A super blue blood moon kinda day

I walked outside at 6:30 to check out the super blue blood moon. And yes, I quickly did it in my underwear. I wasn't going to get all dressed that early if it was cloudy outside.

I admired the super blue blood moon for about 5 seconds when my neighbor walked into his kitchen. It was still dark outside, so I just jumped indoors real quick... I think unseen.

At that moment the moon looked pretty cool. It was bright and it was going into eclipse.

So at 6:50 I came back out... this time, dressed. A good thing, because when I walked out on to my back porch the neighbor was standing on her back deck, and I startled her. We chatted briefly. The super blue blood moon was in total eclipse now... and it wasn't as cool. Could barely see it. I let Evey sleep longer. It was too faint.

Still, kind of cool. A once-in-150 years type deal.

***

Relatable to the super blue blood moon (I must just like typing it) is how rare it is for both my wife and my MIL to be away from home at the same time. And while I'm doing fine... I don't like it. I miss these ladies. Even if they're just upstairs while I'm downstairs, or whatever... it's comforting to have them here.

Judy returns to Lawrence soon, I think. Which will be good. Because I don't think Evey likes being the only girl...

(On a related note, Adrianne is happy that Judy is out of town, because now, for the first time ever, I'm really on my own with the kids. I made it to age 40. Not bad! And I haven't lost a kid yet.)

***

Made refried beans today. The kids had bean and cheese burritos when they got home, in a new meal we call "first dinner."

It's like an after-school snack, but it's better.

***

Gotta go. Me and the kids are going to the Shadow Gallery. We're going to do an online workout video.

Oh yeah!

Here's a photo of leftover... name-that-food

NO, Judy, we will not call it goulash in this house.

The nominees are to the right of this post. I will not tell you who chose each name. You have six days. Vote early, vote often. $20 to the winning name (I know it's gonna be me.)

We're in Day One with Mom gone on business. We miss her, but we're doing well.

We've got the best kids. Ever.

You're the best one in your row

Evey and Boyd before Boyd's kindergarten musical.

So we need help.

We need you all (Judy, and maybe Copy Jesus, if he's been cool with the lack of posts lately) to help us with a Jones family contest. We need a name for a simple dish that I made the other day... because it doesn't have a name.

NO... you don't get to choose the name (sorry Judy, no tomatoes con Frida Kahlo!) but you have to help us choose the name...

Each Jones got to submit a name. I offered $20 to the winner.

Dinner was simple... it was tube pasta (whatever that's called) tomato sauce with hamburger. Croissants on the side. Cob salad (lettuce, hard boiled egg, cheese, bacon, ranch) as the opener.

But what do we call this simple pasta dish, or maybe this dinner? At my house it was called... goulash, maybe. It wasn't a thing, really. It was a, "We've got nothing!" meal. But the kids dig it, and they want me to make it again. I told them, it needs a name.

Looking for Boyd? Look for the lad in the center of the photo... doing "hips and lips," whcih means. "everyone be quiet!"
He did hips and lips for the first two minutes of the program, while kids were singing. (Boyd is directly above the mic with the yellow scarf.)

So vote in our poll for the name you like best. The poll will be unveiled soon. I will not tell you who suggested which name. Just know there's a $20 riding on it, Lervik.

***

Nice W by the 'Hawks tonight. Kind of thought KSU would put up a better fight. 

It's the same thing for KSU every year. They've got to fire their coach. They had a chance to beat us in Lawrence this year... and they ran a non-play to close the game. 

Now. they've seemed to regress since then.

If I was a KSU fan, I don't think I could handle it... you got to send Weber away.

***

My top three albums, as of this second in my life:

3. Interpol, Turn on the Bright Lights

3. Harvey Danger, Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?

3. Pearl Jam, No Code

2. Radiohead, OK Computer

1. Soundgarden, Superunknown

*** 

We had a busy afternoon... I took the kids out of school early because Boyd had a doctor's appointment. We stopped at the house for a hot minute (I said it was so Boyd could brush his teeth but really I was expecting an important email) and then we were back out the door.

I told the kids, "We need gas!" before we left Eudora... unless the gas station was full... so we pulled in... every stall? TAKEN. 

So I rolled out, cussing. As this happened, the gas warning on the truck started to beep. This freaked out Evey.

Party like it's 2016!

Then we got on K-10. I drove about a mile when I saw cardboard flapping in the bed of the truck. "$hit!" I shouted. Over the weekend I stashed this cardboard in the bed of the truck, pinned down by lawn chairs, in a half-ass attempt to clean the garage. In defense of the 2.5 Amazon packages that arrive at my house every day (including 18 rolls of toilet paper a day. The Amazon drivers won't look me in the eye because they must be worries about catching the epic case of the shits that I surely must have, based on this amount of toilet paper) I tried to keep this cardboard out of my recycle bins (even thoughI now have two.) And now it's about to fly into the Prius behind me on K-10.

So I drove slow and got off the road. Stashed it in the cab of the truck, to later be recycled at a random business "cardboard only!" bin.

We went out to dinner and I asked the family if I should stop and get gas. They all said yes... but I said no. In my mind I said, "I'm the Captain now," and kept driving. The needle was on E, but if I could make it to Eudora, I could save 70 cents a gallon.

Evey shouted, "I don't want to die!" I explained that this was not a life/death situation (necessarily) and they could trust me... I drive the truck this far down on E all the time.

Evey was not amused. We coasted to Eudora, with plenty of fuel to spare. I decided to take the family home, rather than wasting eberyone's time while I filled up.

"Now Dad's just showing off!" Adrianne said. "I can see his smirk." 

There was a little bit of an argument over if I was smirking, as we got out of the truck. 

Inside the house, I did my Bruno Mars dance (it's something to behold.) Evey was not only unimpressed, I think she was also offended. So I threw the dinner receipt at her.

This set her off. And now she might want to fight me. Over gas, and the audacity of dancing just as good as Bruno Mars. But that's me, Evey, that's Dad. 

And that's the new 11-year-old Evey... sometimes ANGRY!

***

Photos included in this post are from Boyd's kindergarten music recital...

And my awesome drive maximizing the savings we could get from Kwik Shop!

For the record... the 1999 1500 Dodge Ram has a fuel capacity of 26.5 gallons.

Oh, and Boyd sang great. Like a bird. He's so talented at singing with 120 other kids!!!

You have to try the buffet, Jerrrrrryyyyyy

What a weekend!

It started off with a bang. I was in Dallas on Thursday/Friday (for all of 29 hours) and landed in Kansas City Friday at 4 p.m. I hustled back home to change clothes and pick up the family because Adrianne and I had... Seinfeld tickets!

After a stressful day at work (we took the magazine to press)
on Wednesday, Boyd and I got haircuts, then we all went to
Set Em Up Jacks for dinner and some video games.

We dropped the kids off at Aunt Jessica's house (thanks Sis!) and hustled over to the Midland. Good thing we got there early too, because our VIP lounge passes and our tickets were... NO GOOD! The scanner said they had already been scanned. That was not a good feeling obviously, and had me stressed out.

We called our Midland pal (Travis) and he came down and resolved everything for us immediately... so we got where we needed to get, with only a small delay...

The Bokerns, Ted and Heather, joined us for the show. We had GREAT seats... 8th row, left. (One of these days I should write about our membership with the Midland... it's pretty awesome, really impressed.) Jerry was great and performed for a little over an hour. He had an opener who was on for about 15 minutes or so. Between the seats, the good company, the venue and of course the headliner... I'd give the whole thing a 10.

Ted and I snuck away for a brief moment to reload our drinks, Adrianne says I missed perhaps the funniest 10 minutes of the set. But that's all good, because I wouldn't want the drinks to be dry during a comedy set.

After the show, we went over to Johnny's and reminisced about the show, the best parts, surprises, etc. Everyone was hungry, ("When are we going to get FOOD!?!?" was one of Jerry's jokes) and I could have crushed some beers there but we needed to get the kids and get home.

The kids had a blast at Aunt Jessica's. Boyd learned about Minecraft (and now has it on his Kindle... but wants to delete it.) And they also ate some potato soup, my mom's recipe, courtesy of my sister, and loved it... and now I just texted Adrianne, asking her, "Did I remember to get the potato soup out of the Tucson?!?"

Saturday was a blurry, hazy, lazy, hectic day. Saturday morning we did a whole lot of nothing. Then we started watching this show about news events, and the science behind them. It was kind of interesting. I went downstairs to grab something, and I hollered upstairs, "We should be watching this downstairs!!!" (Bigger TV, we had the beds pulled out for the Abasolos — who cancelled last minute — might as well take advantage of the comfort!) We ended up watching this show for about two hours, kind of napping and just chilling. I kind of needed it after going to press on Wednesday, going to Dallas for 29 hours, then running around to see the Seinfeld show.

Evey had a sleepover on Saturday night at her best friend's house, Ryan. Then I headed out to the KU game, I had a media pass (thank you Lawrence Magazine.) I stayed late at the game (for the assignment) so I didn't get home until late.

Boyd had just fallen asleep when I got home... Adro was happy they had a productive afternoon/evening, doing laundry, playing games, etc. I relaxed with Adrianne for a little bit then we all went to bed.

A great weekend... with Jerry Seinfeld the huge highlight of the weekend.

Now that's what I call Saturday (Vol. 2,116)

It's Saturday night as I'm typing this... I've got NIN on the big screen downstairs, with the new sound system slightly loud.

Thought I'd recap my excellent Saturday.

Well, first, let me back up — me and Adro went out on Friday night with Bill and Billie Jo, to the Heart GCSA party at Arrowhead. They had a casino night... Adro was hot at blackjack and stacked up some chips for us... it was enough to win a bottle of Tito's vodka from the raffle! Nice job, Adro.

I'm lousy at blackjack. Too much math. I prefer poker, it's a different system to me, one I better understand.

Boyd is really excited to see this movie.

Anyway, Saturday morning we woke up feeling fine, kids slept in a little bit with Grandma Judy downstairs. Adro bought some sausage links so I made eggs and sausage links* (not a typical breakfast here at the Casa de Jones) and then we got ready real quick and hustled out the door because we had MOVIE TICKETS...

Adro and Evey went to see Wonder. Boyd and I went to see Ferdinand (an animated movie with a bull, voiced by John Cena.) Evey was super-excited to take her mom to see this movie. Aunt Jessica gave Sis the book for Christmas and she just devoured it... so she has actually been reading the book aloud to Adrianne when time allows.

Boyd and I enjoyed our movie, it was a little slow in the beginning but it had a fun third reel. Boyd thought the whole thing was "awesome" so that's cool. Adrianne gave Wonder a "10" and Evey gave it a "7" I think (which means she liked the book better, I think.) But everyone was happy with their movie choices (I was mostly happy I didn't have to go hide my tears at Wonder.)

** Please note, the music has changed: Rage Against the Machine live at Finsbury Park — yes Adro I do still watch these off the DVR! **

** Random aside: I'm really looking forward to Saturday Night Live tonight, since they haven't had a new episode in two weeks. And in that time, Donald Trump has thrown around the term "shithole countries" liberally and had a book published (Fire and Fury) that he suggested should be pulled from shelves... **

For some reason Bub and I didn't get any previews for our movie. Despite both movies starting at 10:30 a.m. (yeah we like the early movies... they're cheaper and there's no crowd and you still have your whole day ahead of you) Bub and I got out about 30 minutes earlier than the girls (I asked customer service.) So I grabbed a tall Miller Lite, and $5 in arcade tokens, and me and the Bubster started racin'!

It's a $1.00 to get the game going, but 50 cents to continue... so we kept continuing for a while. That was just a blast. Then the girls got out so I let Evey take my seat... eventually, somehow, we broke the first machine (the screen went black) so we moved over to Galaga to finish...

Left the theater then went grocery shopping together (not the highlight of the day but we needed the groceries) so the girls did most of the work while Bub and I dinked around the grocery store. Eventually we ended up on a bench, Bub playing games on my phone, me reading the new Sports Illustrated.

Home, we ate lunch (courtesy of Price Choppa... chicken tenders, mac n cheese, and I got a $6 cup of chicken tortilla soup!)

((It should be mentioned the chicken tortilla soup was excellent, worth the $6, even though it might have been an impulse purchase not approved by the family accountant.))

This is what happened after I bought $6 chicken tortilla soup.
Please note: this is a movie stand-up, not my actual arms.
But it looks kinda convincing, eh?

(((The best thing about Price Choppa??? They have Five Alive!!! We have three or four frozen containers in the freezer right now!!! I think I'll make some soon and mix it with the aforementioned bottle of Tito's!!!)

Adro and Boyd took a well deserved nap while I went downstairs and watched the KU-KSU game (which I recorded and managed to avoid any spoilers, despite getting texts from four different friends about the game, during the game.) I'll admit I hit pause and napped for about 15 minutes during this time... just got tired. But I finished the game and was surprised to see we pulled one out. Glad Bruce Weber doesn't know how to manage the end of a game, that helped us. We're going to get destroyed in Morgantown on Monday... and we'll lose another game or two in Allen this year if we don't get it together...

And then I cracked open a cold beer and started watching NIN, a little sports... RATM... and now, the kids are coming down and we're going to play the "Headbands" game we got for Christmas, which has a superhero theme... that should be interesting!

** OK, the Marvel Head-Bands game is over, it was pretty good! Evey won the first game, Bub and Evey tied for first on the next game. Lot's of cool Marvel characters, but some characters that they don't know... like Black Bolt, Taskmaster, Elektra... **

Queens of the Stone Age at Austin City Limits on now. Solid.

Kids baked cookies. I'm telling you... my 2,116th Saturday was solid.

*Except for when the eggs and sausage links made me sick to my stomach. That was awful.

Evey finishes in 2nd place tie at the spelling bee

Email sent to several co-workers on Thursday morning:

Morning everyone,

That’s my daughter Evey on the far right in the attached photo… she tied for second place in the school spelling bee yesterday! 

The final round went on and on and on… either all three would get their words correct, all would get them wrong, or one would get the word correct and the other two wrong — giving one kid a chance to win it all with one more correct word. Each kid eventually got a shot at a championship word, the boy got his word right and won. (His championship word was clandestine. Evey’s was propaganda.)

I know I’m biased but Evey really put on a show for a few rounds… she kept getting 20-point Scrabble words while the other two kids were getting lay-ups. When she nailed taxidermy and then boisterously in back-to-back rounds the room went crazy (all 3rd, 4th and 5th graders attended.)

And yes, I was extremely stressed out during those last few rounds! It was intense! We took Evey out to dinner last night to celebrate. We decided 2nd place was just about ideal, because she performed exceptionally in the spelling bee… and we have the added bonus of us not having to relive that stress at the next level!

Thanks for letting me brag!

-Seth

Proud Dad

It's 2018

 Hola amigos. Sorry I've been quiet for a while.

2017 had a disjointed ending for me... I went to Cleveland to NCM HQ the week before Christmas... so I went straight from Omaha to Cleveland. I got back on Friday 12/22 and called my sister to let her know I was back in Kansas (a tradition leftover from when I'd call my mom not when I left, but when I returned, so she wouldn't worry about me.)

Jess told me, "OK, great, we'll see you tomorrow!" I said, "Oh? What's going on tomorrow?" She said, "Uhh... isn't it Romero Christmas at Lupe's house?" I went, "Oh, shit!"

I just wasn't mentally prepared to have Christmas so soon. That week away really disoriented me. Omaha, Cleveland, then BOOM! Christmas. Off for a long holiday break.

Also, I got a new phone (an iPhone 8) and I haven't connected it to my work email yet. Often times I email photos from my phone and then go in and write around the photo on my laptop. But I've been unable to email photos with the new phone... so you get these three random, non-current photos from my laptop that I've probably posted to the blog before... but at least they're photos taken in warmer weather.

Things are good, though! We all had a great Christmas and a nice and quiet New Year's Eve. The kids go back to school tomorrow. Boyd is excited, Evey is not.

Aww, man... I was three posts away from 100 in 2017 before I went quiet there. Boo!!! Choked at the end of the year. 

I'll try to do better this year...