Normally I have to get pretty creative to find a way to put the week in a story that is hopefully entertaining, clever, and maybe a little provocative. This week was an explosion of activities, emotions, dos and don’ts. A full on roller coaster! I have a feeling that this portion of the calendar will always be huge for me. Halloween is of course Oct. 31 and Connor is really getting into it. Nita’s birthday is Nov. 2; Josie’s birthday is Nov 10, and Connor’s birthday is Nov 20. Plus College football is in full swing, NFL is about 1/3 of the way in, and the World Series is on. This year had the added drama of our “Dawg Bowl” which is the two largest factions of our golf club squaring up against each other in a three day Ryder cup event that boasts roughly 64 Matches. Yep uniforms and everything.
This year’s dawg bowl had the 3 time champions (us) taking on the 2 time champions (them). We were in our traditional red and they switched it up and threw some orange on their normal blue. In any case we got smoked. Worse (although mercifully the point didn’t make a difference in the total), I was up two holes with three to play. Instead of playing smart (like a five iron down the middle and playing for an up and down par), I got cute and tried to put him away on 16. So I pushed a 3 wood Out of Bounds off the tee, then hit it in the hazard on 17…you get the point. I blew it/choked, just like the Rangers had done in game six the night before. Then my wife and kids met me at the club for dinner. We had a really nice dinner and I even took Connor home in my golf cart. I then settled in for game 7 of the World Series. (Authors note: I could do five pages on just games 5 and 6, but will save those of you who never played or don’t care).
Really?!! Are you kidding me?!! Okay, so I’m 0-3 now. Congrats to you Cardinals fans by the way. At least A&M has Mizzou at 11 am, so I can get my mind off the devastating loss of my Rangers blowing three saves… in the same game because no one in the Ranger bull pen can throw a clutch strike. Aaaaaand the 14 point favorite Aggies again fail to hold a double digit lead. And again we are out-played and out-coached. EXPLETIVE!!! Okay, well at least we have a nice little Halloween party to go to. Connor originally wanted to be the cowardly lion from the Wizard of Oz but then changed almost at the last minute to Shrek. He wanted to be Puss in Boots and wanted Josie to be donkey. So it was done.
We got our costumes and I think they came out pretty cute. Connor had been practicing his swordplay all week and so far no one had been injured as of the writing of this blog. Josie even got to wear her donkey costume early with her modeling debut at a local retirement center Halloween fashion show. She was a hit. So we head to the party on Saturday, there was a table of “kid” food out. You know: juice, fruit, candy, cookies, and pretzels. She also had pumpkin waffles, which I thought was a fun a pretty unique party snack. Connor is never left alone with cookies. He has a “problem” (think Tommy Boy) with having just one. Kind of like a crack head with a new lighter and fist full of hundreds. Connor looked over his shoulder, glanced at me and quickly grabbed a cookie. I said nothing. He ate another, I walked over and said, “Okay buddy, that’s enough.” Nita handed me Josie and said she’d take Connor. Let’s just say that over the course of the next couple of hours, Connor ate Josie’s weight in cookies. I finally told him absolutely no more. I came out of the house with Josie and he had grabbed one final cookie when he thought I wasn’t looking and I said, “CONNOR.” He threw it back in the bowl and took two steps back. It was very funny. Thank goodness Stacey had a trampoline, or he’d still be awake. On a side note, the only advice you should give another parent is when it’s between telling them something or calling CPS. If, let’s just say Connor is playing in the middle of the doorway and people are having to step over and around him, then he’s in the way. If I ask him to please move and play somewhere else and you tell me to leave him alone he’s having fun, you’ll probably get one…and I mean ONE courteous non sarcastic reply and I can’t really promise a lack of sarcasm. If my request that my son be courteous to other guests makes you feel bad, I’m okay with that. I’m not interested in advice on how to make him less polite or courteous. Okay, off my chest. Thanks. By the way, and potentially last tangent, I do not transfer my frustration of adults and college kid's athletic ineptitude onto my children. In all honesty sometimes I might be a little shorter with Nita than I should within five minutes of the game, okay an hour. But never with the kids, I pray that they’ll embrace and love watching games with me until they pound the last nail.
Back to the games for a second, (yes I realize how obsessive this is starting to sound). Usually after a win, I can settle in and see what else is on or just switch to another game. When I have a devastating loss (much less four in a row, at this point), I have to turn off my phone, go outside, or do some chores. It just so happens that I was able to do some daddy children time while Nita was getting Sunday dinner ready. So I was outside pushing both kids on the swings and Connor wanted to give me a high five. Josie is also doing some pretty fun mimicry right now. I look over and Josie has extended her hand to do the same. I made a wolf man howl, Connor matched and not far behind was Josephine. If Connor growls and we all look at Josie, she’ll growl as well. Connor is also assigning roles for people to play in his pretend games. He asked me to be a waffle last night. So I held my hands up and just swayed. He thought it was hilarious. He then asked Nita to be a waffle, so of course, she was. Both grandmothers were over for dinner to help pass out candy while we went trick-or-treating, so they too were asked to be “waffles.” The crescendo was when we stopped, there was Josie, hands up, big smile and swaying. I then said, “Josie, be a waffle!” She threw her hands up and started swaying again. We howled. She is really becoming way more participative, sometimes too much for Connor’s taste. Connor still calls her Godzilla. Because every time he’s playing with something that requires assembly of multiple pieces, she’ll be along shortly to destroy it.
Halloween had us all ready for some evening fun and our neighborhood, like during Christmas, goes all out. By the way, of course the Cowboys lost to cap off the WORST sports week I’ve ever endured and that includes multiple broken bones, sprains, pulls, devastating losses, strike outs, walk offs, missed tackles, missed baskets, three-putts, and every other personal and team mess up I’ve been a part of in my four decades of sports play. I’m not sure if it’s worse if you actually do the mess up or if you watch something completely out of your control and still tie yourself emotionally to it. (This might be next week’s blog I think, about taking responsibility for your own happiness, not sure yet. I’m not an unhappy person but good Lord can someone please finish a tackle, throw a strike, and catch a stinking football)? In any case the back-to-back-to-back losses were devastating, thank God for my wife and kids and all the fun we had when I wasn’t tying my noose after each game.
Connor couldn’t wait to get rolling. He was eyeing the candy in our own bowl and kept reaching for it. We told him to wait that he’d get his own candy and his was in his spider bag. He started very slowly asking to open just one piece. We did. After another two houses, he asked for another, “open it please, pleeeeeeaaaaseeeeee.” We did. By the end, he was trying to chew through the wrappers. This boy was jacked up. He was however, very polite and only forgot to say “trick or treat” twice. On those occasions when prompted to say his part he said, “I want some candy.” It was cuter than I’m making it sound, but we all had a great time. He also had fun with all the displays and motion activated ghosts and zombies. Last year he was a little skittish, this year he would see the ghost and say, “Daddy what does that one do? Turn it on daddy.” Also, Nita told me he woke up this morning and said he “needed his spider bucket (candy bag)” if that tells you anything.
Lastly our nanny brought us a DVD called Scared Shrekless. It was the shrek gang dancing to the Thriller video. It also gave us the excuse to show him the original thriller vid. Still a classic! Finally, and don’t worry this will be another blog, I know we’re over time here, while playing outside Sunday, our neighbor was mowing the lawn. Connor said, “Daddy what’s he doing?” I laughed, I’ve used a lawn service for about 10 or so years now so Connor has never seen daddy push a mower. But those of you who count our friendship in decades know where I grew up and that I’ve done enough lawn mowing, wheelbarrow full of rocks carting, and well let’s just say it: I was the Mexican labor for the family. Again, another time. Happy Halloween and God bless y’all. I’d also like to extend a very Happy Birthday to my sweet wife Nita. Now will someone please win a F*&^%$G ball game for me?
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