I took a three day weekend so I could spend as much time as possible with my kids before the end of summer vacation. They all go back to school tomorrow morning.
It's a big day for a bunch of my kids.
Alex, his first day in middle school!
Lauren, her first day in high school!
Johnny, his first day as a senior.
Charlie (my nephew) his first day of college!
That's a lot of firsts for my kids. I think Alex is nervous and he has gone to bed early tonight. Lauren is nervous too, but she is doing so well in band and has so many good friends I'm sure she will do fine.
On Friday I took Lauren and Alex to the St. Louis Mills Mall. We spent $25 on arcade games and turned in the tickets we earned, about 1,000, for a wireless remote control flying toy. When I got home I checked on the list price, and it's a $35 item; so we actually got a good deal and had fun at the same time.
The kids rode go-carts and had a blast. They also watched "Spiderman 2", which is a decent if overwrought film.
On Friday evening I attended my own 25th year high school reunion. How weird is that!??
Actually, it wasn't technically the reunion. The actual reunion was on Saturday but I was not invited. I was actually a tad bit irritated about that. Someone would have to put forth very little effort to 'find' me. Gee...I suppose they would have to type my name into Google, since I'm only the first 5 or so hits on the internet. Or, they could go to classmates.com, where I am also registered. Or, here's a wild one. How about opening up the phone book where I am listed?
So, apparently I'm not cool enough to get invited to my own high school reunion. The reunion was held in Pacific, Missouri, not Union where we attended high school. You had to spend a night in a $120 room and pay $80 a couple for the event. With a closed bar to top it off.
Now, the money wouldn't matter to me, but it would have been nice to be invited.
That said, it turns out the only people I would care to see at a High School reunion went way out of their way to include me. A bunch of Union natives, locals, folks who still work and farm in the area, thought $200 was too damned much money and decided to have their own pre-reunion reunion the day before at the city park.
Mark Pracht, a good friend of mine from High School (and long time Sherrif of Union) got a keg, a strereo system, and an enormous amount of food together. Mark and his wife Mona called everone they could find from the yearbook and invited them down; and they went way out of this way to include me.
I grew up on a farm in Union, Missouri, and even though I have gone on to lead the big-city life, I certainly don't forget my roots. It felt great to be included, and I had a wonderful evening with old friends.
I even got in a foot race with the high-school track champion, just to prove that even an old fat man like me could still run. We were to race about 50-60 yards to a tree and back. I beat or tied him to the tree. Not so much on the way back... But it was good silly fun.
Mark and his wife Mona both love to fish, and we are going to get together some time to do so.
I should have stayed longer than I did, but I didn't want to be drinking and driving. I wish I had planned better, because it would have been the right thing to do to stay, get drunk, and shoot the shit with the old gang till late into the evening which I'm sure many of them did.
Of course, I did not attend the Saturday night reunion that I wasn't invited to. I'm sure I did not miss anything of importance.
On Saturday, we did yard work in the morning. After mowing the lawn I spent about an hour attacking a hornets nest that had previously attacked my wife viciously and without provocation. Many hornets died that day as I wreaked untold vengeance and furious anger on those who did smite my woman.
I had a 'chore' to do on Saturday. I am writing a book chapter for a computer book and as part of my duties I have to peer-review two submissions by other people. It occured to me that I didn't need to actually sit inside the house on a perfect Saturday to accomplish this task.
I printed out hard copies of both book chapters, gathered up my fishing gear, and headed out the boat. I set anchor at a new cove I had never tried before. The weather this whole weekend was simply amazing. Crystal clear skies and 80 degrees. In fact, it has been so cool for the month of August that the trees are already turning to fall colors!
I dropped anchor and baited my hooks with pieces of hot dog. I am completely tired of messing with 'stink' bait and threw out my entire supply. It turned out that it actually was difficult to edit the articles. I had so many hits on my lines I hardly got to sit down for more than a few minutes before I was getting up trying hook a fish.
In the end I completed editing both articles and managed to catch two very large catfish. I brought them home, cleaned and fileted them, all the time thinking it was a lot more trouble than it was worth.
Our big family event for Saturday was the Cardinals baseball game against the Pirates. I invited both of my nephews, Charlie and Nathan, to come up for the evening. We got to the park early, and the Cardinals did not dissapoint. It was 'Big Mac bonus' night. Which meant that if any Cardinals player hit a home run, we could turn in our ticket stub for a free Big Mac from McDonalds. Well, it didn't take long for that to become a reality. Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen both hit homers, and then Mike Matheny joined in and hit one of his own. Todays game, the fourth win of a marathon five game series which included a double header on Friday, didn't dissapoint either. The Cardinals destroyed the Pirates. The Pirates disrespected Edgar Renteria by intentionally walking Jim Edmonds in the first inning to get to him. Edgar responded in the only responsible way, by hitting a three run home run in the bottom of the first. Later in the game Larry Walker hit his second grand slam in the last several days.
Simply said, the Cardinals are the most exciting team to watch in baseball, and I'm having more fun following them this year than any time in the past. I have already warned my wife. If we make it to the World-Series, we are definitely going to be spending a lot of money for tickets!
So, where was I before I got off on the baseball rant? Oh yeah, after the Cardinals game on Saturday I took all of the kids down to the Arch fairgrounds to watch the Riversplash fireworks show.
So...thus ended a long Saturday. On Sunday we went boating, fishing, and swimming in the swimming pool. We listened to the aforementioned baseball game on the radio, and had another great day. We finished the evening by grilling up the catfish I caught on Saturday and called it a weekend.
So, there is a brief recap of something I have done lately. I have been keeping a record of every event I have been involved in for the entire summer and I plan to make one singular monster post sometime in the next few weeks. It won't be detailed, but at least it will serve as a memory marker of all of the things I have done.
On Wednesday I am going to play Texas-Hold 'em with a group of friends and on Saturday we will be showing a movie on the lake off the pontoon boat. Most likely it will be "The Wizard of Oz". There is a concert on the lake on Saturday so I like to show a movie when the concert ends since there are so many boats on the water at that time.
It's a big day for a bunch of my kids.
Alex, his first day in middle school!
Lauren, her first day in high school!
Johnny, his first day as a senior.
Charlie (my nephew) his first day of college!
That's a lot of firsts for my kids. I think Alex is nervous and he has gone to bed early tonight. Lauren is nervous too, but she is doing so well in band and has so many good friends I'm sure she will do fine.
On Friday I took Lauren and Alex to the St. Louis Mills Mall. We spent $25 on arcade games and turned in the tickets we earned, about 1,000, for a wireless remote control flying toy. When I got home I checked on the list price, and it's a $35 item; so we actually got a good deal and had fun at the same time.
The kids rode go-carts and had a blast. They also watched "Spiderman 2", which is a decent if overwrought film.
On Friday evening I attended my own 25th year high school reunion. How weird is that!??
Actually, it wasn't technically the reunion. The actual reunion was on Saturday but I was not invited. I was actually a tad bit irritated about that. Someone would have to put forth very little effort to 'find' me. Gee...I suppose they would have to type my name into Google, since I'm only the first 5 or so hits on the internet. Or, they could go to classmates.com, where I am also registered. Or, here's a wild one. How about opening up the phone book where I am listed?
So, apparently I'm not cool enough to get invited to my own high school reunion. The reunion was held in Pacific, Missouri, not Union where we attended high school. You had to spend a night in a $120 room and pay $80 a couple for the event. With a closed bar to top it off.
Now, the money wouldn't matter to me, but it would have been nice to be invited.
That said, it turns out the only people I would care to see at a High School reunion went way out of their way to include me. A bunch of Union natives, locals, folks who still work and farm in the area, thought $200 was too damned much money and decided to have their own pre-reunion reunion the day before at the city park.
Mark Pracht, a good friend of mine from High School (and long time Sherrif of Union) got a keg, a strereo system, and an enormous amount of food together. Mark and his wife Mona called everone they could find from the yearbook and invited them down; and they went way out of this way to include me.
I grew up on a farm in Union, Missouri, and even though I have gone on to lead the big-city life, I certainly don't forget my roots. It felt great to be included, and I had a wonderful evening with old friends.
I even got in a foot race with the high-school track champion, just to prove that even an old fat man like me could still run. We were to race about 50-60 yards to a tree and back. I beat or tied him to the tree. Not so much on the way back... But it was good silly fun.
Mark and his wife Mona both love to fish, and we are going to get together some time to do so.
I should have stayed longer than I did, but I didn't want to be drinking and driving. I wish I had planned better, because it would have been the right thing to do to stay, get drunk, and shoot the shit with the old gang till late into the evening which I'm sure many of them did.
Of course, I did not attend the Saturday night reunion that I wasn't invited to. I'm sure I did not miss anything of importance.
On Saturday, we did yard work in the morning. After mowing the lawn I spent about an hour attacking a hornets nest that had previously attacked my wife viciously and without provocation. Many hornets died that day as I wreaked untold vengeance and furious anger on those who did smite my woman.
I had a 'chore' to do on Saturday. I am writing a book chapter for a computer book and as part of my duties I have to peer-review two submissions by other people. It occured to me that I didn't need to actually sit inside the house on a perfect Saturday to accomplish this task.
I printed out hard copies of both book chapters, gathered up my fishing gear, and headed out the boat. I set anchor at a new cove I had never tried before. The weather this whole weekend was simply amazing. Crystal clear skies and 80 degrees. In fact, it has been so cool for the month of August that the trees are already turning to fall colors!
I dropped anchor and baited my hooks with pieces of hot dog. I am completely tired of messing with 'stink' bait and threw out my entire supply. It turned out that it actually was difficult to edit the articles. I had so many hits on my lines I hardly got to sit down for more than a few minutes before I was getting up trying hook a fish.
In the end I completed editing both articles and managed to catch two very large catfish. I brought them home, cleaned and fileted them, all the time thinking it was a lot more trouble than it was worth.
Our big family event for Saturday was the Cardinals baseball game against the Pirates. I invited both of my nephews, Charlie and Nathan, to come up for the evening. We got to the park early, and the Cardinals did not dissapoint. It was 'Big Mac bonus' night. Which meant that if any Cardinals player hit a home run, we could turn in our ticket stub for a free Big Mac from McDonalds. Well, it didn't take long for that to become a reality. Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen both hit homers, and then Mike Matheny joined in and hit one of his own. Todays game, the fourth win of a marathon five game series which included a double header on Friday, didn't dissapoint either. The Cardinals destroyed the Pirates. The Pirates disrespected Edgar Renteria by intentionally walking Jim Edmonds in the first inning to get to him. Edgar responded in the only responsible way, by hitting a three run home run in the bottom of the first. Later in the game Larry Walker hit his second grand slam in the last several days.
Simply said, the Cardinals are the most exciting team to watch in baseball, and I'm having more fun following them this year than any time in the past. I have already warned my wife. If we make it to the World-Series, we are definitely going to be spending a lot of money for tickets!
So, where was I before I got off on the baseball rant? Oh yeah, after the Cardinals game on Saturday I took all of the kids down to the Arch fairgrounds to watch the Riversplash fireworks show.
So...thus ended a long Saturday. On Sunday we went boating, fishing, and swimming in the swimming pool. We listened to the aforementioned baseball game on the radio, and had another great day. We finished the evening by grilling up the catfish I caught on Saturday and called it a weekend.
So, there is a brief recap of something I have done lately. I have been keeping a record of every event I have been involved in for the entire summer and I plan to make one singular monster post sometime in the next few weeks. It won't be detailed, but at least it will serve as a memory marker of all of the things I have done.
On Wednesday I am going to play Texas-Hold 'em with a group of friends and on Saturday we will be showing a movie on the lake off the pontoon boat. Most likely it will be "The Wizard of Oz". There is a concert on the lake on Saturday so I like to show a movie when the concert ends since there are so many boats on the water at that time.
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