Friday stuff.

Last Friday was a mix of mind numbing tedium, fun and good times.

My buddy Waters and I've recently been tasked by our boss to go out to San Saba on a few Fridays during a semester and give the THEA exams to prospective students. It's the exam these folks have to take to qualify for college classes at the prison.

Usually this is a job done by college administrators, but they've had a difficult time keeping those folks over at Saba. They had one lady in the job last year, just before I got there, but she was quickly let go. Still not sure why. When she was ditched, the administrator that runs the campus at the prisons in Gatesville took over the Saba campus. But now she's quit, taking a job with the Windham School District, teaching classes to the "Offenders" as they get ready to get out of jail.

So, as they fiddle fuck around, offering a minimal amount of money ( about 27 grand) to any college graduate who might check out the job, Waters and I will be going out to San Saba on the one day of the week when we're not supposed to have to. It's tedious as hell, but mostly harmless. It'll only be a few weeks each semester, but it'll take a minimum of five and a half hours to give the exams and handle the paper work.

We only had to be there for about an hour this last Friday, just long enough to get a picture of how they do the testing. Waters was Hilarious. He'd make snide remarks to the boss under his breath, bitchin' about how it sucked that he had to be there on his day off. I didn't have to say a thing. I just stood there tryin' not to laugh out loud. When she walked away he'd look up at me and say stuff like "I guess if we screw this up enough they'll get someone else to do it."

I just laughed and agreed with him. We watched her administer the exam this time, and then she let us go. After we got out of there I took Waters to the Dairy Mart so he could try the food I've been raving about for months.

It was my treat. I told him if he didn't like the food I'd eat it, but I knew he'd love it. He wasn't sure about the Jalapeno Sourdough Bread Bacon Cheeseburger. He's not really into peppers, but I told him I'd finish it... that we'd switch out if he didn't like it. I was having the ham and cheese po boy, with potato chips and a Diet Dr. Pepper. When the food arrived he started taking his burger apart, lookin' for the peppers. I laughed and told him "No, dude, they're baked into the bread!" A light went off in his head, he realized the jalapenos wouldn't be an issue, and he settled down to enjoy the meal.

Mostly, other than our troubles with the college, we talked about guns. Waters is my connection with the CMP, and he's gotten me some beautiful stuff. My beautiful, Korean war era Springfield M-1 Garand, and my WW2 era Winchester M-1 Carbine came to me through him. And you've all seen the shots of us shooting on his property. Now he's found out that he might be able to get an M-1C, a sniper version of the Garand from the CMP.

When he originally told me about this I got excited thinkin' about getting such a cool rifle, scope and all. But while we were talkin' Friday, Dave told me that these rifles won't come with a scope or mount. But, he has a scope mount for that rifle, inherited from his father. He says the scope mount is worth a ridiculous amount of money on it's own. He thinks he'll get the rifle and then have the mount and a correct, period scope attached to it. It won't be a perfect collectors piece, but it'll be cool enough anyway. I can't wait to see what he does with it.

After the feed we set off to head home. I called Mom and sis and told them I wouldn't be able to make dinner. In stead, I'd decided to take the little woman out to dinner, and to a movie. I got home and surfed my emails for a bit, waiting for her to get home from work. Once she got there, we looked at the shows and decided to go see Knowing, with Nicolas Cage. She said she was afraid it might be scary, but I looked it up and told her it was more of a Sci Fi flick. We also decided that after the flick we'd go to the Texas Roadhouse for dinner.

The movie was wonderful. There were several scenes that left me with my mouth agape, stunned. The plane crash for instance. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before. Looking back on it, I think the realism of the film was easily up to par with anything I've seen before. It does for disaster flicks what Saving Private Ryan or Band Of Brothers did for War movies. The end might be a bit fanciful for some, but I liked it. It really was great, and I recommend it to everyone.

After the movie we went to a local liquor store near the theater and picked up some adult beverages. Mom was out of Tequila, and Denise needed some Seagram's 7. While we perused the goods, I noticed a new looking bottle of George Dickel, the brand of whiskey Mushy turned me onto a while back. It looked like a new produce, calling itself Old Fashioned Tennessee Sour Mash. Well, I dunno. As far as I can tell, they make two kinds... #8 and #12. The #12 is 90 proof, and the #8 is 80 proof. This new stuff is 80 proof, so maybe it's just another way of marketing the weaker stuff. Their web site says the #8 is sweeter, and this stuff is. It goes really well with Diet Coke. So...

Anyway, we went to the Texas Road House and ate dinner. We've never had a bad time at the Road House there in Killeen. It was great. Denise had the Smothered Chicken. Grilled, marinated chicken breast with sauteed onions, sauteed mushrooms and made-from-scratch cream gravy or jack cheese. I had the Smokehouse Burger. It's a ½ lb. of fresh ground chuck with sautéed mushrooms, onions, BBQ Sauce, jack cheese, and cheddar cheese, topped with shredded lettuce and sliced tomato. She chose a glass of wine, while I chose a tall Zeigen Bock. Good stuff.

After all that, we headed home and collapsed on the couch. The rest of the weekend was spent in a lazy stupor. We slept in, laid around watchin' TV, and ate in. As usual, we told ourselves that we'd get chores done next weekend. We'll see how that goes. Anyway, I hope all o f you had a great, relaxed weekend. Cheers!