Tell us what's happened to you recently (that's interesting)

Ok well, since I haven’t crossed the line yet, I’m going to press my luck, no whammies. Do you two ever talk, you and your son? Or is the relationship too strained or maybe nonexistent? Sounds like you talk to your ex now and then, I guess you’re on reasonably good terms? Maybe find out what your son and his bride-to-be might need, send them a nice gift to sort of break the ice? I don’t want to get all ray of sunshine and say it’s never too late, but if you want to change things, you have to start somewhere right?

I occasionally talk to the ex. Like for instance, on mother’s day I sent her a text. Haven’t spoken to my son in about six years. Like I said I asked for a picture. And also asked if I might send a gift. Waiting for a reply.

I wish you luck then. Baby steps.

My son broke his foot today.

He’s twelve. First day of the last week of 7th Grade. His favorite part of going to school is playing soccer with his friends during recess and lunch. So I get a call from the mom of one of his friends this morning and she tells me my boy collided with her boy and my boy is waiting for me in the office. It is clear she feels terrible. I call the school and they tell me they’ve got him sitting in the office on a bench, with ice packs on his foot and ankle. I figure it’s a little sprain or something and ask if I need to come and get him. She says he cannot come ten feet to the phone. So I ask her to ask him if he wants me to come and get him early. Yep.

I get there. “Do you think we should go to the hospital,” I ask, anticipating him saying no. I’m sure he just wants to go home.

“Maybe. I think it’s broken.”

I don’t really believe him. I think he’s being dramatic. But when I basically have to carry him to the car…and he’s a pretty big kid…I realize, yeah. He’s not trying to get out of school.

So we go to urgent care and the doctor (PA…whatever…I never know) examines him. Her name is Emily and she’s super nice, really tall with an amazingly firm handshake and cool cowboy boots she’s wearing with a skirt. I say they’re cool and she beams and tells me she got them second-hand and she loves them. Emily suspects my son is right and orders X-rays and the X-ray dude (Emily calls him the X-ray dude, and then gets embarrassed when she uses the word ‘dude’), whose name is Chip, btw (freaking California) confirms that it’s broken. It’s a small bone break on the outside of his right foot. Emily explains this kind of break is very common.

So now my boy has a broken foot. This is something new.

Yay. Summer!

-xtien

My father broke his foot a few years ago. It turns out it was not too bad, as the official medical solution was “do nothing, don’t put too much weight on it, it’ll fix itself”. I don’t know if it’s the same for your son, but I wish him to get well soon.

Half of the game of soccer is in the head and how you read the game. He can just work on this aspect while recovering.

As someone who has spent my entire sentient life in California I have never met a Chip. The only two I can think of were one of My Three Sons and a cartoon chipmunk,

And yea, I say “dude”.

Did you know that is a major cause of concussions in young athletes? I am pretty sure that is true.

East coast, “dude,” user here. We are legion, dude.

Dude is fine, as long as you don’t use it as a noun, verb, and adjective in the same sentences dudes.

Those dudes who dude dudely are perhaps the most dude of us all.

Take that motherfucker. four parts of speech.


edit: also, sorry to hear about your kid, @ChristienMurawski. Hope he’s in good spirits, at least :)

Anyone living in SoCal named Chip has made a massive career mistake if they don’t join the California Highway Patrol.

Hi, dood!

I also broke my foot a short while ago. In this case I was told that it was a good thing I went to the ER right away. One of my metatarsals was real close to severing a very important tendon. So I guess it can go either way.

@ChristienMurawski please pass on my best wishes to your son.

Got terse email from our largely ineffective property management co. about the rent check I sent on Thursday not being there yet, resulting in a 5% late fee being assessed. That was a bummer.

Got a call an hour later from a very apologetic front office manager who realized that the majority of their clients’ checks weren’t in and that maybe there was an issue with their PO Box.

Now I’m just imagining a gleeful check-thieving USPS employee livin’ it up with carefully forged rent checks.

Or maybe they’re a militant socialist activist, depriving the rentier class their ill-gotten gains.

Either way, no 5% late fee for me!

Annoyed once again with UPS’s ongoing war against delivering my damn packages, I went to sign the InfoNotice and once again instruct them to leave ALL packages for me, and this is what I found in my pocket:

Well, you have all the components :)

C’mon, you have years of experience with crafting in videogames. You can do this!

Somewhere in the cap is a little flanged plastic cylinder you can put between your teeth to make an annoying high-pitched whistling/whining noise that no one will be able to tell is coming from you.

This past weekend, my wife and I took my niece to the Midwest Haunters Convention. It’s an annual show in Ohio for those involved in the haunted house industry. Rather than being focused on buyers and owners (as other large shows are), this one is a bit smaller, and is often targeted at home haunters and haunt actors.

We had a good time. First night, we went to the new show floor for the Scarefactory, a company that makes absolutely huge animatronic props for the industry (we’re talking 30 foot dragons that are fully animated, etc.). While they don’t have the best reputation, it’s hard to deny their work is impressive. I’ve seen their stuff at other shows, and it’s always a blast to look at.

Afterwards, we headed over to Haunted Hoochie, a local haunt that was open for the show. It’s an “extreme” haunt, meaning it’s a bit more adult oriented - the actors curse a bunch, they can touch the patrons, and there’s a bunch of gore. While it wasn’t as “extreme” as I’d anticipated, I will say that it looks impressive. You can see the money right in the haunt; they’re obviously quite successful. In the Vietnam section, there was an entire helicopter with moving rotors above your head. In another scene, you actually walked through a section of a large jetliner. Madness.

Finally, there is, of course, the Masquerade party. This is where the actors get to shine. I finally took my camera to the party for the first forty five minutes or so, and was able to capture some of the costumes. I only posted a few to my Flickr, but I may add more as I get more time to look at the photos. Crazy stuff, and fun.

Flickr album
(The clown in the last shot was photographed on the show floor the day after the party; please note that he’s on stilts, and is about 10 feet tall).