"Did Someone Say Macaroni??"

I sure did! As an avid follower of the "Visit Arlington Texas" Facebook page, they asked people to tag someone who they would take to their 1st Macaroni and Cheese Festival! So I tagged my daughter, and somehow my post got selected and I won two VIP tickets! I took Zach because Emily couldn't make it and Cari thought Zach would enjoy it more lol. Here we are arriving:



Behind us is the future Globe Life Park which is our new Texas Rangers stadium! After countless sweltering summers trying to watch them play, it will be nice to watch them whilst we have air conditioning blowing on us. God bless the man who discovered freon (Charles Franklin Kettering) and the man who invented the air conditioner (Willis Carrier)!! Now you can say you learned something today.



As a memento of the day, everyone got these handy utensil capsules!! If we ever went camping these would prove to be extremely useful. We should go again one day.



Sample one included pulled pork and topped with breadcrumbs!! So good.



Sample two was of the deep fried variety. Again...so good.



After all that mac and cheese, I needed something to cleanse the ol' palate. Fortunately they had deep fried Oreos!! Now in my defense I only had one. I could have eaten about ten of them though. But I didn't. But I could have.

After the eating had come to an abrupt end (we were stuffed), Zach made a great suggestion: Let's throw some axes!



My goal wasn't so much accuracy, but brute force. Maybe split the wood in half so no one else could use it ha ha. But, that might have ruined other some people's day.

I'm always grateful when Zach and I can hang out together. Seems like these opportunities are fewer lately. I'm glad he came and did this with me.

Later that day, thanks to some free bonus play and buffets, the four of us headed to ye olde Winstar World Casino! But first, a stop at Buc-ee's!!



I thought this was a great shot of all of us.

When we were ready for dinner, we had to wait over an hour to sit down since everyone and their dog also made the trip for the free buffet. Oy. But I managed to win this:



Actually it whittled down to around $200. But I never needed any money because of my $30 bonus play!

This...may have been one of the great days for me. I try to make each day a little different than the last one. I started going back up to the YMCA in the morning again. I seem to be in a little bit better mood during the day when I do. A lot has happened since i last posted four years ago lol. I will get into that eventually.

"Has It Really Been a Year??"

Now that I can get into my Flickr albums again I can start posting again! Oh happy day! A lot has happened in the last year or so...



We got a new kitty!! Actually Emmy got her for her birthday in 2015. This is Sydney! Emmy named her after some musician in some band from some other state. Do you like the way I give each detail great attention?



Zach turned 10! He's actually about to turn 11, but better late than never. We took him and his friends Rusty and Nicholas and Jacob to Putt Putt with all the go-carts and water bumper boats! It was like 60 degrees but they still didn't mind getting wet:



I quit my job!! Eight years at Healthmarkets only to be unappreciated and overworked...for NO RAISE two years in a row...and then a friend asked me to come with her to US Health in Fort Worth. 20% raise!! Plus the drive (14 miles) is much better than IRVING (30 miles)! Plus I get off at 5:15 instead of 6 now. Such a great decision I made in my life. One of my all time greats.

In March Zach's school had an after hours event at the Fort Worth Museum of History...so we went!



Such a good picture of us. Love it when he smiles.



I asked Zach to do his best Indian impression. I think he nailed it. I asked him to put some coloured paint on but he politely declined. Ah well.



Easter came and Emmy insisted on spraying me with some goop called "Silly String"...so gross. Smells like white out and sticks to everything.

Then in May some friends invited us to go see Air Supply at Winstar. Man I had no idea they could put on a show but it was a lot of fun.





The big shadow in front is Graham Hitchcock. He's an Aussie!

In June we took a vacation and went to Holly Lake! We even tried fishing for a while. Look what they caught:



Okay that's a bag of minnows. No one caught those. But Zach managed to catch this bad boy:



It was like a million pounds! Okay it was 2...and we had to throw it back. But the conquest will live forever.



Then in July Emmy had to have two wisdom teeth pulled! When she woke up she was a mess. She kept asking Mom if I was living in Canada or if I was coming home. Man that gas will mess you up. Fortunately she managed to get it done before her birthday! We had a swim party at her aunt's house and she got five friends to show up!



Yes my phone got hacked. No I didn't mind. Well, maybe a little.

So there's the last year in a nutshell. I should be able to update things more regularly now. It's hard to believe at one point I used to update this weekly! AND...I didn't have a phone that sent pics automatically to Flickr. Quite an acheievment.

"The Zoo..."

To quote a song by The Scorpions, on July 11, Dad, Keri and I went to the Dallas Zoo to check out their Jurrasic exhibit as well as an evening concert from a really good Beatles cover band A Hard Night's Day:



But before we did that, we checked out a few animals! Literally a few, because most of the animals decided it was too hot to grace us with their presence. Here we are at the giraffes:





Keri: "Hey, who looks better, me or the giraffe?"

Me: "Now how can you ask a question like that? I mean, sure it's a close call, but you just barely win! "

Keri: "How can you say that!?"

Me: "Hey, a win's a win, right?"



Dad: "Eeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwww what stinks around here?"

Me: "Well, it IS a zoo there chief...hope you weren't expecting a bouquet of roses at every turn."

Dad: "Can't they pump Febreze over the entire park 24 hours a day!?"

Me: "Well, they could...but then what? Then all the animals would be afraid to take a dump knowing they'd get sprayed with Febreze...it would be total anarchy!"

Dad: "Oh yeah...complete and total anarchy!"



Oh yeah...it's all aces. Cari and Zach and Emmy went to Conroe for the weekend and I couldn't get the days off so I stayed at home and was actually productive! I put up two fence panels all by myself as well as did all the laundry, mopped the floors and vacuumed. I even went through our extra sheets and put them in vacuum-seal bags! But it was a fun weekend. And I had the best day yesterday. I found out I get the week after Christmas off! Somehow I was 0 for 3 in getting any time off around the holidays so this was a super surprise. Then Cari asks if Zach and I want to see this:



This was actually really good! I had to pee about halfway through but I managed to hold on. Wouldn't mind seeing it again. This was a good day.

"Happy Memorial Day!"

As I celebrate my 40th Memorial Day, I think about all the people who gave their lives so that we can live freely. Part of me wishes I had more of a desire to serve our country, but honestly I think my kids needing their dad trumps it. So, Zach and I went to Campbell, in all the rain, which it started about a month ago and hasn't really stopped since. But oh well. On the way home I took Zach to my old town Duncanville and showed him the park I used to walk down to when I was a kid:



What used to be Limestone Park is now Chris Paris Park. Last year I told Zach a story about how I had discovered a well and when I went down I was able to meet my dad and grandpa as kids my own age at an old time soda fountain. Was a really interesting tale. So I took him to this park and showed him where the well 'used to be'. Maybe it was there, maybe it wasn't. We may never know. We walked around and skipped stones in the creek behind us. Was a really good time.

Then...we took a walk Monday morning and did some exploring at a creek down the street from us. We went under the bridge and saw this railing and ended up crossing it!:



Very proud of him! I was afraid one of us was gonna fall in. Eeew.

Later we went to Jay and Tracy's house and had a nice lunch and watched the Ranger game. Was a lot of fun.



Sometimes it's good for the guys to get away and do guy things sometimes. Zach is such a different creature when it's just us. No one screaming, just two guys talking about what's on their mind. He never ceases to amaze me with what he knows. Kid's a human encyclopedia sometimes.

"Now, To Be Fair..."

Get it? We went to the fair? No? Nothing? Fine, let's move on... On October 4, Dad, Keri and I went to the State Fair Of Texas! It was such a nice day out and the rest of the family was in New Mexico at a wedding. I think Keri goes every year, but I hadn't been in over 15 years, so the whole thing was all new to me. The first ride we went on was the giant ferris wheel I sometimes see when I drive through Dallas:



Pretty high up there. Turns out Dad has a slight fear of heights...or enclosed spaces...one of them. Well, this ride has it all! We managed to enjoy our time off the ground:



Apparently it was the "cheesy smile" hour or something.

Now, time for a snack...



This was supposed to be a combination of pecan pie and ice cream but I think we got something else. It had blueberries, fried dough and white chocolate chips. Was still really good!



Chicken fried bacon! Yep...not enough nitrates in bacon, let's deep fry it and serve it with ranch and honey mustard. Yep...still really good though.



Yep...just a couple of studs, chillin' out.



Dad: "I'm telling you son, I give the best massages!! Trust me!"

Me: "Um...it's not that I believe you, it's just...um..."

Dad: "What? What is it? Is there something I can do?"

Me: "Yeah...NOT RUB ME DOWN would be great!"

Dad: "You don't know what you're missin'..."

Me: "I'm okay with that."

The whole weekend was marred by a huge branch that fell out of our tree! I spent about half the weekend cutting, sawing, and lifting. Was worn out. Fortunately John and I managed to get it cut down and carried to the curb. Of course, it was not without a casualty. A giant branch fell and knock John off the ladder and he fell back and landed on his foot and broke it! In hindsight we realized we should have cut smaller parts first then gone after the bigger ones. Who knows, the same thing would have happened maybe?

Really enjoyed myself at the fair though. Was nice to hang out with family and not quibble and bicker like some families tend to do. Will have to make more of an effort to make time for people.