Friday, April 20, 2007

We Are the Hotdog Brothers!

Friday, April 20, 2007
14 comments

Tonight and most of tomorrow Liam and I will be having all-guy time at the farm. Phoebe is sleeping over at a friend's house. Julie is in the Far North giving a talk at Mohican State Park.
We boys are FREE!

Liam and I have a two-member club, that meets only on weekends like this. We are called The Hotdog Brothers. This started a few years ago, when Phoebe would accompany Julie on weekend trips to wherever. Liam and I, left to our own devices, would cope as best we could, and The Hotdog Brothers were born.

We even have a theme song for the Hotdog Brothers that goes like this:

We are the Hotdog Brothers
Yes We Are!
We are the Hotdog Brothers
Yes We Are!
Hotdog! Hotdog!
Yum! Yum! Yum
Hotdog! Hotdog!
Lots of FUN!

We don't always eat hotdogs, but the often comprise two or more of the food groups on our planned menus.

Tonight, an otherwise normal Friday in April, we had plans to do EXACTLY what WE wanted to do. With no GIRLS around to say otherwise. We'd eat, spit, pee outside, and tell jokes and scary stories. Our menu would be of our own choosing. This involved chocolate milk, hotdogs roasted on an open fire, baked beans, beer (for some of us), chips, and s'mores (not necessarily in that order).

We can do WHATEVER we want, including taking off our shirts and dancing around.

We always have plenty of wood for hotdog cooking.

I started a fire in the fire circle up on the hill east of our house. Liam gathered wood for the fire. We watched it until it was well established.


The fire starter.

Watching the fire.

Then we created some art on the sidewalk in front of the house, just in case some unsuspecting civilians happened upon the scene.


While we were cooking our dinner on the fire, Liam wax philosophical:

"What is it about springtime that makes us SO happy? The sound of the crickets? The sound of the sun rising? The sound of a lawnmower running over a little girl's hair!"
Liam tells me a story--one of many.

NEVER get between a Hotdog Brother and his hotdog.

Yum! Yum! Yum!
And the sun sets on another Hotdog Brothers extravaganza at Indigo Hill. The problem is we have just 48 hours to clean up the house and grounds before the gals return.

S'mores are a crucial part of our ritual.

The shimmering embers remind us of the hotdog that burns (forever) in our souls.

Liam is the best Hotdog Brother a guy could ever ask for (and he likes chocolate milk as you can see).

14 comments:

On April 20, 2007 at 10:57 PM Susan Gets Native said...

When the cats (girls) are away, the mice (men) will play!

Is Chet an honorary member of the Hot Dog Brotherhood? Or is he "one of the girls" this weekend?

On April 20, 2007 at 10:59 PM Julie Zickefoose said...

Running around without a shirt? Why, it was in the lower 60's. He could have caught a chill. How many S'mores did you give him? You know there's caffeine in chocolate! I hope you didn't let him stay up too late. You know how that affects him.

Actually, I wish I'd been there, cookin' hotdogs and swilling beer and chocolate milk with my bad, bad boys. But I know that's something mere girls never get to do. Kiss my hotdog boy for me and tell him The Enforcer will be home, kickin' butt and takin' names, on Sunday.

On April 20, 2007 at 11:35 PM Trixie said...

Go Hot Dog Brothers! Y'all are having a right fine time.

On April 21, 2007 at 12:00 AM Bill of the Birds said...

Dear SGN:
Chet Baker IS a Hotdog Brother. And he ate at least 1/3 of Liam's second hotdog just to cement his legacy.

JZ:
Idle threats from one so far away!
But then again, we already have the vacuum out....

Trixie:
Thanks for your support!

On April 21, 2007 at 1:01 AM Erik said...

It's nice to see you've done an excellent job preparing Liam for his college days. If I recall correctly, the 4 major food groups were sugar, caffeine, sodium, and alcohol, and not necessarily in that order. Now that I'm older, it's evolved to whole grains, veggies, soy millk, and Lipitor.

I'm inspired. Tomorrow I'm calling my Dad, my brothers, and my nephew, and we're going to have an honorary NE Ohio Hotdog Brothers feast. I can smell the grill already.

On April 21, 2007 at 7:06 AM katdoc said...

Wow, this post is laden with so much testosterone it's scary! You should warn a girl up front.

The song in my head as I followed along was "Men, men, men, men; Men, men, men, men..." What was that from? Monty Python?

Glad you had fun, but if the hot dog gives Chet gas, you have only yourselves to blame. Of course, I suppose the Frankfurter Fraternity isn't afraid of a little gas.

~Kathi

On April 21, 2007 at 9:02 AM Bill of the Birds said...

KatDoc:
we're just trying to keep Chet's spirits up while JZ is away. He's very pouty.

As far as the gas goes, it's simply not a Hotdog Brothers event without loud blasts of air leaving our bodies from one place or another. We don't even say "Excuse me!" either. We just high five each other and say "Nice one!"

On April 21, 2007 at 6:54 PM A very grossed out Phoebe said...

*Puts head in hands*

On April 21, 2007 at 8:41 PM Julie Zickefoose said...

Phoebe. Mommy will be home soon. And the Chimney Swift Sisters meeting will convene. We do not allow gross boys in our club. We do not emit gases from anywhere, because there are no preserved meats or beer in our diet. We do allow Chet Baker in our club, gases and all. We'll ask, WWBOTB do? and then do it the nice way. Deal?
Hang in there, darling. Help is coming.

On April 22, 2007 at 10:49 PM anne said...

Bill~~
I shared this post with Eric and his friend, Lara, and I said, "I think everyone should have a dad like this." And Eric said,
"I do!!"

Then we explained to Lara that you and John were born on the exact same day.

On April 24, 2007 at 1:42 PM Rondeau Ric said...

My head hurts from laughing.
Fart on dudes

On April 25, 2007 at 10:25 AM Mary said...

I'm late to this party but I must say it's been fun!

On April 25, 2007 at 10:37 PM Piddler said...

At one of our campfires when my now-13-year-old was younger, he looked at the fire, looked at the stars, sighed and said, "Man, we have it all."


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