Over Father's Day weekend, we made the trip out to New Mexico just as we did last Father's Day. Last year we simply made the trip as a vacation. This year was to celebrate Becky's grandpa's 90th b-day. Since I never knew either of my grandpas, I've adopted her grandfolks as my own. So off we went to the b-day party/family reunion. This was the first time I'd met most of the relatives on her mom's side of the family. We spent weekend in Virden, New Mexico and chances are you've never heard of it. It's a very small town that's about 45 minutes from the nearest anything. But there's alot of history there nonetheless and I've heard many stories about the mischief that took place there. The party started with a roast of Grandpa that included some of his own mischief that he was responsible for in his early days, capped by a once-in-a-lifetime performance by my mom-out-law and her cousin Spencer. I'm glad I got a video of that and I'm sure I can use it as blackmail when necessary. Who says in-laws can't be fun?
The only drawback about living in Cali (besides the fact that Cali folks forget how to drive at the first drop of rain) is that we don't get the Arizona sunsets. The pic above was taken at the Virden cemetary. It must be appreciated when you consider what I had to go through: We had just finished eating dinner and I was loaded with shredded beef tacos. [Thank you aunt Laurie and uncle Dale for some great munch!!] Becky's bro wanted a pic of the sunset as well so he and I ran off to get the pic as the sun was setting. We ended up running part of the way including uphill with all that food in us. I'm still not quite in shape yet so this wasn't easy. Then came the problem with finding the right spot to snap and I hope I found it. We made it with about 12 seconds to spare. You want to know what the hardest part about chasing the sunset was? Missing the Will Ferrell Saturday Night Live performance. I tried to youtube it so you would get a better idea but if you can remember the skit he would do with some lady where they would play the guitar and sing old folk songs... well we were treated to that same thing. It was something. I'm just sad I missed the performance but the Yamaha keyboard was in full effect.
I've put a couple pics up of our buddy Coach before and even he's made news lately. Because he's part pomerainian he tends to shed a bit with his long hair. Since summer's upon us and he's quite hairy, he was in need of a haircut. I don't think either of us realized that he was gonna be buzzed. Poor thing looks more like a chihuahua than a pom now. We're getting used to the new Coach and we think he actually looks kinda cute now. I'm not too sure what he thought of it as he wanted nothing to do with us that first day. I went to get him out of his room and he wouldn't even stand up for me. But he's back to normal now and dive-bombing on me when he gets his chance.
Now comes the fun part... the groundbreaking in our backyard has begun. We got back into town Sunday night and I took Monday off as our backyard is now under construction. Our contractor came out with his Bobcat and started dismantling the old piece of junk slabs that we had before. When his guys took off to dump the first load, they left the keys in the ignition. Big mistake because I was 5 years old all over again. I got a bit giddy and hopped in and went for a spin. I drive a forklift all the time at work so it didn't take me long to get the hang of this. And once I did I went for it. I've had quite the entertaining weekend doing things I'd never done before in my life (not everything can be discussed on a public blog). The concrete is now completely gone and the framework is underway. More pics will come in the future as it shouldn't take more than a few more days to complete. The lawn will be installed in mid-July. The guys are bringing the Bobcat back tomorrow to do a little more work with the dirt. I guess I know where I'll be going on my lunchbreak...
