Creative carving

Saw these outside of a house on W Alabama. People were inside carving more.

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Rain-n-Drunks

I worked an extra four hours of patrol overtime yesterday. The city should have to pay double for overtime in the rain. Working patrol in the rain sucks. First call was, you guessed it, an accident. This one was in-bound on Allen Parkway at the Waugh exit. It was in a horrible spot just around a curve. I parked the patrol car behind the accident and hopped out quickly. I immediately heard screeching tires and turned around to see a car going sideways toward my car. Luckily the driver saved it in time to avoid my patrol car. I told the wrecker driver to pick up the wrecked car in a hurry before we all get hit. He picked it up and we got off of Allen Parkway. You would think that in the middle of a monsoon people would slow down on the roads. Nope.

Later in the shift an on duty officer responding to an accident on US 59 was involved in an accident. His patrol car no longer has a trunk. The officer was in the car at the time, but he will be ok. A short time later a HFD pumper truck was struck by another car while responding to a different accident on US 59. The freeways are crazy in the rain.

Ten o'clock could not get here fast enough. Carol is in her last day of evaluation. She is doing well. We were dispatched to a criminal mischief report where the boyfriend was the suspect. We arrived to find a drunk lady wearing a robe. She said that her boyfriend got locked inside of her BMW 335 convertible. The boyfriend was so drunk that he could not figure out how to get out, so he broke the window and climbed out. Wow. So drunk that you can not get out of a locked car. She said that he usually will drink 20 to 30 Miller Lites every day of the weekend. I would call him a heavy drinker. The best part of the call was the complainant calling Carol my probationary, "ladybug". I could not help but laugh.

Next, Ladybug and I were sent back onto Allen Parkway to provide traffic control for another accident. This one was a roll over. The drunk female bartender that was driving tried to exit where there was not an exit ramp. She drove onto the concrete embankment and then rolled back down onto Allen Parkway.

Last but not least, Ladybug and I responded to an assault call. An intoxicated doctor was assaulted by 4 Asian males. In his words "They jumped me for no reason. I just went into the fetal position and they hit me. Then I got up and ran away". He asked Ladybug what she would have done in the same situation. All five feet of her said "I would have fought back and kicked their asses". Great answer.

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A quick funny from Addy

Just before the kids shower time a few nights ago, I was sitting at the computer in our bedroom. Shocking, I know. When I hear Austin yell from the living room "OW, Addy!" They had been wrestling. A better description is Austin had been throwing his sister around on the couch. I left my perch by the computer and walked into the living room. I calmly asked Austin what had happened. He said that Addy had pulled is hair. I looked over at sweet, precious, little innocent Addy. My little girl would never do such a thing. Even after being terrorized by her big brother. I then asked Addy what had happened, she said:

"I pull Austin's hair, he goes ow, funny funny."

All I could do was turn around and leave the room, laughing.

Another day, another rookie

My department is about to dramatically slow down the flow of cadets from the academy. The city has only approved two classes for the next fiscal year. This is after a few years of at least 5 cadet classes a year. Even with that number of cadet classes, our department has only had a net gain of 150 officers. Our department workforce is old and many officers are retiring. Slowing down the academy does not seem like the correct choice, but the powers that be did not ask me. It will just mean more patrol overtime programs once our numbers start to dwindle.

Since the slowdown was announced, the academy has been in overdrive. New classes seem to be coming out every other week. That means that I have been very busy, when I am at work at least. I am one of only three evaluators on night shift at my station. Lately I have been in demand. The current rookie is Carol. She is in the middle of her final week of evaluation. She is 5 feet and 110 pounds of smiling hispanic female with an attitude. Her first night shift trainer said to her on their first day, "The cute smile is not going to get you anywhere with me, it is time to get to work." She responded with "If you have made this long being as big as you are, I think that I will be fine."

I have always wondered why any female would want to do this job, as a patrol officer. I am by no means saying that they can not do this job. On the contrary, I have worked with some excellent female patrol officers, my sister-in-law being one of them. When she was on patrol, she was an excellent officer that had a fantastic work ethic. However, I was always worried about her. I knew that she was a very capable officer, but the people that she came into contact with did not know that. I feared that she would get into more physical confrontations because she was a female. Thankfully, this did not come to pass.

Back to Carol. She grew up in two district and went to Waltrip High School. She took some classes from UH and changed her major numerous times. One day she decided that she was bored and since the Army would not take her, she applied with the department. That is not the best reason that I have heard for joining the department, but it is not the worst either. Luckily, she seems to have a good head on her shoulders. I hope that her smart mouth does not get her in trouble. It is one thing to smart off to someone when I am standing beside you and quite something different to do it by yourself. Hopefully she will work at a station that encourages officers to ride together.

So far, our days together have been rather boring. We have made numerous traffic stops without getting any drunks and we have written many reports. Tomorrow will be her last night and then I am sure that the next rookie will not be far behind her.

Need a little practice

Along with in-service training, there are a few other things that the
department requires of officers during their birth month. One of
them is to renew extra job permits. They have made this really easy.
All you have to do is log onto the intranet, pull up your permits, and
there is a button to renew. Very easy. In the past you had to refill
out the entire form even though the department already had all of
the information from the previous year. In this case, technology has
been implemented in a useful manner.

The other major thing that must be accomplished during the birth
month is firearms qualification. Amazingly the department only
requires us to qualify once a year. I have read that some other major
departments require every six months or even once a quarter. Not us. Once a year.

Crazy. Even worse, I have done what I said I would never do.
Tonight was the night I decided to head out to the outdoor range to
qualify. The outdoor range is a little different from the indoor
range. Outside the targets turn slower. Outside there are no
barricades between firing lines. Outside, you move back instead of
the targets moving back. The lack of barricades is the biggest
change. Without the barricades, the brass shell casings that the
pistols discharge arc through the air to the right and sometimes hit
the next shooter. The brass is very hot right after it comes out of the
pistol. It can be very distracting and uncomfortable if the brass hits
you in the face.

The qualification course is 60 rounds from 4 different distances. 12
rounds from 2 yards from the hip. 6 rounds with each hand from 5
yards. 12 rounds two hand grip from 7 yards. 12 rounds two hand grip
from 15 yards and 12 rounds two hand grip half from left and half
from right side of the barricade. You must draw from the holster and
reload where appropriate. The targets turn to face you and then turn
away. The time they face you gets a little longer as the distance
increases. During most target facings 2 rounds should be fired. The
target has concentric ovals. The middle oval is worth 10 points, the
next 9 and so on.

There is a total of 600 possible points. Seventy percent is passing. A
score of 570 earns you an Expert badge and a score of 594 earns the
Distinguished Expert Badge. During the academy, I shot a perfect 600
once. It was not during qualification so I did not get the
Distinguished Expert Badge. However, I still have the target. It is
hanging in the garage. Every year since the academy I have shot in
the Expert range. Not this year. What I said I would never do was to
shoot only once a year during qualifying. That is what I did this year.
I almost got away with it. I was in position to shoot Expert again
until the last line, the barricade. From the left side I made a nice
small group with my six shots, but they were all in the target's right
elbow earning 0 points. Suck. All six from the right side of the
barricade were in the 10 ring, where they should be. I am actually
glad that I missed those shots. Shooting is a finite skill. That will
encourage me to shoot more this year so that I do not have a
repeat next year.

Austin won!

Austin had a tough match yesterday at his tournament. His opponent had a two to one lead and Austin rallied to win 3-2. His opponent kept jumping and trying to hit Austin on the top of the head.It was funny to see. Two of Austin's friends from his karate class, Colt and Raven, stayed after their matches to watch Austin. He had his own cheering section. After the match, Austin said it was tougher than he thought it was going to be after seeing is opponent. It was an easy teachable moment explaining to not judge a book by its cover.

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Red belt tournament

It is that time again. Austin's karate tournament. This is his first tournament as a red belt. He is a little more anxious than normal. He is worried that he will have to fight a bigger second degree red belt. I had to reassure him a few times that he will be fighting someone that is his size, possibly Colt who is from his class. He will do fine if he just remembers to get his three points first. Every tournament we get a snack that I tell him he will get if he wins or at least tries his best. So far he has earned the snack every time. Today he choose Sour Patch Kids as his prize. He just asked for a sour patch kid for good luck. Nice try buddy.

It is very dusty in the gym. They recently re-finished the wood floor and there is dust everywhere. Oh well, what can you do?

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Active Shooter

My final 16 hours of mandatory in-service for the year were completed at a recently (August) closed HISD elementary school on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Three fellow Central night shift officers and myself joined 21 other officers for the two day school. The school was created in response to incidents like the Columbine High School shooting. That incident occurred in 1999 in Colorado. Two male students, one armed with a rifle and sawed off shotgun and the other armed with a Tec-9 and sawed off shotgun, killed 13 people and injured 21 others. They fired a total of 176 rounds. They also brought 99 improvised explosive devises of various shapes and sizes with them. Their original intent was to detonate two large propane bombs in the cafeteria by load bearing pillars that when destroyed by the explosion would have brought the library down on top of the cafeteria. They would then shoot the students as they ran from the cafeteria. The two large bombs were placed correctly but did not explode. They used cheap clocks with plastic hands for the timers. The plastic hands do not conduct electricity, so when they struck the right time, they could not complete the circuit. When the bombs did not explode, they entered the school and began shooting. Most of the killing occurred in the school library which is where they later committed suicide. From the time the shooting started to the time that law enforcement personnel entered the school was an hour and fifty minutes. That is along time for the shooters to terrorize.

Prior to Columbine, first responders to an active shooter situation were trained to hold the perimeter and call for SWAT to make the scene. This class was designed to teach the first responders, patrol officers, how to effectively stop the killing in an active shooter situation. This particular class is taught to all law enforcement personnel across the state of Texas. That means that regardless of agency, officers have been taught the same tactics. In an active shooter situation, officers from every nearby agency will make the scene. The fact that we are all trained the same way will save lives.  

Day one started with a review of two recent active shooter incidents. From there, we were taught how to move, how to clear rooms, and how to function as a team. Day two began with more team movements as well as improvised explosive devise response training. Then the real fun started. We would be assaulting parts of the school where active shooting incidents were occurring. We were given actual Glock pistols with simunition rounds (like a paintball round, but fired from authentic pistols). When it was our turn to shoot, the safety officer would tell us the situation. We were instructed to break up into 4 person teams. That was perfect for us, since four of us were taking the training together from Central nights. We were given a team number and they brought out the assignment board. We were team 2. They ran two different scenarios at a time in two different parts of the elementary school. Each team was going to be the "contact team" (shooters) twice. Our team played hostages for the first two rounds, then it was our turn.  

We put on our kevlar vests, long sleeve shirts, neck guards, and full helmets with face shields and were led to a hallway. There we told that an estranged husband had come to the school waving a gun threatening to shoot someone. The safety officer said "we are hot", and we were off. We moved together as a 4 man team. Three of us watching forward with one officer watching our backs. I was on the left side of the formation. We came to a hallway intersection and heard loud yelling coming from the end of the hallway, about 75 feet away. I checked around the corner and saw 4 hostages standing with their hands on their heads with the suspect behind them waving a gun. The suspect then yelled, shot a hostage, and ran into a classroom. The team then began moving quickly together toward the classroom. When we reached the door, two hostages were side by side blocking the doorway, refusing to move. We heard more yelling from inside the classroom. Bobby and I quickly crossed the doorway and Pedro and Todd stayed on the other side. At my instruction, Bobby grabbed the hostages and threw them out of the way. Bobby and Todd then entered the room in a hurry and neutralized two armed shooters. Pedro then jumped in to help with the numerous other hostages while I kept a watch on the hallway. The safety officer asked us a few questions and then stopped the scenario. According to the instructors, we did a great job. We made good decisions, reacted quickly, and shot very well. Apparently, we also need to listen a little better. When the suspect was yelling from inside the classroom, he was yelling "I'm sorry". We should have paused and engaged him in conversation. They were illustrating how situations can turn from active shooting to hostage situations. They said that the suspect would have started shooting again anyway, so my decision to rip the hostages out of the doorway just sped up the process.

After two more rounds of playing hostage, we were up for the final scenario. This time we were led upstairs and told that two armed members of an extremist group had entered the school. We formed up and entered the hallway. We observed a male at the end of the hallway on his knees speaking in a foreign language. As we began moving down the hallway, he quickly threw a pipe bomb down the hallway toward us. We did as trained, we ran back to where we came from and took up a defensive position. After the safety officer said that the bomb did not explode, we re-entered the hallway. We made our way to the dark classroom where the bomber fled. Upon arriving at the door, Bobby and Todd crossed the doorway and the bomber fired rounds in the room. Bobby and I used our lights to try to gather who was where in the room. Then Bobby and I went in firing. We put down the bomber who took 11 rounds from us in the chest. Bobby's gun jammed so he took up a defensive position at the doorway and Todd came in with me. Pedro came in as well and we cleared the room. As we were clearing, the "dead" terrorist detonated a flash-bang grenade that he was holding and that we did not see. Then the safety officer stopped the scenario. Once again we did very well. They said that it was obvious that we worked together. Poor Pedro did not get to fire a round in either scenario.

We had a great time in the class. Bobby would like to take the instructor school and help teach future classes. I hope that he gets in, he would made a great instructor. Hopefully they will continue this class and make it mandatory every year with different scenarios. It is just a matter of time until this type of situation happens in the area.  

In-Service

Every year I am required by my department to take 
40 hours of in-service training. When I joined the department, eight to sixteen of the 40 hours were mandatory classes that every classified employee in the department had to take. The remaining hours were up to the officer. Electives were offered in a variety of topics. However, for the past few years all 40 hours have been mandatory classes. I am not sure why the change. TCLEOSE, the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards, sets forth a class or two every year that every officer in the state must take. Lately, most of these classes have been dealing with terrorism, and our response to terrorism. This year, the TCLEOSE mandatory class for me was a 16 hour class called Active Shooter. I will talk about that class a little later.

The first class that I took this year was the CIT update. CIT stands for Crisis Intervention Team. All officers have to take CIT training in order to be better prepared to deal with people that are in a mental health crisis. It is excellent training and I have fallen back on it many times, at work and at home. :^D I thought that the CIT portion would take up the entire 8 hours, but I was wrong. For the first 90 minutes of the day, the speaker talked to us about hospice care. Yup, hospice care. I have no idea why. I do remember that according to her, you have to be diagnosed to have 6 months or less to live in order to receive hospice care. They do not kick you out if you live longer, but they will not let you in unless you will die soon. Strange topic for police in-service.

The rest of the day was the CIT update. It focused on dealing with individuals with autism or dementia. It was interesting. I did not expect them to go into the entire autism spectrum. But they did, covering Autism, Asperger syndrome, and Pervasive Development Disorder. The second class on my schedule this year was Decision Making. The day was started with a video. The head of the department's legal division talked to us about recent Supreme Court decisions that have a bearing on police work. During the video, he stated that nothing good ever comes out of California. The 9th Circuit of the US Court of Appeals is based in California. That court typically hands down very liberal decisions which restrict police action. Then a few minutes later he says "my wife came from California, so not everything is bad". What? If it was a one time class for a 30 man department and you say that off the cuff, ok. But to say that in a police training video that over 5,000 officers will see over the course of a year and you wife is not even an officer? Should have edited that out of the video. I also thought it was interesting that he mentioned the Bible, some scripture specifically, and the Golden Rule. I am all for it, it just surprised me that the Command Staff approved the video with those references.

Then an investigator from the Robbery division came in and told us all about running a proper line-up and making a photo spread. I found this topic strange as well. Patrol officers are not going to do line ups or photo spreads and investigators have already been trained how to do them, I would think. Day two was finished off by an Assistant chief talking about decision making in stressful situations. He played an audio clip of a radio transmission from an officer involved shooting. The officer had been shot multiple times and a female ride-along that was with him got on the police radio and started yelling for help. It was a tough thing to listen to. The female did a great job under the

circumstances.

Day three's topic was a Penal Code update. The morning was spent being re-trained on CPR. Definitely a topic that that needs to be refreshed every few years. You never know when you might need it. After lunch was the penal code update. Every two years after the Legislature meets and changes Texas law, a lawyer comes and teaches us the changes, good and bad. This year, a former district attorney who is also a former State Judge gave the presentation. She was a good speaker and kept things interesting. I thought she looked very young to be a "former" State District Judge.

There you have it, 24 hours of in-service. Some of it was useful and interesting, and some of it was just bizarre. At least the best was still to come for me, Active Shooter.

Stories and thoughts from a long weekend

I took a couple of nights off and enjoyed a long weekend with the family. I was off from Friday morning until Tuesday night. Jen had to work on Friday, she is normally off, so I took care of Addy. On Fridays, Addy takes gymnastics at the Little Gym at 11:15 in the morning. Watching her from outside the gym was strange. When I used to take Addy to gymnastics every Monday, it was a parent & child class. I was inside doing the activities with her. I had done the same thing with Austin when he was her age. Sitting outside is fine, but I am forced to talk to the other parents. I managed.

After class, Jen takes Addy to Wendys for lunch. Madison and her mother Anitra usually join them. This Friday I decided to do the same thing. As soon as we walked into Wendys, Addy and Madison bolted into the women's restroom. Addy was inside before I had a chance to stop her. I looked at Anitra and she said we always go and wash hands as soon as we get here. So Anitra handed me baby Olivia and went into the restroom to help the girls wash hands. During lunch, Addy decided that she needed to use the restroom. Anitra offered to take her. Madison decided to go as well. I was handed baby Olivia again and off they went. They returned and Anitra looked a little harried. I asked if Addy had been a problem, and she said that Addy was fine but Madison decided to crawl on the floor of the restroom while Anitra was tending to Addy. Yuck. Time to bathe in antibacterial gel. After they finished eating, the girls got up and began walking around inside Wendys. I again looked to Anitra and she said that they always do this after eating. I was glad that Addy was not trying to pull one over on me. Addy likes her routine.

Austin had another flag football game on Saturday. During the game, one of Austin's teammates broke free and was running down the sideline by the team bench. Austin was so excited that he jumped off the bench, ran onto the field and encouraged his teammate to score. His teammate actually ran between Austin and the sideline. His team won. They are undefeated. During the team huddle after the game Austin said "this is the best team I have ever been on". He was correct. 

It was a great football Saturday. The Horns won and the Aggies lost by 48! Saturday was the annual Texas vs Oklahoma game at the State Fair of Texas. This year's game was ugly. The first half consisted of turnovers and penalties. The second half had a little more scoring, but more turnovers as well. Both defenses played great. A good friend at church that went to OU asked me if I was actually proud of the three point win. He said that OU lost their quarterback, tight end, and had more yards that the Horns. I said "Well, I would rather be 6-0 than 3-3 and ranked #3 in the country rather than unranked, so I guess I am proud." He did not have a response.

Other things:

I am a sucker for iPhone applications. I have a bunch and I am always looking for more.

I am the world to my son. He absolutely adores me. He told me on Monday that "he did not like men's night out" because it took me away from home in the evening.  I sure hope that he always feels that way and that I live up to his expectations. 

Mike and I used to talk a lot about football. Now, we talk about football some, but mostly about technology. What does that say about us? (no comment Jen and Courtney)

I was great having the men's night out of a Sunday school class from a Baptist Church at a Pub.

In an hour Monday evening at a pumpkin patch, I took 1.9 gigabytes of photos. Wow. They are already up on Flickr.  

We are changing maid services again. It is tough and probably impossible to find someone that does as good of a job as Jen and I, mostly Jen. But is it asking too much to vacuum the ENTIRE house every week?

I am excited when Apple announces new products. I need help!

   

More drunks

October is an unusual month for me. It is my birth month and I try to take some time off around my birthday. It also means that I have to take all of my in-service classes in October. The department wants everyone to take their mandatory in-service classes in their birth month to avoid everyone taking them at the end of the training year. That means I miss some work for training and I miss some work for my birthday & Texas vs OU weekend & usually another weekend or two. This does not leave me with very many nights at my regular assignment. I am currently evaluating Joe, and it is going to take 15 calender days to get in 5 evaluation days. He is not happy about it, but he will get over it. My next probationary, Edna is even less excited. She was told that I would be evaluating her and I had to tell her that we would not start until October 22nd.

Last night was day 4 out of 5 with Joe. We started with an attempted robbery at a lesbian bar. A patron was in the parking lot walking toward the bar when she heard someone say "hey". She turned around and was hit in the mouth and thrown to the ground. Her glasses broke and she was dazed. The males went through her pockets while she was on the ground. When she came out of the daze, she got up throwing punches at the males. She connected with one of them, splitting open two knuckels on her hand. I would love to see what his face looks like now. She said "I got him good". Good for her. I bet he comes up with a better story for his fellas than "I was trying to rob some chick and she punched me in the face".

While we were dealing with her, two more lesbians walked up and said "they got me too". What? "The robbers broke into my car". That is quite a leap. "Well they tried to rob her so they must be the ones that broke into my car". These girls must not even watch cop or lawyer shows on tv. Come on. By the way, all of the women were drunk.

Later, we were dispatched to a minor accident. We arrived and found a parked vehicle had been backed into by another vehicle. It seems that another drunk female went to TC's Bar. They refused to serve her because she was so drunk. So, she got mad and then got into her Jetta. She put it in reverse and stomped on the gas. She backed out of the parking lot and across the street before another vehicle got in the way. The owner of the bar heard the crash and ran outside. The female was still in the car. He thought she was going to try and drive off, so he reached in and snatched her keys out of the ignition. The female got out and began pushing her car down the street. She would still be pushing it if she had not pushed it into a drainage ditch. She said that she started drinking at 7:30 in the evening, it was now 2:30 in the morning. She admitted to 3 vodkas and 3 beers. Which means she probably had 6 of each. She could hardly stand. A DWI task force unit came out and took her for us.

While we were waiting for the drunk female's vehicle to be picked up by a tow truck, another drunk nearly ran into us. We got him stopped and luckily the DWI task force unit was still there and loaded him for us as well. Maybe the hot daytime tempertures made everyone extra thirsty tonight. Joe did well and we will finish next Tuesday, after I take a few more days off.

Sent from my iPhone

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I no take a shower

Jen was invited to one of those parties that women invite each other to. You know the type, no men, finger foods, plenty of wine, and something, anything, is being sold. Everything from clothes, kitchen gadgets, children's toys, "other" toys, kid's books, candles, housewares, and anything else that can be pyramid schemed and sold to friends are used as excuses to lure women to these events. It is funny when you thing about it, inviting all of your friends to come over to buy something that they do not need so that I can order at a discount more things that I do not need. Anyway, I digress. Jen enjoys the opportunity to get out of the house while I take care of the kids. Something that does not happen very often. Sorry Jen.

Monday night was the big event at Julie's house. Jen had a good time and did what every good friend does at those parties, ordered something. Amazingly enough, it arrived in the mail yesterday, two days after ordering. Quick service at least.

While Jen was a the party, it was my responsibility to bathe and put the kids to bed. Lately, Addy has been taking a shower with Austin. I am not sure why, but she seems to enjoy it for the most part. As long as her brother is not scalding her with hot water (first shower with Addy, no injuries, one reason why you turn down the hot water heater after having children) or using his soap which is not tear free on her (third shower) she does pretty well. She basically stands in the shower facing the glass door looking like a drowned rat the entire time. But, every evening when it is bath time, she requests a shower with her brother.

On Monday, I had done a good job of keeping the fact from Addy that Jen had left the house. When it was time for a shower, I could not keep up the charade. Addy figured out that Jen was gone and had a minor melt down. During the melt down, she climbed up a chair by our bed and launched herself onto our still made bed. Now, everyone that lives in our house and almost everyone that comes over to our house knows not to sit on, lay down on, or basically even touch Jen's made bed. Here was Addy standing on the chair and jumping onto the bed. The child had lost her mind. I guess she thought "Mommy is gone, Daddy will let me get away with anything if I stop crying, I might as well go for broke" and she was right. She proceeded to stand up an the bed and started bouncing. She bounced right into the huge pile of pillows at the head of the bed and basically had a great time. Austin saw Addy on the bed and saw an opportunity. I give him credit for quick thinking, but no jumping on the made bed for Austin. Once I stopped laughing, as she tried to get away, I grabbed Addy by the leg and began pulling her off the bed telling her it was time for a shower. To which she replied in her new loud voice "I NO TAKE  SHOWER". Oh, yes you do little one.

I told Austin to hop in the shower and I quickly stripped Addy down to throw her in as well. I told Austin that I would bathe her tonight. He asked why? I told him that I did not want to get Addy's hair wet. No way am I blow drying a three year old's wet hair. After the quick shower, Addy jumped out and I put her towel on her head. The towel has a small hood on it that I put on her head, and then I wrap tthe two ends of the towel around her. She ends up looking like a burrito. So, I call her "my little burrito". In writing, that sounds strange, in real life, it is funny. Well, on this night, after being burrito-ed, Addy took off. As I was reaching for her clothes, she ran around me in the bathroom and began streaking through the house. The hood of the towel stayed on her head, but the rest of the towel looked like a cape as she ran full speed through the house laughing. I guess running around naked with a towel on your head is big fun for a three year old. Eventually I was able to corral her and get her dressed and in bed. Jen arrived home right after I had put Addy to bed, so Jen went in to see her. Addy sat up and got a huge smile on her face as she said "mommy". All was right with the world for a few hours, at least in our house.  



 

Thought provoking book

While on our long drive to California earlier this year, I thought it would be a good time for Jen and I to listen to an audiobook. I have a few books stored on my iPhone and I picked Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction by David Sheff. We listened to about 15 minutes of the book, and then a strong curse word came over the speakers. Since we had the kids with us, it was time to choose another book. We ended up listening to Marley and Me: Life and Love with the Worlds Worst Dog by John Grogan. There were no curse words and I found Austin listening to the story at times. We had already seen the movie and loved it until the end and the book was even better. 

Over the last week I have had to do more driving than usual. I have had to go to the HPD academy for in-service training. The academy is up north by Intercontinental Airport, so I have had some time in the car. Lately I have been listening almost exclusively to podcasts in the car. For some reason, with this additional available time, I decided to listen to an audiobook. Since I had already started Beautiful Boy, I thought it would be the logical choice to pick up again. It has been quite awhile since a book has really gripped me to the point of not wanting to put it down or to keep listening in this case, but this one has me. As the extended title suggests, the story is about a father and his son who becomes addicted to crystal meth. I know that the story would not effect me the way that it has if I were not a parent. However, it is gut wrenching to listen to David Sheff, the father who wrote the book and also narrates the audiobook, tell his story. I can not help but put myself in his shoes as I listen. 

I am only in the middle of chapter 5 and Nic, the son, is just about to start high school in the San Francisco area. The previous chapters have described Nic's childhood and some early warning signs of possible drug abuse. Nic started with marijuana, the so-called gateway drug. It seems that everyone that uses drugs started with marijuana and every hardcore drug user will tell you that they began with marijuana. Nic started with marijuana in middle school! At the age of 12!  David, the father, tells of going up to the school to talk with the school counselor after finding marijuana in Nic's backpack. The school counselor tells him that middle school is when all of the kids try drugs. Nik is younger than I am, in his mid 20's, so times might have changed a little. But drugs in middle school? That surprised me. I had not even seen drugs until the police academy. I did not fall off the turnip truck either. I grew up just outside of Houston and Dallas in my middle school and high school years. My high school graduating class had over 600 students. I did not go to all of the parties, but I went to enough and I was not aware of any drug use by fellow classmates. I was aware of alcohol use in high school, and I am sure that drugs were used as well, but I did not see it. 

A little closer to home, Austin is 8 years old. In a little less than three years he will be in middle school. That scares the crap out of me to put it bluntly. I usually do not worry about things that I can not control, but how can you not worry about your child and drugs? That is such a young age to be faced with such important decisions that could be life altering. I did not think that the time would come so soon when I would have to let go so to speak and hope that we raised him right. To trust him to make the tough choices, at 11 or 12 years old. Wow. Austin is a great kid who usually makes good decisions. He also despises smoke, but peer pressure can be hard to overcome.  

On a side note, in the prologue, the author talks about waiting for the phone to ring or for a knock on the door when Nik is out at night. That has to be absolutely agonizing. It reminded me of a time when I did that to my parents. I had a strict but fair and reasonable curfew in high school. When that curfew was up, I knew to be home. The summer after high school, I went to a Def Leopard concert with friends one night. Afterwards, we went to one of their homes and started drinking. I do not remember the exact details (I am sure my mother does) but I was not at the house where I told them I would be. My parents got worried and went out looking for me where I said that I was and I was not there. For all they knew, I was dead on the side of the road somewhere, and I am sure those thoughts went through their heads. It was not my best moment. I know that I apologized then, but I understand a little better now what I put you through. I am sorry Mom and Dad. That had to be brutal.        

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Play Date

This morning my beautiful wife reminded me that I told Mary that I would call her today. Mary was off for Columbus Day and was taking care of Haley. I spoke with Mary and we decided due to the weather to get the kids together at their house to play inside. I picked up Chick-fil-A on the way for lunch. The girls played with just about everything in the house. When we arrived Haley was playing with her piano. So Addy joined her in the playroom for awhile. Then Mary took out all of the drawing supplies and the girls did that for a few minutes. Next was the princess accessories and then the kitchen. All of these activities kept the girls attention for just a few minutes. Then Mary got adventurous and brought out the big guns. A gingerbread house, in October. It was perfect. The girls had a blast, Mary worked hard, and I documented the activity.

Addy is watching Mary prepare the house for decorating. The icing was very sticky and not very easy to work with.

As soon as decorating started, the house looked like it had been in an earthquake. The roof caved in and then the walls got a little wobbly. Mary got out more icing to try to save it, but it was gone.

So, Mary took the house apart and the girls decorated a side of the roof. There were many different kinds of candies that the girls stuck in the icing. They had a great time.

Here is the finished product. Addy's is the top left, Haley's is the top right, and Mary's is on the bottom.

Here is Addy's masterpiece. I tried to get Haley with hers, but was not successful. The girls had a great time playing together. Thanks Mary for having us over.

New rookie

I arrived at work on Tuesday expecting to be riding by myself for the first time in awhile. I had not been at work in 5 days due to our trip to Austin for ACL. While I was gone, a new rookie was transferred to night shift and I was assigned to evaluate him. He is in week two of phase four. That means he has been evaluated for a week on evening shift. If he does well with me, he will be done with the training program. He told me that he did well on evening shift and I expect that he will do fine with me because his evaluator on evening shift and I share the same philosophy when evaluating.

As is the case with all my rookies, sometime in the first shift I ask about their history. College or military? Why HPD? Etc... This one, Joe, went to college and was in the military. He graduated from high school in 1987, yup, he is older than me! He joined the navy and was a mechanic on a destroyer for 6 years. He got out and took advantage of the GI Bill. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Houston. Then the story got strange. He decided at that point that he needed a break. He moved to Europe. He joined the Peace Corps. He moved to Russia and lived in a small village about 6 hours east of Moscow. I asked him if he knew Russian, he said some, and then I told him that I was fluent in the language. I took two years of it in college and excelled in it. I even thought of changing my major to Russian. We conversed in Russian for a few minutes. It has been great at calls, if we do not want anyone to know what we are saying and are too lazy to walk away, we just speak Russian. Ok, so all of that about Russian is not true. It sounded good. He said that he can curse in Russian. I can say hello, goodbye, and count to 10. Back to Joe in Russia, the village had no running water and no electricity. He stayed there for to years. He met his future wife in Russia. He moved back to Houston with his bride and needed a job. So, he got a job selling mattresses. He did that for 6 years. Then it was time to get a career. He said that he always liked and did well in his law enforcement classes at UH. HPD was hiring and here he is. Quite an adventure.

Tonight, we got a call for an assault injury just occurred. After reading the call slip, it sounded like family violence, boyfriend vs girlfriend. We arrived and the boyfriend answered the door. He said that they had been together for 7 years. They met in Paris. She is a French resident. She is not a permanent resident of the United States. She can only visit for three months at a time. According to him, tonight they had been out dancing at Sky Bar. He only wanted to stay for two hours because he works full time and is in a MBA program as well. When it was time to leave, she was not ready to go but she left anyway. On the way home she said that she did not want to live with anyone that would not let her dance. Who can blame her, let the girl dance! Just because you have to work and go to school and all she does all day is sleep and shop, let her dance. I digress. After getting back to the apartment, the argument continues and culminates in her screaming. He tries to cover her mouth with his hand. She calms down and they talk some more. Then she decided to call the police. She does not know how to call the police, so he does it for her.

She said that, yes, she was screaming. He tried to cover her mouth with his hand and pushed up on her nose in the process causing pain. She said that he also threw her on the bed. Joe, the rookie, hears all of this and then calls the district attorney's office. He speaks with a DA and basically sides with the female. The DA takes class A family violence assault charges on the guy. After getting handcuffed, the guy decides to tell us the rest of the story. He says that she locked herself in the bathroom. He needed to brush his teeth. She opened the door and he grabbed her new nail file and broke it. This made her mad and she started hitting him in the chest. This is pertinent information. I ask him why did he not tell us that earlier. His response "I did not think it was important". You think? Maybe a little relevant? Joe asks the female if she hit him, and said yes I did. So, Joe calls the DA again with this new information. This time the DA refuses charges and wants the case referred for further investigation. Sounds more reasonable. Neither the male nor female had any marks on them indicating an assault took place. The male was released and spent the night in a hotel.

I asked Joe which side of the story did he believe? He immediately said I believe the female. I said why? He did not have an answer. I am finding that most rookies, either male or female, come out and want to believe the female in these types of cases. I try to explain to them that they need a reason to believe one rather than the other. Neither person is telling the 100% truth. If you believe the female, that is fine. But tell me and tell yourself why. You need a reason and/or evidence and not a preconceived notion that the female is always the victim in these cases. Turned out to be a good training call. Joe learned something about handling these types of calls and something about himself in the process.

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Last minute craziness

Plans. We make them everyday in one form or fashion. Big plans and small plans. Things we want to get done today and what we want to do next weekend and how we want to accomplish our goals in life. They all involve planning. Some people plan out everything and others just fly by the seat of their pants. Most are probably somewhere in between the two extremes.

Jen and I are in the first category, we plan out everything. When Jen was growing up she decided that she wanted to be a speech pathologist and she made plans to accomplish that goal. She also knew what she wanted her wedding to look like, how many children she wanted, and that she wanted a red brick house. Plans were made and executed and her ideas came to fruition. Obviously it helped that her plans and goals lined up with God's plan for her life. One area where those two did not line up was me, her husband. Jen did not want to marry a police officer. To her credit, we married before I started that profession. So, I guess she gets a pass on that one. God's plan won, and I am very thankful for that.

Not only do we plan big things, we plan small as well. One area where these plans are not working out like I want them to is in leaving the house. Long before it is time to leave, we have a plan of what we need to get done before leaving. We, mostly Jen, get everything together that we will need to take with us. Most of the time the items are gathered on the kitchen table ready for us to grab as we walk out the door. Sometimes we even load them in the vehicle early, just so we do not have to grab them and the kids when we are ready to leave. If we are leaving around dinner time, we have an idea of when we need to wake Addy up from her nap in order to give her a little time to wake up. However, almost every time we leave the house, we are running around like chickens with our head's chopped off. It does not matter how well we plan or how much time we give ourselves. We always end up leaving the house in a rush. Time gets away from us. It creates a very stressful and frustrating situation. I always feel like I am forgetting something and on occasion have to run back in the house to get whatever I forgot. I usually spend the first few minutes of our drive to wherever taking a few deep breaths to calm down. Sounds like I am wound a little too tight.

I have wondered many times what causes us to lose track of time and freak out right when we are leaving. I question whether we had this problem before children. I imagine that we did a little bit, but I am sure the kids have added a new level. More people to get ready to get out the door and more things to take with us. Every now and then an unexpected issue or problem will spring up right before we leave. Those can not be planned for. We just try to adjust and roll with it.

I think that the main culprit for this stress is expectations. I know that Jen and I both have expectations of what we want to accomplish at home before we leave the house. Some of the time those expectations are probably not realistic. This is especially true in the evenings and on weekends. If something comes up that I was not planning for, I do not adjust my previous expectations. Then I have less time to get done what I wanted to get done.

How do people do it that are not planners? How do they have what they need when they are out? How do they get anywhere on time without a plan? I have no idea.

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Small talk

Hi. How are you? How was your day? How are your children? How is your spouce, mom, dad, brother, sister? Did you have a good week? Do you like your new job? How are you feeling? How was your vacation? How was school?

Why do we ask these questions? Are we trying to start a conversation? Do we want to hear the truth or are we just being polite? Does the possibility of silence make us uncomfortable? How do we answer those questions? Are we truthful with our answers or do we just say "fine"?

Everyday we encounter our spouse, our children, friends, co-workers, our parents, acquaintances, strangers, or any combination of the those people. Everyday we ask, are asked, and answer one or all of those questions or similar questions.

Why do we ask these questions to those that we encounter? Most of the time it is just to be polite unless we are talking to those that we really care about. We ask the questions because we are expected to ask the questions.

Do we want to hear the truth when we ask these questions? That probably depends on who we are talking to. For example, do we really want to hear "I feel like crap. I have a headache, my feet hurt, I have irritable bowel syndrome, and I am wondering if I am coming down with the swine flu. I have gained 20 pounds. I feel like a beached whale and I can not wait to eat another snack cake. My son did not learn anything in second grade and I am having to teach it all to him now. My daughter has imaginary friends and the school counselor wants us to schedule an appointment witha psychologist. My week has been a disaster. I have worked 60 hours and not gotten any of my work done. I am expected to do my work along with the work of everyone else on my team. After work I come home to a disaster of a house filled with people that do not share my sense of cleanliness. I take the kids to activities that they do not care about. I have to pay money for these activities and volunteer my time when my kids goof off and do not pay attention. My new job sucks. It is worse than my old job, and I thought that job was bad. My new boss is the village idiot who thinks that he knows what he is doing. He hits on me all day long and wants me to wear short skirts or my appraisals might not go so well. My vacation was a waste of money. The parks were crowded and we did not even see Mickey. The weather was hot and humid and there were screaming children everywhere. While away all I could think about was all of the work piling up back home. My sister is addicted to reality tv. She has 5 kids with 7 possible daddys. She is about to get thrown out of her apartment and wants to move in with us. "

How would we like to hear one of those answers? Or would we rather hear "I'm fine". How do we get to know someone unless they answer truthfully? And how do people get to know us? As an experiment, the next time you are asked one of those questions, give the truthful answer and watch their reaction. I think they will be surprised. If they do not run away, I think that answer will lead to a much deeper conversation and a better relationship with that person.

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Correction

I was delicately reminded that Terry and Mary also helped out watching the kids this past weekend. I apologize for the omission. Thanks again.

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ACL

The Austin City Limits Music Festival, or ACL, is a three day music festival put on in Zilker Park, just outside of downtown Austin. The festival started in 2002 and has been held every year since. This was the first year that the festival was held in October. I had not heard of the festival until this year. Deborah, one of Courtney's college roommates who still lives in Austin, expressed an interest in going to this year's ACL. Courtney and Mike decided to go and invited Jen and I. We purchased our tickets and made our hotel reservations. Jen and I only had tickets to Saturday and Sunday while the others had the three day passes. Previously I shared our Thursday and Friday adventures  along with pictures from the event. What follows is a recap of our Saturday and Sunday in Austin.

We met everyone over at Deborah and James' house a little before noon. James took their two kids to the Natural Bridge Caverns and we decided to have lunch at Texadelphia. After ordering our food, I tried to pay with my debit card, only to find out that I did not have it with me. The last time I remembered using it was the night before at Perry's Steakhouse. I called the steakhouse and spoke with a manager. He stated that it had not been found, but he took my information and would let me know if it showed up. I immediately checked my account through the iPhone and the card had not been used. That was a good sign that the card was lost, and not stolen. After eating great cheese-steaks at Texadelphia, we left and went back to the hotel to see if the card was in my jeans from the night before. We searched the room and did not find the card. I decided to wait a little while to cancel the card in the hope that it would show up at Perry's. We went back to Deborah's house and watched some college football.  

Quick side note, the Georgia vs LSU game had a crazy finish that was heavily influenced by the referees. A Georgia wide receiver made a great play and scored the go ahead touchdown in the final minute of the game. He then did what just about anyone would do in that situation, he jumped up and down with his teammates in celebration. The referees threw a flag and penalized the Bulldogs 15 yards on the ensuing kickoff. That meant that they had to kick from their 15 yard line. LSU returned the kick to Georgia's 45 yard line. Then two plays later they were in the end zone celebrating their go ahead touchdown, and another flag was thrown for the same thing. At least they were consistent. It is crazy to expect these athletes to just put the ball down and run to the sideline. I want to see them celebrate. I do not want to watch a robot. I want to see their personalities come out. 

Back to ACL. Due to the weather, we contemplated not going on Saturday. We decided that we had enough rain ponchos and other foul weather gear and headed out. Mike stayed behind because he was not feeling well. To avoid taking a shuttle, Deborah found a parking space via Craig's List. It seems that people that live close to Zilker Park will rent out their driveways to festival goers. We paid $20 a day to park in a driveway. Then we walked to the festival. I would guess it was about 2 miles from the driveway to the festival entrance. We got our daily exercise out of the way. As soon as we walked in the gates, it started to rain. Raincoats and ponchos were put on and we started slogging through the mud to the main stage area which was on the opposite side of the park. The Dave Matthew's Band came on at 8 and put on a good show. It actually stopped raining for the show which was nice. We stayed for most of the show. After packing up our chairs and picking up everything else that we brought, we trekked back to the car. Our shoes and lower legs were covered in mud and we cleaned up as best we could before getting into the Infiniti. 

Sunday went much like Saturday. We ate at Waterloo Icehouse and watched the early NFL games. By 4, it had stopped raining, and we drove back to our rented driveway. After the hike to the festival entrance we were met with worse conditions than the day before. The  mud was horrendous. Every step was an adventure. If you were not slipping, you were worried that your shoe was going to get sucked off of your foot as you tried to pick it up. I was amazed that none of us fell that day. We found a good spot on some semi-grass-mostly-mud and set up camp. Mike and I left the girls and found the TV tent. They were showing the Cowboys vs Broncos game. That was fun except for the outcome of the game. After the game, we texted the girls and got their food order. We quickly picked up BBQ sandwiches and then stood in live for 45 minutes at Children of the Kettle Corn. There we purchased a large bag of the best kettle corn popcorn that you will ever have. I said it was like giving crack to children as I was eating it. It was hard to put the bag down, but I managed. While in line, Mike was treated to a squirrel completely covered in mud running around in the lines. Only at ACL.  

Pearl Jam came on at 8 and put on a great show. They sounded great and played a good mix of old and new songs. This was my first time to see them live and they lived up to the hype. After the show and the journey with thousands of others out of the park and across the Town Lake Bridge, we again tried to clean up a little before getting back in the car. Back at Deborah's house, we took out the hose and sprayed down our mud covered shoes. Jen and I brought them back to our house to attempt to save them with the washing machine. 

We made it back home safely Monday morning. Thank you to Jim and Cathy for watching the kids. Thank you to Rob and Pam for taking care of Austin on Thursday and Sunday. The Perry's Steakhouse manager did call and they found the debit card. I had already cancelled it, but at least I knew what happened to the card. 

The picture was taken from the footbridge on the way back to the car on Sunday.

From the hill

From the left, the shopping area, Livestrong Stage, and the Dell stage. With downtown Austin in the background.

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Jen in the mud

She is a trooper!!!

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Today's conditions

I thought yesterday was bad. The conditions today are horrible. Woodstockesque I imagine. No rain at least.

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The sign

View of the sign as we were leaving last night.

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Thursday & Friday

I worked Wednesday night and had my extra job Thursday morning. When I got off at 3:30 PM, I went home and loaded up the Hybrid for the trip. I picked up Jen at her school and we headed for Austin. The traffic was not bad. The new lanes on the Katy Freeway seem to have really helped with the traffic out west. We made good time to Austin and checked in at the hotel at 8 PM. We arrived at Chuys at 8:30 and there was a 30 minute wait for a party of two. Crazy. Dinner was excellent as usual at Chuys. We made it back the hotel and crashed early. We were both extremely tired.

The plan for Friday was the San Marcos Outlet Mall. We made it to San Marcus at 11 AM. We picked up fall clothes for Austin and Addy from Gap Kids, Carters, and Gymboree. They should be set for at least a little while. They it was Jen time. This has become a little of a tradition. For the last three years we have been in Austin for a weekend in October. One of those days is always spent at the outlet mall. First stop for Jen was Ann Taylor, her store of choice. She went one way and I another. We each picked out clothes and then she began trying them on. I get some very funny looks from people as I am picking out clothes for her. I get the feeling that there are not many men that pick out their wife's clothes. We found some keepers, dropped them off at the car and went to White House Black Market. We got there at 3 PM and left after 5. Jen was in the dressing room for over an hour. I walked around finding other things and getting other sizes. They had a ton of cool clothes for her. They were all on sale and we had an extra 20% off coupon. Can't beat that. She had a great time.

While at White House I made reservations for Perry's Steakhouse in downtown Austin. It is a gorgeous restaurant. They bought a bank and turned it into a restaurant. They kept the vault and the vault door. It is now a small private room. Very cool. The food was outstanding. I had a cucumber and blueberry martini. Sounds very strange but tasted great. It might have been our best eating out experience. We returned to the hotel and watched Confessions of a Shopaholic. Appropriate movie after a day at the outlet mall.

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Our view of two stages

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The Livestrong stage. The main stage where Dave Matthews is playing tonight. And the Dell stage where the Decembrists are currently playing.

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Raining at ACL

Jen, Courtney, and Deborah at ACL in the rain.

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The Wine Wall

This is a picture of the wine wall at Perry's Steakhouse in downtown Austin. Very beautiful restaurant.

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Sunset near Smithville

Sun, clouds, and an iPhone.

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Frustration

A few minutes after I posted my last entry, Ron and I were dispatched to a minor accident in a Midtown parking garage. The call sounded exactly like one that another unit had been sent to about 45 minutes earlier. I asked the dispatcher, and yes, another unit had been dispatched to the same call, cleared the call "cancelled" without arriving, and was now out on another call. The dispatcher did not know why he cleared the call cancelled, the call had not been cancelled. Now, the person was calling back asking where the police were. Outstanding. I get to do another officer's work. 

We arrived to find a very annoyed security supervisor. He was upset because he had someone in custody and had been waiting for an hour. Understandable. I asked him what was going on and he told this tale. The suspect in custody, Tom, had a few too many beers. He drove home to his nice Midtown apartment complex. He stopped at the gate to the parking garage. Once the gate opened he pulled his 2007 black BMW into the garage. Then Tom apparently got into a hurry. He slammed on the gas, lost control, and plowed into a parked Toyota truck. Which was pushed into a black Mustang which was pushed into a red BMW which was pushed into a white Maxima which came within a whisker of a green Honda. All of the airbags in Tom's vehicle deployed. But Tom kept driving. He wound his way to the top of the parking garage, somehow avoided hitting other parked vehicles along the way,  and slammed into a wall. The security guard observed Tom driving the vehicle into the wall. The guard asked Tom if he was ok, which he was. The guard immediately noticed that Tom could not keep his balance, had bloodshot eyes, and smelled like a brewery. Then Tom gave the guard his driver's license and insurance information. Tom admitted to drinking 5 beers and then driving. Tom then decided that he needed to make a phone call in his apartment. Tom began walking away and the guard told him to stop. Tom continued walking right into his apartment. About 2 minutes later when back-up had arrived, the guard knocked on Tom's door and he answered the door. The guards then took Tom into custody and called the police.

After hearing the story, I called a DWI task force officer who came to the scene and video taped Tom doing the standardized field sobriety tests. Ron and I completed the 5 car accident. The DWI officer transported Tom to Central Intox for processing. There Tom refused the breathalyzer test. Well, as of September 1st, 2009, if the breath test is refused and an accident occurred, an officer can take a blood sample following a subpoena. Blood was not taken from Tom, I have no idea why. The DWI officer called the district attorney's office who then declined to take DWI charges against Tom. The DA refused because Tom did not give a breath sample and did a decent job on the field sobriety tests. The DA wanted the DWI officer to file failed to stop and give information after being involved in an accident on Tom. The only problem is, Tom did give information. To the security guard. I realize that Tom would have just gone inside his apartment if he had not been seen by the guard, but he was seen and stopped and gave information. So the DA would not take DWI even though Tom was drunk and wanted us to file FSGI even when he did give information? Now I did not go to law school and I do not play a lawyer on TV, but this was crazy. Right after I left for the night, Ron sent me a text saying that he saw Tom leaving the police station. 

So Tom was able to drink at least 5 beers, drive home, cause a 5 car accident, try to leave the scene, then admit to drinking and driving, and go home in the morning. Absolutely amazing.       

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Preparing for the weekend

This weekend Jen and I are heading to Austin for the Austin City Limits Music Festival. It is a three day festival taking place at Zilker Park in Austin. The Dave Matthew's Band and Pearl Jam are the headline acts. I imagine that it will be a lot like Lollapalooza. When Courtney, Deborah, Sam, and I went to Lollapalooza in 1996, Metallica and Soundgarden were the big names. Over the course of the afternoon, we made our way towards the main stage. We were about 50 feet from the stage when Soundgarden came on. At that point the crowd surged, and we ended up 25 feet from the stage. We had no choice but to move forward. It was a surreal feeling. I am not sure that Jen has any idea what is in store for her, but I imagine that we will hang out safely towards the back and just watch the huge screens.

Getting ready to go on a trip is always an adventure for us. It is especially difficult on Jen. The responsibility falls on her to pack for everyone. All that I have to do is get the suitcases down out of the attic and take out the clothes that I want packed. Jen has to get everything together for herself and the kids, which is no small task. Especially when you are like Jen, and want the kids to be prepared for every possible circumstance. She always ends up staying up very late the day before we leave. By the way, we are very thankful to those that are watching our children while we go out of town. Big props to Rob and Pam and Jim and Cathy. Also to Terry and Mary for having Addy over for a play date on Saturday to give Jim and Cathy a break.

I had a few things to accomplish earlier today before we left town. The Camry needed an oil change and the check engine light was on, and Austin needed a flu shot. We dropped off the Camry at the dealer last night. My Dad was nice enough to call the dealer for me to check on the car. I wanted to make sure that they realized that I needed the car back today. I did not want to take a dealer loaner Corolla to Austin. Nothing against a Corolla, I just like my Hybrid. They told my Dad that the car was ready and that the check engine light was due to a loose gas cap. That made me feel like a moron. At least it was nothing serious.

Two weeks ago, Jen, Addy, and I got the flu nasal mist at Jen's school. Austin was in school at the time, so he was not with us. So, he needs a flu shot and Walgreens does them every day until 4 in the afternoon. Strange that they stop at 4 PM, since most schools get out around 3 PM. It does not leave parents very much time, let alone families where both parents work normal schedules. Austin was less than excited about getting a flu shot. I told him that if he was brave and did not whine that I would get him a treat after the shot. On the way to Walgreens, Austin said "I hope that the treat comes from Game Stop." I told him that I had something like a dessert in mind and not a new video game. Crazy kid, where does he get these ideas? Sounds exactly like something I would have said at his age. We go back to the pharmacy in Walgreens and are told that Austin is too young. Walgreens will not give flu shots to kids that are younger than 9 years old. Suck. The new plan is to take Austin to whatever Pasadena ISD school is doing flu shots on the Monday we get back from Austin.

Austin was disappointed that he did not get a shot. He thought that no shot meant no treat. I surprised him with a Chick-fil-A milkshake. Big mistake. I gave him a sip or two of it before we left for dinner. Once we got back home after karate, he ran to the refrigerator and began sucking it down. Then Addy wanted me to chase her around the house. She will walk up to me, get a big smile on her face, and say "Daddy, chase me." Like I have a choice after that. Austin does not want to feel left out, so he runs around the house as well. Lets just say that milkshake in the belly and then running around the house is not a good idea. Milkshakes and Austin do not get along, at least not in abundance.

I apologize for the lack of work stories. Work has been rather bland and boring lately. Tonight is positively SLOW. Absolutely nothing going on. I better enjoy it while it lasts.

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