Road Trip!!

My buddy Mike from UT got married this weekend in Albuquerque, NM.

We arranged from some friends to take care of them during the day and Nana to stay with them overnight so we could carpool with the Taps and my buddy Chris. We left at 6AM in the Tap's Odyssey and drove straight through with only a stop in the left armpit of Texas (a.k.a. Lubbock). While in the Quizno's, we hear "Yellow Submarine" over the speakers. At the outset Chris was adamant about the car-ride being the vacation and the time spent in NM was the break from the vacation. Well, I couldn't resist putting it to words: "We all live in a silver Odyssey...a silver Odyssey...a silver Odyssey."

Tap's van came with a TV screen and Chris brought his PS2 and Guitar Hero paraphenalia. Now, when you have 22 hours to kill in van, you can get pretty good at something, and that's just what I did. Now I can't listen to a song without thinking "Man, this would be sweet to play on Guitar Hero." That's just what I do. In college I used to play Freecell and Minesweeper in my head.

We enjoyed hanging out with Mike and his Army buddies on Friday night. We played pool for 2.5 hours or so in this bar that was non-smoking. NON-SMOKING!! YOU HEAR THA T AUSTIN? It's so refreshing to go play pool for a few hours and not come home smelling like an ashtray. I even brought an extra change of clothes specifically for replacing the togs worn to the bar. Needless to say, it was like riding a bike and my partner and I ran the tables for a great deal of the evening.

The wedding was a Catholic wedding, which was a new experience for me since I'd never been to a Catholic service before. At the end they left to a bag-piper leading them through three pairs of sword-wielding Army buddies in their dress blues.

Mike and his bride were to leave the church and go to the reception in his Hummer. A real Army Hummer. The take-up-two-parking-spaces Hummer. The camo Hummer. Well, he needed someone to move said Hummer from across the street to in front of the church. I bet by now you've guessed who he asked to do this most noble of tasks. Yep. Moi. Mike and his bro gave me the instructions on how to start the Beast and I went nice and slow so as not to come within several yards of other cars. After the pictures were done and me and the guys went to the reception, we had to wait for a line of cars to go by. And wouldn't you know, but an H3 Hummer happened to cross in front of us. With indignation and pride befitting such an occasion, I yelled forth "LOSER! I drove the real thing!" Ha. (That gagging sound you hear is my bride after hearing this story the umpteenth time in the past 48 hours.)

After cleaning up from the reception, we headed out to the van to start the trek home. We received several updates about The Game. 14-0. 21-0. 35-0. And on we went. Through construction traffic and Checkpoint Charlie and into the great state of Texas. But we hadn't heard the final score. Luckily, my buddy Knight Rider had left me a voicemail in response to my earlier call with the news: 56-31. Another foe vanquished! We made it home at 8AM Sunday morning, all very tired and ready for some rest. I slept from 9 to noon and then 2 to 4. Then I was able to be a decent Daddy to my very daddy-starved girls. I missed you two. And I can say I love you even more now than I did before the trip.

Thanks to the Fens, Nana and LY & friend for taking such good care of our girls and for the Almighty for keeping us safe especially on the drive home. Thanks to Chris for Guitar Hero and the Taps for their buggy. And thanks to those pesky charlatans of OPEC for allowing the price of oil to go down enough that it didn't add another digit to the national debt for us just to make the 1500-mile journey.

Coming soon, my college football column.

Birthday Week

As you may have heard, I turned 30 on Friday.

But the festivities began before that. Wednesday night, Nana came over to babysit and me and the missus went to Outback for my birthday dinner. I guess they jacked up their prices to pay for all their new place settings, because that was stupid expensive. I'm not going back there again for a long, long time unless someone buys for me.

Thursday night we watched Grey's Anatomy after the girls went to bed. Wow. This show is entering the last season of Alias territory. It's getting just silly with some of the "plot" lines and there's way too much sexuality.

Friday morning, Babe made some chocolate chip oatmeal muffins for breakfast. I had a nice cool ride into work. The day started very well when a major test I run ran completely and all specs were met. Then at the end of the day, I was working on an important special project and I noticed that two analytes were missing at the very end. Thank goodness we hadn't submitted the results yet, or we would've definitely failed. I had another similar project that we submitted on Thursday and passed with flying colors. I got congrats all around, which was a great compliment after having won the Star Award for Q2 last week.

But tragedy struck the C-Fam when Munchkin came down with a fever yesterday. Babe was devastated because she'd planned a surprise party for me to have friends come over to watch the game with me. Munchkin was devastated too. When she woke up this morning, she told me she was sorry that she was sick and my friends couldn't come over. I felt so bad for her. It's not her fault someone brought their germy kid to wherever it was she caught the bug.

Did I mention a game? HOOK 'EM HORNS!!
What a game. I know my Sooner coworkers, the P brothers, are going to harp on the officiating with those two personal fouls that got called against them. My retort? What about the no-call holding penalty on their first drive on third down. When someone is running one way and a split second later is going the other way, there's really only one explanation, right? The best part? When Jordan Shipley caught a slant pass and Quan Cosby came back and absolutely lit up the defender. It was fun watching the replay, especially in slo-mo, where #11 gets decleated. I mean, that's gotta be the highlight of his day, right? I can't imagine anything more fun for a wide receiver than doling out the punishment.

It's been a great week. I would be remiss, however, to not mention the fun Babe had prepared for me when I got home on Friday after work. She had mentioned it before I left for work: a treasure hunt when I got home. It was 30 things she and the girls love about daddy. I'll leave you with some of the highlights:

#1: "Your strong arms. I love that you still pick me up and carry me around some times." - Babe
#9: "The way you spend time with our family..." - Babe
#13: "The way we snuggle on the couch..." - Munchkin
#15: "When we do 'froggy' after bath." - Munchkin
#21: "How you give us Eskimo kisses." - Tiny One
"29: "The way you give the best bear hugs when I run to you after you get home from work." - Tiny One

Thanks so much Babe for all the thought you put into celebrating my birthday. You're the best!

Happy 30th Birthday Babe!

Happy birthday daddy! We love you so much and hope your day is very special!

We're so blessed to be able to spend it with you.

Love, your girls

*posted by cheryl