Love and War in Texas: The fantastic housewarming with as-seen-on-TV golfing

This weekend my entire family came to visit us for a housewarming/birthday party. Housewarming for us, birthday for my brother. These weekends are always a fantastic time filled with too much of everything (except for sleep, which seems to go by the wayside). We played dominoes, we ate a lot, we grilled. But before all that, we golfed.

My brother and his wife arrived on Friday afternoon before the rest of the family for a golfing good time. His birthday was this weekend, and her present for him was a brand new set of Callaway irons. Yep, the super nice ones. He also got a new Callaway bag. Apparently his favorite club is the six iron, but she had trouble buying just one of his coveted Callaways, so she got him the entire set. He's DYING to use these. We head out to the course and are having a great time, and he loves the clubs. Loves them. We get to the 14th hole and are just running out of time. We're going to stop at this point because darkness is falling and we're having trouble tracking the balls. The 14th hole on the course in our neighborhood backs to the lake. Not some water hazard. The honest-to-goodness, gigantic Lake Ray Hubbard. In fact, there's a cut of the lake between the tee box and the hole. It's a short little par three, and since it's our last hole, everyone is taking mulligans and not really worrying about the score. While we're up there trying to get a shot onto the green, my brother empties the cooler. Ice, water, all over the ground... And his golf glove and hands. After doing this task, he wants one more shot with his FAVORITE brand-new Callaway six iron. He gets up there, squares up, and tees off.

The ball... On the green. Nice.

His six iron... IN THE LAKE. Wet.

Seriously. Like a helicopter. We all watch in horror as time actually slows down and the club flies end over end into the middle of the lake. This was our last hole. This was a do-over shot for him. This was HIS BRAND NEW CLUB.

After a few select expletives, we move on. We persevere. We ask the pro shop to please let us know if the divers find his club when they're hunting for balls. It wasn't the best end to the golfing.

Aside from that, it was a great day on the course. And apparently the divers expect to find it. But it could be a month. I'll let you know when I know.

Everyone else showed up later that evening or the next day, and we had fun playing dominoes and cooking and eating. E's grill still works great and there isn't anything quite like grilling over Memorial day. In the end, it was a super successful weekend, even if the ladies didn't win at charades. Who could really act out "anteater" anyway? I thought aardvark was a really good guess.