Weekend of 07APR11 Thursday - Adding the extra day in here for a rather special event happening Thursday night; My buddy Dave's commissioning ceremony where he was finally given his 2nd Lieutenants bars. His mom and brother pinned them onto his shoulders, he got his first salute from one of the old Master Sergeants that teaches at NEU, and my buddy was officially an officer in the Oklahoma National Guard. After the ceremony we (myself, his old roommate, and his Mom, Brother, and sisters) headed to the Union Oyster House for a celebratory dinner. Dinner was amazing, but the best part came from the scheming that went into paying the bill. When the bill was delivered Daves mom JUMPED to grab it first, literally knocking over glasses in order to make sure Dave didn't get to it first. The problem? Dave had "went to the bathroom" earlier, actually stopping by the waitress station and giving them a credit card first. The Bill that we thought we were getting was simply the card and signature tab, nothing we could do. Turns out they do teach tactics in ROTC :P After dinner everyone headed their own ways, but Dave his brother Mike and I met up later on at Cigar Masters for a celebratory drink and smoke. The place was packed, way more than I'd ever seen before, but we were able to get our own corner, which slowly emptied out until it was just us four in the area when we left. Chilling out and congratulating Dave, smoking and sipping wine or beer. A good night indeed. Friday - Lazy day at work, spent finishing projects off and helping out with training sessions. The bike ride how was the highlight of the day thus far, where I had a light wind and pretty nice sun overhead. I was meeting Dave and his family at eight, so I worked out a bit, took a quick shower, and arrived at the restaraunt a few minutes ahead of the Siegfried clan. We ate a great dinner at Wagamama Noodles, chowing down on Ramen and spare ribs. Afterwards we all headed to the candy store to let his sisters stock up, then we headed over to ColdStone Creamery, picked up some yummy (double-reece's for me), and walked the ladies back to their hotel. Afterward leaving his mom and sisters at the hotel I helped Dave and his brother move the remainder of his stuff out of the dorm, shoved it all into my car, and headed back to my place. by that point it was around Midnight, so we chilled for a bit, then hit the hay after I set Dave up in the spare room. Saturday - VERY laid back day on Saturday, with Dave and I just chilling out, playing video games, and cooking up some food. Don't remember what lunch was, but dinner was a pretty solid set; cheese burgers, beer, and Jalapeno poppers with bacon. Seriously, what more could you ask for? Ohh, I think Dave and I also headed out to Regal Theaters to watch Thor. It was epic :) I did see Kittie and Teda there, but employed my best learned evasion techniques and didn't have to deal with any extra drama for the day. Whew. Sunday - Sunday was Mothers day, and so I headed home in the morning to give my mom a hand in the garden. When I got there, we had a quick snack, and I started helping her clear some of the flower beds of the weeds and leaves that had accumulated since the last summer. It was pretty hard work thanks to a bed of Lilly of the Valley, which completely saturate the soil with thick rubbery roots. I was finally able to shred through them all though, taking the hoe to them like there was no tomorrow. We worked the garden for a few hours, and then around 1800 we headed inside for some hot dogs, beer, and chips&salsa. After dinner, We headed into the dining room where Steve had set up a huge epic Warhammer 40,000 battle; three sides, two objectives each, an entire city worth of ruins, and lots of dice to roll. I took command of the Chaos army; two platoons worth of slavering hellspawn, dedicated to the god of combat and blood. My mom took the helm of the Eldar, an army of sapce-elves specialized in sniping, and deadly walker units. Steve was in charge of the Imperial Guard, a mechanized army of regular human troops, facing the untold horrors of the universe with only their massive balls to protect them. The battle took FOREVER (we actually had to stop, and resumed two weekends hence), but it was a really good time, seeing my bezerkers leading the slaughter of the elves, and my artillary and heavy armor dealing serious blows to the imperials. I headed home around midnight, and headed to sleep thinking about the slaughter :)
May17