All Hallow's Eve

Happy Halloween everybody.  I guess Ethan is Trick or Treating without us this year.  He has a cute monkey costume, so hopefully somebody will get some pictures.  I don't know what to expect from the great city of New York, but there are bound to be some exciting things going on.  Since we have theater tickets, we will just have to hang out with the freaks afterwards.  There are two shows today.  The first is an afternoon matinee called A Life In The Theatre.  This is a David Mamet play about backstage antics in the theater.  Yep, it's a play about plays.  The great Patrick Stewart (Star Trek's Capt. Picard) is in this, along with T.R. Knight who I think was on some TV show that I didn't watch.  Later tonight, we have tickets to an Off Broadway production of Avenue Q.  This show ran on Broadway from 2003 until 2009 when it moved Off Broadway.  It was one that we wanted to see on our last trip and just couldn't squeeze it in.  It doesn't feature anyone that I am familiar with, but there are puppets involved.  Many of the things I have read describe it as Sesame Street for adults.  In case you are dying for more trivia, it won three Tony awards in 2004, including Best Musical, and it ranks 21 in the list of longest running Broadway shows.

Perhaps we can find a place to catch the end of Game 4 tonight, which I am hoping is not the last game.

I say a little prayer

Assuming that everything went to plan, we are on our way to New York.  This blogging in advance seems like a lot of work, but I am hoping it will save time explaining the shows to everyone individually.  Sometimes technology is a wonderful thing.  In case what I write here is not enough, I have included links to the websites of all of the shows at the top of the main blog page.  Look around a little.  If you aren't reading this from the Blogger website, you may be out of luck.  Do your own Googling.  Tonight we have tickets to see Promises, Promises.  It's based on the Billy Wilder film The Apartment from 1960 starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine.  The musical originally ran on Broadway from 1968 until 1972.  It features music by Burt Bacharach with lyrics by Hal David and book by Neil Simon.  The primary cast includes Kristin Chenoweth, Sean Hayes, Tony Goldwyn, and Molly Shannon.

Depending on our arrival time and how we feel when we get to the hotel, we have discussed checking out a late afternoon showing of Colin Quinn: Long Story Short.  We were always a fan of his on SNL, and this is his one man show about the history of the world.  It was directed by Jerry Seinfeld.  Although we would like to see this, we are just going to play this one by ear.  There may not even be tickets available when we get there.

For all of my Abilene people, do yourself a favor and check out Elvis T. Busboy tonight at Strawberry's.  I'm sorry I can't be there to party with you.

Why, Rangers, Why?

Early tomorrow morning, we will be on a plane and headed for New York City.  I have about a million things that I have to get done between now and then.  Tiffany has exactly enough vacation time with her new job to be off next week, so she is at work today.  She is pretty much through packing though, whereas I like to wait until the last minute.  Ethan has agreed to stay home and babysit our parents while we are away.  As a special treat for everyone, I will be publishing a short blog every day this week.  It is mostly to keep you informed about the shows we are seeing on Broadway this week.  Since these were written in advance of our trip, they are not reviews of the shows.  That would require a Flux Capacitor and a Delorean, and I have neither.  I will be glad to give my opinion on these shows in more detail when we get home.  If you don't care about Broadway theater, point your browser elsewhere for about a week.  As for the other things we will be doing, you might check something more immediate like Facebook.  I'm not making any promises though.  Other than the shows we have tickets for, there is no agenda for this vacation.  Theater is a big part of these trips.  Last time we saw eight shows in six days.  This trip is shaping up to be the same way.  I know it's not for everyone, but we enjoy it.

The Great Pumpkin

This will probably be my last official blog before we leave for New York.  I know that makes you sad, but I promise you will not miss me that much.  Actually I do have a few things that I plan to post later in the week.  I guess that means that this blog started out as a lie.  The only thing I can say to that is, "Don't believe everything you read on the internet."  Saturday we had planned to get out and run a few errands around town in preparation for our trip.  Unfortunately, it rained all morning.  Now I don't mind the rain so much, but trying to deal with a small wet child didn't sound so appealing.  I was going to use the word infant in that last sentence, but then it occured to me that he might be a toddler.  Someone is going to have to school me on those words.  I'm not sure I know the difference.  I know a toddler is older I guess, but I have no idea when one becomes a toddler.  He is currently 16 months old, so whatever category he falls into is fine with me.  Clearly I'm guilty of this, but why do people refer to their children's age in months?  Why can't he just be 1?  I don't go around telling people that I am 404 months old, or that Tiffany is---well nevermind.  It just seems kind of crazy.  I can see that like many of these blogs I have gone off on a tangent.  Without them though, this blog would be considerably shorter and less interesting.  To get back on topic, Sunday was a little more productive.  We came home after church and prepared our gourmet lunch of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.  Grilled cheese is probably one of Tiffany's top three foods, and we are always on a quest for the perfect sandwich.  This week was colby jack on potato bread.  I know it's simple, but taste buds don't lie.  It was amazing.  After a short nap for Tiffany and Ethan, we headed out to the DRI pumpkin patch.  We did this last year and got some pretty good pictures, but Ethan was much more interested in running around outside than actually posing for the camera.  We did get a few images worth keeping.  This morning I have been tinkering around on the computer a bit.  Somehow my iTunes library got corrupted.  Fortunately I have a backup, but it is still a process when you have over 12000 songs.  It does seem to be working now, which is a good thing.  You can't take a trip without your tunes.  Well, I have a few things to do around the house before I head to work.  Have a great week, cheer for the Rangers, and I will see you when I get back.

Big Tex

It was an eventful weekend.  Saturday was my cousin Rob's 40th birthday party.  Tiffany opted for a quiet evening at home (Sarah's home) while the rest of us were out partying.  We had a good time taking over BoomerJack's in Bedford.  There was plenty of beer, plenty of food, and plenty of good music courtesy of Elvis T. Busboy and the Texas Blues Butchers.  It was fun to visit and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.  Sunday morning, Sarah, Josh, Tiffany, Ethan, and I headed to Fair Park.  We have been going to the State Fair for several years now, and I have never seen so many people there.  There were long lines to everything, and many of the exhibit buildings were so packed that you could hardly move.  I know pushing a stroller didn't help our situation any.  We did manage to get a little junk food in our system, although we passed on this year's food winners.  The fried beer just didn't look that exciting to us, and the lines for the fried Frito pies started somewhere in Fort Worth I think.  We did stop for some fried butter and cookie dough on the way out though.  The day wasn't a total bust.  We took Ethan to see the stunt dog show.  He loves dogs, although he wasn't sure what to think about the three legged diving pit bull.  He also took a spin on the carousel with all of the other kids that can't ride anything else.  Next year he should be old enough to get on some of the "cool" rides.  Other than one quick power nap in the stroller, Ethan was awake the entire day.  I thought surely he would fall asleep as soon as we put him in the car, but he talked to us the whole way home.  At least he was in a good mood.  The rest of the trip was uneventful.  We got home around 8, put Ethan to bed, unloaded the car, and had just enough time in front of the TV to catch up with Dexter before hitting the sack ourselves.  This morning I took Ethan to the doctor for his 15 month visit.  He fell in the parking lot and skinned his knee before we even made it to the door.  Then they gave him three shots, which didn't make him too happy.  He actually handled it pretty well, but the look on his face told me that he wasn't excited to be there.  Afterwards, I took him to daycare.  He seemed just as happy to be there as anywhere, so I guess the doctor's visit wasn't too traumatic.  For my mother, or anyone else who is keeping track, the vital stats are as follows:

23 lbs., 10 oz.
33.5 inches long (Dr. Maslanka said he was basically off the charts for his age.)
good pulse, heartbeat strong, lungs sound good

Also, the doctor was very impressed with the amount of words Ethan can say.  He expects him to start grouping words together within the next couple of months.  I think that's about it.

Time Keeps On Slippin'

The weather was wonderful today.  I don't think it got much above 70 degrees.  I am always in a better mood when it isn't burning up outside.  Ethan and I spent quite a bit of time outside playing after dinner.  He loves to be outside, no matter what the weather looks like.  I know people always talk about how fast their kids grow up, but it has been amazing how quickly it actually happens.  As of last week, he is fifteen months old and becoming more fun by the day.  The downside is that he doesn't sit still for very long.  Chasing him around has proven to be quite a workout.  His vocabulary is improving by the day.  New words include ball, puppy, and oval.  That last one is apparently the product of learning shapes at daycare.  Tonight when we were outside he correctly identified the zero on our mailbox as an oval.  He loves to read books, and I have caught him a couple of times sitting on the floor reading out loud to himself.  It is hilarious, and I don't think it will be long before he can correctly read some of these books.  Many of them I have read so many times that I don't even need to look at them.  If you want to know what Brown Bear sees, I'm your man.  Last week I found myself singing Moo Baa La La La to the tune of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance.  For all I know, that may be the actual words anyway.  By the way, where does one get a dress made out of meat?  Since his parent's are music fans, it is no surprise that Ethan loves is as well.  Much to the chagrin of my mother, his favorites seem to be hard rock and heavy metal tunes.  He has had plenty of exposure to all kinds of music; he just knows what he likes.  I'm sure I have mentioned this before, but I think everyone who likes music is a rock fan.  If you think you don't like rock music, then you don't really like music at all.    What else do you need to know?  In less than four weeks, we will be in New York City.  We booked this trip several months ago, and I am so glad that it is almost here.  I seriously need a vacation.  Anybody that has any suggestions for cool things to do, let us know.  Since this is our third time, most of the touristy stuff has been scratched off the list.  Things have been crazy busy at work the last couple of weeks.  Now that school is back in, all of the kids need their amphetamines.  No wonder that we have a drug problem in this country.  We hook them at a pretty young age.  What happened to teachers with rulers and paddles?  Lastly, the fall TV season has officially begun.  I am trying to limit my television viewing, and having a small child in the house helps quite a bit.  We did rent and breeze through the first season of Glee.  Although completely ridiculous and unbelievable, I am totally addicted to that show.  I guess it goes back to the music thing.  The only other must see show on my list right now is Dexter.  Last weeks premiere was amazing.  We have also recorded Boardwalk Empire, which I hear is awesome.  I guess that's it.  I apologize now for the randomness of all of this.  I was typing really fast.  Hopefully most of it makes sense.  There is only a limited amount of time to get this done.  For shorter and somewhat more frequent info, follow me on Facebook.  Speaking of which, if you are reading this via Facebook, there may be a delay in the actual time that it was posted.  Sometimes it posts there within a few minutes, but a couple of times it hasn't shown up for about three days.  Very little in this blog is time sensitive, so it probably doesn't make a difference to most of you.  If you need to read this immediately, you can bookmark it on Blogger, or even subscribe to the RSS feed.  That's it for now.