2004-06-02 6:06 PM

This Week in Commitment

We had so many leftovers from our housewarming barbecue last weekend that we threw another barbecue this weekend just to get rid of the leftovers. ("We?" Yes, TheBoy and I chose to, as he put it, "acknowledge the facts on the ground" and have him move in for real a few weeks back. And since I hadn't yet had a housewarming anyway, we threw one. Besides, a barbecue in December, when I actually moved in, would have been no fun at all, even here in "sunny California.")

So Sweetcheeks and Turtledove show up at the leftovers BBQ, mildly gigglier than usual, and I reintroduced them to the smaller crowd as "my brother and his girlfriend."

"Fiancee," Turtledove corrects me.

Duh, what?

We then asked for the story of the scheming (in which my brother made up nervous lies about where they were going, what she should bring, and why he was gone for an hour "getting the car washed" even though the car was still dirty when he got back); the actual proposal (after checking in to a swank Wine Country resort and getting massages, he proposed in an appropriately scenic setting); and making the rounds of the family members who weren't already in on it (Sweetcheeks asked Turtledove's father for his daughter's hand a couple of weeks ago, a gesture which wasn't wasted even though her dad is a Berkeley ex-hippie).

I then had Turtledove practice the pose of the recently-engaged, which she probably had to use at the office all day yesterday: arm extended, wrist dropped slightly so as to show the ring off at the proper angle. (And it was a nice one; who knew the kid had taste?)

After congratulations were offered and food was eaten, Sweetcheeks and Turtledove left to continue their Engagement World Tour. Comments offered after they left:

Me: "Woohoo! I am so off the hook for the grandkids. 'But Dad! Do you want your first grandchild to be a bastard? I can't do that -- I'm an old-fashioned kind of girl!'"

Sweetcheeks (muffled, from around the side of the house): "I heard that!"

S.: "Well, TheBoy would be the father, so it'd be a bastard anyway."

(later, after S's. girlfriend A. had gone into the house to crash out on the couch):

S.: "I'll give him this much -- he's really raised the bar. Now clearing off a spot on the floor to kneel isn't good enough any more."

TheBoy: "You really don't know much about women, do you?"

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