We Are McPike (Hi from Niko)

 

Today Travalon and I met Tiffy downtown, and she and I went around the Farmers' Market while he went to the Veterans' Museum. I found a cute cactus, but they only took cash, and I had forgotten my cash in my shorts pocket, and today was cool so I was wearing jeans. Then we had lunch at the Globe, sitting outside. Today was the annual biking birthday party for the Daughter of Denni, so we texted to find out where they were, and she texted back that they were heading to Prost, so we headed there too.

Prost is a former church, and it's very beautiful inside, with stained-glass windows and long benches like at a real Bavarian beer hall. When Tiffy saw it, she said she wanted to go there for her birthday, and she wondered if Jilly Moose would also want to, since they both have a lot of German heritage, and very German surnames. Of course we got a giant pretzel, and I had the grapefruit radler, which had a very German name like Schlofferpoffer. Eventually the rest of the group showed up, and after we had been there for a while, we walked over to the Essen Haus and sat outside.

The Essen Haus is closing next week so they can tear it down to build more apartments. I have many happy memories of the place, like Mardi Gras parties, St. Patrick's Day, and our rehearsal dinner, so I went around saying goodbye to things. I said goodbye to the round table in the Come Back Inn that the choir always sat at when we used to go to brunch there after Mass, but then Tiffy said that the Daughter of Denni told her the Come Back Inn will still be there. After the rest of the group had moved on to someone's backyard, Travalon, Tiffy, and I stayed behind to eat dinner. I had kase spaetzle the first time I ever went to the Essen Haus, so I had it for my last dinner there.

We took so long at dinner that we assumed the group had moved on to the McPike Park Sessions, so I texted the Daughter of Denni, but they were still in the backyard. I texted, "We are McPike," and then I realized that would be a good blog post title. It turns out the group were not interested in leaving the backyard, so just Travalon, Tiffy, and I watched a bluegrass band called the No-Name String Band. Jilly Moose had sent a text from one of her moose, so Tiffy wondered what inanimate objects would text her. I sent her a text saying, "Hi Tiffy, it's your radiator," but she said, "I thought Niko would text me." So Niko did text her. She showed me the text on her Apple Watch.

I don't know why I found this so funny, but I was really amused by Niko popping up on her watch. It kind of makes me want an Apple watch. Her watch gives her standard phrases she can reply with so she doesn't have to type one, like, "I'll call you later," or, "I understand," since you can't type on the watch - you'd have to go into your phone to compose a real reply. Another awesome thing about the Apple Watch is that if you complete all the exercise rings, it makes a tie-dyed swirly pattern. It's so cool. My FitBit doesn't do anything nearly that beautiful when I complete my three exercise tasks for the day. So jealous.

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