"Shut Up And Drive..."

Well, we didn't get to drive any of the cars (despite my constant pleading), but Dad, Zach and I sure had a fun time at the Fort Worth Auto Show on Sunday. We even (big secret) sat in some of the cars! Don't tell anyone, I don't want to go to jail on a trespassing or vagrancy charge. A few pix:


GAW this car is small. And since it is electric...


...there's no engine! The woman with the dealership said we could use it as a beer cooler. Man, you should have seen Dad's eyes light up...I wonder if he knows she was just kidding.


Dad: "Hey Zach, what are you doing?"
Zach: "Um...not hot-wiring this car if that's what you're implying!"
Dad: "Hey now! Where did you learn how to do that anyways?"
Zach: "Um...not from watching my dad do it if that's what you're implying!"
Dad: "Do I imply too much?"
Zach: "A little bit..."

Zach even got to do some rock-climbing! Never have I seen a rock-climbing set-up in a car show! First time for everything I guess:


Zach: "Uh, Dad...I'm getting really scared at this height..."
Dad: "What!? You're only three feet off the ground!"
Zach: "But I'm only three feet tall!"
Dad: "Hmm...you may have a point...I'll get the oxygen."


Oh is this the gem of the show. 2011 Camaro Jolly Rancher Apple green. I didn't get to sit in it since all guys everywhere were lined up but at least i got a shiny picture!

After the show we went and walked around the Water Gardens for a while:


What a great picture! This one I'll get printed up for Dad since the ones he has are from like three years ago ha ha. I'm sure Zach has grown a little since then.


Also a good one. Glad to see the cardio and ab crunches I've been doing are worth it.

We actually got Dad to play Just Dance!:



Ohh...good times.

Gonna be kidless this weekend! After Zach's soccer game we're taking them to Mom's where Zach is going to spend the night with her and Emmy is going to spend the night with Keri. By themselves they are both really nice and obedient kids. But man...ya put them together, and chaos just breaks loose! Esp. with Zach being a boy and thinking it is so funny to call people names and hit his sister...I really didn't want to be the kind of dad who answers every question with a spanking. Dad did that more often then not and I really used to resent him for it. I say "used to" because it wasn't until I had a boy that I realized sometimes it's the only answer. I remember one time when I was about eight. We were going to throw the football around after dinner. I was in the front yard waiting for him to come out and a friend rode up on his bike and asked me if I wanted to ride around with him. Well, being a kid, I completely forgot Dad was on his way out and I just took off. I came back around an hour later and Dad was furious. He said his famous, "Go to your room and wait for me" line and gave me a whoopin' about one minute later. Sometimes I feel like I was just the most dense kid ever. Now, watching Emmy and Zach grow up, I realize it was just me being a kid and sometimes having to learn things the hard way. It's too bad being a good parent means having to be a jerk sometimes and set the groundwork one brick at a time.

"A Modern Day St. Patrick...?"

Nah...but Zach and I are very much looking forward to this movie coming out!! For some reason he has really taken a liking to this particular member of the Justice League. Not Batman, not Superman, thank goodness not Wonder Woman...but the Green Lantern is his hero of choice right now. He got a Green Lantern cartoon movie for Christmas but man there are a few unfavourable words in there I'd rather him not hear. Why does DC have to do that? Ugh... but I will take him to see this one. He's very excited about it!

So we made it back from San Antonio in one piece!! All in all it was an okay trip. Not without its' usual arguments and foibles though. Here was our itenerary:

Monday: Fiesta Texas!

This is the equivalent of the Flashback at Six Flags. Looks massive! Too massive for me. In all honesty, I probably could ride most of the rides, but my gut was not made for sudden twists and drops.


This is the Rattler! Basically the same design as the Texas Giant. Cari and Emmy spent about 1 1/2 hours waiting in line. Was it worth it? Not to me lol.


Hey, what a great picture of us...NOT lol


Christine: "Hey, look kids, it's a copperhead snake!"
Zach: "Um...what's it doing in a family-themed park?"
Christine: "Realism my boy, realism!"

Tuesday: The Riverwalk!


The water is certainly a lovely shade of...jade? Emerald? Well, some kind of stone.


Aww, it's Cari, happy as a lark to be on a boat going 3 miles per hour. I like the waterfall in the background. Very photogenic.


Man that is one tall building. Reminds me of the buildings in "Inception" that folded on top of themselves. Apparently they shot some movies around here. One of them was "Miss Congeniality". Never saw it.


Why can't Zach make a nice face when I want him to? I mean EVER?? (sigh) at least he is smiling. Love the backdrop though.

That night we cooked some chicken and pineapple:


Just the fact that the fire actually seperated itself from the grill worries me.


Hey, that looks pretty good. The foil-wrapped items were given to us by a very nice (and very drunk) Mexican family staying in a nearby cabin. Well, that's not entirely true. The little boy wasn't drunk. At least I don't think he was. He did slip on the rocks a lot though.

I took the day off after we got back, so once we got the house cleaned up real good we went to: where else...the park! This was a park Zach had never been to, and I took Emmy there only once, when she was 2. We were there for about 5 minutes, then she had an accident (if you know what I mean) and I didn't have any clean clothes to change her into. so...we went home. Haven't been back sense, but only because we never thought about it until we were at another park lol:


Isn't that a great shot! Let's see a $2,000 camera take one as good as that. While Emmy was on the playground, Zach and I took a walk around the lake and had a real nice talk about how proud I was of him growing up a little and doing more things for himself. Why, just that morning he had taken a shower by himself, gotten himself dressed by himself, and even put up his own laundry by himself. Man...now I can put their baskets in their room and make them both put up their own clothes ha ha. Emmy has been doing it for quite a while now. Hopefully she will become more organized as a result. Zach too!


Me: "Okay guys, go ahead and feed the ducks!"
Emmy: "They don't seem to like the crackers a whole lot Dad."
Zach: "We should have brought what those other kids brought."
Me: "Oh yeah? What was that?"
Zach: "Bacon-wrapped scallops."
Me: "What the...what kind of a nut feeds that to a duck, anyways?"
Emmy: "Bobby Flay?"
Me: "Mmm...yeah, that would be the exception."

After the park we went to...Chili's!


I hadn't eaten all day so those chicken crispers were extra delicious! This was one of my favourite days and I enjoyed every minute of it. I even made dinner! Chicken Parmesan with Caesar Salad and garlic bread! Very good if I do say so myself...which I do. Which could not have come on a better day since Cari had a really lousy day. She started crying right there at the table. When your office treats you lousy and unfairly, it will really stay with you even when you go home. I know when I was at the mall I had to put up with so much crap and favortism. The happiest day of my life was when I didn't have to be there anymore. When you're light years smarter then the people in charge, there's a problem. Fortunately, Healthmarkets lets me do my own thing and as long as I take care of me, they take care of me. Maybe this isn't such a bad place to be.

"Our Camera Is..."

...found!! After weeks of wondering what in the heck happened to it, Cari gets a hunch to look under my car seat and in 5 seconds...wa-la! Found it! I think she had it the whole time and planted it to make herself look smart which she adamantly denies. I wonder if the whole story will ever be known to us...maybe, maybe not. There were some pictures on there of Zach and me at the "hidden park" which I was really sad I didn't get off the card sooner. Here are a couple:




He sure does love that monkey doesn't he.

This was the day Cari and Emmy were selling Girl Scout cookies now that all the snow and ice had finally melted off and it was so pretty outside. Of course, I was bouncing off the walls wanting to go outside as was Zach. We laid there and looked up at the sky and had a really great talk about a lot of different things.

Zach's rodeo was a big hit! He had to get on a big bouncy ball with a handle and ride it like the bullrider he was listed as in the program. Needless to say...very entertaining. A few pix:


Zach: "Hey Dad, wanna see my Michael Jackson impression?"
Me: "Isn't that a little...I don't know...out of place here?"
Zach: "Hey, you're the one who made me practice the moonwalk."
Me: "Ah yes...best possible way to spend a weekend!"


Look at him go!


I guess a silly face is better than...well...not much...but at least I look decent ha ha. Ehh...I guess he looks okay. Love the high hat!

Saturday night Cari took a much-needed break from it all and had a girls' night out. So...the three of us were sitting around trying to think of a game plan. Then I realized there was a really cool park near my office that every time I would pass it in the car I wanted them to see. So we got in the ol' car (and I mean OLD) and went there:


Where is the rest of Zach's torso? And is Emmy slowly choking him? Questions abound!


Love those pictures with everything in the background and both kids actually smiling AND looking in the camera at the same time.


Ya rarely ever see baby ducks anywhere in a park, but there were a lot around this one!

Afterwards we went to NorthEast Mall for a little shopping and some dinner, then went home and watched AFV before I finally collapsed around 9:45. I had been sick all weekend and was running on fumes when we got to the mall. Emmy was a little upset I wouldn't take her to Justice. She's so funny. No matter how muhc you rationalize to her that you don't feel good and if we don't go home soon I may fall asleep while driving, but she was still disappointed. I guess one lesson we all learn as parents is no matter how much you do for your kids, sometimes it just isn't enough. But, I know she's a good kid. A great one actually. It really is like watching me when I was a kid. I was so sensitive about things and got upset so easily. But what kid doesn't, ya know? Zach's favourite thing to do now is scream "NO!" when he is asked to anything. I'm probably the most patient person I know, but he tests that repeatedly these days. Then, other times, he is the sweetest kid I've ever seen. He's a real mystery, but one that may be fun to solve.

I found a bunch of old Sierra games from the 1980's on Youtube! People play them so that you can see how to get past a certain point. here are my top 3 faves:

Gold Rush


In this game you are a nobody (no, really) who decides his life is boring so he travels to San Francisco to try and find his brother. Along the way he must decipher lots of clues and try to strike it rich. Was a lot of fun when I played it as a teen-ager. Yeah, a lot of guys would go out with girls, but when ya looked like me...well...the girls just weren't a-lookin'. (sigh)

Space Quest 2


This game came free with my Tandy computer I got for my birthday in 1988. Anyone remember Tandy? No? Okay. Basically you were a janitor who saved the universe in the first game but are now still a janitor and you have to stop the release of insurance salesmen clones from invading. Great plot eh?

King's Quest 1


This game was the first one I ever bought with my own money. Of course, I needed a hint book to beat it, but it was a lot of fun too. I remember using Grandma's photocopier to make a full map of the kingdom so I could navigate it a lot easier. Ahh, to be young again...

So Mom gave us her king-size bed as a mega-Christmas present just because she didn't have the room to keep it. So Tony and I picked it up about 2 months ago but it sat in our garage for the last month. So on Feb 12 I (with some help from Zach) took the old one down, vacuumed all the dust and crap that built up over the last NINE years
and put the new one up. Darn comfy! Now my favourite time of the day is getting into bed and just chilling. Of course, now the kids think OUR bed is now THEIR bed and each night is a challenge to get 'em out.

Since Zach's Valentine's Day lunch was actually ON Valentine's Day I didn't go to work until 3pm. Isn't that sad how that is a half day for me and a whole day for everyone else? Anyways...since I had a couple of hours to kill after lunch I went and got some flowers from Kroger's and brought them up to Cari! She was very surprised. She even Facebooked a picture of them. I'll try and get it on here.

Going to San Antonio this weekend! I don't normally take vacations in March, but I'll make an exception after this year. I can only take so many work thru lunches and no lunch breaks at all before I get real bitter about things. And no one likes a bitter Mikey, right?

"One Fun Birthday party!"

Yes, now that young Zachary has some classmates, he also gets to go to some pretty neat birthday parties! So the four of us went out to "Country Critters" in Mansfield last Saturday. Literally in the middle of nowhere. But they had lots of animals and lots of manure to accompany them. A few pix:


Me: "Hey sheep...you want some hay...or grass or something?"
Sheep: "Actually...a Big Mac sure would hit the spot."
Me: "Um, yeah, I don't really carry those around with me..."
Sheep: "Ohh..."
Me: "Just kidding. I have some in the car."


Zach: "Hey Dad, what's that smell?"
Me: "Well, it's basically every animal's crap being stepped on over and over..."
Emmy: "Ewww...why anyone thinks pony rides are fun is beyond me."


Nothin' creepy about a giant haybale that looks like a rabbit at all!

My uncle sent me an e-mail of a snake eating a lizard:




Good Lord! Hopefully that will keep him full for a while.

Zach has his rodeo today! Will have some pix next week. It got postponed from last month due to all the ice we got. He sure does like his school. It's almost a shame he'll only get to go there for just this year. But, we have to choose between paying $400.00 a month for this school, or Little Elementary for free. Not that tough a decision if you ask me. Sure will be nice to have some extra money around though.

Emmy finished her TAKS test this week too! If she's anything like me she'll nail this one and then all her teachers will call us and ask why she gets these tests perfectly but gets C's in school. For me, if it's not about something remotely interesting, I tend to lose interest very quickly. I hate that about myself but the harder I try to change it the worse I do. Yet I can recite lines from my favourite TV shows and movies at the drop of a hat. What can ya do, right?