Turning 35

I wrote this almost a year ago on 2/28/13, but never came back to it to publish.

Yesterday was my birthday. It’s likely everyone reading this knew that and wished me happy birthday on Facebook. So far, this paragraph has just wasted your time.  It’s been awhile since I've written anything; you'll just have to bear with me.  

35 is considered by some a milestone birthday. In my mind it means half my life is gone.  Other than that, though, it’s not a big deal to me. Our family is in the middle of trying to buy a new house and rent our current one.  We have canceled our usual summer travel plans.  We have cut back spending in every area.  We would entertain offers on just about anything we own at this point. All that to say, I didn't want much done for me on my birthday.  And having spent extra hours at the office the day before because of a snowstorm, I didn't expect much from the day.

Life surprises though. Through no real talent on my part, I have accumulated a wealthy life in people and comfort.

Highlights

My wife surprised me with a lovely card full of sentiment and joy.

My daughter was too excited by the prospect of her Daddy’s birthday to let it pass unnoticed.  She made a card. And this:

 It’s a doggy treat holder.

A friend brought me coffee.

Another friend changed their profile picture to one of the two of us as a tribute. Coworkers were genuinely happy to wish me well and celebrate with me by means of biscuits and gravy for the office.

My parents insisted we eat dinner together to celebrate. Jill made a cake she knew I would like more than anyone else. I know enough at this point in my life to appreciate these things.

There were lowlights as well.

I would have taken the day off if I had known Jill and the kids were going to be enjoying a snow day, but with the outage cleanup continuing I had to spend the daylight hours in the office. 
At one point after someone asking about my age, I was convincing myself that I was still spry.  I decided to jump up and put my palm against the ceiling as I have done since I was hired there 8 years ago.  I sprang off the ground with great confidence, unfortunately not with great height.  I came about four inches short. I’m sure it was just the boots; I’ll definitely make it the next time I wear my dress shoes.  

New Bed

We bought Cannon a loft bed from a local dealer today. It was a clearance sale and the bed was close enough to what we were looking for to work for us. It wasn't anything special, or so I thought.

It is an all metal frame which fit together perfectly as seen here. I didn't count the number of pieces, but when I opened the box I was a bit intimidated. The instructions were clear and each piece was wall labeled and once I figured out which was the 5/16 bolt and which was 1/4, it went fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

It turns out this bed blew me away with its packaging. There were exactly enough bolts, screws, and nuts. It contained all the "tools" needed except a screwdriver. And it all fit in this box. I have no idea how you even start to design a solid piece of furniture and then go back and say, oh yeah, it all needs to fit in a box slightly longer than a twin size mattress and 1/4 as wide. Do computers do this? I wish I had taken a picture of how these pieces overlapped and fit inside each other.

I was extremely afraid that as I pulled the last piece I needed out of the box, it would have a huge scratch on it (not that I needed to worry since each metal piece was also individualy wrapped in plastic and all the corners had cardboard covering them!). I knew that if I had to return it, it would take me at least two boxes this size to fit it all.

So good show, DHP engineers, I wish I was as smart as you.

Best of 2011

I thought I would compile a list of my own Best of 2011. These are my personally experienced Best ofs. There is nothing objective about my list. All categories and winners are in bold (except for the first one).

Best moment of 2011: A couple of weeks ago, I came home from work and Meadow, my three-year-old, met me at the door. "Daddy it is your special day." She told me how much she loved me and had baked me a cake. It wasn't any kind of official special day, but she made it that way.

Best Pet of 2011: Tonka, the Boxer dog. Tonka barrelled into our lives like a gasoline powered bumper car. He had to win the award this year as he was the family’s only pet and will be ineligible in 2012 having moved to Iowa in November.

Best Song of 2011: I bought exactly one song published in 2011, Switchfoot’s Vice Verses. I doubt it was really the best song of the year. You can judge how out of touch I am musically based on the distance you would put between your song of the year and this one.

Best movie of 2011: Captain America. I really only saw a few movies that were released this year, and there were no other contenders. Captain America was the best of the Avenger’s series. A few months ago I was sure the best movie of 2011 would be Real Steel. I was so excited by the trailer and thought it would be a great movie for Cannon, my five-year-old, and I to enjoy together. Alas, I couldn’t justify bringing him to a PG-13 movie without previewing it first and couldn’t bring myself to go see it in the theater twice. So maybe best DVD of 2012.

Best Republican Presidential Candidate of 2011: I'm giving this award to John Huntsman as he is the only one on the list of candidates I could not immediately think of a negative story about. Against what may be the most beatable incumbent president since Jimmy Carter, it has been fascinating to watch front-runners pushed through the ringer.

Best wife of 2011: Jill Ash. Everything a man could want in a wife and worlds more than I deserve. I wouldn’t want to live this life without her.

Best home renovation of 2011: nominees include kitchen counters, kitchen floor, kitchen walls, and bathroom walls. And the winner is the counters. I highly recommend tiled counters, but I would pick a different grout color than white. As an aside I couldn't decide whether to include furniture as a home renovation, but in the end it wouldn't have mattered. We are allowed to eat on the counters and not on the furniture.

Best book I read in 2011: David Copperfield This year I read more books than any year since I graduated from college (2000). Big thanks to my Kindle and my mother for giving it to me last Christmas. Of all the books I finished this year, it's hard to touch the classics, and Cooperfield beat out the Pickwick Papers. I only read one book published in 2011, The Wilder Life, but it wouldn't make the top 10 of books read this year.

Best website of 2011: isitchristmas.com This site does one thing and does it well.

Best sports team of 2011: My heart wanted to give this award to the 2011 Kansas City Royals. I attended around 10 games this year and haven't enjoyed a Royals team this much since Jonny Damon, Jermaine Dye and Carlos Beltran roamed the outfield. Hopefully, this team will get to the level of these guys. Despite the many great memories they gave me this year, I couldn't give the award to a team with a losing record when the Dallas Mavericks did us all such a great service and allowed this to still be hilarious for one more year.

Best picture of 2011: It's Cannon with a cannon. I mean, come on.

Best El Dorado Restaurant of 2011: Our local Chinese place, Hong Kong King Buffet, wins this award for their authentic pork dumplings and red bean pastry. By all rights Rusty Jug should win this award every year, but it will still be here in 2012 and chances are we will have a different Chinese restaurant.

Best Facebook Friend: Chris Sumpter. He didn't miss a birthday. Posted an appropriate number of pictures of his kids and interesting places visited. Responded to all comments. "Liked" interesting things. Didn't post anything easily refuted on Snopes.com. And never sent a request to add me to some calendar or play some game. And all of it was done from a foreign country.


Best new (to me) car of 2011: 1997 Mercedes E320. The only nominee, but still.

Best school of 2011: El Dorado Christian School. Cannon started school for the first time this year and we were nervous parents. It was hard to let him go out into the big bad world but we couldn't have asked for a better situation. His teacher is amazing and the school is a gem in the golden city.

Best trip of 2011: Omaha Nebraska Nominees included 5 trips to Iowa and one trip to Kansas City's Loose Park

Best Tweet of 2011: I was pretty sure I had retweeted a better one than this from someone I knew, but couldn’t locate it. So by default the winner is: @WhitlockJason Not 8, not 7, not 6, not 5, not 4, not 3, not 2... There is only one NBA champion. Dallas Mavericks.

Best Status Update of 2011: From Tim Scott October 18, “I have to imagine that if Fanny Crosby would have been here last night she would have been listening to the rain hitting my skylights and singing "Showers of Blessings." I, on the other hand, would have be wondering why is there a blind ghost singing in my living room.”

Happy new year!

Vacations - Part 2

We plan our vacations early, so in January we made reservations for a cabin outside of Omaha. Four nights and five days in a nice air conditioned cabin in a nice quiet campground along the river. You'll notice I did not say it was a nice river. This is because a month before we were to leave for vacation the river flooded the campground and our cabin, canceling our reservation.

We were able to get 2 nights in a Super 8 for the same price. Iwas disappointed, but my kids were ecstatic. For them a motel is akin to a playground except with television.

I was looking at this trip as more of a prelude. A chance to knock Nebraska off our 50 states while saving some money for a big trip next year (we already have reservations for a state park in Myrtle Beach [maybe I don't learn]). But it was a really great time. Our first night there we visited the pedestrian bridge, Jill even took a jog on it. The only other thing I've got to say about this is that Nebraska smoked Iowa with their side of the bridge.

I had a great time at the Omaha Storm Chasers game. The Royals may not be lighting it up in the majors but their AAA did look head and shoulders better than the cubs that night.

The biggest part of the trip and the #1 reason to visit Omaha is the zoo. It met all our expectations and then some. We spent eight hours there and still forget to go inside the Wild Kingdom exhibit. We spent an entire hour in the rain forest area and it wasn't enough. The only place that wasn't enjoyed by all was the gorilla exhibit. Don't get me wrong it is incredibly well done and has great views of the animals. Unfortunately, I'm scared of monkeys (I'm lumping gorillas with monkeys, I'm not a scientist). I was holding my two year old in a little bubble thing that lets you get a 360 view of the habitat. We were looking at a big one about eight feet away when a bigger one crawled over the back of our bubble, face to face with Meadow. I tensed badly and froze. Meadow was done after that. I really don't like Monkeys and I think my fears are legitimate.

We tried to take a different path home, but it still took longer than it should have and had us driving on a road with one lane clear and the other covered with water. It did give us the chance to find a geocache at a park in Nebraska while Jill did a nice statue imitation.