July 3-5

July 3rd was a productive day.

First was a visit to the rehab center my grandfather had been moved to, where he will be tortured while he convalesces. I can't imagine it's easy to relearn how to walk, especially when you're trying to do it with two brand new knee joints.

I saw this sign every time I went to the hospital/rehab center and I laughed every damn time.

After that we went to lunch at Rosa's.

Where apparently it's very expensive to eat on Tuesdays...

...But maybe that's how they pay for all the pink paint?

One of the best things about Rosa's is the sopapillas. Another is the home made tortillas. Like any decent tortilleria, they have an automated machine that presses and cooks the tortillas before sending them to a conveyor to cool and be stacked. Keira thought this was the most amazing thing and drug her "cousants" to view them with her.

OMGWTFBBQ!!1!!1! A TORTILLA MACHINE!!!

After lunch it was off to Frontier Texas, a museum in Abilene with some cool multi media exhibits and unabashed accounts of frontier life. The artifacts, while far and few in between, were at least of decent quality and interest.

Frontier Texas!

Artifacts from the area - the cases nearest the revolver are a three-inch and a six-inch Gatling gun casing.

One of the cooler exhibits, I think it might have been titled "Stampede".

Wolves and buffalo. To not like this would be unamurican.

Stacey and K in the stage coach that was used in multimedia exhibits. (I think it was originally built for Dances With Wolves according to the plaque on it.)

A cross section example of the "cannon ball courthouse" that still exists today in Buffalo Gap (I totally have to go see this building next time I'm in the area). With the cannon balls, the stones will not move no matter the condition of the surrounding mortar.

I think barbed wire in Texas is like corn in Kansas.

...

After Frontier, we headed to the Grace museum. The Grace started as a hotel way back in the day, located across the street from the railway station.

After being a hotel for many, many years it fell into disrepair and became an eyesore. Then, not too long ago, it was taken over and turned into a museum and reception venue.

The ball room about twenty-five years ago (upper right).

And the ball room as it sits today (ready for a wedding and everything).

A hundred-year-old, Victorian "second day" dress. Apparently it was just as important as the wedding gown, as it's what the bride wore the day after her wedding to receive guests (and ostensibly after a long night of showing her husband her ankles!)

One of the most notable exhibits there was an Ansel Adams exhibit with it's own dedicated room, with original prints from an original album (they framed the actual pages of the album for the exhibit).

Picture unrelated: Girls gone wild, 1914.

After that, it was off to the Texas Store to buy a few souvenirs.

How much do Texan's love Dr. Pepper? This much.

When we were done at the Texas Store it was time to hit u Starbucks as we were all draggin' just a bit. And then it was time for the best shopping trip ever. Me, U, C1, C2, and Keira headed out for what is probably the best store I've ever seen.

It's...so...beautiful...(tear)

After about an hour we made our purchases and took our fireworks outside to the car, then headed home.

That's right, we bought a grocery basket full. And most of them can double as ranged weapons that can kill a horse in a hundredth of a second. Enjoy your sparklers, Californians.

When we got there we headed over to the Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Me being somewhat retarded, totally spaced that I could embarrass Stacey by telling them it was her birthday. She of course waited till after dinner to tell me she was worried I would do that, at which point I facepalmed and realized my mistake. Next year Stacey...next year.

On the way home from dinner we stopped at a small stand and got a few more rockets and such to shoot off that night, since there was no way I was gonna wait till the fourth to start setting shit on fire.

The fourth was fairly low key. It started with another visit to the rehab facility, then off to Whataburger for lunch. Stacey and I think Whataburger is just about the best damn thing there is as far as hamburgers go (excluding, of course, in-n-out, wich is the best thing to ever be put in ones mouth), so we were more than agreeable to going there. of course, I may never use their butter after seeing the care they take to seal their tubs...

The gap is so it can breathe, right?

Apparently, no one told anyone else that it was Stacey's birthday. That little diddy came out when I started to make birthday brownies for Stacey. After a dressing down for not announcing that fact over public media and/or using an Amber Alert to disseminate the info, we got down to Stacey's birthday dinner: Chicken satay, peanut sauce, rice, salad, and for dessert: frosted brownies and chess pie.

I think it was while we were making dinner that the bottle of scotch disappeared between U and myself. It was weird - I'd pour a shot for one of us into our respective shot glass and it would evaporate. I know that's what happened cause we went through just about a full bottle of twelve-year Macallan and I only remember drinking three shots...

While scotch was evaporating Keira, C1, and C2 made Stacey a paper birthday card/cake. (Note: I've told my grandparents they should get an exterminator to rid themselves of that rat on the top of the chair behind Stacey but they insist it's a dog and their pet.)

After dinner, with bellies full and some of us with scotch-induced bubbles popping around our heads, it was time to get down to business. Serious business.

We had bought mortars (the re-loadable kind, not the lame one shot deals), roman candles, firecrackes, etc, etc. I don't have to many pictures because I was too busy blowing shit up.

The re-loadable mortars were awesome.

"Light, and get away."

Thanks to a slow shutter speed I got the fuse burning and the air burst.

To be honest all the "Wrong & Dangerous" things look awesome...

You know this was awesome just by looking at it.

The next day we had a few fountains and firecrackers left, so we put them to good use.

... on a fire ant hill!

I was thinking we could leave to head home around nine am, then that got pushed to noon, then finally at two pm we left for home. The biggest hold up was to see my grandfather one more time before we left, and then lunch at Rosa's one more time. On the way out of town I promised Stacey we could stop by a sunflower field, so we did.

This was maybe one-tenth of the sunflower field.

Of course, Stacey had to wade into the sunflower sea and get a few pictures.

We finally got home around three am on the sixth. It was a low key day; picked some ripe Montmorency cherries to freeze for future mead production, cussed the birds that ate all the rip cherries in our Bing cherry tree, got the sprinkler timer working for the lawns, and I got myself ready for work the next day at eight am. And that was how I spent my days off this month.

Too bad they can't all be this fun.