Well, it’s been quite sometime since I’ve done a blog and I need to hit it up again.  A few notes however…

I’m doing a lot of changes all around, whether that is online or offline.  Work is going, to an extent.  Though now our working hours are on a day by day basis, deciding on what the workload is.  It’s been a little bit of a bummer to be a tad bit shorter on pay, but the weather overall has been pretty nice and has alleviated the fact that I get our somewhat early in the afternoon.  Of course, that can leave me with a somewhat hermit lifestyle just so I can keep better track of my money, but oh well…hopefully all of this is temporary.

Online…still keeping that low.  It’s been up a little since every now and then I miss “24″ and have to get the replay on Hulu.  I’d also began slowly moving over to Facebook…as far as how “active” my MySpace has been, that activity has about ceased and there isn’t too much of a point for me to sign on there daily.  I get e-mail alerts whenever someone calls me for whatever reason.  Even the group that I belong in there, which was a major reason I was there, has languished and the posts that have been put up there the past three months hasn’t been really inspiring.  I am gonna keep it though…I have always said I will stay in touch, and there are still a handful of friends there.  However, for some reason or other, a huge number of people moved over to Facebook…I don’t know why, but that’s what happened.  I guess MySpace didn’t get a favorable rap overseas, but now I have my cousins and other relatives and a rather large number of Cole/Navy friends on there, and it’s pretty active there.  I only have 24 hours a day to expend my time, right?

Right now, I don’t know if I will blog after this on MySpace.  I still blog at my own website…I’ve experimented a little with Twitter, I don’t feel for it the way others do, but I’ll hold on to it for a little bit more…  I don’t blog on Facebook either…they call it “Notes” and there is something about the format that I don’t really care for.  So I may just save myself a whole lot of time and just consolidate my blog on my own website.  It’s not interactive, but I get a good amount of traffic…which I apologize since I don’t really update it, so everybody pretty much sees the same damn thing from time to time…

I figured I’d hit this up now since March is over, and this has been quite a month.  The year has started off good…and FAST!  I’m gonna be 70 in a week if it just keeps getting faster and faster as it has been.

So while not a whole lot has gone on, there have been some big things.  First, in January, Tony had went off to do some workup training before his overseas deployment with the Reserves.  I’m watching this carefully.

March has come and gone…and the anticipation was pretty wild for me.  Better late than never, Sean eventually decided (after several years) to uncement his butt, quit making assumptions and actually planned to come down here to see things for himself.  It was kind of a last minute thing, but we got that to work out.  Also, Tony’s training had wrapped up and they were permitting his group a few days off before they made final preps and would head overseas.  As good luck would have it, they would have overlapping schedules.  Also, while it didn’t happen in March, I got to see Bobbie and her husband.  We’ve both been in Dallas for some time and, also better late than never, we finally met.

It really wasn’t the best time for a visit, but the window of opportunity on a near perfect visit had long passed and we made do with what was available.  Sean arrived on the first weekend of March, with where we met up with Christine until she got out of work and hit up Cafe Brazil.  The idea was brought up on a previous meeting with Bobbie and her husband the week beforehand.

Overall this entire week, sleep wasn’t really much of anything.  I was reeling and exhausted the following week but finally recuperated to make sure the following weekend wasn’t spent in bed!  We did plan beforehand to try to do some events, specifically the North Texas Irish Festival and the Greenville St. Pat’s parade.  It turned out that there was just simply too much to do, and those events took up at least half a day.

Part of the trip was planned to look for jobs…but the “fun” factor was kind of overwhelming and we deviated from that a little.  Still, we did a little bit of that and there were some returns…which was something that I guess Sean wasn’t used to.  I dunno.  Places to go, and mainly places to eat…those were the overlying bits of the trip.  He had a decent variety of food while he was here, including some good BBQ.  Places…Dallas isn’t really too much of a sightseeing bit.  We have a few things here and there, but it’s generally a live and work city for the most part.  One sight that we decided to see at the last minute, not really a sight…but by its nature, it is…is the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium.  Basically, everyone is encroaching on Area 51 looking for Roswell evidence.  The government needs a place to hide UFOs and they help give Mr. Jones some cash and arrangements and you have the gigantic obscenity that is the stadium.  Made so that an entire state’s population can watch a football game while government scientists continue to poke at galactic visitors underground!

Tony came in later in the week and that was good to see him.  We hit up a few favorites that we’ve enjoyed since he’s been here, but haven’t visited since he is now a fellow Dallas area resident.  Humperdink’s, Atheneos and Cheddar’s were our eating locations while Tony was here.  As well, we got a little shooting in.  This was good for all of us.  Christine and I were still working out shooting in our schedule and Christine hadn’t shot since Tony last shot before he left back in January.  Sean lives up in MA…enough said!  Tony has done some shooting, I’m sure…super advanced commando ninja stuff, like Navy quals and failure drills.  So this was his opportunity to touch up on what he personally felt he needed and in a more relaxed atmosphere.

As quickly as it happened, it went.  Sean went back up to MA, fully appreciating what his home state has and what Texas lacks, lol!  Tony is overseas, starting up his deployment.  Christine and I continue to have our “Sales…” moment, complete with speed of darkness, super loud second hand wall clock and flicker flourescent bulbs.  This was the beginning of the month…it would now be until the end of the month before the next event showed up.

It was meant to be a birthday present…but identity theft happened, and now I wish I had an Audi Q5.  Just kidding…but yeah, someone decided to be “me” on Paypal…so I’m in the process of paying back Christine!  Basically, it was time to do some shooting under the eyes of those more skilled than we.  Nothing really new, though a few things are almost always inevitably learned.  I do stuff like this to see how I stack up, or refine…I actually like the small scale informal stuff, like what dotted my calendar last year.  That’s what it does, but I always have a bigger picture involved.  It’s basically a “Welcome to My World” experience!  Turns out, that experience went a lot deeper…and in the end, much more satisfying.

So the birthday present, that I owe, was basically Christine meeting Paul…a real American hero and a badass in the truest sense.  That was the basic nutshell…big deal, huh?  But everything that came with it was awesome…she got to meet and make a few friends, in turn she made a name for herself and has become…dare I say…far more conceited!  Me, I’m just my super awesome humble self.  The last shoot we had, I only had 100% accuracy…which sucks, I usually do 180%…I need to work on my slacking technique and attitude.

As all the luck in the world would have it, Christine’s car (which we rode out there) dumped and died…her transmission.  Not a good thing when you’re out of town.  Welcome to the real world…she thankfully now has a job that makes it relatively easier for her to deal with the finances for this.  I told her at first it will majorly suck, watching all that money just vaporize.  In the long run, it’ll be good…you dealt with the problem on your own.

Well, not really…the guys we were with did some banding to help make things right.  Paul got on the phone to his wife, who went to CTU Mode…I mean, CMMDU (Counter Man Made Disaster Unit - it was political news about a week or two ago, go search it if you’re still drawing a blank)…and vectored us to a transmission shop.  Paul go to the tower that he usually uses and they towed Christine’s car to the shop, where it would be almost a week to complete repairs.  Paul had his right-hand man grab one of his trucks and loan me the keys for the weekend.  He said anything else, let him know…but I did my hardest to make sure that Paul did no more favors for us, too much to ask of him…and I barely asked, he did it on his own.  One of our fellow shooters said he met another shooter that flew in to Dallas and immediately went to see if we could grab a ride.  The answer was no problem, and no our issues were seemingly under control.

I am somewhat used to this…how friends went the extra distance to cover and help their peers while in the Navy.  It was good to “be back”…and Christine was impressed with it all herself.

So yeah, Christine as usual made a name for herself…and some of the shooters were convinced that we were more than we were letting on.  Not really…I was the former Sailor and Christine is just my younger Sister…  But I guess that was really all that I said.  Every since Christine bought her gun last year, I tried to make sure that she knew how to use it and how to make good shots with it.  Last year paid off…despite being surrounded by pretty good shooters, Christine was comfortably intermixed with the varying skill levels.  She did well with either hand, and even with a Glock 19 that Paul loaned out for her to try.  There was a hostage round where Christine fired some accurate hits without striking the hostage, as far as anyone could see.  In this stage, she and I did really well…the active Army guys that were present didn’t do so well!

During our stay, we decided to hit up some unique places to eat…we were there for a handful of days, so it really wasn’t a big deal.  But we hit up a local seafood cafe as well as a fast food joint specializing in chicken fingers.  Both amazingly good…which is one of the good things about being out of the city.

As with all great things…it was time to close up the show.  It’s been fun and outstanding, Christine didn’t want to leave…but how many of us wanted to anyways?  A fellow shooter, Derek, had offered us a ride back on his rental car…a Prius.  Interesting!  Happy, yet exhausted, Christine conked herself out in the back and Derek and I made conversation that made the drive feel like half an hour.  Didn’t accept fuel or food…once again, these guys are tremendous in gratitude and feeble in cost.  Now back to civilian land, lol.  As Christine put it…it would be, yet again, a “Sales…” moment.  Well, we all keep in touch as usual!

So, amazingly fast, the year is now 1/4 over and April comes in.  There’s not a lot to do.  But Christine was finally in the presence of some true American Badasses…I mean, there is Tony, Sean and myself…but, well…

Lol!

Regardless of whatever your political beliefs are, Sarah Palin is a big factor for the current moment.

One of the results of this is a sudden fanbase for her.  One of these, are the Palin Facts.  This is pretty much in the same comedic bout that you see Chuck Norris Facts and Jack Bauer Facts (and if you’re Sean, Chris Hagad Facts).

Well, Christine, bored out of her mind in one of our nation’s fine educational institutions (and I say that with great sarcasm and my eyes just simply cannot roll around in my sockets enough…) had one come from her head and text me.

I did a Google search for it, and did a semi-thorough search through the Palin Facts with no hits.

“[Sarah] Palin doesn’t hunt moose.  They run up to her and shoot themselves.”

Who knows, this may be the first time this is posted…if not, oh well.  We’re not crazy…just a thought!

This one could be something Sean says about me, so it’s gonna be a Seanism.

Seanism, go!

…to never pull of a joke like that again!

It happened on April 1st. Ramon mentioned how it was April First and that we should get someone good. I just rolled my eyes. April Fool’s jokes…pleah.

As we had our breakfast breaks I thought about it and figured why not. I pulled out my phone and more or less wrote the message that I had reenlisted the week prior and had received orders to ship out to training before being deployed overseas. Nothing really big, I thought. I scrolled through my phone book and sent it to a good number of my friends and hit “Send.” I thought nothing of it as I wrapped up my breakfast and went on to work.

Throughout the course of the day I got bombarded by message replies. Parties and get-togethers were already being arranged by some people. Some buddies up in VA were already messaging everyone else of my pending arrival. The word was out, Chris was back in uniform and ready to KATN.

Feverishly, I began letting everyone know that it was a joke. In no way did I ever envision that it would be bought so well. It was nuts. Even got a phone call from Michelle, and well I’m glad I wasn’t in Virginia!

Heather yesterday told me that I should’ve stuck with the joke and went to all the parties. Wow, my head was reeling just imagining how deep underwater I would be if I ever did that. I may be tough, but all the collective masses putting their heads together to plan a come back makes me shudder. Even Heather flicking her scissors in my general direction temporarily put me on alert!

However, I did get two people calling me out right away. Moni and Agnes came on my phone and didn’t buy it! Well, I don’t have any prizes, lol… But yeah, I think that will be the last April Fool’s joke I’ll make in a while, lol.

Well, maybe karma did come back to me. I dropped the ball big time…I missed a massive opportunity as far as some tactical gear goes. One of my buddies, always looking out for me, came across a piece of kit I was looking at getting and at a deal that was just simply too good to pass up. He shot me a line yesterday and let me know what the deal was. I agreed I’d call him before noon the following day and let him know if the deal would be a go. Of course, that night I decided I would go for it.

Have I ever mentioned my memory sucks? Good. Suffice to say, Christine let me know of my grave error later on and I let the deal of the year slip past my fingers. You can ask Christine, I was verbally punching my face just about all day today!

Before I realized my mistake, we were at the Dallas Auto Show. I went previously on Saturday as well and checked it out with John and his wife, but had a tight schedule so I only got to see some highlights with them. Today, I went with the intention of covering the entire show with some thoroughness. My initial impression of the show was positive, being probably the best one that I’ve been to, and this was my third year. Stay tuned for pics and a video detailing my adventure!

Interesting was the fact that the Mesquite Police had a recruiting area in the Dallas Auto Show this year. Pretty neat. MySpacers will get to see my new profile pic of the MPD Fembot Tricycle. I know…that’s not what it really is called.

My top fives from the auto show this year are the Nissan GT-R, Audi R8, Dodge Challenger, Cadillac XLR-V and Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. Concept nod goes to the Jeep Trailhawk.

Then, while it was already planned ahead of time, going to the shooting range just seemed to make sense to vent my frustrations of missing out on the deal of the year. Thinking there may have been the chance that everything works out, I saved some money and bought a mere hundred rounds of ammo. Christine did the same…after standing around for about five minutes while the counter person left. To most, Christine still doesn’t have that look of the desire to shoot guns, lol!

After my frustrations and the fact that it was mid-afternoon, decided not to bother getting rifle ammo…wouldn’t have time for that anyways.

So to the pistol range we went. As we setup, we once again found the day’s “mouthers.” These mouthers are the guys that seem to like to hear them talk and usually do not have sufficient substance to complement said talk. It’s not just the fact that they’re talking, but also what they’re talking about and how they’re talking. I’m a good veteran of hearing these crowds over the years. Navy people can probably get a good example of this. It’s called your local VBSS team. I’m not throwing everyone VBSS under the bus, but let’s just say that my time on the Cole that there were more fingers on my one hand than there were members of our VBSS team that I felt genuine enough that they were competent enough AND I didn’t have to worry about. Statistically though…yeah.

We figured a good medium was the 15 yard range and we setup there. Turns out that one of the mouthers was in the military. He wasn’t so bad, though. Once he got to shooting he wasn’t talking much. Nonetheless, his 7 yard group was over twice the size of Christine’s 15 yard group…and she lost our contest and had to buy me ice cream!

Well, we didn’t really care. He was quiet and I was just bored and looking around and he was close enough I could see his target. Eventually, though, a group of guys showed up next to us and setup for the 15 yard line. Okay, now these went past the category of mouthers and they were now civy-VBSS. Lots and lots of talk and lots of oh check out my Rock River AR with Larue Rail, TangoDown foregrip and ACOG. Blah blah blah blah blah. I couldn’t even hear myself yelling at ME for missing the deal of the year!

I already told Christine they were going to suck at shooting. And they did. One guy started firing some good groups until I saw the profile of a 1911 in my peripheral. Sure enough, he picked up either a Glock or a Ruger that they brought and I was able to stand by my statement. We had setup some tactical targets which would be more forgiving for Christine as I refined a few tips to her and watched her accuracy go up…but she still had to buy me ice cream!

Buy now, the civy-VBSS team posted a new target that had multiple two-inch diameter Shoot-N-C’s scattered throughout. They couldn’t even hit a six inch circle earlier…

Shots were fired as they fired at every part of the paper’s surface, every part except the two inch circles. Everytime a round would hit they would comment, “Good shooting!” It’s only good if you consistently do it, otherwise it’s dumb luck. Then they remarked at how hard it was…see comment about six-inch target above. Then they made the comment, “Yeah, this is where a laser would come in handy…next time I’ll bring my laser.”

No…this is where all of you get off the lane, move over to the THREE yard lane with your six-inch target and start there and move up to the five, seven and so forth distances. You don’t make some electronic gizmo make up for your crappy handiwork. Remember a while back when I went with a couple of coworkers over to George’s Area 51 and did some shooting? I was tagging targets with open sights three times the distance that Alpha Team was with their RDS systems, they should’ve been able to hit it faster, more accurately and more consistently. Oh well…

Needless to say, Christine and I got our entertainment as her group was about 1/4 the size of our loud-talking neighbors and I had the group the size of an orange…so Christine would get me ice cream.

Earlier in the week, I had the opportunity to attend another drill from an LE officer who even got the opportunity to help train the Iraqis in firearms proficiency. There were eight of us in various modes of tacticalness, I suppose. To my surprise I believe I was the only person with a stock weapon. We did some drills with the pistol, and it appears that as far as experience level I was at the bottom rung. I was definitely not catching up with the lingo, stories of training were shared but I really had none to give out except my Navy times and other somewhat informal events like this, and I think I’m the only person that hasn’t done some form of competition.

That said, it appears I was ranking up there…only trailing behind an active shooter in training, competition and drills. I forgot what he did though, but he showed up with his own bullets that he loaded…that’s about all I remember. We ended up doing four competitions in the end. That guy one two, then I came up won a prize myself. The final competition, our lone participant with a 1911 had the upper hand over us and won first prize, with me coming in second and receiving a prize as well.

I take that as an accomplishment. I don’t want to be stuck up on myself but I don’t know what I did that made me valuable…truly…while I was in the Navy. I know it’s a mix of heart, attitude, logic and all this other fuzzy principles. I know my time in CAP and Police Explorers honed it some…but I said honed, not taught.

In a world of books, Internet forums, sites, magazines and here there everywhere and the seemingly endless “my gun and gear is blacker than yours” (and for those that are not tactically fluent, but are racially fluent, this is meaning the black gun, black gear, etc…so don’t give me your speeches and moans). I was here, welcome to learn. I said nothing and expected lots, and I received lots. The guy running the show challenged me. Most of the guys to my left and right were not talkers, mouthers or VBSS clones. I don’t spend a lot of time sitting around learning techniques and gear flavors of the week. It was important to do that in the Navy because third-class Firecontrolmen don’t know a single thing about ATFP, I was the most clueless idiot and I should never have a gun. Yup.

But now I’m out. Not saying I’m staying static, I need to evolve. But the need to follow the fads and spend money on “research” isn’t there anymore. Want to know my research? My research is about twenty minutes a day, in my head, while I eat lunch. I figure out the solution…THEN I will find (not research) to find the means to accomplish my solution.

Is this close minded? Most likely. But I am a civilian right now and that’s no excuse, except that it seems everyone’s buying into everyone else’s info, ranging (very rarely) to a pot of gold all the way to complete crap. That’s because nobody wants to figure it out anymore, let’s just Google it or go to our favorite forum and listen to what the 11-year old airsofter who has convinced us that he is an 80-year veteran and served in all military branches, all SOF units and even created a few that are stationed in the underwater island of Atlantis.

I think the tactical world is unfortunately being a big fad. Here’s the thing…look hard at yourself. Any tactical conversation you have…are your answers to questions really and truly yours…or are you just reflecting someone else’s. Sure there’s a time to relay (as skill and experience would offer)…but you’re missing the point. Is it really your answer?

Lastly, Glenn has emphasized this as well. To really be honest with yourself, you have to question everything. EVERYTHING. So is this technique or concept, you’ve been able to reinforce it for years and you are dead set on it. There are a lot of things that I have realized and am sure of…I still constantly question and evaluate. For a year or two, I made the mistake and got a little lazy of answering questions with answers that came from someone else and stayed with principles with very little thought. I’ve been trying to change that…strangely, I am getting much better. Don’t have to agree with it…but if everyone agreed, then no one is thinking.

So for my website’s blog, I think I can add the category of “Seanism” to this blog. Many Cole Sailors around my time frame will know Sean, so that’s really all that needs to be said. While Christine was posing one of her random (grotesque) medical questions, I…in the spirit of Stu’s skits…came up with my own random (slightly) medical questions:

In those shooting video games, if you shot a pregnant terrorist in the abdomen/crotch, would you receive a “Headshot” score?

It all started, some time ago, with a voicemail from Sean. Then, a SEAL was talking about physical fitness one day. Twinkie. Beer and Twinkies.
Almost all of you will have absolutely no clue, this is an inside joke and I’m just posting it…sorry you all can’t have in on the fun.

A few days ago, I ended up doing my semi-occasional browse to Anna’s blog where she posted up a song a friend of hers had done. So I listened to it. Pretty cool…then, I became hungry.

Hungry for a Twinkie. The timing was about perfect. The craziness that was trying to get Jimmy and Lisa’s wedding video to them was now over, and now Anna’s friend has a song that had me going for a Twinkie.

What could be stranger…photo ops time.

So Christine and I celebrate the completion of the video with beer and Twinkies…well, Christine just got the Twinkies.

It just so happens that tired Chip was around and wanted to be part of the photo op. So tired Chip it is…

Sean, you and your voicemail…and what is this commenting you’re doing on my MySpace?

Despite all the unusual days beforehand, the weekend wrapped up nicely…closing a rather unusual week. On Friday, I met up with Chip and Dylan and ended up watching the Simpsons Movie. That turned out to be pretty good. First off, it was pretty funny…most bits brought out a smile from me, though there were some parts that had me laughing good. Further redeeming itself, those that know me (and Charles, Chip and Christine…) know we have an unusual sense of humor and there are things that are seemingly ordinary that would trigger us into a laughing heap. We are not unique in this regards, most everyone has a big list of “inside jokes” within. Coincidentally, the movie served up a decent amount of it and Chip and I found ourselves laughing at some points that normally aren’t funny to most (I know, as nobody else was). The movie experience was…far less stellar. I was reminded once again why I am not big on going to the theaters…though I have had good luck lately, but we decided to watch in more unfavorable conditions (opening Friday evening)…but there are some movies I want to see coming out soon, so I might as well watch it before the next set of sob story movies roll out.

Saturday was a great time. For several months now I had found out that friend and former Cole crewmember, Maribel, had gotten out of the Navy and was back in Dallas. Despite a few bumps here and there, she and her daughter, Jasmine, were back home and she was working…of course our schedules didn’t work out and it wouldn’t be until this past Saturday that we saw each other for the first time in about three years. Couldn’t think of a place to eat but tried Pazzo! again. Unfortunately, as I found out a few months ago, the Pazzo! restaurant that Chip, Codi and I went to was closed (and Brenda Vaughn vanished…remember what I said about jokes above?) and all they had was their Flower Mound location. I think that may have been a little bit of a stretch for Maribel, and while that is a heck of a drive for me I was gonna hit Grapevine Mills anyways, so it’d work out.

It was, for the most part uneventful…the “getting there” part, though Maribel did get a little lost finding the area (which I wasn’t of much use since this was my first time into Flower Mound as well), but she eventually got it and we caught up. While waiting for her, I did my normal advance team surveillance (well, I had time to kill so there!) routine. This location was different from the Dallas location. The Dallas location seemed a little more casual and we took ourselves to amusement by getting crayons and drawing strange pictures on the paper laid out over the table. They later hung that picture on the wall. Nothing like that here…in a matter of fact, if I just walked in here and didn’t know the restaurant then I wouldn’t have recognized it until I ordered the food. There were kids around as well, but nobody had crayons or anything. It kind of reminded me of that movie “Titanic” where you see the little girl laying the napkin on her lap. Welcome to Flower Mound!

Well, they arrived and I got to meet little Jasmine. Discussions were abound, with a few interruptions by Jasmine. I was hoping that the lunch wouldn’t turn into the afternoon to evening ordeal when I went to Houston to see Jason, Kim and Monica. Despite a different atmosphere, the food was still excellent as usual. I thought it was amusing to see Jasmine reaching out to grab the salad on her Mom’s fork. I know some parents that would do anything for their kids to eat salads, vegetables, etc. Afterwards, I got two tiramisu dishes for Maribel and myself. Despite going on the same deployment, turns out she never had tiramisu before…oh how she’s missing out! At first, Jasmine didn’t want any but when she finally ate a small piece she literally got up from her baby chair, spoon in hand and attacked the tiramisu in a renewed hunger frenzy. You know what was really sad? My brain lapsed and I totally forgot that I had my camera sitting in the opposite chair. That done, Maribel followed me (just to make sure she didn’t get lost) and headed over to Grapevine Mills on her own with Jasmine to probably get a few more clothes for her (Jasmine made a mess of herself!) while I proceeded to my area of Grapevine and just went about at the bookstore, Virgin store and Gamestop before finally heading in to play. All the while I’m glad to be able to say I do a fairly good job with keeping in touch with friends despite the times.
Sunday was pretty good as well. After church, I went down to visit George for a little shooting. As usual, that was enjoyable as I did some mover shooting and was satisfied that my intermediate engagement accuracy was still fairly good (indoor shooting ranges just don’t have the space for something like that). Despite it all, I was still soaked in sweat from being outside. Texas weather is slowly moving towards full fledged summer, but it’s not hot yet (Maribel was telling me how hot it was, but she was still in the Navy last year…she doesn’t know how it was last year). After a few hours and several hundred rounds later I headed back, newly exhausted.

After picking myself up from the ground I decided to go to the gun show. Christine wanted to go too so we headed out and lucked out. A guy was leaving as we were walking through the parking lot, talking about the Mesquite Police Dodge Charger parked in front (we amuse ourselves over random things). He called out to us and asked if we were going in, to which I said yes. He handed me a piece of paper and said there was no point paying if we were going in before they were closing and I thanked him as I saw he had bought a two day pass and handed it to me. I walked in and showed the pass to the ticket person who nodded to me, looked at Christine and decided she was under 12 and let us through. Inside, Christine looked and handled various pistols a little more carefully. Her birthday’s getting closer and closer. Though the highlight for her in the gun show was when we rounded a corner and there in the middle of the aisle in a stroller was a baby looking up at me and crying. For me, the highlight of the show was trying to walk past a crowd of people that were gathering around two people with some very young puppies. I knew that when Christine laid her eyes on the puppies she’d go crazy, if we were in anime land she would have eyes that looked like sandwich bags filled with water while squealing “Kawaii!” Me…I was just like, “Cool…puppies the size of hand grenades!”

And where was Tony? Well, Tony was UA…missing out at a gun show…in Texas! That’s grounds for being exiled from the state! No, he was making a macaroni dish in his apartment…making an excuse like, “I’m not gonna buy anything anyway” as an excuse for not going to a gun show. But we bugged him anyways, as Christine showed her tactical usefulness by evading Tony’s radar when we walked into his apartment…and Tony shuts the door on her face! While in there, Tony showed me the scope covers he got with his rifle’s scope, which he saved a little money and got the permanent tactical signal mirror (which is those scope covers that have a clear window so you don’t have to open the cover…you can just look through. I made the motion (don’t ask me what started it, like I remember) of grabbing a cricket and tossing it inside the objective lens and closing the lid while peering at it through the clear scope cover…doesn’t sound funny, but that’s because you weren’t there for the full experience…it was hilarious enough that this blog (on my website) gets the category of “Seanisms!” So after much goofing off, it was time to get ready for work and head back. Oh…another week. Normal, please?