This Weekend

I have a doozy of a Labor Day weekend coming up. Lots to do, but I'm looking forward to them all. They include:

• CAL v. Tennessee - Saturday The season opener for both teams, this game is a rematch from last year's opener where we got our asses handed to us. This time, the game is at Berkeley, and we're ranked three spots ahead of the Vols (#12 v. #15). I'm looking forward to seeing Nate Longshore begin his development into possibly the Pac-10's best QB, and DeSean Jackson begin his Heisman campaign. GO BEARS!
• Family Reunion - Saturday I'm more excited about this one than in years past for a couple of reasons. One, this is the first year of a new format, where we're only going back two generations before mine. We have a larger reunion every year that goes back to the original ancestors who came over here on the slave ships from Africa. And seeing as those original Grays had 13 children, let's just say there are too many branches on the tree. So this year we begin a new reunion that starts at my late grandmother's generation. Because it will be smaller, more people I actually know are making the effort to attend. Which brings me to the second reason I'm excited. All my cousins that I grew up with (running around in our grandparents' house) are flying in from all over the country to attend this event. We haven't been all together at one time since I was about 13 years old. It'll be good to see them all, and reminisce a bit.
• Block Party - Sunday On the street I grew up on as a kid, we have a new tradition that started a few years ago, where every first or second week in September, we have a block party to celebrate numerous birthdays, one of whom is my brother's (Sep. 3rd). And it's not just that about 4 of the kids all have birthdays within a week or two of each other, they were all born in the same year. I'm thinking, maybe there was one hell of a block party in early December of 1978.
• Birthdays - Monday Will probably do something for my brother on his birthday, and I'll also be attending a bday dinner for my pal Cynthia. I haven't seen the "Berkeley" crew in awhile, so it should be fun to drink, eat, and then be annoyed by all their incessant yapping. Just kidding girls... but you do talk a lot. A LOT.

I'll try to give an update as to how the weekend actually went. Later.