5/8/19 Sunday Was Better Than Saturday?

    I started my Sunday at 6:00am, which is nothing new.  I managed to write 3 blogs, so it felt good to get ahead for a couple days.  After that, I watch what I consider informational videos on YouTube.  I was just getting sleepy at 10:00am when Girlie came down.  She said good morning and made a cup of coffee.  We talked about our plans for the day, she said to invite her if her plans fell through, she would join us.  Her BF works Sunday through Thursday, so he is gone all day.  She headed back to her room and within minutes, I went back to bed too.  I talked with Wife as I woke her a bit.  I told her what my plans for the day were, she just said sure.

    I fell asleep hard and didn't wake until after 2:00pm, which pissed me a bit because we were now going to be running late if I wanted to go to the lake to see the boats and cut the grass and BBQ.  I made the decision to forget the boat show, nobody enjoys it but me.  Before I said any of this though, Javalina said he wanted to pay for lunch, just not anything expensive, specially no Salt Lick.  He then suggested Chicken Express which I must say is growing on me.  Their chicken usually tastes mostly fresh along with the fries.  We didn't need him to pay, but it is quite cool when the little guy says he wants to pay for lunch, shows us his wallet and says he has over $150 bucks.
    Speaking of saving money, I actually went back to the mall and Helzberg Diamonds where we had just put his watch on lay away.  I explained that I felt real shitty, but I had found it cheaper in a bunch of other places on Amazon.  There were like 7 vendors selling it for a lot less, all the way down to $259 when I first looked.  At the mall, I was going to buy it for $401.  How am I not supposed to be smart and save myself the almost $150?  The same sales lady was there and I did say if y'all will match the price point or at least take something off, I might just get it here.  She said Helzberg does not do that kind of thing, they were already giving me their best price.  The lady that did the return was much more understanding and said not to worry about it.  There were no hard feelings and she said she would do the same thing too.  I said thank you after I counted my money and then walked right into a Cadillac test drive where if we took a test drive, we each got a $25 gift card.  Wife was already doing it, so I signed up, and ten minutes later, we had an additional $50 in our pockets.  The guy I drove in a midsize SUV said it was priced at about $50,000 as it was the size of a Ford Explorer without the third row seats.   A fully loaded Ford Explorer is less than that and he mentioned their Escallade starts at $100,000.  Yikes!!!  I thought the Expedition was expensive at $65,000-$70,000.
    We then got meat to BBQ and the last few hours of the day were spent just grilling and chilling in the kitchen and out in the patio.  This was nice, Wife even let me take a 30 minute nap before we headed downstairs to grill.  I always feel much better after a nap.

5/6/19 Rounding Out The Weekend?

    This is the dilemma I find myself in now.  I had told Javalina I wanted to get him a watch for graduation, something nicer than a G-Shock, but nothing from Ben Bridge, those are all too expensive.  We settled on the very nice and cost conscious Citizen watches.  We went to this store at the mall and the staff were nice enough, but yet I was hesitating dropping my money, mostly because the first time we saw the watch it had a 20% discount.  Every time after that it was no longer on sale.  Last night, we were headed to that store but there is another that sells used Rolexes and I like to look through those, you never know what might show up.  Next to the handful of Rolexes, they had a display full of Citizen watches and they had the one Javalina liked.  This place had a 25% sale on all Citizen watches, so we kept talking.  I felt guilty and Wife said "you don't owe the people at the other store anything. It's not like you walk in there and they recognize you."  This seemed reasonable and since I was saving about $100, I said "let's get it here."  This morning, out of curiosity I looked at Amazon and I found the watch anywhere between $257 and $450.  It only seems fair that like Wife said of the other place that "it's not like they recognize you...", I can also say of this place.  I would now be saving myself another $150 or so if I order from the Amazon location.  I also feel that this is what is slowly killing the mall shopping experience, but it is too much of a savings to ignore.
    We walked out and over to Ben Bridge after seeing the lady who sold me my last Rolex and we went and talked awhile.  I like that she knows our names and always offers us waters.  I don't usually take anything but I do like hearing about the watches.  She mentioned that Rolex is on such a high demand, they haven't been able to fully stock their cabinet.  She said all last year, they only got 6 stainless steel Submariners which is crazy.  She says she sees them selling in the used market for more than what they sell new.  I have seen that too and didn't understand why, but I guess if the stores are having a hard time getting new product.  She says it is because it takes a year to make a watch.  I told her I would be needing one for my son's graduation from college, probably in December and she said to just give her a couple months lead time and she'll find one for me.  The Milgauss that I like is not crazy expensive but it will still be a pretty penny, but that just seems like the perfect gift, as it is a scientist's watch.
    On our way out, we stopped and they were having test drives for the Can-Am 3 wheel bikes which seemed like fun, but you needed to have reserved an opportunity.  We looked through the different displays of the bikes which is the only motorcycle Wife has said I could maybe drive.  They look hella cool, as the kids would say, but I might be clouding my thinking when they cost the same as a jetski, I have to think about what I really want.
    We then left and I was feeling adventurous so instead of just eating at one of our regular places, I told Wife to drive towards downtown and let's find something new to eat.  We ended up at a Korean place, and I really wanted to like it, but ughh, I did not enjoy the whole experience.  First off, the restaurant was next to a bar and you could hear the boom boom of the shitty music coming through the wall.  The place was filled with nothing but hipsters and lame ones at that.  One beta male was in pajamas, which made me think why would you make yourself look stupid.  There was the usual random white girls in multi colored bleached too often hair, the men with too much facial hair and super cool hats, where the hat has more personality than the dude wearing it.  If the food had been good I would have forgiven all of this, but it really wasn't.  They advertised "kimchee fries" as this great thing.  It was a boat of fries with cabbage in some sort of sauce with pork chunks, cheese, and sriracha sauce.  The flavors were just too much for me.  My burger, if it had just been the ribeye meat, cheese and bun would probably have been terrific, but then there was salad making it twice as thick, a glob of yellow egg or yellow cheese, still unsure, sauces I was not expecting, and then the chicken wings that tasted like they were dunked in Windex or some sort of cleaner with a very weird pre-taste.  It didn't make me sick, so I guess overall, it was fine, but ehh, not for me.
    We got home and now that everyone in the house had seen Avengers, we were finally able to sit and discuss it, which we did for about an hour.  I am always in amazement when Boy can take charge of a room with his knowledge, this is his shit, and he knows a lot from reading comics, I guess.  THey were talking about who could replace who and who should have died and what will happen now, will Thor be with the Guardians of the Galaxy, which Boy says yes, but I wasn't sure if he was joking.  I am sorry but I grew up reading Archie and Jughead.  I never really got into all the hero comics as a kid.  I too have knowledge, but no one cares about Richie Rich and how he was the richest kid (another cartoon that would be intertwined in the Archie Digests, nevermind…).

5/5/19 Saturday Was Nice?

    I guess these are the benefits of a long weekend.  I was off Thursday night, and we went to my son's last concert of the year.  Friday would have been a perfect day, but we had tickets to Avengers;Endgame and until we got that monkey off our backs, it is all Friday was about.  I guess it was good that Wife got the tickets for Friday night.  Javalina was at school most of the day.  I got up like I do on my days off, at 6:00am, drank some coffee, ate some sweet breads (pan dulce), took him to school and enjoyed the morning.  I would have liked Wife to have gotten up to go have breakfast early and ran around town, but we haven't had anything to shop for lately.  I then napped with Wife until 1:00pm, and we got up and she made breakfast and we cleaned up the house as she had said we would be doing.  Girlie and the BF moved out quite a few things from the guest room upstairs and I found new places to put them, mostly taking everything down to the other guest room, which is now pretty crowded but still ok.
    We picked up Javalina, ate at Culver's, and then everyone sent me to bed at 7:00pm.  They all wanted to make sure I didn't fall asleep during the movie which we scheduled to watch at 10:30pm.  We got back home sometime after 2:00am, then we stayed up another hour or so watching a couple more shows.  At 10:00am, Wife got us up to go with her to pick up more of those small blankets that she gets about once a quarter.  We went to eat breakfast after this and came back home.  I wanted to go to the boat show on the water, but my peeps suck.  I am still holding out hope that maybe today is the day (Sunday).  We then napped from about 2:00pm until 5:30pm.  I actually got up at 4:00pm, but Wife got snippy that she had just laid down, which I got mad because she should have not sat there like a mook watching stupid shows if she wanted to nap, but whatev'sss!
    We finally got going, not that we had an agenda, but we did head to the Kia dealership because as much as I am saying no to driving a Telluride, they are interesting and they supposedly had one on the lot.  The idiot unloading it from the truck crashed it onto something in the back, so they couldn't sell it or let us test drive it, but we were able to see it in person and even sit and play with the electronics.  It feels like a winner.  It is the first time I sit in the driver's seat and I feel small.  I also did not bump my head or have to bend my neck all the way to get in, it just took a bit of a shrug.  I might be able to be convinced to walk out driving one if I can get one fully loaded, they are supposedly with all options going for around $47,000.  Try a fully loaded Ford Expedition which is what I am considering to replace my Excursion and that is sitting more around $70,000.  The Telluride is a smaller vehicle and I should be comparing it to a Ford Explorer, but since it sits 7-8 people, I am being a bit unfair.  I tell Wife I may just keep on driving my Excursion if it means I can buy some toys for myself, but we'll see.  We then headed to the mall, which we hadn't done in a while.

5/4/19 Avengers: Endgame? Movie

    This is all based on my opinions and maybe I got a couple things wrong.  First off, the movie does not give you much time to fall asleep, maybe in the first five minutes, but that is it.  The rest of it is a lot of ooh and aah as the movie is just cameos galore.  The first few minutes is a downer, Iron Man is on a ship with Nebula and the ship is pretty much dead, with no power and only a few more hours of oxygen.  They are saved at the last minute by our newest favorite heroine, it would be Superman in a DC world.
    Stark gets back to Earth and throws the biggest hissy fit because they didn't defeat Thanos and I guess he lost Spider-Boy in the battle.  Nothing happens for 5 years, Capt. America is running AA meetings across the US trying to make betas feel better for themselves.  Damn, if the Earth went through this, it would be terrifying and painful, but the people left would just have to ban together and make the planet work.  All these Nancies running around acting like they don't know what to do, five years down the road, tsk tsk.
    Then comes Ant Man, good ole Paul Rudd to save the day.  As we saw in the last movie, he goes into a quantum world and pops out what he thinks is five hours later, but he has been in there for 5 years.  He goes to the Avengers headquarters and suggests a plan to go back in time and get the stones before Thanos gets them and get everyone back.  Stark being the man who could do it, if it could be done says no, but then solves the problem and then they build it.  They all go back in time to get one of the six stones and they screw up, a lot, including letting Loki escape into what trouble he causes we will find out, maybe, although I like a world where Loki is still alive and not killed by freaking Thanos, ultimate Party Pooper.  That man has the biggest stick up his ass, trying to solve a problem nobody told him was his to solve.
    They say the movie was like three hours but I honestly didn't feel it.  I finally felt like it might be a good idea to take a piss when it got to the big battle scene at the end.  You couldn't leave the theater at that point.  I don't want to give anything away as to what happens but the movies never lets you go back and save people without taking its cost and we lose one of our favorites.  The whole theater was crying at that point, but it felt like the right ending, specially when the Ancient One starts some sort of soliloquy about how the hero must be the one that does the heavy sacrifice at the right time.
    I will say that I liked the ending when Thor decides Valkyrie is the right leader for their people, why not, women are taking over everywhere, but anyways.  Thor gets on the ship with the Guardians of the Galaxy and it is funny to see Quill argue about it being his ship and he is the captain.  Thor is like of course of course, but he starts messing with the plans on the screen.
    I hope the series continues somehow, it has gotten rather good.  I just read there is already a Thor 4, and a Guardians of the Galaxy 3 amongst others, so the ride is continuing.

5/3/19 FInal Junior High Concert For Javalina?

    Tonight was the last time we will probably assemble in that stinky warm gym to hear all the different bands that have grown from the class my son belongs to.  In 6th grade, Javalina and his classmates were brand new to their instruments and it was a little rough listening to their very basic songs.  Fast forward two more years and there has been a lot of growth, not only in the bands performing but in the styles they are playing.
    They have the basic 6th grade band, denoted by their green T-shirts and their very large size, and then the Concert and Symphonic bands, followed by the highest skilled group forming the Wind ensemble.  Javalina got stuck in the symphonic band because he wanted to be in a class with the athletes, which happened at the same time as the wind ensemble.  The most interesting new bands are actually the new jazz band and the calypso band.  The calypso band sounded very professional and started the festivities, playing while people were still moving around.  It consisted of one of the band directors playing the drums while a couple students played the different steel drums that make the unique sounds of the calypso band.
   As per usual, sitting there on the tiny bleachers surrounded by warm noisy Mexicans I couldn't help but get drowsy.  I kept insisting on getting into the music and closing my eyes to enjoy it, but I guess every time I did, I would snore a bit and Wife on my left and Boy on my right would both poke me.  This got old after awhile, it isn't my fault that I have been sick with a head cold all week and don't feel great, not that I ever really do.  I mean I missed work on Monday night, and I never do that, so I must be feeling bad.
    But anyway, while my son's band played, I was ordered to record the band on my phone, which I did.  There is no getting around that I was zoning in and out as the video shows Javalina and I slowly go down to his shoes, adjust back up, then slowly down to his shoes, over and over until they got done with their three songs.  At this point I told Wife I would listen to the last band from the hallway so I could stand.  I do much better standing and moving around as far as staying awake.
    I walked out into the hallway and noticed the door behind the bands open so I went over and I could see the crowd from the band's perspective and I missed that feeling, where you are behind the drums performing for a crowd.  After the three quick songs, we helped move all the instruments back over to the band hall, which is on the opposite side of the hallway which connects the gym to the res of the school, it seems.  I walked one of the drum sets over by myself piece by piece and about half the steel drums over.
    I liked the one band director "threatening" Javalina that he was going to talk to me about his behavior and Javalina kept saying "just let me teach one class, so they can all see what kind of a demi-god I am."  I told the director "If you want him to fly straight, talk to Mama, she is right over there."  He laughed and just talked louder towards her, but didn't really say anything.  I think Javalina is one of those kids people enjoy "arguing" with because he is overall a good student with just a bit of a smart mouth.
    I have loved that Javalina is playing the Bari Sax after I did and Wife has told him at this point he will be continuing into high school.  Adding tot hat, both band directors from Akins and Crockett have had conversations with him.  The Akins director pulled him aside this week and wanted to know what he was doing at Crockett when his house was in the Akins area.  Javalina explained about the Einstein program and the early college start thing.  The director said he was still putting him on the roster, so if things fell apart with his transfer, he would be waiting with open arms to accept him.

5/2/19 Differences In What We Eat?

    Recently, I found a string of videos all sort of linked together in the line of Koreans Trying BBQ or Irish Trying Different Alcohols.  I am really blown away by the little things the people have to say, sometimes they say things accidentally and it makes it more real/interesting, to me.  For example, there was a group of North Koreans who had defected to South Korea and one of the girls has been learning English and she was telling the guy serving her different pieces of BBQ how Americans were referred to as selfish bastards and how we were referred to as pigs.  She was having a bit of a hard time now having Americans live up to the "bastard" hype because she had met so many friendly Americans who were teaching her to talk English for free, as she talked she seemed to be realizing that all these people were helping her just because and maybe we weren't all bastards.  Another of the guys in the same group was not wanting to eat with a fork because it looked too much like the tool they used on the farm to move dirt and manure around, which he was also quick to say that the government also said that's how we shoveled our food in our mouths.
    The biggest wow for me is that most of these people had never eaten cow, everyone is just too poor, pork was the more common meat that made its way around the country and dog.  Dogs were not used as pets, but as a meat source.  They were then to send the fur of the dog or sheep or whatever other hide to the government so they could take the fur to line the jackets of the people serving in the army.  If you "chose" not to eat meat and didn't have a fur to send, then you had to pay a tax to cover your portion of fur your family didn't send.
    You don't realize how much pride us Texans have until they start talking about our BBQ and how we seem to specialize in BBQ-ing cow.  It seemed everyone who had never tasted brisket before just loved it, and what's not to love?  Other parts of the country prefer pork, but we go for the big one, I guess because we are Texas and everything in Texas is bigger, as we like to remind people.
    It was even funny I landed on one clip where it was a british couple and the girl looked like she pooped pink ribbons, but her eyes turned over like a shark when she had some of the brisket and proceeded to eat it with her hands.  The guy unfortunately, declared himself not a cow eater and only had chicken without the skin and some sausage, to which I say boo.

5/1/19 Parents Celebrate 48 Years Together Today?

    Wife suggested I write about this today, as she has always thought anniversaries were important dates to remember.  I honestly never thought about my parents having an anniversary date, they were always just married, to me.  Even my own marriage, I am unsure why I would want to celebrate each year, it is not impressive to make it another year, you're supposed to be content in the decision you made all those years ago or working on a solution to improve your situation.  I am not being pointed or snarky, but I guess other than in the very beginning when the shotgun imprint was still fresh on my back, I have never thought about my marriage ending, Wife and I have very similar ways of being in the important things and I think we are both happy.
    I say all this, because that is how I feel about my parents being married, I didn't think it was for us to make a big deal, it is something between the two of them and they should do what makes them happy.  I can say that I noticed about 5-10 years ago that suddenly Wife and her siblings would get together and do something for her folks.  That is great, but I guess it makes the rest of us look like assholes, so I would really like to say "cut it out!", but I will just be seen as a curmudgeon, so I smile and go along with it.  This year, we were all tested as a huge deal was made by the Delgado Knuckleheads for their parents.  They pulled off a "surprise" lunch/dinner complete with family from out of state and briskets as far as the nose could smell.
    This did prompt a discussion with my folks and they said that if we do anything, we should go somewhere and so tentatively, we are scheduled to go to Las Vegas here in two years for their 50th anniversary.  I don't really worry about my mom, she stays quite active, mostly chasing after the grandkids, but my dad needs to keep himself moving or we will be taking him in a wheelchair.  He has no real excuse why he is becoming a statue but he doesn't try to do more.
    In all honesty, I am glad they have stayed together, now that I realize we live in this shitty world where too many people give up too soon and split up.  I know that it is the better solution in many cases, but there are always repercussions and a few generations of fatherless children is starting to add up.  I feel like a fucking hero and a man simply because I am around my boys every day, which I must have picked up from my folks.  It should take more than that to get hero status, but it is so disjointed nowadays that any couple who still hangs around their kids is a winner.
    I know I came in sideways and almost sounding like I am complaining, but I am glad you two are still around and together Mom and Dad, if anything I think we just take it for granted.  I hope the two of you go out for a nice dinner today/tonight.