A brief history in time

So I mentioned a few blogs ago we went on a trip. Well here's a quick update with pics.

Went to see some friends.

Played at the beach.

It was a long drive home.

Needed some caffeine to keep us going.

As Always, had a ton of laundry to do when we got back.

Went to see some Lion's Tiger's and Bear's ... oh my.

Came home last night and did the dishes ... bottle's empty.

Conversations

As a guy, my mind tends to do awful things, like jump from subject to subject. The wife (as all wife’s do) usually wants to know what I’m thinking but is rarely satisfied with the true answer. Although my mind jumps around more than a 4 year old on chocolate waiting for Santa, I usually have a little logic to where my thoughts come from.

Here’s a typical thought pattern from conversation to conversation.

Wife: “It’s a beautiful day outside.”
Mind:
- It sure is a beautiful day
- It’s days like this that I wish I had a convertible car
- I still need to change the tires on this car
- Wouldn’t it be cool if I put BIG ‘ol tires on it
- Monster trucks have some BIG ‘OL TIRES
- I’ve never been to a monster Truck Rally
- They say you need ear protection when you go to a Monster Truck Rally
- Wouldn’t it be bad to have to go to the doctor for ear damage at a Truck Rally
- Don’t I have a doctor’s appointment Tuesday
Me: “Hey Babe, I forgot to tell you I have a Doctor’s Appointment Tuesday”

And the wife wants to know what made me say that. Well, there you have it. I’m just saying that this is how a guys brain jumps from one subject to another – it’s crazy, but it has a little bit of reason.

Apparently my wife’s brain works a little different. She’s able to press “PAUSE” on any conversation and then press play at any time and I’m supposed to remember which of these innumerable conversations we’re talking about now.

Here’s an example of the conversations we had Saturday during about an hour.

Me “Rita’s last day at work was Friday”
Wife “Do you know where she’s going to work”
Me “I haven’t heard”
Wife “I’m going to go inside with the little man and see if I can find a coat”
Me “OK, I’m going to stay out here and see if I can find the M&M you dropped between the seats, then I’ll be in”
I spent 10 minutes pulling a french fry, a sugar baby, and 2 M&M’s from underneath the seats.
I go inside, look for the wife. We discuss the sale that Old Navy has going on, how we each got a coupon for “Free Stickers”.
We look at a couple of coats we have found. Talk about the price. Look for some hats and decide what they have is way too big, but we really need some hats. Maybe we should go look at Kohl’s. But this is the last jacket in his size. We’ll put this on hold and come back if we can’t find anything.
So I put the jacket on hold.
Do you think the wee man needs another blanket? He sure is mad because we made him try on so many hats. He did not like that at all. Did you find anything? Me neither, I didn’t really want to look. It’s getting about lunch time, do you think that’s why the wee man is fussy?

We walk out after about and hour, and this is the first thing my wife says to me on the way to Kohl’s.

“So she didn’t say where she’s going?”

I have no CLUE what she is talking about.

She is of course referring to Rita and if she has gotten a new job … but I’m stuck back on Monster trucks somewhere.

Some days I wonder just how long she’ll put up with me until she cracks … or cracks me over the head.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My

The economy, as all of us are aware, is pretty much hitting rock bottom. It’s getting harder and harder for many places to pay their bills, especially those places that have a hefty amount of fixed costs and are considered a luxury by the working class individuals that frequent them.

So it came as no surprise that a local Zoo started handing out free entrance passes within our community. By forgoing the usual $8.00 entrance fee that they normally charge, they get a hefty amount of foot traffic through the gates and start making money on snacks, lunches, and souvenirs. I wouldn’t exactly call it a trap, but it’s a clever way to trick some individuals into coming and pay the bills, so I applaud them.

This is exactly the way that they roped my wife into driving the 1 ½ hours to the Tulsa Zoo. We loaded up the kid (and everything else we owned) to make the trek and enjoy the day. I spent the better part of it trying to point my 9 month old son’s eyes in the general vicinity of animals and name them for him. Which is why I’m standing in front of a 5000 pound pachyderm pointing and repeating “Elephant, see the Elephant …” all the while my son is trying to grab the string on his little pants so that he can put it in his mouth.

As it turned out, the people handing out those free passes must have hit every trailer park from here to Tulsa. I didn’t realize it was national meth lab day, and every homemade chemistry department must have shut down for them all to make the pilgrimage. We must have seen everything from a 16 year old mother of 4 (no twins mind you) to a twenty four year old grandmother.

The Count felt right at home since few of them had any teeth there either.

Multiplication Tables

I recently got to take a trip with the family. On that trip we passed through a lot of cities and one place in particular caught my eye.

I'm not going to call out the city, because I'm convinced it could have happened just about anywhere, but I stopped at a Popeyes Chicken restaurant.

Apparently there's a new corporate promotion going on at Popeye's where you can "Eat for less than 4 dollars per person". This must be a big deal as there seems to be a large in store marketing campaign associated with it. I guess the corporate heads are attempting to adjust their marketing efforts during the recession as more families opt to stay home and cook rather than eat out. It seems like a pretty good idea, I mean, when it all boils down, eating a meal for less than 4 dollars is pretty cheap when you think about it, and the marketing guru's went all out to get your attention and let you know what an awesome deal they came up with for you. A good 25% or more of their in store promotions referred to it.

There was only one small problem with their ingenious plans. I guess to account for variances in costs, they allowed the franchise owners to price their own promotions.

So this is what I read in their store:
Eat for 4 dollars or less per person. 12 piece meal FEEDS 6 - $25.99

Thank goodness for public education.