I fell off the face of the Earth
But it's okay, I managed to hop back on when it swung around again *lol*.
Its been a very fun, but hectic weekend/beginning of the week here. But I'll give everyone a recap.
Friday: Got up at around 8, showered and got ready to go down to Wildlife Prarie Park with the folks and my nephew Andrew. Around 8:30 they showed up and we headed out.
That place hasn't changed hardly at all in the last decade or so since I've been there. But it is still a great place to hike around and visit. One new thing that they added that my nephew really enjoyed was the new "Snakes and more" pavillion that had all the local reptile species for Illinois in some nice enclosures. Well all except the Timber Rattlesnake, it looked like it was in a little too small of an enclosure, but the Zookeeper said they were building a larger one for it and this was only temporary.
But we walked around most of the zoo/park and saw most of the animals. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to see the Otters, but their enclosure was near the swan/duck/crane lake they have and it was probably a good 3 mile hike around it and my mom and dad really didn't want to hike that far (this was after we had already walked a couple of miles, so can't say that I blame them). But since it was a nice, farily cool morning with a decent breeze, almost all the animals we out running around and playing and we didn't have any trouble finding them (which is actually kind of rare for that place since the animals have huge natural enclosures to run around in.
Got a few good pictures of a lot of it, but my camera was low on batteries and I didn't bring any extras, so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, but still managed to get some pretty nice pics, which I will hopefully post tomorrow along with a little more detailed account of it.
But after walking around, we got some Bison Burgers for lunch and headed home. After I got back, I worked for Richard a little bit, got my paycheck from Bergners (which was actually much larger than I was expecting!), did a little running and came home.
Saturday: My dand and I took Andrew out to lake Storey here in Galesburg for the annual "Heritage" days that they have around here. Its a civil war re-enactment and mountain man rendevous kinda thing where they have craftsmen, shops, and other things like that all around the lake.
We had a lot of fun looking at everything and seeing the various shows and little events that they had (although they did cut out a few of them like the Canoe race, Tomahawk Throwing, Bow-Shooting, and Candy Cannon for insurance reasons I think). Andrew still had some money left that his dad gave him for the weeks he was staying down here and actually bought himself a little -real- claymore sword and some throwing knives. The kid is kinda obsessed with ancient weapons and everything. Tony and Heidi kinda blame me to a degree since I have so much fantasy stuff around like games, movies, and items like my sword and throwing axe and everything *lol*, but since he is 13 and very responsible and mature for his age and careful with things, plus the fact that they are (were)both military and have taught him a lot of weapon/firearm safety since he was a child, its just something he has always been interested in.
Then the little brat went and bought me a birthday present! I tried to get him to get himself something instead or just save it for something else, but dad said he was so excited about buying me a birthday present at Heritage days, so I went ahead and let him. He got me this actually pretty cool green handled hunting knife out there. I'll have to take a picture of it and post it sometime here. But that was so sweet of the little guy. I am definitly his favorite uncle thats for sure *lol*. I think its just cause we are so much alike and have a lot of the same interests and hobbies. Like I have said on several occasions, I never really need to have a kid of my own, because I already have another little version of me running around in my nephew Andrew *lol*.
Another cool little kick the kid has been on lately is that he has recently discovered Monty Python (his dad is to blame for that one *lol*). He loves the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (but really who DOESN'T Love that movie?). He even has a t-shirt with the black knight on it that says "It's only a flesh wound". But all day at Wildlife Prairie park and at Heritage Days, we quoted the movie and I told him about other classic Python sketches that he hadn't seen yet and so on. Its really cool, and a bit funny, to see him taking such an interest in Python at such a young age. He turns 13 this december. Man where does the time go? I can remeber holding him when he was a tiny little baby. I feel old *lol*
Speaking of old, last week I got an e-mail from my old, former friend, Donnie. He had just recently graduated culinary school and was going to be back for a week or so before he began his internship down in Orlando Florida working for one of the Disney resorts. But Saturday, he was supposed to be back down here for the week before heading out and wanted to see some of his old friends. So he told myself and the rest of our old crew to come down around 6 or so since thats when he was supposed to get back.
Well, 8 o'clock rolled around, got a call from Joe asking if I was going to go over there. I was a little hesitant, since I hadn't been on very good terms with Donnie for the last two years or so, but Ilately he had been e-mailing his old friends and acting more like the Donnie I used to know. So I decided to go. Joe was the only other one that wasn't busy or too far away to make it, so we decided to head on over even though neither of us had gotten a call from Donnie saying they were back yet. I got to Donnies parents place first (where he was supposed to be) and no one was there. I knocked and looked around, but the place was deserted. So I started back and met Joe as he was driving in and told him they weren't there. So we decided to go to a local bar that they (their family) frequents and wait and call them a little later.
So Joe and I spent the next hour or so at a dumb little redneck bar. There is a funny story that happened during this time, but I will tell it in another post. But after about an hour, Joe calls their house and found out that they were running late and had just arrived. He said his parents were dead tired and were going to bed, but he and Punitha (his gf) would come out and meet us and hang out for a bit.
A half hour later and they show up and it was like seeing my old friend for the first time in over two years. I had seen and talked to him several times during those two years, but the person I was talking to wasn't really my friend, but someone who just looked like my old buddy. But for a couple of hours Saturday night, I got to hang out with the same guy I was friends with years ago and it was nice, The crew was back together again for at least one night anyway. Whether this change in Donnie is temporary or not, remains to be seen. But it was nice while it lasted. Next weekend, or this weekend I should say, they are having a going away party and he invited us to that, so that should hopefully be a lot of fun. Joe, Bryan and myself also want to get together and have a gaming night sometime before he leaves, but that remains to be seen.
Sunday: was spent working for Richard for a while and trying to recover from the previous nights festivities.
Monday I spent doing pretty much the same as Sunday, except I had to watch Andrew for a while while mom and dad went to a doctors appointment. We basically just sat around the computer for a couple of hours watching old Monty Python clips on Youtube and a grand time was had by all *lol*.
Today: I had to work at Bergners. And due to the weekend festivities and trying to recover from them, my sleep cycle was totally out of whack and I wasn't able to get any sleep last night. On top of that, I really wasn't feeling well, but I need the hours, so I went in to work anyway. We got in a fairly large truck, but not too bad. Unfortunatly, we lost on of our helpers, so we were a bit shorthanded. But we got the truck done, except all the christmas junk, done in about 7 hours. After work I ran around a little bit and turned in my DORS timesheet and got something to eat and then headed home where I pretty much crashed for the last 8 hours or so.
Its been a very fun, but hectic weekend/beginning of the week here. But I'll give everyone a recap.
Friday: Got up at around 8, showered and got ready to go down to Wildlife Prarie Park with the folks and my nephew Andrew. Around 8:30 they showed up and we headed out.
That place hasn't changed hardly at all in the last decade or so since I've been there. But it is still a great place to hike around and visit. One new thing that they added that my nephew really enjoyed was the new "Snakes and more" pavillion that had all the local reptile species for Illinois in some nice enclosures. Well all except the Timber Rattlesnake, it looked like it was in a little too small of an enclosure, but the Zookeeper said they were building a larger one for it and this was only temporary.
But we walked around most of the zoo/park and saw most of the animals. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to see the Otters, but their enclosure was near the swan/duck/crane lake they have and it was probably a good 3 mile hike around it and my mom and dad really didn't want to hike that far (this was after we had already walked a couple of miles, so can't say that I blame them). But since it was a nice, farily cool morning with a decent breeze, almost all the animals we out running around and playing and we didn't have any trouble finding them (which is actually kind of rare for that place since the animals have huge natural enclosures to run around in.
Got a few good pictures of a lot of it, but my camera was low on batteries and I didn't bring any extras, so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, but still managed to get some pretty nice pics, which I will hopefully post tomorrow along with a little more detailed account of it.
But after walking around, we got some Bison Burgers for lunch and headed home. After I got back, I worked for Richard a little bit, got my paycheck from Bergners (which was actually much larger than I was expecting!), did a little running and came home.
Saturday: My dand and I took Andrew out to lake Storey here in Galesburg for the annual "Heritage" days that they have around here. Its a civil war re-enactment and mountain man rendevous kinda thing where they have craftsmen, shops, and other things like that all around the lake.
We had a lot of fun looking at everything and seeing the various shows and little events that they had (although they did cut out a few of them like the Canoe race, Tomahawk Throwing, Bow-Shooting, and Candy Cannon for insurance reasons I think). Andrew still had some money left that his dad gave him for the weeks he was staying down here and actually bought himself a little -real- claymore sword and some throwing knives. The kid is kinda obsessed with ancient weapons and everything. Tony and Heidi kinda blame me to a degree since I have so much fantasy stuff around like games, movies, and items like my sword and throwing axe and everything *lol*, but since he is 13 and very responsible and mature for his age and careful with things, plus the fact that they are (were)both military and have taught him a lot of weapon/firearm safety since he was a child, its just something he has always been interested in.
Then the little brat went and bought me a birthday present! I tried to get him to get himself something instead or just save it for something else, but dad said he was so excited about buying me a birthday present at Heritage days, so I went ahead and let him. He got me this actually pretty cool green handled hunting knife out there. I'll have to take a picture of it and post it sometime here. But that was so sweet of the little guy. I am definitly his favorite uncle thats for sure *lol*. I think its just cause we are so much alike and have a lot of the same interests and hobbies. Like I have said on several occasions, I never really need to have a kid of my own, because I already have another little version of me running around in my nephew Andrew *lol*.
Another cool little kick the kid has been on lately is that he has recently discovered Monty Python (his dad is to blame for that one *lol*). He loves the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (but really who DOESN'T Love that movie?). He even has a t-shirt with the black knight on it that says "It's only a flesh wound". But all day at Wildlife Prairie park and at Heritage Days, we quoted the movie and I told him about other classic Python sketches that he hadn't seen yet and so on. Its really cool, and a bit funny, to see him taking such an interest in Python at such a young age. He turns 13 this december. Man where does the time go? I can remeber holding him when he was a tiny little baby. I feel old *lol*
Speaking of old, last week I got an e-mail from my old, former friend, Donnie. He had just recently graduated culinary school and was going to be back for a week or so before he began his internship down in Orlando Florida working for one of the Disney resorts. But Saturday, he was supposed to be back down here for the week before heading out and wanted to see some of his old friends. So he told myself and the rest of our old crew to come down around 6 or so since thats when he was supposed to get back.
Well, 8 o'clock rolled around, got a call from Joe asking if I was going to go over there. I was a little hesitant, since I hadn't been on very good terms with Donnie for the last two years or so, but Ilately he had been e-mailing his old friends and acting more like the Donnie I used to know. So I decided to go. Joe was the only other one that wasn't busy or too far away to make it, so we decided to head on over even though neither of us had gotten a call from Donnie saying they were back yet. I got to Donnies parents place first (where he was supposed to be) and no one was there. I knocked and looked around, but the place was deserted. So I started back and met Joe as he was driving in and told him they weren't there. So we decided to go to a local bar that they (their family) frequents and wait and call them a little later.
So Joe and I spent the next hour or so at a dumb little redneck bar. There is a funny story that happened during this time, but I will tell it in another post. But after about an hour, Joe calls their house and found out that they were running late and had just arrived. He said his parents were dead tired and were going to bed, but he and Punitha (his gf) would come out and meet us and hang out for a bit.
A half hour later and they show up and it was like seeing my old friend for the first time in over two years. I had seen and talked to him several times during those two years, but the person I was talking to wasn't really my friend, but someone who just looked like my old buddy. But for a couple of hours Saturday night, I got to hang out with the same guy I was friends with years ago and it was nice, The crew was back together again for at least one night anyway. Whether this change in Donnie is temporary or not, remains to be seen. But it was nice while it lasted. Next weekend, or this weekend I should say, they are having a going away party and he invited us to that, so that should hopefully be a lot of fun. Joe, Bryan and myself also want to get together and have a gaming night sometime before he leaves, but that remains to be seen.
Sunday: was spent working for Richard for a while and trying to recover from the previous nights festivities.
Monday I spent doing pretty much the same as Sunday, except I had to watch Andrew for a while while mom and dad went to a doctors appointment. We basically just sat around the computer for a couple of hours watching old Monty Python clips on Youtube and a grand time was had by all *lol*.
Today: I had to work at Bergners. And due to the weekend festivities and trying to recover from them, my sleep cycle was totally out of whack and I wasn't able to get any sleep last night. On top of that, I really wasn't feeling well, but I need the hours, so I went in to work anyway. We got in a fairly large truck, but not too bad. Unfortunatly, we lost on of our helpers, so we were a bit shorthanded. But we got the truck done, except all the christmas junk, done in about 7 hours. After work I ran around a little bit and turned in my DORS timesheet and got something to eat and then headed home where I pretty much crashed for the last 8 hours or so.