Wedding 4

Russ's 2 new brothers in law. These are good men from a tremendous family. Zach on left and Alex . Alex played a wonderful violin during the ceremony and reception. Very entertaining , especially when he teamed up with his dad Bob Marcus to provide the music for that awesome first dance for the bride and groom. It was a sexy tango that had everyone's attention, particularly when Russ and Elissa did all those swivels, dips, quicksteps or whatever all those cool moves are called. Judgeing from the standing ovation they got this dance was the highlight of the evening for many.

As the reception headed towards midnight on Halloween night the masks and costumes appeared. This is son Jeff doing his "evil villian" thing--which is redundant and me semi disguised as the Phantom of the Opera--actually the mask just covered up crash scars and made me feel better . Of course severl family members wondered why there was only half a mask in play when a full one would have been a lot more popular. Also many comments about if I did get a full mask how I should seriously consider attaching it to face permanently.
btw--I am on the left

This is the evil villian (redundant) with cape posing with his lady friend the lovely Lindsay who's "disguised" as Pearl Pure Heart the object of the evil villian's attentions. Note wig and rope used to tie her to railroad track. The rope's color/texture matched Pearl's dress beautifully --a nice useful tasteful accesory for the wardrobe of any maiden in distress.

Also, if you enlarge pic check out Jeff's eyes. His intentions are definitely not honorable in any way.

This is one of the few scenes fit to make public from our motel room at the Double Tree, which is where everyone who was anyone showed up after reception. Among many other things there were several heated euchre games , like this one involving 2 Hemmelgarns, a Kleinhenz, and an unidentified Gumbi who just showed up, grabbed a seat at the table , ate all the Doritos , drank a bunch of beers, and plugged up the toilet (so much green slime)--twice(. Then as mysteriously as he came, he left , his hands full of Micholobe Lite.

And yes, money did change hands during most of these card games. It is fortunate that the Ohio gaming Commission did not show up and haul the whole lot away for illegal activities. Actually as I think about it , I should have made the call to the OGC, a lot more sleep would have been had.

Looking on are Leslie Hemmelgarn Hobbs ace euchre player and taunter/jawer extraordinaire and Katherine Baltes budding euchre superstar who traveled all the way from Doylestown Pa. It is unclear what Miss Katherine's relationship was/is with the mysterious Gumbi. She seemed to always be near him and in this pic there is her arm around Gumbi from which readers can draw their own conclusions. Personally I think it had something to do with how icky sticky Gumbi's outer covering was.

Also note the bunch of soap bubbles floating in the air. These were everywhere all night and I honestly can not tell you where they were coming from. Whoever was blowing them around managed to do so in secret, but in the morning I found several empty bubble bottles with the finger prints wiped off.

Things were going strong when I could not keep my eyes open after 3 a.m. Our bed was up that stairs and the sounds were just as loud there than in the room below. The conversations seemed to increase in volume as the sun came up.

Looking back I find it tough to figure out what was real and what was just part of a series of wild dreams that night/early morning. This time frame is sure to become immortalized in Baltes family history as the participants polish their stories and have selective memory about events that occured. A little like the aftermath of the battle of Gettysburg or any good New years Eve party.