Update: SASS, Thanksgiving, Tulsa, Trouble, etc

[jaelie]

Lessee...

Pinky-toe update, for those interested - it's almost completely well, although there will be a nifty scar. Heh.

Anyway, last Saturday, Matt and I went down to Comanche Valley with annawick and spar30. Much fun was had! Spar made a gun cart for Matt and me. He said it was a preliminary and that he will re-do it, but it was cool. ^_^ Definitely WAY better than the one that Matt and I were going to cobble together, heh. Anyway, we got an early start (but not as early as we did in August!), and drove on down to the site. We participated in the new shooters' orientation, which was cool. I am finally ready to go for an actual match next time. I know, I know. Much to Matt's great relief. :P I had fun! And now although I'm going to be incredibly slow, at least I'm familiar enough with the guns that they don't jam, plus I hit every target which is my goal, anyway. Yay!

Of course, this past week was short at work. On Wednesday evening after work, I headed over to my parents' house to help Mom with the food prep. I think I'm going to make that a tradition. It's cool to have some extra time to just chat with Mom.

Thursday morning, we went to Denton and picked up our friend John, who went with us to the Thanksgiving festivities which were being held at my brother Rob and his wife Sioux's place. There we consumed large amounts of food along with the rest of the nation. Mmm. Turkey and dressing! Pie! And all that other stuff. ^_^ While there, I chased my nephew around some, watched Star Wars (big shocker), watched a football game, and played a very cut-throat game of Sorry! with my niece, my mom, and one of my brothers-in-law. Heh.

After Thanksgiving festivities, Matt and I headed home, packed up the dog and our stuff and headed out to Tulsa to visit our friends Glen and Jeanette. I will say now that in about ten years or so they will be in such big trouble. Their three daughters are going to be beautiful. For now, they are so terribly sweet! Even Riley is a lot of fun now. She'll be two in like February or March... I love their kids, heh.

Anyway, Matt and I had a very exciting drive up. Yes. I did in fact say that the five hour drive from Dallas to Tulsa was exciting. It had to be, right? It being hunting season and all, with everyone out killing deer and such... Who sees where this is going?

Yeah. Well, I bagged my first deer. A four point buck, according to Matt. With my shiny-new-haven't-even-made-the-first-payment car. Whee!

I'm driving along, and Matt and I entertaining ourselves with an nWoD scenario and my werewolf character going through her rite of passage. It was quite diverting, and the time flew by. We had finished the scenario up a few minutes before and Wham! (just like Batman), a deer tries to kill my car. Of course I pull over and we both get out to examine the damage. I look back and see the silhouette of the deer still on the road as a car approached us, so Matt pulled it off to the side. ;_; I felt so sorry for the poor thing. It gives me a headache just thinking about it. Plus the waste. If I had actually legitimately hunted it, at least it would have been a useful death instead of a completely meaningless one. :(

The damage to the car wasn't "terrible" - the driver’s side fender is shot, the front grill a bit messed up, and some dings on the hood where the antlers hit, plus the driver’s side light being all messed up. All told, probably about, oh, I don't know, three thousand dollars worth of damage, maybe? We'll see when I take it to the shop tomorrow. Anyway, the headlight had completely fallen inside the casing and was pointing at the tree tops on our right, so we stopped again and Matt aggie-engineered it and we were able to continue. The only damage that would have legally gotten me a ticket was the front turn signal, which is now sitting in my back seat with some other bits of unidentifiable plastic. /sigh.

So the rest of the drive was spent with me stressing out about insurance deductibles and a suffering animal, in the process developing quite the stress headache while I finished up the drive. We arrived at Glen and Jeanette's around 12:30 am and promptly went to bed, although it took me about an hour to wind down and distract myself enough to shut my brain down and sleep. Ugh.

However, waking up was awesome. I rolled over, looked at my smiling husband, and listened to the cheerful voices of our friends' children as they played in the living room. What a wonderful sound. So I poked out my groggy head and was promptly greeted by my buddies Aleis and Charissa with cries of "They're awake!!" and many hugs.

Friday morning, Glen and his girls gave us the tour of the law school he's attending, we had lunch, then headed back to Glen's house to watch the UT/A&M game in which A&M pulled off an awesome victory. Er. I mean, no really. I didn't root for A&M at all. Honestly, though, I did in fact graduate from UT but I could care less about their football. A&M has a much more devoted fan base and it is very easy to get caught up in their excitement. It was fun watching Glen and Matt cheer. Heh.

That evening we went out on a double date and watched the new Bond flick, which I enjoyed. Hm. I almost always say that about the movies I watch. Ah, well. I would make a terrible film critic. I had some great ice cream - Blue Bell's Yellow Cake Batter. Wow, talk about Yum!

Saturday morning, I went with Jeanette and the girls and we watched another movie (Happy Feet), which was quite amusing in spite of Riley's gastrotechnics, heh. Then Matt, Glen and I went to the local gaming store and had a nice chat with the owner. It was quite hopping at that store, with six or eight gaming tables all filled up with players. I love seeing a full, busy store. That evening we went to a really neat bridge in Tulsa and enjoyed a long, leisurely walk.

It was an awesome few days to spend with them, especially since we haven't seen them for several months.

On another note, the girls were great with Taltos, and great for Taltos. At first they were intimidated, of course. They are aged six, three and a half, and almost two. He weighs more than all three of them put together and is taller than two of them. However, he is so particularly mellow that by the end of the visit even Riley (the youngest) could walk up to him and pet him. I think that Aleis did the best with him, though, and he really seemed to like her, right down to tapping her with his paw if she stopped petting him and even resting his head in her lap of his own free will. Very encouraging!

This morning we headed out, and here I am now. Home again, home again! Poor Matt has been fighting a sore throat all week, so I medicated him and sent him to bed. Once I finish this up, I'll probably head to the hobby room, lie down and read a good book. Mm.

I hope everyone else had a much less exciting holiday than my own!

Comments

[jaelie.livejournal.com]

Indeed, Matt & I were very lucky. If we had been in Matt's Civic, then the deer would have likely ridden up the hood and into the windshield. So there is a silver lining!

Also, I posted on Denise's LJ regarding the upcoming holiday, etc. ^_^

[tempest-sky.livejournal.com]

Glad your holiday was great and that your weekend wasn't overshadowed by the deer.

I'm curious...how did Taltos react to the deer? (I'm picturing him practicing for the cat hunts...and wondering if the deer got him in hunting mode. Or does his breed stick to smaller game?}

[jaelie.livejournal.com]

Actually, we didn't let him get out of the car in spite of his great curiousity. Greyhounds were bred for smaller game, like you guessed. It's not because of the size because the Scottish Deerhound is almost exactly the same build, but clearly bred for, well, deer hunting. ^_~ I'm not sure if he would actually chase a deer, he's such a big chicken-dog.

[guen-the-cat.livejournal.com]

Oh dear! You're lucky to have gotten off easy with the damage you recieved on that car. Deer can sometimes total a car.

I have my own funny "hunting" story that I'm trying to find some time to compose and post about.

And my family has never been big into football, but when the latecomers strolled into deer camp and announced that the Aggies had beat Texas, everyone rejoiced. It was insanity all around. Aggie fans have waited a looooong time for this one.

[jaelie.livejournal.com]

Heh. Matt really enjoyed your Aggie comment!

Also, yes, we got off very lucky. On the drive back we saw no less than three other deer that had been killed by automobiles. I just hope that those other drivers fared as 'easily' as we did.

[learsfool.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeeps!

I'm glad you're both ok.

[jaelie.livejournal.com]

Me, too!! It sucks about my car, but I can't be but grateful that aside from the headache and stress, we were totally ok. It could have been much, much worse.