Well I'm happy to report that my Memorial Day weekend has gone rather well. Despite the fact that today will consist mainly of organizing my apartment. I know I moved in a couple of months ago but it takes time to get it just right and when you are doing it all while working and everything else it takes longer.
So Friday night I drove out to West Springfield and met up with my best friend friend Mat and his friend Mich. We ate at a restaurant called "On the Border". I had never heard of this chain before but I will say it was rather good, the only ding it got was do to the slow service. The food was excellent though. Now it is a tex-mex kind of restaurant but the menu items were less than authentic. This is not to say they were bad just more inventive versions of the staples you would think to find at a typical Mexican restaurant. There were burritos and tacos and chimmichangas, but they were all a step up from what you would normally find. While I was unable to find a mole dish I was very impressed with my Buffalo Chicken Tacos. There were two tacos that consisted of grilled Buffalo chicken sliced with blue cheese, a little ranch dressing, and topped with some crispy fried onions. To bulk up the usual hard taco shell these were served in what seemed to be the restaurants signature flatbreads. They were good and made the meal that much more filling. The rice and refried beans were good but I chose to leave my beans, because I knew I would be sharing a hotel room later on and I like these guys to much to put them through that.
Anyways we went back to the Hotel, checked in and went to bed since 4AM comes early. Morning came and we are up and out and on the way to Hatfield but not before stopping to pick up the instructor who drove up from Connecticut. His name was Santo and he was a real great guy. He is an expert and knows his shit but does not have an ounce of pompacity. He is genuinely concerned for his craft and those who want to teach it. I know that my career in ballooning will only consist of random crewing and taking rides but if I ever wanted to learn from the masters it would be from him and Mich (of course I just ruined the surprise). So on the way to Hatfield Mich and Santo are in the back of the van testing while Mat and I are listening in up front. We reach our destination and its time to go to work.
After assembling the basket and burner support we layout the balloon.
We then filled the balloon with air and once full Mich and Santo took to the skies.
After Santo tested Mich on all his requirements it was time to bring the balloon down for a landing in a nearby field.
We packed the balloon up and it was all over by 7:30AM.
We headed to Cracker barrel for breakfast it turns out Mich passed with flying colors. As I knew he would. We said our goodbyes and I went back home to Natick. By that time Brian had already left for work and I went back to sleep and slept most of the day. I got up went out and went to Shopper's World. I have a couple of things that I was hoping to get namely a little portable usb drive for my keychain and maybe a new pair of sneakers. After being thoroughly disappointed with Best Buy I walked on down to DSW with much the same results. Knowing that is was getting late I headed over to Kelly's for a roast beef sandwich then back to the apartment to build more furniture.
Sunday came and Brian and I were able to spend a little more time together in the morning before he headed to work and I headed to Mohegan Sun. It was far to short of time but right now I guess its what we have to do. We parted our ways and I headed to JeffM and Sean's house. Allergic reactions aside we all made it to Mohegan and enjoyed Kathy Griffin. I even played my lucky $50 and converted it to a lucky $400. Of course that money will soon be spent on bills and groceries, but at least its something. Plus thats more money than Brian and I have ever put into the Casino.
Thats enough for now talk to you later and if you want to see more pics from my adventures in Ballooing ge here.
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