Oldest son at dinner: "Dad, what are black-eyed peas?"

Me: "A pea that someone punched."

One of my quirks is that when someone tells me a URL that has .com in it, I sing the old pets.com jingle, "dot coooommmmm." Yeah, I know, dorky, but in a totally cute geeky fashion. Heh.

So, my wife is telling me something at the dinner table the other night and it included a URL. I sing, "dot coooommmm," and from the other room my two year-old repeats, "dot cooommmm..."

How cute is that! Start 'em young!

94% Geek

Yesterday, I took the day off and drove to Denton and applied for a replacement Social Security card. With 30 minutes there or so, less than an hour of wait, 30 minutes back, it’s wasn’t too bad. Since they’ll mail it in about two weeks, I got a signed sheet saying I actually have a SSN.

So, I then head to the Texas Department of Public Safety to get my driver’s license renewed with this SSN receipt. Told on the postcard that reminded me, I had to show my SSN card. But, when I got there, she had me take a vision test, took both thumb prints, took $24, required a signature, and updated my photo (I said, “Wait! I have to fix my hair.??? She chuckled at that one.) But, I only had to give my SSN verbally. No card was required! So, all told, my trip to Denton was wasted. But, I look forward to a new SS card in two weeks.

But, hey, at least I’m more secure with the government having my thumb prints….right?

Yesterday, my wife, my youngest kid, and I drove 3.5 hours to Shreveport to pick-up my oldest kid from my Mom and Stepdad. We ate at iHop then turned around and drove 3.5 hours back.

Today, I feel like I've been run-over by a small truck. I've always hated driving, but it's gotten worse as I've gotten older. In addition to just the travail of the travel, we now have to handle cranky kids, hungry kids, "I have to stop now" kids, "Yes, we're stopped but I don't have to go now" kids...It just adds another dimension to an already arduous day.

Now, I get to this same thing all over again come December... Wheeee! :)

I acquired a Philodendron eighteen years ago when I bought an entire apartment full of furnishings from a couple that skipped out on their rent. I was just out of college and needed furniture, so it was a good deal. "Aunt Bertha" is now quite large and continually flowers. She has 6-7 flowers at a time now.

At the dinner table on Monday evening, my oldest son is talking about her since he sits right next to her. He's touching the flowers and the leaves as he talks. I interrupted and carefully explained to him that he should be careful touching her as she was my "attack plant" that I placed right near the sliding door of my old apartment. Her role was to attack and eat intruders. I continued to say that he and my youngest son really shouldn't get too close or she might eat them. Although I was quite straight-laced about the whole story, he wasn't really buying it.

Seeing that, my wife kicked in and supported me. "Although," she added, "she has mellowed every since she allowed me to decorate her as our first Christmas tree." I continued, "Well, I wouldn't say that. You see, I spiked her plant food so that she would be mellow that evening. The next day, she woke up next to a fern. We still don't talk about it."

My son was blissfully unaware of what this all meant as my wife and I giggled. Yep. Messing with your kids is one of life's greatest joys.

My oldest kid somehow cut his forehead on Saturday. It involved a Tinker Toy can...somehow. The gash is about 2 inches long. It probably would've healed okay (although scalp wounds bleed like the dickens), but I hate to see my six year-old have a scar so early in life. So, I hurriedly rushed him to AcuteCareUrgentCare and they glued him up. They really were nice and took good care of him. About an hour and a half later, we were at Chick-fil-a where he was climbing and running with other kids. I think he's okay. You can see the scar on our photo website.

Now that the kids are older, my wife and I decided that we should give them the 4th of July Parade Experience. We actually had to search for a town that still had one. The town just south of us did, so we headed there this morning.

I enjoyed it. I took 147 pictures on my new camera. Ha! I'll upload a few select ones to our family gallery soon.

I really liked the fact that the kids got into it. My oldest immediately made friends with a few of the kids next to us. My youngest was a bit restless, but he really enjoyed the "truckkkkks." You really have emphasize that 'k' to get the right feel for how he says it.

It was a bit hot, but we all enjoyed it. I was proud of how many folks showed and were wearing flags. Yeah!

Birthday party, Thomas the Train exhibit, emergency changes for work, family dinner with a cousin I haven't seen in 28 years, massive house cleaning, and small group gathering are all the things that comprised our weekend.

I'm so tired that I couldn't wait to get back to work to get some rest!

At our Small Group gathering yesterday we discussed Baptism and all of of misconceptions and differing interpretations there are for it. It was really a good discussion. I'm glad we did it. Only three of our six families showed up and that worked out well. That's 6 adults and 9 kids...plenty for our small house.

All in all, it was a good weekend but not a very restful one.

Now that my youngest sister's married, she'll be heading out to live with her husband as soon as school is out in August (or so). This weekend, her hubby came into town, so we invited them over on Sunday. Since she likes gumbo the best, I cooked some for her. Both seemed to like it well enough, but I can't help that this is the last time I'll get to cook for her. She'll be leaving soon and we'll only see each other on Thanksgiving (the mandatory holiday for my Dallas family. Heh.)

I'm glad she's happy, but it'll be a sad day when she leaves. I bet my Dad and Stepmom will have a harder time of it, though.