"Grandma Is How Old??"

84, that's how old! And I can honestly say, she has not changed since the day I met her. Same black curly hair, same 4'8" frame, same accent, which I would have thought would have been phased out as time went on, not unlike Ross's British accent on that episode of "Friends" that not only wasn't there in the first place, but he had to figure out a way to get rid of it, which, as us Friends fans know, didn't go well. But that's another story for another day. We all got together at Grandma's house Sunday for an Italian lunch where we brought spaghetti, Keri brought lasagna, and everyone else brought everything else and man, were we full afterwards. We were also sweltering, as apparently her air conditioner had broken down and uncle Dean had taken it out to get it fixed. Man was it hot. I wanted to wear a thin shirt to keep myself cooler, but nothing could have prepared me for the sauna we were walking into. But we had a real good time. Most of us gave money for a new patio furniture set, which we all agreed was needed as most of what she has is less than stellar. I took a few pix, mainly because I was in a bad spot to take them, but I got a few:


Me: "Okay Grandma, blow out the candles and make a wish!"
Grandma: "There aren't 84 candles on this cake! I'm not doing anything until I see some more candles!"
Me: "How many more do we need?"
Grandma: "Um, about 72 more..."
Me: "Yeah, pretty sure we'll be violating some fire hazards there..."


Grandma: "Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm a schizophrenic, and so am I..."
Me: "Oh man that's hilarious!"
Grandma: "I don't get it..."
Me: "That's surprising...it really is..."

Saturday Zach had a T-Ball game (surprising) and we were warming up before the game, mainly to get Emmy some practice work since she's playing softball now! I haven't been able to see any of her games yet since all the Saturday ones keep getting re-scheduled or cancelled...arggh. But we played some toss:


Got a new haircut and some new glasses! She's got a really powerful swing and throwing arm, now we just have to figure out how to harness it and maximize it.


Apparently Zach is under the impression that our new Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish addresses his catcher this way before he's about to throw a pitch, so he was doing that. Better to be over-prepared then under-prepared I guess.

Oh, and today is offically Star Wars Day! I've already gotten an e-mail from Dad stating "May The 4th Be With You..." Ugh. Bad pun. Or is it genius? I don't really know. So, I thought I'd dust off a few of my favourite Star Wars pics and toys and bring them out for an encore presentation!"


This was a sampling of all of the stuff I started collection when Phantom Menace came out in 1999. I happened to be working at Pizza Hut which was the big winner to distribute toys from the movie as well as cups with giant cuptoppers. Who knew this little collection would grow so massively?


To my knowledge this is the only action figure of the older Anakin Skywalker out there, but there maybe others. Thought this was pretty cool and maybe a rarity in the toy world.


This was the Star Wars convention at the Fort Worth Museum of History back in 2007. Look how young I was. And, as it turns out, it wasn't all just baby fat. There's some real fat too I'm trying to get rid of. A friend of Cari's was supposed to go with me but he was selfishly having bone marrow drawn out of his hip. Why would anyone choose THAT over going and seeing Chewbacca costumes? To each thier own I guess. Unfortunately he had cancer and actually passed away last year. Things really suck sometimes, don't they?


This is the real Millenium Falcon used in the outer space shots. This was a pretty good picture considering 1) I had my flash of my camera on the whole time 2) Everything was covered with plexiglass and 3) most of my other pictures have this bright star on them from the flash. Great explanation eh?

And finally...


This one is kind of my showpiece of my collection. A re-creation of the last scene of Return Of The Jedi where all three spirits of the slain Jedis get together at the Ewok kegger to celebrate the end of the Empire. This was the only one of the three original movies I got to see in the theater. Back then we didn't have Netflix or Blockbuster or even a VCR to rent Beta tapes. Ahh, Beta...good times.

Was a pretty fun week. Of course, what week would be complete without a little family drama? Thursday morning I'm trying to get the kids to school and Emmy teases Zach or calls him a name and Zach's all upset, which isn't a good way to start the day. So then Zach pulls one of his silly dialogue routines out and starts asking me to back over him with my car. Of course I tell him I would never do that but of course that's not enough for him so he keeps it up. Then that night after Emmy's softball game we ate at Double Dave's Pizzaworks and on the way home I asked him if he was feeling better and of course he said no and started getting really dramatic and wouldn't be serious so finally I just shouted "Quiet!" And I mean shouted. If you knew me at all you would know I never shout, or at least like to. So we drove home in silence and I pretty much ordered him to go in and take a bath which I was impressed when he went and did it without having to be asked 100 times. While he was in the bath he looked up at me with those big ol puppy eyes and said "I love you" and I said "I love you" too in a real apologetic voice. We had a father son talk that seemed to be really productive. At some point he has to stop hiding behind being the youngest of our clan and start taking some responsiblity for not only his actions but his words, as we all know they can be just as powerful. I hope one day we will be better friends then we are now. Something tells me we're on the right path.