Marek had a birthday (and now he's old)

Marek's birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and we celebrated a week early with some friends and family. Normally we have our parties on Saturday, but we decided to switch things up and have the party on Sunday instead. We went out for lunch to Yard House, which opened near us in the past 6 months or so. They have over 100 beers on tap, which doesn't mean anything to me because I don't like beer, but was good news for almost everyone else.

Here's a group shot from lunch. It was so nice of everyone to come by!

From L-R: Future Brother-in-Law Pawi, Future Stepbrother-in-Law Maciek, Birthday Boy Marek, New Friend Jaimie, Avi, Chris, (MY) Cousin Patrick, (MY) Cousin James, Josh, Sean, and Airport Chris.

Yes, I like to give people nicknames. I will tell you about it sometime.

After lunch, we went back to the house to hang out and play games. I took a shot of the three "sections" of the room, but I'm not going to post the picture of my section because remember, I'm vain?

We like to play the game "Things", which if you haven't played it, you should check it out. It's a really fun game if you play it with the right people. Here's a shot of another third of the room. I took 3 pictures of this group, and not a single picture has everyone looking at the camera at the same time, so I just went with this one.

We also watched the World Cup, and afterwards we grilled some hot dogs and hamburgers. At some point, probably after he'd had a few beers, Marek decided he wanted a cigar, so his brother drove him to the store to get some cigars.

Josh, Jeremy, and Marek smoked cigars and drank on the deck, and the rest of us...I think we watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince...until I got sick of everyone asking questions and everyone explaining everything to everyone else.

Because Josh had been smoking, Avi wanted to Febreze him before they drove home (in Avi's car). Luckily, we had some extra-strength Febreze on hand. I don't know if Josh thought Avi was kidding or not, but he definitely wasn't! Look at the steely resolve on Avi's face. Not only was he sprayed, but it was a 360 degree spray.