4th Weekend

Hope everyone had a great of 4th of July! Wow, I was able to fully enjoy my 3 days off by sleeping in, relaxing, bbq-ing, and hanging out without work or volunteering or other responsibilities to worry about--it was great!

The weekend started with a Friday night dinner at a really good Vietnamese restaurant with Kat, Leslie, and Leslie’s mom (who was in for the week helping Leslie with her move), and was followed by drinks by the fire at Chimayo in Huntington Beach

I actually got to sleep in (so nice to be able to do so--waking up at 6am is terrible!) Saturday morning, then did some much needed laundry and other little chores around the house. Met up with Micah, Wendy, and a screaming (very pterodactyl-like) Kiernan for lunch, then drove to my parent's house to hang out with the family for a while. Yvonne, my 10-yr-old cousin, had been rapidly catching up to me in height, and has now finally (and sadly!) surpassed me. Really, how did our cousins get all the tall-genes in the family, and Kat and I were left with nothing? After that, I made my way over to Eric's for his annual 4th of July BBQ (although this year, it was scheduled on the 2nd)--drank some beers, ate some carne, and hung out with some friends I hadn't seen in a while, which was nice.

Sunday morning, I was able to sleep in once again (wow, two days in a row!) Really didn't do much of anything, except buy groceries for my BBQ, so it was a low-key and relaxing kind of day. Some friends came over that night, and we drank some more beer, ate chicken and steak and corn on the cob, and were even able to play pool, now that the tv is off the pool table and back on an entertainment center again. You would think I'd be a pool shark by now, but unfortunately, I am not. Even all that geometry and physics has not helped me master the game.

Monday morning--yep, slept in again! Bennet came over, and I threw my bike (btw-can anyone think of a good name for my pink cruiser?) in the back of his truck and we made our way to Kat's place in Huntington. The plan was to ride our bikes from HB down to Leslie's place on 33rd in Newport Beach. We were three among a whole parade of bikers heading towards Newport, and it was an enjoyable approximately-6-mile ride along the beach path. Newport was just ONE HUGE PARTY--it seemed like every single house on every single block was packed with people partying, BBQing and getting wasted. Just insane, but fun. The cops were on the prowl, and the two New York City transplants made the mistake of walking from next door back to Leslie's with a red cup in hand. Open container= $100 ticket each, ouch! After spending the day on the peninsula, Kat and I rode back up to her place (Bennett stayed in Newport and partied the rest of the night), which was a tough against-the-wind ride, and nothing like our cruise down earlier in the day. Had dinner, watched the HB Pier fireworks, went home and climbed into bed, which closed a wonderful 4th Holiday Weekend.