Sheep Guarding Llama

Slept in this morning.  While I was asleep Justin ran out and picked up two boxes of donuts for everyone because yesterday I had mentioned how good Texas donuts are.  So he wanted to experience our fine cuisine.  He did a great job of selecting what is good here… glazed old fashioneds, apple fritters and maple toppeds.

Once Zach awoke, which was not until he had had about thirteen hours of sleep, they asked if they could go back to Redneck Heaven this morning as they had had such a good time there yesterday.  Since they open before lunch there would be time to go there before they needed to get on the road back to Georgia so that worked out.  Zach called a friend of his who lives about forty-five minutes away that he has never met in person to come join us for lunch so we made good use of the time.

We got into Redneck around 11:30 which is the earliest that I have ever been there.  Sunday morning is definitely not a hopping time although we were far from the only people there.  It is amazing how many people are there any time day or night.

We hung out for a while and then headed back to the house so that Justin and Zach could load up Nitro and get on the road for their twelve hour drive back to Carrollton, Georgia.

We spent the afternoon at the house.  Got some work done.  Hung out some.

Around eleven Chris texted me that he wanted to hang out at Redneck.  Could there be a more “Redneck” weekend?  But I never get a chance to catch up with him these days so I headed out and met him there and we hung out till they shut the place down at two.  For those keeping track… that was eight visits for me to Redneck in a seven day period.  Plus Dominica went once without me.  Plus I saw some of the folks from Redneck out at the D&D game and at the carwash!

Today, we knew, was going to be pretty much a wasted day without any real way to be productive so, having been pretty tired, we decided to blow the day off and do nothing.  We slept in this morning, which was pretty necessary considering how tired Dominica was after partying all night.

We did some light cleaning but mostly just relaxed this morning.  Justin and his brother Zach were driving through the night and expected to arrive by early afternoon.

Justin pulled in just before one thirty.  He and Zach came in and had their reunion with Nitro who was very happy to see them.  No sooner had they arrived than Justin said that he needed to get his truck washed after it was caked with all of the bugs that they hit during the night driving down the Interstate 20 corridor.

Just twenty minutes before they had arrived Stefany had posted on Facebook that she and Rachel and Morgan were doing a charity carwash up in Little Elm and that people should stop by today.  Then Rachel texted me to get a car wash.  So when Justin said he needed one we knew exactly where to go.

I have never actually been to Little Elm before, even though it is so close to us, and I had no idea that there was actually a peninsula that goes out into Lake Lewisville a bit like an island.  I guess that I need to study the map a little bit more.  The peninsula area is actually a really nice spot.  I wouldn’t mind living up there at all and it can’t be more than a few minutes different to work and way closer to where Liesl and Luciana go for daycare.

The carwash was held at a liquor store raising money for Little Elm Elementary.   We got the truck in line for the girls to wash it and went inside and took the opportunity to do my weekly liquor restocking.  They had a good selection there and I was able to stock back up really effectively without needing to make a special trip anywhere which is good as it is such a pain to get to any liquor store from where we live or from where I work.

We got the truck washed and Stefan was there hanging out.  I haven’t seen him in months, so we got to hang out a little bit.  The girls had gotten quite a line of cars waiting for them by then.  They were supposed to be doing the car wash from one to four today but ended up not quitting until eight and Rachel got the worst sunburn of her life and ended up being sick for days.

From the car wash we drove down to Lewisville where I took our out of town guests to Redneck Heaven.  They loved it and we ended up hanging out there all evening until they were ready to call it a night, which was pretty early – before seven.

We got back to the house and Zach was out in minutes.  We got him set up in the guest bedroom (Luciana’s room) which was cleared out this morning for the first time in months.  Justin and I stayed up for a bit and did some drinking (we have all this new stuff to test out like my makings for ginger martinis!) and Dominica went out shopping once the girls were asleep.  It was an early night for everyone, though.

Luciana slept in Liesl’s room tonight and that went really well.  We can’t believe that it actually worked.  They both enjoyed it and both got sleep too!

Today is Friday and it is the biggest party of the year over at Redneck Heaven.  So we have plans to hang out there today if the opportunity allows although the party is so big that it is actually pretty hard to get in.  To accommodate the volume of people they are opening at nine thirty this morning instead of eleven.

I got into work and had a pretty normal morning.  Nothing special.

There was a lot going on with other teams at the office today so no one was able to go to lunch but me.  That kind of sucked.  But I wasn’t going to miss the party and figured that people might be able to meet me if I was there in line so I decided to go it alone.

It was extremely hot and no shade today.  Not ideal for long lines.  I got to Redneck and the parking filled every parking lot in the entire area, all the grassy areas, all of the road all the way to Vista Ridge.  It was insane.  I got lucky and actually found a spot not too far away.

I walked up and there must have been two hundred people in the parking lots.  They had sent up tents, an outside bar, and picnic tables all over the parking lot.  The wait to get in was four hours!  And no one could go inside, not even to use the restroom, because they were at legal capacity.  Someone had to come out for anyone to go in.

Luckily I had texted ahead so my waitress knew to look for me.  She came outside and delivered me real beer instead of the crappy bottled stuff available outside.  I think the whole place was pretty jealous that I was getting outside service.  So I got to enjoy a big, frosty Shocktop Raspberry while everyone else was stuck with a bottle of Coors Light.

I was outside for about three hours before they managed to get me inside.  Jose and one of his coworkers came out to try to get in with me as I had two hours in line already at that point but they had to get back to work before we were able to make it inside.  It was a long time but I did manage to bypass a ton of people too.  I had lunch and had to get moving pretty quickly at that point.

Got home from work and it turned out that our evening plans fell through so Dominica decided that she could actually make it out tonight and had someone to drive her so Jose picked her up and they went up to Redneck for the party.  They got there and the line was up to five hours long!  They put their names on the insane list, ordered drinks and got ready to spend the evening in the parking lot.  But I texted in to my waitress, told her that Dominica was there and in minutes she was outside, found them and managed to get them into the party!  It’s good to be regulars.  So rather than most of an evening in a hot parking lot they got seven hours inside with a great table.

I spent the evening working and taking care of the girls.  They weren’t up for very long after I got home.  It was a quiet evening for me.  Before I went to bed Justin and his brother Zach who are driving out tonight to get Nitro decided that instead of waiting for morning that they would just drive out through the night and get in tomorrow in the early afternoon.

I got essentially no sleep last night.  Didn’t get to bed till close to one and then was up by two thirty with Luciana, then for Nitro.  Soon Liesl had a bad dream.  By the end I was sleeping with Luciana on my pillow, Liesl across the bottom of the bed so that there was no room for my feet and Nitro on the floor just beneath where I was sleeping.  The air conditioning could not keep up with so many people in one room and I got, at best, ninety minutes of sleep all night.

Went to the Local Diner for lunch.  Got home as quick as I could so that I could help Dominica get ready for Dungeons and Dragons tonight.  This is our first time getting “back” together for our weekly game.  This is pretty awesome having a group like this.  All eight of us that started the game last week were able to get together again this week too.  Not a single person dropped.

We started around eight and played until nearly two in the morning.  So much fun.  The story is really developing and everyone is having a really good time.  It is so awesome to have a real Dungeons & Dragons group again and everyone is so into it.  We are really encouraged that we are going to be able to keep this going.

I’m getting a fair amount of bartending experience from our D&D group too.  Nearly everyone wants me to bartend while they are there and there is a wide variety of requests.

In the office today.  Had lunch at the diner.  While I was there I got an email from Susan saying that she was in town but had to work late so wasn’t sure if it would work to get together or not.  We made some tentative plans and decided to see if we could pull it off for a late dinner.

I stayed at work a little bit late and then went to Walmart to stock up on some supplies before driving downtown to get Susan so that she could come up to Carrollton and see Dominica and the girls.  Susan has never met Luciana and has not seen Liesl in many years, not since we were living in Peekskill.  Just as I was arriving downtown at the Adolphus Hotel Dominica emailed me to say that we might be orchestrated a dog rescue.  It is a long convoluted story but Justin’s brother’s ten year old yellow lab named Nitro was about to be turned over to the pound in Dallas and if we didn’t act fast the dog was going to be abandoned!  So Dominica was trying to find out what was going on and how we could help (since Justin is in Georgia) to save Nitro.

Susan and I got to the house and she had a little bit of time to catch up with Dominica and to see the girls and we were just getting ready to head to Brookhaven for dinner when Dominica got the word that someone was going to meet me not too far away with Nitro to hand him off to us.  So Susan stayed at the house and got some more time to visit while I ran to get Nitro in the Acadia.

The pickup of Nitro went smoothly and luckily only took a few minutes.  It was nearly a miracle that Nitro was about to be abandoned to close to us – he could have been anywhere in the country and was actually only a few miles from us.  He is a very sweet, rather old yellow lab but in good health.  He happily got into the Acadia and I got him back to the house in no time.  Fortunately we have a dog friendly house and a dog friendly back yard and don’t rent or anything so that having a massive dog suddenly show up is no problem at all.

I dropped off Nitro and he seemed pretty comfortable at the house.  As it was too late for Brookhaven I took Susan to Redneck Heaven (yes, that is the fourth time this week so far.)  We had a good time, she really enjoyed the Texas experience.  We had a light dinner and then went back to the house, she said her goodbyes and then we stopped by Braums for ice cream on our way downtown to get her back to her hotel.  She had been planning on taking the train back but had just missed it and I didn’t want her to have to sit out for twenty minutes waiting for another one.

Nitro did pretty well tonight.  He slept on my side of the bed on the floor right beneath me.  Luciana woke up after a few hours of sleep and, for probably the first time ever, actually came in and slept between Dominica and I and actually slept.  Liesl had a bad dream and came in to join us late at night but there was no room so she slept at our feet.  I got practically no sleep as I had to keep getting up to deal with one person or another.