Alrighty then...

So my last couple of weeks have been crazy busy and you want to know about it. I have had the last 5 minutes in the store to gather my thoughts without a customer, so I decided to hop on this thing and get crackin'.
First, the Fourth of July was a blast. The Lincoln City store was open, and since I didn't forsee that it should've been open that day, Barbi was not scheduled. I went out to Lincoln City for the day with Paul, my uncle Mike, William, Jack and John. John worked the store for a few hours while we dropped off the boys at the Chinook Winds Arcade/Daycare and headed off to a Texas Hold'Em tourney.
Unfortunately, the tourney had been called off because of the holiday, so we went out onto the floor and gambled after we ate at the buffet. We did not overstuff ourselves at the buffet either, nobody came over and asked us to leave for overeating or wasting food. It was just a normal eat and dash. We had BBQ fixins that night waiting for us back home, so we didn't want to pig out or anything.
Then a Texas Hold'Em 3-6 game started and all three of us decided to go for it. Of course, if I had any idea how lame a 3-6 game was I probably wouldn't have, but now I know and won't make that mistake again.
The game was a lot different then on TV. First of all, I missed the commentators. I didn't get the low-down on what Giu Yu over there on the left was holdin', or how long Big Smoky in his cowboy hat had toured the circuit. Instead, the game was lightning fast. No sneak peeks at hands around the table with the coordinating odds posted-- damn it is so much easier on TV.
So I went back to the store and hung with John until we closed it down to get back on the road.
Got home at 6 p.m. and guests had started to arrive at 5 p.m. So came home to a full house that wasn't clean, but hell we were gonna have fun so who really cares?
Paul was cooking and everyone was chatting. We ate, drank, and we were all merry. At 9 p.m. everyone started leaving and the ones with the youngsters started heading out to the culdesac.
Now, I have to brag that the one thing our cul-de-sac knows how to do better than any other block ever is hosting a BBQ and firework display. There were at least 30 or so people already gathered in a semi-circle ready for the show.
William, Jack, Marc, my dad, me and of course, John were all out there ready to blow up something..anything.
John had his illegals, which really worried Jack and William. We have an Oregon State Trooper at the end of the street and they were really worried that Uncle John was going to go to jail. That did not happen, however, John came very close to having his ass kicked (by me) later that night.

July 18, 2006