School ended, and there was much rejoicing (for the semester only)

My friend, Chad and I went to the Friday Night Drags: Street Legal Series…we have footage of one his tuner, turbo Sentra forum buddies, and of the amazing classic Chevy Vega…which always wins “best in show” in my book. Loud, fast, and beautiful.

Chad and I went to St. George, spent the night gambling and drinking in Mesquite, then came back to St. George for another night. We didn’t get any golfing in this time as hoped, but did plenty of moving of furniture between St. George and Coral Canyon Condos. It was blast all the same.

The next weekend Uncle Bill, Mom, Dad, and I headed off to Cheyenne, Wyoming to see Aunt Kathy and Family, and to walk around a track for hours and hours in support for those who’ve battled and those who are battling cancer. (Did I mention Cancer is my sign…and for some reason its a crab…) Well, I didn’t do my share of walking, but I ate enough for 3 people. I got to spend some time bonding with Kris and Jim, and go golfing with John, Bill, Jim, Luigie, and Stella. I came within an inch or two of my first birdie by the way, no luck. Oh and there was a competitive game of trivial something or other… close game. Nothing more need be said about said subject.

A weekend or two upon returning, my Mom and I went to Kingman, Arizona to visit the Stutzman family (Beverly, my mom’s younger sister). We watched some movies on their big screen, Atlea bought some new video games, and Weston, Lance and I battled endlessly with swords, most likely built from a former space technology of foam. I won. We watched the movie “Cars” in town, played tennis, Bev, John, Mom, and I went golfing. On the Fourth of July, John, Bev, Mom, and I went off roading on the quads through some great “wash” trails…then the storms hit while we were gassing up. eventually we grabbed some garbage bags and put them over our heads like rain coats, and we braved the storm. When we got back to the wash we were reminded why it was called a “wash” so we caulked our wagons and forded the stream that washed out a nearby road. The rain let up and we cruised back home…Oh yeah, Bev has a horse!

When we left the Stutzman’s we took Atlea and Ryan back with us to SLC, seeing Hoover damn on the way. We listened to a lot of StarWars music of Atleas. In SLC, we played tennis probably 3 or 4 times, Ryan got his first bee sting on one of the courts, Carlitos ran away, only to be recaptured 10 minutes later. The Stutsman boys went to Vacation Bible School in Grantsville, and got to follow me to my various comic book stores, where nerdy Atlea more or less called me and the “comicbook store guy” nerds. I didn’t mind, but the clerk looked a little hurt.

Soon after we got back to SLC, our cousin Eddie Valerio, his wife, and three boys came through town and stopped at Aunt Bella’s house in GVille. We had a big dinner there, and met all the babies. Eddie says they’ll be coming back through town, so we look forward to that again.

I came home that night and wished Nick a happy Birthday.

Wednesday of last week, the boys, Little Mike (not so little these days), and I went out to Elliott’s house in Grantsville to game it up on the XBox. There was much rejoicing, and I did not show how masterful my skills were…although I came in second quite a bit.

Thursday evening my cousin Elliott and I went to the new Miller Grand Prix LeManz race dinger which was recently built between Tooele and GVille. It was good to see all the fast and loud cars, Salt Lake Corvette Club was there, and on the track were Porsche, Cadillac, Dodge, Corvettes, and a viper here and there. We spent about half our time there in the pitts checking out the vehicles and cover girls up close. My favorite was the Bugati. After plenty of sun and walking we headed on home, and I headed back t0 SLC for more tennis, this time with Little Mike as well as the Stutzman boys.

Then we ate the minstrel, and there was much rejoicing.