Justin was Harry Potter, Danielle was a Dalmation, and Allison was a “Witchie Poo”

After Trick or Treating for several hours, Me, Danielle and Justin went to see some Haunted Houses/Garages.  The one had a cow’s tongue and cow’s heart sitting near the entrance and they finger printed you on the way in.  Danielle stayed in the car with the nieghbors for that one.  Justin was “a little freaked out” by that one as well.  Mark that in the bad parent column.  Oops.

Four of us usually go to lunch together: Me, Ryan, Ben, and John.  After lunch today, Ryan bought a new 80 Gig hard drive and a case that allows it to be connected via fire wire.  He is really eager to get some videos he recorded on his machine and edited (I don’t think its porn, but I can’t be sure).  While he was unpacking his new toys back at the office, the Fire Wire cable mysteriously grew legs and rotated between Mine, Ben, and John’s cube.  It was kind of like “Office Hot Potato” where the loser is the one that has possession of the cable when Ryan finds them.

Rules of Office Hot Potato:

• Take something that the person will actively be looking for
• The item must remain in view at all times (you can’t conceal it as you walk by their cube)
• Once you receive the item, it must remain in your cube for at least 5 minutes

In two days, we’ve come up with two new games.  I wonder what will tomorrow bring…

I was walking to the break room when the urge grabbed me to jump around a corner and into a co-worker’s cube.  I sunk below the cube wall height and pounced.  He was very focused on his screen, and I caught him totally off guard.   He was chewing on one of those big stick pretzels at the time, which he inhaled. He started to choke, and his eyes got very big.  I had a flashback to when my sister was 3 and choked on a pretzel.  My father barely got her to the hospital in time, where they had to give her an emergency tracheotomy.  He falls from his chair to the floor, and I’m too freaked out to do anything, even to call for help.  My heart was pumping hard and I started to think, “Oh crap, I just killed somebody. Now what do I do?”

No one else was around, so went to the break room and pretended that nothing happened.  I decided to get chocolate and soda instead of water.  I wonder if anyone has found him yet…

It took less than 72 hours for me, Brenda, and the kids to devour the 40 Nestle chocolate chip cookies.

I admit that I probably ate the bulk of them.  I tried to pace myself, I really did.  But in the end, they were just too damn good.  Each time I opened the container, I grabbed 2 or 3.  I got busted by the kids on several occasions, which meant giving them one or sharing (no really, I actually broke off a measurable piece of cookie and shared it…No, it doesn’t mean that I will share food with anyone but my wife or kids).

Brenda has a great trick when baking cakes or cookies.  The takes them straight from the oven, and puts them in the freezer.  She also wraps them pretty quickly as well, although I don’t know how she keeps from melting the plastic wrap.  This trick traps the moisture in.  I knew enough of it to make the cookies I made pretty damn good.  Now I know why my mother always makes such large batches.

Friday night I was supposed to meet up with Brenda and the kids at the Zoo. They have it decorated for Halloween. We are zoo-friends and usually go to the halloween and other specials pretty often.

Brenda was running behind, so rather than meeting her there, I drove home first. The weather was cold and rainy, so we decided en-route to go out to eat instead.

Plan B - The Cheese Cake Factory opened about a week and a half ago, so we figured if the wait was an hour or less we would go. Brenda and the kids had been trying to surprise me, because they had heard it was being built before I knew. I love the Cheese Cake Factory. I have eaten at several of them in California, one in Boston, and possibly one other. When I worked at Anheuser-Busch, it was a must to eat their whenever we were at the LA brewery. For me that was 6 months straight.

Anyway, while I circled the parking lot looking for a place to park, Brenda stood in line for 5 minutes to find out that the wait was 2 and half hours. I guess I’m not the only one in St. Louis who’s heard of the Cheese Cake Factory.

Plan C - mall food. Danielle had Chinese, and Justin and Allison had cheese pizza. Brenda and I split a Gyro and a Greek Salad. Big cookie for dessert. Not bad, but certainly not the Cheese Cake Factory. Note to self — have a better Plan C.

Saturday Morning, 9 am soccer game. Brenda is working all weekend, so I have the kids to myself. Damn it was cold. Mid day, the kids ask to go to the Zoo. Jim’s response - “We’ll see.” This is parent talk for “I doubt it but I don’t want to hear you whine about it and I’m hoping you’ll forget.”

Sunday Morning, 9:00 am:

Allison - Daddy can we go to the Zee Ohhh Ohhh. Additional Note to self: Spelling around 3, 4, and 6 year old no longer safe.

Danielle: Yeah can we go to the Zee Ohhh Ohhh. Mommy said…

Justin: Yeah Dad, can we go.

Jim thinking: Damn it, they didn’t forget and now I’m going to miss at least part, if not the entire first half of the Ram’s Game (turned out to be exactly half).

Jim on phone to Brenda: What time does the Zoo open– 9:00, ok, gotta go.

Jim to kids: Everybody get their close on. Tell me the ONE thing you want to see at the zoo.

Allison: Everything

Danielle: Everything, no Giraffes

Justin: Snake house

Allison: Everything, ok Monkey’s.

Jim (aka Daddy): I want to see the new hippo exibit.

3 hours with the kids at the Zoo in perfect weather was worth missing half the game, since it was 14 - 13 at the half anyway.

Highlights: The Cheetah’s where walking around, which was pretty cool (plus one of them pooped on a log). Got to see the new Hippo Harbor. We got to pet a snake at the children’s zoo. The halloween decorations were up so they got to go through 2 seperate mazes. No fighting or crying until the end (Alli was pretty worn out).

Question: Did I say Cheese Cake Factory enough times in the post so that someone searching Google for Cheese Cake Factory, St. Louis will find this Blog entry???

I made chocolate chip cookies with the kids tonight while Brenda was out getting her hair done. I followed the directions on the Nestle chocolate chips which said that it would make 5 dozen cookies. I figure that since I was baking, those are bakers dozens, so I should have about 65 cookies. I laid out the cookies in rows of 4 on the cookie sheet pan, per the directions, each one measured to exactly 15ml (1 tablespoon) — I only counted 40 cookies.

Where did the other 25 go? Agreed it was a partial bag of chips, probably 3/4 of the way full, and I didn’t add the chopped nuts that it called for, but that couldn’t account for more than about 5 cookies. I gave Justin and Danielle each a beater, and Alli a spoon, so that might acount for another 3 to 5 cookies. So that leaves 15 cookies that aren’t accounted for. There’s no way that my “testing” of the uncooked dow should have been that many cookies.

Developing……………………

No Hockey last night (Hopefully they kept the losing streak going) — Brenda had Bunko. Worse than that, she was hosting it.

So, to give her extra time to clean/get ready, I took the kids to Dairy Queen for dinner. Justin informs me that he wants a double cheese burger. I usually end up throwing away half of a regular burger, but I figure “heck, its only a buck and a half”, and we’ve been trying to put some weight on him (is it bad that he is weighs less the 1 pound per vertical inch?).

We were sitting there eating dinner when three 13ish year olds sit down next to us and see who can work the most curse words into a sentence. My kids normally absorb every conversation around them, so I’m waiting for one of them to start using their newly learned words.

After dinner (Justin actually ate most of the double cheese burger), we go into the play area. Like my kids, I have a problem not hearing what others around me are saying. Its not like I intentially do it. What’s worse, is that I have a tendency to join in to the conversation.

Anyway, this woman is talking to her children. She makes some gesture with her hand and says - “When I give this sign, it means its time to go.” Jim biting tongue - “And when I give this sign, I want you to steal the base, and this one means that the hit and run is on.”