Sucker!

I took Evey with me to the barber shop the other day. The wait was long, but she did good. She stood right in front of me while I was getting my hair cut, enraptured by the process.

After I was done, Mike offered Evey a sucker, and she took it. But Evey doesn't like much candy except for chocolate. I knew she wouldn't eat it. No problem.

We walked down the block toward the car, and I decided to pop into Love Garden, see if Evey would give me some time to peruse. Brilliant on Love Garden's part, they have one of their old cash registers set up in the corner, at knee level, with some small person stools around it. Evey found this and started playing. "Dad, if you need me, I'll be over here," she said.

Perfect. That cash register bought me some time to shop.

I checked on her every few minutes. Eventually, I saw her unwrapping that sucker. "She'll be giving me that soon, once she figures out she doesn't like it," I thought to myself.

A minute later, Evey was pulling on my jacket while I was cruising through the used CDs. "Dad," she said. "Can you take this? I don't like it."

"Sure, Evey," I said. I was about to put the sucker in my mouth -- no sense in letting it go to waste -- when...

"I dropped it on the floor -- it's yucky."

The sucker is inches from my tongue. I look at it. It's got dirt on it, a black hair, half a dust bunny. It was disgusting.

I'm so, so glad I didn't put that thing in my mouth. Thank you, Evey, for the last-second warning.

Original rules of basketball

I saw this in the new issue of ESPN the Magazine (a pretty interesting issue, actually). The original rules of basketball, up for auction.

These rules once came into Willie C's while I was a waiter there. I remember this guy came in, sat in the back, and he had this black briefcase with him. He didn't sit in my section, but another waiter told me about what he had, so I had to go check it out.

I went back there and asked him about it -- he opened the case and showed it to me. It was sort of like the scene in Pulp Fiction when Vincent Vega opens the briefcase. "What'd you bring it in for?" I asked. "Would you leave this in your car?" he asked. I guess not, but I think I'd keep my onion rings away from the thing. The guy told me he was Naismith's grandson, and that's how he came to own this document. I remember Naismith called the game "Basket Ball" and I found that interesting.

Anyway, I kept it short with thise guy because I didn't totally believe him. But then I saw this story and I was reminded of him, and I figure, yeah, that was probably him, that was probably the original rules of basketball, and yeah, this guy is going to have an extra $2 million soon.

Interview with Evey -- take two

This is a follow-up to the "Interview with Evey" video I posted a few weeks ago. Taken immediately after I filmed the first one. This one has some funny moments too, (OKLAHOMA?!?) but again, I would only recommend it if you are a big fan of Evey Melosa Jones.

It should be noted that I love the lighting in these videos, and will probably do more interviews with Evey standing in the same spot... she looks like a little angel standing there.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I'll be back to posting next Monday.

Jesse and Cinderella

Here's another photo of Amelia and Evey, this one from Grey's Halloween party a few weeks ago.

I wonder how many of you are out there still working on a Tuesday before Thanksgiving... and how many are already on vacation. Neither me or Adro took any vacation for Thanksgiving, we figured we'll save it for Christmas time.

I'm not at all excited about the Beatles being available on iTunes, but I am very excited for the 200,000 songs eMusic added to their catalogue last week.

Parents, if you're looking for some cool free computer games to entertain your kids, check out www.yogabbagabba.com. Under the "Gizmos" section they have some pretty cool stuff that allows the kids to paint with the mouse and be a little creative.

Is anyone impressed that a tequila bottle can pour a shot? How's about taste -- is that still important, Cuervo?

If you're outta here, have a great Thanksgiving. And hopefully KU can give Mizzou a little game on Saturday.

Highs and lows

Highlight of the weekend: Bart's annual pre-Thanksgiving feast -- good friends, good food and bad karaoke.

Lowlight of the weekend: Getting a $133 ticket from Lawrence Police Department for allegedly skipping a stop light by cutting through a parking lot. Apparently it is illegal to change my mind about stopping at the liquor store.

Best food of the weekend: (tie) Whataburger brought across the state line by Travis and Amelia's birthday cake (pictured), made by Jess.

Funniest moment of the weekend: When Evey told me, as her and Adrianne left for church, that if any dragons or dinosaurs came to the house, that I shouldn't get scared, but I should call them right away.

Official saying of the weekend: "Come on, burrito." Maybe someday I'll explain. Burrito.

Evey's nightmare

Evey took a nap at Elvira's today, and awoke crying, frightened from a nightmare she had.

She told Elvira all about it. When I walked in to pick her up, she told me all about it. And then she wanted to call all her family and tell them about it, too.

Adrianne handed the phone to Evey and told her the number to dial to reach "Papi," Adro's dad in Texas. He answered, and he got to hear all about the nightmare.

Since I heard the story of the nightmare twice, I thought I'd describe it here. She describes the nightmare in vivid detail, using a few big words.

So, this is the afternoon "lightmare" Evey had:

"I'm in a spooky house and my Mom is there. She wakes up and tells me to go home but then she disappears. So then I go down the stairs and outside to find her. There's a yellow ducky. And it's dark outside. And then there's a creature! The creature has black eyes. I have a green pear. So I throw the pear and the creature follows it with its head like this (mimics following the green pear with her eyes). It was a scary creature, I didn't like it."

I told Evey not to worry about it, it was just a nightmare, and she wouldn't have the same nightmare tonight. She asked me, "So what am I going to dream about?" I told her I had no idea. And then she said, "I know -- I'm going to dream about Disneyland and Disney World."

Relieve Your Pain!

Sadie and Evey at the Missouri Comets open house.

Whatever you do

DO NOT SEE SKYLINE.

Awful, just... Awful.

Warning: work talk ahead

I don't write about work here often, and I don't know if this blog is indeed something of a journal of my life or a travelogue of Evey, but, something happened yesterday that I feel the need to write about.

My editor-in-chief, Ed, was laid off yesterday.

It's a shit economy, we all know that. It's been hard on the publishing business. It's been hard on my company. And yesterday, the domino fell that cost my boss -- one of my few mentors -- his job.

It sucks. That's not eloquent, but that's the way I feel about it.

Ed gave me my first shot at a job in journalism over ten years ago. I started with my company as an intern while I was still in college... I was a junior at KU at the time. I still remember the phone call I got from Ed offering me the internship... it was on my first cell phone, and this cell phone -- I think the company was Cellular One -- was about the size of a Burrito King burrito. It barely fit in my pocket.

I'm in class at 2:30 in the afternoon -- I remember the class, it was on the first floor of Fraser Hall. The instructor was a younger woman, she was nice, but too young, and something about her... I barely listened to her. My cell phone rang during class -- yeah, faux pas on my part, but I was hopeful for Ed's call, and I didn't care if it interrupted class. I think this was before 'vibrate' on the phone was invented.

I leave the room to take the call. "Seth, Ed from GCSAA... we enjoyed our interview with you, and if you think you can handle the schedule, we'd like to offer you the job."

I knew that it was a big-time call. I knew at that moment that it was important for my career.

I didn't know at the time that I'd still be working there in 2010. I didn't know that I'd meet the future Mrs. Jones there. I didn't know that that phone call would lead me to a beautiful wife, a beautiful daughter, a beautiful house, and the most kick-ass man-cave I know of outside of Bruce f***ing Wayne's. But that's what that phone call was: opportunity.

I've worked for Ed for the last 12 years. He's the only editor-in-chief I've ever had. And he single-handedly was responsible for keeping our team intact. He's a father figure, and my GCM team is more of a family than it is a work team. Ask people who work for other teams in my building: they envy the work environment of the publications team. And that's a credit to my former boss, Ed.

When I came back to that classroom -- the class was probably anthropology or something -- the young teacher barked at me for taking a call during class. I took it with a smile, apologized, told her it wouldn't happen again. And then I looked out the window and drifted away. "Seth Jones, intern, Golf Course Management magazine," I thought to myself. "On top of the world."

Twelve years later, I am on top of the world. Thank you, Ed.

There was a party in KC!

Last Saturday the Joneses and the Kaminskis went to "Yo Gabba Gabba Live! There's a Party in My City" at the Midland by AMC.

Yeah. sorry Kaminskis -- we were watching Muno, Foofa and Brobee at the same time KU was making its historic come-from-behind win over Colorado (35 points in the 4th quarter? Who knew?)

But the YGG show was really pretty good! There was an impressive video board at the front of the stage, which contained a door the characters could walk out of. The stage show was elaborate, with good sound and lots of dancing. Cannons fired off confetti a few times, and there was a balloon drop. And Biz Markie was there to do Biz's beat of the day in person.

But the best part of the show had to be watching your kid's reaction. Check out the third photo, the one of Evey looking at the stage. She's just having a blast.

The show was about 90 minutes long with an intermission. I got a little bored at one point, but for the most part the show was fun, even for me.

And if you haven't been to a show at the Midland by AMC yet, GO! Such a beautiful theater.

Recycle this!

Editor's note: I wrote this a week or two ago, when I was exceptionally drunk.

SO, a harsh realization may have come up recently.

This harsh realization has to do with TUBE TVs.... yeah, TUBE TVs.

So, I'm pretty new to the flat screen world. I can actually remember when the first flat-screen came into my home. It was... a good day.

But what about these old tube TVs?

I remember at our last garage sale I tried to sell a tube TV... maybe a 20-inch?

I had it out, with the price tag of $20. Why not? This TV could potentially be the perfect piece for somebody.

One garage saler told me, "I tried selling a TV that was bigger, for half the price, and it didn't move." Uh-oh.

So, yeah.... that TV is still in my garage.

A week ago (why did I choose such a long-winded post today?!?) my MIL (mother-in-law) was at my house, and I was trying to convince her to hang with us. "Oh!" she said, "I need to go to Free State to recycle the old TV in my car!" (speak this line in a M-I-L voice for complete accuracy.)

I told her, "Let me take care of it" (because I'm cool like that). She said, "OK." And then she said, "Let me give you $15..." and I think, "SCORE!" and then she says, "so you can recycle it."

And I said, "Hold up... you gotta pay $15... to recylce it?"

"Yes..."

"Give me $10 and I'll throw it in the river for you!"

(In an exasperated voice,) "Seth, there is enough trash in the river already!"

"Ok, Ok... $5 and I'll chuck this in the river for you..."

She knew I was messing with her, but I think for a second she thought that I might actually go throw that TV in the river. So I promised her that I would deliver the TV to the recycle people... even though the thought of paying $15 to get rid of something just baffled me.

But you know what? The recycle center -- where you pay $ 15 per item??? Was PACKED.

So now, it occurs to me, that rather than selling my shitty TV for $20, I most likely have to pay someone $15 to take it away from me!!!

Unless they wanna take it to the river....

The comprende category

I've been trying to explain some concepts to Evey lately. I don't know if this is reasonable, but I figure there's no way to tell unless I try.

For example, I tried to explain to her daylight savings on Friday afternoon, as we waited to pick up Mom from work. I told her to stop me if she got confused at any time. I finished my talk, and asked her, "Comprende?" and she smiled and said, "Comprende."

She did not seem too worried about the fact that the sunset was around 5 p.m. today, so I am keeping that one in the "comprende" category.

Then tonight, Evey asked me if we could watch "Pocahontas" while I was in the middle of watching the Chiefs game.

I decided to explain to Evey that Dad doesn't enjoy "Pocahontas," that he thinks it's a jingoistic piece of crap, and that the sound of Mel Gibson doing the voice of John Smith just grates on his soul. I told Evey that Dad likes to watch the Chiefs games. I asked her if she liked to watch Chiefs games. She said no. I asked her if Mom liked to watch Chiefs games. She said, "No, Mom likes to watch QVC." I told her that was right. I asked Evey what her favorite thing to watch was. She said "Scooby Doo." I asked her if she understood that Evey, Momma and Dad all have different things they like to watch, because they all have a different idea of "fun."

And Evey responded that she has fun watching "Scooby Doo," but Mom doesn't have fun watching it, because she's afraid of the "Lake Monster."

So I'm going to list that one in the "no comprende" category.

Photo is of Evey and her classmates at dance class.

(I like to imagine, when I'm posting via wireless, that the blog post looks like that scene in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" where Mike Teevee gets transported into the TV, and my blog is like that moment when Mike becomes colorful little squares floating in the sky, from one instrument to the other.)

Remember, remember

The 5th of November...

...I can think of no better way to celebrate the 5th of November than to go see Yo Gabba Gabba Live!

I'm such an anarchist.

Honey? Where is my super-suit?!?

Election day

We took Evey to New York school to see her great-grandma Virginia, who works as an election voulunteer (been doing it for a loooong time).

They had a kid's voting booth, so we let Evey at it. Most of the kids were 3rd and 4th graders, but what the heck. She tried writing her name on the voting registration but couldn't keep her name anywhere near one line...

But the worst part? She chose the box for Sam Brownback! No, Evey, nooooo!!!

It's ok. I've got 14 years to teach her...

Evey's Halloween costume

Interview with Evey