#55 Tomfoolery with Steve

Steve came to visit this weekend. I love it when my brother comes because he is not only kind, smart, and generous but he is freaking hilarious!

We decided to make this a classic "Mischief Weekend".

Over the past few years, one of our favorite hobbies has been pulling pranks on my parents -- specifically my poor mom.

When we start planning our mischief, we tend to forget that we are in our fifties. We become complete and utter children again.

Here is a list of pranks and challenges we dared each other to do this weekend:

1. Sneaking out to the garage and replacing their license plate holder with the one that states "It's all sh*ts and giggles until someone giggles and sh*ts". MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Let's see how long it takes them to notice.

2. Having a competition to see who can slip the word "Hasenpfeffer" into conversation before mom or dad asks why we keep saying it. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED -- Beth: 7, Steve: 4.

3. Writing a note to Mom, warning her that we were going to "crop dust" her all weekend and to beware. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! She doesn't know what it means to "crop dust" someone so we had a glorious time watching her worry what it was we woud do to her, and wondering what it means to be crop dusted.

4. Rearranging her fish sculpture on the wall to make them point in different directions. MISSION FAILED -- we did not know that Dad must have anticipated this and secured them extremely securely to the walls. Darn it.

5. Posing her sculptures in compromising positions. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED -- she has found a few, but not all yet. Hee hee.

6. Un-alphabetizing her spices. Most classic prank of all time (except for the time when we switched the labels on the spices). Wait a minute....maybe that IS what we did. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Mom, if you are reading this...sniff before you add spices to your cooking, just to be sure.

7. Part of the fun of a mischief weekend is that mom is never quite sure what we actually do and what we just say that we do. I bet you $1000000 that she has already yeeted to the spice drawer to see if we messed with them. Maybe we did...maybe we didn't.

And it wouldn't be an successful Mischief Weekend if we didn't have all four of us laughing so hard we can't breathe. Well, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! We invited mom and dad to play a good old round of Cards Against Humanity....and man, oh man...did we get some great whoppers that made us laugh until we cried.

Poor mom. She is such a good sport. In the spirit of the game, in true Henkenmeier tradition, Steve and I (and Dad, if he is being honest), saved the really, really inappropriate ones to play on Mom's turn, just to get her to have to read these totally embarassing and horribly funny-to-hear-your-mom-saying-these-words phrases out loud.

This woman gets mad respect. She played like a champ and read each and everyone that we gave her. Now and then, she looked a little puzzled. We would ask if she knew what the card meant. She would say, "Ummmm.....not really". So we would explain in as simple, preschool terminology as possible. She would start to laugh and then go onto the next card.

If you haven't played Cards Against Humanity with your parents yet...don't miss this oppourtnity.

I, for one, will never look at hard boiled eggs the same way again!

The rest of the weekend was more chill -- great lunch out at Turners, floating around the pool, smoking big old stogies in the evening, talking about business, and playing with little sweet Marshmallow, who got to go out for a joyride with us.

Steve and I got to catch a sunset over Pass-a-grille, walked St. Pete pier, and played games from our childhoold. Unfortuantely the odds were ever in HIS favor.

Mille Bournes: Beth - 2, Steve - 9

Sorry: Beth - 0, Steve - 5

He STILL beats me at everything.

Except Cards Against Humanity. I beat him 26 to 8.

Maybe I shouldn't brag about that, but I feel a sense of pride about that achievement. Maybe Stevie will get me a trophy.*****. See below for update.

Thanks for coming, Steve, and for giving me another amazing Badass Brother weekend. Can't wait to see you again soon. Love you!!!

On my way out to double check my license plate holder to be sure Steve didn't swap MINE!

So I get back home after spending a few days watching Marshmallow to find a package at my door. I open it and find the absolute best gift ever... Stevie DID get me a trophy!! It is now in a place of honor at my home and I will carry it with me weekender I feel the need to brag about this achievement. #bestbrotherever