Javalina always seems to have amusing little stories after school. I really liked this one he told me on Monday or Tuesday. He said he was hanging out talking with his friend Eddie outside during lunch break and out of nowhere a 7th grader he has in a class he was just moved to ran by him and yelled "you suck at drawing!" He was caught off guard as he wasn't even sure who it was that said it initially. After staring at him as he kept running, he figured out it was the kid that sits on his table in art class.
He was then asking me "Do I retaliate or let it go?" I told him it was hilarious, to just tell the kid that it was funny and let it go. He said "I will not be the butt of a joke of some shitty little 7th grader, he must learn respect." I then said but maybe he heard you making fun of yourself trying to be cute with that Mexican girl who doesn't speak English and he thought you were cool like that. He said, "nah, I can make fun of myself, he doesn't have my permission."
I told him there is always the chance if you get tough with him, he might decide to kick your ass, you know, turn the table on my little demi-god (he likens himself a demi-god, kind of like a Hercules, or something. Boy has an ego). He looks at me and utters "really?!" "really dad?!" "The kid is like a foot shorter than me and he's a "Chiquito Gordito", implying he is short and soft." "Ay Mijo" is all I can say. One of these days, someone is going to kick your ass. He still managed a "nah!"
Today, he had art and the kid wasn't there the first 20 minutes, my boy thought he had scared him away, but he showed up, eventually. He said he decided not to threaten him, but he also was not going to acknowledge he existed as a person. He told him "hey, 7th grader, I am not going to retaliate, but I will also not ever know your name. You will just be 7th grader." The kid responded back with here's my name and he showed him his badge, and Javalina said "no, you are 7th grader." Later in the class, the teacher asked the kid to do something and my boy snapped his finger and said "andale! andale! hurry up, 7th grader."
He can be funny, but I can't help think that the other smaller kid was trying to make friends with him, Javalina is just a bit of a jerk and he insists on staying with his own kind.
Thursday, January 31, 2019
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
1/30/19 Gifts, and Cake, and Rest, Oh My?
Around 10:00pm, the court assembled again and my niece was introduced once more along with her court. This was where I worried for mijo the most. He didn't really get a chance to practice and he had only practiced two songs anyway. It turns out there were three, one he was totally blind to but in the end, we fumble our way through things and if we don't make a big deal out of them, most people won't even notice. Before we knew it, those moments were done, my niece was lifted by the group of boys and all went well.
After this, we went into the gifting part of the night, which Boy was chosen for a "surprise gift". What do you give a girl who has everything, luckily? I thought it would be funny to make her sweat and blush a little bit, so I had been joking for a couple months that we should get her a fishing rod and reel as that is something daddy would never buy his princess. We also are not animals, so we did buy her a very nice set of a pearl necklace and matching earrings, but that was hid. First we made her open the box with her Barbie fishing rod and hot pink worm lures. Wife took a pic where she is somehow holding but not touching the rod and reel looking at me like "are you for real?!" We then presented her with the smaller box with the appropriate gifts and told her we were just having a little fun and we loved her. I hadn't told my mom about the pearls either so she said she couldn't believe it when she saw the pink fishing rod. All the guys in the family gave me a high five and thought that was a great gag. The gifts continued and eventually we got to the cake.
I want to say that the cake was beautiful and it was pink but that fondant or whatever it is called is hard to swallow, unlike frosting of the past. I also have to say that the cake was not freshly made, for all its beauty on the outside, it was stale and at least 4-5 days old. Other than this though, it was about a perfect night. None of us really drank, I mean I had a "shot" with my brother and his brother in law who is a very likable guy, but that wasn't going to get me even buzzy. By 11:30pm, my boys were tired, Wife's family had left and I was getting hungry. I went and excused myself from my brother, got the alarm key from my mother and headed to the one taco place that is open late.
There is no better feeling after a long day than getting home, stripping off the formal wear and getting back to our regular clothes with some tacos to enjoy. My folks showed up half an hour later saying the night had been great. My mom's only thing was that she had a prettier dress she had bought for the dance that she never got a chance to come home and change into as she chose to dress conservatively for the church, but really, that is a first world problem. Hat's off to my brother and his wife for running a tight ship and keeping everything under control. They ran a first class affair without a hitch. Take a deep breath Bro, you've been uptight and on edge for almost a year over this. I hope you're relaxing now.
After this, we went into the gifting part of the night, which Boy was chosen for a "surprise gift". What do you give a girl who has everything, luckily? I thought it would be funny to make her sweat and blush a little bit, so I had been joking for a couple months that we should get her a fishing rod and reel as that is something daddy would never buy his princess. We also are not animals, so we did buy her a very nice set of a pearl necklace and matching earrings, but that was hid. First we made her open the box with her Barbie fishing rod and hot pink worm lures. Wife took a pic where she is somehow holding but not touching the rod and reel looking at me like "are you for real?!" We then presented her with the smaller box with the appropriate gifts and told her we were just having a little fun and we loved her. I hadn't told my mom about the pearls either so she said she couldn't believe it when she saw the pink fishing rod. All the guys in the family gave me a high five and thought that was a great gag. The gifts continued and eventually we got to the cake.
I want to say that the cake was beautiful and it was pink but that fondant or whatever it is called is hard to swallow, unlike frosting of the past. I also have to say that the cake was not freshly made, for all its beauty on the outside, it was stale and at least 4-5 days old. Other than this though, it was about a perfect night. None of us really drank, I mean I had a "shot" with my brother and his brother in law who is a very likable guy, but that wasn't going to get me even buzzy. By 11:30pm, my boys were tired, Wife's family had left and I was getting hungry. I went and excused myself from my brother, got the alarm key from my mother and headed to the one taco place that is open late.
There is no better feeling after a long day than getting home, stripping off the formal wear and getting back to our regular clothes with some tacos to enjoy. My folks showed up half an hour later saying the night had been great. My mom's only thing was that she had a prettier dress she had bought for the dance that she never got a chance to come home and change into as she chose to dress conservatively for the church, but really, that is a first world problem. Hat's off to my brother and his wife for running a tight ship and keeping everything under control. They ran a first class affair without a hitch. Take a deep breath Bro, you've been uptight and on edge for almost a year over this. I hope you're relaxing now.
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
1/29/19 Mexicans Love Loud Music?
We finally had our babies back in the building and all was good. They did a formal presentation at the door of all them as young ladies and gentlemen escorting the quinceanera and there was a walk into the dance hall where everyone stood on the dance floor and my niece walked around everyone in her court and through the middle, complete with a little dance, I thought it was fine. My boy had not practiced it and you could say he fumbled it, but he wasn't the only one a little lost. There were a host of other girls with two left feet and guys who just don't feel the music. It was fine, if not a little clumsy. I got the overall effect and it was all cute and the best part is they were all having fun. There was no indication of drama or idiotic infighting. After this, the grandparents, aunts/uncles and parents were introduced. It was all fine until our old fart of a father got up there. Everyone got teary-eyed, mostly in a happy way, as it had been only a few weeks earlier he had been in the hospital for almost a week and he needed physical therapy to get him walking again, but he danced and I was happiest to see that.
Once the court sat down, the mariachis showed up and they played for a long while. They started by singing to the court, who were all seated together in their section at this point. After they sang for the court, they moved from table to table and I wasn't sure if we were supposed to tip them some more, but they kept on singing. It can be a little intimidating and I could see feeling like that MAGA kid in the hat on the news, the mariachis start wailing their Spanish songs and all you can do is sit there and smile at them. It seems rude to turn away or ignore them. After an hour, they were still on the other side of the ballroom playing away with some of the people getting up and singing away with them, again, it was a good night and nothing but love and good times all around.
It might have been around 7:00pm at this point, but the DJ started playing music and the dancing started. Wife told me at this point that her family was on their way from San Antonio. I thought it was a bit late to get on the road, but they were there by around 9:00pm. Boy's GF, who spent a good amount of time in Mexico and going to celebrations over there, wondered why only cumbias were played. I didn't even have a response for it, as that is what is always played. It's not like people are going to break into a tango, or know what to do if some bossa nova sneaks into the selections. But! There was one crazy song I can't recall what they called it but two of the boys took to dancing two hops per foot going right foot to left foot around the dance floor hopping like rabbits at a crazy pace. I could feel a heart attack just trying this.
It was nice to see my Javalina dance plenty of times. He danced with his escort a couple times and he danced with my mom a few times. Boy danced with his GF, but we never made it to the floor. Wife has never been the dancing type and since it has been so long, it just felt weird getting going. A couple times I got up to grab her and go, but she resisted just enough that I said fine, let's go get a soda, or I'll just get up and move around. It didn't help that the thing that held my pants snug on the right side popped, like a blowout, and I had very little holding up my pants. Either way, I was still having a great time. Around 9:00pm, the live music started and she sang until around 10:00pm or so, when the house lights came on to introduce the Quinceanera girl and the court to the rest of the people who showed up just for the dance and maybe a slice of cake..... (last part of the night coming)
Once the court sat down, the mariachis showed up and they played for a long while. They started by singing to the court, who were all seated together in their section at this point. After they sang for the court, they moved from table to table and I wasn't sure if we were supposed to tip them some more, but they kept on singing. It can be a little intimidating and I could see feeling like that MAGA kid in the hat on the news, the mariachis start wailing their Spanish songs and all you can do is sit there and smile at them. It seems rude to turn away or ignore them. After an hour, they were still on the other side of the ballroom playing away with some of the people getting up and singing away with them, again, it was a good night and nothing but love and good times all around.
It might have been around 7:00pm at this point, but the DJ started playing music and the dancing started. Wife told me at this point that her family was on their way from San Antonio. I thought it was a bit late to get on the road, but they were there by around 9:00pm. Boy's GF, who spent a good amount of time in Mexico and going to celebrations over there, wondered why only cumbias were played. I didn't even have a response for it, as that is what is always played. It's not like people are going to break into a tango, or know what to do if some bossa nova sneaks into the selections. But! There was one crazy song I can't recall what they called it but two of the boys took to dancing two hops per foot going right foot to left foot around the dance floor hopping like rabbits at a crazy pace. I could feel a heart attack just trying this.
It was nice to see my Javalina dance plenty of times. He danced with his escort a couple times and he danced with my mom a few times. Boy danced with his GF, but we never made it to the floor. Wife has never been the dancing type and since it has been so long, it just felt weird getting going. A couple times I got up to grab her and go, but she resisted just enough that I said fine, let's go get a soda, or I'll just get up and move around. It didn't help that the thing that held my pants snug on the right side popped, like a blowout, and I had very little holding up my pants. Either way, I was still having a great time. Around 9:00pm, the live music started and she sang until around 10:00pm or so, when the house lights came on to introduce the Quinceanera girl and the court to the rest of the people who showed up just for the dance and maybe a slice of cake..... (last part of the night coming)
Monday, January 28, 2019
1/28/19 The Campestre Ballroom?
There was no point in arguing, once we finished with the church ceremony, we were on a suicide mission with the Campestre Ballroom. Boy's GF was with us, and she was curious where Wife had lived since this is only the 2nd or third time she has been down to visit, well us taking an extra turn got us the "family cops" called within a minute of that extra turn. Before we turned down Wife's street a block away from where we got out of line (we were all driving in a convoy), my brother on the phone wanted to know where we were headed. I said "never mind," and we turned back towards the ballroom. The house doesn't look anything like it used to. When Wife and her family lived there, the house had a Spanish wall in front made of stucco, complete with big open half circular openings. I guess the people that bought it removed the wall.
Anyways, we were defiant for another minute as we overshot the ballroom which is next to the "campestre" river crossing (part of the Nueces River), when it is flowing, it is a rather pretty thing to look at, luckily it was. Without water, as it is most of the time, it is a sad excuse for a river crossing. But enough about the area, we are now late to the ballroom.
Walking in, I was surprised at the beauty and dramatic change the inside had taken on. The last time I had been inside this particular ballroom, I assumed it would probably be the last time and it would be torn down at some point. I'm thinking I hadn't seen the inside of this building since the early 90's and it was not in good shape. Most any celebrations have been in the other "ballroom" and the floor is a little bigger in the other one, but there is no height to it, the ceiling is probably 9 or 10 ft tall, which makes it hard to hang decorations that hang and look right. This ballroom had a more square dance floor and the ceiling was probably 25ft or so and they had hung satin drapes from the center headed out in all directions covering the dance floor in a dreamy pink hue. I guess my niece has a thing for Paris as there were little Eiffel Towers as centerpieces along with balloons and drapes on the tables that boy's GF said belonged as material for ball gowns as they were covered in sequins. The cake was a 4 or 5 layer tower of beauty again adorned with imagery from Paris. It sat in one of the corners of the dance floor next to the band's stage overlooking the festivities, while another corner had a "candy buffet" which was a hit with everyone. I looked at it before it was open and it had all sorts of candies and cookies and even a chocolate fountain. This was sitting on one side of the bar (the ballroom has to make a buck selling beers and drinks), and on the other side was a cute "photo booth" where everyone was encouraged to take those 4 picture type of slides and in return the quince girl got a copy to fill an album of all the guests and the people taking pics got a few copies to share with friends. We, the family of the dad sat on 4-5 tables next to the entrance and in front of where the food was served, then the area where the quince girl and her court sat, followed by another 4-5 tables for the mom's side of the family. The families tables were circular and on the actual dance floor, behind that and all around the dance floor, there were probably 50 tables for guests to join.
We got there probably at 5:00pm, which gave us time to sit around. Our cousin catered the food which was turkey with all the normal trimmings, and also my brother thought the court consisting of thirty 14-16 year olds would prefer pizza, he also ordered like 20 pizzas, so they would have a choice. My mom said there would be an intermission, which I thought great, a chance to escape for an hour or so, but that never happened. Basically, we waited and ate for the party bus to arrive. All the kids in the court were transported in a party bus from the church to the ballroom, but they took a scenic hour long ride, which Javalina was a traveler and he said it got loud and silly, even if he didn't know any of the kids well..... (Then the music started, con't.)
Anyways, we were defiant for another minute as we overshot the ballroom which is next to the "campestre" river crossing (part of the Nueces River), when it is flowing, it is a rather pretty thing to look at, luckily it was. Without water, as it is most of the time, it is a sad excuse for a river crossing. But enough about the area, we are now late to the ballroom.
Walking in, I was surprised at the beauty and dramatic change the inside had taken on. The last time I had been inside this particular ballroom, I assumed it would probably be the last time and it would be torn down at some point. I'm thinking I hadn't seen the inside of this building since the early 90's and it was not in good shape. Most any celebrations have been in the other "ballroom" and the floor is a little bigger in the other one, but there is no height to it, the ceiling is probably 9 or 10 ft tall, which makes it hard to hang decorations that hang and look right. This ballroom had a more square dance floor and the ceiling was probably 25ft or so and they had hung satin drapes from the center headed out in all directions covering the dance floor in a dreamy pink hue. I guess my niece has a thing for Paris as there were little Eiffel Towers as centerpieces along with balloons and drapes on the tables that boy's GF said belonged as material for ball gowns as they were covered in sequins. The cake was a 4 or 5 layer tower of beauty again adorned with imagery from Paris. It sat in one of the corners of the dance floor next to the band's stage overlooking the festivities, while another corner had a "candy buffet" which was a hit with everyone. I looked at it before it was open and it had all sorts of candies and cookies and even a chocolate fountain. This was sitting on one side of the bar (the ballroom has to make a buck selling beers and drinks), and on the other side was a cute "photo booth" where everyone was encouraged to take those 4 picture type of slides and in return the quince girl got a copy to fill an album of all the guests and the people taking pics got a few copies to share with friends. We, the family of the dad sat on 4-5 tables next to the entrance and in front of where the food was served, then the area where the quince girl and her court sat, followed by another 4-5 tables for the mom's side of the family. The families tables were circular and on the actual dance floor, behind that and all around the dance floor, there were probably 50 tables for guests to join.
We got there probably at 5:00pm, which gave us time to sit around. Our cousin catered the food which was turkey with all the normal trimmings, and also my brother thought the court consisting of thirty 14-16 year olds would prefer pizza, he also ordered like 20 pizzas, so they would have a choice. My mom said there would be an intermission, which I thought great, a chance to escape for an hour or so, but that never happened. Basically, we waited and ate for the party bus to arrive. All the kids in the court were transported in a party bus from the church to the ballroom, but they took a scenic hour long ride, which Javalina was a traveler and he said it got loud and silly, even if he didn't know any of the kids well..... (Then the music started, con't.)
Sunday, January 27, 2019
1/27/19 And Then, Peace and Quiet?
We knew we were going to do this 15 years ago, we had that long to prepare, but in the end, we wait until the last minute to react and do what we gotta do. It is about two hours since one of the most hectic days for my brother came and went, we finally got to celebrate getting past the ubiquitous celebration of my niece's quinceanera. I say it that way because it crept into everything we did, even for us 3 hours away. In the last stages, my mom was trying her best for us to just take some days off from our normal routines and come and spend the night to make sure we wouldn't be late. I know to them it seemed like we were being a tad selfish or not thinking of the big picture, but for example, Boy tells me he is having trouble with his car right as he started the first week of Spring classes. Yes I am bothered as to why he didn't deal with this on any other day during his Christmas break, but here we are, dealing with this on the Friday before we are supposed to be down in Crystal City. His car cost me a pretty penny on Friday, first needing an alignment, Ford charged a very surprising and affordable $109 plus tax. Then I needed 2 new tires installed, they were $394. This is not stuff that can be ignored, it becomes a lot harder trying to deal with it without Wife and her 2nd vehicle.
But getting back to the day, it started early for us. I was awake at 7:00am and showered before 8:00. Mom had already started texting, wanting to know if we were up and to make sure we were on schedule. The only thing I could say to slow her down was "I can't jump in the shower and hurry if I have to stand by my phone and respond to your texts to hurry." We were on the road by 9:03am and I even sent mom a pic with us all in the car and going. Other than spending way too much time waiting for Javalina's chicken fingers at El Parador, Wife's newest favorite gas station/rest area, the trip was pretty non-eventful. We arrived at Mom's before 1:00pm and got dressed. My brother wanted us at the church at 2:30pm for pictures and we did make it there with minutes to spare, I don't think pictures were a priority right then and there. I stood outside with my brother in law and said hi to a couple of family members. The mass finally started at 3:00pm.
All I could figure is that the priest was from South America somewhere because he had an exotic accent, to me. He wouldn't pronounce the S at the end of words, like he addressed us as the family Gallego, and several other words he did the same thing. Then he insisted that Yeezus was the only way to salvation and all that jazz, but I just kept picturing Kanye West as he has an album named Yeezus and a shoe line named Yeezy Shoes. Then the highlight of the service appeared in the shape of an alterboy, Satan himself. My sister got after me later that the boy is a good guy and to not be mean, but the kid was dressed in red from head to toe. I snapped a pic and drew in some horns and wings and to me that is what evil would do to hide in plain sight.
There was more bad pronunciation which drew some bad imagery from the priest and how they insist the Lord is in you but I will let that one go. Everyone stood around for another half hour to take pics and stand around looking dumb. The whole court, including my boy, jumped into a party bus and they were taken for a cruise and then delivered about two hours later at the Campestre Ballroom.... (to be continued)
But getting back to the day, it started early for us. I was awake at 7:00am and showered before 8:00. Mom had already started texting, wanting to know if we were up and to make sure we were on schedule. The only thing I could say to slow her down was "I can't jump in the shower and hurry if I have to stand by my phone and respond to your texts to hurry." We were on the road by 9:03am and I even sent mom a pic with us all in the car and going. Other than spending way too much time waiting for Javalina's chicken fingers at El Parador, Wife's newest favorite gas station/rest area, the trip was pretty non-eventful. We arrived at Mom's before 1:00pm and got dressed. My brother wanted us at the church at 2:30pm for pictures and we did make it there with minutes to spare, I don't think pictures were a priority right then and there. I stood outside with my brother in law and said hi to a couple of family members. The mass finally started at 3:00pm.
All I could figure is that the priest was from South America somewhere because he had an exotic accent, to me. He wouldn't pronounce the S at the end of words, like he addressed us as the family Gallego, and several other words he did the same thing. Then he insisted that Yeezus was the only way to salvation and all that jazz, but I just kept picturing Kanye West as he has an album named Yeezus and a shoe line named Yeezy Shoes. Then the highlight of the service appeared in the shape of an alterboy, Satan himself. My sister got after me later that the boy is a good guy and to not be mean, but the kid was dressed in red from head to toe. I snapped a pic and drew in some horns and wings and to me that is what evil would do to hide in plain sight.
There was more bad pronunciation which drew some bad imagery from the priest and how they insist the Lord is in you but I will let that one go. Everyone stood around for another half hour to take pics and stand around looking dumb. The whole court, including my boy, jumped into a party bus and they were taken for a cruise and then delivered about two hours later at the Campestre Ballroom.... (to be continued)
Saturday, January 26, 2019
1/26/19 Zero Minus 1 Day Before The Quince?
I have a feeling we are seen as the difficult ones, deciding not to come down until the last minute, but it is not that easy to just disconnect from everything and get going. Wife did everything right, I even convinced her to stay home Friday so we could take care of any last minute things so we wouldn't be rushing Saturday morning.
As luck would have it, Boy was driving home Thursday night and his "low tire pressure" warning came on in his car again for the 2nd or 3rd time this week, so he wanted it looked at by Discount Tire, they installed the tires on his car currently and they aren't even a year old. It turns out the alignment in the rear driver's side got out of alignment somehow and as a result the tire got eaten up pretty bad, to the point that the radials were almost visible on the inside of the tire. I told him to order two tires for the back as the other rear tire was also in bad shape. It was 5:00pm when he was telling me this, so I called Ford to see how much an alignment would be and surprisingly, it was only about $109. The guy said they could do it pretty quickly, so I told him we would be dropping off the car overnight so they would have it first thing in the morning.
As it turns out, I was also called in to work and I worked half the night, so I got home Friday morning around 3:30am and slept as much as I could, my plan was to make a day of it with Wife, so I got up after sleeping about 3-4 hours and we dropped off Javalina at school. Boy's GF slept over and she either took Boy or didn't take him to work but he was gone by the time we got back from eating breakfast at Macho Taco. Not that it's a terrific place, I mean, it is good, but we just wanted a place that wouldn't be packed where we could get some eggs and bacon or some other pro-Atkins type of meal. We both went home to shower and although I meant to just lay in bed while she was in there, I fell asleep hard, until around 1:00pm. At this point, I got up and showered, we went to Wal-mart to get a last minute gift I've been meaning to get and all the necessary wrapping paper and bows and stuff.
Even if we had wanted to leave early, Boy's car was not ready from Ford until around 4:00pm, which he had just walked into the house and I sent him right back out with my credit card in hand to go get his vehicle and we would go pick up Javalina and meet him at the Discount Tire place. We waited for a little bit and then he showed up showing me the paperwork saying that indeed, the alignment for some reason was really bad in the rear as they had said. I was a little worried because Discount Tire closes at 6:00pm, but we got in there before 5:00pm. Again, I pulled out my credit card out to help the child out. Discount Tire sent me a text that the car was ready, I told him and had to yell at him to get going as it was 5:40pm and they had to drive down the road to go get it.
Wife and I then spent about an hour in our room, her trying to put her outfit together and I was trying on old shorts I hadn't worn in a while because my weight kept going up. Javalina needed time to find his dress shoes, Boy found his patent leather Converse sneakers which he said he was wearing with his tuxedo. Wife meanwhile made a delicious chicken breast with Mexican white cheese and bacon and salad on the side. The weight is coming off, I am worried the longer we stay out of Austin, the more potential to eat bad stuff and stop the progress on our diet goals.
Friday, January 25, 2019
1/25/19 Men's Wearhouse At Southpark Meadows?
Last night, Thursday, was supposed to be a nice relaxing evening with nothing more to do than pick up our tuxedoes for the quince this weekend. But of course, things are never easy, I got a call at 5:30pm or so if I could come in at night and take care of a HOT job. I could have said no, I guess, but I don't like saying no to overtime, it is so infrequent nowadays. Apart from going and picking up the tuxedoes for Boy and I, I was also dealing with about 30 texts on instructions and this and that from my supervisors and crap.
I never thought of Men's Wearhouse particularly expensive in nature, we did get the tux rentals for each one at $120, complete with pretty nice service where I had a lady helping me with the vest and jacket, even the pants had adjustments on the side and as I stood there like a "bobo" as Wife would say, she fixed everything on me nicely. What freaked me out completely is that I wanted to get Javalina a nice new white dress shirt with long sleeves and the best the lady could show me was $99. For that price I was expecting a buy one get one free or something, that was just excessive. I know Dillard's is cheaper than that, I just didn't want to drive all the way to the mall, specially because I was already going to be going to work when I got done with this.
Luckily, Wife found a shirt that was not completely white, the ends of the sleeves have some grey if you fold them over, which they look white if you don't, was only $30. She figures that would work ok, and I couldn't disagree for the price. While all this was going on, the lady in charge of the tux rentals got real friendly, telling us she came from Singapore, knew 7 languages, had worked in San Antonio, and on and on. Her assistant was much younger and fell in love with Wife's Pokémon purse. They then started a conversation with Boy about his 3D printers and she wanted to order something, so they exchanged e-mails.
I told Wife it felt good being out with my two boys like they were prized stallions being looked over, as both ladies kept saying how good looking they both were and for once, neither was being the normal jerks they are. Javalina was even trying to be charming after one of them joked he needed a job, he said "well hire me and I'll sweep and do whatever for you" with the motion of sweeping. Boy was locked into showing them his projects making the costume style swords and now his creations with the 3D printers.
Not that I needed them, but they had a few new shoes and the colors were just great, but nothing had a price. I hate having to ask how much this and how much that, so I gave it up, the idea of buying extra stuff. We kept it to just the bare essentials. But seeing those shoes makes me wish I almost worked at a place that required me to dress up, but that is problems for another day. Off to work with me.
I never thought of Men's Wearhouse particularly expensive in nature, we did get the tux rentals for each one at $120, complete with pretty nice service where I had a lady helping me with the vest and jacket, even the pants had adjustments on the side and as I stood there like a "bobo" as Wife would say, she fixed everything on me nicely. What freaked me out completely is that I wanted to get Javalina a nice new white dress shirt with long sleeves and the best the lady could show me was $99. For that price I was expecting a buy one get one free or something, that was just excessive. I know Dillard's is cheaper than that, I just didn't want to drive all the way to the mall, specially because I was already going to be going to work when I got done with this.
Luckily, Wife found a shirt that was not completely white, the ends of the sleeves have some grey if you fold them over, which they look white if you don't, was only $30. She figures that would work ok, and I couldn't disagree for the price. While all this was going on, the lady in charge of the tux rentals got real friendly, telling us she came from Singapore, knew 7 languages, had worked in San Antonio, and on and on. Her assistant was much younger and fell in love with Wife's Pokémon purse. They then started a conversation with Boy about his 3D printers and she wanted to order something, so they exchanged e-mails.
I told Wife it felt good being out with my two boys like they were prized stallions being looked over, as both ladies kept saying how good looking they both were and for once, neither was being the normal jerks they are. Javalina was even trying to be charming after one of them joked he needed a job, he said "well hire me and I'll sweep and do whatever for you" with the motion of sweeping. Boy was locked into showing them his projects making the costume style swords and now his creations with the 3D printers.
Not that I needed them, but they had a few new shoes and the colors were just great, but nothing had a price. I hate having to ask how much this and how much that, so I gave it up, the idea of buying extra stuff. We kept it to just the bare essentials. But seeing those shoes makes me wish I almost worked at a place that required me to dress up, but that is problems for another day. Off to work with me.
Thursday, January 24, 2019
1/24/19 What Are We Eating Now?
We have been on an Atkins type diet now for almost three weeks. I am feeling pretty good about myself, not weak or starving. I love meat, but I don't think I am overdoing it with just meat either. The last two weeks I have been making real nice looking meals for Javalina and I afterschool. We start out by getting home and working out with weights, then I cook whatever meat we bought, such as last week I had gotten a couple of small New York Strips for one day, Salmon steaks for another day, and pork tenderloins for another day. These are not large pieces, usually about half a pound or so, so the price stays comfortable. After cooking this on a pan with just enough Pam so it doesn't stick, I load up the plate with a salad composed of lettuce or spinach or in some instances when Wife butts in, those salads that are meant for stir fry. I consider this our main meal of the day, as I have just woken up and starting my day.
For dinner, I will rummage through the fridge and like tonight, Wife had boiled some eggs for me and Boy. I ate mine yesterday, and I figured if he can't eat his in two nights time, they are free for whoever before they go bad. I took his, cut them in half and ate them in some toasted bread we found that was low in carbs, also rough as hell, but oh well. I ate a couple spoons of the tuna salad which without bread is funky to eat. We are eating a lot of cheese in those stick forms meant for kids. It has to be good cheese though, otherwise, it tastes like eating yellow plastic.
We still have some chocolate shakes which can substitute for a meal and I personally like eating handfuls of nuts. Today, I tried a can of those sardines with an avocado. It was gross to look at, but fish is always good. I am drinking more water, the diet sodas just barely cut it. Diet Pepsi is passable, so is diet Dr. Pepper, but I bought a six pack of Big Red Zero, which I love Big Red, Zero just doesn't work. I bought them Sunday and it is Thursday and there are still 5 in the fridge. Maybe in a glass with a bunch of ice. Diet tea is good, both in pre-mixed form and those powders that are mixed with water.
We have not been eating out, but the other day Javalina was really missing his chicken tenders from Bill Miller, so we went and Wife and I had the rib plates which was their sale item. It wasn't that bad, no comparison to the ribs from Salt Lick, but we were able to get cole slaw and green beans as sides and those don't have carbs, so the meal worked.
There is stuff to eat, I would be hurting for sweets, but we have the sugar-free jellos which are great, specially with cool whip, which is all very low carbs. I haven't been missing anything I normally eat which is good because I really needed a change. I love that Javalina is taking it seriously and he busts my balls to stay at it. If I miss anything it is the pan dulce on a morning when I am off and just wanting to hang out and drink coffee, but since nobody else in the house enjoys it, I find it easy to not buy it, so then I don't have the excuse to eat it all.
For dinner, I will rummage through the fridge and like tonight, Wife had boiled some eggs for me and Boy. I ate mine yesterday, and I figured if he can't eat his in two nights time, they are free for whoever before they go bad. I took his, cut them in half and ate them in some toasted bread we found that was low in carbs, also rough as hell, but oh well. I ate a couple spoons of the tuna salad which without bread is funky to eat. We are eating a lot of cheese in those stick forms meant for kids. It has to be good cheese though, otherwise, it tastes like eating yellow plastic.
We still have some chocolate shakes which can substitute for a meal and I personally like eating handfuls of nuts. Today, I tried a can of those sardines with an avocado. It was gross to look at, but fish is always good. I am drinking more water, the diet sodas just barely cut it. Diet Pepsi is passable, so is diet Dr. Pepper, but I bought a six pack of Big Red Zero, which I love Big Red, Zero just doesn't work. I bought them Sunday and it is Thursday and there are still 5 in the fridge. Maybe in a glass with a bunch of ice. Diet tea is good, both in pre-mixed form and those powders that are mixed with water.
We have not been eating out, but the other day Javalina was really missing his chicken tenders from Bill Miller, so we went and Wife and I had the rib plates which was their sale item. It wasn't that bad, no comparison to the ribs from Salt Lick, but we were able to get cole slaw and green beans as sides and those don't have carbs, so the meal worked.
There is stuff to eat, I would be hurting for sweets, but we have the sugar-free jellos which are great, specially with cool whip, which is all very low carbs. I haven't been missing anything I normally eat which is good because I really needed a change. I love that Javalina is taking it seriously and he busts my balls to stay at it. If I miss anything it is the pan dulce on a morning when I am off and just wanting to hang out and drink coffee, but since nobody else in the house enjoys it, I find it easy to not buy it, so then I don't have the excuse to eat it all.
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
1/23/19 Pantry Cleaning?
This is one of those tasks we've been talking about for about a year, the cleaning of the kitchen pantry. Neither of us likes to go through and clean it but it really needed it. I hate that Wife loads it up with food we rarely eat and then there is no space for it to be done the way I would like. I like the way things look on TV or in magazines where there is space and nothing is crowded.
It was an easy start, once we decided to give away our sweets as that took a lot of things out. My in-laws took probably a box and a bag's worth of food which most of it came from the pantry. The next thing to do was remove all the stuff that was expired. It is nice that everything is dated nowadays because some of those boxes and cans were dated all the way back to 2015, which is probably the last time we had cleaned it. It felt weird removing all this stuff. It turns out we have like 4 of those big bags of flour mix, yet I haven't tasted a home made tortilla in almost a decade at home. I know Wife is busy, just saying. Once I got rid of all that and trimmed down the store bags to three, one for paper, one for plastic/and canvas, and one for those cheap plastic ones from HEB. We must have had a couple hundred just laying on the floor and all up and down the left side where we try and force them in when we are in a rush. We should have been throwing them away, I don't know why we collect them.
Once I got here, working for 20-30 minutes, then stopping for an hour, then going again for awhile and stopping again. This took me all of Sunday, but eventually I had four long shelves to work with. One on the left has my coffees and all that stuff, teas, other drinks. On the other side are like 6-7 cereal boxes, then a section below is for cans, the few I kept that weren't expired. I told Wife, "We don't eat vegetables from cans, that is so freaking gross. They should at least be frozen, if not fresh. There are very few carbs left, but I did keep a couple of different rice boxes, for Boy.
The lowest shelf is for items like the blender, protein packs in big containers, and trash bags. It seems we also keep a lot of ziplock baggies in all sorts of sizes. There is more to do, but this was a very good start. It allowed me to clean the counters of bags of chips and other stuff we normally keep out, like the sugar container and all the Splenda packs and other day to day stuff. I just hope this helps with the dieting, having gotten rid of all unnecessary carbs.
It was an easy start, once we decided to give away our sweets as that took a lot of things out. My in-laws took probably a box and a bag's worth of food which most of it came from the pantry. The next thing to do was remove all the stuff that was expired. It is nice that everything is dated nowadays because some of those boxes and cans were dated all the way back to 2015, which is probably the last time we had cleaned it. It felt weird removing all this stuff. It turns out we have like 4 of those big bags of flour mix, yet I haven't tasted a home made tortilla in almost a decade at home. I know Wife is busy, just saying. Once I got rid of all that and trimmed down the store bags to three, one for paper, one for plastic/and canvas, and one for those cheap plastic ones from HEB. We must have had a couple hundred just laying on the floor and all up and down the left side where we try and force them in when we are in a rush. We should have been throwing them away, I don't know why we collect them.
Once I got here, working for 20-30 minutes, then stopping for an hour, then going again for awhile and stopping again. This took me all of Sunday, but eventually I had four long shelves to work with. One on the left has my coffees and all that stuff, teas, other drinks. On the other side are like 6-7 cereal boxes, then a section below is for cans, the few I kept that weren't expired. I told Wife, "We don't eat vegetables from cans, that is so freaking gross. They should at least be frozen, if not fresh. There are very few carbs left, but I did keep a couple of different rice boxes, for Boy.
The lowest shelf is for items like the blender, protein packs in big containers, and trash bags. It seems we also keep a lot of ziplock baggies in all sorts of sizes. There is more to do, but this was a very good start. It allowed me to clean the counters of bags of chips and other stuff we normally keep out, like the sugar container and all the Splenda packs and other day to day stuff. I just hope this helps with the dieting, having gotten rid of all unnecessary carbs.
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
1/22/19 Visit From The In-Laws?
Wife got a call from her sister Saturday morning that they did not have anything to do and a long weekend to do it. Both sisters in law have Monday off for MLK, including our boys over here. Wife, unfortunately, had to go and work. Before they arrived, I had talked earlier in the week with Girlie and she asked if I could use my card at Discount Tire so she could charge two tires for her car and she would pay me back. I said sure, and she made an appointment for 11:00am.
Even with an appointment, it was going to take a couple hours, so I called Wife to join us and we ate an early lunch at Serrano's., around noon. Since I was doing her a favor, she treated for lunch, which was nice. We sat there and caught up, it had been awhile since she had been to the house, but eventually, we headed home to wait for Wife's family.
The in-law's showed up about 4:00pm, we sat and got caught up here, then Wife got the idea to give them all of our sweets that we aren't supposed to eat, such as boxes of cookies, and other junk food like that. This was what sort of got the ball rolling on cleaning later in the evening, but more on that, later. They weren't here to necessarily do anything, but Wife kept asking me if I had any plans, and of course, if you ask, I'll come up with a need. I told her I have been wanting to go back to Dick's to see their workout stuff. Javalina and I talked about a weighted vest that went up to 80 pounds which he really wanted, so off we went with the family all in our Excursion. This is the main reason I don't want to get rid of it, usually everyone fits and we can go in one vehicle.
We looked around the Dick's over in Bee Caves and although it was very clean and the staff was friendly, it seemed smaller than the one over on the east side. There was hardly any workout equipment, but I really did like some squat racks that looked very beefy and at $300 for the smaller and $700 for the full 4 post rack, they both seemed like good deals. Wife was even saying "go ahead", if you want to, but you two better use it. I know that at some point, Javalina needs to get squatting with weight, but it seemed too easy and then the stuff might not fit with the vehicle already full with people, so I said maybe next time.
We ended up eating at Poke Joe's since we are all trying to stay low on carbs. Wife got a plate with turkey, and green beans, Javalina and I got their chef salad, he with sausage on top and mine with brisket. It seemed like a simple meal, but it hit the spot and there was no guilt afterwards. We ended the night by walking around Target and getting some things we had been meaning to get. I bought Boy some frames for his many many posters, and Javalina threw in an electric toothbrush amongst many other things.
Boy showed up by pure coincidence at Target, and said hi to his grandparents, he had been in San Antonio at one of those comic cons. Once we got home, my in-laws left and I started cleaning our pantry as Wife got on the computer to do something or other.
Even with an appointment, it was going to take a couple hours, so I called Wife to join us and we ate an early lunch at Serrano's., around noon. Since I was doing her a favor, she treated for lunch, which was nice. We sat there and caught up, it had been awhile since she had been to the house, but eventually, we headed home to wait for Wife's family.
The in-law's showed up about 4:00pm, we sat and got caught up here, then Wife got the idea to give them all of our sweets that we aren't supposed to eat, such as boxes of cookies, and other junk food like that. This was what sort of got the ball rolling on cleaning later in the evening, but more on that, later. They weren't here to necessarily do anything, but Wife kept asking me if I had any plans, and of course, if you ask, I'll come up with a need. I told her I have been wanting to go back to Dick's to see their workout stuff. Javalina and I talked about a weighted vest that went up to 80 pounds which he really wanted, so off we went with the family all in our Excursion. This is the main reason I don't want to get rid of it, usually everyone fits and we can go in one vehicle.
We looked around the Dick's over in Bee Caves and although it was very clean and the staff was friendly, it seemed smaller than the one over on the east side. There was hardly any workout equipment, but I really did like some squat racks that looked very beefy and at $300 for the smaller and $700 for the full 4 post rack, they both seemed like good deals. Wife was even saying "go ahead", if you want to, but you two better use it. I know that at some point, Javalina needs to get squatting with weight, but it seemed too easy and then the stuff might not fit with the vehicle already full with people, so I said maybe next time.
We ended up eating at Poke Joe's since we are all trying to stay low on carbs. Wife got a plate with turkey, and green beans, Javalina and I got their chef salad, he with sausage on top and mine with brisket. It seemed like a simple meal, but it hit the spot and there was no guilt afterwards. We ended the night by walking around Target and getting some things we had been meaning to get. I bought Boy some frames for his many many posters, and Javalina threw in an electric toothbrush amongst many other things.
Boy showed up by pure coincidence at Target, and said hi to his grandparents, he had been in San Antonio at one of those comic cons. Once we got home, my in-laws left and I started cleaning our pantry as Wife got on the computer to do something or other.
Monday, January 21, 2019
1/21/19 Boy Is Becoming A 3D Business Entrepreneur?
I don't hang out with Boy much, and I hardly see him during the week. He is still on winter break from school, but he has been working every day at what was his intern place. He is no longer considered an intern, I guess they are keeping him and they have made him a "technician" now. He didn't like the change in title, but like me and his GF said "it means they are keeping you and you don't have to worry about whether they are bringing you back for another internship, you are basically an employee. He is still an hourly, but he is about two semesters away from that changing, hopefully.
The other new thing on Boy's radar is his love of these 3D printers. He got this big one a couple months ago, I mean he is still figuring out how it works, and suddenly I see another similar box shaped thing which I can tell is another printer but different. He explained that the bigger one has a line feed of material that can be from plastic to even some kinds of metal and the machine builds a 3D creation by moving a tip and depositing a tiny layer on top of the previous layer which results in eventual creations of any multitude of things. He has been working on a skull replica of the helmet that Cubone wore on the Pokémon cartoons. Because of its size, it was broken down into 6 pieces and each piece can take up to 40-50 hours to make. The beauty is that you just feed it the instructions from a computer and it goes on its own. As long as it has a spool of material it continues humming along. I am writing in the kitchen right now at 6:00am and can hear the humming of the printer going on right now. The newer smaller printer works differently. The set-up has a small bath for a liquid material and then a laser comes and makes a print from the bottom up. He did a smaller version of the Cubone skull and it was maybe 3-4 inches long, the printer made it into ~1,500 layers and built it from the ground up.
The differences are that the spool one can make much larger structures, but they are built with a honeycomb structure inside, to reduce waste of materials. The other tool with the laser makes a solid unit, and can produce a lot more detail, but it is limited to smaller things and the solution costs twice as much as a spool to make the given same amount or something.
Boy and his friend who already works in a lab that does this for a living are trying to get something going. A friend wanted the Cubone skull as a hat, but they gave her the cost of $180 for materials and time on the printer and she thought it a bit much. They are building it anyway to figure out the ins and outs of their new toys. I like that the friend knows about them enough that they are taking them apart and ordering new tips and whatever to make them run. Hopefully, they can get something going. I told them, they can have one of the guest rooms to set up their equipment, I was even joking that we are going to need a chemistry hood soon if they keep going. The friend said yeah, then I can see the cops showing up thinking we have a meth lab going, when it is just a bunch of nerd stuff.
Large Cubone skull similar to spooled 3D printer.
Small Cubone skull from laser printer.
The other new thing on Boy's radar is his love of these 3D printers. He got this big one a couple months ago, I mean he is still figuring out how it works, and suddenly I see another similar box shaped thing which I can tell is another printer but different. He explained that the bigger one has a line feed of material that can be from plastic to even some kinds of metal and the machine builds a 3D creation by moving a tip and depositing a tiny layer on top of the previous layer which results in eventual creations of any multitude of things. He has been working on a skull replica of the helmet that Cubone wore on the Pokémon cartoons. Because of its size, it was broken down into 6 pieces and each piece can take up to 40-50 hours to make. The beauty is that you just feed it the instructions from a computer and it goes on its own. As long as it has a spool of material it continues humming along. I am writing in the kitchen right now at 6:00am and can hear the humming of the printer going on right now. The newer smaller printer works differently. The set-up has a small bath for a liquid material and then a laser comes and makes a print from the bottom up. He did a smaller version of the Cubone skull and it was maybe 3-4 inches long, the printer made it into ~1,500 layers and built it from the ground up.
The differences are that the spool one can make much larger structures, but they are built with a honeycomb structure inside, to reduce waste of materials. The other tool with the laser makes a solid unit, and can produce a lot more detail, but it is limited to smaller things and the solution costs twice as much as a spool to make the given same amount or something.
Boy and his friend who already works in a lab that does this for a living are trying to get something going. A friend wanted the Cubone skull as a hat, but they gave her the cost of $180 for materials and time on the printer and she thought it a bit much. They are building it anyway to figure out the ins and outs of their new toys. I like that the friend knows about them enough that they are taking them apart and ordering new tips and whatever to make them run. Hopefully, they can get something going. I told them, they can have one of the guest rooms to set up their equipment, I was even joking that we are going to need a chemistry hood soon if they keep going. The friend said yeah, then I can see the cops showing up thinking we have a meth lab going, when it is just a bunch of nerd stuff.
Large Cubone skull similar to spooled 3D printer.
Small Cubone skull from laser printer.
Sunday, January 20, 2019
1/20/19 I Love Me Some Free Salt Lick?
I freaking love Salt Lick, the restaurant. It was first introduced to me by a great guy who was one of the technicians who repaired the tools in etch when I started. We went out and played some frisbee golf and then he took me and another guy, maybe my brother, to eat there. This was back in 1997 or 98 and man..., it wasn't even as big as it has gotten, but the BBQ was great. Nothing about it is easy, so it must be great to keep going. First off, it is like 30 minutes out of the city. I remember my brother yelling at me one time he was following us when we went out there to eat and he snaps when we got there about being a "fucking show off and taking all these back roads." I think his car was the first with navigation and he figured out how to get there through Buda which was five minutes closer or something, but anyways. We have taken the family out there a couple times as it is a thing to do in Austin and it is generally nice to be out there on any given afternoon. They will have some small live music act, there is a little playground for the kids, and it is nice to be outside the city.
We usually have to wait anywhere from 10 minutes to one time we had a two hour wait, which again, we had live music and the place just gets packed, so it is what it is. Friday night was light and we walked straight in. This was nice, it was already after 8:00pm and they close at 10:00pm. Javalina had his wallet and he thought he had it all under control. We had talked about getting waters, but we always do and then he orders a sweet tea everywhere we go, so I thought I would teach him, and I ordered a Diet Dr. Pepper. He looked at the menu and was shocked by the $2.50. He put his little mitt out and said I owed him $2.50 as the waitress headed off to get our drinks. Now somewhere along the way, he says I confused him. I told him if he pays at Pappadeaux, he has to consider that we will order 1 or 2 appetizers at $25 each and then the plates cost over $20 each, or we can eat All you can eat at Salt Lick for $25 a plate. What is confusing so far?
We ate our fill, we stayed away from the beans and I got a small spoonful of potato salad, and only ate two slices of their delicious bread when I can normally eat 8-9 slices. Javalina ate, but I have seen him eat more before, but I guess he is really serious about losing the baby fat. We went through about 4 of those plates that they bring of meat before we said no more and then we got the check.
Javalina had a mini heart attack as he looked over the check. He somehow got confused and thought when I said $25 a plate, it meant the one they bring with meat or something as he was expecting all of us to eat for about $25. He couldn't believe we pay that much to eat there, and then we explained "why do you think we only eat there like every 2-3 months?" If it was $25 for the whole family, we would be there every week, then Wife added, yeah it would be full of families all the time as that is a lot of food. I guess he is used to Bill Miller and Taco Bell being about $20 when we eat after school. I said that is why we eat at those cheap places during the week, when we did. Any good place is going to get the bill up near $100 for us. We thought it was funny as he walked out of there complaining of the cost of my soda, even as I kept reminding him that I had given him my last $2 from my wallet. I even reminded him that he got a deal as he had promised to take us out to eat and then the meal was covering me buying him that table for jumping, so he was getting a two for one deal. It still hurt him, even though he doesn't spend his money on anything.
We usually have to wait anywhere from 10 minutes to one time we had a two hour wait, which again, we had live music and the place just gets packed, so it is what it is. Friday night was light and we walked straight in. This was nice, it was already after 8:00pm and they close at 10:00pm. Javalina had his wallet and he thought he had it all under control. We had talked about getting waters, but we always do and then he orders a sweet tea everywhere we go, so I thought I would teach him, and I ordered a Diet Dr. Pepper. He looked at the menu and was shocked by the $2.50. He put his little mitt out and said I owed him $2.50 as the waitress headed off to get our drinks. Now somewhere along the way, he says I confused him. I told him if he pays at Pappadeaux, he has to consider that we will order 1 or 2 appetizers at $25 each and then the plates cost over $20 each, or we can eat All you can eat at Salt Lick for $25 a plate. What is confusing so far?
We ate our fill, we stayed away from the beans and I got a small spoonful of potato salad, and only ate two slices of their delicious bread when I can normally eat 8-9 slices. Javalina ate, but I have seen him eat more before, but I guess he is really serious about losing the baby fat. We went through about 4 of those plates that they bring of meat before we said no more and then we got the check.
Javalina had a mini heart attack as he looked over the check. He somehow got confused and thought when I said $25 a plate, it meant the one they bring with meat or something as he was expecting all of us to eat for about $25. He couldn't believe we pay that much to eat there, and then we explained "why do you think we only eat there like every 2-3 months?" If it was $25 for the whole family, we would be there every week, then Wife added, yeah it would be full of families all the time as that is a lot of food. I guess he is used to Bill Miller and Taco Bell being about $20 when we eat after school. I said that is why we eat at those cheap places during the week, when we did. Any good place is going to get the bill up near $100 for us. We thought it was funny as he walked out of there complaining of the cost of my soda, even as I kept reminding him that I had given him my last $2 from my wallet. I even reminded him that he got a deal as he had promised to take us out to eat and then the meal was covering me buying him that table for jumping, so he was getting a two for one deal. It still hurt him, even though he doesn't spend his money on anything.
Saturday, January 19, 2019
1/19/19 Adding Equipment To Our Gym?
Friday was payday and Javalina and I had been talking about needing that intermediate between 10 pound dumbbells and 20 pounds. I suggested that since he had all that Christmas money he buy the pair of 15 pound ones and I buy the next ones we don't have, which might be 35 pounds. He didn't like the idea of committing his money, so as usual, I figured I would have to foot the bill, which I am used to. I picked him up after school and after talking with Wife, I knew she was on her way at 4:30 sharp, we had roughly until 7:30pm, to screw around.
We headed to Academy and luckily, I had already compared prices with Dick's, and even Amazon, and this time, Academy had the cheaper prices. The fifteen pounders were like $10.39, which was not bad. We kept looking around and I thought of getting another medicine ball. We have a huge 20 pounder that is bigger than a basketball and we use it to throw it to each other. It is a fun activity that will shake your whole body up and gets the heart going, specially with a young buck who starts "talking shit" almost instantly, with the "come on Old Man" and "You looking a little weak...". To me, this approximates a jolt to the body, like getting hit lightly on the football field, he loves it, me not so much, but it feels good after. Well, now I was thinking a smaller one would be good just for the arms, we got a 10 pounder that is about the size of a volleyball and we can both hold it with one hand and throw it back and forth. He can even hold it like a shot put and throw it from his neck, so he can practice his form inside the house, he has one goal this spring and that is to be the strongest shot putter out there.
I then told him I wanted to walk around and he started sulking, the boy has no patience, figuring that was all he was getting, he started getting fidgety, until we went around and saw a table for jumping up on. We had been looking at exercises for offensive and defensive linemen and saw one with guys jumping up on tractor tires, but I wasn't sure where I could get one. He saw this table and immediately grabbed it, I was like "hey, it's $79.99. Your mom is going to get pissed at me spending so much." He said very sure of himself "I will pay you back, I really want this one." Once we discussed it a bit more, he said yeah I still have all my Christmas money, and I said alright.
We also added a headband to keep the hair out of his face, which he is also thinking about cutting. I want the hair out of his face because I think he is starting to look like a handsome young man, but I also like the crazy hair if he is going to be a bona fide weightlifter, he could be looking like a stud his freshman year.
Ultimately, we walked out of there and I told him I couldn't take his money, but since he had wanted to take us out to eat during the holidays, he could pay us back by paying for dinner at Salt Lick, just us three. He said that sounded good, which makes for a comical story, tomorrow.
We headed to Academy and luckily, I had already compared prices with Dick's, and even Amazon, and this time, Academy had the cheaper prices. The fifteen pounders were like $10.39, which was not bad. We kept looking around and I thought of getting another medicine ball. We have a huge 20 pounder that is bigger than a basketball and we use it to throw it to each other. It is a fun activity that will shake your whole body up and gets the heart going, specially with a young buck who starts "talking shit" almost instantly, with the "come on Old Man" and "You looking a little weak...". To me, this approximates a jolt to the body, like getting hit lightly on the football field, he loves it, me not so much, but it feels good after. Well, now I was thinking a smaller one would be good just for the arms, we got a 10 pounder that is about the size of a volleyball and we can both hold it with one hand and throw it back and forth. He can even hold it like a shot put and throw it from his neck, so he can practice his form inside the house, he has one goal this spring and that is to be the strongest shot putter out there.
I then told him I wanted to walk around and he started sulking, the boy has no patience, figuring that was all he was getting, he started getting fidgety, until we went around and saw a table for jumping up on. We had been looking at exercises for offensive and defensive linemen and saw one with guys jumping up on tractor tires, but I wasn't sure where I could get one. He saw this table and immediately grabbed it, I was like "hey, it's $79.99. Your mom is going to get pissed at me spending so much." He said very sure of himself "I will pay you back, I really want this one." Once we discussed it a bit more, he said yeah I still have all my Christmas money, and I said alright.
We also added a headband to keep the hair out of his face, which he is also thinking about cutting. I want the hair out of his face because I think he is starting to look like a handsome young man, but I also like the crazy hair if he is going to be a bona fide weightlifter, he could be looking like a stud his freshman year.
Ultimately, we walked out of there and I told him I couldn't take his money, but since he had wanted to take us out to eat during the holidays, he could pay us back by paying for dinner at Salt Lick, just us three. He said that sounded good, which makes for a comical story, tomorrow.
Friday, January 18, 2019
1/18/19 Amazon Might Finally Have Me As A Customer?
I have hesitated becoming like Boy who seems to have packages delivered almost daily, but slowly, I notice Wife is becoming like this as well. I get it though, if you want something hard to find, just type it on the screen and voila, there it is. I have wanted to stay dedicated to the stores, I still love to walk through a mall on any given chance even if I have to share the mall with those fucking idiots who think their dogs are human and deserve to be in there. I am going to enjoy hearing when a dog gets loose and attacks a person for no reason and that person then gets paid by the pet owner and the fucking mall or store. I know, your dog is different, of course, I meant the other dog owners, you are cool.
The malls are slowly dying, losing Sears here at Barton Mall my area mall, I can see that is going to leave a big hole. It seems every time we go, one more store is gone, yet a new one pops in its place, so I don't know.
A few months ago I wanted shotputs for Javalina and we spent an afternoon running to Academy, Dick's, REI, and any other place which might sell them and we had no success. I then jumped on Amazon and was met by hundreds of choices. Shoot, I could get them in brass, steal, aluminum, and in all sorts of weights and colors too. I went back a month ago and got a pair of Discus in junior high and high school weights, it was too easy. Normally, I like to touch the stuff, grab it in my hands and see if the thing feels like a quality product, but in this case a metal ball is a metal ball.
Today, we got another idea. Since Javalina always wants to punch and he is wishing he could punch a live person instead of the punching bag, I thought of the padding one of the coaches teaching a boxing student was wearing. It is like almost two inches of padding and the target areas have circles to indicate where a punch should land. Just to make this even better, I had no idea how much this would cost, but there is a range from $60 to $200 for essentially the same thing. I might not like it, but the convenience of this and the fact that I even save a gas tank of fuel from running around comparing prices if they even had them in stores, might just be the final punch in the gut for the brick and mortar stores. We are also considering ordering a couple more dumbbells in weights I don't currently have. Again, if Amazon is cheaper, I might just have a new love.
The malls are slowly dying, losing Sears here at Barton Mall my area mall, I can see that is going to leave a big hole. It seems every time we go, one more store is gone, yet a new one pops in its place, so I don't know.
A few months ago I wanted shotputs for Javalina and we spent an afternoon running to Academy, Dick's, REI, and any other place which might sell them and we had no success. I then jumped on Amazon and was met by hundreds of choices. Shoot, I could get them in brass, steal, aluminum, and in all sorts of weights and colors too. I went back a month ago and got a pair of Discus in junior high and high school weights, it was too easy. Normally, I like to touch the stuff, grab it in my hands and see if the thing feels like a quality product, but in this case a metal ball is a metal ball.
Today, we got another idea. Since Javalina always wants to punch and he is wishing he could punch a live person instead of the punching bag, I thought of the padding one of the coaches teaching a boxing student was wearing. It is like almost two inches of padding and the target areas have circles to indicate where a punch should land. Just to make this even better, I had no idea how much this would cost, but there is a range from $60 to $200 for essentially the same thing. I might not like it, but the convenience of this and the fact that I even save a gas tank of fuel from running around comparing prices if they even had them in stores, might just be the final punch in the gut for the brick and mortar stores. We are also considering ordering a couple more dumbbells in weights I don't currently have. Again, if Amazon is cheaper, I might just have a new love.
Thursday, January 17, 2019
1/17/19 We Pump....You Up?
Along with trying to lose some weight, I am back on the weights, this time with my little twin. Please don't think I am showing some sort of favoritism to Javalina, when Boy was at this age, I tried to get him into lifting, but he never showed much of an interest. Javalina, on the other hand, had been asking since he started playing football last year, but I was trying to wait as I thought he might be too young.
At this point, he is headed to high school in less than a year and anything to give him an advantage here coming up on the shot put which he still is pissed he wasn't 1st place and for football. I wouldn't call myself an expert, but I have been lifting since about 1991 on and off. It really helps, but it is also a huge commitment. This is one of those, that with Wife being three hours away, we can focus on this every day after school, and we have. Currently, we are doing bench press for chest and curls (variety) for biceps and triceps (various extension type) on one day and shoulders on the other day, repeating it twice a week.
Aside from lifting, we have a big cylinder tackling dummy and we go through practicing initial contact when the football is hiked. He is aware of moves like the swim move and others, but has resisted using them. I am trying to get him comfortable using all his tools. He has an explosive first step, and this is with raw arms, he might be something great once I can help put some real muscles to back it up. I personally just want to look decent, he is planning his future here. Along with lifting, he is doing bear crawls and other weird walking techniques to strengthen the legs.
Wife doesn't like it, we already have the punching bag and bench in the living room, and I was telling Javalina today that we really need a squat rack to work the legs, but maybe that will have to go in the garage. I am already feeling better about walking, I started last week, so if we can, I would like to start jogging with him here in a couple weeks when the weather warms up a bit.
At this point, he is headed to high school in less than a year and anything to give him an advantage here coming up on the shot put which he still is pissed he wasn't 1st place and for football. I wouldn't call myself an expert, but I have been lifting since about 1991 on and off. It really helps, but it is also a huge commitment. This is one of those, that with Wife being three hours away, we can focus on this every day after school, and we have. Currently, we are doing bench press for chest and curls (variety) for biceps and triceps (various extension type) on one day and shoulders on the other day, repeating it twice a week.
Aside from lifting, we have a big cylinder tackling dummy and we go through practicing initial contact when the football is hiked. He is aware of moves like the swim move and others, but has resisted using them. I am trying to get him comfortable using all his tools. He has an explosive first step, and this is with raw arms, he might be something great once I can help put some real muscles to back it up. I personally just want to look decent, he is planning his future here. Along with lifting, he is doing bear crawls and other weird walking techniques to strengthen the legs.
Wife doesn't like it, we already have the punching bag and bench in the living room, and I was telling Javalina today that we really need a squat rack to work the legs, but maybe that will have to go in the garage. I am already feeling better about walking, I started last week, so if we can, I would like to start jogging with him here in a couple weeks when the weather warms up a bit.
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
1/16/19 DIet Is Working Almost too Good?
We are back to dieting and after thinking about it for awhile, we decided on doing Atkins, more or less. We started last week, and it is not just Wife and I doing it, but Javalina decided he wanted to do it too. I am not sure he needs to be doing anything too radical, he has been stretching and not looking so "chubby baby" lately. But if we can teach him new habits of eating, then why not?
I know people roll their eyes at the idea of dieting, but I have had luck in the past. In college, I lost 80-100 pounds playing basketball and starving myself pretty much all the time. It worked until I became an "engineer" here and could afford to go out to eat, then it was eating out all the time which put me back in the 300 pound region. These last two years after I hurt my leg and then just kind of tuning out for the past year, the weight just kept stacking up. When we started last weekend, I weighed myself and the scale read 430 pounds. That is a lot and it was scarier with Dad in the hospital and thinking "what if I end up there with a heart attack, what excuse will I have?" Wife and I discussed it and decided this would be the easiest because we are familiar with what to do. We both lost like 30-40 pounds when she got pregnant with Javalina. We dieted because we were going to New Orleans on a vacation with friends.
The hardest part is not eating out. We are used to picking up the boy from school and eating at either Bill Miller, Taco Bell, Wendy's, Whataburger, and a handful of other places. I guess the places aren't healthy, but I didn't see a big problem with them. I have never been a great cook, but lately I have been doing some nice looking meals starting with a piece of meat, and making a salad next to it. This week, I have started adding a portion of vegetables which come from a frozen bag, but still. I guess cutting out the huge sodas and the fried food has already let me loose like 14 pounds. I realize it is mostly water retention that is going, but I also started lifting weights with Javalina and walking at work, starting with a mile a night. I would love to be under 400 by the time we go to the Quince at the end of the month, but that may be a bit much. Javalina is loving the working out and so far the home cooked meals are delicious, if not a little time consuming.
I know people roll their eyes at the idea of dieting, but I have had luck in the past. In college, I lost 80-100 pounds playing basketball and starving myself pretty much all the time. It worked until I became an "engineer" here and could afford to go out to eat, then it was eating out all the time which put me back in the 300 pound region. These last two years after I hurt my leg and then just kind of tuning out for the past year, the weight just kept stacking up. When we started last weekend, I weighed myself and the scale read 430 pounds. That is a lot and it was scarier with Dad in the hospital and thinking "what if I end up there with a heart attack, what excuse will I have?" Wife and I discussed it and decided this would be the easiest because we are familiar with what to do. We both lost like 30-40 pounds when she got pregnant with Javalina. We dieted because we were going to New Orleans on a vacation with friends.
The hardest part is not eating out. We are used to picking up the boy from school and eating at either Bill Miller, Taco Bell, Wendy's, Whataburger, and a handful of other places. I guess the places aren't healthy, but I didn't see a big problem with them. I have never been a great cook, but lately I have been doing some nice looking meals starting with a piece of meat, and making a salad next to it. This week, I have started adding a portion of vegetables which come from a frozen bag, but still. I guess cutting out the huge sodas and the fried food has already let me loose like 14 pounds. I realize it is mostly water retention that is going, but I also started lifting weights with Javalina and walking at work, starting with a mile a night. I would love to be under 400 by the time we go to the Quince at the end of the month, but that may be a bit much. Javalina is loving the working out and so far the home cooked meals are delicious, if not a little time consuming.
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
1/15/19 Visiting the In-Laws For A Birthday?
Saturday was my sister-in-law's birthday, so we spent the day over there. It is not that I mind going, my in-laws are some of the nicest people one will ever meet. Hell, they tell me to go nap on their bed and pretty much take over their bathroom when we go down there, what more could you ask for? I just happen to love hanging out in my house, which I feel we haven't done much of lately.
Of course, I woke up like at 7:00am to write my blog, then when I wanted to go lay down, it was time to take Javalina to the dentist for his "emergency" visit at 10:00am. I am not sure why I went, other than to support him, it was a typical dentist office, but because I was already in sleepy mode, I fell asleep before he even went in. Give me a break though, there was nobody else there and it still took over thirty minutes. Then they wanted only him while they took x-rays and what not. It was a full hour before we saw the dentist and then for her to tell us there was no cavity or anything she could dig or cut. Just a story of a pocket.
Wife was nice and when we got home she let me sleep for an hour which I did, almost to the minute. I then got up, showered and all that stuff. I already mentioned how Wife doesn't like me talking about my wants and needs, so I slept most of the way there.
The party was fine. We got there and they had pretty much a Thanksgiving dinner with Turkey and ham and all the trimmings. We then sang Happy Birthday, ate cake, sat around the table for a bit and I found myself headed to my favorite spot, bed. It must have been around 6:00pm and I woke up at 8:00pm feeling much better. Wife and her sisters were busy gossiping and talking about some plans they got brewing and I kind of leaned against the wall and started watching Undercover Boss with the In-Laws. Boy was outside talking with his GF, but Javalina loves being there and playing with his cousins. There is a range between 19 and just started college to 4-5, but they all get along well enough throwing each other around.
We found ourselves leaving around 11:00pm and I stayed awake the whole way back, we even stopped at Buc-ee's to get gas and walk around inside. I still like the stuff they sell, even if most of it is overpriced. We got home hungry, closer to 1:00am and we tore into the leftover BBQ we made Friday night. We stayed up until at least 3:00am watching a couple episodes of Black-ish and a couple episodes of Scrubs, we just introduced it to Javalina and he has ben binging on it.
Of course, I woke up like at 7:00am to write my blog, then when I wanted to go lay down, it was time to take Javalina to the dentist for his "emergency" visit at 10:00am. I am not sure why I went, other than to support him, it was a typical dentist office, but because I was already in sleepy mode, I fell asleep before he even went in. Give me a break though, there was nobody else there and it still took over thirty minutes. Then they wanted only him while they took x-rays and what not. It was a full hour before we saw the dentist and then for her to tell us there was no cavity or anything she could dig or cut. Just a story of a pocket.
Wife was nice and when we got home she let me sleep for an hour which I did, almost to the minute. I then got up, showered and all that stuff. I already mentioned how Wife doesn't like me talking about my wants and needs, so I slept most of the way there.
The party was fine. We got there and they had pretty much a Thanksgiving dinner with Turkey and ham and all the trimmings. We then sang Happy Birthday, ate cake, sat around the table for a bit and I found myself headed to my favorite spot, bed. It must have been around 6:00pm and I woke up at 8:00pm feeling much better. Wife and her sisters were busy gossiping and talking about some plans they got brewing and I kind of leaned against the wall and started watching Undercover Boss with the In-Laws. Boy was outside talking with his GF, but Javalina loves being there and playing with his cousins. There is a range between 19 and just started college to 4-5, but they all get along well enough throwing each other around.
We found ourselves leaving around 11:00pm and I stayed awake the whole way back, we even stopped at Buc-ee's to get gas and walk around inside. I still like the stuff they sell, even if most of it is overpriced. We got home hungry, closer to 1:00am and we tore into the leftover BBQ we made Friday night. We stayed up until at least 3:00am watching a couple episodes of Black-ish and a couple episodes of Scrubs, we just introduced it to Javalina and he has ben binging on it.
Sunday, January 13, 2019
1/14/19 Pocket Full Of Pain?
Javalina has been complaining of pain in his right side of his mouth. I immediately thought "dammit, this is going to cost a fortune." I mean, why not, we are just getting out from all the bills incurred from Boy's Typhus episode and before that my leg operation expenses. It just seems right that another medical procedure show up and give my wallet a good raping.
For about a week, Javalina has been enduring moderate to severe pain that comes and goes completely. Given that, Wife still tried to make an appointment right away last weekend, but nobody answers the phones on a Sunday, so it took a little while longer. Friday, after we came home from eating breakfast and going to HEB, she got on the phone for about an hour and was able to get an emergency visit on a Saturday morning at 10:00am, the next day.
This, of course, meant that when we picked him up, he was going to be ornery and boy, he did not disappoint. Every question was met with "OMG, My Tooth Hurts, I Don't Care!". Luckily, Mama carries some aspirin in her Witches pouch (purse), and quickly gave him some which calmed the savage beast down some. He was feeling better when we got home, that he was forcing me to work out, so ok, I got into it. I think this may have gotten the pain going again, as it wasn't too long after that he was complaining about the pain in an aggressive but help me kind of way. We gave him ibuprofen, aspirin, and Wife even tried a hydrocodone dose on him and nothing stopped the pain for more than an hour. I asked him about when he goes to bed, how has he been dealing, he said when he gets to bed, the pain just seems to disappear. I then told him well, go lie down on the sofa, we can watch TV over there. It seemed to work, at least to get us thru the night.
Saturday morning, I was up at 8:00am, wrote the blog for the day, and then got ready to take him to the dentist. He wasn't in too much pain, which was good for us, but it also made it hard for the dentist to determine what the problem was. She poked and prodded him, she made him bite down on cigar shaped cotton things, but to my surprise found nothing wrong with his teeth. She determined that the pain was his 2nd molar that is partially exposed. There is still gum covering the back of the tooth, and the wisdom teeth appear to be coming in pointed at the 2nd molar which in turn is pushing the skin up over the 2nd molar and creating a pocket which can get filled with food residue. She gave it a light scraping/cleaning and she got some nasty stuff out from under there. She then gave him some tips on cleaning his teeth, flossing, and even using the toothbrush with his other hand to get under the pocket easier.
I kind of thought it was a waste of time as she didn't cut or fill anything, but the child has been pleasant since then, so maybe like Wife said, he got a piece of peanut stuck in there and now it is out. Either way, at least my wallet did a wipe of the brow and said whew! as we were only charged $36 for the co-payment.
For about a week, Javalina has been enduring moderate to severe pain that comes and goes completely. Given that, Wife still tried to make an appointment right away last weekend, but nobody answers the phones on a Sunday, so it took a little while longer. Friday, after we came home from eating breakfast and going to HEB, she got on the phone for about an hour and was able to get an emergency visit on a Saturday morning at 10:00am, the next day.
This, of course, meant that when we picked him up, he was going to be ornery and boy, he did not disappoint. Every question was met with "OMG, My Tooth Hurts, I Don't Care!". Luckily, Mama carries some aspirin in her Witches pouch (purse), and quickly gave him some which calmed the savage beast down some. He was feeling better when we got home, that he was forcing me to work out, so ok, I got into it. I think this may have gotten the pain going again, as it wasn't too long after that he was complaining about the pain in an aggressive but help me kind of way. We gave him ibuprofen, aspirin, and Wife even tried a hydrocodone dose on him and nothing stopped the pain for more than an hour. I asked him about when he goes to bed, how has he been dealing, he said when he gets to bed, the pain just seems to disappear. I then told him well, go lie down on the sofa, we can watch TV over there. It seemed to work, at least to get us thru the night.
Saturday morning, I was up at 8:00am, wrote the blog for the day, and then got ready to take him to the dentist. He wasn't in too much pain, which was good for us, but it also made it hard for the dentist to determine what the problem was. She poked and prodded him, she made him bite down on cigar shaped cotton things, but to my surprise found nothing wrong with his teeth. She determined that the pain was his 2nd molar that is partially exposed. There is still gum covering the back of the tooth, and the wisdom teeth appear to be coming in pointed at the 2nd molar which in turn is pushing the skin up over the 2nd molar and creating a pocket which can get filled with food residue. She gave it a light scraping/cleaning and she got some nasty stuff out from under there. She then gave him some tips on cleaning his teeth, flossing, and even using the toothbrush with his other hand to get under the pocket easier.
I kind of thought it was a waste of time as she didn't cut or fill anything, but the child has been pleasant since then, so maybe like Wife said, he got a piece of peanut stuck in there and now it is out. Either way, at least my wallet did a wipe of the brow and said whew! as we were only charged $36 for the co-payment.
1/13/19 I Thought It Was A Time Machine?
Everyone that knows me knows that I have been having a bit of a time staying awake, specially when I get in a repetitive boring situation. Driving, for instance, never was a problem, but in the last year or two, I get sleepy almost as soon as I get in the car. I can't pin it down as to when or why because I was able to drive to my in-laws on New Year's Eve with no problem, but sometimes driving to the mall here in town can be rough. Our solution, short term, has been to get Wife to drive everywhere we go. This should not be a problem, she drives everywhere for her job and it's not like we are going camping on rough roads or towing a great big trailer. I was the main driver from the time we started dating in 1987 until maybe two years ago which means I made it almost thirty years. She has a couple years and of course I have to be ever thankful and all that. My biggest joke is that the car is a time machine, I sit, close my eyes and poof, next thing I know I am in some other magical place. I guess Wife doesn't like that much.
I realize it is a bit of a jerk move to just get in the car and go to sleep, so the last couple of times I decided I was going to try and create some conversation. I don't have stories of coworkers, as I work alone, I don't have stories of my folks, as I talk for them for a few minutes and I'll relay to Wife right away any info she may need before I forget. Once all the activity from the boys is done, my favorite topic is my future material world. You dream about your stocks, bonds and portfolios, I will dream about my boats, RVs and waterfront cabins. I try to be level headed, but even starting the conversation with "This doesn't mean that I am going to go out tomorrow and buy this or that, but which would you prefer the most an RV or a boat, in the $100,000 range?", for example. Instead of indulging me and getting into a theoretical discussion which I think could be interesting and at least keep us talking through half the trip, I get the "goddam it, that is why we are broke, you have no inner control, can you just stop with the idea of spending money!" OK, but last I looked, I was the a-hole driving the 15 year old vehicle, I sold my boat at your suggestion to save on paying for storage, I buy maybe one pair of shoes a year, haven't bought new sunglasses in probably 3 years, yes I can run amuck, but I feel like I have made a lot changes to be better, but I get no credit around here, so I turn and do what I do best, sleep.
Yesterday, I wake up and we are in a heavy traffic jam, we are supposed to be there at 4:00, we have 18 miles to go and 20 minutes to get there. I notice people keep moving in the right most lane and say try it, she declares them assholes for 15 minutes and very expertly shows me how those people are all stopped over there, and instead goes left (we were behind an 18-wheeler), as soon as we move, we see that this is the lane that is closed ahead. Finally, she decides she wants to try the lane that is moving, two lanes over. It takes another 5 minutes but it works, we get off the freeway, do a 180 turn around and head back to I-10 a couple miles away. I explain how we are on the outer ring (1604), we just have to go on I-10 to 410 (inner ring) and find either Ingram Mall (we kind of know back roads from there, my mother-in-law worked there for a while) or another familiar road to get there.
All of a sudden I get stuff like it would be helpful if you were awake and kept me company, which I said "well, you weren't talking." She actually has the balls to say you weren't saying anything either. I almost had to pull out an old record player, plug it in with an old record and pull the needle across to make that urrhrrtt sound you make when you can't believe someone says something kind of dumb. "No, I tried last time and a bunch of times I want to talk about the day we are free of debt and how great it would be to buy a small waterfront lot and build a cabin or maybe just set it up with an RV or even a mobile home and nah, you'd rather I shut up and save all the money in the bank, so I have nothing else to say." She finally relented and said she does want to spend money on the house, such as put down new floors, we need them, 8 years in and our carpet is looking pretty bad. "Finally", I said, "this is something I can wrap my mind around, do you want just new carpet or are we going to do wood in all the house?" This is interesting to me, I could give two shits about your investment strategy, fine we can save money, but that is never going to be exciting. Tell me we are going to convert our carpeted stairs into some oak masterpiece and I am into that!
It doesn't hurt one to have dreams of what you would do in this scenario or that, come on, the worst thing you can do is shut down a dreamer. It can at the very least, be a fun exercise, if not a telling of what motivates this person. Every time I see those 500 million dollar lottos I can't help but think if I won one, I would buy a small jet plane and fly everywhere and buy a house on the lake. But that is what I dream about, what would you do?
I realize it is a bit of a jerk move to just get in the car and go to sleep, so the last couple of times I decided I was going to try and create some conversation. I don't have stories of coworkers, as I work alone, I don't have stories of my folks, as I talk for them for a few minutes and I'll relay to Wife right away any info she may need before I forget. Once all the activity from the boys is done, my favorite topic is my future material world. You dream about your stocks, bonds and portfolios, I will dream about my boats, RVs and waterfront cabins. I try to be level headed, but even starting the conversation with "This doesn't mean that I am going to go out tomorrow and buy this or that, but which would you prefer the most an RV or a boat, in the $100,000 range?", for example. Instead of indulging me and getting into a theoretical discussion which I think could be interesting and at least keep us talking through half the trip, I get the "goddam it, that is why we are broke, you have no inner control, can you just stop with the idea of spending money!" OK, but last I looked, I was the a-hole driving the 15 year old vehicle, I sold my boat at your suggestion to save on paying for storage, I buy maybe one pair of shoes a year, haven't bought new sunglasses in probably 3 years, yes I can run amuck, but I feel like I have made a lot changes to be better, but I get no credit around here, so I turn and do what I do best, sleep.
Yesterday, I wake up and we are in a heavy traffic jam, we are supposed to be there at 4:00, we have 18 miles to go and 20 minutes to get there. I notice people keep moving in the right most lane and say try it, she declares them assholes for 15 minutes and very expertly shows me how those people are all stopped over there, and instead goes left (we were behind an 18-wheeler), as soon as we move, we see that this is the lane that is closed ahead. Finally, she decides she wants to try the lane that is moving, two lanes over. It takes another 5 minutes but it works, we get off the freeway, do a 180 turn around and head back to I-10 a couple miles away. I explain how we are on the outer ring (1604), we just have to go on I-10 to 410 (inner ring) and find either Ingram Mall (we kind of know back roads from there, my mother-in-law worked there for a while) or another familiar road to get there.
All of a sudden I get stuff like it would be helpful if you were awake and kept me company, which I said "well, you weren't talking." She actually has the balls to say you weren't saying anything either. I almost had to pull out an old record player, plug it in with an old record and pull the needle across to make that urrhrrtt sound you make when you can't believe someone says something kind of dumb. "No, I tried last time and a bunch of times I want to talk about the day we are free of debt and how great it would be to buy a small waterfront lot and build a cabin or maybe just set it up with an RV or even a mobile home and nah, you'd rather I shut up and save all the money in the bank, so I have nothing else to say." She finally relented and said she does want to spend money on the house, such as put down new floors, we need them, 8 years in and our carpet is looking pretty bad. "Finally", I said, "this is something I can wrap my mind around, do you want just new carpet or are we going to do wood in all the house?" This is interesting to me, I could give two shits about your investment strategy, fine we can save money, but that is never going to be exciting. Tell me we are going to convert our carpeted stairs into some oak masterpiece and I am into that!
It doesn't hurt one to have dreams of what you would do in this scenario or that, come on, the worst thing you can do is shut down a dreamer. It can at the very least, be a fun exercise, if not a telling of what motivates this person. Every time I see those 500 million dollar lottos I can't help but think if I won one, I would buy a small jet plane and fly everywhere and buy a house on the lake. But that is what I dream about, what would you do?
Saturday, January 12, 2019
1/12/19 I Love It When Wife Has A Day Off?
It only happens about twice a semester, but I love when Wife surprisingly is off on a Friday and the boys are kept busy by school. This means that if I can put on my big boy pants after I get out of work, we can go enjoy breakfast and even a little bit more, just like a newlywed couple, which is nice, once in a while. Don't get me wrong, I love the company of our boys, but sometimes we just need to go back to basics.
Wife was home late Thursday night, which is cool, but I did work, so we did not even see each other. My plan was to eat something quickly as I do every night and run up and take a nap, but for some reason, Boy and his GF came down like at 2:20am and we started talking, I don't see much of Boy during the week, so this was good. He works and gets home after 7:00pm, I am at work by about that time, if I see him it is when I come home for lunch, as he does stay up late. Before I know it, I am in deep conversation about my thoughts on carrying on after a loved one's death, and being an atheist how do I cope. We touched on other interesting topics but it was mostly the GF asking me. We have a lot of the same beliefs, and it is easy to get into good discussions, but before I knew it, it was 4:10am and I was late for work, so I never even got off the table other than to leave back for work.
Friday morning, Wife was up when Javalina was getting ready for work, we had discussed having breakfast, so she was in the shower. She said she could hear me talking, at night, but was too tired to come down, after working all day, then driving the three hours, I understand. We dropped off the boy, and headed off to IHOP. We are kind of doing Atkins or some variation, so I was only going to eat an omelette, but you know, who can say no to a plate of pancakes when they come free? We sat there for a while, the coffee was delicious, Wife had some good stories, that little town she works in just has me humming the "Dukes of Hazzard" theme song all the time.
We followed this by going to HEB and stocking up, we had talked about going out to Saltlick for a meat buffet, but since it was expected to rain all evening, we bought a big bag of fajitas and sausages and grilled that at home at night. We were home by 10:30am or so, I have been binging on Black-ish this week, I relate so much to the dad, I love the show. When it came out I wanted to watch it, it seemed like a modern riff on the Cosby's, the family is black and upper middle class to rich, but Wife was not interested so we kind of ignored it, but then Wife caught it on Hulu and got me to watch it, and it is just too funny. We saw an episode or two and I was out by noon.
I still got up before 4:00 to go get Javalina from school, which was followed by a quick trip to Home Depot before the mist and the rain started approaching. We got home by 5:00pm and Javalina was a hard ass reminding me that we didn't work out Thursday, so we needed to do it on Friday. We worked out for about an hour, then we got to grilling. The rest of the night was a blur as I was totally drained, but we introduced Javalina to Scrubs on Hulu and he loved it so much, I didn't get to see any Black-ish episodes, but that is ok. We saw about 8 episodes in a row, poor little guy has either a tooth coming out or a cavity, but he was in pain all night. Good thing Wife got him scheduled for a visit in the morning, which is where we are headed in about ten minutes. It is 9:40am on Saturday morning, and the dentist is scheduled for 10:00am, but it is only about 5 minutes away.
Wife was home late Thursday night, which is cool, but I did work, so we did not even see each other. My plan was to eat something quickly as I do every night and run up and take a nap, but for some reason, Boy and his GF came down like at 2:20am and we started talking, I don't see much of Boy during the week, so this was good. He works and gets home after 7:00pm, I am at work by about that time, if I see him it is when I come home for lunch, as he does stay up late. Before I know it, I am in deep conversation about my thoughts on carrying on after a loved one's death, and being an atheist how do I cope. We touched on other interesting topics but it was mostly the GF asking me. We have a lot of the same beliefs, and it is easy to get into good discussions, but before I knew it, it was 4:10am and I was late for work, so I never even got off the table other than to leave back for work.
Friday morning, Wife was up when Javalina was getting ready for work, we had discussed having breakfast, so she was in the shower. She said she could hear me talking, at night, but was too tired to come down, after working all day, then driving the three hours, I understand. We dropped off the boy, and headed off to IHOP. We are kind of doing Atkins or some variation, so I was only going to eat an omelette, but you know, who can say no to a plate of pancakes when they come free? We sat there for a while, the coffee was delicious, Wife had some good stories, that little town she works in just has me humming the "Dukes of Hazzard" theme song all the time.
We followed this by going to HEB and stocking up, we had talked about going out to Saltlick for a meat buffet, but since it was expected to rain all evening, we bought a big bag of fajitas and sausages and grilled that at home at night. We were home by 10:30am or so, I have been binging on Black-ish this week, I relate so much to the dad, I love the show. When it came out I wanted to watch it, it seemed like a modern riff on the Cosby's, the family is black and upper middle class to rich, but Wife was not interested so we kind of ignored it, but then Wife caught it on Hulu and got me to watch it, and it is just too funny. We saw an episode or two and I was out by noon.
I still got up before 4:00 to go get Javalina from school, which was followed by a quick trip to Home Depot before the mist and the rain started approaching. We got home by 5:00pm and Javalina was a hard ass reminding me that we didn't work out Thursday, so we needed to do it on Friday. We worked out for about an hour, then we got to grilling. The rest of the night was a blur as I was totally drained, but we introduced Javalina to Scrubs on Hulu and he loved it so much, I didn't get to see any Black-ish episodes, but that is ok. We saw about 8 episodes in a row, poor little guy has either a tooth coming out or a cavity, but he was in pain all night. Good thing Wife got him scheduled for a visit in the morning, which is where we are headed in about ten minutes. It is 9:40am on Saturday morning, and the dentist is scheduled for 10:00am, but it is only about 5 minutes away.
Friday, January 11, 2019
1/11/19 I Feel A Tiny Bit Woke?
I am kind of a lover of fads, I don't know if this makes me a tool or just an idiot, but in this latest one, I saw a couple of young people on Youtube converting vans to "live-in" vehicles and that got my juices flowing. I have always loved those big conversion vans of the 80's, hell my parents owned one and you couldn't be more right that it is just a perfect vehicle for humping, specially for a high school kid with a steady GF.
Anyways, back to reality, they are very hard to find, Ford stopped selling the Econoline Van series that was used to make the conversion vans like two years ago. This would make me sad, but I found a company, Sportsmobile, they take a Ford chassis with an engine and driver/passenger seating and build the van portion and attach it. They also take the liberty of increasing slightly the dimensions, making it roomier than a traditional van from Ford. This is all just information I was gathering, and when I absorbed enough of it, I had to call Wife and tell her about my next great idea. What if I get one of these Van/RV thingies as my next vehicle and that way we can own one and get out of town anytime we feel like it. I tried selling her the idea of fishing at Bob Hall Pier under the stars and then just walking to our home away from home and sleep there on the beach. Romantic on paper, sucks many balls, as we have been close to this in the past. But the Van lifers on YouTube make it seem so great, what could possibly be bad about all this?
In comes another Youtuber to poke so many holes at the Van life guys. First off, he said he was homeless for a time and when you do live in your car, it will get dirty. These people he was poking fun at have an immaculately clean VW bus. He goes from scene to scene making fun at their lifestyle, it was pretty funny and obviously, the people having success with their YouTube videos are the ones with hot chicks showing as much skin as the law will allow.
This got me coming back to reality pretty quick. We have had an RV and it was crowded in there and it had two separate "rooms" for the beds (the kids bunks weren't exactly in another bedroom, but it did have walls to separate them from us. A van might work if it was just Wife and I, otherwise, we still need a large RV if I am going to even think about any of this. Don't worry about me, I'll be fantasizing about wanting something else as soon as I see it.
Anyways, back to reality, they are very hard to find, Ford stopped selling the Econoline Van series that was used to make the conversion vans like two years ago. This would make me sad, but I found a company, Sportsmobile, they take a Ford chassis with an engine and driver/passenger seating and build the van portion and attach it. They also take the liberty of increasing slightly the dimensions, making it roomier than a traditional van from Ford. This is all just information I was gathering, and when I absorbed enough of it, I had to call Wife and tell her about my next great idea. What if I get one of these Van/RV thingies as my next vehicle and that way we can own one and get out of town anytime we feel like it. I tried selling her the idea of fishing at Bob Hall Pier under the stars and then just walking to our home away from home and sleep there on the beach. Romantic on paper, sucks many balls, as we have been close to this in the past. But the Van lifers on YouTube make it seem so great, what could possibly be bad about all this?
In comes another Youtuber to poke so many holes at the Van life guys. First off, he said he was homeless for a time and when you do live in your car, it will get dirty. These people he was poking fun at have an immaculately clean VW bus. He goes from scene to scene making fun at their lifestyle, it was pretty funny and obviously, the people having success with their YouTube videos are the ones with hot chicks showing as much skin as the law will allow.
This got me coming back to reality pretty quick. We have had an RV and it was crowded in there and it had two separate "rooms" for the beds (the kids bunks weren't exactly in another bedroom, but it did have walls to separate them from us. A van might work if it was just Wife and I, otherwise, we still need a large RV if I am going to even think about any of this. Don't worry about me, I'll be fantasizing about wanting something else as soon as I see it.
Thursday, January 10, 2019
1/10/19 Breaking Bad Habits Eating Out?
We are only three days into our new diet and already we "had to" eat out. I say "had to" because Javalina started asking the day before and Wife happened to make it into town so we could eat together, so it almost makes sense to do it. I had already told Javalina that it was going to be a lot more Jason's Deli and a lot less Bill Miller, to try and eat healthier, but man...
I could not resist on an all you can eat salad buffet, the salad is fine, but they have these little biscuits made of gingerbread and even the corn ones are so sweet and yummy, I can fill a small plate and eat an easy 10-15 of those little guys. I went through the salad and thought about the fact that even a salad can have as many calories as a pizza, if you overdo a couple things, so I prepared a very basic salad, lettuce, carrots, broccoli, some cheese, spinach, 3 eggs, and some hummus. I grabbed that little plate I normally fill as high as I can, and only grabbed like 4-5, figuring they were for the table.
I think I did alright, I ate 4 of the tiny biscuits, but I also had water instead of the tea that I normally would get, and there was no cone at the end of the meal. It would be too hard to just give up all the little treats available at a place like this, with an open bar, but I am trying.
I could not resist on an all you can eat salad buffet, the salad is fine, but they have these little biscuits made of gingerbread and even the corn ones are so sweet and yummy, I can fill a small plate and eat an easy 10-15 of those little guys. I went through the salad and thought about the fact that even a salad can have as many calories as a pizza, if you overdo a couple things, so I prepared a very basic salad, lettuce, carrots, broccoli, some cheese, spinach, 3 eggs, and some hummus. I grabbed that little plate I normally fill as high as I can, and only grabbed like 4-5, figuring they were for the table.
I think I did alright, I ate 4 of the tiny biscuits, but I also had water instead of the tea that I normally would get, and there was no cone at the end of the meal. It would be too hard to just give up all the little treats available at a place like this, with an open bar, but I am trying.
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
1/9/19 About Expired Food Dates?
How does food sneak and stay behind in the fridge for over two years? We have re-introduced ourselves to eating salads and I thought we were good on the dressings. I prefer Ranch, but will use anything in a pinch. When we went to the Store this past Sunday we got a bunch of salad stuff and I assumed we would have a handful of bottles of different salad dressings to choose from.
After our second little workout with Javalina and I, I made some burger patties but instead of eating them in burgers, we had the meat with salads on the side. The package says you can do this too, go figure. I always thought burger patties could only be eaten in between two pieces of bread, apparently not. The only problem we encountered was not being able to find a decent dressing. We had two bottles, one was onion mustard something or other and the other was kind of reddish. I was willing to give Javalina first choice since both bottles were pretty low, but he was quick to notice that one of the bottles had expired Jan 2018 and the other like in May 2018. They weren't really expiration dates, they were the best used by dates. What if we go past it by a year, would we get sick? I decided not to take chances and thru away the bottles, but now what? I found a couple of bottles of Mango Habanero and BBQ sauce for making hot wings. I told Javalina "you like BBQ sauce on everything, just go with it, you'll be fine." I poured a little mango habanero sauce on my salad and then almost immediately, he told me "hey, that one expired Aug 2017." It was already on my plate, so I suggested the hotness keeps anything bad from growing on it, it'll be alright.
It has been long enough that if it was going to make me sick, it would have already. I figure the scare tactic is mostly to go out and buy more of their products, but maybe a year past any date is long enough to avoid it. I don't know how we got there, but maybe that is an indication we have gone a very long time since we were focused on eating salads at home. This is one of the things I am trying to change. You can be sure I will be stocking the fridge with a few new bottles of dressing, starting with some Ranch.
After our second little workout with Javalina and I, I made some burger patties but instead of eating them in burgers, we had the meat with salads on the side. The package says you can do this too, go figure. I always thought burger patties could only be eaten in between two pieces of bread, apparently not. The only problem we encountered was not being able to find a decent dressing. We had two bottles, one was onion mustard something or other and the other was kind of reddish. I was willing to give Javalina first choice since both bottles were pretty low, but he was quick to notice that one of the bottles had expired Jan 2018 and the other like in May 2018. They weren't really expiration dates, they were the best used by dates. What if we go past it by a year, would we get sick? I decided not to take chances and thru away the bottles, but now what? I found a couple of bottles of Mango Habanero and BBQ sauce for making hot wings. I told Javalina "you like BBQ sauce on everything, just go with it, you'll be fine." I poured a little mango habanero sauce on my salad and then almost immediately, he told me "hey, that one expired Aug 2017." It was already on my plate, so I suggested the hotness keeps anything bad from growing on it, it'll be alright.
It has been long enough that if it was going to make me sick, it would have already. I figure the scare tactic is mostly to go out and buy more of their products, but maybe a year past any date is long enough to avoid it. I don't know how we got there, but maybe that is an indication we have gone a very long time since we were focused on eating salads at home. This is one of the things I am trying to change. You can be sure I will be stocking the fridge with a few new bottles of dressing, starting with some Ranch.
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
1/8/19 New Year, New Me.... Again?
I know, we all talk of losing weight and making changes at the start of the year, only to fall back to our wicked old ways, but I need to make some real changes. My fat ass has ballooned up to 430 pounds as of last night, if my scale is working right and that ain't good for nobody. Wife and Javalina are with me right now and we talked of an Atkins like approach to eating, at least to start. If anything, it will keep me from hitting all the sweets we tend to keep around.
The biggest motivator all year has been that I want to work out with Javalina, if I can get him going, he could turn into a beautiful athlete. He has the frame and the right size, but like me, he is lazy. He kind of makes me nervous when he tells me "dad, can I tackle you?" I get it, he sees me as a big tackling dummy, but in my out of shape condition, he is likely to break one of my ribs or worse. I am pissed at myself that I stopped walking after one of my coworkers asked me "is all that walking helping you?" I took it as condescending and maybe he was just asking, but I stopped because I did the math and I was still a fat fuck, even if I was walking 4 miles a night. I didn't think of the other benefits, two years of being inactive have me struggling to catch my breath way too easily, falling behind just walking long distances from Wife and the boys. I used to be the one up front pushing them to walk faster. If I thought 350 pounds was bad, 430 is worse.
Then the big one of my dad ending up in the hospital this past week kind of has me scared. He is not obese like me, his was a bout of pneumonia accompanied by his love of smoking. Seeing him in bed needing help to sit up and to get up out of bed is something I see happening to me if I don't make changes now. The thought of needing someone there to help me shower or go to the bathroom has me pretty scared in itself. Luckily, my dad seems to be gaining his strength back, he was even sitting in a regular chair watching the Alabama/Clemson game a little while ago and my mom says he was in good spirits. He should be released tomorrow.
We will try to stop eating out every day like we have been doing. We got some Atkins shakes to replace some of our meals, like my dinner in the middle of the night, I don't need to eat a steak and potatoes at 2:00am. Javalina and I started today after school with a little workout lifting weights and then we ate some salmon with a salad for lunch. I feel pretty good, I didn't go nap like I had been doing, instead I got in to work and walked half a mile. I will make walking a priority again. I hate that struggling for air feeling that I get every time I bust a move.
The biggest motivator all year has been that I want to work out with Javalina, if I can get him going, he could turn into a beautiful athlete. He has the frame and the right size, but like me, he is lazy. He kind of makes me nervous when he tells me "dad, can I tackle you?" I get it, he sees me as a big tackling dummy, but in my out of shape condition, he is likely to break one of my ribs or worse. I am pissed at myself that I stopped walking after one of my coworkers asked me "is all that walking helping you?" I took it as condescending and maybe he was just asking, but I stopped because I did the math and I was still a fat fuck, even if I was walking 4 miles a night. I didn't think of the other benefits, two years of being inactive have me struggling to catch my breath way too easily, falling behind just walking long distances from Wife and the boys. I used to be the one up front pushing them to walk faster. If I thought 350 pounds was bad, 430 is worse.
Then the big one of my dad ending up in the hospital this past week kind of has me scared. He is not obese like me, his was a bout of pneumonia accompanied by his love of smoking. Seeing him in bed needing help to sit up and to get up out of bed is something I see happening to me if I don't make changes now. The thought of needing someone there to help me shower or go to the bathroom has me pretty scared in itself. Luckily, my dad seems to be gaining his strength back, he was even sitting in a regular chair watching the Alabama/Clemson game a little while ago and my mom says he was in good spirits. He should be released tomorrow.
We will try to stop eating out every day like we have been doing. We got some Atkins shakes to replace some of our meals, like my dinner in the middle of the night, I don't need to eat a steak and potatoes at 2:00am. Javalina and I started today after school with a little workout lifting weights and then we ate some salmon with a salad for lunch. I feel pretty good, I didn't go nap like I had been doing, instead I got in to work and walked half a mile. I will make walking a priority again. I hate that struggling for air feeling that I get every time I bust a move.
Monday, January 7, 2019
1/7/19 That Was Two Weeks Off?
Going into this break, I had a feeling it was going to be different than normal. Normally, we travel for Christmas, like the day after, to see my folks and Wife's folks, then we go to my In-law's home on New year's Eve. This year we knew they were expecting us in Crystal City so Javalina could practice a dance routine for my only niece's Quinceanera coming up in January.
Right off the bat, we got out Friday the 21st, but Wife didn't get home until closer to 7:00pm. That was fine, but we had to go shopping on Saturday to get some last minute gifts and stuff. Sunday was the first practice day. Nobody really called us, but we knew it was a practice day. We got going a little after noon, maybe it was 12:20pm, but traffic sucked. We got to Crystal slightly late, closer to 4:00pm. Javalina got about 10-15 minutes of practice before they decided the boys were done and from 4:20 until 6:00, the girls were going to practice a separate dance. That was what you call awesome. We drove back late on Sunday, as we were intent on doing Christmas at our home. We stopped at HEB on the way back in Kyle to get food for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Christmas Eve saw us get off to a slow start, but it was cool, we had a bunch of food and Wife made a Christmas ham. I accidentally took 3 allergy pills because my nose would not stop dripping and I was sneezing non-stop, the accidental part was that I didn't realize they had Benadryl which totally knocked me out, and I slept through the afternoon and evening going into Christmas. It wasn't until Christmas Day when I was going to take more of the allergy pills that Wife said those are going to knock you out as I was fixing to do it again. Christmas Day was nice, we had plenty of company from Boy's friends to Girlie, very nice and quiet. Wednesday was relaxing and had no rushes, but Thursday was another practice day in Crystal City, so off we were again. This time we were only about 10 minutes late, and Javalina got plenty of practice. Again, we drove back after practice, my folks had said they were going to come and hang out until Sunday, but that didn't happen because my mom got sick with a cold/flu.
We finally got to hang out and take it easy on Friday through Sunday. We stayed up late, got up later, and didn't do much but watch TV and get fat. These were the best days of relaxing. New Year's Eve we got up in the afternoon and headed to the In-Law's in the early evening. They had a bunch of food, and kept me eating until almost midnight, and we then headed back home around 2:00am.
We took it easy on the 1st and 2nd, thinking we are finally on vacation and just going to take it easy the rest of the week. Then my Dad stepped on a banana peel and changed all that. We spent the 3rd through the 6th going to San Antonio every day to see him. I spent the night with him on Friday into Saturday which was kind of like working as he kept me on my toes laying down, sitting up, and repeating the process about a million times. We stayed home on Sunday, but I woke Wife up at noon to go get some food and get out of the house before our last day ran out. Javalina got new shoes and socks, and that was pretty much the two weeks.
Right off the bat, we got out Friday the 21st, but Wife didn't get home until closer to 7:00pm. That was fine, but we had to go shopping on Saturday to get some last minute gifts and stuff. Sunday was the first practice day. Nobody really called us, but we knew it was a practice day. We got going a little after noon, maybe it was 12:20pm, but traffic sucked. We got to Crystal slightly late, closer to 4:00pm. Javalina got about 10-15 minutes of practice before they decided the boys were done and from 4:20 until 6:00, the girls were going to practice a separate dance. That was what you call awesome. We drove back late on Sunday, as we were intent on doing Christmas at our home. We stopped at HEB on the way back in Kyle to get food for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Christmas Eve saw us get off to a slow start, but it was cool, we had a bunch of food and Wife made a Christmas ham. I accidentally took 3 allergy pills because my nose would not stop dripping and I was sneezing non-stop, the accidental part was that I didn't realize they had Benadryl which totally knocked me out, and I slept through the afternoon and evening going into Christmas. It wasn't until Christmas Day when I was going to take more of the allergy pills that Wife said those are going to knock you out as I was fixing to do it again. Christmas Day was nice, we had plenty of company from Boy's friends to Girlie, very nice and quiet. Wednesday was relaxing and had no rushes, but Thursday was another practice day in Crystal City, so off we were again. This time we were only about 10 minutes late, and Javalina got plenty of practice. Again, we drove back after practice, my folks had said they were going to come and hang out until Sunday, but that didn't happen because my mom got sick with a cold/flu.
We finally got to hang out and take it easy on Friday through Sunday. We stayed up late, got up later, and didn't do much but watch TV and get fat. These were the best days of relaxing. New Year's Eve we got up in the afternoon and headed to the In-Law's in the early evening. They had a bunch of food, and kept me eating until almost midnight, and we then headed back home around 2:00am.
We took it easy on the 1st and 2nd, thinking we are finally on vacation and just going to take it easy the rest of the week. Then my Dad stepped on a banana peel and changed all that. We spent the 3rd through the 6th going to San Antonio every day to see him. I spent the night with him on Friday into Saturday which was kind of like working as he kept me on my toes laying down, sitting up, and repeating the process about a million times. We stayed home on Sunday, but I woke Wife up at noon to go get some food and get out of the house before our last day ran out. Javalina got new shoes and socks, and that was pretty much the two weeks.
Sunday, January 6, 2019
1/6/19 Bumping Into The Past?
I ran into my old roommate this week while staying in the hospital with my dad. It was a little strange, I am not a fan of surprise encounters like that. But, like it or not, he was the physical therapist on hand, Saturday morning, so there we were.
It was weird in that I had just helped the nurse get my dad through a shower and even a shave. I had just walked back into the shower to pick up my dad's stuff and I could hear a loud voice down the hall. I thought "that's a doctor or some other obnoxious a-hole, using his outside voice inside, talking about the Cowboys and going on and on about nothing. A few seconds later, I heard the voice talking to my dad and I was wondering who? and what? He was asking if he remembered him and he seemed happy to see my dad. When I stepped out, he quickly said "well this guy will remember me." I was still "no, I have a pretty good memory of forgetting people," I thought. When he turned and face me, yes, his face was older and fuller, but yes, I placed him immediately. Whatever problems we had in the past, I put them aside as I hugged him and told him it was good to see him.
He was moving and talking fast. He was there to give my dad some physical therapy and I am sure he had a ton of other people to do the same type of thing. He used a walker and a portable oxygen tank, strapped my dad around the waist with a fat strap (something to grab him with, if need be). It was great to see my dad walk around with no problems. The walker was in case he had trouble, but I didn't see any. The PT didn't think my dad would have a problem walking once his strength is back, if anything maybe a walking stick, like a stick Gandalf used.
Once my dad was done, the PT was about ready to get going, we said our goodbyes, I told him it was great to see him and that all that weird energy from the past just seemed silly once I saw him. He said "yeah, it is all water under the bridge, it has been great to see you, say hi to your Wife, and tell her you have a beautiful family." It felt good to say all that, I am not a person who can hold a grudge and hate anyone.
It was weird in that I had just helped the nurse get my dad through a shower and even a shave. I had just walked back into the shower to pick up my dad's stuff and I could hear a loud voice down the hall. I thought "that's a doctor or some other obnoxious a-hole, using his outside voice inside, talking about the Cowboys and going on and on about nothing. A few seconds later, I heard the voice talking to my dad and I was wondering who? and what? He was asking if he remembered him and he seemed happy to see my dad. When I stepped out, he quickly said "well this guy will remember me." I was still "no, I have a pretty good memory of forgetting people," I thought. When he turned and face me, yes, his face was older and fuller, but yes, I placed him immediately. Whatever problems we had in the past, I put them aside as I hugged him and told him it was good to see him.
He was moving and talking fast. He was there to give my dad some physical therapy and I am sure he had a ton of other people to do the same type of thing. He used a walker and a portable oxygen tank, strapped my dad around the waist with a fat strap (something to grab him with, if need be). It was great to see my dad walk around with no problems. The walker was in case he had trouble, but I didn't see any. The PT didn't think my dad would have a problem walking once his strength is back, if anything maybe a walking stick, like a stick Gandalf used.
Once my dad was done, the PT was about ready to get going, we said our goodbyes, I told him it was great to see him and that all that weird energy from the past just seemed silly once I saw him. He said "yeah, it is all water under the bridge, it has been great to see you, say hi to your Wife, and tell her you have a beautiful family." It felt good to say all that, I am not a person who can hold a grudge and hate anyone.
Saturday, January 5, 2019
1/5/19 Standing Sentry Over Our Senor?
I am writing this right at midnight, and believe me, I have earned my dollar already. Mom called me yesterday afternoon to see if I would stay with my dad overnight. This would give her a chance to go home and shower and get more clothes. Because he has lost a lot of strength from having pneumonia, he is having trouble walking, so PT wants him walking before he leaves. I guess mom thought she might be here longer than this Sunday when they said originally he would be let out.
We got here around 6:00pm, and I walked in to him finishing his dinner, saying it sucked and he was going to lay down even though he was on the opposite side of the bed. Someone had moved his IV over to the side by the window, but he has been getting up and off on the other side, so he was on the move and I hadn't even put my laptop down. I stopped him as he fought his head, like an old catfish fighting a trot line, he had the oxygen tube around his head and it was pulled taut. Along with that, he had the IV drip on the little tree thing and he was expecting it to follow him as he walked, holding on to the bed. I was able to get him the rest of the way there, he would've by himself, but he might've lost the IV on the way.
Wife had something going on with her family, she dropped me off and took off like a bullet. She was going to meet most of her family for dinner was about all I know. Javalina is not comfortable here in the hospital, I was trying to convince him to stay here, so I wouldn't be alone, but he was having nothing with it. Wife was ready to stay, and I know by the morning it would be her getting my dad up and doing the dance with him that I am stuck doing every 20 minutes. I love that she takes over everything like that.
It is almost 1:00am and at least I lucked out. HGTV is giving a whole night's worth of My Dream House. I love looking at pretty houses by lakes or other bodies of water, so at least if I am alone, I got something cool to look at while my dad tries to sleep. It has been good for the past hour, he has slept, but he is getting fidgety. The nurses just came through and did his blood pressure check and stuff, and that did not wake him. Hope he can sleep for awhile, but I can already see he is on the very edge of the mattress and he is moving his hands like he has mosquitos in front of him.
It was rough, not only is he a pain, the hospital doesn't help. They insist on checking his vitals every few hours and even if he is having a hard time sleeping, when they come in, they will wake him, it is kind of a dick move, in my opinion.
Difference of night and day, it seems my dad is feeling better after eating some breakfast. He finished his IV bags, took 3 in total, took a shower, put on new clothes, PT came in and he walked back and forth in the hallway, the guy, who was my old roommate and another guy that was in most of my classes since Kindergarten looked a little different, honestly, I didn't recognize him at first, but it was good to see him. I have about 1 more hour to go before the cavalry shows up and he just propped himself up from a laying position to a sitting position, so I am leaving him in very good shape.
We got here around 6:00pm, and I walked in to him finishing his dinner, saying it sucked and he was going to lay down even though he was on the opposite side of the bed. Someone had moved his IV over to the side by the window, but he has been getting up and off on the other side, so he was on the move and I hadn't even put my laptop down. I stopped him as he fought his head, like an old catfish fighting a trot line, he had the oxygen tube around his head and it was pulled taut. Along with that, he had the IV drip on the little tree thing and he was expecting it to follow him as he walked, holding on to the bed. I was able to get him the rest of the way there, he would've by himself, but he might've lost the IV on the way.
Wife had something going on with her family, she dropped me off and took off like a bullet. She was going to meet most of her family for dinner was about all I know. Javalina is not comfortable here in the hospital, I was trying to convince him to stay here, so I wouldn't be alone, but he was having nothing with it. Wife was ready to stay, and I know by the morning it would be her getting my dad up and doing the dance with him that I am stuck doing every 20 minutes. I love that she takes over everything like that.
It is almost 1:00am and at least I lucked out. HGTV is giving a whole night's worth of My Dream House. I love looking at pretty houses by lakes or other bodies of water, so at least if I am alone, I got something cool to look at while my dad tries to sleep. It has been good for the past hour, he has slept, but he is getting fidgety. The nurses just came through and did his blood pressure check and stuff, and that did not wake him. Hope he can sleep for awhile, but I can already see he is on the very edge of the mattress and he is moving his hands like he has mosquitos in front of him.
It was rough, not only is he a pain, the hospital doesn't help. They insist on checking his vitals every few hours and even if he is having a hard time sleeping, when they come in, they will wake him, it is kind of a dick move, in my opinion.
Difference of night and day, it seems my dad is feeling better after eating some breakfast. He finished his IV bags, took 3 in total, took a shower, put on new clothes, PT came in and he walked back and forth in the hallway, the guy, who was my old roommate and another guy that was in most of my classes since Kindergarten looked a little different, honestly, I didn't recognize him at first, but it was good to see him. I have about 1 more hour to go before the cavalry shows up and he just propped himself up from a laying position to a sitting position, so I am leaving him in very good shape.
Friday, January 4, 2019
1/4/19 Visiting My Dad At The Hospital?
My dad is now spending a lot more time in the hospital than he thought he would. His worst ailment is a little pneumonia, but that has weakened him to a point where he has had a little trouble even walking. We came in Thursday afternoon, thinking we could make it in a little earlier than our effort on Wednesday, but still didn't get up to his room until almost 6:00pm. We waited for Boy to get out of work before we started getting dressed, which again is not a great excuse, but I figured they had said there were not specific hours to visit, so we could come and go at whatever time. Although I did not want to be there as late as we were the first night when we didn't leave until after 1:00am.
Last night we left around 9:30pm, which was good as we stopped to eat at Denny's and it wasn't freakishly late. Boy and Javalina were with us and that is always nice. We had not eaten at a Denny's since the early 90's when they got some bad TV coverage of being racist, in an almost ironic twist, we found the people eating there at that hour to be 90% Hispanic. If they still have a racist slant, it is not against our green money, which is the language and color we all love and understand. By the way, the service was not great, other than the gentleman who sat us gave us the table next to us to "stretch out." I hate being crowded and I loved this idea.
We got home at around midnight, I was already sleeping and couldn't help but get up and lay down. Somewhere along the past week, we've decided to turn on the heater as some nights have been really cold, so the house didn't feel so miserable last night. I got up at 8:00am to try and write this, but only got as far as the title. I went back to bed when Boy got up, he went to work, poor guy, he has been working up to 10 hour days. We didn't get up until almost 3:00pm, and then got dressed up in a hurry. It sucked, because we drove to SA in rush hour traffic, so nobody was going fast.
My mom had called while I was getting ready to see if I would stay with my dad overnight. I got a little hesitant because he is a bit of a pain in the ass. While there, he fidgets in bed, wants to sit up every 15-20 minutes, then lay down, then pee, then lay down, then he is hot, then he is cold, then he is thirsty, then something on and on. I said I would because I know my mom has been there two days and I didn't want my dad to be alone. Better to be a pain with family than with the nursing staff, I think.
I don't know that I am capable of doing the job, but as they say, "throw me in the deep end and see what happens." I know my mom needs a break, there is a ton of stuff going on at home with the approaching quince of my niece and this is going to slow things down a bit.
Last night we left around 9:30pm, which was good as we stopped to eat at Denny's and it wasn't freakishly late. Boy and Javalina were with us and that is always nice. We had not eaten at a Denny's since the early 90's when they got some bad TV coverage of being racist, in an almost ironic twist, we found the people eating there at that hour to be 90% Hispanic. If they still have a racist slant, it is not against our green money, which is the language and color we all love and understand. By the way, the service was not great, other than the gentleman who sat us gave us the table next to us to "stretch out." I hate being crowded and I loved this idea.
We got home at around midnight, I was already sleeping and couldn't help but get up and lay down. Somewhere along the past week, we've decided to turn on the heater as some nights have been really cold, so the house didn't feel so miserable last night. I got up at 8:00am to try and write this, but only got as far as the title. I went back to bed when Boy got up, he went to work, poor guy, he has been working up to 10 hour days. We didn't get up until almost 3:00pm, and then got dressed up in a hurry. It sucked, because we drove to SA in rush hour traffic, so nobody was going fast.
My mom had called while I was getting ready to see if I would stay with my dad overnight. I got a little hesitant because he is a bit of a pain in the ass. While there, he fidgets in bed, wants to sit up every 15-20 minutes, then lay down, then pee, then lay down, then he is hot, then he is cold, then he is thirsty, then something on and on. I said I would because I know my mom has been there two days and I didn't want my dad to be alone. Better to be a pain with family than with the nursing staff, I think.
I don't know that I am capable of doing the job, but as they say, "throw me in the deep end and see what happens." I know my mom needs a break, there is a ton of stuff going on at home with the approaching quince of my niece and this is going to slow things down a bit.
Thursday, January 3, 2019
1/3/19 Two Days In And This Year Is Sucking?
My mom was perplexed by the coincidence and made us wonder as well, but it was exactly a year ago that we lost our uncle to what we concluded was a heart attack. Well, yesterday, my mom woke up at 7:00am to go to the bathroom and she found my dad on the floor, unable to get up apparently for a couple hours. Dad later said he had gone in at 5:00am, so he was in there on the floor almost two hours. Mom said it happened again getting out of bed later, and then he was acting very aggressive that he wasn't going to go to the doctor because he was fine.
It is not necessarily that he hurt himself, he has neuroapathy, loss of muscular function in the arms, so he has very weak arms. I have been suggesting he do some stretches daily or lift some very light weights to strengthen the muscles, but he just says everything just hurts and he kind of shuts down on the conversation. His story when we arrived, and my mom wanted us to go ahead so he wouldn't be alone while she took care of taking her dog to my sisters and got clothes to spend the night, was very different from what my mom said. He was blaming the little rugs that my mom has here and there, making it seem like he was walking into the bathroom and hitting the carpet and his feet got wrapped up and he fell. He then even said the same thing to the doctor when he arrived, right before my mom was there, adding that my mom has the same little rugs around the bed, and they caused him to get tripped up by the bed as well. The man I saw in bed seemed fine, he recognized me right away, he was watching football on TV, as he always prefers to, even if it is old classic games on ESPN. He was trying to argue with the nurses that he wanted to go to the bathroom but he wanted to go to the toilet, they were not letting him get out of bed since he had fallen twice.
My mom came in and it was a very different story. She said he fell over from a sitting position in the bathroom, so the rugs in there wouldn't have caused him to fall. She also said he had kicked the little rugs away from the bed the day before, so they had nothing to do with him falling. The doctor asked about him eating or drinking and he said he hadn't been hungry or drinking much the last few days. The doc was concerned because he had a slight elevated temp and a high white blood cell count, indicating infection of some kind.
The hospital back home sent him to San Antonio because they thought he should get an MRI , I think because he may have hit his head. I feel better that he is in the hands of more trained professionals, plus they have more facilities at their disposal. Just talking to my mom this morning, it might be a longer stay than she planned. A physical therapist came in and was talking about a plan to get him up and moving again. My mom said he was being difficult getting out of bed, even though he has been very mobile up until yesterday, so we aren't sure if he is playing possum, after the two falls or if something has changed.
It is not necessarily that he hurt himself, he has neuroapathy, loss of muscular function in the arms, so he has very weak arms. I have been suggesting he do some stretches daily or lift some very light weights to strengthen the muscles, but he just says everything just hurts and he kind of shuts down on the conversation. His story when we arrived, and my mom wanted us to go ahead so he wouldn't be alone while she took care of taking her dog to my sisters and got clothes to spend the night, was very different from what my mom said. He was blaming the little rugs that my mom has here and there, making it seem like he was walking into the bathroom and hitting the carpet and his feet got wrapped up and he fell. He then even said the same thing to the doctor when he arrived, right before my mom was there, adding that my mom has the same little rugs around the bed, and they caused him to get tripped up by the bed as well. The man I saw in bed seemed fine, he recognized me right away, he was watching football on TV, as he always prefers to, even if it is old classic games on ESPN. He was trying to argue with the nurses that he wanted to go to the bathroom but he wanted to go to the toilet, they were not letting him get out of bed since he had fallen twice.
My mom came in and it was a very different story. She said he fell over from a sitting position in the bathroom, so the rugs in there wouldn't have caused him to fall. She also said he had kicked the little rugs away from the bed the day before, so they had nothing to do with him falling. The doctor asked about him eating or drinking and he said he hadn't been hungry or drinking much the last few days. The doc was concerned because he had a slight elevated temp and a high white blood cell count, indicating infection of some kind.
The hospital back home sent him to San Antonio because they thought he should get an MRI , I think because he may have hit his head. I feel better that he is in the hands of more trained professionals, plus they have more facilities at their disposal. Just talking to my mom this morning, it might be a longer stay than she planned. A physical therapist came in and was talking about a plan to get him up and moving again. My mom said he was being difficult getting out of bed, even though he has been very mobile up until yesterday, so we aren't sure if he is playing possum, after the two falls or if something has changed.
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
1/2/19 Longhorns Win 10?
It seemed automatic during the Mack Brown era, for the Longhorns to win ten games. It seemed like a long time ago, but the boys finally repeated the feat by winning their maybe biggest game in the last 5-8 years. The Texas Longhorns were matched against the Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl and although Georgia was the favorite and by a double figure spread, it was the Longhorns that showed up to play.
Coincidentally, some idiot tried getting the two mascots together for a photo op, but although the big Georgia Bulldog looks pretty scary and dominating, for a 60+ pound animal, it was no concern for Bevo, who at 1300 pounds looked like a little bit of a problem when it got feisty with the pup. I've never seen Bevo get excited over anything, but there they were, 5-6 kids in cowboy wear, trying like hell to calm the big beast down, those massive horns could really hurt somebody.
Kickoff got underway and immediately, the offense took control with Ehlinger very much the center of the team. I like this kid, he passes the ball around and takes plenty of punishment when he takes off running, opting to take a hit at times and not play it safe by sliding all the time. I am sorry to say, but Georgia never seemed interested to win this game. I think they thought it was theirs for the taking, or somehow, they should automatically have won for not being selected into the playoff series. Well boo-hoo, this game showed why you didn't deserve to be there. I mean Oklahoma took a beating during the regular season, then when it mattered most, came back and beat us soundly to get that fourth spot you feel was yours.
I loved the four downs at the 1 yard line where they were stopped three consecutive times, but he got in on the fourth attempt to make it 28-7. My next favorite series was when Georgia had the ball with about nine minutes left and Texas blitzed and came hard all three downs to force a punt. I freaking hate it all season when they have had a big lead and then try to play prevent defense, which just opens up the field for any decent quarterback to tear them apart. Instead, they came at him hard all three downs and he was unable to even get a completion. This lead to a quick three and out, they punted the ball and Texas ran the clock all the way down to about a minute, unfortunately Dicker the kicker missed his chance to give us that comfortable lead, it didn't really hurt us.
The worst part of the game was in that very last drive, to see those two idiots commit those two awful penalties, I mean, come on, WTF! Put your arms out and wrap that receiver, kind of shit tackle was that. And then the other idiot hitting a sliding QB. You know from when you started playing peewee football, you don't hit a sliding QB, they are like magical unicorns and you just should know better. Other than those two stupid anomalies, it was just about a perfect game to end the season for the Longhorns. Congratulations, now get rid of the bubble and get back to working out in the sun and heat for next season. I think there is enough magic here to get this team into the playoffs for the next two seasons, with Ehlinger at the helm. Hook 'em, Horns!!!
Coincidentally, some idiot tried getting the two mascots together for a photo op, but although the big Georgia Bulldog looks pretty scary and dominating, for a 60+ pound animal, it was no concern for Bevo, who at 1300 pounds looked like a little bit of a problem when it got feisty with the pup. I've never seen Bevo get excited over anything, but there they were, 5-6 kids in cowboy wear, trying like hell to calm the big beast down, those massive horns could really hurt somebody.
Kickoff got underway and immediately, the offense took control with Ehlinger very much the center of the team. I like this kid, he passes the ball around and takes plenty of punishment when he takes off running, opting to take a hit at times and not play it safe by sliding all the time. I am sorry to say, but Georgia never seemed interested to win this game. I think they thought it was theirs for the taking, or somehow, they should automatically have won for not being selected into the playoff series. Well boo-hoo, this game showed why you didn't deserve to be there. I mean Oklahoma took a beating during the regular season, then when it mattered most, came back and beat us soundly to get that fourth spot you feel was yours.
I loved the four downs at the 1 yard line where they were stopped three consecutive times, but he got in on the fourth attempt to make it 28-7. My next favorite series was when Georgia had the ball with about nine minutes left and Texas blitzed and came hard all three downs to force a punt. I freaking hate it all season when they have had a big lead and then try to play prevent defense, which just opens up the field for any decent quarterback to tear them apart. Instead, they came at him hard all three downs and he was unable to even get a completion. This lead to a quick three and out, they punted the ball and Texas ran the clock all the way down to about a minute, unfortunately Dicker the kicker missed his chance to give us that comfortable lead, it didn't really hurt us.
The worst part of the game was in that very last drive, to see those two idiots commit those two awful penalties, I mean, come on, WTF! Put your arms out and wrap that receiver, kind of shit tackle was that. And then the other idiot hitting a sliding QB. You know from when you started playing peewee football, you don't hit a sliding QB, they are like magical unicorns and you just should know better. Other than those two stupid anomalies, it was just about a perfect game to end the season for the Longhorns. Congratulations, now get rid of the bubble and get back to working out in the sun and heat for next season. I think there is enough magic here to get this team into the playoffs for the next two seasons, with Ehlinger at the helm. Hook 'em, Horns!!!
Tuesday, January 1, 2019
1/1/19 New Years?
Last night was a standard New Year's Eve at my in-laws, complete with a nap in the middle of it. We didn't wake up until around 2:00pm yesterday, and that was just to come down and sit at the table for another two hours. By the time we knew it, it was 5:00pm and Wife suggested I go cut my hair as I was starting to look a little "grandpa cave-man," with all my grey/white hair. By the time I shaved and we all showered and collected at the house, we found ourselves leaving around 7:00pm. Boy had said he would be following us because he was taking his GF and friend. At first I was thinking whatever, but then we heard the news and it was going to be sketchy late at night, and we always drive back late at night. At the last minute we decided to all go together in my Excursion, since they still all fit comfortably, shoot, we could have added another two people, but anyways.
I was surprised to find myself driving and holding steady. Maybe because we have been sleeping so much lately, I managed to get us there without yawning once and keeping the conversation going with Wife. There was a pit stop at the HEB in New Braunfels to gas up, and gas has been coming down in cost, it was only $1.75/gallon, which was awesome for the wallet. Getting to my in-laws, it keeps getting harder and harder to find parking as everyone in the street seems to have company. We had a choice of parking between two houses about halfway in the block, or between the start of the block and the first house. I felt I was too close to the intersection, but I got through the night without a ticket.
All the food offerings were about the same as usual, starting with a hearty bowl of menudo (which I find a little gross, but everybody loves), tamales, sausages, pigs in a blanket, meatballs, cheese dip, spinach dip, some fruit trays, cookies, cake, brownies, empanadas (applebutter and pineapple), and other stuff I can't remember. The highlight was probably trying some "coquito", which I just heard about recently, but I guess everybody has their own recipe. It's got coconut, rum, and maybe milk to make it a white color, but also some spices so it isn't just a pina colada. I kept getting a little glass with less than a finger's depth to it which was annoying, just tilting it back to taste finished it, but then they put the bottle on the table and I poured myself a healthy glass. Wow, it was yummy and probably set me on the path to a nap at 11:00pm.
There was good conversations with my brother in law about watches, we both love looking and talking about them, I talked with Wife's brother about how we should buy a vacation home together, but he just got back from Florida and he wants one over there, I want one waterfront, here in Texas. We were even asked about what our secret to such a long and successful relationship we've had by a new gal who showed up as best friend's to the daughter of my brother in law. Wife and I told her it's because I have been on nights for twenty two years, and now because she works three hours away, jokingly. Honestly, I think we work because we talk about everything, we don't let stuff fester too long to become a problem.
We accidentally mentioned my secret, but nobody was the wiser for it. Wife said to her cousin who was pretty much in all my classes, from Kinder until we graduated about getting me a wallet with a shark, which you know why... She looked puzzled, I mentioned that of course, you met me as a human boy and you also believe I am but the same age as you. In reality, I was a Merman for three hundred years, and I was responsible for keeping the Gulf of Mexico's shark population under control. She just made a goofy sound in disbelief, and I said good, my secret identity is safe.
All kidding aside, we rang in the New Year, I ended the old one with a 15 minute nap, and was up in time to stand next to Wife and drink her little champagne glass and eat her grapes, and even a spoonful of black eyed peas. We hung out for another hour, which I spent mostly laying down, maybe it was the alcohol, but I felt hot and sweaty, yet outside was freezing. It was comfortable in front of the fan laying on my in-law's bed. Wife woke me and we took off within a matter of minutes. I found me texting my mom at 3:30am that we were home OK. I just remember getting in the SUV and sleeping the whole way home. Everyone else was up late when we got home. They had wanted Whataburger but it was backed up a ways, so they heated up frozen pizzas and whatever else they could find. I kind of woke up and talked with Wife as she watched a show or two. She finally came to bed at 6:00am.
I was surprised to find myself driving and holding steady. Maybe because we have been sleeping so much lately, I managed to get us there without yawning once and keeping the conversation going with Wife. There was a pit stop at the HEB in New Braunfels to gas up, and gas has been coming down in cost, it was only $1.75/gallon, which was awesome for the wallet. Getting to my in-laws, it keeps getting harder and harder to find parking as everyone in the street seems to have company. We had a choice of parking between two houses about halfway in the block, or between the start of the block and the first house. I felt I was too close to the intersection, but I got through the night without a ticket.
All the food offerings were about the same as usual, starting with a hearty bowl of menudo (which I find a little gross, but everybody loves), tamales, sausages, pigs in a blanket, meatballs, cheese dip, spinach dip, some fruit trays, cookies, cake, brownies, empanadas (applebutter and pineapple), and other stuff I can't remember. The highlight was probably trying some "coquito", which I just heard about recently, but I guess everybody has their own recipe. It's got coconut, rum, and maybe milk to make it a white color, but also some spices so it isn't just a pina colada. I kept getting a little glass with less than a finger's depth to it which was annoying, just tilting it back to taste finished it, but then they put the bottle on the table and I poured myself a healthy glass. Wow, it was yummy and probably set me on the path to a nap at 11:00pm.
There was good conversations with my brother in law about watches, we both love looking and talking about them, I talked with Wife's brother about how we should buy a vacation home together, but he just got back from Florida and he wants one over there, I want one waterfront, here in Texas. We were even asked about what our secret to such a long and successful relationship we've had by a new gal who showed up as best friend's to the daughter of my brother in law. Wife and I told her it's because I have been on nights for twenty two years, and now because she works three hours away, jokingly. Honestly, I think we work because we talk about everything, we don't let stuff fester too long to become a problem.
We accidentally mentioned my secret, but nobody was the wiser for it. Wife said to her cousin who was pretty much in all my classes, from Kinder until we graduated about getting me a wallet with a shark, which you know why... She looked puzzled, I mentioned that of course, you met me as a human boy and you also believe I am but the same age as you. In reality, I was a Merman for three hundred years, and I was responsible for keeping the Gulf of Mexico's shark population under control. She just made a goofy sound in disbelief, and I said good, my secret identity is safe.
All kidding aside, we rang in the New Year, I ended the old one with a 15 minute nap, and was up in time to stand next to Wife and drink her little champagne glass and eat her grapes, and even a spoonful of black eyed peas. We hung out for another hour, which I spent mostly laying down, maybe it was the alcohol, but I felt hot and sweaty, yet outside was freezing. It was comfortable in front of the fan laying on my in-law's bed. Wife woke me and we took off within a matter of minutes. I found me texting my mom at 3:30am that we were home OK. I just remember getting in the SUV and sleeping the whole way home. Everyone else was up late when we got home. They had wanted Whataburger but it was backed up a ways, so they heated up frozen pizzas and whatever else they could find. I kind of woke up and talked with Wife as she watched a show or two. She finally came to bed at 6:00am.
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