A Whole Mess O Crap
I should have started writing some of this stuff down last week but work and general laziness got in the way.
Brother Pat and his wife Rana went on a trip to Texas last week and they left one of their girls with us. Emma stayed with Grandma while Megan stayed with us. The first night was met with a bit of drama when bed time came around because Megan wanted her parents. After ten minutes she was fine and drifted quickly to sleep. One of the days during her stay she leaned a tad too far forward in her little chair and it slipped, sending her nose straight into the corner of the table (ouch!). If I would have written this shit down on time I could have provided the date and time and even described what type of food was sitting in front of her. Ah well, let’s move on…
Ben got over his Croup and most of his ear infection and is starting to be a pleasant little boy again.
Kerri took the kids to the local farm to play with the animals. She met up with Grandma so there were at least two adults for the 4 children. They rode horses, jumped on haystacks and held their noses around the pigs and chickens. That’s right, chickens stink too.
On Saturday we all went to Chuck E. Cheese’s for some fun and mayhem. You might be asking yourself, “How the heck did Tom remember the date of this event?”, and if you are, you’ve clearly never been to this place. You simply remember trips to the ‘other’ house of mouse, mostly because you’d often prefer to forget them. The kids have fun, no doubt. But when you have young children in your charge a transformation occurs, turning you from a simple, calm adult into more of a crossing guard trying to get a group across the 101 freeway. One good thing about Chuck’s is you have a high probability of running into people you know. I ended up meeting a very old friend from High School that I have not seen in several years; Mike Murth. On my way out I gave him my email addy and he promptly sent me a message with his deets from a little phone/PDA. I love technology!
Later in the day I took Ben so Kerri and the girls could have some alone time. When Abby has a friend over Ben gets a bit of the “cold shoulder”. He wants to be a part of everything but the girls see him for the third wheel that he is. We went for a walk around the corner and engaged in serious rock throwing. Ben has “quite an arm” for his age. And I’m not just saying that because he’s the cutest kid with genius IQ and perfect coordination. And not because he’s my kid… not so much anyways. I got hassled a bit by neighbor Mark for walking with a toddler down the street while holding a beer. It wasn’t the ugly type of hassle like, ” I’m calling Child Services!” but more of a funny, “I’m calling Child Services” sort of thing.
Kerri dialed me in Saturday night and took all three kids while I watched the USC/Stanford game in The Garage. It was exciting to watch at first but turned into more of a 21 year old beating up a 12 year old type of thing. USC beat the living daylights out of Stanford and by the third quarter I had to turn it off.
The Pat/Rana combo returned safely on Sunday and got to my place around lunch time. Grandma Kathy came over too, partially to return Emma but mostly for the free turkey sandwich and side of Pirates Booty. Football on in the background? Check.
Later in the afternoon I devised a small plan that would both get Kerri stoked and piss off neighbor Darin. I decided to weigh the pros/cons of the plan and after 30 seconds of very careful thought I pulled the trigger which sent Kerri shopping with Alison and yanked Darin from his comfortable resting place on the couch. Basically the two women went shopping and the boys watched the kids. And some football. I can’t describe the early events properly and that really upsets me but if you can picture it from my lacking description you’ll have quite a vision. It took about 5 minutes for the plan to get rolling. All of a sudden I heard this rumbling sound outside of my house and as I looked out I saw Alison in her red Ford Mustang, revving the engine. It reminded me of a high School friend (with a car!) cruising over to pick you up. Kerri (who had been holding Ben) jammed my son into my arms and said, “later!”. I watched her walk quickly, possibly with a skip in her step, to Alison’s car, hop in and start laughing as Alison hit the gas. It was like two teenagers heading off on a road trip for Spring Break. It kinda scared me but I was happy for them, even after the rock I hurled missed their car.
As last night wound down I realized that I was out of dog food and beer. not a good thing when you’re watching football and playing fetch with the pooch. Kerri considers the two items to be exactly the same. Whatever. I bet you’ve never called your neighbor to see if you can borrow two scoops of kibble and a couple of beers. I’ve done it twice.
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