It snow’s like once a decade in Georgia. Plus if it snows at all, it either never sticks or just does not hang around. Well this year we got a rare treat of almost 4 inches, which is a lot for us! We headed to Atlanta which was our original plan for a valentine’s day baby sitting trade off with the easycheese family. So we headed north before the snow kicked in. We got a nice amount of snow, and was able to enjoy it with the Rutledge’s. Here are some photos from the day.

My wife loves her some dessert, and I am not talking about me. I am talking about ice-cream and sweet things like that. So last night at about 8pm we thought it would be a nice treat for us to go to Cracker Barrel. Just her and I together to have a nice dessert out alone. Desmond was in bed, and a sleep for the night, her folks kept a listen out for him, we would only be gone an hour tops.

As we pull in we noticed it was busy for being so late, we approach the “host” but he really could have been a hostess if you now what I mean. He was polite to us. He reached for the menus, we told him we did not need any as we were just going to get dessert. He seats us, and we wait, and we wait some more, we play a few games with the little golf-tee games they have on the table. We wait, we start to look pitiful, so we try to catch the eye of some wait staff as they scurry around helping others. We sit, and sit, and finally I start waving my hands to a manager who walks by, she waves back and keeps going. Wow lady, I am not waving at you because I want to say HI, I am waving because I want my dawg’on Frosted Mug Sundae with Carmel Swirls, this ain’t social hour lady! This is “I got no kid to claw at my food and screaming at me and I can eat in peace finally!” She must have saw that look, because she comes over.

I am a soft spoken person, and really very polite when it comes to pointing out a problem with service. I tell her, “Hey we have been here a while (15minutes), and no one has seen us yet, no drinks or anything”.  I am an easy customer, maybe too easy. Her reply was this “ohh well you don’t have any menus, if you don’t have menus we assume you have been helped, that’s how we can tell. If I was to look at you I would think you already had been serviced.”

Ohhhhhhhh really? So its “my fault, no one has seen me yet?” Of course how stupid of me to think it was not. I should have taken a menu when asked if I needed one, pretended to look it over, put it down and THEN I would have got service. I did not know there was protocol to follow in getting service. Like a secret handshake of such. I must have missed that in Eating Out 101.

So our food comes, quickly and its great I might add. With that our “Mr. Hostess” his name is ridiculously long “Quintarious” or something like that. He walks by us and all I hear is “Oh Ma Gaaawd” and snaps his fingers or whatever “Mr. Hostess’s” do when they are mad. Jackie and I look at each other, and wonder what his deal is. Later I see him throwing his arms in the air in disgust about something. It was very humorous. He makes his way over to our table and randomly says ” I didn’t seat y’all, did I seat y’all? I didn’t give you menus?” I tell him he did seat us, and we declined menus. He walked away. As we leave we both  separately get a dirty look again from him. We both are kinda in shock at this, seriously? Why the look?

This is where Jackie is better then I am, because I was ready slap the girl right out of him, but she reminded me that Jesus loves him too, and that my friends is why I love my wife so much, because she always sees the good in people. No matter how ugly they can be.

I like good service, and we got great service from our waitress when she was told to serve us, but on a management level and a host level Cracker Barrel failed last night. I guess these “crackers” crawled into the wrong “Barrel” last night.
Ok thats my quarterly rant, thanks for listening.

Desmond with a death grip on Bert!

We won some tickets to go see Sesame Street Live from the Credit Union and some radio station last week. Last night we picked up our tickets and found our way to the Centraplex to see the show. We had to get there an hour early because we also had won tickets to go back stage and meet some of the characters, and have pizza with them. We were a little worried how Desmond might do, as he is not into Sesame Street yet, and sitting still is not something he is into these days. We decided to give it a try, it was free to us so what did we have to lose.

With that being said Jackie and I both agreed it was a very wise decision to go after all, he LOVED IT! At the pre-party we all had to line up to meet “Bert and Ernie” we let a few of the older kids go first, and one by one smiles turned to melt downs. I guess the pressure was too much, some kids freak out when they see a larger then life puppet coming to get them. That was not the case with Desmond, I set him on the ground and he went running towards them. He has no idea who Bert and Ernie are, but he did not want to let go of them, he gave them “high-fives” grabbed onto them and just had a face of pure excitement on it. It was “wow” and “yaaay!” and claps all around from him. When they left we looked around at us, and says ” see it?” and pointed to the door they just went into to go back to the dressing rooms. Seconds later he is running towards the door like a crazed fan storming backstage. I was able to wrestle him to the ground, and we moved our way up to our seats.

We handed our tickets to the lady who was helping people to their seats, she looked at our seat numbers and did not know where to seat us, those seat numbers did not exist. She went off and asked someone else, she comes back and tells us to head down front. It turns out we are up front and center, best seats in the house! we couldn’t have been any closer. This was perfect, because again, Mr. Desmond does not sit in seats for more then half a nano-second. Once the show started he was hooked, the lights, the singing, dancing, giant stuffed animals running around stage, he was fixed on it, and I was fixed on him.

Its pretty wild how much enjoyment you can get out of watching your child enjoy something new. It was a new rush of feelings for me. I have experienced enjoyment of seeing his eyes light up before. But this was new and different. When it comes to being goofy in public with strangers I tend to shy on the side of “im too cool to do that, and I hope no one is looking at me” but last night, who cares, every parent in the complex was being a kid again and acting the fool with their children, the adults ate it up just as much as the kids. That was fun to me, Jackie and I caught ourselves looking at each other a few times and smiling at how much he was loving this. The characters ran out into the crowed lots of times during the show, and each time we were always right their to get a handshake, elmo came and saw us, and yes Desmond can now say “elmo”, actually its more like “eammmo”.

So there you have it, our first experience with something on that big of a scale with a small child. Thank you Credit Union and Light Rock Z90 whatever the heck station you are for the free tickets. We enjoyed them!

(nonyoutubelink)

Desmond & Santa 2008

Today we set out to see Santa! Desmond’s first time meeting the Jolly man in Red. He loved him! He got so excited sitting there with him it was just so wonderful! He bounced and laughed and just loved it. I knew he would, and he did.

I am a man on a budget so we headed up to Bass Pro Shop in Macon. Pictures with Santa were free, and they had all their Christmas decorations out, so we seized the moment and plopped Desmond down next to anything and everything that looked cute, we got in and out of there with our free photos. Sure I had to ask 3 random people to take our photo. I am learning to be bold just like my mother. It payed off, here are the results! I am officially kicking the Christmas season off!

Last summer I fell victim to peer pressure. All the cool kids were doing it, and I just had to try it too. It is embarrassing to admit this, but I just feel the need to share. I have to share. This is my therapy. I usually remain strong when it comes to trying new things. Particularly if it is hazardous to my health. My whole high school career I never fell victim. However in my old age I could not resist. I wanted to be cool again. I wanted to fit in. I just wanted to stand out from the crowd. I wanted a pair of crocs.

A person I work with, I will not mention any names. They just went on and on about how comfortable the crocs were, and they just were the best shoe ever. I could even wear them to work, and could get away with it! Everyone else was, so I needed to get in on the action. So for weeks I struggled with the idea of buying a pair. They were $30, THIRTY DOLLARS!!? yeah that’s what I said. I never spend more then $15 on shoes. I am that cheap frugal. So I started digging for some coupons. I found one that allowed me to get a pair for $24. So I gathered my pennies from my change drawer, and I ordered my crocs. I was very excited. A week later my crocs came in. I opened the box, and had my concerns when I saw the color, they were a little brighter then I was expecting, but I ignored my gut feeling and I put them on. I was styliN and profilN in my new kicks.

I head on over to my my sister-in-laws that evening and Danyelle takes a look at them, and I think she threw up in her mouth a little bit. She was brutally honest with how ugly my new shoes were. I told her to bite me, and ignored her. She is always giving me a hard time anyway, its how I know she maybe kinda likes me (Dwight Yoakam) so I didn’t pay any attention. The next day I went to work with my new kicks, again I pushed passed the gut feeling I had that “something” was just not right. Everyone is all “wow nice crocs Hogan…you squish a smurf on the way to work?” or “Hey Mr. Hogan…..those are some queer looking shoes you got there.” It was then I knew I had fallen victim to my own fashion no-no. It seemed I had a queer buy for the straight guy. I stayed at my desk for the rest of the day, hiding my feet from sight. The next day an email comes out for the Superintendent about dress code. Especially shoes. I was mortified. I was a Queer looking Smurf Squishin Croc Wearing Nard. There was no escaping this now. Still today people at work talk about the “blue crocs” of 2007. I still wear them, but only in private. I can’t bring myself to throwing them out, they are the most expensive shoes I have ever owned. I will wear them in private until I get my $24 worth. These are the crocs I wanted just so you all know. It was a pure factory mix up, or maybe my computer monitor needs adjusting.

Desmond and I are feeling very Irish today.

Between the ages of 5 and 9 I remember summer time as fun in the sun, and getting a tan! I would brown really nice. I never burned. I would just get this really nice looking brown tan all over my body, and people were jealous. Everyone would admire my beautiful tan, I looked like a little foreign boy from spain or somewhere tropical. You may not think anything of that, but for a little Irish boy, this was a big deal. At least it was a big deal to all the grown ups around me, because most everyone in Ireland is pale white, and when there is a heat wave and the sun is shining (which is not often!), they fry like lobsters. So for me to tan and not burn, I was a super hero among my Irish counterparts. I was an elite.

Ohh but like every superhero I had a weakness, or a vulnerable spot you might say. That spot was my buttocks. It was as white as snow. So when I tanned, my glory was short lived when my mother thought it was the greatest thing ever to show everyone my buttocks, to compare my tanned back to my bright white untanned butt cheeks. She would yell with excitement to her friends or whoever was around, “look at this boys beautiful tan, and see how his little cheeks are snow white….isn’t it glorious!” she would say. Every time we met someone she knew (or didn’t know, it didn’t matter! I dreaded being called over….because as soon as I got within arms distance of her, she grabbed me threw me over her knees and down came my pants, and behold there was a beacon of light shining as bright as the moon, that moon was full, that moon was my butt.

Earlier I posted photos of Desmond, because I just thought they were so cute, but Jackie suggested I pull them down….and I agreed, I was not thinking, but then I got to thinking, and the above entry is what came of it. So Bonus for that. For those that got to see his cute little butt, congrats! (I know who you are!) it is chubby and beautiful.

When I was a kid, I had sinus issues, the doctors said it was “over active” so use your imagination, let it run wild for a minute. I would use my over active sinus in emergency situations only. I am sharing this information for educational purposes only. Desmond, when you are old enough to read this, we will talk more.

So you might be wondering how I could possibly use my “over active sinus” problems to my advantage? Well as a kid growing up, I lived among my fair share of bullies. Actually there was a whole street of them, and I remember them all by name to this day. I have a list, and if I ever find their IP address so help them. Anyway, I am not much of a fighter, never have been. I have touched on that subject before in my “throwing punches” post. My Dad even signed me up for Kick-Boxing one time. I guess thinking maybe that would help me. The first night there I got punched so hard in the stomach I felt my mashed potatoes come up from dinner an hour earlier, and as much as we Irish love our spuds, they do not taste better the 2nd time around. I was then placed in a choke hold to make sure I did not throw them up, how considerate.

Most times I just ran. Like an Irish Forest Gump I ran! I ran like the wind. I could at least out run most of those boys. I had crazy reflexes too, I could turn and duck like a ninja. Sure a shirt might have been grabbed or ripped, but I always escaped. But then there was the time I was surrounded, there was no escape. I was in the middle of the street being closed in on, and everyone was watching, because Hogan was about to get a beat down….again.

The funny thing is I remember I had two “Digestive Biscuits” in my hand (cookies for u Americans). If you have ever had these you know they are dry and stick to your teeth and gum’s like a paste. They are meant to be dipped in hot tea, but only for a second, because it will break, fall off and turn our tea into a soggy mess! I was really happy to have these biscuits in my hand, they were not my favorite, but a treat no less from my mom who had just given them to me. I sure as heck was not letting them go to waste for a butt kicking. What happened next I have only shared with maybe two people in this whole world, I am about to reveal my act of pure desperation.

I was in an impossible situation, the following actions are justified. What was I to do? As my attackers closed in on me I shoved both of those digestive biscuits in my mouth (not recommended) I chewed them as best I could. I then took a deep breath blew as much air out my nose and mouth as I could possibly could blow and screamed bloody murder. What happened next was both hilarious and disturbing. Chewed up biscuit spew and flew everywhere, and from my nose came an unholy amount of over active sinus snot, I was like a human can of silly string from which there was no escape! I swung my head left to right to maximize damage and coverage. If I was going down, so was everyone else around me in a phlegm of glory. Boys were screaming for their mothers, little girls were crying for their fathers, parents were in complete shock and awe. When I opened my eyes I stood there alone on the street, everyone had ran away. THEY had ran away. I was victorious, and I………needed a tissue.

So there you have it, my shame, my victory, my complete respect for airborne mucus. I have been sick now for over a week with a sinus infection. It has brought back memories of my childhood. You all have been warned; do not mess with The Hogan when his sinus’s are over active, or I will unleash the flood.

In deep concentration for his next move, he is up next.

Swing Batter!

Emmett and the Fish have a moment.

Emmett and I both fought this monster! And we have the picture to prove it!

You are never to old for bubbles, I dont care who you are.

Thanks for a fun weekend Emmett, we got sunburnt like nards, had coke floats, drank ginger ale”s ate some potatoe chip sandwiches and hot oreos while fishing, had some corn dogs, watched some movies, went to bed real late. I think we can mark this one off as “good times” indeed.

a year ago on this very day
we knew a baby was on the way
deep inside he began to grow
his name and face we did not know

as each day passed you began to prepare
a home for him and us to share
and when that little boy arrived
his little cry filled our hearts with joy

and now a year from last mothers day
so much has come and gone our way
a little boy who loves you dear
our little son, you hold so near

your a mother now, from this day on
a mothers love keeps his heart strong
his smile is yours, his love is true
there is no one in his eyes like you

I love you J. You are an amazing mom.
Happy 1st Mothers Day

I am under the weather (allergies/sinus infection) this Mothers day, which I am not happy about. I am missing all the madness that is happening at the McDow’s mothers day party. So in my Melancholia (not melon collie as Jackie pointed out) state, I put on the Braveheart Soundtrack (one of the best movie scores ever!) and I sat down to write my wife a Mothers day poem. I have not wrote any poems in a long long long time, but this Mothers Day I feel I am allowed to get all mushy.

Happy Mothers day to my mom and all the moms out there, you are all so wonderful and beautiful.