Saturday Update – October 13, 2007

Roasted Pig – I hope. We received some good news on Friday. Lieber was able to secure tickets to the Arkansas vs. Auburn Football game in Fayetteville, Arkansas. We will be able to meet up with an old friend that has moved to Texas. Paul is coming back to the area to attend the game. Huge, Auburn Fan. Doesn’t beat out the Roberts or The Queen of Chocolate but he is getting up there on the fan-atic scale. We are going to tailgate and attend the game. Queen of Chocolate is looking to see the Auburn Band members so she can get the sheet music for trombone to be able to play the Auburn fight song. She already sings the fight song. Now she wants to be able to play it.

Purple Dragons – One beat down and one win this week. Last Tuesday night the young warriors had pictures before the game. Since pictures were 90 minutes before the game there was lots of time to practice before the game. Ooops! The warriors were a little tired once it was game time. The other team went by us like we were standing still. In a couple of places we were actually standing still. The other team had a very talented player. He seemed to do everything. Once I pointed this out to the other coaches on that team and reminded them of the everyone plays every position rule the scoring stopped. But not until after the damage had been done. I was not a happy camper. (I don’t like to loose at anything.) Breathing deeply only works until your about to hyperventilate. I tried the are we having fun with the warriors in the huddle, young Kyler looked at me and said, “Coach, are you kidding?” We smiled at each other and finished the game.

Thursday night was a very different game. Our gang was playing great. Logan ran the ball well. He was an inspired runner. Coach B was very excited. The offense ran some long plays and we threw the ball. Our guys did a great job. Mr. Lincoln was running so fast he as knocked out of his shoe and had his hand stepped on when he rolled across the ground. We attend to the bumped up Warrior. Pulling out his mouth piece so he could talk we listened to his report of what happened. We asked him to sit out a couple of plays after we put his shoe back on him. As young Lincoln runs back in to play he asks for his mouthpiece. “Coach Wilson, you have it!” I begin patting down my pockets. He dashes back to the sidelines wondering where is my mouthpiece? Coach B finds it in his jacket pocket. Lincoln runs out pushes in the mouth piece takes his spot just as the other team snaps the ball. We were all laughing so hard about finding the mouthpiece we almost missed the next play. Minister of Plain was the Quarterback on a touchdown. He also was thrown a pass near the end of the game in the corner of the end zone. The game went well. Three more games to go.

Marching, marching, marching
The Queen of Chocolate and the Minister of Plain marched in the Homecoming parade for our resident home town. Queen as a member of the band and Minister in his football jersey moved down Main Street on Friday afternoon. Queen marches today in the local University Homecoming parade. We are then headed out to the pig roast.

P.S. Should have sent this out earlier on Saturday. At 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning the urgency of the update just wasn’t there. My apologies to the loyal readers for not actually updating on Saturday.

Invite Yourself to Dinner Night.

That is what I said. This game we invented with good friends while living in Anniston, Alabama. There are rules. There must be a call a number of hours in advance. Due to the limited notice you will have whatever is being served that evening. Portions maybe smaller or cause a level of meal creativity not previously seen. House cleaning is not to be done other than picking up drawers or basic straightening. The invitee can bring whatever is needed or can assist in the effort.

Challenges come with school night sessions and during sports seasons. This is a wonderful opportunity to have friendship, laughs, and downtime with your friends.

The dads cooked on these nights, also, no free pass. Let me see some of my specials on those nights were Chicken ala Colonel, Pepperonis on a Round Dough from Dom Inos. There were also health meals. No one ever went hungry or thirsty, especially thirsty.

Explain the rules. Then reach out and call your friends. This way it gives you that chance to hear from them.

Spider Paratroopers

Last night on the way home I had the opportunity to see in person the live version of the ending to Charlotte’s Web. The new young spiders were floating through the air beneath their silk parachutes. It was really an interesting sight and I wished I had a real camera with me not my TREO or cell phone that can get this picture.

I was so excited about observing nature that I had to take a more active part. I decided to stop and watch the event. Trying to multitask I decide to pump gas into my car. I whip in, jump out. Looking into the setting sun I am watching the flying spider paratroopers.

Then in a moment, what have I done? I begin to realize, yes. These are flying spiders. I determine the direction of the wind and make sure I keep the car between me and the arachnids that are flying through the air. A millisecond later something touches my ear. No kidding. The hair on my arms begins to stick up. I push my neck lower in my collar. My mind is racing. What kid of spiders fly? Charlottes’ Web was a book and a cartoon movie.

All of a sudden my car has plenty of fuel. I fumble for the gas cap. Put the nozzle back in the pump. Moving rapidly toward my open driver’s side door, where are my keys? Who participates in nature anyway? Didn’t bad stuff happen to the guys on Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom? I know things turned out poorly for the Crock Guy. Then something touches my ear, again. There are mini paratroopers executing Operation Overlord, the World War Two invasion of Normandy in my car. As the silk touches my ear yet again I begin to wonder about the location of the trooper who had been hanging from that chute. My arms are racing around my head. Calmly I pull away from the pump and decide maybe let’s leave the nature watching to the professionals.

Wordless Wednesday

Where Was I when You and Mommy Got Married?

How about this question from Princess Dabba? Our youngest who just turned four was listening to a conversation about an upcoming anniversary. On November 9th, Lieber and I will be celebrating our sixteenth wedding anniversary. As we discussed the event, all of a sudden from the mouth of babes,” Where was I when you and Mommy got married the other day?
In the world of the Princess, at this point of her development, everything is yesterday and tomorrow. She remembers events and people from long ago with the clarity that at times scares me she is so accurate.
So there is a pause as I try to develop an answer. I get bailed out of the answer by our twelve year old Queen of Chocolate who says, silly, you were in Mommy’s tummy with the rest of us.
I about bit a hole in my lip trying to get out of the room. The resulting conversation saved me from a modified version of the birds and bees. Where is Dr. Seuss when I need him?

Weekly Update - Saturday, October 06, 2007

Purple Dragons –
The Dragons were idle this week, only one practice. Our Thursday game was moved due to a Cross Country meet. Now, with all due respect to the World and National class runners in my family, it was tough enough when the Soccer people, of whom I am one, tried to declare that since more people around the world play football, soccer, that soccer is the real football. Okay, that may be the case in the rest of the world but not here in the Midwest. But, to be bumped by Cross Country, the world is beginning to spin off its axis. Fine, pause the game while the herd runs through then resume the game. Cancelling? Oh! Well.

Our finely tuned machine of flag pullers were in rare form last Monday evening. Coach B was working in a few new plays. The LSU fake field goal was cool as was the Tennessee Titan’s Statue of Liberty. We don’t get to kick so that play was pulled. The additions to the play book came after seeing the spread offense of a number of Saturday teams. We are still working on which is left and which is right. We did have a revelation that a couple of our players on offense when they learn in the huddle they are to get the ball raise their hands. We have always wondered how we seem to be playing these Mensa monsters of the midway that swoop in to get the flags within milliseconds. A parent on the sideline pointed out that tidbit. In the words of the comedian, Bill Englwald, there’s your sign.

Purple Dragons will be back in business on Tuesday, October 9. The cable deal is still pending. Thanks for asking!

Blog Etiquette and Acronyms
I have started to get into the world of Blogging. I have met some great people and had the opportunity to read some very creative and interesting perspectives of the world. Within a couple of days of Busy Dad Mumbles, going into operation I began to learn you are not just to read the materials on a blog but you are also to provide comment. Not commenting is called lurking. The name implies awful sounding things but it is just a way to get blog readers to provide some acknowledgement to blog writers. (Read my Creates a Hallmark Holiday on Lurking.)

There are acronyms that describe the writers, SAHM, are a Stay At Home Mom. SAHD is a Stay at Home Dad. (I have mentioned this to Lieber a couple of times this week as my next career move.) Lieber and I have qualified in the acronym world as SIMK’s. (Single Income Multiple Kids) There are also DINK’s (Dual Incomes No Kids). Lieber and I have figured we are NEIMCEAMW, (Not Enough Income Multiple College Educations and Multiple Weddings.) There are more acronyms than the Military.

There is one Blog called Wordless Wednesday. Being in a house full of young providers of words. I thought initially this site was a parents dream. Please note that I had to edit out any spouse type references here. But, the concept was right on. Once I learned it is a picture on your site and really is testing the old adage of a picture is worth a thousands words. I participated for the first time using a picture of my late dog and cat. Got lots of comments. The fuel of blogs. You should try it sometime.

Blogging has been lots of fun. I have met some great people all over the country that read and comment on the stories posted. I look forward to meeting more and providing worthwhile content. TEFN = (That is enough for Now)


School Fund Raisers
Climbing up on my soapbox. Hear Ye, Hear Ye! Taxation without representation! That is what I am calling the continued school fund raisers. I have three kids in public school. So annually they come home with packets of items to sell to friends, neighbors, co-workers, relatives, or anyone else that is within earshot. Now mind you we already provide paper towels, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, markers, snacks for that class, etc.

Now, don’t get me wrong. As a kid I pitched in for bake sales for someone’s band trip, sold Christmas trees and popcorn, car washes for school outings, donations for new uniforms, etc. The effort was for a specific one time event. Off limits in this discussion are Girl Scout cookies. This group is providing a community service, the annual allotment of thin mints! (Fill in your favorite cookie)

Back to the Soap Box. My fourth grader tells me about a 45 minute assembly at school to see the cool products and the big prizes for selling the most items. We can’t have outside games at school like dodge ball or exercise. But, a 45 minute sales meeting? The kids and the teachers will then get weekly updates on their sales progress. Oh! In the written materials it say, “We do not encourage door to door sales, sell to neighbors, friends, and relatives.” First, I behave poorly enough that this group of people barely speaks to me for any extended length of time. Now, to hit this group with 3 sellers of trinkets and trash from one household. Enough already!

But the way, the neighborhood kids don’t listen in the meetings or read the materials after seeing the prizes. We have had five pairs of kids at our door requesting we buy. When I or Lieber explain very nicely that we have 3 competitive sales associate in our homestead we get the look of oh! Sure! You’re just saying that.

What is the money going to? Who is making the money and who controls the distribution? Have these people heard of Child Labor Laws? Parents with youngsters unite! Those of you with pre-schoolers watch out. Juice box and stroller tickets are coming!

Who are these companies that, out of the goodness of their heart, are providing products for sale to assist our community? I’m in business. That doesn’t sound like a good return on investment. There is obviously a sales rep, there are marketing materials being printed, prizes being purchased, and there is a distribution process which can cost the sellers should the buyer not make good on the purchase or mover outside of the delivery area.

Another question. Are the tax dollars of these sales being returned to the community? People in this area got all exercised when a retailer was coming into town to take money for the pocket of locals. “The items in the pamphlets don’t say, Made in the Midwest. So I am guessing there is some large percentage of the sales revenue leaving the area.

When I have asked each of the sellers what the items are being sold for they say school, then prizes. There is not a consistently understood end result that this dubious work is being applied too. I did hear one answer that it was for overhead projectors? OH! You mean we are going to replace that fine Monk in the basement with the stone tablet and chisel? Are those overhead projectors still being used outside of designing the homecoming float or drawing the pre-game run through for a sports team?

We just had the honor of our taxes being raised first by a vote, then by a goofed up assessment system. (Another story, another time) The property taxes were raised to provide for education and the schools. You mean we are about to build a school that needs the kids to go door to door for the leading edge technology of an overhead projector? OH! Yea. We are going to be rocketing up the rankings of the international world in education once we have the dollars for equipment. Maybe we can convince everyone in the school system to play Monopoly at McDonalds. I’m sure we have just as good a chance of getting the winning ticket as the kids do in seeing the result of their sales.

Let’s begin asking the next candidate or political party that calls looking for money if they would like to buy some school fund raiser materials? Maybe there can be a debate on this topic? Down off the box.

Great football weekend both in live and Fantasy.

Also, I got to watch hockey on television the other night. There will be more on this topic as the Pittsburgh Penguins’ journey toward winning Lord Stanley’s Cup.

Causing a Halmark Holiday

My fellow bloggers. Please allow me to apologize. Being new to the process of blogging, a rookie, I was following links, learning from other sites, and visiting the heck out of blogs. Having a big time. My spouse, Mine Lieber, being smarter than I, and a real blogger, asked if I had left comments. What? My first dilemma was how am I supposed to answer this question. Second, who am I, a rookie blogger, to comment on/about the work, thoughts, and creativity of others? How was I to know not leaving comments is called Lurking?

Not being the sharpest tool in the shed I could tell by the name this was not a positive descriptor. Yet, I was in the dark. Then of all days, Lieber, informs me this is a blogging social dysfunction. Oh! Great. It usually takes me a number of interactions with people to hose up the relationship or make some kind of poorly timed comment.

Then I felt a little piling on from a couple of my fellow bloggers, postings begin to appear with National De-Lurking Day. Oh! Great. I've caused a new Hallmark holiday! Lieber explains that this takes place a couple of times per year. And although I believe the world revolves around me this is just a case of bad timing. Phew!

Lieber being a responsible blogger, enforced my time in the penalty box for Lurking. I lost my computer privileges for a short time to Princess Dabba, was forced to match socks and given two school fund raising requests to review. Enough already! Step one achieved. Step Two, Hi! I’m Busy Dad Mumbles and I have lurked. It has been one day since I last visited without commenting.

Learning and recovery all at the same time.

Template Contest

Thought I would give this a try since I am new at this . I would like to get a new look for my blog.

Wordless Wednesday

For More Wordless Wednessday go here.

"Special Prayers"

The last few days have been unusual in a sad and positive way. On Friday evening a young man was killed within a few miles of our house in a motorcycle accident. We learned of a couple that had a 13 month old child pass away suddenly and two people we know had relatives pass away. Our youngest was working to understand the events that she heard being discussed in and around the house. From the mouth of babes, "Dad, all we need to do is talk to God and say some special prayers." And before she went to bed that is exactly what she did. I hope she put in a good word for me.

The positive part of the weekend is a number of friends have found out that they are expecting. They also have our thoughts and prayers. Our kids all think they are having children to provide playmates for them. Isn't great how simple life can be when you are four and seven.