A Killer Weekend

As a commenter so aptly pointed out, Monday's tomorrow has come and gone with no new post. However yesterday's tomorrow IS here so here is a new post. And as a warning to those who are slightly squeamish, the killer part comes into play half way through Sunday.

This last whole weekend was an absolute delight. Friday I stayed up past midnight reading (something I haven't done in ages) and then early Saturday (after a refreshing nights sleep) I got up, went into the kitchen and starting cooking. Normally cooking is as much work as it is fun, but this time I was making two recipes that I had been putting off for several weeks, so I was greatly looking forward to them. First I whipped together a banana bread recipe (thanks to kadida, who put it in the kcm cookbook) put it safely in the oven and started in on an Orange Creme Cheesecake. An hour later that was setting in the fridge and I got cleaned up to go out with friends. I had to cut the time close however because of the baking bread, so as soon as that was done, I grabbed it and headed out the door to meet up with my brother and cousins to go to the county fair.

It was a great surprise to find not just my brother and cousins waiting for me but also three of my friends as well who I didn't know would be there. Off we went to the fair. Several hours were joyously spent walking around seeing the sights, smelling the scents and enjoying the different activities; which included supporting another of our friends as she ran for state office. And there was of course the food! Since I was feeling so ebullient that I decided to try a couple of new things. A buffalo hot dog (very tasty, made me want to try more buffalo products) and fried dough. Good, though over hyped in my opinion. After several hours some of us finished up the time by square dancing. I however sat it out as I had to watch my three year old cousin. Not that I would have gone up even if I didn't have a cousin to watch.

Once we got back to Lindsay's place we decided to start playing some games. However before we could begin, I got a phone call inviting me to go sailing. Not wanting to leave my friends, I at first declined then things happened so that everybody got invited. We all excitedly accepted [admittedly some more excitedly than others :)] Off we sent, six friends, one captain, and the helmsman, a neighbor friend of the captain. It was a beautiful sailing conditions (at least in this landlubbers opinion). Partly sunny, breezy, and calm seas. Out we sailed, (not making use of the motor except at the very beginning to get us out of the marina) enjoying the day, each others company and the banana bread. We had been out just a little over an hour, before we saw a dark line of storm clouds approaching with rain and lighting in their midst. Deciding that we didn't want to go on and be killed on the high seas we turned around and started to go back under full sail. However it wasn't to be an easy trip. Part way back, the rain started falling, the wind starting blowing hard and the lightning started flashing right nearby. I won't bother going into the details of our struggles to pull in the sails, get them under wraps, and switch over to motor power. Motoring in with the rain pelting me in the face, lightning flashing all about me, and the wind whistling in my ears I felt like a true sailor laughing in the face of danger as I sailed my ship fearlessly on. Not that I was actually doing any of the sailing, it just felt that way. We got back to the marina a bit after sundown and by the time we got home we all went our separate ways.

Sunday the winning streak continued. A good service at church, a great church lunch afterward, seeing a cousin and his family who I hadn't seen for quite some time, and some lazy afternoon activites when I got home. Then I recieved a call that made the day so much better. A week or so ago Ryan wrote a post about some snake that he was thinking about catching. I volunteered to give him a hand if he ever wanted help. Thus the call. Over I rushed, for what makes for a better day that hunting and killing that which we are biblically told is our enemy. Off we went weilding our weapons of doom (a croquet mallet for Ryan and a hoe for me), however the snake wasn't were it usually was. After a few minutes of beating the grass to try and scare it into the open, we decided to broaden our area of hunting. And minutes of fruitless hunting, I happened to glance over and there not more than four feet away was The Snake! Calling Ryan over we approached carefully, then struck. Whack went the hoe, smack-smack went the mallet and the enemy was conquered.

Donning gloves just to be carefull, we gathered up our prey and took it back to the house for measuring, showing off and bragging, and pictures. The monster measured in at 46 inches long and 5&1/2 inches around! Needless to say, we both were very proud and many pictures were taken. Some of which are shown below. I then had dinner and went home feeling very proud of myself. I found out later that the snake wasn't actually dead. (The whole time we were handling it and moving it, it was alive simply stunned or something. It had to be re-killed the next day by Ryan and his siblings.)

Finally to wrap up the whole shower of blessings, Monday I recieved the motorcycle helmet that I had ordered, and I got the news that I would start working full time again. Truly, I don't think that the weekend could have been any better.