Fierce winds and rain, could not keep a good party from going on yesterday. A good thing for us, since housing the number of attending guests inside, would have been nearly impossible. Despite our best attempts and the collective usage of 3 independent, high school graduated brains, the assemble yourself outside structure didn't happen, though it wasn't from a lack of trying.

Considering my well known camping survival skills, setting up an overhead tarp, should have been a breeze, mere childs play in the hands of a capable female approaching 30. According to the diagram, all we had to do was post out 4 corners at 45 degree angles, attach rope slides from the stakes to the poles and wahla, instant rain protection guaranteed. Of course, attempting such a setup in gale force winds took the level of difficulty up a notch.

Try as we may, things just continued to go wrong from there. Breaking from the strain of trying to remain upright in winds clocking speeds somewhere beyond that of sound, each and every attempt was met with frustration and disappointment, as line after line of rope snapped in half. Curses filled the air from our small patch of lawn, only to be returned quite vehemently from porch side, when the pig on the roast burst into full flames and had to be doused with the water hose.

Finally conceeding to failure, it was with heavy hearts that we packed up the remains of the kit. Rob even delighted us, with an improptu demonstration of the proper technique, required for condom applications. The tent equipment and it's carrying bag, providing the perfect models for his lesson. Quite familiar with the process already, I could only assume that his indecent ramblings were for the benefit of the recent graduate, who stood blushing before him. Information hardly beneficial, for a girl on her way to an all girl Catholic college, or at least much to the hope of her older sisters.

As I eluded to in a previous post prior to the celebration, there was a hint of hositility to be had in the air. Some people are just born miserable, and it surely was the case in truth when considering the permanent bad attitude of my cousin's future wife. Intent on being a Grade A, Class 1 Bitch, her voice could be heard over the celebration, complaining about both this and that. Between my 3 sisters and I, we had heard more than we ever wanted to hear, and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to avoid her at all costs.

Not an easy thing to do, considering that neither her or my cousin, were too concerned with watching over their 18 month old terror of a son. After about 5 minutes alone with him, it was apparrent to almost everyone, that cuteness does indeed wear off. Still, I'm not the kind of person who can willingly let any child walk into harms way, when his parents seem too oblivious to realize that he's too close to an open inground pool or taking off into the back 40 unsupervised.

It seemed every one of my sisters got unofficailly appointed at some point during the day (sometimes more than once) to be babysitter to the future teenage deliquent. His parents too busy drinking back beers, playing volleyball, eating, and/or swimming to keep an eye on their bustling baby boy. Even KC was not safe from babysitting detail, being told by the Baby's Momma to keep an eye out for little Bailey and then suffering the barbs of the bitches tongue for manhandling the toddler, when all she was trying to do was keep the boy from escaping into the neighbors yard.

This Momma had had it! Taking the baby from my daughter's arms, I marched in the direction of his mother, unceremoniously dropping him into her arms. "Special delivery." I said, my voice sounding as sweet as sugar, "I think this little guy misses his mother." Little Miss Priss looked none too happy with the drool king being back in her arms, and quickly deposited him down onto the grass as if the boy had been fire in her arms. Reigning in my temper, I took KC's hand in mine as we walked away. Explaining that she was to have fun and not worry about watching the baby anymore. "That's his Momma's job." I told her, "Not yours."

It couldn't have been even 5 minutes before that baby was off wandering again, with someone other than his parents in hot pursuit. My sisters by my side, the 4 of us stood huddled in a circle, each hissing angrily against the ostracities of both our cousin and his wife when it came to their idea of parental supervision. No matter the amount of hints we dropped or in some cases flat out requests for them to take charge over their son, neither parent was moved enough to do anything about it, preferring the kindness of strangers and cousins to keep watch over their son.

The day progressed and soon a brilliant moon shone bright overhead. Everyone was ready to just relax and enjoy the remainder of the night when suddenly the banshee was screaming once more.

"Have you seen Bailey?", she cried, appearing frantic.

"Isn't he with you?" I asked, since the last time I had seen him, he had been dogging his mother's steps out in the kitchen as she fixed herself a plate of goodies.

She didn't bother to respond, giving me a snotty look as her big mouth screamed for Daniel. On the alert, my sisters and I quickly divided to find the boy, I to the pool, Jodi to the bedrooms, Audrey to the front of the house and Amy to the back. I could hear my cousin's fiancee tearing into him, "Daniel! You know I'm trying to eat! You're supposed to be watching the baby!" I couldn't believe that she was actually standing there wasting time screaming at my cousin, rather than trying to locate her child. This chick takes the cake, I thought to myself as I (thankfully) scanned an empty pool.

"I've got him!" I heard Audrey shout from inside the house, watching as both "Mom and Dad", stopped hurling accusations at each other long enough to go inside and get the boy. Breathlessly, Audrey explained that she had found him wandering down towards the end of the driveway.

"He could have been run over!" the wicked witch of the south snarled at Daniel, starting up once more the arguement of who indeed was really responsible for this near disaster. Daniel just stood there like a lump, holding the baby in his arms watching the finger wagging in front of his face.

Everyone in the room remained silent, but it was clear from the looks on everyones faces that we all had some comment of our own to make. Though for reasons unknown to me, not a one of us said anything, despite the inner temptation to do so. Even my father, who normally is a happy go lucky, jovial sort of a guy was upset. "I don't want to" he said, "but I may have to say something to them."

"I don't see how you couldn't ..." was all I had to say, as KC and I headed out to our car, "I don't think you really want to spend the rest of the week having to deal with this.", glad for once to be going home to a quiet, empty house.