2009 -- Here is to a good year!

Well, we all survived 2008.

To catch up everyone on my happenings around New Years here is the overall schedule from Christmas until New Years. Work, Basketball tournament, work, trip. The trip involved me going out and hanging out with my friends the Mays as they were out 4-wheeling in the Mojave desert near El Centro (Salton City). I finally got out there around 7:30, and finally found the campsite around 8 (there are no landmarks in the middle of the desert at night!).

After I got there, I helped Jesse haul three Christmas trees up on top of a sand dune. We bound them together with bailing wire and eventually loaded the trees up with fireworks and propane bottles (the small ones, not the big ones). Before we light the Christmas trees up, the guys had fun loading small charges into firing tubes and creating large explosions and a couple of big fireballs, when gas is added to the explosion. After midnight, we sat around the campfire and I listened in on what is going on with the group. Someone thought they knew me, but ended up giving up on where ahe knew me from.

New Years Day, I, for some unknown reason woke up at like 7:30am. I ended up taking the May's dogs out for a morning walk so that they could do their business and then went back to the camper and fell back asleep for a couple of hours. Around 10a, I woke up to Jesse loudly asking (it wasn't quite a yell but it was close) Amanda to wake up, the ride was going to start in about 10 minutes. Cheryl asked if I had a ride, and Jesse was still working on it. He ended up getting me a ride with Ron (?) in the trail jeep. This was the first time I had ever been off-roading and it opened my eyes quickly. Anytime that the passenger nearly has to lean out side the vehicle to make sure that it doesn't roll, you're eyes will open up! We got back from the ride and as we rested a little bit, we all decided to go out for dinner. So we went "into town" to a Mexican restaurant and had dinner. After we got back, I hung out in the camper and talked to Cheryl and Eric for a little while. After that, I went out to the campfire and hung out with Amanda and Jesse.

This morning, I chose to sit out the ride so that I could get home in time to lounge a little before going into work tonight. I left the campsite around 11:45a and got to Dudley's around 1:30p. When going through Santa Ysabel you MUST stop at Dudley's, if you haven't ever stopped there, and you're in the area STOP trust me you will enjoy the bread. I finally got home around 3p.

So there you go, I am going to have dinner, and then off to work again to start another fun-filled year (I hope that doesn't turn into a sarcastic statement by the end of the year!).

And then it was summer

WOW, my fears of Wichita in June came true today.....HOT and kinda sticky.

I woke up today late (10:30) and took care of the standard morning things. We found a Denny's for breakfast and then came back to the hotel. I called the Mays and since we were all going to be going to the same places, we did it together. We went to the NSDC to get our badges, and while the Mays were taking care of some problems they were having with the badges, we shopped at the NSDC booth (since it was the only booth open, it was not a hard choice to see where we wanted to shop!). From there we migrated over to Sheplers here in Wichita. Sheplers is a big time western catalog business that has a few actual stores (LV & Wichita to name a couple). The Mays found some stuff, I found a really sweet looking Budweiser shirt, but they did not have it in my size (I found the only one and it was a small, there is no way a small is going to fit me!!!!). After that and the group seeing someone get pulled over by Wichita police we went to a local eatery (Town & Country) to have dinner. I had a mesquite grilled catfish plate, mom had Beef brisket, and dad had wait for it...... a salad!!!!!!!! During dinner (since I know Jesse will bring it up) I was eating mom's jello that had fruit inside of it. I made a few wrong turns and quite a bit of it ended up on either me or the floor (refer to the May's P.A.D. possibly for more information).

Finally dance time came around, neither mom nor I did a lot of dancing (Mom 0, Chris 1 -- Tip scoreboard) mainly because we were as tradition, getting all of our ducks in a row for the rest of the convention. We were trying to find where the L&F booth is (really hidden behind two different halls, ours will be more in your face) and finding out what time we are going to be working the 58th NSDC shop (it was never open tonight, so we still have no idea).

Anyways so now it is time to go to bed cause we need to be at the Mays RV around 8 so that we can go to the Salt Mines about 1 hr NNW of Wichita, and when we are up there, we are going to an Amish restaurant for breakfast (hope mom can find something to eat). Later!

P.S. If you care, Fresno State ended up winning the CWS tonight after defeating Georgia 6-1. Zach Stone (son of NBC 7/39 Sports reporter/Weekend Anchor Jim Stone) bothered me tonight during the dance to let me know that the Central Valley Bull Dogs ended up winning the game with the guy form RB closing the game out. Memo to Zach, who give a bleep. It was not Wichita State, Miami, or Rice in the finals. Both Bull Dog (Dawg for Georgia) teams got hot at the end of the season, Fresno State was only 4 games above .500 going into the conference tournament, they really should not have even been in Wichita. They got there the only way they could by winning the WAC tourney, and then getting luck in the CWS tourney.

Traveling in Nebraska and Kansas

Well today we crossed into Kansas as is deminstrated by this picture below. Yes I'm being a goof ball, but every once in a while aren't you allowed to be?

We left Council Bluffs around 9:30a and got into Omaha around 4, with a 30 minute stop at a truck stop in Salina, KS. So we finally got into the hotel, and they were nicer than any other hotel that I have been to. This would be a hotel that I would be proud to work at, as long as things work as smoothly as check in did.

So I met up with the May's and Mom and I took Amanda over to a trail dance for the NSDC, with the convention actually opening on Thursday. We spent at least an hour after the dance at the May's RV just talking about random stuff.