Sherlock, Bulgaria and Bat Caves

A small little rant before I get into this week’s two main point. I need sunshine. Not the sun weakly trying to pierce through the light cloud cover. Not a yellowish/orange orb that floats behind the inversion taunting me. We haven’t seen a real sunshine event since about October. Ok, I might be exaggerating a little bit but it’s at least since November. Alas, we are getting more snow this weekend and yes I know we live in a high desert and need it but good night, I need the sun. I have some old man Transition Lenses in one pair eyeglasses. They have transitioned in weeks. Either from out of practice or the transitionsany (I know not a word but it should be) chemical decided it needed work somewhere and headed south. I need that bright blue sky, with that brilliant sunlight that shine’s so brightly off the snow that when you stand on your front porch to breathe in the view, you need sunglasses. Unless the transitionsany part took off. Oh well.

First main point: Alex is awesome. He had a big day last week. First, he played Sherlock Holmes in his school’s Wax Museum presentation.

There were 2-3 kids per station playing the same character. As a visitor to the museum, you would walk up, press a button or insert a key to get the characters to come to life. He would then recite a speech that told you about the character. It was fun and he did great. Then that same afternoon he competed in the school geography bee. He was so excited for the bee that he studied over his Christmas break. Mandy had an app downloaded on the iPad and we scooped up multiple books at the library for him to use. He took 5^th out of ten and while he was a little disappointed in himself, his attitude of, “Well, now I know what it’s like and I can be better prepared next year,” was awesome to hear. Congrats buddy.

Takes after his old man! Ok and Mandy too. I wouldn’t have been that optimistic at that age, ok or at my age now. Either way we are proud of his accomplishment but even more so of his attitude.

Second main point. Musashi. It is a Midori Sriracha sauce that is great on pizza or just about anything else you can think of. It will change your life if you like hot sauces. Flippin amazing!

Moving on.

Boys at the age of 8 years old have many loves; video games, ice cream, Star Wars, Marvel, Batman, Superman( I refuse to just say DC Comics. Batman is the greatest superhero of all time but Marvel overall is a better lineup. Don’t agree? Plead your case and I might listen), soccer, Star Wars, Batman, ice cream, baseball, Nerf guns, those infernal Legos and the such. Connor is no exception. He has a Manchester United fathead on his wall. He loves Batman. We have not let him watch the Dark Knight series yet but I think he is counting down the days until he can. His world is going to be drastically different when he turns 13. Ice cream is another matter however. He doesn’t love ice cream, he tolerates it. If we go to DQ, he gets a smoothie. If we go to Baskin Robbins, he goes for the Daiquiri Ice. It’s who he is and it’s awesome. This Connorism happened a few months ago after we had a trip to the DQ. He and I shared a love for the peanut butter cookie dough blizzard they had. I think he liked it because it was the only blizzard that had Jurassic World on the side of it all summer. When we arrived home with our ice cream, Alex disappeared while the rest of us sat in the kitchen. Connor kept making vroom and whee-ee-ee and whoosh noises while he ate. The occasional explosion or crash would take place but the sounds would invariably end after the ice cream enter his mouth. After, a few minutes of this, I asked him why the sounds. “Just opening the Bat Cave, Papa. What did it sound like?” The emphasis was on the “What did it sound like.” I took it more of a, “Duh Dad. Bat Cave. Duh.” And then he just continued to eat away like I hadn’t asked.

Year in Review and Resolutions I plan to keep (really!)

Did you miss me? Probably not, this blog is more for me than the reader. However, if you’re reading this than maybe you did miss me? Again, probably not but hey, its being read and we move on.

Life has been crazy since I last posted about Connor’s Soccer masterpiece in April. Alex made All-Stars in baseball. Connor and I went to Cub Scout day camp again. Dad came up in August and we golfed for three days straight. Alex almost killed Dad in a golf cart accident……maybe not almost died but Alex did run a cart off the path after taking a corner too tight and Dad pushed on the accelerator instead of the brake in his attempt to help Alex. Hilarity ensued. Took a family trip to California for beach relaxation, San Diego zoo, and an Anaheim Angels game. OK and one day at Disneyland (I’m so weak willed and unable to say no to my family). Connor absolutely loved the zoo and Alex was in 7^th (get it 7^th? Oh wait I haven’t told the story yet. Hold please) heaven after we were randomly selected out of the crowd at the Angels game to sing, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” on the field during the 7^th (get it now) inning. He even allegedly picked some dirt from the outfield to bring home. Connor played soccer again in the fall and loved playing goalie. Alex made a comp baseball this past fall and hopes to do so again soon. Went to many Ute football games and one RSL game this fall. I went to Chicago on a business trip, was home for all of 8 hours before we took off for our birthday trip to Disneyland over Thanksgiving……..BLOG DETOUR!

If you are a regular reader of this blog you know of my love/hate relationship with all things Lego and Disney. That being said, we planned this birthday trip to Disneyland over Thanksgiving for months. With Alex and Mandy’s B-Day being on Turkey day this year we were ecstatic to be going. However I wish we would have spent more time here:

Than here: (Editors note: I couldn't find a good picture from our trip that properly told of how crowded it was. Trust me, it was crowded. In the absence of a crowded photo you get this)

This was night of day four. Connor's fun card had been punched.

Not that we didn’t have fun and enjoy our five days (FIVE DAYS!) in both parks but we had to enjoy our five days with approximately 2.5 million other people each day (numbers give or take 50k people). I now know what the term, “herded like cattle” or “packed like sardines” means. Never in my life have I been more prone to a nervous breakdown mixed with claustrophobia and a sprinkle of rage. My family, especially the boys, were great to be with and we did have fun so it wasn’t all bad. However, when I am constantly thinking about how many people I can push into Rivers of American to make room to walk past Pirates of the Caribbean before security catches or congratulates me, it’s time for a Disney break.

Back to the blog. Had a great Christmas break with trips to Zoo lights, visit’s with family and friends from out of town and we are basically caught up  for the year.Wait! Almost forgot. We saw Star Wars The Force Awakens. TWICE! Yes it was that good. Yes I would see it again in the theater. Yes I am a geek. Yes I just wrote twenty or so words using horrible grammar. Don't care. It was that awesome. I have heard people say it was a retread of the original (New Hope Episode Four. Not those prequel craptastic movies. OK the third Revenge of the Sith was pretty good but not as good as the original three. Sorry another detour. My humblest of apologies) and it may be a retread. BUT AN AWESOME RETREAD! Go see it if you haven't seen it. Go I'll wait.

 A quick shout out to Apple and my iPhone camera roll for allowing me to look back at our year easily.

I am still in school with a target graduation date of August of 2017. However, if I have more classes like this past accounting class it might be a tad longer. I am sure some of you reading this are either an accountant or a CPA and if you are I applaud you in your career choice. What is wrong with you? Were you dropped as a baby? Did you eat led paint chips as a child? What went wrong in your life that you actually CHOOSE to be an accountant? If I never have to read about credit/debit, contra accounts, general ledgers, balance sheets or the SEC ever again, wait, what was that? I have two more accounting classes. Lovely.

With a New Year comes resolutions. This year is no exemption. I read an article the other day that many resolutions fail because they are not specific enough. People do not have a game plan to change. They state what they are going to change and then attempt to change. This doesn’t work. Like any goal, if there is no plan to achieve the goal in question, then there is no goal. With this in mind…I resolve to write at least once a week on this blog. Connor is my muse for most of the contributions here. He still has his Connorism’s and I have some written down that I can write about. He still leaves stuff in his laundry but 90% of the time it is candy wrappers or drawings, so the name of the blog might change but probably not. I’m too lazy to change it. Writing here is good for me as an outlet. It gives me a chance to escape school, while still working out my pea brain. I resolve to think before reacting this year. I have a perpetual case of foot in mouth disease, especially with my family. So I resolve to think before act. Lastly, I resolve to not be so self-deprecating in life or blogging. If you are new to this little blog or a regular reader here you know that I am the King of Self-Deprecation. What am I saying about myself to myself if I am constantly putting myself down? What am I teaching my two boys if I am constantly putting myself down? If I (we) are to be examples to our kids, we need to teach by example, not by words. Do as I do, not as I say mentality. If I want my boys to be strong and have self-worth, then I better start leading by example. So if I go down that path again, call me out on it.

Thank you to all of you who have read this post and all my other posts. I am truly humbled by all of the past support I have received.