3/15/16 On The Third Day Of Spring Break, My True Love Gave To Me?

    Work.  I decided not to burn a whole week of PTO, personal time off.  Because I work a 12 hour shift, a week requires I put in 48 hours and to compensate for the overtime rate on last 8 hours at time and a half, it should really be 52 hours.  Instead, since we were in town and just hanging out, I told Wife I would save half my time, and thus work two days.  As usual, we spent most of the day asleep.  We grilled some burgers, sausages and wings last night (Sunday), which we ate around 9:00pm.  The full stomach put me to sleep, as I didn't even finish watching whatever half hour show we were watching.
    At a certain point around midnight, we all went to bed, but Wife kept watching The Walking Dead on Netflix, I was on Hulu, trying to finish Gold Rush, which I am now on the last season, Chubs was on YouTube on his phone and Boy was playing an online game with some friends.  All of a sudden the Wifi goes out and it was a shocker for all of us.  We were all affected and it sucked.  Boy ran into the closet like a technician and started rebooting everything in there, even as we told him to wait.  I decided it was a good time to take a shower, figuring everything would clear up in ten to fifteen minutes or it was bedtime.  Everything was fine after a while, and we kept our routing up for another hour or so.
    I don't feel like I sleep well at night, tossing and turning, getting on my phone at 4:00 to check whatever and before I know it, I have spent two hours on Pinterest.  I finally forced myself to get up around 2:00pm.  I had plans to wash my truck, so I showered and Wife was already up, but we had to wait on Chubs who decided he needed to poop and then shower.  Eventually, we got to the car wash place, I love having the unlimited wash contract for the whole year, my truck looks nice and clean almost all the time.  We ate at Luby's while they did the dirty work.
    By the time we finished eating, and walking back to the wash place, the truck was already getting dried off.  It took another five minutes of waiting and we were on our way.  I went home, took care of business in the bathroom, then headed off to work. 
    While I was at work, Wife's brother came to visit with his four boys and they kidnapped Chubs for a couple days.  We are supposed to go pick him up on Wednesday, but I might wait until Thursday, since I work Tuesday night too, and might be too tired to make the drive.  Plus, I really would like to go to the SA Zoo, it is the perfect time of year for that.  Still not too hot, and not too cold for the animals.
   

3/14/16 All We Do Is Eat On Vacation?

    This is still for Saturday.  After getting up early and going to eat breakfast with a bunch of annoying Austinites,  we came back home and I slept for a couple hours, got up, wrote yesterday's blog and went back to sleep.  I was woken around 6:00pm, as we were supposed to go to San Antonio to go eat with my in laws for my father in law's birthday.  The plan was that if I slept all day, I would not be sleepy driving to and fro.  That idea rarely works, a lazy shit just becomes a lazier shit, the more you let him relax.
    Anyways, we got to Pappasito's right at 8:00pm, which is when we had reservations for.  Pappasito's is the Mexican brand of the Pappa chains.  They have Pappadeaux for seafood, Pappa's Bros. Steakhouse, and like seven other restaurants.  For some reason we all stood inside like sardines against the wall.  I thought it was a little dumb to let us stand where every twenty seconds a different waiter was "excuse me" and walked by with a tray full of chips and salsa.  We were finally sat about 8:30pm. 
    Right away, there was confusion.  We had about three different guys claiming to be our waiter, but after taking our drinks, they must have gone outside to get high, or run home to take a break.  We ran out of tea, and chips and we never got our calamari, which we reminded a couple of the waiters, and they kept saying "I'll check on that".  Finally, one of them was in ear shot, and I said "how bout some more tea?"  He must have thought it a good idea as he slowly refilled everyone's drinks.  The food started coming a half hour later, and I had gotten to the point of joking with the waiter, "guess we don't deserve our appetizer, huh?"  This sent him running off, but not coming back with it.  I finally told the guy that bought our meals "we never got our calamari, I know it will be free (we had a coupon), but it still needs to make it to the table."  This vato was on the ball, as he made it appear in less than two minutes.  We then sat with our fajitas losing their sizzle on those skillet thingies and the waiters meandered through, again, "dude, some freaking tortillas, this shit is getting cold!"  That made him cough up the "dessert will be free that you hope for when things go to shit."  My nephew still held out hope for his calamari, even after he finished eating his meal.  He finally got an order which he enjoyed by himself because most people don't eat disgusting squid after they are full, it is kind of gross.
    I don't want to talk crap about the restaurant, the food, even a little cold, was delicious, but goddam it, I hate knuckleheads ruining things.  By the end, everyone got all their appetizers free, and most of us got desserts free.  The brownie with vanilla bean ice cream was just right.  Although I am still waiting for my coffee, I never got that.
    On the way back, I made it to Selma or past 1604 and onto I-35.  I started getting sleepy and Wife told me to pull over and she drove us home.  I was a little pissy, I had told her to stop at Buc-ee's and she made an executive decision and did not stop since Chubs and I were asleep.  I opened my eyes in San Marcos asking for Buc-ee's, and she did some voodoo and commanded me to go back to sleep and I did, but I slept angry.  It's a weird feeling when you close your eyes and wake up a block from your house but you don't recognize where you are at.

3/13/16 On The Second Day Of Spring Break, My True Love Gave To Me?

    We always talk about getting up early and going to eat breakfast, but of course I am not an early riser and Wife can sleep all day, if she doesn't have activities with school.  This morning, we happened to both get up around 10:00am to go pee.  Wife suggested we go eat, and since I had already decided to go downstairs and have some coffee with my fancy breads from Central Market, I said OK.  I then went to check on Chubs who had woken up super early, for some reason, but he wasn't in the mood to get out of bed.  I just yelled at him, too bad, dress you little hunk of ham.
    We started out to IHOP, but it was way packed, then we headed to Kerbey Lane Café, but I remembered last time and they insist on using black beans which taste ok, but us beaners are raised on the mighty pinto bean, that black bean just looks weird.  We almost went to Jalapeño's, but Chubs said he got a touch of diarrhea, last time.  We followed some signs which read Alma's Taco's, but when we turned found it was a taco truck, which is OK, but I wanted to sit down and drink some coffee.  We finally decided on Garcia's Family Restaurant.  It was crowded, and I quickly remembered why I don't like people in general.  The idiot behind me to my right was talking about politics and he must have said democrats and Hillary about 500 times.  You could barely hear the two ladies sitting with him, but this jackass was pointed like a butt plug and aimed right at my ears.  The other idiot behind me and to my left was the other kind of Austin douche material.  I didn't get a good look at him, but Wife said the gal was being all flirty, holding his hands and stuff, then the check came and he actually did the look through hoping to find money in his wallet, and he tells the gal to pay because he forgot he didn't have money or credit cards.  He did have enough wits about him to ask for a to-go cup for his soda.  When did to-go Styrofoam cups become a thing?  It seems everywhere we go eat offers this now.  I am sure this charming guy had that dumb chick horizontal by the time we finished our meal.  Chicks love guys who don't have two nickels to rub together, I mean that is father material right there.
    There was also the idiot older couple with a baby who leaned too close to the light switches and the baby turned off the lights.  Ok, laugh if you want, but promptly get off your ass, turn around and flip the lights back on.  Then there was the assorted "thug" guys outside, sitting in their cars conducting business by barking into their phones.  I wouldn't use the word thug, but I see neck tattoos and low rider cars and I start doing math in my head.
    I did kind of enjoy the slutty husky mom in her snakeskin boots all the way up to her knees, the mini dress showing half her thighs, and the low cut shirt and bra showing 70% of her boobs, but no nipples.  That part confused me a bit, where were the snow caps to the mini mountains? 
    I think we are over our need to eat breakfast with the masses.  We were back home by 1:00pm and I promptly went back to sleep.

3/12/16 On The First Day Of Spring Break, My True Love Gave To Me?

    Spring Break has finally started.  The rest of my little family gets to hang out and rest.  Since we didn't go anywhere, I decided not to take the whole week off.  I will be working half the week to save half my vacation hours for the summer. 
    The day started off normally, I had to run and go pick up Chubs after school, we stopped at the bank and took out some cash, because we aren't sure where the week will lead us, and I am a good little boy scout, I like to be prepared.  Chubs was ready to go home because I bought him a new video game yesterday as a reward for his accomplishment but I decided to go eat at Taco Bell.  It has improved, and we do eat there like twice a month or so.  Their tacos with the Doritos shells are such a great innovation in taco technology, and Chubs does enjoy spicing himself out there.  Once we were done, we came home to wait for the rest of the family.  Boy showed up an hour later, while I was doing the bills, probably around 5:00pm, then Wife finally got home at 6:00pm, because she had a meeting right up until 5:00pm. 
    Spring Break officially started at 6:10pm when she got home, we argued for a minute because she is strung way too tight and even though I had already questioned Boy about his bank card and he said he had taken care of it, he did have two cards in the mail.  I let it go when he said "yes, I have my card and I activated it."  Wife was not happy with that answer and she proceeded to finger wag and use that high pitched motherly tone, which always sounds like fingers on a blackboard to me.  I half joked, half impulsively reacted "your tone, it's all wrong."  This is kind of one of our jokes from Joe Dirt, which Christopher Walken's character keeps uttering when he recalls his old gangster days.
"You're talking to my guy all wrong, it's the wrong tone!"  He follows it with a very cold "do it again, and I'll stab you in the eye with a soldering iron."  It is a hilarious line from a stupid movie, which we love.  Wife always gets pissed when I reference it, which makes it even funnier to me.
    After she cooled off, we headed out, stopped and paid Target at the store since we just changed banks and our online pay thing is not completely set up yet.  We then headed to Central Market to get some snacks to hang out and watch TV and chill.  They didn't have what we were looking for, and we ended up getting pepperoni rolls at Double Dave's Pizza.
    We then both proceeded to fall asleep in front of the TV on and off over the rest of the evening.  I briefly woke as the opening sequence of San Andreas with Dwayne Johnson playing a helicopter rescue pilot saves a girl from the side of a mountain by taking the chopper into a very tight crevasse.  No freaking way would they put a million dollar helicopter in that situation.  I lost interest a few minutes later with the Asian geologist sacrificing himself in front of Paul Giamatti while saving a white girl, for no reason, on top of the Hoover Dam.
    I did rally later, waking up in the middle of Revenge Of The Nerds, and now writing this at 3:00am, while Wife snores on the sofa, Chubs came down to see what we were up to, and I believe Boy is asleep as he said he works most of the week.

3/11/16 Pushing Our Kids To Their Limits?

    Chubs was just accepted into a program for next year.  It sounds real prestigious considering something like 215 kids applied for the 25 positions and only 5 students from his school were selected.  The program is Einstein Junior Advanced Academic Program.  Wife says it is sponsored by the STEM program of which Boy was a part of when he was in high school.  I am all for giving my boys opportunities I never had, and I am even for pushing them harder than the kids next door.  I feel that the only way to achieve more is to do more.  Life doesn't hand the most important jobs to donkeys who sit on the couch all day.
    Right now, without any input from us, Chubs says he wants to be a geneticist, working on making people better through gene therapy and research in those fields.  I know it is in its infancy, and by the time Chubs finishes post graduate work, if he gets there, gene therapy might be hitting its stride.  What worries me is what I saw for Boy.  Once he was in high school and in the STEM program, he didn't take elective courses, like art or music.  Everything was very serious, and when he was working on his rocket projects, he would be lost in their garage for weeks at a time.  We would even go drop food for him there because it was so important he not stop what he was doing.
    I don't deny that those types of deadlines are good, once in a while, you can figure if you are the type of person who thrives in being challenged.  The other side of the coin is if you are a little immature, you might get a rude awakening and figure you don't belong.  I don't want either of my boys thinking that they don't belong in whatever pursuits they want to chase.  It worries me, Boy is a little lost right now, spring break is coming just in time.  I feel he needs to come home, and spend some time with us.  He might feel lost in a big university, he never was for making friends real easily, and at this stage, you need a network of people around you, even if it is just to have lunch with and change your thought process for awhile.  He just carries such a big burden on his shoulders.  He wants to conquer the world, and that is great, but you cannot put yourself in a corner and think it's you against the world by yourself. 
    I worry Chubs will be pressured too young and miss out on the little things in life.  People need downtime to think and wonder.  Every minute of the day should not be filled with tasks so gargantuan that they overwhelm the kid.  For now, I will celebrate with him.  We are proud of him.  I went and bought him a new video game, and he wants to go eat Pappadeaux sometime during spring break, so we got that to look forward to.  I'm going to need Boy to slow down, he overcommits with his friends sometimes, and although I like them and they are a great group of kids, sometimes I feel like he should just come home and disconnect from the world.

3/10/16 The Kind Of Guy I Am Limits My Choices?

    I was just reading an article in Car and Driver about how hard it has become to make decisions on choosing a car, specially when you have no brand loyalty.  He said it is much easier when a guy is a Chevy guy or a Ford guy, then that narrows it down to what he is going to buy.  I like the additional comment that if a guy has a tattoo of a Camaro, he is probably not looking at other cars, but I think people are so stupid nowadays, that his skin art is not a limiting factor.
    I am one of those guys.  Somewhere in 7th or 8th grade, I decided I was a Ford guy.  My dad had bought a single cab F150 that went from grey to plum in color, my Mom reminded him he was a family man, and they promptly traded that in for a supercab brown F-150, maybe it was even an F-250, but I loved that truck, no doors for the back and only two little seats.  It was the truck I took Wife on our first date.  I then chose a 1991 Ford Ranger when I left home to come to UT.  The writer is correct.  I never looked at the other brands, when we went to the lot looking for the ad truck, selling for $7995, I had a choice between a bright red or a pale light blue.  Red it was.  Great little truck.  A few years later, and a pregnant wife, we went and leased a maroon F-150 Flareside, beautiful truck, Wife put over 70,000 miles in two years and put us upside down on the lease thing.  I traded it in for my first F-250, another Supercab, bench in the back, little suicide doors.  Then we got Wife an F-150 two tone truck which she drove for a couple years.  This was followed by an Expedition in 2002, then traded it in for my 2004 Excursion when I heard they were going to stop making them.  I then went big boy style and got another F-250 in 2008, but this one was loaded and had the crewcab seating with four full size doors.  Freaking Boy would not drive it, and so I had to take a step back and trade it in.  He was in love with the idea of a Jeep, so we found one, he is still driving it.  I just a few months ago went back and made things right for me, and got another F-250.  The only thing I left open to change was the color.  Black would never be my first choice for a vehicle, but it is beautiful and loaded.
    If it were up to me, Wife will be driving a Ford Taurus, or maybe a Ford Explorer, but she is giving me silly shenanigans, and keeps saying she wants a Kia Soul, or something small.  That would be great if we were small people, but we are XL humans, we need the size of the bigger vehicles.  Ford caved too easily with the Excursion and its monster size, but it is based on the F-250 truck and its engines, and they keep selling those trucks, you can see them everywhere.  Maybe if gas prices continue being so low, they'll come up with even bigger SUVs.  Have you seen the concept Ford Bronco?

3/9/16 Papers Please?

    I always worry when weird shit is introduced to kids via their number one way to entertain themselves, video games.  This has to be at the top of the list in weirdness factor.  What does it accomplish?  I picked up Chubs after school and as always asked him how his day was and it was all very generic, same old, same old.  Then he mentioned a new game he saw that he wanted to download, but Mama said no.  The game as you guessed by the title is Papers Please.
    In the game you play a border patrol  agent and your job is to go around I assume harass the common folk with the phrase Papers Please.  Once you start the interaction there are a couple scenarios that can happen.  The guy with no papers can go to jail, he can get sent back to his country, the border agent can accept a bribe to let the illegal go on his merry way.
    I believe there are levels too, although I am going by my boys explanation.  You start at a border crossing, you can move up to working at an airport, or even working the brush chasing illegals with contraband.
    There's more, you get a salary, and with it you must choose whether to upgrade your gun, vest, and other tactical gear, and as if that wasn't enough, you get a family to support.  You can't use all your money just to go out and hunt humans.  You must weigh the factors that if you are sloppy, your family might starve.
    I have nothing but respect for Border Patrol.  I've seen shows like Border Wars and they do not have an easy job keeping drugs from coming into the country.  This type of game could be teaching young boys (specially) to have a mistrust for anybody brown in color, though.  After all, who are they keeping out?  Kids don't know any better.  They might think all Mexicans  they run into are packing heat, some weapon of some kind, or drugs as mules.
    It must have been designed pretty well and colorful for my boy to find it and maybe even play it because his explanation left me saying what?! and wow!! for about five minutes.   
    Later in the evening, Chubs was asking Wife if we have Papers, like in the game.  He is already familiar with the phrase, but he doesn't even know what papers they are referring to.  I guess our world is changing, we must accept it.  People in Europe (based on the movies we see) are used to walking around with their papers, maybe in ten years time, we too shall be ready for that reality.