Father's Day, some assembly required

Father’s Day weekend, and Joe wanted to celebrate yesterday and save Sunday for coverage of the U.S. Open in the afternoon and NBA in the evening.

So this is what he planned for yesterday: family workout at the Kroc Center, a visit to Bonaventure Golf where he picked out some golf balls, and lunch out. Although he basically planned everything about his Father’s Day, the boys and I surprised him with a volleyball/badminton set for our back yard. It was a nice set, and he was pleased when we presented it to him after lunch.

Later, after running a few errands, I found Joe and Timothy in the back yard.

Getting started

“Oh! You’re putting together the badminton/volleyball set,” I said. “That’s great!”

My husband didn’t say anything, but he gave me the look (and all you married couples out there know exactly what I’m talking about).  At that moment I noticed this scattered over the grass …

Oops. Yikes.

Apparently, a "little" assembly was required.

Of course, il bambino was loving all the assembly!

 

The sight of all those parts reminded me of this past Christmas when Joe wanted a two-drawer filing cabinet for our study. While I had in mind something made of wood to coordinate with our beautiful desk and bookshelves, Joe was picturing a grey metal filing cabinet. A metal filing cabinet?!? Please, our study is not a doctor’s office. So this is what I gave him …

Beautiful, right? And it had two drawers, just like he requested! Well, it wasn’t so beautiful when Joe sat down to assemble the thing. Thousands of pieces and horrible-terrible-very bad instructions made for a bad case of the grumpies.

So, watching my husband and son assemble the badminton set in our back yard, I realized that I have a bad track record of giving gifts that require assembly.

Yes, I see that now.

And I apologize.

Next Father’s Day … I'm sticking with a tie.

 

 

 

P.S. An hour and a half later ...

 

The hard part is over, let the games begin!