Donnie's Birthday

Bobbie dropped a ($100) Benjamin at Maverick's Friday night for a drink - and didn't realize she'd only gotten change for a Jackson ($20) until the next day. But that and the last minute of the game - with the final ugly score - were the only bad things about the Donnie McKim birthday weekend. And Bobbie called Maverick's - the restaurant/sports bar near our place on Jordan Creek Parkway - and talked the manager into replacing half her missing $, so $40.

The Mcs - McFees and McKims showed up Friday night about 7 p.m. for a slumber party at our place. We headed right to Mavs cuz we were all hungry. I volunteered to be the designated driver. After messing around with headaches for the past week, I decided I didn't need the additional ammo of alcohol to fuel more head pain. It was fun catching up with the Ms. We hadn't seen Bobbie and Jeff since early September.

Don scored his favorite bev from Conovers for his birthday

Great crowd - despite a dismal record. Hats off to ISU fans!

Saturday we got up early - another 11 a.m. kickoff for ISU. Paul had made a crockpot egg casserole that cooked all night. It was delish! We arrived at Jack Trice to tailgate around 9ish. The wind was brisk, but the sun was shining. Dwight and Marilyn Conover stopped by, along with son Phil who was hanging with Bobbie and Jeff's niece Brittany - whose guy worked with Phil this summer. Ryan McKim's girl Laura gave us passes into the Jacobson Building - the inner sanctum by the football field. She's the nanny for a coach's kids, so she is golden!

Went in the Jake at halftime

The alumni band played in the Jake

After the game we hung out for a while to let the crowd clear out. But the cars kept driving through our area - irritating the birthday boy. He and Bobbie decided to handle it - putting the barricade across, cutting off traffic.

Great pic of Don and Pablo

We stopped at a bar south of Ames, near Kelley, Iowa on the way back to West Des Moines.

I drank my one beer/drink of the whole weekend at this bar
 

Bobbie had to commiserate with this fellow farm wife.

After we drove back to our place - with Paul as Designated Driver. Bobbie was quite chatty and we sang along with satellite radio. We headed 30 miles west to Dexter where a good restaurant, the Rusty Duck awaited. Along with two couples to surprise Donnie - Paul and Donna Pals and Beth and Todd Nielsen. We sang Happy Birthday and Don received ice cream (not a neck rub from the waitress, like he requested...)

Though it was only 9 p.m. when we left it seemed like it should be midnight! Paul and I headed home after that and the rest of the gang talked of stopping in Stuart at a bar. Yawn...we were in bed by 10 p.m.

It was a fun day with good friends. In this month of Thanksgiving, I remain grateful for our wonderful friends.