We, thanks to the blackout windows at B-Rad’s house, wake up late, 10am. After we shower and drink some much needed coffee and B-Rad’s mom’s yummy chocolate chip cookies, we decide to head to the Casino where B-Rad’s sister works and manages.  She gets us into the buffet for free and everyone treats B-Rad, J and I like we are royalty just because his sister is the manager.

Afterwards, since we are in a casino, J cannot resist and has to gamble.  I refuse to waste my money today (unless it is playing cards, and all the $5 blackjack tables happen to be full).  J spends probably about $100 more dollars on slot machines and then another $100-ish on cards (he plays on a table that is a $10 buy in).  I am not sure if he wins or loses because I walk away, checking my e-mail on my phone and submitting myself for casting notices (I finally have service, at B-Rad’s they live so high out in the woods; there is no cell service).

J is dying for us to see the new film “The Hangover”, so we head into town where that is playing.  We realize we are two hours early to the movie, so we decide to go to Black Chasm, which is a cave and gift shop.  We take the cave tour, our tour guide is a woman in her mid-40’s who thinks she is the funniest person alive, she is not, but I do record her on my video camera for character study, she would be a great character for improv.  The cave tour was actually pretty interesting and took up all of our time, in fact we are now late to our movie. 

We hurry into the movie theater and the little old lady behind the counter tries to up sell us everything she has… J is frustrated because we have already missed the first 5-10 minutes of the film (normally I would just skip it then because I have to see the whole film, but for this movie, I did not really care).  We find a few seats in the theater and start to watch the film.  It’s a guys version of a romantic comedy if you ask me… J was in love with the film and laughed his ass off, eh, I thought it was ok… I also thought it was slightly predictable. 

After the movie we head to the little Mexican restaurant nearby that B-Rad likes.  I gave J a piggy back because his butt is killing him (and just for fun, it is not like he asked me to, more like I wanted to prove I could).   I got a taco salad (which I have not had in a very long time) and J gets pork chops?!  He is even half Mexican… pork chops, odd and B-Rad gets sopas.  We enjoy our yummy Mexican food and try to figure out what is next… shall we leave for LA, or shall we stay?  J badly wants to stay one more night, I want to go home, but honestly there is no reason to go home and it would be nice to visit longer, so I tell J that it would be okay with me if we stay the night as long as we leave in the morning since I have things I need to do in LA.  He was very happy to hear that and they decide they want to go fishing.  Once we get back to B-Rad’s place they grab their fishing gear, and I quickly change into tennis shoes and a warmer sweater (J’s sweater actually).  By the time B-Rad finds his fishing gear, it is dark and defeats the purpose of going, but the guys still went while I stayed back and chatted with B-Rad’s family and watched a few movies.  The guys went fishing, then off roading (in the dark, glad I did not go) and finally back to the house just as my movie finished and I was going to head to bed.

J stays up to chat with B-Rad a little more and I give him a kiss goodnight and pass out.

This time we set the alarm to wake us up… 6:45am.  When it went off I could not tell what time it was since the blackout windows make it so dark.  J pushed snooze and we both fell back asleep.  The alarm went off again at 6:55am.  This time I woke up, got dressed, brushed my teeth, yada, yada and turned on the light to wake up J. Our goal was to leave by 7am since we still had a 6-7 hour drive to LA.

After J got dressed and finally finished dilly dallying around, we said our goodbyes and were on the road by 8:30 (a half and hour AFTER we had planned… oh well, that is life with J, spontaneous).

On the way back to LA (it felt forever long in the car), we stopped at Harris Ranch.  J had always wanted to eat steak there (apparently it is the best) ever since he was stationed in LeMoore which was when he first joined the Navy back in 2000.  We stopped and checked out their gift shop, J bought me a cute oil dispenser top and then we ate.  J ordered New York Sirloin, it was delicious and I ordered a cup of white bean chili, mmm-mmm good.  Harris Ranch was just as good as Ruth Chris (if not maybe even better), but with a better price!  We paid $30 for a full meal, that was with their top of the line steak AND a side salad, potato and roll.  At Ruth Chris you only get the steak (every thing is a la carte) and even then the steak is $50 (min), if only Harris Ranch was not 200 miles outside of LA.

We finally make it back to LA, I pick up my car (again, thank you DH) and J gets to see our little apartment (I say ‘our’ because he will be living there on the weekends when he is not in school).  We unpack the rental, he figures out what will stay at our little studio and what will go with him to BUD/S.  We then head out to Zales (to look at rings and ask a few questions), J gets his hair cut, we go grocery shopping and head back to our little pad so we can do laundry and get everything situated before J leaves in the mornings.  I really do not want him to leave… The good thing is he is only 2.5 hours away from me, but since we have been together 7days straight, I do not want to let him go, I missed him while he was gone in Chicago.