Weekend Update

This past Memorial Day Weekend went by way too fast.  Friday night, I was suppose to go and see Nickleback at the Bradley Center with Chris, but there was a problem with the tickets.  One of Chris' friends was suppose to mail him the tickets, but as of Friday they had not arrived.  I ended up going to see the movie "The Avengers" with my friend, Kristin.   It was an OK movie.  But the last final fight scene seemed to drag on forever.  We went to the 10:30 showing and there had to be a half an hour of previews.  When we got out of the theater it was 1:09 AM.

Saturday I stopped by the Klinks  for Poppi's birthday party.  Here are a couple photos.  Melon with Poppi.

Bubs and Poppi blowing out the candle.  We used a left over baptism candle that I had laying around.

Patrick helping sing along.

 Saturday night I went to see Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.  I had never head of them before, but my friends, Mark and Suzanne, seemed to keep on the cutting edge of music.  I went to the concert with them.  And then I was a little more excited about the show when Borky send me a text and told me to go because he saw them the night before and enjoyed the show.  They were all correct. It was a fun show and I would see them again for sure.  During the last song they just started inviting everyone up on stage with them.  Here is a photo that Mark took.

Sunday my friend, Mick, had a party.  Here is a way to be a hit at any summer party, especially if you don't know to many people and if there are kids there.  Bring water balloons.  I brought a cooler of about 30 water balloons.  When I showed up I just started tossing them at people.  Some of them caught them and some didn't.  But it was so hot that it didn't matter.  Later on I had a couple left over and Mick's friend, Nuke, stopped by with his two kids.  The younger one, Ryan (4 or 5 years old), I gave a balloon first.  And when his brother, Bubba (7 or 8) saw the balloon he asked his brother where he got it from.  Ryan wouldn't say so Bubba kept walking around looking for the water balloons.  Finally I took a balloon out of the cooler and just held it in my left hand.  Bubba finally saw and snuck up behind and grabbed it out of my hand.  I knew he was there, but let him have it.  After Ryan had popped his, I again put held a balloon in my left hand.  But when Ryan came up behind me to grab it, I popped it all over him.  Ryan took a deep breath and started crying blood murder.  Being the seasoned uncle that I am, I am no longer effected by tears unless they are accompanied by blood, and it would have to be a fair amount of blood.  Ryan eventually warmed back up to me.
On Monday my cousin, Justin, stopped by to put the finishing touches on my latest home remodel.  I will say it again.  Thank you Justin, you did a great job.  I would recommend Justin to anyone in need of a carpenter, but Justin isn't looking for extra work right now.  Although he has agreed to give me a hand when I build a new garage in two years.  Monday evening I went to my brother, Dan's, to celebrate his birthday.  I again brought water balloons, but this time I gave the balloons to all of the adults who began an aerial assault on the kids while they played ball tag.  There were some family pictures that I hope to get copies of from Dan's mother in law to post here.
My mom also made it to the party.  In case you didn't know, my mom went in for a double knee replacement 2 weeks ago.  So she has new knees, was in good spirits and I thought moved around pretty well.
Normally over Memorial Day weekend, I set aside some time to watch Saving Private Ryan.  The ultimate war movie.  But this year I changed things up.  It was War Hero weekend on AMC and I recorded a number of movies.  "The Green Berets" with John Wayne, "The Dirty Dozen" and "Apocalypse Now".  I had never seen any of these movies all the way through.  "The Green Berets" was pretty bad.  In fact I turned it off with 30 minutes to go.  I just couldn't do it.  But "The Dirty Dozen" was even worse, it was so bad that I couldn't turn it off.  "Apocalypse Now" was pretty weird.  I had seen parts of about half of it in the past, but it was the first time I watched it all the way through. Quick grades on the movies on a 1 - 10 rating.  "The Green Berets" a 2.  "The Dirty Dozen" a 1.  "Apocalypse Now" a 5.
Now I am just looking forward to and preparing for my party.  I hope to see you there.