First off, my kids discovered the park in Solomon. First of all, this little hamlet (I use this word because I can't think of any other way to describe it. Can You? I am open to suggestions. "Ghost Town Where People Still Live" seemed a little harsh so hamlet seemed my next best option.) outside of Safford can only be described as quaint. (I am putting my PR skills to work here pretty hard. I guarantee the next time you are looking up real estate listings and you see quaint hamlet and you are familiar with Solomon, you are going to run for the hills.) However, it has one of the best parks for kids at their school. They have one of the only proper merry-go-rounds in town and my kids love it. So they got to go on Wednesday and promptly begged to go back Thursday where I met up with them after work. I immediately got the job of pushing the merry-go-round as fast as I could get it to go. I looked back fondly on my days in primary school where we would play for hours on the merry-go-round. Then as the thing went faster and faster, I started to feel a bit queasy just watching them and remembered that I am 36, not 6 anymore and had to walk away. We followed our park experience with a trip to La Paloma. It was the first time we had been since they reopened and it was good. However, that 36 thing cropped again as I just can't eat unlimited Mexican food like I used to. Half way through the amount of food they brought me, the cheese and grease started to get to me and I just had to stop and walk away. Great beans and rice though. Kate was very impressed.
The next day, the family travelled to Mesa to go to Bounce U. What a place Bounce U is. Imagine a kid having a birthday party where his parents rent the bounce castle. Now times it by 10. Not just the bounce castles but the kids as well. That is Bounce U. No, it really is a fun place and it was Logan and Kate's first time to get to go. They bounced and slid and...bounced and...well you get the idea. They absolutely loved it. Even Kate, who we were worried about because of her size in comparison to the toys and the other kids did great and had a ball.
As always, it ended too early but then the family was off to the temple to visit the grounds and see the Joseph Smith movie. Everyone enjoyed it but our sweet Braden struggled at the end. He is so emotional and couldn't understand why people would be so mean. I still don't have an answer for him.
Anyway, an absolutely great day. The kind of day no father would ever miss, right? Wrong!! Dad couldn't be bothered to do that stuff, because it was the annual March Madness first weekend gathering at Buffalo Wild Wings. So while the rest of my family was making memories to last a lifetime, I was eating wings, yelling at large screen televisions as my bracket imploded worse than a supernova and trying desperately to master the Super Shot basketball game over in the corner. It was good times. It was good to see friends I haven't seen in a while and just hang out with fellow members of the male gender watching sports and eating unhealthily (real word?). As usual it ended all to quickly. Already I am looking forward to the third Friday in March next year.
Once we all returned home, Shannon and I felt the need to address a problem that had been building in our home. We were seeing a truly crippling case of halfassitis gripping our children. (If you say it all as one word it isn't cussing.) Maybe some of you have experienced this in your own homes. Your children are assigned tasks and they will set off to do them only to return a short time later telling you they are done with said task. You go and inspect and see that in reality they are either not really done or standards for a completed job have gone way down since we were kids. Anyway, it was getting out of hand so we had to take drastic measures. We took both kids' iPods and told them they were going to have to pick 10 songs and 10 songs only to have on their iPod. All the rest of the songs currently on their iPods were erased. Then each day, they could earn back two songs if they completed their chores to our standards. If they had to be called back once to complete something after they said they were done, they would earn no songs for that day. If they had to be called back again, they would lose a song for each time they had to repeat a task. I don't know how any of this would work for anyone else, but so far, we are having much better results with the cleaning of our kitchen and bathroom. I suppose we will ride this train as long as it runs.
Finally, I don't know how many people are familiar with the Conventional Wisdom thing they have in Newsweek every week (at least I think they still do), but if you aren't, you will get the gist here pretty quick. Just a quick synopsis of my opinions of certain random things. I always wanted to do this...so now I am.
American Idol - Down Anytime a show is spending this much time talking about the judges and the personal drama surrounding them, it may be time to call it quits.
Fablehaven and The Hunger Games - UP Best literary finds this decade. (I am aware of just how old the decade is. Why do you think I am so confident making this statement?) Both are "teen" fiction, but extremely well written and truly gripping. In fact, reading "teen" fiction actually gives you a little more confidence in the language, sex and violence content. I read the sequel to The Hunger Games in less than 30 hours and was so disappointed when it was over, I read it again on the spot.
Tiger Woods - Down What else needs to be said? Except maybe MORON!
Media Covering Tiger Woods - WAY DOWN! What else needs to be said? Exactly, so stop talking about it.
US Healthcare - Down Unless you support the recent Healthcare bill that passed in which case I would add, Pharmaceutical Drugs For Symptoms Of Delusion - UP
(Although I have to agree with my extremely liberal co-worker who was actually in Washington D.C. last week during all the protests. She was walking amongst the protestors trying to keep her mouth shut when she saw something that she just couldn't let pass. A woman on a scooter with a sign that said, "Keep government out of my healthcare." My co-worker stopped her and asked, "Who paid for your scooter?" Her reply, "Medicare." I don't think the woman got the irony.)
The 1 cent sales tax proposition in Arizona - UP Without it, Arizona just might have to ship children living within 100 miles of it borders to neighboring states for education. For those on the Southern border, hope that Mexican education is up to par. Although history regarding the Alamo might be different there.
EAC President Mark Bryce - Down I'd be willing to bet he has had better weeks.
New Gila Valley Arizona Temple - UP Reports from Rhett Dodge who has been working on the glass inside and out says it is absolutely beautiful inside.
2010 NCAA Tournament - UP/DOWN I absolutely loved all of the thrilling games with several upsets. My bracket absolutely hated all of the thrilling games with several upsets.
Last Season Of Lost - UP The best show on TV is just getting better with this week's episode about Richard being one of the best episodes of the entire series. Although, I have to agree with columnist Bill Simmons who pointed out a real negative about Lost. If you are into it and you are talking about it around people who aren't, you sound like a complete idiot. I mean you sound like a 4th grader talking about Smoke Monsters, polar bears on tropical islands, flashbacks, flash forwards and flash sideways. It really is good and not as...I mean it isn't as crazy as it sounds...Kind of. Please don't think I'm crazy, or worse yet, something akin to a Trekkie. I'm really not! REALLY! It is just so good...Ahh screw it. Best show on TV and if you aren't watching it, it is just your loss. (How many times has saying that made us feel better?)
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