skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Fayling came to Toledo for a couple of days to start the month, so he and Brandi entertained the kids with Kalahari, a birthday party at the Toledo Zoo for Aiden, and Greenfield Village. Thatcher officially endorsed Detroit pizza as the 'best ever' with a visit to Buddy's, so they should be more than honored.
Shortly after Nick finished school, the two of them headed south for family visits. At Fayling's new house, the pool kept the kids entertained between thunderstorms. An inflatable flamingo died a horrible death at the hands of the older boys, so enter the new giant inflatable Toucan. There was also a new Xbox game called Kinect Party. It kept the kiddos active as they got to be Godzilla attacking a city, jumping from spot to spot to avoid the hot lava floor, dancing around as skeletons that had been struck by lighting, and kicking and punching to pop all the balloons (the video game, not in the pool). It's a great game, highly recommended. Nick got a horrible sunburn the first day in the pool, so that put a kabash on the rest of the activities. Plan B was lots of TV, and it's clear that Nick has a lot of his mom and aunt in him with his preference for murder mysteries and new love of Ghost Adventures. We also got to stay for Seth's 13th birthday. We haven't missed one yet for Seth. That night the kids had a great time flying their whistle copters in the yard. A short jaunt to Alabama to visit Grandmama and Grandad preceded the Atlanta stop, where they saw Noccalula Falls for a day.
Nick's taste buds have expanded. He's ordering new items at Taco Bell, now favoring the Quesarito, and he likes Tobasco sauce on everything. Chipotle burritos are always welcome as well. A Subway visit is now always a footlong, with his expanded appetite, egg-white subs at the moment.
He wandered out and saw Brandi watching a video on YouTube about makeup application. The subject was a cross-dresser. Nick noticed, "She's cute." Once Brandi pointed out the person in the video was a man, a long pause was followed by, "What the f*@#!" Appropriate use and timing, even if not ideal.
Pics here.
Jason
Brad and I connected for another baseball weekend this year. I cut across Ontario to Buffalo after work on Wednesday, and he flew in from D.C. to start our four days. He got his buffalo wings in Buffalo at the original Duff's on the first evening, and we polished it off with ice cream from The Andersen's.
Day One
First game was 10:30 AM on Thursday in Buffalo, against Toledo. Beer and a hot dog for breakfast, from the lonely open beer vendor in the park... it was school day at the park, packed with kids, so beer was scarce. This was fine, although our great seats along third base were perhaps in the disabled kids' section, so the kid behind me barked like a dog and kicked my seat for nine innings. But the weather was perfect, with a little sunburn on the temple and nose from the late morning rays.
We walked down to Dinosaur BBQ after the game for Brad to try the famous ribs. From there, we toured the Wilcox home, where Theodore Roosevelt was inaugurated.
The evening was dinner at a local Italian place called Vino's which had a couple of authentic Italians arguing about their phone bills at the table next to us, and Brad ordered a pasta dish that was so spicy it nearly burnt his face off, but the flavor was excellent. Not enough bread in the joint to put out that fire, but Stephanie did her best with chocolate cake.
Only the overflowing throne in our hotel room threatened to ruin a good first day, and the kid who got hit in the head by a foul ball.
The stadium giveaway was McFries... which we never claimed.
Day Two
On to Syracuse, where the Chiefs played the Columbus Clippers in the evening. A nice gal sat next to Brad to give us the local gossip, the locals loves his red shoes, and we enjoyed a sloppy game of errors. Fireworks after the game rounded out a nice evening.
Earlier when we arrived, the Taste of Syracuse event was a couple blocks from our hotel, where all the local restaurants had tents downtown, and we ate ourselves to exhaustion each $1 sample at a time. We had pizza at Nick's in the evening at midnight before the day ended, while enjoying two local college girls beating the crap out of one another on the street cornernear our hotel.
The stadium giveaway was a free Ice Cream cone... which we never claimed.
Day Three
Down to Erie, PA where we watched the Seawolves (Tigers AA affiliate) beat the Harrisburg Senators (Nationals AA affiliate) twice in an afternoon double header. For $15 a seat, we were front row behind the dugout, where we could see the stubble on the face of manager Lance Parrish. More fireworks in the evening after the game, but no winner at the raffles... we missed the 50/50 in every park, and a jersey raffle for Cancer at this one. I kept score for the first game, a 1-0 pitchers' duel with both of them pitching complete games. Looking down at the scorecard, a player tossed a ball up to me as he came off the field, which I caught with my face. I got a souvenir just the same.
When we first arrived in town, it was RibFest in Erie, so we tried the competing BBQ ribs in the town square... brisket on a bed of mac-and-cheese was to die for. Then we finished our walking meal with ice cream on a fresh waffle.
And of course, midnight pizza at Stevo's.
No stadium giveaway... we were hoping for something to go with our virtual fries and ice cream.
Pictures here.
As the school year winds down, I picked Nick up one afternoon from AfterCare (because he likes hanging out after school.) It was the start of our bachelor weekend with Brandi in Georgia visiting family. He wanted to play "Stratego", a board game in the library. So I sat down, and we played for almost an hour with a couple other kids coaching us. We were very popular, as if I was the only Dad ever to sit down after school and hang with the kids. Our weekend together was a bike ride, going out to a movie (Boss Baby), a swim, and generally relaxing. We went to the rental garages for Spring maintenance on the cars in storage, and Grandpa went with us. He challenged a lethargic Nick to a footrace, and they sprinted the length of the garage building. Nick beat him by a step or two, but I can't tell you how impressed I was at 77 years of age, my father hustled probably half the length of a football field and never even huffed a hard breath.
At school, Tom Nehring from the karate school came in one day unannounced to do a demonstration... he's done those for as long as I can remember. When he realized Nick was my son, he made Nick the assisstant, which gave the kid a sense of importance for the day amongst his peers. Tom's still a good guy.
With our list of summer tasks, we're going to have the basketball backboard reinstalled at Dad's house. I had a closely-sized piece of plywood in the garage for probably ten or more years waiting to be used, so Nick and I painted it one afternoon in preparation. It was his first use of spray paint, and I wore more paint than he did from the exercise.
When Brandi returned home (to her free-range eggs on strike), we visited Greenfield Village on Memorial Day weekend, where it was civil war re-enactment day. Nick cared more about the Train around the park than anything else, but the actors were very impressive, and the weather was perfect. Afterwards, we drove to the Cass Corridor downtown to the open house for Tiny Houses, a start-up for Detroit revival by a local church. Dinner was at Bigalora in Royal Oak, where we could eat and walk outdoors and enjoy the evening (still don't do that in most of downtown Detroit... but it's much improved.)
Nick's independence continues to expand, as he increases his personal preferences, like picking his own shampoo (some version of Old Spice, must be making a comeback).
Pictures linked here.
Jason
Nick's First Communion was this month at St. Joseph. It was a nice mass, I enjoy Fr. Ritter, and we had an entire pew reserved just for us. Nick's big thrill was a guy in front of us he swore was a 'YouTuber' named 'The King of Random', with 7MM hits on his site. It wasn't the same guy. I asked him the following week how his first Eucharist during school mass went, as he never said a thing. "That's because I was flawless."
We took a trip to the Henry Ford for the Rouge Plant Tour where the Ford F-150 is built. We spent an entire afternoon there, and Nick enjoyed watching the decals being applied on the various trim levels of trucks at the end. Along with White Castle sliders, it was an enjoyable afternoon. This was all part of passing time during Spring Break, which he spent over 60 hours during that week on his laptop, building who-knows-what on public servers. We peeled him away from the electronics. However, it's not like very little had happened this month: there's photos of a day hanging with Jack, a school field trip, and an afternoon at the Zoo.
Eventually he returned to school for the last push towards summer. He came home one evening in trouble for cursing, a word choice so bad the teacher couldn't write it down. So he and I reviewed his options, and colorful buffet of forbidden vocabulary, which I explained using a Quad Chart anchored with an X axis of 'rarely use/never use' and a Y axis of 'bad/really bad'. He had chosen a word in the upper right quadrant whereas his nemesis had used a word in the lower left... Nick's choice was much worse. He understands now. It's nice to be able to apply my working skills at home. (And the people at work loved it... my Chinese expat wanted a copy to reference.) We're exploring new schools for next year, and already looking to high schools that can start him early. A change is coming.
We bought a new car this month, only because I got a deal I couldn't refuse... cars are cheap at the moment, and I found a 2016 on the lot, still brand new. We took a picture of Nick with the old 2007 Chrysler 300 before we dispose of it. The side-by-side pictures of him with the same old car ten years ago when it was new, and now, are fun to see.
This here is the entire class photo for his first communion, although the kids are all one-to-two years younger than Nick, so he's even dressed to stand out.
Pictures here for April.
Jason
As we prepare for his First Communion next month, his first Confession was this month. He felt 'overwhelmed' on the Saturday we wandered in to meet our obligation. The church required an in-person session because, of course, a ten year-old has to get all the mortal sins out face-to-face. But we play by the rules, some of which have benefits, like the Friday Fish Frys. Blessed Sacrament Church has a great fish fry, his first one, which was very tasty, and included some playground time after. We also attended several mandatory 'classes', one Saturday was a three-hour mashup of sessions. They toured the church which was fun, and the lessons were good for kids. We did a coloring exercise of the Last Supper where we cut-out the characters and taped them to an egg carton (like a long table). Nick and I had Matthew 'dabbing', and James Major with a tattoo, and then there was the food fight. We got some looks from other families, but honestly, I couldn't care less. None of them were there the first time around, and if Nick finds some fun in religious education, that's a nice change. Heaven forbid anything associated with religion be enjoyable.
Nick's favorite joke this month:
Jesus says, 'Sir, I'd like a table for 26.'
Host: 'But there's only 13 of you here for dinner.'
Jesus: 'Yes, but we're only going to sit on one side of the table'.
We are reading a DNA book in the evenings, which is educating us both. He can rattle off the facts afterwards, I can't absorb it all.
He's playing the Forza Motorsport 3 video game this month from Christmas, and we can now race each other on the track. He knows things about cars that I do not, from watching 'Counting Cars', and 'Road Hauks'.
Some of the pictures this month are from chess tournaments, including the medal he was awarded above.
School continues to perplex us. We're still on the fence if we change again for next year (fifth grade). He got tossed out of Gym/PE for too much physical contact (during games like 'football'... yeah, I don't get it), so we had to coach him. We went over the rules carefully before a game of kickball, of which, the rules were so bastardized I struggled to understand them (and the coaches' awful grammar and spelling didn't help... I wouldn't hire someone with gramar this bad.) So he comes home after the first game, says it went well.. except he had to 'nudge' a kid blocking third base. I asked if it was intentional or innocent, and he believes it was the latter. So I told him to go easy. But if it's intentional, "Knock him on his ass." This is 'no apology month' for me... I understand all the rules less every day.
Nick and I spent an afternoon at the park, where his tossing of a football is greatly improved this year; he can throw a good spiral. After thirty minutes, he says (hand on my shoulder), "Dad, I really should divide my time across activities, so I'm going to go hang out with the kids now." He organized a game of hide-and-seek with several other kids. A young girl named Millie latched onto him, and messed with him for an hour... he'd count and she'd be standing right behind him. This cute little brunette would smack him in the head and out-run him, every time. Not surprisingly, he couldn't stop going back for more. This, I can understand.
And there was a Pet Day at work, where Nick's hermit crabs starred as the only aquatic life on display (I didn't carry them in, just pictures.)
Photos here from March.
Jason
Shortly after Nick finished school, the two of them headed south for family visits. At Fayling's new house, the pool kept the kids entertained between thunderstorms. An inflatable flamingo died a horrible death at the hands of the older boys, so enter the new giant inflatable Toucan. There was also a new Xbox game called Kinect Party. It kept the kiddos active as they got to be Godzilla attacking a city, jumping from spot to spot to avoid the hot lava floor, dancing around as skeletons that had been struck by lighting, and kicking and punching to pop all the balloons (the video game, not in the pool). It's a great game, highly recommended. Nick got a horrible sunburn the first day in the pool, so that put a kabash on the rest of the activities. Plan B was lots of TV, and it's clear that Nick has a lot of his mom and aunt in him with his preference for murder mysteries and new love of Ghost Adventures. We also got to stay for Seth's 13th birthday. We haven't missed one yet for Seth. That night the kids had a great time flying their whistle copters in the yard. A short jaunt to Alabama to visit Grandmama and Grandad preceded the Atlanta stop, where they saw Noccalula Falls for a day.
