Busy Relaxing Weekend

I hate to tell my gaming buddies this, but not playing on the weekends is really helping me get stuff done around the house as well as spend quality time with my wife and kid.

Another pleasantly productive weekend. Saturday was pretty low-key where Kate, Tessa, and I spent the morning just hanging around the house. Kate got some cleaning down while Tessa and I played World of Warcraft. (Tessa is very concerned that my Tauren Warrior doesn't have any shoes, but she also thinks my Blood Elf Mage has big ears and jumps well.) While Tessa napped in the afternoon, Kate and I prepped a few meals for our friends Bill and Tammy, who recently welcomed a daughter into their family. We remembered when Kate's Dad visited with us and cooked three or four meals for us after we got home with Tessa...and it was a blessing not to have to do any cooking or cleaning. We tried for the same, sending a lasagna, a chicken tetrazini, a chicken and black bean casserole, and a dozen or so homemade dinner rolls to the new parents. Kate also put together a apple-cranberry crisp as a dessert for dinner at the Keyes' home.

Dinner was a "mole" chili that our friend Ron put together. Let me tell you, if you ever have the opportunity to have my amigo Ron cook a soup or stew for you, take the chance! It was a great chili, and everyone seemed to enjoy Kate's dessert as well. We gave the sizable leftovers (Kate made a double batch) over to Bill and Tammy in case their sweet tooth needs tending to.

Here's some pictures of their baby girl, named Felicia Irene Keyes:





Great hair, huh? :-)

That evening, I got to feel like a real father because Tessa wanted me to read her bedtime stories while Kate hopped into the shower. When Tessa started to whimper that she didn't want me to leave her, I pulled her into my lap and held her close, rocking and bouncing her gently. She nuzzled on in and within ten or so minutes, she had dozed off. That's right - my daughter fell asleep in my arms. I may have fallen in love with her all over again; I'm not sure. :-)

After Tessa was down, Kate and I played a couple rounds of our new expansion of the Dominion game. I have to say - this is a fun game. Many thanks to our friend Dave and Gina for introducing it to us!

Sunday morning was a lazy affair. Kate's lingering cough had kept her up part of the night so she wasn't in a hurry to get up. Fortunately, we had a couple of church services to choose from so we stayed in bed an hour or two longer. Tessa started to have a fit, but again Daddy was able to hold her close and calm her down. Yay me!

We went to church then ran some errands around town real quick. Then we brought Tessa home and with some effort put her down for a nap. While she was resting, Kate and I continued our weekly project - namely, picking a section of the house and totally weeding/organizing it. We've been working on our office/guest room and I've been mercilessly throwing tons of stuff out in an effort to trim down our stock of stuff and furniture. And I have to say, it's felt really, really good to do so. It continues to amaze me how much stuff I keep around that I really don't need or even want. And it's also amazing how GOOD I feel once I've gotten rid of it.

So Kate and I plowed through the office again, this time with the goal of consolidating our books and other materials from four bookshelves down to the three. We were more than successful, and we now have a large bookshelf ready to be hauled away for Arc or Goodwill. We're hoping to do the same with our computer desk next since it's really more desk than we need...but that'll be another weekend.

I also did a little weeding of my t-shirts and the books we keep in the hallway and bedroom. More decluttering progress!

By the end of it, neither Kate nor I felt like cooking the dinner we had planned. So instead, I fished out some money from my cash jar (my "allowance" - made up of the dollars we save by my taking the bus to and from Longmont instead of driving) and made a quick hop over to King Soopers to buy a discounted large pizza and some broccoli-cheese soup for our dinner. Boy, after a productive afternoon and evening, some high-fat, greasy chow sure tasted great! ;-) I also grabbed a cheesecake slice for dessert but it was getting late and I have work in the morning. So we're saving the dessert for tomorrow.

All in all, I gotta say that I'm enjoying these weekends. The work around the house not only feels good to get done, but it's also good time that I spend with my wife and Tessa. Kate truly appreciates the time together as well as the completed chores so it's a win in both our eyes.

Here's hoping we can keep up the pace. :-)

As always, thanks a lot for reading and I hope you're having a really great day.

Bang Bang

Today was the first I'd ever fired a gun.

Bill and Tammy have recently joined the Front Range Gun Club - mostly for the experience and to decide if they'd like to purchase a firearm. They actually find that they enjoyed the sport of target shooting. Their membership allows them a certain number of guests each year so Bill invited me and Ron to go target shooting today.

Ron already owned a couple of handguns (a Beretta 9mm and a .38 revolver) so we didn't need to rent any from the club (though they had quite the selection). Bill bought some ammunition from the club along with a pair of 'zombie' targets for us to shoot at. Bill also had some spare safety goggles and ear protectors that I borrowed.

I have to say that having never been at a shooting range before, I thought this place was pretty top quality. They had about a dozen lanes and it wasn't too busy. The targets are stapled to rectangles of cardboard and a computerized control lets you move the target out to the range you want.

I tried both of Ron's handguns and decided that I kind of like the revolver a bit better. Both had kick to them but the revolver wasn't quite as pronounced. Also, the ejecting cartridges from the 9mm could be distracting. (A couple bounced off my head - glad I was wearing the required cap!) I noticed that I had a tendency to tense up just as I fired...and it'll take some getting used to not to squint when I'm aiming. All of my shots hit the actual target...but tended to drift to the right and slightly down. Probably has something to do with my stance or my squeezing of the trigger.

I also realized that gunshots are very, very loud. The ear protectors that Bill loaned me muffled out a lot of sound...but I could still hear the shots as audible cracks and could 'feel' the reverberation of the shots both that I made and my friends made. On the other, for whatever reason, I found the smell of gunpowder to be rather pleasant. Hopefully, that isn't a coloring of my character or something. :-)

I think the experience was pretty cool though. I finally got exercise those Second Amendment rights of mine. I don't think I'm quite ready to run out and buy myself an arsenal to stash at home...but I think I may tag along with Bill again every now and then. Whether or not I actually have a need to use a firearm, I suppose it's just one of those skills that it doesn't hurt to have.

All in all, pretty cool. Thanks to Bill for taking me and Ron out!

As always, thanks for reading - hope you're having a great day!

Mini-Golf at Fort Fun

So...while Kate was visiting with Dana down in Florida, she got it into her head that she enjoyed playing mini-golf. I've been promising her for months that we'd find time to get the gang together and go out for a game sometime. The only spot that I knew of was the mini-golf courses at Fort Fun, a local activity center.

We gave it a go on Wednesday evening after Bill got off of work....and had a blast! We were none of us particularly great at the game so no one felt particularly self concious about their performance. Most of us still managed par or one over par on the majority of holes. Bill and Kate both managed a couple of holes in one. My moment of the night was sending the ball out of the playing area and bouncing it into the water nearby. :-/ Oops.

Here's some pictures...


Entrance to Fort Fun


Ron tees off while the ladies look on


Bill's turn to tee off


Tammy and Kate try to get their shots around the rocky obstacle


Me trying for a rare par

And here are a couple of shots of the mini-golf course itself...





We're pretty sure we're going to have to do this again. If for no other reason then I have to beat Bill at this game. :-) Although we may have to try Laser Tag as well. And maybe the Mini-Bowling. Yeah, we'll be back. :-)

Thanks for reading. Hope you're having a great day!