Foggy-headed Weekend Recap

We had a good trip to Angleton.

THEBOY and I left Saturday morning. It was his first trip on an airplane, and it went okay. The pressure bothered him, and he wasn't that receptive to my input about dealing with it. When he did try to pop his ears he couldn't.

But it was a short flight at least.

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I was 17 the first time I flew.

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It was good to see Dad and Charlene, to catch up with them and have a relaxed visit. Dad looked and sounded good.

Then it was off to Lake Jackson to catch up with Amanda and her family. The boys got along quite well all weekend, which I was glad for.

We had a fine meal at El Toro (damn good chicken fajita salad), then did some catching up.

Amanda et al were busy dealing with the Curse of the Brown water in their new pool. Seems some sort of utility hiccup occurred the day they were filling the pool, and they ended up with shades of yellow and brown. Poor Eddie was trying all sorts of chemicals and gizmos to fix it.

I do believe he hired Miss Cleo to give it a psychic reading at one point.

She charged it $1.99 a minute.

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Saturday morning we were off with Dad, Amanda and the boys to do a little fishing. We ended up along a nice stretch of the San Bernard River. And though we didn't haul in bunch of flounder or anything, we had a fine second option: The boys caught a bunch of croakers, which aren't edible, so there was plenty of action at least. I swear we caught and released some of the same ones several times--no one said croakers were smart. It got a little hot on some of us after a while, but really I'd say the whole morning went off very nicely.


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So Amanda and I took the boys to Cici's for lunch after that. We were standing in line when I looked down and saw THEBOY delivering textbook-perfect Krav Maga knees to his cousin's stomach (softly). Ack! He'd never done that before, and his cousin's not the least bit fond of rough-housing (though he's an accomplished little Tae Kwon Do artist himself these days).

I'm stunned that THEBOY picked up that technique just from watching it in class. I ended up having to give him a strange message: "Don't do that to anyone but bad guys! But you did it well..."

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We cleaned up and spent a lot of the day vegging out after that. THEBOY indulged himself with movies, and I managed to take a nap.

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I met up with the one and only Bruiser Boone for the first time in way too long yesterday evening. Good to see him! Just like always, it was like we hang out every week, like we used to.

This man's been such a pivotal figure and a good friend in my life... I could recount so many meaningful or hysterical anecdotes (or combinations thereof). He introduced me to my wife, ended up determining the name of one of my kids (yes, we went with "Shecky" per his suggestion... ha!), and was never afraid back in the day to tell me he'd kick my butt if I screwed up.

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And there we were, 15+ years after I left the area, just shooting the bull like we used to. We have our own spouses and kids now. I'm in DFW, he's living up the road from his folks...

It was at his folks' house in summer of '90 where I tossed back a bunch of beers and yammered like an auctioneer on crank to Kelli Thomerson. It was some sort of fairly low-key party if I recall. My relationship with my girlfriend at the time was disintegrating, and this girl Kelli had captivated me from the get-go.

Kelli and I left at the same time, and spent quite a while in the street in front of his house talking. I was happy to have her attention, to seem interesting to this pretty girl. Finally she said she had to go.

We ended up dating briefly and not working out, that time at least. I mean, obviously we finally straightened things out...

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So there I was last night, leaving Bruiser's house around midnight, and there in the street I could almost see the two young lovebirds-to-be chatting giddily in the moonlight.

I drove back to Dad's house, and you know, I went all the way across town without seeing another car on the road.

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And there sits Kelli now, doing her sudoku. We'll have been married 13 years this month. We have two good, smart, healthy kids, and I cherish her more each year. Thanks, Bruiser.

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Today we got up and hit the road for the airport. Aside from the plane being a little late and more pressure discomfort, everything worked out well. It was so good to see Kelli and THEGIRL again! Very exciting little airport reunion!

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We're all pretty wiped out though. I slept for an hour. Ever take a nap that's almost impossible to get up from? Man, an hour later I was still foggy-headed.

I briefly considered going to Krav Maga, but Sensei's going to belt-test me next time he lays eyes on me, and I was tired and not firing on all cylinders. I'll go tomorrow.

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I just hope he doesn't bump into me in a Wal Mart or something: "You! Outside knife defense WITH the arm sweep--go!"

(Just kidding...)

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Looks like I'll be going back down there quite soon too. Looking forward to it.

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Ya'll be good.