My wife and I celebrated out 10 year anniversary. I can’t believe it’s been that long. I know that’s what the husband is ‘supposed to say’, but it really has flown. Seems like I married her and moved to Texas just a few months ago. But no… ten years! No regrets though! It’s been a pretty awesome ten years. Sarah and I were able to break away for an over-nighter to celebrate. We booked a room at a hotel, but when we got there, we straight up were not impressed. Here is one difference between Matt and Sarah ten years ago, and Matt and Sarah now: Ten years ago we would not have just called another hotel and rebooked that night while we were in our ‘disappointing’ hotel room. Sarah even nicely checked out and when asked if there was a problem, just nicely told her the truth. We even got our money back.

So we scored a room at a nicer hotel and splurged on some fancy food. One might expect a ‘sexy time’ all-nighter, but the bed was so comfy… we were so free of the kid… of distractions… noises… that .. well…. it was the best night of sleep we’ve both had in about 3 years, I’ll put it that way.

In other news, our landlords found some water damage from an upstairs leak in the walls, so we had our kitchen redone. Some guys named Dudley and Jesse were pretty much living here for a month or so tearing up our place. It’s done now and looks great. I’ll actually kind of miss Dudley. We had some moments of pleasant chit-chat, albeit awkward. Awkward because he would knock on the trap door in the closet floor, from the other side, and I’d open up and let him in. And that sort of bizarre interaction was pretty much the daily norm for awhile. Henry probably thought he was the man who lives under the house.

Henry is just about potty trained too. Sarah had the genius idea of buying little cheap toys and filling up a nice wooden box we have ‘treasure chest’ style. When he pees, he gets a little plastic firefighter or a starburst. When he does #2, he gets a hotwheels car (which he loves and has a giant collection of). So this motivated him to get potty trained pretty quick. He’s in big-boy underwear now. We still use a pull-up for nighttime still, however. But our kid is growing up so fast. Cliché, but the truth of it burns brighter with each passing year.

For awhile this summer I was getting pretty spooked about the economy and state of world affairs, realizing just how fragile and fine-tuned our infrastructure and economic system is. So I got my preparedness on. I geared up a bug-out bag for the family, water filter, and some storable food. I figure that if I’m totally crazy, it’s still good general practice to have a bit o’ the family preparedness.
I also got my ham radio license, finally. I’ve been flirting with the idea and encouraged by my dad since I was like 14. I finally got a tech license. I shelled out for a nice portable receiver, but ran out of money before scoring an antenna or power supply. So it still sits idle. I’m encouraged, however, and have been studying for the general exam, though I’ve found it to have ten times the technical stuff crammed in the exam.

I’ve been pretty tired of late, but for good reasons. I’ve been pretty busy as a freelance editor, assistant, tape op, and more often than not, working at night. But I gotta chase the kiddo all morning, so I don’t get many full nights of sleep lately, but I can’t complain. So between working and hanging out with Henry, I have no social life.. no movie life… no ‘cool’ life whatsoever… and I’ve never loved it more.

Amanda spoiled him with a new bubble machine.

Weldon took him on another tractor ride. Henry seems to be scowling, but he loved it. He puts on his ‘serious business’ face whenever he gets to drive tractors, ride trains, or check out fire trucks in real-life. They chased a cow in the tractor.

Vikki made us some killer fried chicken, then we had birthday cake that Sarah made. I drew a tractor on it with felt-tip-like pens that are made for cakes. Sarah made his favorite, ‘red’ cake. (Apparently that makes Henry even more of a Southerner.)

We flew kites. I brought a pricey ‘stunt’ kite that I bought more than 3 years ago, and never had a chance to fly. I tried to take it out once at Stu’s, but it was about 110 degrees at the time and I only lasted about ten minutes before heat-stroking out and having to pack up. It was awesome to fly. Vikki loved it. I think she wants to get one. I also flew my tie-fighter kite, which was more of a cool-looking decorative novelty kite, but wasn’t that hot at flying. Amanda brought a little pterodactyl kite too. At first we messed around with the tie-fighter and pterodactyl kites for a few minutes. Henry seemed to be having a good time. Then I got out my pimp kite. Compared to the others, it sounded like it had a motor on it. And it would do looping nose dives at the speed of sound that swooped by Sarah’s ear, sending her screaming and flailing. It subsequently made Henry a little terrified of the whole kite thing for awhile.

But eventually Henry warmed up to it again when I turned him on to flying the pterodactyl kite while Vikki flew mine. Henry was an AWESOME kite-flyer, by the way. He kept at it for a very long time. Flying it all by himself!

It was a great time, and now that I’ve experienced my awesome kite, I’m going to want to take it out more. Which might not be a good thing, since there isn’t many great places to do that here.

Amanda was very pleased because Josh was allowed to call her for an hour. He’s in Air Force basic training. Amanda hadn’t heard from him for 2 weeks, so she was happy.

We said goodbye and headed home. We then stopped at a dairy farm that sells raw milk. Amanda turned us on to the creamy awesomeness that is raw milk. Makes all store milk taste like chalk water. Henry found a cat to chase, and looked at a calf.

Needless to say, Henry was pretty pooped when he got home. Well we all were. Great day.

Then Hank and I went to the gym, also a several-time-a-week tradition. After his nap, we hit the art store so dad could score some needed art supplies. I then remembered it was free comic day. I took him along not realizing what a star he’d be. Soon as we step up on the curb, all the hot super-ladies go ‘ooooh he’s soooo cute!’ They ga-ga’d over him for awhile. He was being extra suave because he actually gave Batwoman a big hug. We scored a bunch of free comics, a sweet ‘Flash’ graphic novel at 10% off, a balloon, a sucker, and a photo op with the babes, all in about ten minutes.

I’m pretty sure this was a good day for Henry. (And his dad!)

We also took him to the Lakewood country club where we joined Kelly and E. for lunch. We then took Henry out to meet the Easter bunny. The club was wise to have a balloon lady out there making cleverly-shaped balloons for the kids while they waited. Henry wanted a sword.

Looks like he’s warming up to the Easter Bunny, but he has his trusty sword, just in case.

We then took him on an Easter egg hunt. Wasn’t much of a hunt for his age bracket. More like a scramble with the other kids for a bunch of eggs laying around on the green. He still enjoyed, though. Eggs full of little toys and prizes.

Sarah grabbed some home-made Easter eggs that some kid was selling outside a store. I think these things are a south-of-the border sort of tradition. They’re real eggs that the insides have been sucked out through a small hole, and replaced with confetti. You’re supposed to crack them over each-others’ heads. Sarah, Henry and I made a mess outside our back porch.

We scored some passes to the Symphony that Robert plays with. It was great fun to get our culture on. I love it, but haven’t done anything ‘high culture’ in years. It was interesting to watch him play his Cello. Apparently there’s a French way vs. a German way to hold the bow. Who knew? It was fun, other than the crazy lady 2 seats away from us with 40lbs of bangles who acted like she had epilepsy between crinkling her plastic treat bag, sorting through her purse, blowing her nose, and general fidgeting. People turned their heads crustily from 4 rows up. Later we found out Robert… on stage.. heard her. Luckily they left at the intermission. They played some of the essentials. Beethoven, Mozart, etc. Unfortunately the weather decided to strike with a freak super-late blizzard that I had to white-knuckle my way through to get home. But worth the show and dinner with Robert and Bridgette after. When we got home alive, we celebrated a little by shooting the bull with Ronda, and her novelty glasses that totally creep me out.

We also hit the Irish fest on the weekend. It was fun, as usual. It’s still a bit foreign and weird for me to hit the thing and not have to be working. I.E: Putting on the hot bagpipe suit, tuning, messing with reeds, tuning some more, playing, marching, warming up, tuning, playing some more, etc.

It was nice to hook up with the Seamus Stout buddies, and sneak into the hospitality area with their extra pass, and partake of the free bar. We then watched their show. It rained on us pretty good, but that didn’t stop us from seeking out more of those tasty ‘scotch eggs’ which Sarah ate. But, alas, they were out when I went to score some for me.

I have finally seen the trifecta of awesome. Flogging Molly, The Pogues, and, as of last night, the Dropkick Murphys. I was most excited to see these guys out of all 3, because they are my favorite to listen to. All though they were awesome and melted my face off, I would have to say that Flogging Molly seems to be the victor as far as live performance. It’s something I can’t quite put my finger on. They just seem to produce the most love in their music. Perhaps its just because I’m getting old and don’t have as much anger, and like to hear the high-energy mixed up with a mellower ballad a little more. That being said, they still rocked my face off and put on one amazing show, and as far as recorded music goes, Murphys are still my faves. Another criticism is the sound mix at the House of Blues. After seeing several shows there, however, I’m now certain it’s the venue, not the bands. As usual, I would have liked to hear the vocals, bagpipes, whistle, accordion and banjo more, but they sort of always get lost in the guitar and drums. It was pretty neat how they pulled the crowd up on stage until it was full. The musicians were barely hanging on the stage, ready to fall off, or playing as they were buried in the wild crowd somewhere. Randy, Lou, Chris, and I also observed how there seemed to be nobody from the crowd that wasn’t overweight. I guess it’s a sad representation of Dallas! Oh well, I’m fighting the battle of the aging bulge myself and I guess those who live in glass houses…

My parents and Andy came down for about a week over Christmas. They make a big road trip out of driving down, so I think they’re ready to rest and decompress when they get here. That’s good, though. Takes some pressure to entertain off Sarah and I. So we mainly just hang out and enjoy each others’ company.

Andy and I did get an invite for something awesome, however. Damon invited us to the “Christmas Horror Mix-Up” at the Cinema Brew Pub. I was a bit worried at first because I’m still shockable and not a fan of gore. But they turned out to be some of the funniest, worst B movies from the 80s. They were just shaved down enough to show the essentials of 3 features in the timespan of one. “Iced”, “You Better Watch Out”, and “Silent Night, Deadly Night 2″ were as funny and gloriously aweful as any 50′s B-movie I’ve every enjoyed. And the Mix-Up makers filled up the ‘in-betweens’ with hilarious puppet segments, clips of “Santa Claus vs. the Martians”, etc. Andy was impressed with the Cinema Verite you can find here.

I wish I had more time to visit my folks. it seems I was either working or chasing Henry. And I pulled an all-nighter doing a freelance video the night after Christmas. But there’s definately worse problems to have. I’m pretty darn grateful for my wife, rugrat, and ability to keep afloat as a freelancer.
We did manage to get in one other activity with the family (besides raiding all the comic shops in town with my brother), we took a visit to the annual North Park Mall’s train show. I love that thing. It may become a Christmas tradition. Sarah was good enough to call ahead of time to confirm the mall will loan us a wheelchair for my dad, but naturally they kept the chairs at the far opposite corner of the super-massive mall from the train show. But Henry sure didn’t mind sitting on grandpa’s lap while we wheeled him down the halls. I think he quite liked it. I think the whole family enjoyed the trainshow, hopefully half as much as me.

My family loaded up to head back. We briefly thought we’d have to run Andy to the hospital right before they left, because Henry accidentally bashed him in the jaw and eye, but Andy caught his breath and recooped.
2 days later I got a call that stopped my heart. My mom was saying something through a very horrible cell phone connection. I basically heard “Matt..(crackle crackle)…horrible accident..(crackle crackle)…” (click). Then I could get anybody calling back all 3 of their cell phones. Finally, I got ahold of my dad who said they totalled the car, but all 3 of them were fine and walked away from driving around the curve of a mountain road into a herd of cows. Somebody just didn’t close a gate. Awesome. I just thank the Lord they’re all okay. They finally got home after more than a day of dealing with insurance and rip-off, rapist car rental places who totally used their desperate situation to ridiculously overcharge them. But again, I sigh relief that they were all watched over, and walked away after taking out 2 cows. I just hope that doesn’t discourage them from coming down and seeing us again.
They said they may fly next time, which I understand. But between taking chances with my life and wayward cows, or being scanned, questioned, and anally probed by Big Brother, I just may take my chances with the open road again. But that’s just me.