That Dang Patio

So a year and a half after first starting our patio, Eric and I decided that it was about time that we finish it. We had already ordered two more tons of flagstone, which was strewn all over the yard from 6 months ago when we hauled it in. Since in general, Eric and I are lazy when it comes to doing work on our own house, we decided that the best way to accomplish this task was to bribe the guys with BBQ and beer. As it turns out, guys will do just about anything for free brisket and beer.

We started laying stone around 0930 and the guys slowly trickled in around 10am. Luckily for us, Eric had just purchased an awning from Home Depot that we were able to move around to keep ourselves out of the sun. It was around 100 degrees that day, so ever bit of shade helped.

By 3pm, the patio was finished and we used up all of the flagstone almost exactly. There is still a little more work to be done. We are going to lay a 4" concrete edge around the outside of the patio to keep the sand from washing away.We're also thinking about putting down a sealant on the flagstone to make it brighter. But none of that will happen until I purchase more brisket and beer.

Here are the pics on Flickr

Hanging in Abq

So this weekend was a relaxing one back home in the Abq. Brian Stith, one of my good friends from the soccer team recently separated from the Air Force and has a full ride to Arizona State. Since he's leaving us, his friend decided to throw him a going away party. Of course any party involving my friends revolves around either beer pong, darts, or pool. Tonight, beer pong was the poison of choice.

The girl that threw the party apparently thought around 100 people were going to show up, so she cook accordingly. Instead of 100 people, she had 15 really drunk people, which actually happens to consume the same amount of food (lucky for her).

I hung out there with everyone for around two hours before I left and drove to the next party (I was the DD for the night... yea!). I met Sarah at Lyrica's house and hung out with them for the next few hours. This party was thrown in Sarah and another persons honor, because they both were also separating from the AF. This party had the best stocked bar I've seen at a party, and since the guy was moving to France, we got to take a bottle home with us. I chose a bottle of Patron Silver. Sarah picked Bacardi 151 (she's classy like that).

After taking her drunk butt home I crashed and got up early for the first outdoor soccer scrimmage of the season. I got to meet a few of the new players I recruited and we whooped on some team that didn't speak English (which made the crap talking difficult). I got to see some of the new guys that I've recruited play, including one 18 year old that play Olympic Development League in Germany. I think this is going to be a good year...

After a little hygiene maintenance, Sarah and I then met Kevin, Robin, and Eric at Jame's place and proceeded to swim and play boccie ball all afternoon. Needless to say that Sarah and I kicked some major butt at boccie ball.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing at home, cooking and watching movies with Sarah, a nice change of pace from the last few strenuous weekends.

Here are some pics on Flickr