A Quiet Night Around The Fire

Guess who's home this weekend... Yup, heee's baaaaack.

Lenny came home for Thanksgiving and is here through the weekend. It's always fun to have him here... mostly. It's the little things that get to be very annoying. Like the kitchen sink that is currently full of raw chicken carnage from last night's beer-can chicken.
Yes, he cooked dinner. But is the aftermath worth it? That is the question. But that is just a small example. I'll leave it at that.

Because there was no wind last night, he made a fire. Great, I love sitting by the fire on a clear night, Dixie running around sniffing every corner of the yard (both the ground and the air) and listening to music or catching up or just enjoying the flames in silence.
Let's see... nice fire - check; clear night - eh, can't have everything; Dixie being her happy K-9 self, check; music - nope; catching up - kinda; silence - Hah!

Again, I say, I love when he comes home. The bigger the break between his visits, however... how shall I put it?
Having a fire is always nice - that's a given.
Catching up - nice when it's a dialog, not a monologue.
When the conversations are driven by spirits, it's a whole 'nother ball game.

It's quite comedic, for lack of a better term. He tells a funny story, then a semi-funny story. By the end of the night, those same stories have been heard dozens of times. So what appears to be a night full of tales and such is actually about 7 minutes of conversation on a loop. Another part of the comedy is the stance.
In the beginning he stands with drink-hand resting comfortably on his tummy, looking to you for confirmation or comprehension of whatever he's talking about. Later the stand becomes a swaggering walk with the drink hand now gesturing parts of the story. Finally, the walk ends with what seems like an impossible feat: he stands in one spot, feet planted, with body swaying to and fro, hither and yon and the drink hand now rests in a lowered position, close to the thigh, occasionally losing some of its treasured content.

Admittedly, the show that he inadvertently puts on can be quite entertaining, I just wish there was a mute button.