11/30/21 Christmas Shopping Is Upon Us?

     Although Christmas is about a month away, we have started buying gifts, not that we want to, but it is kind of expected and once that ball starts rolling downhill, all we do is hold on and cry with our credit statements in January.  I wasn't sure what direction to take this year, some years we have just decided not to get all crazy and just buy gifts for the kids.  I like that idea, it's not like someone is going to give me something I wouldn't just go out and get if I needed it, but that is a little too Ebenezer Scrooge of me.  The one thing that got us going is that we went to the mall, Baby A was hanging out on Saturday, we dropped him off around 2:00pm, they were going to walk around and then watch a movie.  We were trying to give him his space, but once it got dark, we had no other place to go to, so we headed to the mall ourselves and that got Wife's swiping (credit card swiping) hand going.

    I always also hesitate on the first gift because it sets the tone for the rest of the gifts.  If I spend $300 on Mom, Wife does the same, then we have to keep it close for the dads and so on and so forth.  If I spend $100 (on mom's gift), the same idea, but then my shitty siblings make fun of me for being cheap.  The one year I did that I was following her cue, she always says "just buy me a bathrobe or pajamas..." I think it was last year or two years ago that I did that (nice ones from Dillard's, but still) and everybody made fun of me, well, my siblings, on how cheap I had become.  So this keeps me on my toes and I know my limits.

    Without really discussing it, Wife looked at some purses, and I just said "that one has colors that reminds me of how mom dresses, I'll take it"  Wife pretty much chose the one next to it, and then we continued with her sisters and mine, and on and on.  I think I'm just getting a bag of pecans for my dad, he says he loved it when I sent him a bag for his birthday or Father's Day.

    Baby A is really hard to shop for, he is not materialistic like Boy is.  If I ask Boy, he will pull out his Amazon wish list that he has on him at all times (everything from books to pens to 3D printers can be on the list), the other Knucklehead frets and worries that we are being foolish with our money and will remain vague.  I think a friend or two have gotten the new X Box because he did finally say he wanted one, if we could find one.  They seem almost impossible to find, we tried Best Buy, Target, Walmart, but nobody is really going to have it at the normal retail price.  We did find it online at something crazy like $1300, with a game, but that sucks.  I don't know if we'll get it, but it's not like he asks for much, so when he finally asks, I like to deliver.

11/29/21 New Generation Does Not Enjoy Our Old Movies?

     Baby A says I am 1 for 9 as far as choosing old movies to watch.  We keep going back, I want him to be aware of movies I thought were entertaining and had some pop culture significance but this boy so far is not impressed.  Last night we tried watching Stripes, which I thought was very funny when I was about his age.  It was nice that they had the gratuitous nudity for no real reason, but even that did not do much to sway him.  He thought the characters were shitty, specially the Bill Murray character, John, who our son looked like a person who would not get away with any if his shit in the real world.  I kept telling him, in my lame excuse to let the characters slide a bit, that these were the comedians of the 80s, so just seeing John Candy on screen already would start a smile on your face, anything he did, would then be seen as comedy.  I guess without this background knowledge, their antics just seem a little desperate or something.

    We didn't even finish watching Poltergeist a couple weeks ago as he complained that nothing was happening, and I had to agree with him, I remember it being a whole lot more intense, but all we saw was a whole lot of talking and bad special effects.  It was almost comical when the tree was eating the son.  I know that special effects were still new back then and they have come a long way, but still, they did not leave an impression on our grumpy boy.  We offered to finish watching the movie over Thanksgiving break but he said what for, it's just so boring?

    He is still mad about Top Gun saying that is the worst thing he has ever seen, except for maybe Fast Times At Ridgemont High might be worse, with a bunch of shitty kids doing nothing.  I am almost scared to suggest any other movies as he just ruins my childhood classics with his "meh, it was ok, I guess."  Goonies was a dud, he did say the first Back To The Future was good, as well as Big Trouble in Little China.

    I feel like I have to pull out the big guns, something like Django Unchained, or Dusk Til Dawn.  I don't think he can complain about a good Tarantino movie.  I personally was not impressed by the gangster movies, but I guess we can try the Godfather, or Casino, or Goodfellas.  If that doesn't work, I am going all the way back to Casablanca and Gone With The Wind.  It can't all be Marvel and DC movies, that shit gets old with the save the world theme.

    He did like Constantine which we saw last night, but he said I didn't come up with that, he gave the credit to Wife for suggesting it.  I swear he just likes to mess with me.

11/28/21 Housing Is Out Of Control Here In Austin?

     Yesterday was a fairly chill day for us, the only thing going on was Baby A planned on meeting his friends at the mall and he really didn't want us there babysitting him, so we dropped him off and then left.  We had no plans and eventually ended up driving around and I decided to go look at some houses, mostly because Boy insists that he is getting ready to go out and buy one.  Last week I had made a run and looked at some houses, I really liked this community about 5 miles away going south on I-35 and then turning where the toll road meets the freeway a couple miles away.  The one I really liked was Meritage Homes, which are known to make higher end homes, I don't want Mijo buying some crappy house and then regretting his purchase.  These houses start closer to $350,000, even if the online adds mentioned from the $300's.  

    As much as this seemed expensive, I was a little taken aback by the house prices in the huge community across the freeway from Cabela's.  It is a huge master planned community, I have a friend who lives in there and I like this community too, but we stopped last night and talked to two of the builders and the prices were from the mid $450's for the smaller ones we could see were already built to the other builder saying he didn't have any available but when they do get some ready to offer, they sell from the $550's to $650's.  There is nothing really special about these houses other than they are in the Austin area and the sales lady even seemed a bit apologetic agreeing with me when I said the prices were crazy.  She said these same houses were selling from the $200's in 2019, but the market had exploded, so their prices were just keeping up with what the market demanded.

    I want to think that this is a bubble but then we hear Samsung is breaking ground on a new $17 billion dollar fab and Tesla will be running in the coming year in their new plant in Del Valle making batteries for their electric cars and I just don't see prices coming down for any reason.

    One of the salesmen did throw out an idea that I hadn't considered, and I am not sure I want to, but it might be a way for Boy to get into a house.  We refinance our house and take out $30,000-$40,000 to help with his down payment.  I don't know that I would like to do this, but I do want to see Mijo succeed and start out his new life as he approaches his 30's.  We shall see, he needs to get real serious, not spend his weekends entertaining the girlfriend at the Renfest and Dallas and then spend the weeknights telling us how he really wants to get a house.  I need to see some sacrifices on his end.

11/27/21 Food Prices?

     Wow, I am starting to notice the higher cost of things in the store.  I'm a little perturbed, not exactly shocked, we have been aware of prices steadily climbing up and it is who's guess when something will make the prices turn down.  I really haven't gone for a "fill the basket, spend $300-$400 shopping spree in a couple months, since Baby A has been busy with classes and Wife gets home late, we are eating out a lot more, not that the food is any better, but it is convenient, I guess.

    This morning I figured I would go get some things to start the week, plus I really like to grill and I don't feel like we have eaten much "meat" in the past week.  Between pizzas, sandwiches, the turkey meal and corresponding leftovers, there hasn't been a real chance of just grilling some fajitas and enjoying some fat tacos.  The first shocker was Wife had asked for Q-tips, I saw them in the big baskets as you walk in the store and I said get those, although I though $4.99 was a bit much.  I wasn't planning on getting much, so I said OK and kept on going.  The next thing to get my attention was the Cheetos, I usually throw in a bag or two, Mijo loves himself some Cheetos and I do too, but the regular bag was $3.88.  That is really too much for a bag of chips.  Yes, I could afford them, but I can't buy them on principle.

    Another big shocker was the bacon.  I usually grab this big pack from Oscar Mayer, I am not saying it is the best but it gives you the most slices and we use it to make our jalapeno bombers, wrapping half a jalapeno with a slice of Mexican cheese, I hadn't noticed the price, so it didn't bother me before, maybe it was $7.  It was something like $10.86, which seems like a lot for a pack of bacon.  I am already avoiding the fancy steaks like rib-eyes and T-bones, not to mention the briskets, but it is only going to get worse.  

    I still got my fajitas, at a cost of like $23 for a pack of 2.2 pounds, which sounds excessive.  I am supplementing the meal with some sausages, chicken thighs, and some other cheap cut of beef which works on the grill.  I'm not really "crying" about the cost, we will still be able to eat even if prices get a lot crazier, but what do people on fixed incomes or low incomes do if this does last another 3-4 years, yes I blame the idiot president, even if I am wrong.  It kind of sucks, but even if these people suffer the most, they are the ones that will continue to line up and vote blue, so they are almost asking for the pain.

    What do I know though?  Oh well, I will enjoy my BBQ to the best of my ability.

11/26/21 Early Thanksgiving At My In-Law's?

     Thanksgiving has come and gone and all I am left with is a gassy reminder of some delicious food.  We got together earlier than normal so Boy could make it back to Austin before the sun went down.  He was technically "on call", although I am not sure what that meant, the few times I was "on call" I had to stay in town in case I needed to go in to work.  But anyways, we left the house around 10:45am and got there by 12:30am.  The traffic was about as light as it has been since Covid had everybody really scared and stuck at home.  We managed to drive around 80 most of the way which makes the trip go by fast.  It was nice to have the four of us together in the car, much like old times, even if the boys do both put in headphones and play their video games as soon as we take off.

    In the past, the meal has been a crowded affair with Wife's siblings all showing up along with a cousin or two, but this year, her brother and his thousand kids did not show, he was working and wouldn't be out until after 6:00pm.  The older sister and her husband and their part of the family was there, along with the younger sister, her man, and their two boys were there and then my mother and father in law.  The food was good, as it always is, my younger brother in law is a BBQ master, he is outside grilling every time we go, and this time he smoked a smaller turkey which was probably the best tasting thing I ate yesterday.  The stuffing was equally as good, and of course the desserts all kicked ass.

    Although we were all there together, it felt like a disjointed meal, the older sister and her part of the family (hubby, step daughter, her hubby, and her 2 kids) all ate in the family room, we ate at the big formal table with Wife's parents, and then the younger sister and her family (hubby, older son, his girlfriend, younger son) ate at the secondary table in the living room.  It was fine, it just wasn't hectic like it usually is with people running in and out at the last minute.

    We probably ate before 1:00pm, and were out the door by 3:30pm.  I have learned not to fight my urges, Wife is as good a driver as I am, so I let her take the wheel.  I managed to stay awake for about 20 minutes, but was out before we got on I-35.  I woke up just as we were about to get into Austin, I love that, missing the whole long boring part.  We got home as it was getting dark, Boy ran in, got his overnight bag, and left to his girlfriend's house.  I think that was his real hurry to be back in town early, but whatever.

    We were in the house before 6:00pm and all I managed to do the rest of the night was nap, fart, and watch Tiktoks.  I was even too full to snack later in the evening, even with a whole bag of leftover turkey and sides.  It was a good day.

11/25/21 Did A Reboot Yesterday?

     I think Wednesday was finally our first day of really resting, with no agendas or things to get us out the door.  I thought we were going to rest on Tuesday after we got back from visiting my folks, but Wife lined up a delivery of the small blankets she picks up once a month at 10:30am.  Although I didn't really want to go, I also did not have a good excuse not to, other than I would have preferred to just lay around.  I had gotten up at 6:00am, thinking it was a free day, and just when I was thinking "time to go nap, Wife likes to sleep until noon when she is off", she comes down the stairs dressed and ready to leave.  Once we picked up the blankets, it turned into "let's go get our pies for Thanksgiving, Central Market is on the way."  It made sense, but it also lengthened the trip.  I could not miss out on going to the store next door, they sell all sorts of cool gadgets and bags, which I like finding stocking stuffers for the boys there.

    We got our pies and then headed home, which then Baby A wanted to go looking around Best Buy, maybe he would get lucky and find one of the new X Boxes.  Best Buy did not have any, Walmart supposedly had 15, but they were being saved for Black Friday, I guess they still like a crowd on the verge of killing each other to save a buck.  We gave up on the idea and came back home. Wife managed to buy some stuff for dinner and burgers to make on Wednesday.

    Getting back to our reboot yesterday, we didn't do anything other than I did go pick up Mijo's friends and then drop them off, but around that, I mostly just napped, ate junk food, grilled the burgers and napped some more.  Wife was not much better, she was already not feeling her best (you know, that time...), so she barely even left the room, which if anybody needs some time off, it is her.  

    I hate to say it, but here we go again.  I got up at 8:00am and already feel like we are running behind schedule.  For whatever reason, Wife says we are leaving at 10:30am to San Antonio, I drank my one cup of coffee with some toasted sweet bread from Central Market and now it is already 9:30am.  I just got the annoying yell from upstairs that she is out of the shower, which is basically "get your ass in gear and come and poop and stuff so we can leave..."  goddammit, I hate always being on some mental schedule to appease others.  Rare is the day when we can just sit around and really just chill.

    Oh well, maybe tomorrow can be another lazy day.  We don't really do the whole Black Friday shopping, people get too stupid and aggressive to save a buck or two, fuck that.  That is my second warning, she just screamed to the boys so they can wake up, so I guess I will go do as I am told or I might not get any turkey.  Happy Thanksgiving Y'all.

11/24/21 Why Don't Celebrities Shut The F*ck Up?

     Mark Twain said it best "It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt."  With celebrities especially, we tend to invest our emotions and side with you when we see you on the big screen, specially when you play a hero and we want to believe that yes, you are just a person, but you embody the qualities of the characters you play.  I am sorry, but in this new world we find ourselves in, I can't play ignorant and keep cheering for the men behind the heroes on screen.  The latest sci-fi hero turned dud is The Mandalorian, with Pedro Pascal coming out in support against Kyle Rittenhouse.  I could forgive him when/if he shot his load prematurely and let his emotions out before knowing the full details of the situation, that is what non-thinking reactionary people do.  There is a guy on Youtube, Donut Operator, an ex-officer, he came out initially describing the situation as Kyle belonging to a militia organization as the main stream media wanted to pain him as, but once he viewed the evidence, he changed his opinion and decided that Kyle did indeed acted in self defense.  This even happened with very left leaning Young Turks, Anna Kasparian, another Youtube show that does lean to the left, but the cohost did admit to finally seeing the evidence and agreeing with the rational side and saying it was self defense.  Pedro, is sticking to his guns, now that the trial is over, he still sends his condolences to the two heroes on the left that were "murdered" by Kyle, apparently as Kyle "hunted them down. (that is what the left seems to believe)."

    I felt this same way about Mark Ruffalo who is very left leaning, he plays Bruce Banner, the alter ego to the Hulk, in the Marvel universe and because of his ignorant shit, I can't sit and enjoy those movies, it doesn't help that Ironman was killed in the last one, which was a great point to jump off that sinking ship.  I am sorry, but you don't just represent yourself, you also speak for the worlds you help create, unfortunately, you are part of the face of whatever franchise you belong to, you can say what you want, don't be surprised when you lose half your fans in this age where we are being forced to stand on one side or the other of the line drawn in the sand.  

    It has to be ego that makes these geniuses pipe up because they could just make their millions and not take a side, then we wouldn't have anything to object to.  You play make believe for a living, none of us think you are necessarily smart, same with Lebron James who is ultra rich because he can bounce a ball, not because he is a scholar.  Stop weighing in on everything, at least wait until the facts are known, y'all are coming across like buffoons. 

11/23/21 Visiting My Parent's?

     There never seems to be enough time to just detach from our obligations, but I guess we do the best we can.  Wrestling kept us busy Friday and Saturday, honestly, it is Tuesday and I am still a little beat from that big event.  Still, we got up Sunday morning and after a bit, drove ourselves down to Crystal City to visit my parents and siblings.  I honestly love visiting with my family, I just don't like being out of my own environment.  We have three bathrooms, for example, in our house (one dedicated for Wife and my fat butt), but over there, we all have to share the one.  If that isn't bad enough, even my siblings who both live next door and behind my mom's house will also hang out and fight for time in the one bathroom.  Then of course, I sleep somewhere between the bed and my recliner, splitting time on both.  I love sleeping in bed, but my back will hurt after awhile, then I switch to the recliner and it feels better, but I do like laying down on a bed more, so I keep going back and forth.  I can't really do that over there, so I wake up with a sore back.

    Other than those little inconveniences, the trip was fine.  My brother's boy wanted to light a fire Sunday night, they got back around 6:30pm, we had arrived around 4:00pm, they had gone to San Antonio to buy a new vehicle, he got a nice loaded Tahoe.  There was a little pissing and moaning when they arrived, as it was his kid's idea to make a fire (it is a newish thing they do, to hang outside in the evenings), but my brother was still pissed that we hadn't started anything.  I have no idea where they even keep the firewood, I think my brother bought a cord of wood which he keeps in his shed, but they were also pulling firewood from all over the yard, so I wasn't sure what was happening.  They also argued over the wood not being cut small enough to light, I just joked "where do you put the pellets in this grill?"  I don't mess around like this, I rely on my pellet grill to light a fire outside.  Once they got it going, it was a pretty good time until it got late and we started feeling the cold, it got cool at night.

    I got up early Monday, around 8:00am, and we just kind of sat around most of the day drinking coffee and eating.  About the time my mom finished making the cake, Baby A started getting fidgety that he wanted to come home to study.  We then ended up leaving by 3:00pm.  We were probably home by 6:30pm, which was good considering the horrible traffic which just makes me feel bad for Wife who is stuck in that every day.

    Although it was a quick visit, my mom and dad are supposed to come up in a week or two to watch our boy in one of his wrestling matches, so we will see.  It is one thing to wrestle, but even being a spectator requires a sort of fitness or one could pull a muscle just sitting there all day.

11/22/21 Our Baby Turned 17?

     Time seems to drag forever on the day to day BS, but the years somehow seem to come on fast.  I still remember Baby A as a little Buckethead husky little hunk of ham and now he is mostly a man with his hairy chest and overly developed sense of maturity.  We are still kind of recovering from the first wrestling tournament and there amongst so much testosterone and teen energy, our boy fits in perfectly.  Last year he still felt awkward and would not wear the singlet, the little outfit wrestlers wear but he said he was ready and he looked as good as 245 pounds of mostly muscle can look in a super tight outfit, the heaviest possible wrestlers are in his category (up to 285 pounds), but he caries himself well for a beefy lineman.

    He is not all brawn as he seems to keep reminding us.  I like to make little jokes with him along with his brother that he is our knuckle dragging Muscle to which he always says "F*ck Y'all (we playfully cuss all the time, not in anger), I am also taking college classes and still have an above 3.5 GPA."  Mijo is getting it done right, I can't say I would change much about him.  He is a very serious person, has already developed a lot of personal self control and discipline.  I can't really even get him to eat Halloween candies from the snack bowl, he is always in training mode, this is not a kid I worry will go out and get drunk behind our backs.

    He has already turned into a leader at his school, which seemed to come naturally for him.  I thought for a Junior the responsibility came on a little early, but he works hard in the gym and I think the other kids notice and that makes them look up to him.  He was deemed the captain of the linemen during football and he is the leader now of the wrestling team, mostly because he is the only returner from last year's team, so he has that much more experience than most of the other boys.  It was cool to see him holding court and seeing most of the team follow him around throughout the day as he went out of his way to go and cheer for the other wrestlers on his team and consoling them after their matches.

    His birthday was a little bit of a mixed bag, we went down to my folks Sunday afternoon, his birthday was Monday, but since he got a little nervous that he had to test for one of college classes, he put a little pressure on us to come home early.  We then did not wait for the family to assemble like normal, people were busy during the day, but my mom still baked him a pineapple upside down cake and we sang him Happy Birthday.  He knows we all love him, he'll probably get another Happy Birthday sung to him on Thursday at my in-law's house before or after we eat turkey.  I think he has decided he wants a PS5, so that's something to go out and buy him, which seems like a rarity, he hardly asks for any material things.  Love you Mijo, Happy Birthday.

11/21/21 Capitol Classic (Parent's Perspective)?

     If anything, we learned that we are not in good enough shape to even watch one of these wrestling tournaments that go on for multiple days.  I think there was a lot of lack of good control and the venue was too small for the amount of kids involved.  We could have sat down but there were really two gyms (three rings in one, two in the other) being used and any kid could wrestle in any ring, so we couldn't just sit in front of one ring and wait.  The way wrestling seems to work, based on what we saw last year and so far this year is they start off with the lightest weight and work themselves up the 14 weight classes (106, 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 145, 152, 160, 170, 182, 195, 220, 285).  I asked the coach to check and with the boys, they only allow one player per weight class for each team, so our son, for example is the team's 285 wrestler.  It kind of sucks that he is in that weight class because it is such a large range.  He weighs 245, but can easily find himself fighting someone weighing 285, 40 pounds of mass is a huge difference compared to the lighter classes that only range 7-12 pounds.  His lineman buddy also weighs above 220, so is the JV heavyweight.  The girls have a hard enough time filling their weight classes, so they don't have a JV, but will allow multiple girls for a particular weight class.

    As far as my comment on being in shape, if we wanted to actually see a match, we had to move with the team and stand around the ring or we were not going to be able to see over all the standing kids.  Because we are starting to get to know the kids better, from football and some of them coming over to the house, we are invested enough that we want to see them fight and support them, I still hate that the rest of the parents don't come and support their kids, but I get it with this sport, it is a little violent.  All this standing around and constantly moving I think is what left us so beat and sore.  We were constantly going from back to the bleachers to the other gym to watch a match, then back to sitting for twenty minutes, to down on the floor to watch a match there in front of us.  The bleachers from afar looked puffy and comfortable, but they were worse than concrete.  They were almost too narrow and the plastic had no give, and they were shallow, so my knees were up high and it was a struggle to stand every time.  We have really nice bleacher sits with backs but they need to catch under the normal metal stadium seats and with these plastic crap, that was not possible, so we couldn't even use them for help.

    We were there until 11:00pm Friday night, our son probably fought his one match about 9:30pm that first night.  We then had to deliver him to the meet at 7:15am even though they didn't start until 9:00am, which they didn't say or we might have slept in another hour.  The meet ended about 6:00pm, we picked up chicken, came home, and I must have fallen asleep in my living room sofa by 7:00pm and did not wake until 10:30pm.  I managed to pee, then walk upstairs and fall right back to sleep.  I woke at twelve thinking I had slept into the middle of the night, only to find it was about the normal time we go to bed.

    I can't imagine how Mijo is feeling, he took a beating yesterday, fighting three times in one day.  We are sleeping today until both Wife and him wake up, Wife got home Friday after putting in a full day and going directly to the meet and being there until 11:00pm then doing it again on Saturday.  Some of these kids have parents who probably don't even work and they can't show up to support?  There were a handful of parents there though, and that was nice.  It was also nice that strangers come up to us after our son wrestles and we I was told a couple of times that they have seen our son wrestle and they like what he does on the mat, that he fights with confidence.  That is what I like to hear, almost makes the beating I took worthwhile 😀.  I kid, These moments will pass by too quickly, I am just happy we can be involved and show Mijo we are there with him, the soreness is temporary.

11/20/21 Capitol Classic 2021 (Wrestling)?

     The start of wrestling season finally happened this past Friday and it was an exciting explosive event full of ups and downs for the Coogs who returned with a mostly brand new team and coaching staff.  Last year, because of Covid, the team was decimated and consisted of about 3 guys and 3 girls, but one of the boys disappeared early in the season, so it was mostly Baby A as a new recruit and the experienced senior who did manage to go to the state tournament.  This season, there are about 45 kids total, so the energy level is completely different as a whole crew of kids is hanging around to support each other.  I love that our boy was able to recruit a couple of his friends, so we even know a handful of other boys now and even more were coming over and talking with us as we acted as the team parents, sitting with them and offering them moral support and plenty of snacks.

    The Capitol Classic is a yearly tournament as some of the people were talking about it and there were something like forty school participating.  Wife saw names from as far away as Uvalde and as intriguing as the School for the Deaf participating.  I only wish there was more separation between football and wrestling season, some of the kids are still healing from broken bones suffered in football and they are trying to heal to go at it for wrestling, which in many cases is more violent than football, and many people think football is excessive.

    As I walked in Friday afternoon, I saw Mijo's close friend on mat 2 finishing his match with a win as the other guy took him down, but they rolled over and somehow our guy ended up on top and got the pin.  How much more exciting can it be than walking in to action like that.  It was so packed in the gym, which had three rings that it seemed like half the kids were just standing around.  It took a minute to find my boy, but he was walking around supporting his teammates, it was still the JV kids going, so our son hadn't even started.  This made me feel better that Wife wouldn't miss Mijo's fights, but it also meant we were there for a long night, and man, was it.

    Wrestling is different from football in that one can win or lose during these tournaments, they don't affect ranking for district, that all happens during that particular set of meets, starting in February.  There is a long way to go before then and the team is going to need to get as much experience as possible.

    Speaking of experience, Baby A went 2-2, he won two matches and lost 2 matches.  He got most excited for his first loss, to a big boy that looked very much like an experienced warrior.  He did a weird pinning of his arms, when Mijo tried going under into his armpits to try and knock him down.  He clenched his arms tight and locked in our son, then he tumbled backwards and our boy just tumbled along with him and before he know it, he was on his back and it was over.  As soon as the ref, lifted the other guys hand, it was funny, our son was talking to the wrestler like a close friend, "Hey, show me how you did that move!" They were still on the mat instead of moving on, and the other kid was friendly enough and showed him what he did, it was cool to see the respect and exchange of knowledge like that.  He then had him on the side amongst the crowds of kids talking about it and doing it a couple more times.  I don't think our son cared that he lost, he was excited about the chance to learn a new move.  His first match , which was his first win was won by points and could have gone either way, the kid was experienced and I am sure we had seen him last year at the district meet.  It is weird how in the six minutes they wrestle, 3 rounds of 2 minutes each, they can exert themselves so hard and leave themselves barely with enough strength to get up.

    The guy that pinned him with the weird move came in 2nd place, and the other guy that beat him, was also by points and that match could have gone either way, Mijo made a bold move towards the end of the match to try and make something happen and get a point and the other guy took advantage and flipped him down when he lost his balance.  This kid fought for third place, but lost.  I fully believe our son belonged up there, in the top 5 in his weight class.  I don't know the exact count, but with forty schools there, there were at least 20 boys in his weight class, I would have thought, it was so confusing to follow.

11/19/21 I am On Vacation?

     It seemed like a long time coming, but I am officially on Thanksgiving break.  I like that this holiday has slowly grown from a 4 day weekend to a whole week off.  I remember when I started working back when we were AMD, I didn't even take the days off.  Back when I started I wanted to make as much money as possible, so working through the holiday meant all sorts of holiday pay plus time and half for working on the two days considered holidays.  It would kick start the holiday shopping by giving us a big fat check with extra money.  Nowadays, I am not so focused on that idea anymore, I guess I have gotten older and not to mention, Wife makes more money, so I don't really stress or ask for overtime anymore.  I don't think I have even worked overtime other than 1 day when I was asked to help cover one weekend we got backed up in like 3 years.

    As much as I have a week off, I don't know how relaxing it will be.  We start tonight and Saturday with a wrestling tournament, the first one of the season.  Baby A is walking around the house right now (around 8:00am) trying to round up his singlet (wrestling outfit), headgear, shoes, towels, and anything else that might help him get through the day.  It is a bit disorganized in that it was supposed to be in one facility but it was moved last night.  After this, we are going to my mom's for a couple days, to visit and celebrate Mijo's 17th birthday on the 22nd.  Hopefully, we get some rest in our house on Tuesday and Wednesday, we have to be back, Mijo has a test in an ACC class, they are not off for the week, like AISD.  Thursday we are going to my in-law's for the day and hopefully we can just chill Friday and the rest of the weekend, although Mijo has already said he wants to go to the mall with his friends on Saturday, to hang out and watch a movie, so that will require some more scheduling and running around.

    Still, it will be nice, Wife hasn't had any time off since starting at her new job in San Antonio, so she is really looking forward to disconnecting from reality for awhile and just be lazy in warm-ups and no getting up at 5:00am.  Boy will be around, but he is where I was twenty years ago.  He is going to work or be on call on Thanksgiving.  He has the phone they call if someone needs to go into the office on Thanksgiving afternoon, so we will go eat early in San Antonio, but he needs to be back early, before 3:00pm I think, so he can be on call here close by.  He will be working the rest of the week, Monday through Wednesday, as far as I know.

    I like this time of year, after going back to work, it is just three weeks and I get another hopefully two weeks off for Christmas and New Year's.  I am still unsure because I have gotten the time off the last couple years, I am supposed to let others in my group have first shot at taking the time off, someone needs to be available to work.

11/18/21 Boy Is Getting Ready To Leave The Nest?

     I know it's time and if this was 5-7 years ago I would be finding ways to slow the process down, but Boy is quickly approaching his 30's, so it makes sense that he wants to set out and buy his own house.  The only problem is that we live in Austin and the housing market is really not helpful for a starting out young person trying to make it on their own.  The median house price is now closer to $500,000, so the possibility of finding something in the $200,000's is almost impossible, unless he wants a "beater" house that is going to require extensive work, to that we say no.  We were discussing his finances and he thinks between his girlfriend and him they could possibly afford something close to $2000 a month.  This probably puts them in a house around $300,000.  This might be possible, if they move quickly and probably look out around Kyle or Buda.  I doubt anything in Austin is going to be in that price range.

    I went out, really to the next major exit point past Slaughter, that is where toll road 45 connects with I-35 and there is a new community that just opened out there.  It seems like a good spot, go out one side and the toll road is right there, or pop out the other way and you can be on I-35 in two minutes or so.  I really like that the builder is Meritage Homes and I have always liked them, they were voted best house builder a few times in a row when we were shopping for our house, so they know what they are doing.  I liked how the community is laid out, the terrain is a little hilly so it is possible to have some decent views, if you pick out the right lot.  I went out alone mostly because I am free during the day, but I want to scout what is out there to help Boy if he is really ready to do this.  I was a little set back by the saleslady, nowadays you need to schedule a visit, which I did, but even though the online information said the houses started from around $317,000, she was quick to say that houses really started from the $350,000s.  This starts becoming harder to do, and the longer he waits, the prices will only keep climbing.

    This really kind of sucks for any new home buyer, we bought our house in 2007, for $340,000, but it is a 4000 sq ft beast of a house.  These houses being sold for $350,000 are barely the size of our first house, around 1200 sq ft.  The size is fine, I guess, for a young couple, but they certainly are not getting the same bang for their buck that we did.  Still, if the markets keep doing what they are doing, maybe if he buys this house, in 5-10 years, he will have enough equity and be able to sell this house and move into something bigger with a good chunk of money from the sale of this first house.

11/17/21 We Can Defend Ourselves, Right?

     The Kyle Rittenhouse trial has been ongoing for about two weeks and it must really be a slow news week because this has been center stage for too long.  Still, the people sitting on the left refuse to actually watch the trial and learn the actual details, instead choosing to comment based on soundbites.  I get this because I used to do the same thing, you hear 1-2 things, such as Boy telling me in a condescending tone that I don't understand supply chain issues and that is why things are more expensive now, based on the BS being told to us by the media, there is no way he would have "supply chain issues" in his dialogue otherwise.

    I remember when Rittenhouse first made headlines and I followed along, with cameras everywhere today, we quickly got to see what happened that night, not just opinions and lies, but actual video of the shootings.  It was apparent last August and it is apparent now, that the videos show Kyle running away from the first man, Rosenbaum.  If you read the CNN story, it alleges Rittenhouse pointed his gun at Rosenbaum, that was not shown on video, I am guessing CNN was trying to paint a picture.  Rosenbaum, turns out had a lengthy criminal past, including 11 child molestation charges, with a host of boys aged 5-11.  He had just been released from a mental facility that morning, but somehow needed to be in the center of all the mayhem and destruction going on in Kenosha, why?  The second person shot by Rittenhouse, Huber, was not as bad, he didn't rape little boys, but he did like to do a little domestic abuse and had been charged with a strangulation violation.  Grosskruetz also has a lengthy criminal past, but I guess those are the heroes people on the left look up to.

    What do people think would happen, let's say Rittenhouse didn't have his rifle, and Rosenbaum did catch him when he chased him into the parking lot.  That animal liked fucking little boys, he might have raped him and made his conquest a solid dozen.  I say good riddance to bad trash.  If he didn't want to get shot, he should have maybe not ran after a guy with a rifle.  The same can be said of Huber, CNN tried to paint him as a hero, and to them he probably is, but do heroes run up on people who are running away and smack them with a skateboard?  We can clearly see that this happened after Rittenhouse fell to the ground as he is being chased by a mob.  If Kyle was interested in just killing, he would have just opened fire on anyone in his rear, but he showed tremendous discipline with the gun.  It was only when he was on the ground, had been kicked by another coward, hit on the head by a skateboard and then Huber tried to disarm him that Huber was fed a single round to the abdomen, the hard way.  Grosskruetz has to be kind of a stupid guy or really honest because I heard his testimony and he admitted that Kyle did not shoot him until he pointed his own gun at him and moved toward him.  My brother at the time, showed me in his typical sarcastic way how Grosskruetz could not even let go of his gun as when the bicep was shot off, his fingered stayed locked around the handgun, so he could not discard it and there are pictures to show he had a gun and not a phone pointed at Kyle.

    I kind of loved the jokes that came out of this trial, such as you can't shoot into a lefty crowd and not hit a criminal.  The people on the streets in those awful nights that did not seem to want to end is pretty much the worst we have in society, those looking to destroy what others have worked hard to create.  They were out there for the sole reason of burning and looting.  If it was racially motivated, Kyle would have killed at least one black person, but as we kept seeing over and over, the huge BLM crowds of last summer were mostly angry troubled white dudes, whether Antifa or not, I don't think any employers were missing any workers come Monday morning.  These jackals aren't the type who work or contribute positively to society.  Why does CNN continue to praise these monsters?

11/16/21 Optional Showers?

     I thought athletes had to shower in high school, but I guess I was wrong.  Mijo now has to contend with wrestling practice in the mornings on some days (it is a real pain in the ass, as I have to drive him to school at 6:30am).  Along with the super early wake up calls, there is the fact that they will sweat and get funky.  I assumed that like in the movies, they jump in the showers and go about their day.  Our boy is not cool with public nudity, I was not either, but to each their own.  It turns out almost none of these boys like to drop down to their birthday suits, save for 1-2 boys that are just letting it all hang out.

    It is a little comical, when we give a ride after practice, in the evenings, they can't seem to let go of the topic, We have three boys in the car and none of them apparently want to shower either, but there is one kid, let's call him Johnny.  The first time it happened, our son said he was totally caught by surprise, he said boys have taken showers before, but they'll leave their underwear on. I added "that has to be uncomfortable, to walk around with wet underwear", my son said "it's better than not showering at all and ehh, we just wrap a towel around us for a bit and that absorbs most of the water."  Johnny came out wrapped in a towel, so my son thought he must have his underwear on, but then he unwrapped and Mijo thought "oh shit!" and just looked away all uncomfortably.  The friends we were giving rides to said the same thing.  Mijo says he now just stares straight into his locker while changing, he does not want to see any loose body parts, if you know what I mean.

    Last night is now over a week of this, and they were saying that now Johnny is real comfortable, not even bothering with a towel, and coming over to talk to them.  There was a weird exchange with our boy in that the kid brought over his soap, with just his towel on and told him to smell the soap it smells real good, but he dropped the soap I guess "accidentally" in front of Mijo who then proceeded to be polite and pick it up.  My only thought was "Hey Dummy, that bar of soap has been on his dick and he probably ran it like a credit card in his ass crack, tell him to scram."  He said he was only curious because it was those Star Wars soaps that have been coming out in commercials on TikTok as he realized I was probably right.

    They were talking in the car that they will have to have an intervention and tell him to cut it out and cover his shit up.  I still think these stinky asses should all be showering, specially if they have to go about their day afterwards.

11/15/21 When Did I Become The House Cook?

     I will agree that I was having fun the past year when I started cooking daily for Baby A and myself on the pellet grill.  We would eat some sort of steak or even burgers, but I was technically "grilling", so I enjoyed the effort and output.  Fast forward to now, and at the moment my grill is down, the control panel must have given out, it turns on and then whimpers to a stop and fires up for a few seconds, sounding like it has a short.  I did act proactively and ordered a new control panel, it was $60.  I guess it is not guaranteed to solve my problems, but if it does, it would be much cheaper to spend the $60 than to go buy a new grill at a cost of $500-$600.  The part came in and I tried replacing it, but I got some new weird errors, so I decided to wait until I had some free time to really focus on it.  In the meantime, life goes on.  I started using the charcoal grill again and that can work fine, if you got time and plan a cookout accordingly.  I don't like having to time my cooking around the 2-3 hours the fire lasts from a bag of charcoal.  With the pellet grill, it is just fire it up and the temperature stays consistent as long as it has pellets in the hopper.

    Friday, I felt like making ribs, it had been awhile since we ate them and I figured I could have dinner ready before Wife and Mijo got done with their day.  Instead of making the ribs outside as I would have over the last year, I thought I would try making them inside, to see the difference between grilled and oven cooking.  The ribs turned out very different from what I normally do.  Outside on the grill, the taste is very much grilled, but they also tend to come out dry, but I like them the way they come out.  The ribs from the grill were moist, I wrapped them in foil and even added a little water before I sealed them with brown sugar and other spices.  They were delicious, My biggest critic, Baby A, said they were the best ribs I had made, which was a bit of a stab from the little Shit, because I was saying I prefer to use my grill, he doesn't care as long as food is cooked.

    I then followed Friday night with chili and cornbread on Saturday.  I thought it would be a good meal, considering it was supposed to be cool.  The day was warner than anticipated, but we ate the chili at night, so it still worked out great, specially because we saw Shang-Chi, that new Marvel movie, it was pretty good, on Disney.

    Monday night, Wife had a late meeting at work, so we planned subs and that is what I ate, Wife ended up eating on the road since she got home late, Baby A ate sandwiches, but he didn't use the fancy bread I bought, he just used generic bread.  For tonight (writing this on Tuesday), I bought the stuff to make Spaghetti but Wife said again, she has a meeting, this time with the booster club for the wrestling team.  She suggested I could make the spaghetti and they can eat it as leftovers, I can make it for my lunch.  This almost seems like a slow set up in which I will be making all the meals in the future, since I am home during the day.  Fuck, I need to get myself working on dayshift.

11/14/21 What Happened To Our Leisure Activities?

     Are we so directly tied to what our kids do that they define how our lives go?  Back when Boy was the center of our universe, when he was in high school and coming up, he wanted to learn things, to put things together and to experience life through a certain "thinking man's" perspective.  This is turn meant we were going to the bookstores a lot, we even talked about going to libraries, and I was seriously interested in buying tools and knowing their purpose.  He has gone on and built his 3D printer room, gotten his engineering degree (99% of the way there), and still is in that life, he wants to know how things work and he spends his money on books and stuff.

    Fast forward from there, and Baby A is not that guy.  He is a smart kid too, but his interests are very much sports related, so we haven't gone to a bookstore in about two years, he has zero to no interest in any types of tools, and is generally only excited when I talk about getting some new piece of sports equipment, such as when we got the squat rack awhile back.  These two boys could not be more different in how they spend their free time.

    I keep wanting a boat, I know it's a tired song, but the reality is that with his schedule, we couldn't fit time to enjoy it, even if I went out of Wife's gaze and bought one behind her back.  Football just ended and I thought that took all our free time with workouts all week and even into the weekend.  Wrestling doesn't seem to be any different.  This week is the first week and it starts Wednesday with weigh-ins in the evening.  I am still unsure how that will take so much time, but it is a scheduled activity.  We then have some sort of tournament next weekend that will go on Friday and Saturday.  I still don't know if Mijo will wrestle both days or if one day is for JV and the other is for Varsity.

    Either way, this goes on through January, fitting the holidays all around it.  It culminates with three weeks of meets in February, District, regionals and then the State meets.  I don't know how far our son will get into the season, but it is a quick intensive schedule, minus the holidays.

    He is already talking about either track and field or even more interesting, powerlifting in the spring after wrestling, so I don't think we will have much of a break as far as free time to enjoy going out to the lake.  Next year is his senior year, maybe once he hits college, we can slow down like we have with Boy.  It is not something I really want, I do like spending time with my kids, but man, I do have interests too.  It would be nice to flip the script and have the little shitters say "oh, we have to go do dad's activity this week, we're going fishing down on the coast."  Yeah right, life doesn't work that way, I know.

11/13/21 Boy Thinks I'm His Butler Or Man-Servant?

     Boy is in Dallas at the moment.  Yesterday, before they left, I was sitting at the table working on cooking my ribs in the oven (very different from grill, but still delicious).  He came by, I thought he was gonna give me a hug, but he got close enough to throw me his keys and say "I need an oil change, and probably other stuff, like transmission fluid flush..."  I said "and what?  I'm supposed to get up early and go handle this for you?  Sir, yes Sir!"  I then told him to give me some money, I'm not paying for this at this point (he is now a full time engineer, with a real salary).  He very casually says "let me know how much it is, I'll Venmo you the money."  That sounds great, but I don't have Venmo or Paypal or any of those type of apps, to which he rolls his eyes and says "fine I'll pay Mama."

    I could sit and argue with him, but I do like to go to Ford and look around, plus Wife had a thing to be at, so I was free, if I got up early.  I forgot it was supposed to be chilly in the morning, it was down to 43 when I left the house, but it felt nice, I guess.  The real problem was the glass on his car, it was smeared and the haze/wetness made it almost impossible to see.  We leave the house and our street is directly in line with the sun coming up, so I could not see anything.  I had taken off thinking I could manage, but I stopped and pulled over by the side of the road a few houses down from ours and blasted the heat to try and clean the glass.  It took a few more minutes and then the sun got up just enough or the angle of the road changed just enough that I was able to drive.  This of course made me decide I was going to have to wash his car, yet again.

    I spent about an hour at Ford, it wasn't that bad.  I talked to a guy that said does the buying of used cars, he tried talking me into selling him the Edge, but I don't want to get a payment, right now it is paid off, as are the Escape and the Excursion.  I was heavily teased by the Bronco they had sitting outside.  It was not fully loaded and I think it was even manual, but it had a price tag of $38,900.  I got excited for a second, thinking I could handle the standard transmission, like they have said in some Youtube videos "it works as a security device, idiot kid thieves can't drive a stick."  The buyer over in the back said he would look up the information for me, I started working equations in my head thinking "could we afford a $600 payment?"  I figured I could move some things around, but alas, it was a demo or something that was not available for sale.  I came back to me senses after, and settled down.

    The oil change was only $56.  I paid for it, got home and decided I would wash Boy's Edge, mostly because the windows all needed cleaning and I think he has been parking underneath trees because it was full of bird crap all on the hood.  Since I had just waxed it a couple months ago, it came off pretty easy.  I did refuse to vacuum it, I can't keep doing everything for the little Shit, but it really needed a washing.

11/12/21 Wrestling Really Calls For An Aggressive Personality?

     Baby A is really in his element now that wrestling has started.  Every night when I talk to him, he has another funny story from practice, rather funny from his point of view.  He said the first day of sparring he was working with another big boy, another lineman who joined the team, and the other boy thought he knew what was up. Since he is the only one with any experience, he has been trying to help train the other boys, he said he refuses to wrestle any girls after breaking the one girls ankle accidentally.  Mijo is patient and will show you, until you decide you're ready, then it's go time.  The other boy took our monster down and thought this is easy, I got you.  Mijo then said "okay, I'll show you what squatting 550 pounds can do."  He turned around and stood up with this 250 pound kid on his back and then threw him over his shoulders.  He landed with a thud on the ground and then Mijo said I threw my fat ass on top of him, choked him for a second or two and he gave up.  He said the other boy submitted and just kind of laughed as he coughed and gagged for breath.  This was Tuesday.  On Wednesday, he said his close buddy, also a lineman, so think husky kid was sparing with him, and Mijo got him by a leg and lifted it up high to get him off balance, then kicked his other leg out underneath him, he landed on his back and gave a big yell as he lost his breath, but then Baby A said, I jumped on him, choked him a little bit, then he submitted.

    This boy of ours just has aggression when he competes.  It's good, I just don't want him hurting one of our boys during practice.  I liked towards the end of football season, they were working on the third string QB, who might be their new started next year.  He was trying to run a play, but he was being real timid (our son says that is his big weakness), Mijo says "I wanted to get him pumped up, so I smacked him on the helmet, grabbed him by the facemask and told him "You got this!""  According to him, it was very helpful, if he didn't concuss the poor kid.

    Poor Mijo, his kryptonite is apparently girls.  His lineman buddy has a twin sister and she joined the wrestling team as well.  He says she keeps coming up to him, punching him in the arm saying come on, I can take you.  Wife and I say she is flirting, but she does have a BF, but Mijo says she looks too much like his friend, he can't see her that way, but he also doesn't know what to do since he's scared of hurting her if they do spar.  He is having fun and that is the best part of all this.  We have the first meet next weekend, so we'll get to see a full team, it will be alot different than last year, when it was just a handful of boys per team.

11/11/21 Bank Account Feels Like It Has A Leak?

     Wife has already told me she doesn't like me talking numbers, so I won't be specific, but man, where is the money going?  About a year ago we refinanced the house and kept a nice $20,000 in extra cash, which was supposed to last us and be used only for emergencies (we did buy the Escape for $11,000, so it wasn't all bills).  I guess emergencies needs to be defined better because one thing led to another and that money is down to less than $1000.  This on top of Wife getting a new job with a substantial raise and we are still down to a couple bucks before payday every time.  I can't even imagine how it is going for people who don't make as much money, it has to be getting rough with food and gas prices climbing steadily.

    It's not like we are incompetent with money but what are we supposed to do?  We had a medical bill, the fucking IRS came back and wanted an extra $2400, two of our cars needed new tires at $1200 a set, we decided to be prepared and buy a generator, and the portable AC for the rolling blackouts that didn't happen, my Excursion needed $2600 in repairs which it was either that or really consider a new vehicle and payment, things just seem to constantly come up.

    Wife moved back home, and that part is great, but it seemed like she used less gas when she was in La Pryor, although it was farther, she would drive down once a week, then commute back and forth to Crystal City, about 15 miles away, then come back at the end of the week.  Driving back and forth daily to San Antonio and getting stuck in that shitty traffic has her filling up 2-3 times a week, even with both cars that she uses giving her upwards of 24 miles per gallon.  Until she can find a job closer to home, we are stuck in this pattern, she is already not crazy about it.  The distance and running back and forth is not that bad, that was the reason we both thought it would be fine.  It is the fact that there is so much construction and there seem to be delays every day, where she just sits idling for 20-30 minutes sometimes.

    The latest hit to the wallet is food and how expensive it has become.  I don't think the quality is any better, it might even be getting worse.  The last time I had tenders at Bill Miller, they seemed funky to me and Mijo and I would eat there 1-2 times a week before Covid and all his sports commitments and we both loved those things.  There are also so many people floating around that going out just seems like a pain in the ass, with the shortage of waiters at restaurants, it really is a recipe for disaster, I can't see who is happy in our present day status.

11/10/21 Boy Needs Some Creative Ideas To Buy A House?

     I know Boy is feeling like it's time to leave the nest, and I agree, specially when I see he has so many knick-knacks all over the house.  He has sofas in the garage, about as many kitchen gadgets as us in the kitchen in every nook and cranny.  He has his rom full of 3D printers, plus all the tools and accessories that go along with all that, not to mention the closets full of old projects and clothes he still thinks he might wear some day.

    All that aside, the reality is that the median housing price for the Austin metro area is $480,000.  This is the main reason that even the smaller houses we have seen are all above $300,000.  It was only a couple years ago that these same houses would have been easily around $200,000, which is much more manageable.  Still, there is no use hoping for the past or wishing things get better.  We must live in the reality of what is.  I still think with some discipline Boy could afford a $300,000 house, at least the interest rates are at all time lows.  Factoring that in with him living at least with the girlfriend, he is saying he wants a house as a precursor to moving along with marriage, so the girlfriend title would only be temporary, as far as I can tell.

    He keeps trying to find cheaper houses, yesterday, for example, he showed us some condo which was around $260,000.  The price sounds great, but it was built in the 70's and the HOA monthly charge is close to $400.  Even if the mortgage is $1600-$1700, adding the HOA, still kicks it above $2000.  He then showed us a townhome, but that was a 2 bed/2 bath unit for about $260,000 as well.  I didn't like that it only had a 1 car garage, so the cars would have to be lined up one in front of the other, that would be a hassle if one works later in the day and the other leaves in the morning, as they do now, plus again the townhomes were built in the 80's and both of these were in Leander, which is about an hour from us, and still plenty far from both their jobs and school.

    He did mention last night that the girlfriend's grandma, who has a house on 3 acres is willing to sell them half an acre and they could then build on that piece of land.  I like that idea because she is only a few miles from here, and it would be good for them to have her family as neighbors, that is always a comfortable feeling, to know the people that live around you.  As much as I would like for Mijo to be our neighbor, the houses in this community are very pricey, we could not afford to buy one here today, so I am thinking, at least for now, this is the best idea he has come up with.

11/9/21 Football Practice Was Light Work Compared To Wrestling?

     Out of the frying pan and into the fire.  For some reason, I was thinking we would have a sigh of relief when football practice ended, but wrestling has taken over in full gear and it is not messing around.  The season officially started last night with a parent's meeting after the first practice.  Wife attended and there were discussions with the booster club, and ordering of shirts for students and parents.  I am a little excited at this point, Baby A loved the sport last season, but because of Covid, the team consisted of three boys and three girls.  Last night, Wife said there were 45 kids on the team.  As far as I know, there are 13 weight classes, then there's boys and girls, so most everybody can fit in.  I am not sure what happens when there are multiple kids in the same weight class, do they allow them all to compete or do they limit it to 1-2 kids per weight class?

    Baby A said he was weighed before practice and weighed in at 247pounds, and after practice out of curiosity he weighed himself and he had lost five pounds, of sweat, I guess.  I saw their practice room last year and it is a smallish internal room with no windows, perfect to get that stinky sweat going.  I had the honor of washing his clothes and the shirt and hoodie he wore while practicing were probably still carrying the five pounds of sweat, they were heavy lifting them from the ground into the washer, now that I think about it, gross, it was all sweat!!

    While football practice happened during class and after school, until the sun went down, pretty much.  Wrestling starts our day now at 6:30am, I say our day because I have to drive him to school at that hour.  These next two days, there will be no after school practice, the coach has some obligation, but normally, they will also practice after school until 6:00pm.  This is good in that Mijo will be home a little earlier, but because Wife is driving back from San Antonio in the afternoon, the 7:00pm ending of football was better to give her more time to get here and even take a quick shower before heading out to pick him up.  I imagine there will be days she gets stuck in traffic and I might have to go pick him up.

    The season is cut up between the holidays, we will be going through the week off from Thanksgiving and then the two weeks off from Christmas, but the season will march on until February, so buckle in, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

11/8/21 Is Football For GIrls?

     I have been accused (yet again) of being a misogynist because of my views concerning football.  I stand by my thoughts and beliefs that football is great because there are no excuses to be made.  It is very similar to boxing in that the physically superior specimen will always have the advantage.  One cannot hope to just step on a field against an athlete and expect success.  In as much as it is a game that kids play, there is so much discipline and knowledge that all culminates as the tip of the spear poised as a defender coming at you at full speed and with the aim of stopping your forward progress.

    I won't even name names, but in defending my position against being labeled as a misogynist, I only have to look at my husky 250 pounder who if unleashed even on me, and I weigh close to 400 pounds, there is no denying he would hurt me if he hit me at full speed, I can't imagine a 120-140 pound girl.  I only have to grab my son by the shoulders to feel he is now built as tight compact muscle, he is not the chubby little baby of even 4-5 years ago.  My Dad was amazed as they were leaving when he grabbed him by the biceps at how thick and strong he felt.  I am only propping up my son because that is what I think of when I think of football players.  He has been training since June, either lifting weights to get stronger, or running plays in practice from after school until sundown every day.  Nevermind their record and all that, these boys take a pounding and they do sacrifice their bodies for the love of the game.  Every player on the team that started, missed at least one game because of injuries.  Our boy had the bruised ACL, his good friend who plays tackle had his hand wrapped and played with two broken fingers for about 6 weeks.  Another kid missed a few games for hurting his back.  His other good friend who we give a ride to most every day hurt his neck and his mom told him he was not allowed to play anymore.  There were at least 4-5 kids who missed games from concussions.  Football is brutal and all the cheering for girls to play in the sport will not change it.

    I don't doubt that in the younger ages before boys really start going through puberty, it can be okay for girls to compete, there isn't a huge difference.  Wife played in junior high, and even she says one of her classmates rocked her shit, she still remembers vividly, and he wasn't probably going full speed against her, they were friends and it was practice and Wife has always been a thick husky gal.

    So no, I don't enjoy football because it allows me to be a misogynistic asshole, I love the purity of the game, the coaches have no choice but to put in their best athletes at any given position, and even then, sometimes a lineman lines up just right and will hit a receiver with enough force to make him fly in the air and spin like a helicopter blade.  It isn't that I enjoy seeing people get hurt, I never hope for that, but it is amazing that these players will abuse their bodies to move the ball 1 more yard in their favor.  They are only missing the phrase "Are you not entertained?!?!"  Yes, yes we are.

11/7/21 My Parents Finally Came Up?

     It has been a rough 4-5 months in which we hadn't had a chance to really see my parents.  With football in full gear, along with Wife starting her new job and life just getting back normal, more or less, it has been near impossible to fit in a visit back home.  My Mom, wanting to see Baby A play in at least one game, came up on the last game of the season, a rough one for sure, but I was happy she joined us.  I only say a rough one because of the weather, it didn't help the beating was so severe, but sitting in the cold an hour away from home, does not help.  The game started in the upper 50s and by the time we left, the temperature was in the low 40s.  The only saving grace was that the wind was not moving, so it did not feel any worse than that.  I sat in one game, his freshman year alone, on the last game where it was sleeting and the temp was near the 30s, that game sucked.

    Anyways, once we got past that, the visit has been pleasant, there was no rush to go to the mall or anywhere really.  We did manage to go out for lunch Saturday afternoon, for the first time in a long time Mijo did not have Saturday morning practice, so he was able to sleep in.  We let him choose, and he had wanted to go to Red Robin, which was a good selection, I like eating there, specially when we add the onion tower.  My mom and brother joined us for lunch then we headed to Sam's to get some meat for dinner.  Even during lunch there at Red Robin, we can tell there is a shortage of waiters.  There were maybe two waiters attending to the whole restaurant and it did take a little longer than normal to eat.  I can't imagine it would have been better if we had attempted dinner out somewhere else later that night.

    My dad is another story.  The old Fart does not want to leave the house, he chose to stay at our house and watch football, but bring him back something to eat (of course).  His big Saturday plans were to watch some boxing match (the most important one ever, aren't they all?)  We ended up going back and forth, Wife certainly was not going to be happy paying $80 for a boxing match, but my dad ended up coughing up the money, so I relented.  It took forever to get to the match.  In the meantime, we grilled, I wanted to take a nap in the afternoon, but I never got around to it.

    My parents seemed relaxed in our unconventional living room with its "ghetto bed".  They had to admit it is nice to have the ability to lay down or sit on the chairs all around the room to stretch out and relax or get cozy on a chair and watch videos on their phones.  My dad was able to sit front and center of the projector screen and watch the most important boxing match of all time, or that was offered on this Pay-Per-View showing.  Baby A sat with Grandpa all evening and at one point said he was enjoying the boxing with him.  I tried my hardest to keep him company, but I was in and out of sleep waiting for the main event, and then only stayed awake by constantly getting up to get snacks.

11/6/21 Bittersweet Ending (Football Season)?

     It shouldn't bring a tear to my eye, but I can't help and get a little teary eyed when the season ends.  The season started with so much potential and promise of things changing and looking positive.  The coaches were focused on reaching the playoffs for the first time in a long time.  We bought into the hype, Baby A spent every free moment in the gym, getting up to his 550 squat, which just sounds painful from my civilian position over here, but Mijo is all legs and butt.

    Looking at the boys, defeated and with the season done, it is hard to look back and see only two wins, especially after so much hard work.  The record can't show it, but these boys still improved so much, in every other regard.  Every year, for example, it has been annoying to watch half the team disappear after a lot of the boys failed their first six weeks, that did not happen, and that was due to the coaches keeping those boys focused on the importance of what they on and off the field.  The coach recounted one of those stories where the athlete came and celebrated with the coach that he has never had an all passing six weeks report card, which was largely due to the coaches keeping them accountable every week.  Last year, the season ended with about 23 boys left at the end of the season, this year, at least they were all together at the end to support each other, as a team.

    It also really sucks, because the senior boys are done, they will probably not play any more football past that point and that is a little sad, for the boys, who kind of understand, at that point, that what they do is finite.  It really didn't help that while the boys were slowly getting off the field, Marble Falls was having a thing for their seniors and they were playing the sappy music that forces the tears as their seniors do a last walk on the field from one endzone to the other and meet their parents at the other end.  As visitors, we just get to stand goofily watching our babies there in their uniforms down on the field.

    On the other hand, no more long practices, no more worrying every day that our boy will break something, it was scary when he hurt his shoulder, at least until next year, no more sitting out in the cold to support our kid.  Win or lose, I know Mijo went out there on every play and played to the best of his potential, he never gave half ass, he gave all that the coaches asked of him.  That is something that once learned or developed cannot be taken away.  I know from this experience, Baby A is the kind of kid that will give you 100% and never try to make life easier by giving you excuses, so even when the record or scoreboard does not show it, these coaches have produced a winner in my book.

11/5/21 Last Game Of The Season?

     We could hope the season would have gone better, but it is what it is.  It was another bad loss for our Coogs, who I know give it their all and put in so many days of hard work.  Unfortunately, their is something amiss, some of these teams are just on another level.  The best reasoning we can come up with is that again in Marble Falls, like so many other of these small towns, these kids are playing organized football from a much younger age and so their level of knowledge and discipline is just better.  I am not even going to harp on the score, it was horrible and could have been worse.

    I think the coaches realized the game was out of hand and for example, Baby A did not play his normal position after the first quarter.  The center had a bad snap, so the coach moved Mijo to center for a couple series, but then he did not even play offense in the second half.  He had talked about playing defense, although he never did any practice to go through techniques or even learn the plays, from the defense side.  It was still fun to watch, he had a solo tackle and was in on a couple other plays.

    I liked hearing after the game, that some of his friends who had not gotten a chance to get on the field all season, were finally let on.  One boy we gave a ride to, after the game, had practiced much of the season as a back up lineman, even though he is kind of a skinny guy, he sounded happy that he finally got on the field and got his uniform dirty.  Things are different from practice to games, things move faster and the other team is not your friend.

    The highlight of the game, really the season was watching the last plays and seeing our big boy play fullback, something they had goofed around during practice a few times and he got a yard or two before being tackled by the whole team backwards into the endzone.  Again, it was a horribly handled kickoff return, where they got the ball at the 1 yard line with about two minutes left.  I don't know why these kids would not just let it go into the endzone and start at the 20.  Anyways, I was at the point of wanting to put away my camera, it was the last few minutes, the score was 70 something to 0, but I am glad I captured the moment.  Mijo was excited, and we were happy for him, at least it was something different, at that point, the score didn't matter.

11/4/21 Prop A Did Not Pass?

     I was honestly confused into not voting this past election here locally.  At one point, we were outside the doors to the polling place, there is one here in Southpark Meadows, next to Bath and Bodyworks, but a little discussion with Wife turned me off.  I was set to go in and vote For proposition A, which is touted as a YES to adding more cops, but Wife told me she was voting NO, because she heard that a YES vote would cost us more tax wise, and they would then be cutting many other social services.  I could not comprehend the logic there, but I did tell her it was bullshit if we are going to go in there and just cancel each others votes, all I'll end up getting is my name out there and then get selected to jury duty, and fuck that!  That is the worst thing a busy person needs, going downtown to listen and decide on some mouth breather who can't control himself and breaks the law, fuck all those assholes, bring back the guillotines and show a couple of these assholes get beheaded.  I bet that would slow down crime a bit.

    What I don't understand is we had the money for a police force of whatever size it was.  Then the "Defund the Police" imbeciles started, so that worked, somehow people in charge didn't think this would affect the outside world?  Austin was so progressive, cutting $150 million dollars from the police budget.  Did we get a refund of some sort?  I didn't notice if we did, so what happened to that money?  Now, somehow they need a tax increase to add the $150million dollars so they can give back the police the money they took from their budget.  A little sleight of hand is being played on the Austin citizen because that money was there prior to "Defund the Police".  If they are playing 3 card monte and just moved money from here to there and now we get to replace that money, then they really need to say they want another $150 million dollars to add social services and whatever other boondoggle that money was spent on.

    So what do we get to live with as a result of "Defund the Police"?  Some are saying the homicide number has doubled, in one year, we now hear of shootings very regularly downtown.  We got a notice a few weeks ago that police will no longer respond to common things they normally would, such as car accidents, house break-ins, car vandalism, and other non emergency situations.  I don't think I have needed police personally, but I don't like that I can't just dial 911 in an emergency, we must pull out our sleeve playbook like a football player and decide if what we just went through is emergency enough for that call, otherwise, suck it up Nancy.  Just another reason that has me thinking it is time to move on out of here.

11/3/21 Liberals Still Ain't Getting It?

     Last night was the first test on America, to see what choosing Biden has done to the thinking across America.  To me, it has seemed like one disappointment after another, starting with his first day in office and shutting down the oil pipeline.  Even if it does not impact the pump (how can it not?), it is bad optics to start your first day in charge by putting people out of work.  10-11 months into his presidency, gas is now up significantly, even here in Austin, I am now seeing gas at $3.00 and up, something we hadn't seen since the Bush era and all the fighting after 9/11.  If that is not enough, there seem to be shortages on food and essential items, I noticed large sections of open shelves and display cases where there should be meat yesterday at the store.  The food that is there is also a lot more expensive, steaks are now routinely above $18.99 a pound.  I love me a good ribeye, but I will wait until prices come down, or ehh, start eating the "select" cuts, how the mighty have fallen.

    I really had not been political prior to Trump, he really opened my eyes and now it seems I spend 80% of my time online looking at political videos.  It was nice to see the race in Virginia, where it had been dominated by Democrats over the last decade, turn red and now a republican will be governor.  There is only so much nonsense the people will take and after the last two years of BLM, and LGBTQIAetc (never ending with the letters), the leaking border, the debacle of leaving Afghanistan (leaving so much high tech equipment, why?), and on and on... I honestly feel weird writing that, because prior to Trump I despised the republican side, to me it meant idiots leading with the Bible, which to me is an antiquated book, fine it has lessons, but so do so many other books and materials.  I think that was the conservative swinging wildly at the height of their power, much like the liberals did this past year.

    The country does better when it is more even keeled, it really needs to be a balance of both to be successful, but those fringe elements have got to go for the left, or they will be hurting and it will show in coming elections.  I don't think this one was quite enough for them to learn.  Come the next morning, the tools on CNN were proclaiming it as "dogwhistle racism", whatever that means, even as a Jamaican American woman became the first Lt. Governor in that same election.  CNN really has to be moved over next to MTV, it isn't news, it's entertainment, much like MTV with its Jersey Shore and other mindless programming.  CNN is playing at being a news organization, but hardly anyone is watching these days as more and more, even Youtube "shows" get more viewers.

11/2/21 Mijo Woke Up With A Rumbly In His Tumbly?

     I joke about it because he is fine now, a day later, but Baby A woke up Monday morning around 4:00am saying he felt sick and needed wipes to clean the bathroom upstairs where he threw up.  I was so out of it that I just gave him a tube of Clorox wipes and went back to bed.  He then came back down at 6:30am and said his stomach was hurting and he felt bad, so I told him to relax and not worry about going to school.  I then texted Wife who was already on her way to work and she said for him to grab a towel and put it underneath him, incase he throws up again.  She didn't think Pepto Bismol would be a good idea, thinking if it is food poisoning it is better to get it all out, not protect it and keep it in the body.  I thought this sounded smart, so I told him to just lay down.  I sleep in the living room a lot during the week, if I am going to be up late, so I don't bother Wife, and Mijo laid there on the bed close to me as I slept on my recliner.

    He wanted to say it was food poisoning but we did not get sick, Wife and I.  We ate a very basic meal that is hard to screw up.  I mean pork can make you sick, but it was ribs that had sat in the freezer for a couple weeks max, and honestly I overcooked them, I like a crispy outer black look to my BBQ.  Plus we ate three racks total, but I cut all three racks into 2-3 pairs of ribs and they were all mixed on a pan, so it's not like he ate the one bad pack of ribs.  The only side we also ate was some rice Boy had a day ago, but again, we all ate the rice.

    I think he got his upset stomach from eating too many candies from the bowl we had outside that we used to give to the trick or treaters.  I can and do go hard on the candies, but he rarely eats sweets like that.  For a husky kid, I am always surprised that he doesn't usually eat junk food like that.  Still, that is the only thing that makes sense to us.  He sat with us outside on the driveways we handed out candies and while we waited for the little groups of kids, I would take candies and eat them.  He was also doing the same.

    The only other thing to consider was that they played their football game on Friday, got up early to go to Saturday practice, then had friends over Saturday afternoon and they spent the night.  They were all gone by 1:00pm on Sunday, but that didn't leave him hardly any time to rest.  While we napped for a couple hours after eating pancakes and sausages Sunday afternoon, he had to stay up and write a paper, so I do believe he was just exhausted.  He was fine by Monday night, opting to eat some leftover fajitas even as Wife told him to stick to soups.  He is good now on Tuesday morning, as he walks around getting ready at 7:00am.

11/1/21 Halloween Was A Quiet Affair?

     We used to have some really cool parties for a good while and Halloween was probably the height of our efforts.  That was maybe from 2008 to 2012, when Boy was in high school.  I am not saying he liked to party more than his brother, but we were friendly with the parents and got together regularly.  Baby A does not go the same way.  He did have a group of friends over on Saturday night and we cooked plenty of meat for them, fajitas, chicken, sausages and even burgers, and they had a good time, but nobody was dressed up and alcohol was not involved.

    Last night was just us three, Boy was at a wedding with his girlfriend, so it was Wife, Mijo and myself sitting outside handing out candies to all the kiddos making the rounds.  It was an almost perfect night for the event, it was cool, and pleasant, dry and everyone was walking around relaxed and festive.  It was cute to see the babies and little kids figuring out how this works and the slightly older kids marching along trying to get as much candy as possible.  We probably sat out there from 6:00pm to 8:20pm, around then it was dark and the crowds about disappeared, so we headed inside.  We managed to get one more set of kids knock on the door, and we gave both of them a handful of candy for their efforts.  One of our old mom friends did say they came over and knocked on the door around 9:00pm, but for some reason we did not hear the door, she was telling me over Snapchat this morning.  I told her to knock hard on the Longhorn knocker next time, we're always up until 10:00pm.  I stay up later, but Wife does go to bed about that time to get up at 5:15am.

    Apart from the candy up front, we made some ribs on the grill, actually started them in the oven because I napped until 5:00pm and then Wife woke me aggressively to get the grill going, she was napping too.  The pellet grill has yet another problem, this time the circuit board went out, so I had to set up the charcoal grill, like a savage.  This method takes a little time, even after it is lit, it must burn down a bit, you can't just throw meat in there.  The ribs were probably in the oven until 6:00pm then I transferred them outside.  We let them "smoke" off to the side of the fire until 8:00pm when I took them inside and cut them up.  We made three racks of ribs and we managed to eat all of them between the three of us.  This time, I didn't add sausages or any other meat.  Usually I like a little variety.  All was well, we finished the night by watching a Family Guy and then a couple of Bob's Burgers with a Halloween theme.  I am about ready to move on to Christmas themed movies but the Family Guy episode was inspired by Poltergeist, so Wife wants Baby A to see it with us next weekend, we'll see.