So Much To Say

Even though I am attempting to blog more frequently, it has been so busy lately that I feel like I am getting behind.  I think I am also back into a creative groove.  I have several blog ideas in the back of my mind.  Most of them will probably stay there.  Today is Tiffany's birthday.  Feel free to send her birthday greetings in a method that is appropriate to you.  All mail, phone calls, text messages, IMs, and Facebook posts will be accepted.  I know personal contact is kind of rare these days, but if you happen to see her in person and wish her a happy day, that would also be appreciated.  Now that's out of the way.  Let's back up a few days.  Last Monday was Labor Day.  My mother was in town.  We met her for dinner at the Olive Garden, which was lovely.  Ethan was a little crazy, which is just who he is.  He gets it from his mother.  We got home around 7:30 and there was a massive amount of water sitting in my yard.  I will add that it hadn't rained or anything like that.  Nobody else's yard had water in it.  After walking the lot, we discovered that the water was leaking at the meter.  Now this is on a holiday and it is getting dark.  It is probably not the best time to have plumbing problems.  This is where living in the right place has its advantages.  I called to Potosi Water people.  They had someone at my house in less than ten minutes.  After pumping out several gallons of water and getting it shut off, we determined that the break was on the service side.  Normally this would be a bad thing.  I don't know if he felt sorry for us, or if he was just genuinely nice.  He checked his truck and decided that he had the right equipment to fix it himself.  This probably saved us $500 and a lot of major inconvenience.  I also learned a couple of cool plumbing tricks.  We were probably only without water for about 90 minutes.  Thank you to Potosi Water.  The rest of the week went pretty smooth.  Saturday we went to Dallas to see Dave Matthews Band.  We made a stop at Sam Moon, which Tiffany has been trying to talk me into for years.  After stepping three feet through the door, I already knew that it was my least favorite store on the planet.  Hobby Lobby, you just moved up the list.  Basically it is a giant warehouse sized room full of junk jewelry and purses.  I am hoping that this fulfills the Chinatown requirement for our New York trip.  Ethan and I left Tiffany there and wandered around the mall for a while.  After we had our fill of shopping, we met Sarah at her house in McKinney.  Ethan was glad to see her, and apparently he wasn't any trouble while we were gone.  Tiffany and I arrived at the Superpages.com Center in just enough time to catch the show.  We had a good time at the show, but it was hot and humid the whole night.  The setlist was steeped in new songs, as well as a few obscure ones.  It probably wasn't my ideal set, but the performance itself was amazing.  I will say this.  I love DMB.  I hate their fans.  Back in the day, Dave Matthews fans were drunk college kids and frat boys.  They still seem to be those same people, just older.  I'm sure there were probably some normal people there, but none of them were sitting in our section.  We had a good time anyway, and a big thank you to Sarah and Josh for watching Ethan for us and letting us crash at their house.  Here is the Dave setlist for anyone interested:

The Last Stop

Shake Me Like a Monkey

Granny

Why I Am

#41

Big Eyed Fish

Seven

Can’t Stop

Spaceman...> Corn Bread

Write A Song

Lie In Our Graves

Baby Blue

You and Me

Everyday

Jimi Thing

Some Devil

Ants Marching

Taking candy from a baby....and other stupid sayings

I have told this story a few times in person, but I am pretty sure I haven't written about it on the blog.  If I have, you can either skip over it or indulge me one more time.  I don't know if it will even be funny when it's read.  I think some things are just meant to be heard.  Maybe you can find someone to read it to you.  This actually goes back a couple of months ago to our trip to Minnesota, but something happened a couple of nights ago that reminded me of it.  We were on the plane, trying to get as comfortable as three people can be in two airline seats.  Tiffany pulls out what she refers to as a three-bite Snickers bar.  I'm thinking two bites is closer to the truth.  She unwrapped it and ate the first bite.  Then in what can only be described as a Matrix-like maneuver, Ethan grabbed the remaining candy and put the whole thing in his mouth.  That in itself is pretty funny.  I'm not sure, but that may have been the first time he ever ate any chocolate.  After some serious chewing and smearing chocolate all over his hands and face, we assumed he was done.  Tiffany got out some raisins, which she deems a more appropriate snack.  He proceeds to eat a box of raisins, and when he is done he spits out a solid chunk of peanuts.  Somehow he managed to suck all of the chocolate off of the candy bar and then hide it in his secret chipmunk pouch until he decided he was done with it.  So now we know that Ethan likes chocolate.  I believe that assorted Godiva truffles are his favorite, but he isn't really that picky.  The other night Tiffany was sitting in the living room about to eat a piece of candy that her mom brought us from Austria.  She had the candy on the chair behind her back in a place presumably out of site to someone who is not even three feet tall.  Neither of us saw him take the chocolate, but a couple of minutes later he was standing in front of us with it in his hand.  I thought I was going to have to get a crowbar to pry it out of his hand.  He really wanted it.  Anyway, there is an old story to go with the old picture on this blog.  You didn't know it was an old picture until I just told you.  I never have learned to keep my mouth shut for very long.

As far as new things go, this morning I bought tickets to see Al Pacino in The Merchant of Venice.  I thought I had my show schedule for NY worked out and then this came up.  We are going to have to drop something else, but it will totally be worth it.  Al Pacino is one of my favorites and possibly one of the greatest actors of all time.  After a few disturbing conversations at work, it occurred to me that not everyone is as much of a movie fan as me.  Maybe you don't have time to see all of his movies, so I will leave you with the short list.  Add them to your Netflix queue.  You can thank me later.

The Godfather

Dog Day Afternoon

Scarface

Glengarry Glen Ross

Scent of a Woman

Donnie Brasco