Our day off to bum-around for Kevin’s birthday started off by going down early to the arch grounds for Rico’s promotion ceremony.

He’s enlisted – so there wasn’t as much pageantry as you might expect… Couple of dozen service men showed, and a handful of civilians.

The ceremony was punctuated by what I guess is tradition: A loved one on one side and a C.O. on the other attach (with tape) the new stripes with a swift punch. Rico’s grandma planted more of a love-tap – but it was still enough to hold the new patch in place.

Later the “big CO” would catch Rico and deliver a line that I’m sure he’s said countless times before – as if reading from some sort of military informality manual… Nonetheless he still came accross as genuine and warm:

First Sargent, you’re out of uniform… You’re relieved for the rest of the day to correct this problem.”

*That’s military boss talk for “Congratulations… take the rest of the day off.”

We left Rico to celebrate with his peers and grabbed lunch downtown… Afterward we poked around at a few stores and found a couple of great artifacts… I’ll share em tomorrow,.. for now I gotta chicken.