Why Andrew should be renamed Jimmy Jr. (#1)

When the kids do something bad or ridiculous, Lynn and I jokingly say "that's your son" instead of saying Jacob or Andrew (and now Tyson). It's a statement that says there's no way that child is mine, so he could only be yours. This happens the most with Andrew. And with him being called "my son" or as Lynn likes to put it "Jimmy Jr."

Appearance-wise, I don't think he looks anything like me. But as for the personality, he's a carbon copy. Throughout the weeks (or months) I'll post reasons why Andrew is just like me and why we should just call him Jimmy Junior.

My goals to getting/staying in shape

In my previous post, I wrote that one of my resolutions is to keep in shape. It's quite vague so I'm going to set goals for myself. Ultimately I'd like to get  to <10% body fat. But for now, I'm going to set short term goals that are more easily attainable and it will be a gradual step-wise process that will eventually end (I hope) with my ultimate goal.

New Year's resolutions

Goodbye 2011. Hello 2012. It's a new year. A clean slate. And that also means it's time for the obligatory New Year's resolutions. I try not to confuse goals and resolutions as I think resolutions have no absolute end, unlike goals (e.g. lose 5 pounds). So here are my 2012 resolutions.

Happy birthday Jesus and Andrew

It's my favorite holiday, Christmas. But this year is making me rethink that. I mean, it's the time of year when we spend a crazy amount of money on gifts. It's the only time of year that I have to drag boxes and boxes of decor, lights and a tree from the attic to get those unboxed and setup, then reverse that process when everything is over. It's a pain. The house is a mess after the carnage of opening multiple gifts which the kids may or may not have deserved. As a kid, this is hands down the greatest holiday ever. But as a parent, it kind of sucks.

Christmas cards

The Texans are making me fat

Papa John's has a local deal on Monday where you get 50% off of your entire purchase if the Texans win on Sunday. Promo code: TEXANS (duh). So for the past couple of weeks, pizza was what's for dinner. Go Texans! Being that it's such a good deal, we're not ordering just one measly medium pizza. We're going big. So with leftovers, I can say that I've eaten pizza at least four times in the past two weeks. Needless to say, my diet as of late has been quite unhealthy. I'm almost glad the Texans lost yesterday because if they won again, I would have been forced to order more pizza since I simply cannot pass up a deal.

Happy birthday to Lynn

Christmas wish list

Christmas is just around the corner and it's time to shop for those gifts. We asked the kids what they would want for Christmas but they had no clue. Off the top of their heads, they couldn't come up with anything. I figured that they needed to visually see everything so we had them look through various store ads and toy catalogs to compile their Christmas wish list.

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

My second favorite time of year, this one weekend. First there's Thanksgiving. What does this holiday mean to you? Has everyone forgotten that this "holiday" started out with white people befriending the Native Americans and in the end, slaughtered them and stole their land. Doesn't sound like a joyous celebration to me. But no, this holiday is a time for family to come together and to reflect on what you are thankful for. I'm thankful for having a healthy and happy, albeit crazy, family.

Warrior weekend (Austin, TX)

This past weekend we went to Austin, leaving behind all of the boys. Leaving the older two boys didn't feel any different (since they go to my parents on a weekly basis) but leaving baby for the first time was kind of sad and worrisome. But according to my mom, he was really good and there were no troubles. So why the trip to Austin? Besides the good food, our main purpose was to run the Warrior Dash.

Atypical visual weekend update

I'm feeling lazy so this update will involve visuals (pictures and video) of some things that happened this past weekend. But it won't be your typical pictures.

My little paleontologist

In a previous post, I mentioned that Jacob had asked me what's my favorite dinosaur from the Triassic period, at which point I tried to BS my answer and failed miserably. So I followed up and asked him what was his favorite dinosaur from that time period. He responded with, "Coelophysis and Herrerasurus." Geez. He didn't name one but two dinosaurs. And I'm not even sure he's right but there's no way that I'll doubt him.

Ca-Chow!

Today I took the boys, minus baby of course, to our local HEB where they had life-sized cars from Cars 2 (Andrew's favorite movie). Besides the photo-op with the cars, they were giving away lots of goodies for the kids. Good thing the weather was nice (temperature in the upper 60s) or else I would have second thoughts of standing in a long line with other rowdy, undisciplined kids. If one of my boys sat on the ground, cried, and threw a tantrum in the middle of a crowd as I witnessed today, we would have left (as a punishment) so fast that their heads would be spinning. Some of these parents are horrible. Another kid was only wearing his Spider-Man pajamas. Really? If I were president, I would mandate that all parents (and parents-to-be) take a competency test. If you fail, you will be required to take an educational course (paid for out of your own pocket) on parenting or else face fines/jail time/losing your child(ren). Some people should not even be allowed to procreate. I'm not saying that I'm the perfect parent (far from it) but the crap that I see is irritating. But I digress, here are some pictures from today.

Damn you Sony!

Back in 2004 when I moved into my house, I had bought a brand new Sony 55" LCD projection HDTV. A couple years later blue blobs started forming on the screen. WTF. I Googled it and apparently it was a known problem and everyone was having the same problem. So I contacted Sony and eventually I got the faulty optical block fixed free of charge. Done... or so I thought. In 2009 my parents moved into a new house and wanted a new TV so I gave them the Sony TV since I wanted an upgrade. Then recently the Sony TV started forming blue blobs again and even developed a big yellow oval in the middle. They had already replaced the optical block a year prior so this would be the third time it failed. Piece. Of. Shit. So I decided to contact Sony support via their online chat (I didn't feel like holding on the phone and I can leisurely browse the web simultaneously) and it went like this:

Angry for Halloween

We were, as you might have guessed, Angry Birds. Yes they're everywhere right now from plush toys to candy, and it's overkill but what other theme could we have been that has five (or more) different characters and relatively easy to make? Besides, the kids liked them and most importantly, willing to be them so it was an easy choice.