I met Kevin (av8rdude) at Helios, where I hung out until it was time to pick up Irene at the airport.
Mid-afternoon, I had their Pimento Cheese sandwich, which I’d never had before. Delicious! And only $.50 more than PB&J sandwich.
As I went up to order, this guy named John who did the ride with Joe and me, came in ahead of me, and ordered a sandwich. This guy has the hottest ass and legs in history. He never game me (or Joe for that matter) the time of day all during our training, or the three days of the ride. At least he was consistent today. I’m not bitter.
At about 3:00, I checked Irene’s flight online to find: Scheduled Arrival: 4:15, Estimated Arrival: 4:19. As I was getting ready to leave at 4:00, I checked again, and it had changed to: Scheduled Arrival: 4:15, Estimated Arrival: 5:08.
I thought, “I love technology,” and sat back to wait the extra 45 minutes there instead of at the airport. At 4:19, my phone rang, and the caller ID said, “Irene.”
“Hi. It’s me. I’m here.” WTF?
I refreshed my screen, and it said: Scheduled Arrival: 4:15, Estimated Arrival: 4:19. Technology schmectnology.
We dropped off Irene’s stuff at my house, changed clothes, and headed to the lake.
We had a glorious three-mile walk around the lake, which Irene loved. She particularly liked the hills, as the place at which she walks in Austin lacks them.
We enjoyed it so much that we decided then and there to do it again tomorrow morning, before she leaves for Jacksonville. We agreed to try the other side of the lake, as she thought she would prefer to walk on a non-paved surface, and I’ve been wanting to try the trail on that side of the lake for a while. Win/win.
We stopped at the Harris Teeter on Buck Jones Road on the way home, and picked up some filets to grill out, along with a couple of potatoes to bake, and some salad ingredients, which included mixed greens and artichoke hearts.
She also grabbed two bottles of wine (for her, I don’t drink wine), and I grabbed ingredients to make us some mozzarella-tomato-brushetta as an appetizer.
At home, I prepared the bruschetta, while Irene prepared the salad, adding small pieces of cheddar cheese, tomatoes, and diced (three-dimensional cuts!) hardboiled eggs.
I cooked the filets on the grill, but didn’t do a very good job of it — didn’t cook ’em long enough. Irene was satisfied with hers, but I ended up zapping mine in the microwave when I got about halfway through and saw blood red.
After dinner, we rode down to Helios, where she had a glass of wine, I had coffee, and we took care of a couple of things for her online — booking a rental car for tomorrow for her, and a hotel room for tomorrow night for her and Maria.
It was a grand day of grand conversation and grand company.