09/26/09 Birthday Celebration

Nope, not mine. My regular readers should remember mine's in June. This was R's birthday, and I was anxious with antici...pation! The concert Friday night was really the big-event, but I'd put some time & thought into our Saturday, and we got off to a great start!

Up & ready to go, we departed the hotel, and loaded back in the truck. What's that?! Hey, look, sweetie! There's a package in the back seat! Hey look! How'd that get in here? I'd purposely left it in the truck, mostly to see the surprise, and not wanting to miss a second of it.

I had neatly arranged two cards (one absolutely beyond goofy silly, and another quite *mush*), and a paper-chain like the one seen here. See, for nearly a week, I'd been gathering my thoughts, famous quotes, and a favorite set of verses of mine, and "chaining them" together. I won't embarass him here with the details of them (no, ya'll, calm it down.. all were rated-G, and entirely appropriate for young ears, just personal stuff). The first of the chain was an explanation of what the rest were. Thinking now, I never did count how many were in the total, but there were quite a few. The smile he wore grew with each link - how neat! Judging by his reaction, I did good!! His day was off to a very successful start.

With that complete, we headed off the first of two gun shops. The clerks there were cheerful and helpful. One fellow handed me a pistol that just about topped my day. =) I was a little shocked when he demonstrated the laser-grip to me - holding it in his hand, he pointed the laser right at another clerk, who shouted "bang!" and bowed in a bit. What?! Isn't that about the first rule in gun safety, never point at another human being unless you mean it? Ouch! :)

We snuck away to the Galleria Mall (same place Jen and I went, but this time, we stayed out of the parking garage, thank goodness). Did a ton of window shopping, and left there a little disappointed one shop R wanted to visit had closed. We did, however, leave there with Godiva chocolate, my fave!

After the Galleria, another gun shop. In fact, the same one as before. Upon entry, I scoped the place, checking for the grouchy-guy. Thank goodness! He's clear in the back. This trip, we found a really fabulous clerk, very willing to teach & help me out. Knowing more from my range-trip, I had a better idea what I felt comfortable holding. He even let me dry-fire a couple times, and marveled, "Wow, good job pulling the trigger. Nice & slow squeeze. Good job!" thanks sweetie - you're the one that taught me that. We had a good trip this time, and even snuck in a brief discussion about riding Romeo. Ah Hah! Now I just need to get him to try it.. Sure need to work on Romeo then, tune him up a bit, and get those breaks steady.

We paused for Applebee's dinner on the way home, and took our time driving back. My kids and his were all happy to see us when we got back to town. In summary, so I'm told, it was a fabulous day overall.

Mission accomplished!