Pre-Birthday

Today was an absolutely great day, spent entirely with the most wonderful woman in the whole world: my wife Jenn. We started off the day at my parents house, mostly because we passed out there around four A.M. after watching "Matrix Revolutions" with my brother Jon and our friend Luke. My parents have a nicer TV and bigger couch than we do... Anyways, after breakfast the wife and I came home to get ourselves ready for the rest of the day. Jenn's plan was to have me drive us around to mystery destinations that she had already chosen (and stored in the GPS) to celebrate my birthday.

Mystery Destination 1 was K-mart where we picked up a kite and frisbee for "later". On the way out the door we also grabbed (and paid for) a pizza. After that, it was back to the truck and off to Mystery Destination 2.

MD2: Shanks Park. We had a nice lunch together under the shade of a tree then spent some time just talking together. Of course there was absolutely no wind, so the kite never got flown. And it turns out that we got an alternate lifestyle frisbee 'caus we never did get the stupid thing to fly straight... but it was still fun and we enjoyed the time together. Once we determined that the frisbee was busted and the wind was not coming, we headed off to MD3.

MD3: Challenge Family Fun Center. Next on the list of places was CFFC, part of Indian Echo Caverns in the Hershey area. 22 holes of rather difficult bet very enjoyable mini-golf. Jenn and I managed to end the game with a tie, and even tied on the front ten too. Overall, we finished four under par, not too shabby! The highlight of the game was Jenn's "slo-mo" hole-in-one on hole 11. The shot barely made it up the one side of the bridge then slowly rolled down the other side, caught the edge of the course - barely staying on the green - which made the ball arc hard to the right, ending with a dramatic slow-crawl right up the the edge of the cup before finally dropping in. Nice shot Jenn! After the game we headed in to the arcade because we had a coupon for some tokens. Lots of fun games there, including Cyclone, Big Bertha, Duck Pins, Skee-Ball, and some FPS game, Time something II. We had lots of fun and ended up winning 500 tickets which we then traded for two foam finger-launch rockets, two punch balloons, and four airheads. We really wanted the inflatable snake-swords, but they were all out. Again, lots of fun, but it was time to move on the MD4.

MD4: dinner. At this time it was only three P.M., to dinner was put on hold and we decided to detour to Target to pick up my birthday present and to waste some time. En route to Target, we ran into some heavy traffic and a very horrible accident.

Detour 1: The motorcycle crash. Driving down 322 toward Harrisburg, traffic suddenly came to a screeching halt. We sat in traffic for over half an hour, only to find that a portion of 322 was closed off. We detoured to a side road that fed into another road, running parallel to the highway. From there we could see a little bit of what was going on. There was a motorcycle in the middle of the highway, and it looked like it had just survived a tour in vietnam. Also present was the coroner and the forensics team: not the people you want to see on a crash site. We saw later - on the return trip - that the wreck stretch about 500 yards dow the highway, starting with the front tire lodged under a guard rail and ending with the remains of a motorcycle. Needless to say, that put our day at a pause for a few minutes as we reflected on the tragedy that occurred and thought of the family and friends that mourned the loss of Antoinne Brown.

Detour 2: Target. Once we arrived at Target, we spent about an hour walking around and just hanging out. We picked up my present - a logitech wireless mouse and keyboard set - a card for my dad's upcoming birthday, and a scale (because I need to get in shape). It was really nice to just walk around with Jenn and spend some time doing "everyday stuff" together. Probably one of my favorite parts of the day. After Target (and the return trip back to Hershey), we finally got to MD4: dinner.

MD4: Isaac's Restaurant and Deli. We picked Isaac's because it was close and they have really good food. I got a "Twisted Chicken" (Grilled premium chicken breast, cheddar cheese, fresh spinach and tomatoes with dijon mustard and mayo) and Jenn had the Rainbow Parrot (Corned beef on pumpernickel with melted Muenster cheese, crunchy cole slaw and fresh onions, tomatoes and lettuce, all topped with Thousand Island dressing). And, yes, I did just copy and paste the descriptions from the Isaac's website. And what dinner is complete without dessert? A cheesecake with brownie chunks and whipped cream, topped with caramel, to be specific. Oh so very good. After the very filling dinner we stopped by my parents place again to pick up some "camping chairs" to use at MD5.

MD5: Shanks Park. Wait, Shanks Park? Wasn't that MD1..? How coincidental and quaint that the adventure should start and end at the same place. Turns out that Shanks hosts Turkey Hill's "drive in" movie night on the first weekend of every month. The flick was "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa", which I love. "Like you love the beach, or a good book. Or the beach." My family came as well and we had a fun evening watching a movie together.

Now the day is over and I have to say that it was one of the best days ever. I am so thankful to have Jenn as my wife. She definitely went out of her way to make sure that we had a great day together and spent I-don't-know-how-much time researching and planning to make everything happen as smoothly as it did. I don't deserve to have such an amazing and giving wife, but I am so glad that I do. Who knows where I'd be without my precious Jelly Bean!

Its off to bed now, the wife is starting to fall asleep. Goodnight and God Bless!

-Josh