"How Tasty!"

Yes, the time of year has come around once again as the Taste Of Arlington made its way to the Arlington Convention Center! We went last year and had just the best time. This time Cari and Branda remembered to bring the one thing they forgot last year: Ziploc bags! No, they really did bring them:



I laughed in the beginning, but when I got to take some stuff for lunch the next day, I wasn't laughing anymore. A few pix:



Here we see Jerramy fulfilling his lifelong wish of getting his picture taken with a giant squirrel. I could tell the guy in the costume wasn't having any fun, but I made him take the picture anyway.



I waited in line forever but I got to spin the wheel of fortune at Dave n Buster's! I even managed to win a free appetizer card! The fine print said we have to buy two entrees, but a deal's a deal, right?



Not sure why this event was comparable to the Statue Of Liberty. Drawing a blank here.

Emmy had some kind of Girl Scout Ceremony Monday night:



From what I can tell they are graduating from Juniors to actual cadets! I think. Not too up on the hierarchy of the Girl Scouts. I coudln't be there so Cari took some pics! Well, whatever it is, I'm very proud of Emmy. She's been a part of GS for over five years! Five l-o-o-n-g years if you ask her, what with the cookie sales and candy and nut sales.

This morning Zach and Emmy had their Pumpkin Parade! I managed to get a shot of them holding their pumpkin:



Zach, in his continuing quest to become all things Power Rangers, painted his pumpkin to look just like his mask from his costume.



Emmy did...um...a lot of fuzzy balls and sequins and glue! Not sure what the theme is but it looks awesome!

Then everyone marched down the halls of JB Little:



Guy Smiley ha ha.



Not so Guy Smiley. I'm afraid Emmy is reaching that age where hanging out with me in public is not so much fun as it is embarrasing. Ah well. I don't care.

Halloween is only 5 days away! I have a few memories of Halloween. The after school place I went to after kindergarten had a Halloween party back in 1980 or so, and Mom wanted me to be a ghost and wear this big sheet over me, which looked like and felt like a dress, so of course I refused and probably threw a fit until I didn't have to wear it anymore. But she was always looking out for me. Still would if I needed her to. Somehow, miraculously, I managed to support myself and my family and not screw up doing it. I know I owe a lot of people who helped me get here, but it feels pretty good knowing I'm not letting everyone down all the time or always having to borrow money from someone. This Christmas is going to be pretty cool. Cari says we will be in a really good place financially, which is really good. But for me, and hopefully Zach and Emmy one day, they won't look at Christmas as what they got, but what they got to do. And since there are only 56 more days until my super Christmas vacation, we'll be a-doin' plenty!

"More Flags! More Fun!"

Yes, when Halloween rears its ugly scary head, Six Flags always decorates the park for what they call "Frightfest"! We managed to make our way out there to see what all the fuss was about. Well, turns out, so did everyone else. Literally. We couldn't move at all without running into someone else. But, we did manage to ride a few rides and take some cool pix:



Not sure if this was my best smile, and I had to crop my lower half, but I like the way I look in this one. I worked out pretty good that morning.



Me: "Okay everyone, look scared of the giant pumpkin!"
Emily: "Um, it's actually more ugly than scary Dad..."
Zach: "Well, some would consider ugliness to be a form of scariness, don't you think?"
Me: "Aw man I'm just trying to take a picture guys..."



Not sure what Zach was trying to do there, maybe emulate the skeleton? Maybe look as goofy as possible? Maybe both!

Sunday we made our annual pilgrimage to the Catfish Plantation in Waxahachie! Legend has it there are three spirits that continue to haunt to this day. Of course, legends have a way of being disproven, so...who knows, really. But we had a good time:



Costumes abound! Zach has really gotten into Power Rangers this year, so when we saw this costume at Party City, he knew he had to have it. Emmy is the one and only Catness Eberdeen from Hunger Games!! What's funny is Emmy picked her costume out after about ten minutes, but we had to go to three different stores to find Zach's! sometimes boys are more indecisive than girls. Not often, but sometimes.



Tracy: "Do you know this song?"
"Deep and wide
Deep and wide
There's a fountain flowing deep and wide
Deep and wide
Deep and wide
There's a fountain flowing deep and wide."

John: "Oh sure, that's one of my favourites..."
Me: "Oh wow, I haven't usng that song since my days in church!"

I finally scanned Zach and Emmy's school pictures! Here's Emmy for 6th grade:



And here is Zach!:



I can't believe how much they've grown up over the last year. I need to find their other pictures. I have most of them on Flickr. Zach's birthday is coming up! We're having his party on November 3 at Pump It Up! Will have some pics coming up, you know I will...

"Dad Is How Old!??"

The big 6-0, that's how old!!

Wow. 60. It always seems like it is so far away until you actually reach it. Then you're looking around like, "What happened!? How did 60 years go by so fast?" Heck, I feel that way about turning 40 in a couple of years. I wonder how I'll feel when I reach 60. Hopefully there's a lot of family and friends around. We got together last Saturday at Grandma's house for some lasagna, salad, bread (of which Dean got none ha ha), and some cake:



Dad: "Now be honest with me...do I look silly?"
Me: "Well...the flowerly lei around your neck looks a little feminine..."
Dad: "Ooh, good call, I'll take it off immediately!:
Me: "Good idea! Otherwise people might have started laughing at you."

After dinner we had...cake!:



Of course we had to have black icing. Because...you know...Death's shroud is jet black...



Me: "Okay Dad, make a wish!"
Dad: "Whoop, it didn't come true...you're still here!! HAW HAW HAW!!"
Me: "Ugh, don't you ever get tired of telling that joke?"
Dad: "Um, NO...that's what makes it so funny!"
Me: "Um...not really..."



I picked this card out just for him. It says "Happy Birthday from your smart ass son!" Now normally I don't condone swearing but this card was just too fitting. I got him a "Sounds Of The 60's" CD just because it had some songs I hadn't heard of before. Turns out neither did Dad.

I should have gotten some pictures with my kids and Dad but the whole night was quite the whirlwind. Was a nice and chilly night but was still hot in Grandma's house. It's always hot in there. Always. Even Christmas morning. I always have to dress warm and cool then warm again then cool again. Hey, Christmas is coming up pretty soon! 70 days and counting until my super duper sized vacation! I've been planning this since April. I really want to take the kids to do some of the things we never seem to have time for. Malls, parks, Holiday In The Park, you name it, we're doing it. As always, I'll take pictures! Anyways...was glad to celebrate with Dad on his special day. I have a few cool memories of us growing up. One was, I guess I was about 7 or 8 and we had rode our bikes to the bike store to get something or have something fixed, not sure. As we were riding home, I found a $5 bill in the street. I asked Dad if I needed to give it back to the owner and he said "Well who's is it?" Since I didn't know, he said I could keep it. It was then that I learned if I didn't know who lost it, I could find it. Served me well. Probably a little too well. Not easy being a dad. Seems like all you do is get dumped on by your family. But, sometimes it's pretty good.

"Say It Ain't So..."

Oh, but it IS so...

The Texas Rangers, who were not only trying to get back to a third straight World Series but to actually win one, have been defeated in the 2012 AL Wild Card match up with the Baltimore Orioles 5-1. For the first time since 2009, we will not have any Texas baseball to watch in October...but it didn't have to be this way. We had a two game lead on Oakland with three games to play, which means we only had to win one...one...one game...and we would have won the AL West and not play in that stupid one game wild card match up. But, we were swept. Swept really bad. Bad to the point that we looked like a broken down wheelbarrow of a team. The actuality of it is, everyone was so tired, and Ron Washington wouldn't give them a day off, and no one had any energy. So now who do we root for? Oakland was actually down 0-2 in the ALDS against Detroit but managed to tie this thing up, so now it's anyone's guess who goes on to face the winner of the New York / Baltimore series. Currently New York has a 2-1 lead but do not count the Orioles out. They surprised a lot of people this year. But, we managed to attend a few games here and there during the last week of the season:





They put in this KidZone that Zach and Emily just love going to. They could care less about the game itself as long as they get to go here ha ha.



Jim Knox! The roving reporter literally roves around the ballpark looking for people to interview. The biggest fans if you will. Well, Zach wasted no time in taking off his shirt and waving it around to try and get on TV. Well, Jim watched for about 10 seconds then disappeared. His loss, right?



Earl Campbell! Apparently he is some kind of legend here in Texas, and he usually races Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett on the field between innings. We never see him at the gate, so Zach was pretty lucky to get a picture with him.



This is just a great shot of Emmy and me. I got a wicked faceburn from being in the direct sun for a double header. Seems like most of these pictures are me and Zach, so it's nice to change things up sometimes.



I can't tell if Zach is doing a "Let's score some runs!" dance of if he has ants in his pants. My guess is both. Hey, the ants could do a lot worse. We serve everything here!



As you can see, the burn is starting to intensify. Dumb me for forgetting a hat, right? But this is a nice shot of Cari and me. We must get more of these. We must!

So now...a long, long winter of unanswered questions, and the questions we do have answers to we really don't like. Do we want Josh Hamilton back? My biggest fear is that he will go to someone else in our division and just rip us apart. Of course, we were worried that CJ Wilson would come back to haunt us, and he ended up going 0-5 against us this year, so...who knows anything sometimes. I get the feeling Jon Daniels will pull off something huge before next year starts. Mark my words.