My Staycation

So for the last week I had been on Vacation, or Staycation if you will as I really didn't go anywhere. However I did have alot of fun. I put up a list last monday, and I got almost all of it done.

Before I get to the list however, let's address the Graduation Party I attended on my first day of vacation. It was my sister's Graduation from College. While I am extremely proud of my sister, there is a tad twinge, just a tad, of resentment present on this subject. When I graduated, I was the first in my family to do so. Also, we were having a kind of Feud with the majority of the extended family, I didn't have many college friends that I hung out with outside of college, and my Mother and Father were in a much less comfortable financial state then they are now. Bearing all this in mind, the expensive lunch I had with the two aunts and cousins that we were friendly with at the time was nice. However, having to split my day with my sister's dance recital, was not the highpoint of my Graduation day. Considering that she had three days to perform, and me graduating was kind of a once in a lifetime thing, I would have liked to have my day all to myself. So when I heard that my parents were throwing a big bash in their backyard, and inviting 50+ people, I was more then slightly perturbed. I voiced my objection subtly, then not so subtly, but eventually just grinned and bore it. My sister did deserve a celebration, of course that didn't stop me from making a dance recital joke or two...hey what can I say, being the bigger person is hard sometimes. Anyway, so after I forgot a few things (cameras, DOH!) at home, and got there a little later then I wanted to, it wasn't a bad time. The deck looked really great, and I could tell that my Dad had worked really hard on the yard. I was glad to see all the people having a decent time. The college kids set up a beer pong table (I still do understand how to play or why this game is played at all), which perked them up. Even some of the kids (with root beer), and grown-ups got in on the pong fun. I particularly liked my Aunt's face when her newly graduated daughter taught her a drinking game. I just videoed and took pictures, which is my general role in these events. The DJ my parents hired sucked though. Apparently, it would have cost a couple hundred dollars more for him to be an MC instead of just play music, which was out of my parents budget. It was kinda sad, and I even told my folks that I could have done what he did with my macbook, and used my Iphone for a remote to still enjoy the party. Much like the DJ made my Wedding so fun, he killed this one. I actually have video of people putting their heads down. Eventually, some of the kids danced towards the end, but it wasn't the party my mom wanted it to be. The food was great at any rate as it always is at my parents house, so all in all it was a fun way to start the week.

So, with the family obligation out of the way, it was time to start the list. After a shaky start with my wife and I not being in sync(aka cranky), we got to the first thing I wanted to do. This was to play mini-golf with my wife. While this may seem to some as not the most exciting activity in the world. I always remember it with great fondness. I use to go there with my Grandfathers and Father to play the only "sport" I played outside. It was on the greens, long before I had nintendo, that I first learned about fair play. I've taken my wife golfing before of course, when we were dating, but it had been a few years, and it showed in our game.

Interesting tidbit, the course that I always played on (the "green one") or middle level course had been replaced by a kids fun land or something like that. It did look pretty neat, with a water balloon dueling slingshot rig set up, and a large inflatable castle complete with slide. Still I always found that course to be the most fun. Ah well, things change, and one cannot weep over torn up greens. So we played the "easy" and "hard" courses, which to our great surprise found that we did better on the hard then on the easy. Go fig.

NOTE: Since I've come to the conclusion that anybody spending more then 5 minutes on this blog who actually knows me can figure out who the hell I really am, you'll be seeing more pictures of me and my wife, as I see no reason not to put them up. So here are some of us at Village Green Golf on Long Island.


Here's my wife putting.

I tried to assist my lovely bride with her putts by using the same method my Dad used to help me. "Aim for the middle of my feet dear"

My wife was also kind enough to assist me with some of the longer putts as well. Plus isn't she just so darn cute.


Honestly, I've only gotten it in the space shuttle once, when i was 15 I think. Notice the Red ball on the tee. This is the ball I started with. It was not the ball I finished with. More on that below.


This is the replacement ball I fished out of the bushes after I lost my red ball in the same bushes due to not knowing my own strength. During our second run through the course, I exchanged my light blue ball for my wife's dark blue one, cause well...it's a sky blue ball!

After the first two games, I was ahead 2-0. We had decided to play again as we had purchased "All you can play", and wanted to get our moneys worth. So I decided to spice up the competition by making a friendly wager with my wife. If I won the next game, she'd have to bake me my favorite cake. If she won, I'd have to bake her a cake. And we were off.


As you can see, I was off to an auspicious start...by fishing

Almost got it...


My troubles did not let up, as further down the course this happened...*TWICE*. This was where my ball ended up when I reached the rocket ship hole again...*sigh*


Despite these setbacks however, my wife was getting 5, 6, and 7's all along this course. i made up or my of course penalty strokes with two, yes that's TWO holes in one later on in the course. So in the end I got to have my cake and eat it too.




The next day, we went to the beach. Now we haven't gone to the beach in almost 4 years. Almost as long as we've been together. We went twice during the very early stages of our courtship, but haven't gone since due to jobs, family obligations, illness, weddings, fear of sunburn (we are both very pale), etc. So I was determined that since we had a few nice days after the month o rain, seriously, I don't know how you brits and seattle people do it. I really missed the sun, and this is a lot coming from the guy that wears specially polarized lens so that the sun doesn't give him migraines. The rain isn't that bad, but the fact that people can't drive in the rain sends me straight up the wall. Anywho, so we headed to Smithpoint beach on Fire Island, a place best known to me as where to go to the fair, and to see fireworks. Honestly, I didn't even know there was as much beach there as there is. Now it wasn't as majestic as the now eroded away field 5 at Robert moses state park, where I spent the summers of my youth, but it was very quaint. There were plenty of family, and many sunbathing youths with only a single thought in their heads "attract other sunbathing youths". Seriously, I've never seen a beach with so many people walking around outside the water. Of course, once we went in the water, we found out why....IT WAS FREEZING!Now, being that it was the coldest June on record I think, and that the sun was barely out for the entire month this makes sense in hindsight. Anyway, I now know the sensation of swimming in salt ice water. It's invigorating to say the least, but after 20 minutes or so, my wife and I started to lose feeling in our extremities, so we decided to get out. This was the first beach day that I can remember where I didn't actually spend the majority of the time in the water. So cuddled on the beach blanket, I did something new at the beach...I read a book. So check off another thing on the list. I read 35 pages of my book, and I'm trying to read more each night. It's good that the chapters in the book are small, so I can get interrupted without having to remember where I am in the chapter.

Here's the book:
I've only read a few chapters, but if you like fantasy or magic the gathering at all, so far it seems like a good read.

After two more days of just hanging around the house with my wife, watching dvds of sitcoms, and playing xbox, I finally finshed my fanfic post. It took 4 days on and off, wracking my brain to finish that thing. It was so great on Wednesday night when it just started to flow so readily. I wrote 8 pages in those 6 hours. I fine tuned it and wrote the conclusion on thursdy, and I was done.

Friday, before my wife went to work, we played Rock Band. It had been a while since we'd played it, and I forgot how much fun it is. I wish I could get better at it though, but alas, there just aren't enough hours in the day. That night i loaded and stabilized my video of my sister's graduation and graduation party, so I could make a montage. It took 5 hours to import and stabilize! SHEESH! So after playing Halo with friends, I stayed up till 5 am, and made my Sister's going away present. See she's going to greenland for a month to do Research on glacial cores. It will kind of be like survivor, with only 4 outfits of clothing, and no showers for 4 weeks. 40 degree temperature, 24 hours of sunlight. it will be quite the experience for her I'm sure.

The video turned out great, everyone liked it, and I even figured out how to post an album to Facebook directly from Iphoto. Pretty neat!

Saturday I slept till 2, and then attended my parents 4th of July celebration. It's funny how much I enjoy reminising with my parents these days. I had brought the Wii, in case I got bored, but I was fine the entire time. I even played a game called bananagrams with my sister and her friends. this was while fireworks which all my neighbors get went off all around our house. It was a fun fourth complete with delicious viddles, and patriotic clothing, :).

Sunday was errand day, and to do the stuff that we didn't have time to do the rest of the week. It was busy, but we got most of it done. I of course played magic all week, and did relatively ok. the worst part is that since a new set is being released in like three-four weeks, the sellers on Magic Online aren't paying as much for the packs that I'm winning now. So I'm not recouping my money as fast as I normally do. I think this will lead to less and less play until magic 2010 edition comes out in Late July to early August.


So all in all it was a great Staycation, but it's back to work today. So for Music 4 my Monday, I'll choose "Workin for a Livin" by Huey Lewis and the News.



P.S.-The only thing on the list I didn't get to do was play the pokemon game some more, but i did turn it on for a few minutes, but I don't think that counts. I'll try to fit in in though.

P.S.S.- Funny enough, with all the time I had on vacation, I was less active on this blog and on facebook then I am when I'm at work. Weird huh? Also, I had a minor set-back on the workout path as I neglected to workout every day during the vacation, either due to having to go somewhere, or to having just taken a shower....whatever the reason, it's done, and I can't undo it. I'm starting back up today after work, and that's final. Oh, good news though. I went to the doctor, and I lost 8 pounds over the last month. WhooHoo! I'm down to 286. Only 60lbs more to go. At this rate i'll get there just in time for the Christmas season to fatten me back up. :)