33

A number can mean so many things

First Larry Bird

Then Scottie Pippen

Later it's the amount of money I need for beer and cigarettes on Friday night

Then it is the number of minutes I stressed out about calling Arica for the first time

Maybe it's the number of sweat beads on my forehead as she walks down the aisle

Now it could be the number of times an hour Braden makes my heart leap with joy

Or the number of toy cars he has strewn across the floor

It's the exact number of days until the start of Muzzleload season

But today it also means something else

They say that age is just a number

Today my number is 33

Back in the Summer of 2010

Give yourself a sticker for surviving Summer 2010 because it is gone. I don't care what the calendar says, it's over. I know this for certain because on my daily drives to and from work I don't have to dodge fourteen boats piled high with tubes, kids, and coolers as they head for the lake. I am not seeing as many people roaming around Wal Mart in their swimming suits with armfuls of potato chips and sunscreen. Our little town has slowed down again for the winter. It is nice, and to top it off we have even had rain for three straight days.

To further cement the end of summer football has returned to our lives. The Razorbacks won their first game and have climbed to #14 and #15 in the polls. This Saturday Arica and I are heading off to our first football game of the year. We will see friends, have fun, and call the Hogs on their way to another blowout victory against a former directional Louisiana school that is now simply ULM.

Even with the joy of football season beginning we will mourn the passing of another summer. There are good and bad things about every summer in Arkansas and this year was no different. Really the only bad thing was the oppressive heat. The temperature was over 100 degrees for nearly the entire month of August. That leads to huge patches of dead grass, nearly zero outdoor activities, and high energy bills. But even the heat can't keep us from having fun.

Now it is time to recap the good things about Summer 2010 aka Braden's second summer.

This year was the first family vacation which included Braden's first Cardinals game and a trip to the zoo. We also took Braden on his first of hundreds of lake trips. We went to water parks with and without the little man. Arica and I snuck in one trip that ended with a free Billy Currington concert. God is great. Beer is good. And people are crazy indeed.

There were plenty of other little things that were equally as awesome as vacations, water parks, and free concerts. For example:

We introduced Braden to snow cones.

Braden learned to help feed the dogs, and now he loves to do it every day. He has even developed somewhat of a friendship with the old hounds.

And finally there is one good thing that all this heat brings, besides all the water activities. It gives you a great excuse to run around the house in your underwear.

So that is it Summer 2010. It seems we hardly knew you. Until next Memorial Day when I fire up the grill and pop in the Saving Private Ryan DVD, I hope you enjoy your trip to the Southern Hemisphere.

Obama Is Following Me

We are back from Cleveland, and apparently we have started a hot new trend. Even President Obama is following in our footsteps with a visit to the city. I am sorry to inform you Mr. President, but we have already gone.

Thanks go out to Weasel Momma for providing us with this fun getaway via her giveaway on World of Weasels. If you don't know her by now then stop by and say hello. She is sure to keep giving stuff away now that she has a taste of giving away showcases like Bob Barker.

For now I will wrap it up with my new updated Top 5 things about Cleveland list.

1. Downtown Cleveland is packed with great places to eat. We had a great meal every night and could have continued that trend for weeks to come. There are all sorts of different cuisines and settings right in the downtown area. We even saw my friend PJ Mullen's hero Michael Symon's restaurant "Lola" on Sunday, but it was closed. With a little better planning we could have eaten at an Iron Chef's restaurant.
2. If food is number one then beer has to be number two. Great Lakes Brewing Company, located in Cleveland, makes several fine beers. While I couldn't try them all I did manage to try a Burning River Ale, a Dortmunder Gold, and an Eliot Ness. All were excellent.
3. Downtown Cleveland is nice. Tons of places to eat and drink within walking distance of our hotel. Also within walking distance are the home fields for the Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Indians. If they could field a decent team with either of those franchises then they would really be on to something. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is right there too.
4. The Christmas story house still makes the list. I liked the place. It is the leg lamp capital of the world.
5. The Rock an Roll Hall of Fame was cool. I am not the biggest museum guy in the world, but any place that honors the best of the best in Rock in Roll is like the Hall of Fame for cool people, so it has that going for it.

Yes I dropped Lou Brown and his troops off the list. I felt since I have actually been to the city that I should focus on the real parts of the city. Major League is still one of my favorite movies and the best thing about the Cleveland Indians franchise.

Also the weather stunk. I froze to death for the entire weekend. It was windy and cold. At least it seemed cold to me being from the south. It reinforced my thinking that if I ever leave Arkansas I will be moving somewhere closer to the equator.

Cleveland, The Bumpuses, and Lou Brown

Friday morning Arica and I are leaving for Cleveland. You may have heard that we won a free trip from Weasel Momma a few weeks back. Well in an effort to miss the fewest days of work possible we are cashing in on the trip this Labor Day weekend.

We are to some degree breaking the rules of the trip giveaway. It is supposed to be a all expenses paid family vacation. We have already had a full one week family vacation this year, so we are turning this into an adults only weekend. It will be nice to have some time for each other.
Arica and I are anxious about leaving Braden for an entire weekend. Arica has never been away from him that long before so I know it will be hard for her. I have been away a lot longer than that, but I will still miss my little buddy terribly.

The fact is that in order to be the best parents we can be for Braden we need to take care of ourselves as well. Mentally and physically exhausted parents do Braden absolutely no good. So we are taking a short little getaway to recharge the batteries. Hopefully after some R & R (both rest and relaxation and Rock and Roll HOF) we will be fully refreshed and ready to conquer the months to come.

I know absolutely nothing about Cleveland. I would have never taken a trip there, but that is a cool thing about free trips. You get to see a part of the country that you may never have considered otherwise. When I return I will have plenty of pictures and  a few stories to tell about all the things I learned about Cleveland.

I thought it would be fun to do a "Top 5 Things I Like About Cleveland" list before and after the trip.Here is my very uneducated before list.

1. Cleveland is the home of the Cleveland Indians. I don't care about the real version. I am talking about the Hollywood versions consisting of Rick Vaughn, Jake Taylor, Willie Mays Hayes, Roger Dorn, Eddie Harris, and the late great Lou Brown.
2. Even though I always thought it should be in Memphis, Cleveland is home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
3. I recently found out that Cleveland was home to the Christmas Story House. That is beyond awesome and moves Cleveland way up the list. The only thing that could be better is if the Bumpus family dog kennel was located next door. And if you hear that the leg lamp has been stolen, don't look at me.
4. Cleveland is on the shores of Lake Erie. I have only seen Lake Michigan but I think the Great Lakes are pretty cool. They are like giant fresh water oceans in the middle of North America.
5. I am going with Jim Brown, former Cleveland Brown here. He was one of the greatest football players ever. He is a notoriously tough guy who, frankly, scares the crap out of me. And he was in the movie "The Dirty Dozen" that I watched many times with my Dad when I was growing up.

Running with Scissors

I am thinking about the scope of my blog today. What kind of blog is this? A friend of mine told me recently that he considered it sort of a road map of what he could expect when he became a father. Of course we look at life through very similar eyes so maybe he can actually get something from all this mess.

In reality I don't think I have ever offered a word of advice in this space. I have told a lot of stories. In fact I think that is really my writing style. I tell a story mixed with a few examples and references to things that I find important in life like Seinfeld, Pearl Jam, and baseball.

I have also told some jokes and made some fairly obvious observations. One of my favorite things to do is philosophize on different topics relating to parenting. In these cases I have told about my philosophies on what is important to me in raising my son. Of course all of this is just wishful thinking. In fact I write a lot of this stuff as a target for my own parenting efforts. I rarely hit the bulls eye but it is nice to have something to aim at.

Still I have offered no advice. Maybe some day I will drop some profound wisdom on you readers, but today I can only offer this:

While keeping your children from dangerous activities like running with scissors is very important to their physical health, it is also important for us as parents to ensure the mental health of our offspring by not being too overbearing in our desire to keep them from harm.

After all you don't want to raise a child that ends up like this, do you?