.  when it becomes la casa de los Yergs, some of the strain becomes more that the little house can bear.  especially when asked to swallow a mound of sweet potato peels that made it through the garbage disposal, but not much farther.

this bothered the shit out of the guy whose name is on the mortgage.  yeah, me.  but dad pacified my frustration as we tore apart the under guts of the sink later that afternoon.

around noon thirty or so, we were joined by my sister, lindsay, and her fiancee, conor.  linds is my girl and conuts cracks me the hell up on a regular basis.  and this was their first time in the CLT!  good times ahead!

but the meal!  i set the tables ever so nicely with my cb2 plates and bowls and the pier1 place settings.  and then we feasted.  started with a nice little tossed salad (keep it clean, it was a family affair).  then we did a kind of buffet style dinner.  turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean caserole, corn, and rome’s fried okra.  if you got up from that table hungry, it was your own fault.  and of course, there was plenty of vino.  i love that montepulciano.  two bottles?  gonzo in no time flat.  alexis snuck in a little past starting time and got himself a good plate of grub as well…

-  after dinner, we topped it all off with some fucking delicious pumpkin roll and an apple pie that my kick ass neighbors left for me that morning.  we cleaned up and let the tryptophan settle into the bloodstream.  that and some more wine.  alexis split for a little while to go get his pooch, frank, and came back with kat as well.

then the gauntlet was set.  trivial pursuit!  now, i have only lost at trivial pursuit about a dozen times in this (almost) thrity-one years.  and one of those losses came at the hands of my father.

so we huddled around that wonderful wheel of trivia and duked it out.  rome and i vs. dad and sal vs. conor and lindsay.  it was heated.  and then it cooled off.  and then it drug on for what seemed like forever.  this ended with my team’s oppenents conceding and another in a long line of victories for theYerg.

-  friday in the CLT was freaking beautiful!  the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the wine hangover wasn’t too bad.  so after some eggs and cornbread, we ventured out.  linds and sal hit the mall.  dad, conor, and i hit kilborne for some disc golf.

this was the first time for both conor and dad.  and at first, conor and i were the only ones playing.  but, i think after dad realized that he wasn’t going to be any worse than conor, he took up some discs on the fourth fairway and started chucking.  this was an experience.  there was a fair amount of swearing, a lot of laughing, and a decent amount of time looking for frisbees.  but after two and a half hours (a normal round there takes about an hour less) we returned to the car with smiles on our faces.

then it was a quick trip down to the mexi-wal-mart.  a little unnerving, but i got the stuff that i needed to go wireless in la casa delYerg.  a little card and a router and i am up and running.  like i needed a reason to stay up even later.

rome, again, joined us for dinner.  turkey day leftovers done shepard’s pie style in a baking pan.  fucking delish.  after that, linds, conor, LP, and i hit dolce vita for a couple of glasses of vino. 

-  saturday we woke up around eight thirty to the sounds of packing.  dad and sal had enjoyed their stay, but it was time to head back north so that dad could get ready for the first day of deer season.  it was really great being able to share a slice of my charlotte life with them like that.

then it was conor, linds, and i.  we took the “jared yerg three dollar tour of charlotte” so named because that is the amount of gas the sexterra might eat up on the trip.  we were blessed with another gorgeous day.  we went from NoDa to plaza midwood, couldn’t get a table at the penguin so decided to keep going.  into elizabeth, down to southpark, up into dilworth, over to southend, through uptown, back into NoDa where we stopped at the rat’s nest.  i got a couple of shirts there and then we hopped back in to see if we could get a table at the penguin.  no dice.  over to thomas street for some back patio grub.  and then i waxed poor conor’s ass in a couple of games of ping pong.

-  saturday night was a great time.  we were invited to patricia’s for a nice paella dinner.  a dozen or so people sharing a nice meal and wonderful conversation together (my soapbox conversation with another guest may soon arrive here).  very adult and a lot of fun.  thanks patricia.

conor, linds, and i got one last picture before heading up to the evening muse for some good tunes.  the guys from the rat’s nest were just finishing up as we got there and then truckstop preachers took the stage.  entertaining as always.  and although it really wasn’t conor and lindsay’s type of music, i think they enjoyed the show.

-  the kids left sunday morning and i was left in an empty house.  kinda still suffering from a familial hangover.  its tough when i only see them a couple of times a year.  and its exhausting afterward.

i hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving weekend.  now its back to work…

piece out.