Thoughts From My Desk - 9/18/2007

I sealed my fate for the Father of the Year Award tonight when I took my kids to 7-11 for dinner. What can I say? They love processed cheese sauce and drinks that are void of any nutritional value. I don't let them eat like that every day. I swear.

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On the way to the 7-11 for our gourmet healthy dinner of nachos, hot dogs, Slurpees, and a cookie with Dallas Cowboys frosting on it, a woman on a bicycle (with no helmet) attempted to turn left in front of oncoming traffic going straight. When the cars wouldn't stop for her she threw her hand up at them and came about a foot away from being a hood ornament. When she finally turned left she looked back in disgust as if to say, "How dare you not let me turn left on an unprotected green light in front of your car! Can't you see I'm trying to have a conversation with my friend on my Bluetooth!" Yes, she was on the phone while riding her bicycle in the street without a helmet on - and breaking traffic laws.

Amazing.

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Have you ever noticed that when the graffiti removal department of the City paints over graffiti that it really doesn't look much better? They use a different color or shade of gray, tan, or light blue in the same areas. Why not use the same paint every time? Why not get a paint that is a match for the concrete? Why not just plant some shrubs in front of the wall that fences off the water retention pond? That way they wouldn't have a place to paint and we wouldn't have to look at the eyesore of the retention pond while driving by. What is the cost of shrubs vs. the cost of paint and labor to come cover up the graffiti? My guess is shrubs are cheaper and they look nicer. Thanks for spending $11,000,000 on the road I'm referring to and not splurging for a couple of hundred bucks (if that) for shrubs. (insert eye rolling emoticon here)

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Speaking of emoticons! Happy Birthday to the Smiley! You are 25 years old today and have changed the face of emails, blogs, forum posts, and more. We wouldn't be the same without you!

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Did anybody have OJ for breakfast? I did. It was a delicious way to start my day knowing that "The Juice" could spend the rest of his sorry life rotting in jail where he belongs. He should have known somebody would come along and set him up since he really doesn't have any friends. The ones he did have will be the ones sending him away in an orange jumpsuit. A fitting end for a rotten piece of fruit. Is there an emoticon for a rotten piece of fruit?

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I found the deal of the month at Goodwill today - a kids table with two chairs for $8.99! It needs sanding and repainting or staining, but that will be a fun project to keep my kids busy for a few days. Earlier they had Goldfish crackers and apple juice at it while watching cartoons. It was the quietest thirty minutes of my day.

Reunions, Brisket, and Longhorn Caverns

For the last 16 years we have had a family reunion at my Grandparents house in Marble Falls, TX, about an hour outside of Austin. Normally it is held the last weekend in June, but Marble Falls was under water that weekend. My Grandparents postponed it until last weekend so they could dry out, redo the back room from the flood damage, and so we could actually cross roads that were previously impassible to get to their house.

We missed a few family members but still had fun. My sister and her family came and our kids always have fun playing together. You could give them a pile of dirt and they would be happy. Luckily, Grandpa had one so all was good.



Here are a few shots from a huge sunflower patch in one of their fields. That little bug posed for several minutes while I snapped away.






Aside from devouring tasty brisket, chicken, and all the sides in various colors, we spent time visiting with some family that we only see once a year, watched our dogs play, and took the kids to Longhorn Caverns. These caverns are about 20 minutes away from my Grandparents house and it was my first time to go. I know! I can't believe it either! It's no Carlsbad but still an underground wonder with a great history of safe havens for bank robbers, Indians, and a speakeasy. I love caves, caverns, and even basements. I'm not sure why I like basements so much. Maybe because I like the private seclusion and quietness that comes with it.

Here are some of my favorite photos from Longhorn Caverns. I was unable to locate my battery charger before the trip so I burned through 18 AA batteries in about an hour and missed a few shots while changing out the pack. I was the caboose in the tour and the guide was very nice about letting me shoot while juggling batteries and holding up the others. There are still some photos I want to go back and get. The way the rocks formed in there are truly amazing.








These photos don't really show all of the visual beauty of Longhorn Caverns. You should go check them out for yourself. It has been years since I have visited any other caverns and I plan on making it back again to all of them around Central Texas very soon.

Do You Act Your Age?

Even though you are the grown-up, do you ever find yourself...

cutting your own sandwiches into triangles?

turning on cartoons while the kids are napping?

wishing you could have gotten a sticker at the doctor's office?

opening the Happy Meal toy and playing with it first?

sneaking French fries off your child's plate when they are not looking?

jumping the gun in a race so your four-year old won't beat you?

wanting one of those motorized shopping carts so your kids can push you?

forgetting to cover your mouth when you sneeze, then looking around to make sure nobody noticed?

giving some of your vegetables to the dog so you can have desert, too?

coloring on the children's menus at a restaurant?

cursing the playground builders for making the monkey bars too low?


No? Then either I'm the only one or you are lying!

Summertime Summertime Sum Sum...

Summertime. I hear it's on the way. Hot and humid days. It was nice to have a June that felt like April. It was nice to have the rain, although not so nice for my grandparents in Marble Falls whose back room flooded just two days before the annual family reunion. Since the town was upside down in asphalt and washed out homes, the reunion was postponed.

Yep, here comes summer. And since we had an extended spring I'm sure summer will last until the first of October, which means the Austin City Limits Music Festival will most likely be another sweat fest fueled by too many beers and spicy nachos. Oh well, you only live once!

Along with finally being able to treat my grass with fungicide to save the remaining sprouts of desperate St. Augustine blades hoping to form a runner to fill back in the bare spots, I'm also looking forward to some thunder and lightning free kickball games down at the rec center!



Little Mr. is on a coed team this summer and they are good! Their team wins every time they play! OK, so maybe they all win every time but that doesn't make it less exciting for the kids and parents. It's not like they are playing high school football or anything. They are a bunch of three and four-year old kids learning how to participate on a team and play an organized sport. I use the term organized very loosely, though. At some point all of the kids take turns running off the field during the innings to give their parents a high five or sneak a sip from their juice boxes.

We have snack duty for tonight's game. I was thinking something really unhealthy like Twinkies but my wife suggested fresh fruit. I guess we'll be taking fresh fruit and Little Mr. and I can eat the Twinkies later at home!

Little Bit, Little Mr.'s younger sister, is a big fan of his kickball games. She runs around cheering and sometimes tries to jump in to kick. She is turning into a little troublemaker and I'm thinking of changing both of their nicknames to Big Trouble and Little Trouble. The two of them together are a force to be reckoned with. In January I wrote an article for Quirkee.com about how they were slowly forming a coup d'état. Their side has grown even stronger since then and I have started to look for hiding places around the house in case I need to reload. At this point I still have the upper hand but as soon as Little Bit gets control of her yogurt weapons I'm a dead man.