“Oh no, not the brothers’ Horlbeck!” shouted Randall as we both teamed up against him. In all, Scott and I pretty much cleaned up the competition Saturday night. Yup, Tim, Scott, Randall, Mark E., and Mark’s brother Noah and his wife Nicole all came over and played Halo 2 for about five hours. We had quite the good time playing all different types of variations of the game (ranging from straight-up “slayer” to playing team games of capture-the-flag) on three different TVs.

I do have a word of rebuke, though, for Tim’s wife. It all began with an email I received from Tim early last week when I announced the Halo “party”:

No thanks. I am learning from my very wise wife that killing is wrong. I don't think I'll be playing halo ever again.
Tim

Assuredly this was not from the Tim I knew! Later that same afternoon, I received the following:

It has just come to my attention that somebody very close to me, has impersonated me in a very deceitful way! That person wrongfully expressed a sorrow and disdain for killing on my behalf! May this not be! In fact, Killing in Halo 2 is one of life's greatest and most simple pleasures! Needless to say, the impersonator has been severely chastised, and/or locked in a closet! Therefore, disregard the past correspondence, and bring on the Halo Party!

Ah yes, this was my true friend. And we celebrated heartily on Saturday night. Halo was the perfect way to end the day.

You see, the day started off real early with some fertilizer for the lawn. It’s about that time here in the good ol’ Land of Enchantment. In fact, I mowed the lawn Thursday night to prepare for today. Unfortunately, I didn’t exactly prepare the way I wanted to–although I prepared the grass for fertilizer, I accidentally broke a sprinkler head while mowing. And it didn’t just pop off, either–it actually broke the PVC pipe in the ground.

So after fertilizing the lawn, Tim and I took to the task of digging up the pipe (being ever so careful with the patch of grass), unscrewing the pipe, and going to the Depot to find a replacement (who knew there were so many different types of sprinkler-heads). A sprinkler-head, pipe, and several other tools later (not to fix the sprinkler, mind you, but just…you know, tools and stuff), we got back home and fixed everything right up, good as new. This homeowner is learning new things everyday!

My next project is going to be to do some network wiring in the house. I want to run some Ethernet cabling throughout my office and our other bedroom to alleviate the need for cables to run along the floor. I’ve never done it before but it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

—

Renee’s part:
While the guys were playing Halo at their nerd-fest (keep in mind, girls, these are the cutest nerds around), I had a girls’ day out with Jeni! We went to this great quilt store and signed up for some beginning quilting classes. My two sewing projects this summer are to make some crib bedding for the baby and a big… quilt. Cool, cool, very cool, as Scott would say!

Then we had a wonderful meal at Olive Garden, where Jeni was a slave to her alfredo sauce. Good times.

We’ve interviewed two people to take over my position at work, and that has been strange, imagining myself not coming to work at the office everyday, but I’m looking forward to the joy that’s coming! In the meantime, I’m realizing that the days are going by quickly, and I’m really excited to go home in July to see my family for Mary’s wedding. God’s country–there ain’t no place like it!