What's your play here: Wife's family get-together

[2planka]

The Warden wants to drag me to a cookout at her cousin's house tomorrow. We haven't seen this cousin since our wedding (four years ago). The cousin's 5 year old kid has been battling cancer and is in remission. This cookout is in his honor.

The Warden is very good to me. She lets me play cards regularly, she's fine with me and the lads heading off to Vegas twice a year, and she basically lets me have plenty of fun, with very few strings attached.

But I still don't want to go to this damn cookout. The main reason is that I play in a baseball league and have a doubleheader on Sunday. I want to cut my lawn, do some yardwork, laundry, and do some other chores, then plop my tail on the couch and kick back.

I don't want to run halfway across the state to eat burgers with people we haven't seen in 4 years. I'm happy the kid is recovering, but I've never met the little guy.

So how should I play this?