"Say It Ain't So..."

And by that...I mean...the Texas Rangers...who were one strike away from winning the World Series TWICE...have faltered and let this thing go to a Game Seven...tonight!! Maybe the "more is merrier" philosophy applies here. A lot of us were quite anxious to get this thing over with, but the darned Cardinals would not go away. So I guess we'll have a game-watching party tonight and see who wants to come over. But, a lot of other fun things happened this week too. Tuesday night we went to the Taste Of Arlington at the Arlington Convention Center! Now what this is is a sampling of over 30 different restaraunts and vendors, as much as you want (long line notwithstanding), and man, I was beyond stuffed by the time we went home. So sleepy, so exhausted...slept like a baby though! A few pix:


Some nut in a chicken costume wondered around all night. He may have been a crasher, we're looking into it. It got hot in there!


This one is...maybe we should just keep moving.

I won a Dave And Buster's beach towel! They had a spinner and whoever got 1,000 tickets won it! So I spun...and won. Sitting in our towel drawer at home. Maybe Zach can use it. It's kind of small.

Hey, remember those punpkins Zach and Emmy decorated last week? Well, they had a parade and...well...paraded them around the halls of the school:


Again...hate the Phone camera. But Zach sure was proud of his pumpkin. He called it a mummy but he covered it with play money so it was a "munny"...ha ha get it?


Caught Emmy off guard. She made a zombie girl complete with feathered hair! Some of those feathers are still in my car...I'll live.

Today Zach had his costume parade:


I had to literally hold him down so I could take a picture of him completely still or else...IPhone scribbles. That's my pet term for the blurry pictures an iPhone takes. He didn't wear his hair hat which took me 10 minutes to get right this morning. Ugh.

Today we had a costume contest at work! There were a lot of weird get ups. Before I put mine on I Facebooked a sneak peek:


I called it "A Legend Is About To Be Born..." Pretty catchy eh? Cari was nice enough to get me the helmet and shirt. And then...I put it on this morning and wore it to work:


Not as cool as I had in mind. But, I had fun. At work. A first time for everything yes?

Going to Catfish Plantation Sunday for our annual "dress up the kids and go to the scary restaraunt" Halloween weekend. Man, is it Halloween already? Why does time have to fly by so fast? I remember trick or treating when I was a kid. Back then we could be 7, 8 years old and navigate the neighborhood all by ourselves without worrying about not ever coming back home. One time that happens and it changed everything. I enjoy going around town with Zach and Emmy and watching them get a pirate's haul of candy. My neighborhood wasn't too big or too small...just right. The best nights were when it landed on a Friday. I would spend all day at school just anxious as heck waiting around for that night. I honestly don't remember how old I was when I got tired of doing it. Maybe 15? In 1989 we were in Canada and it was Dad I think that got the great idea to use black make up or ink to make my face black as I was going as Batman. Well, between the acidity of whatever that stuff was, plus the 40 degree weather outside, it stung like the dickens! Was so glad to get inside and get it off. Around here we don't worry too much about it being cold since it rarely gets below 60 this time of year. Was cold as heck last night though! Got a torrent of rain too. Glad that's all over with. I like rain but not when there's fun things to do outdoors.

"Halloween...is Near..."

...and cool weather has come along with it! I thought it was getting cooler then it heats back up. But this weekend was pretty nice. Sunday we went to the pumpkin patch to pick out Zach and Emmy's pumpkins for their halloween parade they're having this week:


Emmy: "Hey Dad, have you ever seen a pumpkin this big?"
Me: "Um, yeah...there's several right behind you."
Emmy: "I mean in my hands this very moment in time!!"
Me: "Oh! Then no...no I have not."
Emmy: "Ugh...why must you be so dramatic?"


Zach searched long and hard to find the perfect pumpkin. But he did. Now they have to decorate them by Wednesday. I'm hoping lots of Rangers colours!!

We got our Halloween costumes yesterday as well. Emmy is going as "Draculaura" from "Monster High" and Zach is going as...


...Jack Sparrow from Pirates Of The Carribean! Now, he's never seen any of the movies, but what I think happened is he saw someone else dress like him like 2 or 3 years ago and the idea stuck in his head Inception-style. He thinks he looks like a girl with the hair and all, but I assured him he looks just like the real Jack Sparrow...if he were real.

Rangers won 4-0 behind an incredible (and necessary) pitching gem from Derek Holland. We were up 1-0 and then Mike Napoli hits a 3-run bomb on the first pitch from the relief pitcher for the Cardinals. We haven't been in the lead hardly at all the whole series but last night was great! I think Napoli is going to get MVP of the series if the Rangers win this. Can they? Man I think the city of Arlington could use this. The last of the four major teams to not win a championship would be the Rangers, and the time is now. A lot of great players have played in the majors and not won a World Series. We got this.

"HOW BOUT THEM RANGERS!!!"

Again??

YES AGAIN!!! For the first time in franchise history, my Texas Rangers are making their first ever repeat trip back to the World Series!! It was one heck of a Game Six against the Tigers. We were down 2-0...and then...they got a hit...and another...and another...and fourteen batters later, we has a 9-2 lead and the game was ours. No Game Seven, no drama, just a flat-out bludgeoning of a team many thought would get past us. But no one gets past us...not without a good beatin'.


No, not my TV. But, I didn't think anyone else had a TV as old as ours ha ha.

Oh man I was looking forward to this game all week. I knew we had this. I would go on Facebook as often as I could and spout my hopefully catching catch-phrase:

WE GOT THIS.

Not bad eh? Last year was "It's Time"...but this year...much better. The St. Louis Cardinals have won the NL pennant so looks like it's us vs. them. No worries...WE GOT THIS.

We've had Rangers-watching parties the last 2 Saturdays. So much fun. Whooping and hollering every time the scored in the 3rd inning. Nine runs in the third inning!! I thought I had lost my voice. Not so good when I have to talk all day.

After Zach's T-Ball game Saturday Emmy and I went out to see my "Mamaw" in Baylor Hospital in Waxahachie. Apparently her sodium levels fell way low which lowered her blood pressure which caused her to pass out and hit her head on a sidewalk! Just thinking about it makes me cringe. Well, after being moved from one hospital to another, she was doing a lot better when we went out there. Mom was there and the four of us had a really nice time talking and catching up. Four generations in one room. There's something to be said for that. I keep thinking about the last time I was in a hospital visiting someone. It was Grandpa, and he never made it out. Hopefully the outcome will be different. Mamaw has really been there for me, pretty much my entire life. All the stupid things I've done, all the bad choices I've made, she always managed to get me out of the dumps and show me there's greater things in store for me. Everything I have I owe to her. A few other people too I'm sure, but mostly her. I'm really glad I got to live with her back in 1995-1997. When Grandpa died the family all told me how glad they were that I was living there to keep her company.


Here she is reading "The Cat In The Hat" to Emmy when she was 4. For some reason I don't have a lot of pix of Mamaw on Flickr. Will have to see why.

There's a couple of funny stories about Mamaw I've managed to keep in my head. One I like to tell is when she bought a treadmill, determined to lose weight. Well, she would get on there and walk about 30 minutes, towel around her head and all. Afterwards, she'd go out to the freezer and get out the butter pecan ice cream and have some of that. After a week she'd weigh herself and grumble, "Why can't I lose any weight!?" I was hoping she'd put 2 and 2 together at some point.

The other is one day she went to Sam's and bought a 24-ct of Dr Pepper for us. Well, she left it on the bottom of the cart and went home without it. So there, in the parking lot, sat a brand new case of Dr Pepper. I wasn't home until later and when I came in the door I hear this whole story about how we didn't have them but we almost did. We pondered going back up to Sam's and looking for them but they were probably long gone. Ah well.

Zach's birthday is coming up! We went to Toys R Us yesterday so he could make a list of sorts so I could send it out to various family members. So far we've gotten:

Angry Birds toys
Annoying Orange shirt
Alien Conquest Legos
Uncle Milton 3D star theater
Star Wars Night Vision Goggles
Pokemon Oshawatt with red/white ball
Spynet Video Watch
Phnieas and Ferb walkie talkies
Squinkies
Hot Wheels Wall Tracks

Here he is trying out a giant magnifying glass:



Man, quite a list for a soon-to-be 6 year old! At least he knows what he wants. We're trying to plan a Chuck E Cheese party, but man, $200.00? I bet he's worth it. I hope Zach and Emmy know what they mean to me. It seems like they never grow up, then grow up way too fast. What's that all about?

"Goin' To The Chapel..."

...and we're...gonna...get ma-a-r-r-r-i-ed...

Okay, I'm not getting married. But my aunt Susan sure did. We drove out to Ennis Sunday and watched the matrimony get all kinds of holy as her and Ed joined lives. The pastor that was officiating sure got choked up. He started crying and blubbering like a little girl when he started talking about how two lives have now become one. Was kind of entertaining to watch. He turned in his man card after it was over. Since I broke our printer / scanner even MORE (originially it stopped reading the memory stick from our camera then it wouldn't print anything so I smashed the top of it only to find out about 10 seconds later that by doing that I broke the glass...(sigh), I had to use my iPhone to take some pictures. Plus, now we get to invest in a new printer! Maybe one with wi-fi...ooooh. Fancy. ere are a few pix:


Me: "Hey, get a room you two!"
Ed: "Oh we did, if you know what I mean!"
Me: "Um, no, actually I DON'T know what you mean...please elaborate!"
Ed: "I'd rather not."


Dean and I kept asking Dad to move his head. Dean was much more persistent than me. At one point I wondered if he was kidding or serious. But this one's a keeper!

I know I normally do these on Friday, but there wasn't anything happening last week. So I did it today. Sometimes we get busy and some things get pushed to the side. Like fixing the silverware drawer in the kitchen! I swear, whoever designed these things should be taken out and shot. The glider on the back came off and the brace that held the guiderail broke. Well, I managed to put a new brace in but it was too short, so every now and then the drawer would come off and I'd have to reset the guiderail. So, after many months of procrastination, I took the old one out and put in a new one which works so much better now. Now, I can open the drawer without the deafening sound of the drawer hitting the crock pot. I also called the city to come and pick up our old bed that had been in the back yard since February when I put our new bed in. Slowly things are getting done. I wish I had more interest in household repairs and landscaping. I used to. But, as with all interests, they are fleeting. I haven't bought any new toys since last Christmas! I bought one for myself as a present ha ha. Good times.

I found this clip on Youtube:


I sent this in an e-mail and titled it "Did I ever tell you about the time I took my CDL test?" Eh...I thought it was funny.

Wow, Dad's birthday is this Friday! Numero 59! I know I'm about to be 40, but I just can't wrap my head around being his age. I probably thought the same thing when I was 18 and he was 40. I guess when you live your life worrying about hardly anything and always looking for the positive (like I try to do), time passing by doesn't mean as much. All I want is to be able to retire at some point and not be in a wheelchair or hooked up to an oxygen mask. My goal is to make it to 100. When you're 100 people take notice. Maybe I'll be on the news!