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When natural disasters began at the start of the month, Brandi and Nick were assembling care packages to send to local organizations for people who had been flooded from homes in the south. Small toiletries, rags, and decks of playing cards delivered in three small boxes. A kind gesture.
He started school at Jackman Road Elementary this month, and all I've heard has been positive: the kids aren't as mean, the tech is better (using ChromeBooks in class), the teacher is awesome (Nick's only direct feedback for me on his teacher is, "Miss Sheridan is cute." I've advised him to lay low until he's making the grade.) Riding the bus is not as simple as you'd expect. On the first day, the bus pulled away from the stop on our street and Nick waved to his mother from the bus... never exited. After an hour ride and a call to the school, he didn't get off the bus because his past drivers would call his name or call out the stop; this driver doesn't talk. On day two, he tried to exit the bus three stops too early, but by then, the driver knew him well. Now we've got it down.
We went to Sidecut Metro Park for an afternoon. The river water level is way down, we were able to walk across the river on dry rocks. Along with being a dry summer, it was a cool summer, as we only swam for one week in June. So in late September, Nick and I took a very cold swim, where we did our annual re-enactment of the final freezing scene from Titanic ("Never let go, Jack!") Then, the weather got unexpectedly warm and we were the last pool still open in the neighborhood in the end of September, and we swam for an entire week. It's on to Fall activities now, and his mother has enrolled him in something every day: piano (two classes), karate, swimming may return, trying out Scouts... we'll see what sticks.
He seems like he still wanders from topic to topic in conversation, and can't merge into casual chat. Brandi was explaining that his orthodontist, Dr. Haerian, had moved to a new office. Nick injects a story about fish, some useless facts, that riled me up. So I cut him off and scolded him. Then I asked why he thought it was OK to change the subject. He says, "You were talking about herring, and I thought of fish." "Haerian, not herring! You know the guy!" Nick's mind is a mystery.
One of the photos here is him shoveling in a Chipotle burrito loaded with Tabasco. He's into the spicy thing now, three glasses of soda to get down his hot food. He'll probably have no taste buds left by his mid-twenties. And, first time out mowing the lawn this month, as we started mowing for Grandpa towards the end of the season. Along with helping me trim hedges, Nick's a good worker now, stays on task.
Photos here (in spite of the awful Shutterfly interface... time for a new photo site!) And I've finally uploaded some new videos in the Video Archive.
Jason
Oh, the things Nick will say. When he says a blessing before dinner, he's started punctuating it with the time of day. "Amen. The time is now 8:30." I have no idea why. Brandi stopped at Ulta with Nick in tow, and a young girl probably from the college was working behind the counter. He introduces himself, and asks, "Do you ever eat at the Penn Station Subs across from the mall?" She does not. "Have an 8-inch, and remember me," he says. Not the smoothest pickup line ever, but not the worst she'd heard, either. We're listing to the radio and Uptown Funk comes on, which Nick says we can't listen to during Lent (because they use the word Hallelujah.) Time to pull him from Catholic school (and we are.)
He had his tonsils removed this month, before we get back to school. It was a success, and he healed quickly. There was no trouble with Nick spending all day every day on his laptop to pass time, and he moved to solid foods faster than expected. The hospital staff was great, even preparing Nick's shark for surgery.
Nick went with me to the Woodward Dream Cruise this year. Our friends lost their spot out front of the Church of the Little Flower, but we still sat close by the same spot. He saw an awesome race early in the morning between a Lamborghini, Corvette, Mustang and Ford GT. We sat for roughly 3 hours along Woodward, then went into Royal Oak for a pizza at Bigalora. Finished with another hour at Mustang Alley, where we saw every car we could imagine. He signed the wrapped Mustang at the display, and saw his first GT in person; he'd like a 1968 fastback. He called it the best day ever, and he did good lasting over five hours.
A few photos posted here.
Jason
We did see fireworks this year, drove down to Bowling Green on Sunday evening. What a great setup, so spacious there wasn't another familly within twenty yards of us as the fireworks rose above the intramural fields behind the football stadium. Easy parking, no annoying music, great show, easy out. Gotta remember this.
Also spent an afternoon at the park in Blissifeld to pass the time, being chased by the fire department who was cleaning the park for a fair the following weekend. We had pizza and ice cream outdoors afterwards, which was good, but not exactly quick. It was just a good day outside. A little time inside was spent seeing the movie Wonder Woman (Nick has deemed this one an all-time favorite), along with some Beach Pelini tea in a trip to the mall. Our swim time got going this month, after some light repairs to the pool liner. Next year we'll be due for a new one.
Nick has been into TV shows about war planes, so lots of Air Warriors lately. We've watched several shows on the P51 Mustang, A10 Warhog, B52 Bomber, and F15 Strike Eagle. Good to see his interest, which is piqued also from having just been in Georgia weeks earlier. It hasn't distracted from his love of cars, though, with a Ford GT on the screen most of the time.
He follows the fidger spinner craze, which is centered around collecting them. Nick has three so far. One Sunday evening, he finally decided to talk to the girl next door, Brooke, who is close to his age. They compared spinners for some time. He returns inside after an hour of chatting, and when I asked what they spoke about, the answer of course was, "Nothing". Good to see him making friends, he eased his way in slowly, and hasn't scared her off yet, apparently.
The month closed with hanging a basketball rim on Grandpa's iron post outside. The post has been empty since the old board rotted and fell off twenty years ago. After waiting for help that never came to get it done, we deivsed a plan to put it up ourselves. It's not perfect, but good enough. Nick was a big help, but he's still not a 'worker' just yet... his focus needs some polish.
Photos here from July.
Jason
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.
