One month today (14th)

It was one month ago that Dad died.

Still pretty shocked.

I think I've had about four, maybe five nights that I haven't dreamed about him.

This photo is of Dad and me at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. This is the game I referenced in my eulogy to Dad. The photo was taken about ten years ago.

Great, great memory! I'll tell you that story sometime...

Top 10 things that gross me out

when I put them down the garbage disposal:

10. cottage cheese (I don't eat it, never will, because it's just plain ol' GROSS)

9. spaghetti noodles (looks like brains or something)

8. refried beans (mostly because it makes me sad)

7. cold gravy (I know someone who drinks that stuff, too... and she reads this blog!)

6. cheese and beer (just kidding, we don't let those go to waste here)

5. mashed potatoes (especially if cold)

4. scrambled eggs (especially when I'm hungover)

3. Coffee grounds (I HATE COFFEE!!!)

2. Bread (wet bread is slimy)

1. Curdled milk (thanks Evey Jones!)

Did I miss anything?

3-D!

Me, Adro and Evey went down to Wichita last Saturday to visit my Mom for a while. We also stopped in to visit my Dad's grave.

Saturday was a good day. I got up early and got a haircut. By the time I got back, Evey was still asleep, so Adro took off for the 6-hour sale at Hy-Vee. She came back in less than six hours with a TON of food. Good stuff, at a fraction of the price.

Her best deal -- she bought a bunch of the sausages, you know the ones, they're either "smoked sausage" or "polska kielbasa" or whatever -- they're all good. Regular price, $3.99. A price I'm happy to pay.

But that price is WAY TOO MUCH FOR ADRO!

Because she bought them on sale, half off! Only $1.99!

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

There was a $1.50 off coupon right there next to the things! So she grabs a stack... and checks it out. She grabs four of these sausages on round one. Cha-ching! They ring up at 50 cents each.
So she goes back for five more!

Hell yes, I've got a lot of sausage!

After the 6-hour sale, we jump in the car to head to Wichita. And yes, I'm freaking out. Because I wanted to be rolling by a certain time, and we were now about 10 minutes off my certain time. How quickly I forget 50 cent sausages. Sorry, Adro.

But we got to Wichita in time! In time for what? For Toy Story 1 and 2 in 3-D, that's what!

I bought tickets on-line the night before and we met my Mom at the theater. A good time, Evey enjoyed it but she wouldn't wear the 3-D glasses (DORK!) We ended up staying for both movies, something I wasn't sure we'd be able to do, but the girls were all ready for more, so we stayed.
The 3-D looked pretty good and I think everyone enjoyed the movies. The jumbo popcorn and Pepsi both came with free refills, so we all were overdosed on those, but still, a good time.

After the movie we went one block East to visit my Dad. They still have the green netting on top of the spot, no headstone yet. Left some flowers, exchanged a few hugs with Mom, Adro and Evey. It's still shocking to go there and think... this is forever, I'm not seeing that guy again except for in dreams, in photos and a few videos. We have a football game this Saturday and... Dad isn't coming. Shocking, I was there, I know, but sometimes it just doesn't seem real.

From there we went a few blocks West. There's all these fancy restaurants out in this area (13th Street) of Wichita. Like P.F. Chang's and... other stuff. I'd rather they just had some normal food out there. But eventually we decided on Fox and the Hound, which is LAME-ASS. I'd like it if I was a young guy trying to act/look cool. But I'm not that anymore. I'm an old guy who wants to get some food. If you fit that demographic, then I'd suggest you avoid Fox and Hound, if possible.

After dinner we went back to our respective homes, Mom to Mulvane, us to Lawrence. I had a 6 a.m. flight to catch the next morning so we couldn't stick around any longer.

A great trip, with the usual sad moments sprinkled in here and there that we're still not used to.

Do yourself a favor and pack your bags, buy a ticket and get on the train

That's Thom Yorke's advice, and that's what I did.

Here's where I was on Monday night.



This show -- Thom Yorke of Radiohead -- at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles. (Thanks to OTAInc for the video.)

More details later but, yeah... it was so worth it!

Thanks to Adrianne for watching Evey while I took a 3-day trek to see Thom's new band.

Here's the review the New York Times did on the show.

(By the way, I was at the Monday night performance... and we had box seats.)

Some photos from Dad's Mexican wake...

I'm proud of Bauer and Nunn... those two dudes showed up with that giant bottle of Patron! And it was gone in just two rounds. Wow.

After the funeral and everything, we had a party out at Richard's house in Rose Hill. It used to be a tradition every September that we'd have a party out there to celebrate everyone's birthday/anniversary -- there are a lot of birthdays and anniversaries in that month in our extended family. Over the years the tradition faded... and we hadn't done it in a while. My Dad told Richard (he's the one holding the tray of shots) that he wanted to bring the tradition back this year. You know what? The tradition came BACK.

Besides lots of food, horseshoes, pool, fooseball, play-doh for the kids and loud Mexican music, we also had a big-screen broadcast of the Final Four games for KU's championship. Abasolo brought his projector and we broadcast it on the back of the party barn. AWESOME. The next day, Richard saw his neighbor, and he told him, "You know, I woke up at like 1 a.m., and I could have sworn I was hearing like... a basketball game, or something..." Yup, that was us!

I'm as cool as a cucumber in a bowl of hot sauce

Would have been my Mom and Dad's 43rd anniversary today. We've still got Thanksgiving and Christmas to get through, too. And Chinese New Year. We're a big Chinese New Year family...

***

Evey's got a really bad cough. We were up to 3 a.m. last night. She's stayed home with Judy the past two nights... so a big "thank you!" to Judy.

***

Time for a light-hearted story. There haven't been enough of those here lately.

Whenever Evey knows she's making us mad and she wants to try to con her way back onto our good side, she'll ask, "Mom, you happy?" If we're really mad we'll say "No, I'm not happy," but if whatever she's doing really isn't a big deal, we acquiesce to her cuteness and say, "Yeah... I'm happy." And then we'll hug.

The other day Evey had Adro mad. "Mom, you happy?" Evey asked. "No, I'm not," Adro replied. Evey then asked, "Mom, you dork?"

Where the dork comment came from, we have no idea. But Adro laughed so hard that Evey was immediately out of trouble.

Dork.

Like Don King, I got a crazy hairdo

Biggest adjustment of late is that I want to call my Dad. I used to call him a lot. Now, there are lots of times when I think to myself, "I should call Dad..." and then I'm like, "Oh... yeah..." For instance, this KU basketball versus KU football team story? Me and Dad would have been all over that.

It'll take some getting used to. I've been calling him on a regular basis since I moved out in 1996. You can't unlearn something that you've been doing regularly for the past 13 years. It takes time.

***

So, did you watch "FLASH FORWARD" on Thursday? What did you think? (Spoilers ahead if you recorded it...)

I thought it was overall pretty darn good, and I'm excited for some more episodes. Adrianne nailed it when she said, "The flash forward isn't about the end of the world, so it isn't as stressful, but it is an interesting mystery." I agree with that. It's not a race against time.

The mysterious man in black at the Detroit Tigers baseball field was an interesting twist at the end. I liked the way that guy looked. I wonder why he was at a Detroit Tigers game, of all places?

Things I did not like:

• The hospital was not busy enough. The doctor and Bryce are having a casual conversation a few hours after the event. That hospital would be absolute pandemonium for another week, at least. I'm talking cots in the hallways, the National Guard bringing in supplies, CHAOS! Yet they save one boy's life, and they get to take a lunch break. Not realistic.
• I think it was hokey how the female detective discovered the man in black at the Detroit Tigers ballgame. She was just looking at hours of surveillance footage and she happened upon this one baseball game, way out in right field -- here, wait, let me blow up the image to 500% -- oh, look, there's an evil dude in a trenchcoat! How lucky! ...maybe this will be explained better in a future episode... maybe there are a lot more people who were awake for the event. Or maybe something led her to check the Tigers game. Or maybe she's in on it, something. To just happen upon that particular moment is too 1-in-a-million.
• It was too easy to get in touch with one another after the event. Cell phones would be down for a week, in my opinion. People would be jamming phone lines, trying to find out who was alive, who was hurt, and the whole system would collapse. Maybe I'm full of it, I just know how many hours it took me to get a cell phone signal at Lollapalooza two years ago, and that was only 75,000 people vying for airwaves.
• Why were so few people talking about their "flash forwards"? If this happened to me, and I see you, the first thing I'm asking you is "What the hell happened in your flash forward?" And then I'm going to ask about your family and friends. Because you know what, we've got a worldwide mystery going on, I want to know what you know, NOW! For example, the married couple -- the FBI agent and the doctor -- they don't ask about each other's flash forwards until they're in bed. "Hey honey, how was your day?" "Oh, kind of crazy, you know, we all did that FLASH FORWARD thing this morning..." "Yeah, so, what's for dinner?" Granted, they both had FFs they did not like, but STILL... I'd want to know what Adro's FF was immediately. There are other people in the show, and they don't seem to talk about their FFs right away. I'd wear mine on my T-shirt I just hand-made. "Hi, my FF was me playing shuffleboard at Rick's Place, my team winning 12-8, KU basketball game on the TV, Jayhawks up by 7, and I'm hammered drunk. WHAT WAS YOURS???"

We went to White Castle and we got thrown out

I do believe I've had enough

Today my Dad would have turned 63.

Let's not dwell on that. Today, I've been trying to get back to normal after a 7-week-long nightmare.

What did I do? I'm glad you asked. I:

• Listened to the new Pearl Jam CD, "Backspacer," and tried (unsuccessfully) to decide what two free live concerts I wanted to download.
• Watched Monday Night Football (bummer ending).
• Had dinner with my wife and daughter (potluck, yet we were all happy).
• Drew two ninjas.
• Had several Boulevard Wheats.
• Hung out with Evey and Adro Jones.
• Read the new issue of Rolling Stone (underwhelming).

• Pondered if I should go to VooDoo Fest in New Orleans (decided the lineup is too weak this year, but some day I should go).
• Uploaded photos to my bastard child of a blog, http://www.sethsgottix.blogspot.com/.
• Stayed up late to dink around on the computer.
• Blogged, finally, here.

For photos from this weekend's... events(?)... in honor of my Dad, click over to here: http://www.boydedwardjones.blogspot.com/

Special thanks to Mike Abasolo Sr. for taking the photos, and to Mike Abasolo Jr. for posting all the pics. There are some good ones there, of course even the happy ones are tinged with sadness. As I told Mike this evening, "Man, I should have more gray hair at my Dad's funeral." Probably the first time I ever wished I had more gray hair.

Of course you can still see photos and sign the guestbook at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/boydjones. We're at 88 signatures now. I might sign it 12 times in the next day just to get it to 100.

More on all this funeral business in a few days. Some thoughts, reactions, questions, etc. Just not today, not on Dad's birthday.

Tonight, I just say HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD. Hope you enjoy the two ninjas me and Evey drew for you.

I have a friend who is offering his guestroom on friday night if any out-of-towners would like a free place to stay for the funeral. Call me if interested.

A pendulum swings; A new chapter begins

Adrianne's Grandpa Weibel died last Friday. My Dad died this Monday.

Hmph.

I'm OK.

Me, my wife and my sister watched the KU/UTEP game with my Dad Saturday night. He was dying then, he couldn't open his eyes... I don't know if it's technically a coma or what, but I know he could still hear us. So we did play-by-play for my Dad. I was the play-by-play person, Adrianne and Jessica were the best color commentators in the world.

On Sunday night, Abasolo came over, and the three of us watched the 2008 KU national championship game. We just acted normal for that one, cheering when Mario hit the shot.

My Dad died at noon the next day.

I think me and my Dad were doing our best to have a good time together up to the very end. That makes me feel good.

You can read my Dad's obituary here: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/kansas/obituary.aspx?n=boyd-edward-jones&pid=132940700


More information on my Dad here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/boydjones

Here is a photo of Norman and his wife, Velma. Norman was 88. We attended his funeral in Topeka yesterday. I only met Norman a few times, but he seemed like a sweet man to me. A stroke five years ago limited his speech, but he seemed to enjoy me and Evey being around.

***

That's all for now. Probably will be quiet here while we get all the services and everything going for my Dad.

Title of this post still a Beastie Boys lyric. If it were Pearl Jam month here I would have used, "We were but stones... your light made us stars." If it were Foo Fighters month I would have used "There goes my hero."

You think it's chocolate milk, but it's watered-down Yoo-Hoo

Evey in her princess dress. She was invited to a "princess party" this weekend.

She recently decided that everyday should be a princess party day.

I've got more rhymes than I've got gray hairs, and that's a lot because I got my shares

If you'd like to visit a web page devoted to my Dad, sign his guest book, etc., you can visit it here:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/boydjones

Big thanks to my sister for setting this whole thing up! I'd like to add some of my stuff but I've been too slammed lately to add anything.

(The Beastie Boys lyrics as titles for blog posts continues... no matter how inappropriate!)

I'LL STIR-FRY YOU IN MY WOK!

Laugh Olympics 2009... whoa.

Happy birthday Momma!

Today is Adro's birthday, so be especially nice to her, everyone!

In honor of Adro's birthday, I will name every blog post this month by using a lyric from a Beastie Boys song! Is Adro a big Beastie Boys fan? Not that I know of! It's a lousy gift, I know! Hopefully me and Evey come up with something better by tomorrow night... STAY TUNED!

We love you babe!

(This photo taken last February in New Orleans.)