My Visit to the Motherland

During my time in Maryland, I was allowed to fly to Oklahoma for a few days during the Memorial Day Weekend. I had a little drama involved getting my leave approved, but in the end everything turned out fine.

As soon as I landed at Will Rogers World Airport -- why be international when you can be a world airport -- Leslie picked me up and we headed to my sisters house. My niece turned one the other day. Everyone headed to her house to celebrate them getting through one year with my niece (I stole that line from my sister). My brother-in-law's family was there too. It's the first time I've been to my sister's house since they moved back to the motherland. The B-in-law is a native Texan. It's kinda funny how I married a native and stayed in Texas, while the B-in-law married an Oklahoman and is now living in Oklahoma. I'm not sure if that's irony or coincidence. Allya'll english majors can help me out. The party was a huge success that included hamburgers and me acting as the video camera guy. I don't think my instructors would like my footage for several reasons. I didn't shoot in sequence -- long, medium, close-up, I didn't stop recording between shots, and I didn't use a tripod. I'd probably start out with minus 15 right off the bat.

The photo to the right is Lydia's second favorite present. Leslie picked it out. We are not afraid to indoctrinate TCU into this child's psyche early. Since her parents went to TCU, they don't mind our efforts. Her first favorite gift is here. My Aunt Nicki gave her this gift and is now in the lead for knowing what toy Lydia will love. Nicki has the baby midas touch.

Later on Saturday night, after I cooked some delicious steaks on the grill, we watched The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford. I posted my review here.

Sunday was all about racing. Lewis Hamilton won the F1 Monaco Grand Prix. Then Scott Dixon won the Indy 500. Danika Patrick was put out of the race by a mean man, Scott Brisco, who didn't exit the pits properly. Once that was over, my sister and b-in-law brought over the niece to play with the grandparents. We then laid down some adult conversation on the sister and b-in-law. After his family visited this weekend, they could be on adult conversation overload. I wonder how they will handle the withdrawals? Later on that night Leslie and I played spades with the sister and b-in-law. Leslie won and I went over 100. It wasn't a good game but we can't win them all.

Monday, my parents, Leslie and I went to Bricktown for lunch. We ate some Mexican food and trekked to the Chesapeake Boathouse to view the Oklahoma River. They mudbog formally known as the Canadian River is now a full fledged river to make a canal through bricktown. A side-benefit is that rowers have a nice smooth river to do their crew thing. I remember the river before water and it looked nothing like this. The photo to the right was taken by someone else named nalilio on flickr.

I don't have many photos because I forgot my camera. How great is that?

How Great is my Wife Update: She made me two types of rice krispy treats, regulars with nutella and mini-chocolate chips and then cocoa krispies. I prefer the cocoa krispies. She also got me some Nilla Cakesters which taste a lot like a twinky, but better. Feast your eyes upon these.