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Golf Saturday

 

Fun weekend here. Busy, but good.

This weekend was the last soccer game for both kids (Boyd's team won big, Evey's team lost big.) More important, it also marked the first time that me and the kids went and played golf together. 

Boyd once again drove the bus. I talked Evey into joining us. We had a blast.

Boyd wasn't as focused with his Sissy around... but he still was pretty good. Meanwhile, Evey got her swing working, and even hit No. 8 green from the tee! I even have it on video! I'll post it soon.

Never a bad golf round that ends in chocolate cake, right? 

Boyd wanted to go back on Sunday, I had to tell him no -- he needed a little rest, plus it seems he might be getting sick...

But we'll be back soon!

Happy 9th anniversary, Adrianne!

This is what most couples do on their 9th wedding anniversary, right?

Take their 8-year-old to the dentist, the 4-year-old to Rick's to watch the ALCS, then meet up upon the conclusion of the dentists' appointment?

Because I think that sounds pretty amazing! HA!

We'll celebrate for real tomorrow night, OK babe?!? (And good news: we're still enjoying the new car we bought for each other as our anniversary gift!)

Rest In Peace Snickers

Jones family dog, from Oct 2014 to Oct 2015. Approximately 10 yrs old.

You will be missed, nerd-dog.

A great student, a better friend

Adrianne and I have been pretty busy at work lately, which means we haven't had a whole lot of fun lately. It's run-run-run every day and night. Try to keep up with dinners, homework, laundry. Everyone's a little frazzled.

Everyone except for EVEY, who is in the midst of a 4-and-a-half-day weekend. Must be nice!

It's a break at school for parent/teacher conferences. We scheduled ours early, Wednesday at 3:30. Evey came with me and we headed over to visit with Mrs. Golay.

I was happy, first of all, to see that Evey is making straight As in 3rd grade. In her own self-assessment, she downgraded herself in science and math. Mrs. Golay said, "I don't know why she's put herself at red (downgraded), she's great at math."

We talked about the homework, and how sometimes I don't get what the math homework is trying to teach. (Sample question: If Jerry needs to add 25 plus 3, but before he adds 3, he adds 12… what does he need to do now? My answer: He needs to stop adding random-ass numbers to simple math problems.) But I get that we're tip-toeing into algebra… and algebra and sarcasm don't mix.

And frankly, algebra and me don't mix.

But Evey is doing great in school and the teacher really had no recommendations… Evey is at "Tier One" in all her subjects, she has no special assistance, just doing her thing and learning like a big girl.

And then Mrs. Golay told me something about Evey that really melted my heart… she asked me if I knew there was a special needs student in the class, I said yes. Mrs. Golay told me that Evey is helpful with this student, treats him as an equal and a friend. "She's a blessing to have in class," the teacher told me.

GULP! So proud of my girl. She could be making straight Cs and we'd work on it, right? But to hear that she's just a good kid, has a kind heart? So rewarding.

I've told her about a hundred times I'm proud of her. I also told her we'd have to celebrate the "straight As" soon. I get the impression that she thinks that she should be doing better. I'm fine with that.

I'm just so PROUD of her.

Birthday pic

Boyd's golf swing, age 4

Here is a video of Boyd hitting golf balls at Twin Oaks over the weekend, meant to post it but couldn't do it from my phone...
 

And maybe you'd be interested in this column from my magazine, where I write about Boyd's first golf lesson... http://digital.golfdom.com/sep2015#&pageSet=5

Highlight of the weekend

Boyd's interest in going golfing on Saturday... It was his idea!

Quatro Exitos

Happy birthday, Boyd!

Happy birthday Boydee!

Boyd turns 4 on Monday, so we brought him, for the 2nd year in a row, to Worlds of "Fun."

I'm not a huge fan of this place , but I'll admit the weather is perfect for it. I think Adro and Judy enjoy it. I found beer here this year, so I'm enjoying it more...

Also, Adro bought some kinda food pass, where we get free food (entree plus side) every 90 minutes. So I've turned that into my own private gameshow, trying to maximize that thing's value. (I think it cost $37?)

Beer is $8 a cup, but it is craft beer. (Same price as Bud, FYI.)

My biggest complaint about WO"F" is that inevitably, a child will have a breakdown -- overwhelmed by the rides, the long day, etc. -- and I'll bark at someone. But maybe not this year???

Blood moon over Eudora

Good day here on Sunday. Smoked ribs and they turned out pretty good, got the yard mowed, looking good, plus a fridge full of beer and a blood moon?

Adrianne was wore out early, but rallied for the blood moon. I had chairs set up in the back yard, and some oldies playing. Adro decided to bake some cookies. As the moon was coming up, I wandered to the front yard and saw the new neighbors across the street sitting in their driveway. Invited them over for fresh baked cookies later, and went back to the back.

 The new neighbors came over (note to self: Dave and Kris) and joined us. Nice folks, older than me and Adro, big sports fans, good neighbors. Adro came out with cookies. I got some extras and passed a few over the fence to the Browns. Decided it was a good idea to smoke a cigar.

 The blood moon was cool and the kids enjoyed staying up late and running around the yard. I enjoyed sitting outside and just shooting the breeze, a few beers in hand. Felt very small town America.

Was exhausted this morning, but a cool way to spend a Sunday.

Evey and Dad's day at the K

So I had this coupon book, with 4 free Royals tix and a dozen half price tix. I've been trying to use them all season but kept putting it off... There were some restrictions, like they could only be redeemed Sun-Thurs, Hy-Vee zone only, etc. it was a Boy Scouts fundraiser, I think we spent $40 for the book.

We were all going to go on Sunday, but then I decided midday on Wednesday that me and Evey should go on up, just the two of us, for that night's game.

We got to the parking lot, and gridlock. While waiting to pay to park, I pulled the ticket out if the book. That's when I saw it: the whole booklet expired on Sept. 9th. DAMN!

But whatever, we'll just buy tix, right? So we walk all the way up there, bypassing a few scalpers. We enter the chute for the ticket windows... And then some guy, a little older than me, stops me. "You guys need tickets??" He asks. I shrug because I'm looking to buy something cheap. "I've got two. They're free. You're going to have to come with me, but... You're gonna want these tickets."

I say sure.

"Is that your daughter? I've been waiting you two... I almost gave them to a couple college guys..."

We then followed this guy and his friend... To the Diamond Club... And then to the 8th row, directly behind home plate!

(This story to be continued , I'm tired of typing on my iPhone!)

Boydee tells a knock-knock joke (Evey helps out)

Dos Half-Mexicanos

Took the kids to arguably their favorite restaurant last night -- Tres Mexicanos. Didn't feel like cooking last night since I'm on a quick business trip these next two days.

Picked up Boyd from Montessori School for the first time. Met one of his teachers, she said he's doing great at the school. "He's always so happy!" was what she told me. Which is nice, because at home he can sometimes be so GRUMPY.

Strange moment of the day: Cell phone rings, it's Eudora Elementary School. "This is Seth," I answer, expecting the automated call service to be reminding me about an early release day, or somesuch. Instead? "Hi Daddyyyy!" Evey's voice sings. "Uhh... hi Evey. What's up?"

She was concerned about who was picking her up, there was some confusion... and even more confusion on my part after she called. (But we worked it out.)

The weekend that was

Pretty good weekend here at the Casa de Jones.

On Friday we had the Lipford wedding reception. I left work early to hit golf balls at the range, to get the weekend off right. Picked up Evey, then double-cut the front yard (unbelievably, no one noticed.)

Then the Neutebooms and Littlejohns came over to the house for a few pre-party beers. We still have the old bed in the downstairs living room, which made the seating a little awkward. But we had a good time and then were off to the reception.

The reception was at the Lackman-Thompson barn in Lenexa, my old stomping grounds (my first ever internship was next door at the Lenexa Chamber of Commerce, thanks to my sister. I was 20.) The food spread was solid. The music, not gonna lie, did not live up to my expectations based on Lip's excellent taste in music. That's OK, I'll blame the DJ. The Neutys had to bolt early, unfortunately, something to do with a child younger than 7 missing mom, I'm sure. We soldiered on a little longer than wrapped it up ourselves.

I barely managed to avoid the dance floor.

***

Saturday Evey and Adro had cousin Jackie's baby shower; Boyd and I had a soccer game.

Me and BJ were out the door by 9:30 for his 10 a.m game. I'm coaching his team. We have a young team, but cute kids.

Boyd refused to play for the first three quarters (OK, he was on the field, but he didn't do much). We hung tough until the third quarter, when Christian gave up maybe three goals in the quarter. Since Boyd wasn't doing anything anyway, and with a big deficit now, I elected to put BJ in goal for the fourth quarter.

Surprise, surprise. Boydee actually played goalie, making three saves. One was a save on the outskirts of the goalie box, which was cool because a lot of the players are nervous about venturing that far away from the goal mouth. I'm trying to teach these kids to pounce on the ball when they can, BJ actually did that!

He pitched a shut-out quarter, then celebrated by blatantly crashing the oppositions' post-game treats line. Sneaky, Boydee. Real sneaky.     

We then headed to Lawrence to see Mike Amyx at the barber shop. We both walked out looking sharp. Just in time for the KU band to march down for the band day parade. Timing? Perfect.

Watched as much of the parade as we wanted to, then walked to the library. Boyd played and played and played in the library while I read Action Comics #23-25, Superman # 8 and # 9, and World's Best Comics # 1 (collected in one volume). Man, were those Superman comics were bad back then. Mind control? Drugs to make Lois forget what she saw? A war on gambling? Yeesh.

From there Boyd agreed with me that we needed nachos, so we went to Wayne & Larry's. Boyd played a little Golden Tee while I watched college football. The nachos were decent. Chilling with BJ was... golden.

From there, home, where Boyd fell asleep on my chest as we watched Zathura together.

That night, Adrianne bought a much-needed couch at IKEA, to remedy the situation from Friday, of having friends sitting on a bed awkwardly trying to look cool. Now we have a couch that converts to a bed and we got it for a steal... the basement is once again an awesome place to watch football.

***

Sunday BJ and Adro went to church while me and Evey hung out. I mowed the back yard. Evey read comics and watched TV. Laundry ensued.

Then it was time for football, and I watched a whole lotta football.

Grilled dogs and brats for dinner. Watched most of my three fantasy team go down in flames. Fell asleep on the new couch downstairs flipping between NFL and US Open tennis.

The moral of the story?

It was a good weekend.

I want a lousy Golden Age Superman comic.

And it might not be worth the effort to double-cut the front yard.