Not bad!

The cheap gas prices have got me excited... forgive me.

***

Boyd came to basketball practice tonight and failed miserably. He'll be banned from practice for a few weeks, at least. Maybe he was tired. Maybe he needs a new direction. Something.

***

Evey is off school for Christmas break, and enjoying her time off. I can already tell it's going to be hard for her to return in a week...

Question: is it OK for an 8-year-old to watch "High School Musical"? It's rated G, but... it's called High School Musical.

***

Oklahoma and Texas got stomped today in bowl games/college fooftball. But still, the most bizarre loss goes to K-State basketball against Southern Texas University. A perfect storm of follies. Interesting to watch.

***

Adrianne made a funny recently.

I can't time it like she did, but her and Evey were griping about Boyd and me. We're too stinky, ornery, something.

Then Snickers jumped on my lap. Boyd was also sitting on my lap. The three boys sat there, pretending to be triumphant.

Adrianne scowled in our direction. "Evey... we live on the island of misfit boys!"  

Santa's cookies and milk

The kids, with the cookies and milk they set out for Santa on Christmas Eve.

Frenemies

Big dogs, big guns

A few pics from my recent trip to Cleveland... one of a big dog, another of some big guns...

The dog, Rambo, belongs to my coworker Ryan. The guns belong to Moustafa Ismail, Guinness Book of World Record holder for largest arms in the world. Moustafa was my Uber driver on a trip while in CLE.

Crazy, huh?

From October of this year

Hey Santa, check out my big girl donating her time to make meals for the needy!

Our big boy

From November of this year… Boyd working away on the computer at Memow's…

***

So how big is our "big boy"?

Not so big, as of today. Fairly average, actually... unlike his Sissy, who is a giant, according to the growth charts.

This, from an email Adrianne sent me in early October:

I just got back from Boydee’s three year checkup and the doctor said he was perfect!
Surprisingly, he’s only 43% in weight and 46% in height. I think that’s completely normal and right on track from where he’s been all along – I just thought he was BIG and tall like Evey.

The doctor did say he looked just like Evey.

***

For the record, I still think he has a huge noggin, and on occasion, he does wear a size XXXL from the jerk store...

But apparently the doctors don't quantify that yet -- they're  polite.

Class of 96 represents for T.J.

Lervik's mom passed away last week... Age 61. That's awful, and I don't have the words.

But if there is anything that made me smile, it is the fact that Mrs. Lervik raised a son (Thomas, center) who is thought of so highly by his friends, that a group this large shows up to show their support.

What a compliment to a guy. Glad I could be there for my friend.

How could these two ever frustrate a guy?

Long, busy day at work today. Trying to get a lot done in a little time. Jamming, you know?

Evey comes home with homework, which rarely happens. It makes her paranoid. She'll nag me until it's done... But I have to go back to work.

Finally, 445, I clock out to help her. The subject is 'reflective pronouns' or some BS, words like 'ourselves' and 'myself.'

It takes all of 15 minutes to read through it... But I was so mentally tired, I actually fell asleep during the middle of homework! It also helped that the topic was mundane, but... Had Evey been less interested, I could have slept through basketball practice! And I'm the coach! Yikes.

Now I want to go to bed, and I can't! I need Evey's homework to knock me out, I guess...

Boydee with Santa

One strange standoff

This is one of those photos that begs for a photo caption contest. So, if any follower of Evey and Boyd's blog is brave enough... BOLD enough... submit a caption. I'll even give away a prize: a hat, or some souvenir, from the next golf course I visit. Really!

***

Evey had a great birthday weekend. It started off with me returning home from a week in Orlando (she was happy to see me, OK?), then a sleep-over birthday party at Khali's, followed by her own birthday party on Sunday.

Evey was thrilled to receive a pair of roller skates from her friend Khali, and a NextBook from her Noni, and a bunch of other cool gifts from everyone else (full disclosure: I went downstairs and watched football during the gift-giving part). She's a good girl; I'm glad we celebrated her birthday to her satisfaction. (She's always satisfied with her birthday... but I think this year she was really happy to have so many friends over here at her house.)

Attendees, L to R: Sadie, Evey, Marina, Adira, Khali and Amelia... with Boyd.

***

Got a nice compliment from Khali's dad. After I went to pick up Evey from that sleep-over, as we were leaving, he told me, "Evey is always the most polite."

That makes my day.

***

I just got back from the Golfdom Summit, and it was another career highlight. I had 45 golf course superintendents from around the country there as my guest... another 25 or so sponsor attendees... and my staff of about seven.

Doug Ferguson, head golf writer for the Associated Press, was my keynote speaker... and he killed it. Treated the event like what it is -- a true "insider's only" event and told a few stories meant for a small, non-media crowd. Also hung out for a little with our group after the event, telling a few more stories.

The best part for me was being on the microphone, introducing the speakers, making the occasional joke. As well as the nice things the attendees said to me, including one guy asking to take his photo with me. It seems like things are coming together at Golfdom -- four years into it, people are starting to know my name and recognize the work I'm doing. And that re-energizes me.

I remember four years ago, when I first accepted the job, I was so excited that I just wanted to not get hit by a bus for two weeks, so I could survive lone enough to actually sit in that chair.

Four years later, I've been in that chair for 1400+ days, and sometimes it wears me out. But events like this one remind me of the excitement I had in those first days... got to maintain that feeling.

One inspirational message I have written to myself reads: What do you want Golfdom to be today? As a journalist, if you have the opportunity to answer that question, that's awesome... I've got to take full advantage.

Happy 8th birthday!

My big girl is 8 today! Love you Sis!