A First Time For Everything

This summer has come and gone in a blink of an eye. Each one seems to go faster than the last and they all end with my birthday as a reminder that I am one more year closer to retirement or death, whichever comes first.

The last few months have been a big Summer of Firsts in this house. My son had his first jump into a pool from the side (with a life vest on), his first trip to Dallas Cowboys Training Camp, his first time bowling when we had to go two days in a row, his first strike at the bowling alley, his inaugural trip to Peter Pan Mini Golf on Barton Springs Road, his first movie in a theater when we saw Ratatouille,...

See more firsts by clicking -->

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.

Here Comes The Rain, Sun, and Bugs

I love it when the weather gets warmer and the days last longer. The grass grows nice and thick from the rain; the windows and doors can be open to enjoy the breeze. At our house an open door is an open invitation to any flying insect to help itself to the luxuries of cable TV, fresh fruit, and the warmth of a glowing light bulb at night. With the kids constantly going in and out of the back door - bees, flies, junebugs, and others are helping themselves to our house. I have spent the majority of the last few summers catching flies in my bare hands (yes, like Daniel-san) and tossing them down the kitchen sink with the disposal on. It is a "dispose all", right? With the exception of some previous clogged pasta, sweet potato peels, and salmon pate incidents, I like to think it should live up to it's name. It's not called a "dispose most" now is it?

I usually preface the squirmy fly's demise by saying, "Take that you pesky fly! No more fresh fruit (or trash can delicacies) for you!" This year I've decided to go the more humane route on ridding the indoors of flying nuisances. I hung two strips of fly paper on either side of the back door. Stephanie thinks this is one of the most disgusting things she has ever seen (hello? afterbirth anyone?), but I kind of like them. Not only does it stop them from coming in the house but you can stand there and watch them squirm while trying to free themselves. These are chemical free papers so they don't suffer - they just starve to death. Pretty soon a spider will build it's nightly web around them and go to town on the fly paper buffet. Granted, a few flying things still manage to make their way inside. Those suckers still get the one-two punch on the way to the sink.

By the way, in case you were wondering what that beautiful sunset photo is of, that's the flypaper. A true piece of art that you, too, can pick up at the store for $.25/each.