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Young Man – You are in Trouble!!!

Sweetie went off to her book group Tuesday night so SuperPizzaBoy and I did our monthly “Boys Night Out.” They are not as much fun as the summer, early bedtime and all. Plus this time SPB has his first ever book report due early next week so we are trying to get a little bit done ever night.

Still, we did a few things. We went to Toys R Us so he could look at what they got. That consists mainly of reading the video game cheat books.

I saw something I had never seen before.

It is a Sponge Bob Square Pants television. Wow, the ability of science and technology to make our lives more meaningful and fulfilling continues to amaze me.

He is a pretty good kid and so I told him that I would buy him a Bakugan. Now, if you have kids of a certain age you already know what they are. If you don’t then count yourself lucky! Basically they are little toys about the size and shape of a large jaw breaker (that dates me) that spring open when put on the accompanying metal card. There is also a cartoon that I don’t understand. I think that it is a plot by Obama to drive us Boomers crazy since we are the only ones that are on to his plot to take our guns away and hand the USA over to Bulgaria.

Anyway here is what a Bakugan looks like.

They cost about $5 each. Cheap right, I guess. My customers are spending about $10 million a pop to drill horizontal wells 14,000 feet deep and pump 1 million pounds of sand and incredible amounts of water into the hole. If they are lucky and the geologist wasn’t screwed up and if the driller didn’t mess the hole up they produce natural gas at about $5 for a 1000 cubic feet. And then they pay companies like my employer to clean it up, compress it, and take it to market. Then they have to give the royalty owner about 3/16th of it, and the state takes 7% (The state and the royalty owners don’t pay any of the drilling costs). At Toys R Us, they don’t deliver the product to you. You have to drive your own car to get it. We pay the tax on it also. Maybe I need to get in a new line of business?

Anyway I promised him that if he worked on his book report then he could play video games until shower time so he opted to save time eating by going to Wendy’s and grabbing some burgers and frostys.

We did that, got home and opened the garage door to pull in and this is what I saw.

What the what? Then it dawned on me. I turned him and said, “Son, have you been playing with the sink and counter top and not put it back where you found it? How many times have we talked about that?”

SPB said, “I didn’t do it, a man came and took it off.” and I said “And you just stood there and let him do it! Wait until your Mother comes home!”

He said “She knows about it, she was there!” I said, “We’ll see about that.”

Anyway, we are sinkless for a little while. We are getting new granite countertops. It will be interesting.

No Rest on the Seventh Day, but I am not Complaining

Sunday:

Lets see, up at 5:15 am, get dressed, drive down to the Arkansas River. Run six miles with Burt and Jeff from church. Drink coffee at Starbucks until 8.

Drive home, get dressed, we missed church today but Sweetie is teaching 4 year olds and I’m helping her so we all load up and go to church anyway. SuperPizzaBoy goes to his Sunday School with his buddy.

Sweetie and I go to see the 4 year olds. Not enough adult help (2 deep adult leadership for child and adult safety, married couples don’t count!) so we had to combine with another class. Take to big group and then since so many kids they play on the playground.

SPB’s new bed is in at the furniture store. So I drive up there with the truck (sneak in a geocache on the way.) Pick the stuff up, take back to the house.

SPB’s kid furniture needs to go!

His old ceiling fan needs to go also

New one, more masculine, needs to go in.

Turns out that taking down the old ceiling fan and putting in the new one is what soaks up the hours.

SPB’s new bed frame is maple, snaps together!

Sweetie finishes it off, SPB is pretty happy with it.

Time for a Chipotle’s burrito and a malted beverage.

Not very much rest today but all in all a day well spent and satisfying.

Boys Night Out

Once a month when Sweetie goes to book group, SuperPizzaBoy and I have “Boys Night Out.”

First we go get something to eat. We go to Johnnies a lot for hamburgers. Our other favorite spot is Mexacali’s for Mexican food. That is where we went Tuesday night. SPB is relaxing with a pre-dinner drink.

I was going to get a picture of the chicken fajitas I ordered but didn’t remember until I was well into them. You will thank me for not taking a picture of a half eaten plate of food. I considered it though.

After we eat we do various things. We have a whole series of geocaches we have placed in Tulsa named “Boys Night Out” with some tag on the end. They have proved pretty popular. That is mainly in the summer though. It takes time to properly place and hide a geocache and determine the coordinates.

Sometimes we play miniature golf, Lazer Quest is fun, Tulsa Driller Baseball Games, we have done a lot of stuff.

Tonight we did something different!

We went home so I could repair the oven. Actually I had to cut the power to it. The bake coil needs replacing and I won’t have one until Friday or Monday. The oven is on the same circuit as the range and microwave. Leaving the oven off wasn’t working. The old coil was heating up with the oven off so I shut off the breaker. So tonight’s task was to safely cut off the power to the oven.

Looks like fun huh! I have to do it right. If I screw up and the house burns down, I would never hear the end of it. Plus Sweetie may not go geocaching with me on my birthday. I love her very much but she can be mean sometimes.

So far so good.

What a Day! – But I Ate Good! – and Worked Hard!

What a day. Gramps has gone back to Idaho. We had a good time. We had martini time every night. We ate very well, we looked at historical stuff and viewed great art. When I went to my Health Club this morning, I found that I had gained three pounds in a week. Whew, I feel like I gained 20. Plus, I need to talk to the club manager. The towels have shrunk. They don’t fit all the way around me any more.

The other thing is that I finally finished with the Cub Scout Popcorn. I drove down to the Scout Office and gave them the check. I didn’t do such a great job this year. I misordered popcorn and had to scramble to make up, forgot to order one kids prize, lost a case of carmel corn (I got it back at least), and just made a hash of things. But hey, I got everybody to pay! I’m very frank with people who are laggards and they know it, so they just pay rather than put up with me. I don’t blame them, sometimes I can’t stand me either.

But hey, there I was at the Scout Office, relieved to be done with it but hungry. The Scout office is located at about 41st and Garnett right in the middle of an office park ghetto. Nowhere to eat. Then I had a vision. Popeyes, near 41st and Mingo. So off I went.

Now, Sweetie may disagree but I think that most of the time I eat pretty well. Its just the volume but still, I eat downtown at Subways, Roast Chicken, whole wheat, no cheese, all the veggies, yogurt, diet soda, or something similar at Quiznos. I like those meals and all but its not like I look forward to them and wouldn’t it be a tragedy if, God forbid, one of those was my last meal?

I lived in the Houston area for years and ate tons of Popeyes chicken before I started my migration to Oklahoma . So there I was at the counter, Three pieces, mixed dark and white, dirty rice, and a biscuit. If I’m going to eat food that is bad for me, I’m going eat good bad food. Lunch was great! And I lived to eat another low fat lunch.

I give Popeyes three stars out of four. Plus, its at the Gateway to great geocaching in Tulsa.

I’m not done yet. You may, but I’m not. I got home tonight and finished the molding in SuperPizzaBoys room. It took about 20 minutes to nail it in. I measured and cut the molding about three years ago and it has been sitting in his room all this time. You just don’t want to rush a project is what I say.

Now, I’m done. You can go now.

Party Time

Sweetie is down at Nana’s helping with the sale of the store. The sale didn’t close until late Friday afternoon so she called me and said that she was going to stay down there.

SuperPizzaBoy is at an overnight with his friend Q.

Wow, Friday night alone! Party time.

Let me see, first stop is Home Depot downtown. SPB’s toilet is leaking. Then to Blockbuster to get something besides a romantic comedy. I enjoy a good romantic comedy but on my own I can get something will lots of action. I didn’t recognize many of the movies, I picked “TransSiberian”. I’m watching it now. I think that it may suck. I am not sure quite yet.

Ok then to the grocery store to pick up some chicken thighs. I absolutely love grilled chicken. Thighs are my favorite. I really like nice firm thighs.

Ok then home. I figure maybe 30 minutes to fix the toilet. Fat chance. I need another part. Put the dogs back up, run and get the part. Come back. All told it took two hours. I’m lucky I finished at all. Plumbing is not my strong suit.

Finally get to cook my chicken. Watch my movie, go to bed. Don’t tell Sweetie, she thinks I’m out partying!

Here is where I spent most of the night. The dogs didn’t help. They grabbed everything they could and ran off with it. Why do dogs love toilets?

Book Group #1

Those who are unfamiliar with Book Groups are under the impression that a book group is about books, discussion, and fellowship. Actually book groups are about many things. Things such as refrigerator repair. You cannot have a book group in a house with rust on the doors. Cannot happen no way. Book groups are about other things and we may cover those but today, book groups are about repairing the paint job on a refrigerator door.

Below is a picture of the door before the repair.

and during the repair: