Happy New Year!

Having some fun with a blind root beer taste test.... Kroger won!

Cookie time!

Evey felt like baking on this otherwise lazy Sunday... look what she fired out!

Visit to Wheatfield

Boyd and I drove to Wheatfield Friday/Saturday... had to go pay our last respects to Junior, who was like a grandpa to me.

Glad I made the trip, the hugs I got from Mike, Marilyn and Andi made it worth the 18 hours in a car...

And an unexpected bonus: I walked into Larry & Mary's house just in time to watch the KU/Villanova game with them. Plus they had venison tacos for me!

RIP Junior, you were always great to me and my family.

Back from Universal Studios!

I just recently finished up the Golfdom Summit in Orlando... as soon as that wrapped Adro, Judy and the kids flew down to join me in Florida!

We took a Wednesday-Sunday vacation, though Wednesday & Sunday we're both travel days. We did both Universal parks (Studios & Island of Adventure), returning to Studios on day three.

It was a great trip, and a fantastic way to spend Evey's 12th birthday.

I'll have more details later... for now, here is a pic of us at Krustyland!

It’s not ripe

Ok so that wishbone wasn't ready yet, but the humor was!

We're drying it out for one more day...

Also! Watched Galaxy Quest... made mashed potatoes.... fixed the washing machine!!! Bought Mich Ultra...

Calling that... success

That tooth is GONE!

Boyd pulled his own tooth out at the Mexican restaurant a couple weeks ago. Got this nice photo of the kids to commemorate the occasion.

Adrianne, meanwhile, almost lost a tooth at the same place when she slipped on the wet floor there more recently. I wasn't there to see it, but Evey said she "thought mom might be dead!" That is some fall!

Adrianne is alive and well, but she is not real excited about returning to the scene of the fall...

Chillin’ in the garage

Mike and Jeff came up for a visit this weekend. We had a fun time chilling in the garage! Lots of college football plus a little foosball and Uno...

The weather was nice enough so we left the garage door open. Jeff wanted to know what I do with the garage tv room when winter hits. "I shut it down," I said. "I don't know if I could give this up!" Was his reply.

We also caught a couple movies... Nutcracker for the kids and Judy, Bohemian Rhapsody for Adro and I. We liked BR... interesting flick.

Happy Halloween!

Crime took the night off in Eudora, Kan... afraid to cross paths with BATMAN AND ROBIN... and their friend PANDA EVEY!

Happy 12th anniversary!

Wowsers... it was 12 years ago that Adrianne walked down the aisle and gave me the honor of her hand in marriage!

And for the first time... neither one of us really remembered our anniversary! Whoops!

Good news: in a way I feel like we celebrated our anniversary a few weekends ago when we enjoyed really good seats at the National. (remember I said I'd post the video eventually? It's still coming... soon.)

So we didn't do an amazing job celebrating our 12th anniversary... but good news, Babe: we're doing a great job enjoying our lives with two great kids, great jobs, a great house... 

I love you!!!

Venom... in theaters now! And in our garage...

Boyd got a new toy for his birthday... slime. He was so excited for it, but we made him wait. Finally, I helped him make it happen in the garage... it was kind of fun.

Then he forgot about it, and now it's been sitting in the garage for two weeks.

***

Evey's been playing some serious volleyball lately. She's the best player on her team....

But, oh man... are we ready for 7th grade volleyball!

I couldn't have coached her team (and Evey probably wouldn't have wanted me to) but she is ready for the next level of volleyball.

A good reminder: you get what you pay for. Evey got a nice $25 T-shirt.

*** 

Adrianne got sick and lost her voice. This may have been a delayed result from the National concert at Starlight, when it just DUMPED on us for three hours.

(I'll post a video, someday.)

Still... a fun experience!

***

Boyd with the line of the week so far:

Boyd: Dad... Maddox cries all the time at school; I know why.

Seth: Oh? Why, buddy?

Boyd: Because he has "mad" in his name.

Happy 7th birthday, Boydee!

Can you believe Boyd turned 7 on Friday???

Evey (age 11) and Boyd ready for some cookie cake.

We took it easy on his actual birthday... Boyd took brownies to his first grade class, opened presents at the house, a cookie cake from Grandma, then we ate pizza and had a movie night.

We watched the original Ghostbusters, and Boyd really enjoyed it. He and I were the only two to stay awake for the whole thing. I was barely awake by the end... a few days in Dayton, Ohio this week, and working off about three hours of sleep had me beat.

With everyone exhausted from a long week, we went to bed.

Don't let this expression fool you... the next morning, Boyd
decided this toy was so frustrating he actually went to take a nap
after wrestling with it for a while!

The original plan for the birthday celebration was Worlds of Fun, but the rainy forecast caused us to call an audible... then, once the audible was called, Boyd decided that was really his No. 1 idea after all.

So we took our kids, plus Joseph and Thomas, Beaux and Ava, to Laugh Out Loud for 90 minutes of chaos. Now that it's over I'm happy to report that all the kids are accounted for and there were no major injuries... only minor.

Adrianne kept asking me, "are you alright?" because apparently I had the demeanor of

Pictured from left to right, Thomas, Joseph, Boyd & Beaux.

new Supreme Court Judge Mike Kavanaugh at his Senate hearing. I was fine. In truth, I was mad about the Jayhawks game (they just flubbed a play that could have made it close when I walked in) and random work stuff had been on my mind. Now, walking into Laugh Out Loud, it was sensory overload. But I made it through without yelling at any kids.

(OK, I handed out three stern warnings, but no yelling.)

Boyd got some really nice gifts... Lego Jurassic World sets are what he's into right now (he got four different sets)... and that's also what he's playing with right now!

Happy birthday Boyd! We love you and are so very, very proud of you.

Talkin' Tracks Season Two, Episode Six: Incredibles 2

Pretty sure I never posted this one, despite us filming it over the summer...

This concludes Season Two... sorry for the anticlimactic ending to the season... but I'm still calling it a success.

Less "on location" episodes, but a lot more guest stars.

And this year we did more movies than music... we'll see what season three brings.

Mostly I'm really happy the kids still do these things with me!

 

Road game!

Great night traveling to Gardner, KS to watch Evey and her team play volleyball! 

And the Pacific Ocean won, 2-1! Evey had a stellar performance, too! 

BIG NEWS

I haven't been around much the last month.... sorry about that.

It was for good reason... something major happened in my professional career... something that a magazine journalist might never experience in his/her career...

I was promoted. But it wasn't just a raise, or a new job title...

I was rewarded with the honor of being handed the keys to an additional magazine.

So to be clear: I'm still the editor-in-chief of Golfdom.

Me, moments before throwing a difficult root ball into the
Wakarusa River. Photo by Thomas Lervik Jr.

And now I'm also the EIC of sister publication Landscape Management magazine.

I'll try to give this some perspective, because I know that magazine publishing is somewhat alien to people outside the industry...

I've been leading Golfdom editorially since 2010, and it's been a good thing... we print 22,000 copies a month and we mail this magazine out for free to all qualified readers... we're 100% supported by our advertisers... and that's cool.

Landscape Management magazine, owned by the same company (North Coast Media) is in the same boat... their readership is 65,000 readers.

...and now I'm in charge of the editorial direction of both magazines.

Before you say, "Seth, how are you going to publish two magazines, when I know you're always running like crazy to get your one magazine published?"

More good news... along with the promotion, they've restructured things so I now have a team of editors working with me... to help me get both magazines published each month.

More to come... but yeah... I've been a little skittish for the last couple weeks because... because I'm now the EIC of two magazines! And I was already honored to be EIC of one...

Click here to see the announcement the company sent out to LM readers.

RIP Mr. Whipple, 2008-2018

Very sad to announce the death of Mr. Whipple, who had been a mainstay in the Jones household since Evey was old enough to giggle.

***

Mr. Whipple came into our lives as a cheap laugh for baby Evey... as she got older, the laughs got more expensive... and then Boyd came! Putting the laugh back at CHEAP.

Mr. Whipple would pop into our lives randomly and without much warning. He would typically ring the doorbell (or knock on the door) and then try to give everyone (especially Mom) a kiss. Everyone tried to deny this kiss, but eventually they would succumb to Mr. Whipple's good looks and boyish charm.

He had a high-pitched voice, unusual for a man of his size. Maybe the white foam beard had some type of effect? He would usually introduce himself with a "HELL-O! I'm MR. WHIPPLE!!! GIVE ME A SMOOCHIE!!!"

***

For years this stranger would invade our home and request a kiss (smoochie.)  I would always grow infuriated after the fact — where was this jacka$$ and where was I when this all went down?!? Strangely, we never were in the same place at the same time.

Turns out the kids would fight like crazy to avoid Mr. Whipple, but Mom would eventually relent and give this random man a "smoochie." Which would fuel my fire. At least the kids fought off this strange man!

I consistently wanted to fight Mr. Whipple, but he had always just left when I arrived on the scene (and with a fresh shave!)

***

Well, Boyd is now old enough... Evey is beyond old enough... Mr. Whipple had to come clean (but not Mr. Clean.)

I exposed the true identity of Mr. Whipple... it was me, all along! Only with a shaving cream beard.

The kids tried to pretend like they knew. So did Adrianne. But me and Mr. Whipple knew the truth!

Now, somebody... give me a smoochie!