Pickin parties, feuds and body disposal. Oh, and birthday cake.

Did I tell you that I threw my Dad a surprise 80th birthday party?

Well, I did.

It was last Sunday and it was amazing!

Happy 80th Dad!

I invited the cousins from his hometown in West Virginia for a mini family reunion. A lot of them live up here where I live so it was pretty easy to get them to come over.

I also invited my half-brother and half-sister from West Virginia. We don't get to see them very often at all. They haven't met the cousins, so it was pretty cool for them to all get acquainted.

My Dad had no idea that all of his kids were coming. That was a total surprise! It was so much fun!

I had a houseful of family, food and music. My West Virginia cousins play bluegrass music and they all brought their instruments and played in the back yard. We had a couple guitars, a fiddle, an upright bass, a mandolin and a banjo.

It was a regular hoe down!

They are all very talented musicians. All self taught. Amazing. I'll talk more about them and my hillbilly heritage later though.

I wish I had some video to share with you. If my niece ever sends it to me, I'll post it. She's kind of slacking on that.

Ahem.

Anyway, the party went off without a hitch. Unless you count the drama caused by my crazy neighbor. Apparently, he decided that he was going to be in charge of the street for the afternoon. He came out of his house to yell at any of my family members who tried to park in front of his house.

On the public street in front of his house. His rented house.

Jackass.

MB is pretty sure he's doing meth. I know he's drinking. I also know he's a weirdo who overshares.

Yeah, it's that neighbor. Were you really surprised?

So, MB and I are now officially feuding with him.

If his kids even think about coming into our yard, knocking on our door or petting our dog, war will be declared.

Of course, now we think he may have killed one of his children and buried her in the fish pond. We realized that we haven't seen his daughter in months. It's very odd.

I already told MB that I will not be doing the inaugural pond cleaning of the season.

Also, if the police show up and start asking questions, I may not answer the door. Not until we get our new privacy fence put up. Or we get a big snarly attack dog.

Boundaries must be maintained, people.

On a more positive note, look who decided to come out of hibernation...

I don't see any bodies in there, do you?