A Memory of Being First Married

Don't know why, but I wanted to talk about being married today. I know it has its ups and downs for a lot of people and I am really sensitive to that fact, but when you really love someone and think the world of them, marriage is the best thing ever.

My dear sweet wife and I are going to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary later this summer and this week we purchased our tickets to go to Puerto Vallarta to celebrate (we were going to Puerto Rico, but the flights got too expensive all of a sudden). I am so stoked. No children. No work. No Wizard calling at 7 A.M. It is going to be so awesome.

The wife and I did the long distance thing before we got married and then we met up the day before the wedding, got married and then went on a big trip to Tahiti for the honeymoon, so these anniversary trips are a big thing for us.

So why the picture? I don't know. The wife took this picture just after we got back from the honeymoon and we were out at Antelope Island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake and I just think its a cool picture of me (not many pictures of me are very good, so I make the most of the good ones) and it reminds me of that excitement of getting married and sharing life with someone you care about.

So now that you are all bored, I'll shut up. Just thinking about my wife tonight and how lucky I am to be with her. Carry on, citizens!

A Memory of Tiny White

I am in the process of reading a personal history of my step-grandfather, Brian Laird, who grew up in New Zealand and was commissioned into the British Army in World War II but never actually encountered battle. He tells the story, however, of an Air Commodore named Tiny White, who was apparently a very famous character in New Zealand at that time due to a rather remarkable flight he took from New Zealand to Australia.

The story goes that he and his captain Kingsford Smith were flying to Australia when their little Tri-motor Fokker sprang an oil leak. The leak threatened to ground their flight in the middle of the ocean so Tiny jumped out on the wing with a suitcase and caught the leaking oil in the suitcase and put it back in the engine. My grandfather surmised that he thought the flight time in those days was around 12 hours.

I can't imagine being out on the wing of a plane for 12 hours (or however long he was out there) with a suitcase in one hand and the big blue ocean below me.

Thought it was an amazing story.

A Note on Opening Doors

Touchdown recently harassed the Wife to let her go to the Penny-Candy Store (aka Judd's General Store). She (Touchdown) was quite distraught to learn that the store was closed because it was too late in the day. That did not go over very well at all with our darling Touchdown so she screamed vehemently for a good 15 minutes in the minivan to the delight of everyone. Finally the Teenager had had enough.

"Touchdown, its closed. The door is locked and they won't let us in."

Touchdown thought about it for awhile before she piped up.

"I know how to get it opened. We walk up to it and say, "Abre!"

Hey, it works on Dora the Explorer.

If that theory doesn't clue you all in to the difficulty we face here in the castle on a regular basis, let me share this dandy about our dear Touchdown and the Wizard.

The Wizard came by to take Touchdown to the park and insisted on having Touchdown dressed in long pants so that the slide wouldn't burn her. Well...Touchdown didn't want to wear the long pants and she threw a royal little fit full of crying and wailing and more crying but eventually the Wizard won out and the little girl put on her long pants with the promise that the Wizard would change her into her skirt once they were done at the park.

All went well and the Wizard had a successful outing and when they were done, he forgot to dress her in her skirt.

"Grandpa, you didn't put me back in my skirt."

"Do you want me to? You know I will if you want me to."

"No, I'm okay, but I didn't want to wear my long pants."

"I know and you got really mad. Touchdown, I don't want you to burn your legs when you go to the park with me because I love you. Grandpa loves you so much. He really loves you."

"Grandpa, if you love me so much, how come you made me cry?"

They always come up with the good questions...

A Note on Saliva

This gem of a conversation took place today at the Burger Bar as Touchdown and I sat down for a little lunch and Touchdown spotted a little Border Collie at the table next to us.

Touchdown--"Daddy, why do dog's lick?"
The King (after a few seconds of deep thoughts)--"Um, cause they don't have opposable thumbs?"
Touchdown (after an equally long pause)--"Yep, dogs don't have poseable thumbs."
The King--"Yep."
Touchdown--"Yep."

Knowing nods of the head followed by both of us. We got it figured out.

A List of Things I Am Discovering About My Grandmother

Many of you are aware that I am currently in the process of reading all of my Grandmother's journals with a goal of finishing her life history and publishing it for Mother's Day. It is a monumental task, but I am finding that I love it. My grandmother was a phenomenal woman and I am getting to know her more and more. Here are a few tidbits.

1. She loved soup.
2. At 80 years old, she was very concerned about whether her swimsuit was "Flashy" or "Hot".
3. She ate lots of ice cream.
4. She knew every doctor in Los Angeles County and went to them at one time or another.
5. She was big on trail mix.
6. She included nearly every meal she ever ate in her journals.
7. She attended something like a million funerals and brought treats to each one.
8. Water exercises occupied a good portion of every morning.
9. She was an adept "Upwords" player.
10. She was a genealogy buff.

I am sure to discover other little tidbits as I continue, but these will suffice for now.

A Note on My Hiatus

On occasion all bloggers get a bit tired with their blog and embark on other adventures. Such is the case for me this week. Don't fret, I am not abandoning my blog, I am just anxiously engaged in another great project and I have had family in town for the Easter holiday.

I am happy to report that Baby Indy is nearly one year old, but we celebrated his birthday early and we should have cake-smashed-on-face-and-in-hair photos imminently. Stay on the alert for them.

On a sadder note, the Wife and I went 0-fer-2 on the Canasta games this weekend, losing to the Wife's family. Maybe they are just smarter than the Wizard and his lovely wife. Hmmmmm.....

A Note on Medical Advice

This evening the Wizard and his lovely wife visited to play a little canasta (The Queen and I were triumphant). While here the teenager cut the bottom of her foot by stepping on some scrapbooking supplies she had strewn out across the entire width of the living room floor (that's a post for another time). Well, the Teenager yelped and elicited enough sympathy from the grandparent's for Touchdown to get interested (she would hate to be upstaged by her sister). The following is a pretty accurate account of the exchange between the two.

Touchdown--"Sissy, what happened to you?"

Teenager--"I hurt my foot, Touchdown."

Touchdown--"You hurt your foot?"

Teenager--"Yeah, I hurt my foot." (she then ambles off to retrieve a band-aid)

Touchdown (as she sees her sister walking down the hall)--"You know what I do when I hurt my foot?"

Teenager--"What do you do?"

Touchdown--"I hop. I hop on the other foot. You could try that."

Now that's good sound advice. I wonder what would happen if doctor's employed that philosophy. Let me think...

A Note on Snotty Noses

So, Baby Indy is just about one year old and he just started walking in earnest. Well, he totters forward a few steps and then he totters back a few steps. We call it walking. He is getting more proficient at the tottering, however.

Just today, though, he crawled up to the King as the King was on the floor watching the Masters and snuggled up really tight and...and...blew his nose as hard as he could right on Dad's T-shirt. He then promptly evacuated the premises leaving the snot-adorned Dad alone on the floor.

Nice one, Indy.

A List of Food Favorites

I have done one such list once before and I really enjoy trying to come up with things that are both thought provoking and yet entertaining (well, maybe not entertaining). So here goes...

My favorite berry: I am going to go with the raspberry here. Yes, a good strawberry shortcake is tempting and a boysenberry pie a la mode makes my knees weak, but the raspberry is just so versatile and my mother's raspberry jam is the all-time best. Yep, the raspberry it is.

My favorite ethnic food: Mexican. This would have been a clear-cut winner about 15 years ago, but now my palate is a little more refined and I like a good Indian curry or a spicy Thai dish. I even like the occasional unagi from a sushi place, but there is nothing, and I repeat, nothing better than well-done Mexican food. I prefer slow-cooked goat to be honest but pollo pibil and poc chuc are welcome as well.

My favorite spice: Garlic. Hands down. Now I love cumin and curry, but it is sometimes hard to convince my wife to let me use them all the time, so around here, garlic reigns supreme. My mother did give me a great dill dip recipe that uses Beau Monde, though. I need to revive that here.

My favorite fast food joint: As a single guy, I ate out 100% of the time. So for nearly 11 years I ate fast food when time was an issue so I know my fast food. For day to day usage, nobody beats the big girl, Wendy. She usually features fresh tomatoes and lettuce and the beef just tastes more like beef than the rest. Now, I do like the new Ciabatta Bacon and Cheese at Jack in the Box, but any place that serves the kind of tacos they serve can never be considered the best. On a side note, Fatburger in Vegas rocks as does Pepe's in Los Angeles.

My least favorite fast food joint: There are so many bad ones that I hate to limit it to just one, but my least favorite fast food joint is Little Caesar's. I just cringe when the wife ponies up the five bucks for a pepperoni. Now I know everyone has their horror stories about places, mine include the aforementioned Jack in the Box, the lovely Carls, Jr., and the sometimes horrific Burger King, but Little Sleazer is just plain bad. Oh, and I will only eat one thing at Taco Bell.

My favorite vegetable: Broccoli.

My favorite fruit: Seedless oranges (in season). I kind of like Clementines, too.

My weird food stuff: Okay, so I don't like fresh apples, but in a pie they are delicious. I love fresh bananas but anything banana-flavored is nasty. Same thing with peaches. I love fresh peaches over vanilla ice cream, but give me peach yogurt and I will likely lose my cookies. I love raisins but put them in anything and they are instantly nasty. Carrots - raw not cooked. Spinach - raw not cooked. Onions may only be added if they are chopped finely.

I hope this has all been enlightening.

A Note on the Champions

What with the Gators of Florida winning the National Championship, I guess I have to be a standup guy and award something to the co-winners of the WilkeWorld Bracket Challenge. In a contentious affair, the Wizard came from behind to tie the Wife in the National Semifinal. So both the Wizard and the Wife are the oh-so-deserving champions (sorry Indigo, you have to make picks to be considered).

To be totally fair and honest I will allow both parties to make suggestions in the comments regarding their prize from the King. Remember, I know where you both live.

Congrats to the Wife and the Wizard for their deft abilities to divine the winners of college basketball games.

In a totally related manner, I won the pool at my work and won two tickets to the movies. I hope the wife chooses that for her gift.

A Note on the Apprentice

I have no real interest in a man with really bad hair and an ego that is so huge it hardly fits in a room, but I sat down today and watched the Apprentice and just had to comment on the trainwreck that is the Donald. He totally missed the boat with Bryce. Anyone who stands up for his people and takes the blame for a failure is a standup guy in my opinion. Bryce did that and yet not one person stood up for him. They all abandoned him in the room and so he had to bring two people into the room with him. He chose the two that contributed the least in his opinion and the Donald bagged him.

I hate that his two henchies just sit there and agree one hundred percent with that nitwit. Of course they have to, cause he only wants yes-men. Anyway, Donald, if you are listening (and why would you, you're own voice drowns out everything else in a thirty mile radius?), quit allowing people with real moral fortitude to leave your boardroom.

Oh, and wash that smirk off your face. It is so unbecoming with all that hot air escaping your pie-hole.