Tuesday, April 14th - Thursday April 16th
Pretty usual week - work, gym, dinner, TV, bed - repeat.
Friday, April 17th
(There are too many good photos of Mike's birthday weekend for me to pick and choose. Please see them all here instead)
On the eve of Mike's birthday celebration, we made our way over to Mom and Dad Dozeman's for a birthday dinner. Of course we can't do anything simple - we tried to cram multiple events into one day by scheduling our chair and cushion (from the dining room set - it's been months of hassle back and forth to get everything together) pick up from the furniture shop. We were running late - another frequent problem - I didn't get out of work until 5 and it takes about 45 minutes to get up there. The shop was only open until like 5:30. We had to call Rich and Lois in a panic to ask them to pick up the products for us. Luckily they are nice, helpful people so they dropped what they were doing and managed to travel through rush hour traffic in Grand Rapids to pick up our chair/cushion across town. =) Yeah for parents!
We had a really nice time at the Dozeman parents. They made us a beef and pork roast with a ton of sides and two desserts. By the time we were done eating I was ready to roll away! We hung out with the parents until about 11 p.m. watching TV and catching up. Mike and I made it home by midnight - just in time to crash before our busy day on Saturday!
Saturday, April 18th
Today Mike had plans to play golf with his brother Steve at noon. We slept in pretty late so our morning was blown. I ran off to go shopping for Mike's last minute gift and he left to go golfing. I didn't hear much about the game except that he and Steve were close most of the game but Mike lost at the end. It was still a gorgeous day though so he was able to enjoy the weather and the game despite losing =P
Mike, Steve and I all left at 5 to head to New Buffalo, MI to spend the evening at Four Winds Casino. We had never been before but I heard great reviews about the place from coworkers. We started out the evening by registering at a nearby hotel with several other party guests. We had a slightly annoying experience with the front desk staff promising to call for a bus to the casino only to call us an hour later and say it wasn't going to happen. Luckily we were all in good spirits and made it to the casino by other methods. We all headed straight to dinner at the Buffet restaurant.
I'm not usually one for buffet but this place was crazy nice. They had just about every type of food and a little bit of everything to go around. The entire birthday party ate to excess before taking off for gambling. Mike insisted I could not micromanage this trip so I was forced to only plan dinner and hope the rest of the evening worked out well. Thankfully it did - everyone parted to play their favorites games/slots/tables/etc. We met up at various times but overall just had a good time. Our highlight of the evening came toward the end of our gambling experience.
By about 11 p.m. everyone was out of money and feeling out of sorts for losing. While we all prepared to leave, Ricky made one last attempt at a nickel slot machine by putting in a $20 and pushing "max bet". Before he knew it - he had 30 bonus spins at 3x the bet. We all stood in complete shock at the number claimed from the $100s to $500s to $1000s!!! At the end of 10 minutes, Ricky had won almost $4000.00. We were all amazed and stoked! The amount was so high we had to have an attendant come over to give Ricky the money.
After the check was in hand, we all cashed out and called it a night for gambling. On Ricky's new dimes, we called a taxi and went to "The Stray Dog" pub in downtown New Buffalo (if you can really call it downtown... more like three buildings) and celebrated. We had a great waitress who was very patient with 9 loud people celebrating a big win. The local band sounded great and we all had several celebratory shots for Ricky's win and Mike's birthday. After the bar closed down on us, we grabbed another taxi and made our way back to the hotel.
With booze in the room, we stayed up for a few more hour watching TV (some really bad bra infomerical in Spanish became a quick favorite) and the craziness continued. Akerman ran around with a decorative hotel blanket on his head claiming he was a Ninja... Steve got in Ricky & Lisa's bed because he was tired (or maybe cold?)... Chris showed some skin... I pretended to be Minchie (poor pregnant lady had to be around all us drunks) and complained to the front desk at 3 a.m. because Minchie & Chris's room door was broke and they still did not have a room for the night... the list goes on.
Around 3:30 we called it a night and went to bed.
Sunday, April 19th
After a brief breakfast with a few hungover party goers, we headed home. Once home, I gave Mike his birthday gift - Grand Theft Auto IV for PS3. I'm not really a game fan but anyone I asked about PS3 games told me that was the one to get for Mike. Luckily Mike liked it. Despite being one of the most vile, cruel, games I've ever seen, it does have a pretty interesting story line. Assuming you can avoid the temptation to run over people, randomly beat up someone because you feel like it, or pick up a hooker on your way home, it could be a pretty cool game!
Sunday was pretty laid back filled with games and pizza. Mike and I headed to bed early so we could function on Monday.
Monday, April 20th
Today was an exhausting day... I had panic attacked during the night because I realized I had this 10 a.m. interview! Last week I was taken up on my offer to help the Marketing Communication department and they asked me to write a feature article for our Stryker Forefront magazine. I am very excited about this opportunity but the time line is tight - it's due this Friday. I scheduled a few interviews last week without really thinking about the prep time involved before hand. I decided I better get to work early and prepare.
Luckily I managed to ask intelligent questions of my first expert. It was a bit nerve wracking - not because I was interviewing someone but more because I was interviewing someone under the watchful eye of the Marketing Communications Manager. I know this article is kind of test for me - to see how I do and such - and although the manager is super nice, I feel the pressure to do well. I feel very rusty on my journalism skills.
Overall, the interview went well. I asked some good questions and the manger didn't follow up with any so I must have covered all the bases she wanted. She only piped in a few times when she thought something said should definitely be covered in the article. Phew. Only 4 more to get through and a rough draft by Wednesday. Wish me luck!
The rest of the day was pretty standard. I did get a Sam's Club membership today and I'm so excited about how much I got for less! Granted, you need to know your prices. Luckily I'm a savvy shopper and managed to get some great deals for us. We were completely out of food (no time to shop) but now I feel we'll be in good shape for at least three weeks before we're out again =)
No comments:
Post a Comment