This was a fun weekend. I went to Georgia to spend the weekend with Dawn and have a little birthday fun for her niece and one of her friends.
After a long day at work on Friday, I took my standard 7pm flight down to Atlanta. Unfortunately, the bar at the airport was closed, so I couldn't have a pre-flight beverage, but them's the breaks. The ride was smooth and I arrived in the ATL at a reasonable time.
Dawn picked me up at the airport and it was quite a pleasant surprise to see her smiling face inside the airport at the Baggage Claim area. We left the airport and drove to Taco Mac for some dinner and a beverage or two. Good times! I even got a Rogue Juniper Ale pint glass for free! After Taco Mac, we went to Wal-Mart to procure a card and a small gift or two for Jordan's birthday party.
Saturday began with that birthday party. We went over to Brett & Julie's for the party. Dawn's entire family was there. We brought in our gifts and began to play with the kids. After all, I had to find some people there who thought like I do! Jordan was walking up a storm, going back and forth and back again. Once the food was served, the adults found our way around the TV and watch Georgia Tech drop a close game to Maryland. Then it was gift time. Dawn got Jordan a really neat stool with her name spelled out in primary color letters. Jordan, of course, absolutely loved it. She kept hopping up on the stool and trying to ride it like her scooter. I picked up a Bath Tiime Mickey and Minnie Mouse and a little stuffed dog for her. Then, Dawn's family made a grave error and handed me the camcorder. So I spent the next few minutes filing Jordan opening up her gifts and playing with them. However, the filing fun hit it's zenith at cake time. Jordan proceeded to get cake all over her face. It was sooooo adorable!!! I spent the rest of the party playing with the kids some more. It was fun for Dawn and I to pull Evan and Haley around the neighborhood in their wagon. It was also fun playing batting practice pitcher for Evan. All in all, the party was a blast.
After the party, we looked at a few things for the wedding as we drove around Cobb County. We looked at a place for the wedding reception, but it was mucho pricy! Still, we've got a handle on what we're gonna do. We've got the church, we've got a good idea of the reception place. Dawn talked to the minister who's going to officiate at the ceremony, so that's another thing out of the way. There's still a lot to do and a lot left to pay for, but we'll figure hout how to take care of all of that when the time comes.
Later on, we went to Daniel and Heidi's to celebrate Daniel's birthday. I engaged in the world's longest ever game of pool with Daniel, we were both just that bad. Finally, he won. We had a great time just hanging out. I got to see some of the 'Canes game on Daniel's big screen (Center Ice was free), but alas, they blew a 3rd period lead to Pittsburgh. As we were getting ready to leave, Daniel's two teenage sons began to play the piano and sax, and wow, were they good! I mean, seriously, I could only imagine having that kind of musical ability. A great time was had by all.
Once Sunday arrived, we woke up early to go to church. It was another enjoyable service and, yes, we taught Sunday School again. After the service, we went back to Dawn's to watch the State-Wake basketball game. It's the first (regular season) game in 3 seasons that we've not been there in person for but, of course, family trumps hoops and being there for Jordan's party made missing the game easy. As the first half wound on, Wake maintained a lead between 5 and 10 points. Courtney Fells (he's a gunnner!) had half of State's first half points. Once the second half began, State chipped away at the lead and even pulled ahead with 2 minutes to go. State could have taken the lead to 4 with 30-some seconds left, but J.J. Hickson missed two free throws. Ishmael Smith for Wake, as he is wont to do, hit a clutch shot to tie the game with 5 seconds to go. After a timeout, Gavin Grant dribbled up the court and launched a potential game-winning three pointer which..... bounced off the rim only to be jammed in by Ben McCauley with less than a second to go. I admit, I jumped off of the couch momentarily in celebration. Of course, we were both quite tame in our rooting for our teams and I tried to be very restrained in my celebrations. Dawn didn't rub it in after the football game this year and I don't plan to do that, either. Of course, I'm happy State won, but I knew Dawn was equally bummed about her team.
After the game, we ran a few more wedding related errands. We looked at another possible reception area and that went well. After that, we went to visit Dawn's folks and got the honeymoon place booked up. A guy's got to have priorities, yo! Finally, we returned home to cook some dinner and watch the Super Bowl. We cooked penne pasta with marinara, meatballs, turkey sausage and red peppers. I also made a salad to go with it. Needless to say, the food was better than the first three quarters of the game. Admittedly, I can't stand either team. As much as I despise Eli Manning for his draft day stunt (and because I'm a huge Philip Rivers fan), I have to give him credit for his play in the 4th quarter. The commercials were pretty average.
There you have it, that's my weekend. After that I returned to my reality of long hours and lots of stress at work. Still, the reward at the end of my toils and all of our planning will be worth the effort.
Until next time...
Believe It!
