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For some time, my sister and I have been planning birthday parties for our husbands. Since my sister and all the other guests live up in DFW, we are going to have both gatherings near my sister in Grapevine. As a surprise for Ron, I am bringing Guy Blair down from Chamberlain, SD, for the weekend. Sadly, the surprise was let out of the bag fairly early, but even so, having Guy here will be a treat for everyone.

Guy will be flying down here on Wednesday and he will stay with Ron Dougherty. My husband's birthday party will be Friday night, and Karl's will be on Saturday. Other that that, we just expect to see a lot of everyone this weekend. There were a number of times that we all got together, and when Ron and Fred were with us, they were the photographers (as they always are). Karl took some pictures also, as did I.

Lunch at The Snooty Pig in Grapevine

Guy arrived on Wednesday, and spent the day with Fred and Ron over in Dallas. We drove up on Thursday evening, and on Friday asked the three of them to come out to Grapevine to have lunch with us. On his own website, Ron has a map of the restaurant's location, and you can see it below:

Of course, my sister lives in Grapevine, and we were staying at my deceased mother's house in Arlington, so meeting out here was the logical thing to do.

I don't think Ron and Fred had been to this particular restaurant before, but we have. It serves an excellent breakfast, as well as lunch and dinner.

When Ron, Fred and Guy arrived at the restaurant, we, my sister and Karl and a friend of Karl's were already here.

This picture is actually a combination of two pictures. Ron took the first one, so Fred was in it, and Fred took the second so Ron could appear. Then Ron Photoshopped them together so you can see everyone.

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Ron also made a movie here at The Snooty Pig just to record everyone, and you can watch it with the player at left.

We had a nice breakfast/lunch and did some catching up. About two o'clock, Ron, Fred and Guy went back to his house while we went back to my mom's house to do some sorting and cataloging of some items that we want to take with us to San Antonio.

Ron's Birthday Dinner

My sister did most of the planning for the two birthday dinners this weekend. We agreed on two different restaurants for the two dinners- Bob's Steak and Chop House and Ferrari's Italian Restaurant. We tossed a coin and decided to have Ron's at Ferrari's and Karl's at Bob's. Ron, Fred and Guy rejoined us at my sister's house to head over to Ferrari's together.

Karl drove and we all rode together for the short drive up William D. Tate to the restaurant:

There were seven of us at dinner: us, Nancy and Karl, Fred, Ron and Guy. For this evening's dinner, Ron got all dressed up; he is very distinguished-looking when he does. With his cigar and his Illinois accent, he could have easily passed for the Chicago Mayor or some important Illinois state politician!

Ron took a pretty good picture of us as we were waiting for our private room to be readied, and you can have a look at it below:

Both Karl and Ron took a number of pictures during dinner, and I've selected five of each of theirs to include here. Just click on the thumbnails below to have a look:

Ron's pictures:

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As Ron likes to do, he made a movie just before dinner got started, mostly just to record this evening's attendees. You can watch that movie with the player at left.

Mostly due to Nancy's incredible preparations, we had a completely enjoyable dinner. The private room we had made it very conducive to our own conversations; if you can swing it, having private rooms is the way to go for groups bigger than four. We had a really great time, and after dinner adjourned to my sister's house for coffee and cake.

 

Karl's Birthday Dinner

For Karl's birthday dinner, we gathered at Nancy's house around six, and awaited the arrival of Karl's daughter, Megan, who was driving down from Oklahoma with her boyfriend, Grant.

For this evening, we took two vehicles up to Bob's Steak and Chop House, over on South Main in Grapevine, and not too far from my sister's house.

I think it was Karl and Ron Dougherty who drove, so Karl could use valet parking (both he and my husband are currently having problems with walking).

At Bob's, we had a large table out in the middle of the dining room for all nine of us: Karl and Nancy, Megan and Grant, Ron and Fred, Guy and us. Bob's is a very busy, very upscale place, but without an available private room. I like the restaurant, but it is noisy, and hearing anyone but your adjacent seatmates is almost impossible.

Before we got started with dinner, Ron had our waiter take a group photo. Ron said that perhaps he should have used the flash, but it tends to wash everyone out in rooms that are otherwise very dimly lit, as this one was. So he just set the ISO very high and hoped for the best. You can see the result at left which Ron says displays the graininess of high speed setting. He's not sure how to fix that without using a flash.

This is the third time that Fred and Ron have been to Bob's with us, and I think they like it. The food is excellent, and Ron likes it because there is a little separate area near the fireplace where he is allowed to smoke cigars.

Ron took a few pictures on his own during and after dinner, and you can have a look at them if you click on the thumbnails at right. The dinner was excellent.

When we returned to Karl and Nancy's house for coffee we were able to talk some, and that was very nice. This was the last activity for this weekend; Guy would be heading back to Chamberlain on Sunday and my husband and I would be returning to San Antonio. I think the weekend was very nicke, and it was particularly nice to have Guy here; he and my husband have, I think, a special friendship.

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