Will Work For Food-usually pizza. That's my forte.
This weekend was my birthday, Friday actually. All in all it was a decent birthday, but low key, which was fine. But this isn't really about my birthday. So you can disregard that.
My wife's sister and her family (husband and two boys) came up for the weekend. They stayed at the in-law's house down the street, which allows for easy access in terms of hanging out. We can say "I'm going to their house" and even walking, we can be there in approximately 30 seconds...60 if we are in "mosey-mode."
When they are around, the in-laws usually take advantage of the free labor and my brother-in-law and I end up doing various tasks. This weekend was no exception.
One of the duties was fetching an extra desk that the in-laws had purchased from the office where Dad-in-law and I work. Our first task was the job of measurement. We didn't know if it was going to go through their very narrow hallway or not. It hinged on the ability to remove the legs from the desk. So we hopped in my truck and buzzed across town to the office.
It occurred to us that hopefully there would be no nosy neighbors reporting two people carrying furniture out of the office on a Saturday, but thought the fact that I have a key to the office and could grab a picture of myself from my desk would be a decent deterrent if any police-men showed up.
Fortunately we didn't need to worry about that.
As it turned out the legs do come off the desks rather easily, so we were good to dismantle one and take it home...or at least to their home...not mine.
Once we got the desk back and into their computer room, we reassembled it. We walked back out into the living room thinking we had earned the right to go back to my place (up the street) and play some Call of Duty (which I got for my birthday the day before...hey birthday theme), but we noticed that the screen was sitting there waiting to be placed into the front door.
Blast.
Although this is a quick job. I had the glass pane out in about 30 seconds and the screen back in before they could even wipe the dirt of the glass pane. I felt pretty cool about that....though that coolness was limited. After all, it was an easy task.
At this point, we both made the comment about playing the Wii, but then our respective wives said that we should bring the Wii down the street so the boys (our kids, not us...just to clarify) could play it. That seemed like a fair deal, so I buzzed down the street and was back in a couple minutes with the Wii in hand and spent the next couple of minutes hooking it up. The short little hooligans descended on my very rapidly. It was like hyenas on fresh meat.
Scary...very scary.
At that point, Dad-in-law said that they were going to go to Menards to pick up a new grill as theirs had given up the ghost. I knew what this meant. This meant that the next duty for me and bro-in-law would be assembling the new grill.
But the boys were busy on the Wii and Mom-in-law was staying put, so the rest of us all jumped in the van to head to the store. I suggested that we also take my truck as the box would undoubtedly be huge, but I was overruled.
So we headed off to Menard's...Dad-in-law, sis-in-law, bro-in-law, wife, me, and our short one, the only girl in the 3rd generation...poor kid. A little back ground, she is obsessed with sis-in-law...they are buddies to the core.
So as we were all looking at the grills, they went around the corner and tried out lawn furniture.
As you can see, they got quite comfortable and had quite the conversation.
Well, we got the grill, headed home...had a quick lunch and then spent the next hour assembling said grill. It paid off for us though, because the grilled pork chops we had for supper were well worth it.
Additionally, they took us out for pizza buffet yesterday after church.
I'm cheap labor...I can admit it.
