What a week.
You only turn six once, so it was fitting that we had party after party. First at school, then dinner out at the RFC, then... the party of the decade yesterday at the bowl o rama not too far from home.
We invited a million kids. Some RSVP'ed willingly. Others required constant nagging from myself (in the form of notes) and the teacher (in the form of through the eyebrow scowlings and scoldings). All but one kid who RSVP'ed showed up. Several parents stuck around too and they helped out. 15 kids ranging from age 3 to 10, and pizza and bowling and... wow.
 | And, of course, mom had to make her own life more difficult than possibly imaginable by making T-shirts for all the kids for the occasion. Instead of gift bags, which always are filled with kind of sub-par toys (and my dog will eat the contents) and candy (which my kid doesn't need after gorging on cake and/or ice cream) I figured it'd be nice if everyone had a memorable item they could keep for a long time, so I chose T-shirts. I got a bucket load of shirts from a craft store at about $3 a piece, and using Pokemon Project Studio Blue Version, which is cool, I made iron-on patterns, personalized for each kid with their name and a different pokemon on each one.
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Jessie was a big help, she cut out the excess stuff around the printable area while I ironed. It took us 90 minutes to do 15 shirts, and at the end, I kicked myself for not making ME a shirt. Dude, these are so cool. She also helped me set up the tables at the party in record time, and was a good sport when I told her she must wear a party hat. I so torture that girl.
The back of each shirt says "It's Geoffrey's Birthday!" except on his where it says "It's My Birthday." I also made a nice pattern on his sleeve of all the "badges" pokemon trainers get on the show for beating certain leaders. There are 8 total. And the shirts looked the balls. I was so psyched.
The shirts were also good because each child was easily identifiable in the large and very public bowling alley. I wanted to be able to keep good track of them, and this was an awesome way to do so. It was a very good time. Special thanks to Doug for being score keeper and pizza man, Gregg and Karry for coming all the way out from Rockport, Nancy, Frank, Naomi, Naomi's mom, Leigh, Mariah's dad and his girlfriend -- all for hanging out and taking part. Whew.
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| My lovely kids -- right before all the party guests came | The cake, prior to being molested. |
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| Jessie and Ian, who get along like a house on fire and act like they saw each other just yesterday, even though it's been months and months... | Geoff was done bowling after the third frame, 10 minutes into the hour we had to bowl. |
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| Geoff's best friend in class. I hope we can keep in touch with him after school is done | The whole gang. Waiting for Pizza!!! |
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| Let's see... I wish for a super rocket car, a motor cycle, all the pokemon in the world in real life, and some pie! | Action shot. The best candle blowing out picture of the week. He's going so fast, you can hardly see him! |
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Yummy cake! And it's good to be the king. Geoff was the big star. Got great presents. It was a great day for the residents of the Way Out Inn, and one to remember for quite some time. |
| We brought Gregg, Karry and the kids back to our house to unwind, let the kids play, and watch some football. Titans, Steelers. Yeah baby, yeah! Apologies to all y'all who don't give a shit here, but I'm here now to talk about football. You can skip this part and go down to the bottom of the page to the As for the game yesterday -- I can't believe the Steelers lost. I can't believe they make it to overtime, and the Titan's kicker, Joe "I stink but I'm lucky" Nedney, manages to pull the win out of his ass. |  |
The overtime win was theirs thanks to a roughing the kicker call against Dewayne Washington (a call that was QUESTIONABLE at best because the ball had already been friggin KICKED and MISSED when Dewayne slid into Nedney. Big Jerk).
And Bill Cowher, esteemed Steelers coach and king, was pissed. Cowher's chin reached new lengths sticking out from his face yesterday. I was frightened it might fall off. To lose the game because of someone sliding into the kicker long after the ball was kicked and had missed is bullshit. Absolute certifiable Grade A USDA bullshit.
From the Steelers' website, here's what Cowher had to say in his press conference.
"I saw a kicker who kicked the ball, had taken a couple of steps, and Dewayne sliding on the ground fell into him. For a game to be decided on that call is ludicrous. And for me to have to explain to an official what's reviewable and what's not, that's wrong. Fine me if you want. That's the truth.
"I'm not going to blame anything on this game. We had opportunities to win this game, and we didn't win them, but we had some taken away from us too. For a game to be decided because a kicker takes two steps and we have a guy slide into him…after going four and a half quarters, guys laying it on the line and it come down to that. Please, let the players play the game on the field.
"I've never been more proud of a group of guys. They've done everything I asked them to do. I wouldn't trade them for anybody in the world. Unfortunately it wasn't enough today."
Bill Cowher -- class act.
But what can you do. It's done. I will TELL YA what you can do -- Come back next year and kick some ASSSSSSSS!
I'm already looking forward to the End of August 2003. The season's not over, and I'm already looking forward to next year. Because there is no one to route for in this upcoming post-season now. All my three favorite teams have been eliminated, the Patriots, Green Bay Packers and Steelers. So I'm going to become one of those people who doesn't give a shit who plays, it's just all about having or going to a party.
This is what I'm faced with:
I sure as hell am not routing for the Jets or the Titans, those big loser jerks.
I don't want to route for the Eagles or the Niners, because I have no interest in them.
I can't route for the Raiders... that's like routing for Satan. And since Gruden's gone I have no interest. He's still in it though. But I think Tampa Bay has played crummy (crumby?) this year, and I've lost a lot of respect for Warren Sapp this season, so I can't in good conscience... well. What am I gonna do. Route for Tampa just because Gruden is cute? Meh. I don't know if that's reason enough. In the long run, it's just going to be all about whose house, how big the TV is, and what hors d'ouevres I can bring/make in order to make it a certifiable good time.
And no home-made T-shirts for that party. That's for sure.
I picked up some germage which is resulting in a sore throat and swollen tongue. Not sure if I picked it up at the pre-school on Wednesday or if I picked the germies up yesterday. So I'm feeling kind of listless, slow. I have a 4pm phone meeting with professor MF to go over the website and get it ready for Spring 2003's session. And, her proposal to present at a conference this coming March was accepted, so we'll be doing that and have to have all the bugs ironed out, and a presentation outline ready. I'll be presenting my side of the experience, and she'll talk about her motivation, the student reaction, why we did this. It will actually be a funny presentation, and we'll have a good laugh and I'm sure people will enjoy it. I'm just not into working on it today. I may call her and reschedule.
More later -- I'm going to go into the black hole that is my son's room and clean it so he can play on his carpet with his cool new trucks and cars.
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