Why the Sudden Abscence?

Sorry to have disappeared for a few days there. My brother and a friend of his came into town for two weeks, on leave from service in the Army before going to Iraq in August.

And because my brother was in, so was my Mom, Dad, Stepmom, sister, cousin, and a number of friends. For the last two weeks I've either been out of town visiting family with Ed (my brother,) or hanging out at home with him and any number of people who have passed through my domicile in an incredibly short period of time.

To give you an idea of who my brother is and what he is like, here is what happened in the last two weeks:

- Got severely inebriated....a lot.

- A giant piece of solid concrete that I dug up in my backyard was smashed to bits and is now a pile of fine powder.

- My car was wrecked.

- Bought two new Xbox games (Star Wars Battlefronts, SSX 3) and played them, along with a couple of old ones (Halo 2, Madden 2005.)

- Went to a crawfish boil, where I ate about 10 crawfish while everyone else ate closer to 10 pounds each.

- Bought a baseball bat with the intention of going to the batting cages with Ed, but instead just swung it around a lot while we watched the NBA Semi-Finals (go Detroit!)

- A brand new CD of mine accidentally found its way to Alaska.

- Had two bottles of Whiskey (Jack Daniels, Evan Williams) when Ed arrived; threw the empty bottles away last night.

- Watched Ed get an awfully nasty carpet burn while my friend Nike dragged him across the house to keep him from passing out while we were still drinking (that was when the Jack Daniels got put away.)

- My sister got a serious marriage proposal, and said no.

- Ed got an expensive pair of nice sunglasses to use in Iraq for blocking the bright light of the sun and preventing sand from flying in his eyes, and then promptly lost them five days before going back to Alaska.

- Ate a killer White Russian cheesecake from Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro.

- Was very tempted to steal Ed's new PSP.

- Played "King of the Hill" on a giant pile of limestone.

All of this happened, and I still found time to do my normal stuff like go to work and school. I'm exhausted.