Memorial Day weekend

As bad as it sounds, the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Memorial Day are the shopping deals to be had. It began Saturday morning when we cruised around our neighborhood scoping out the garage sales we looked up the day before. We got several kid books for a quarter a piece, a giant dinosaur puzzle for $2, and my favorite buy of all, an old-school TV for $5. No remote control here... you need to physically turn the dial to change the channels. Classic. My other steal was the patio furniture set that I got for $400 off the original price (more than 50% off). I was quite excited since I was going to purchase it when the price initially dropped $200 but decided to wait for this weekend. Boy it paid off.

"Don't turn that dial."

The new patio furniture set.

Saturday night we went to my former co-worker John's newly built townhouse in downtown. It was a housewarming/baby shower for another former co-worker Michele. It was like a mini-reunion. That's the one and only thing I miss about working at Memorial Hermann, the co-workers... well, the good ones. I don't care for the lazy ones. I introduced everyone to LCR. We drank plenty of wine as the giant bottle of Johnny Walker red was too nasty to consume. It was better off left as decor. It was good seeing everyone again as it was exactly a year since we all hung out together.

Playing LCR. (picture stolen from Michelle's Facebook)

On Memorial Day I invited my cousins and their families over for some burgers and dogs. It was a good opportunity for the kids to all play together. While the kids played outside with the battery powered vehicles, tricycles, and spraying water, we (the parents) had our own fun. Being that we're all family, there was bound to be some sort of competition involved. We had a decathlon, except it was seven (random) events, so a heptathlon: 1v1 round robin basketball, free throws, 3-pointers, pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, and running. This was pure hilarity. It all came down to the last event which was to run around the block, which I initially thought was a quarter-mile. Afterwards we found out it was 0.4 miles. Not surprising as that run was long... no such thing as sprinting the whole way. In the end, I was the winner with 15/16 points, Jonathan in second with 14 points, Mike in third with 12/13 points, and Peter coming in last place with a sad grand total of 1 point. Good times with family.

One of many times Peter getting scored on.