The Shrine Circus (again).

The Shrine Circus (again).

Took the kids to the Shrine Circus yesterday. Duncan has been going since he was one year old. He's had enough of the circus -- at least according to him he is. Calvin still has fun watching the acts and got a pony ride, a plastic "light-up" sword, and a big balloon from one of the Shriner clowns.

I could take a minute to discuss the nature of clowns and why they can freak-out some kids. From my understanding, most clowns fall into two categories: the white-face harlequin and the happy-hobo. Both type can mess with what parents drill into their children, "Don't talk to strangers!" And what could be stranger than some large, garishly decorated person getting right in your face and acting weird. Neither Duncan nor Calvin have any problems with clowns but some of their friends get creeped out by them.

The art form of the Circus is somewhat in decline. Between TV show-based tours, Disney on Ice, 24 hour cartoons and DVD players in most cars, an actual dog and pony show can fall a little short.

The show started with a Tiger act. It was pretty low-key compared to some of the other acts but the trainer had both a pretty good comedy schtick and lots of information about the plight of tigers in the wild. All of the tigers came from a wild animal rescue preserve in Florida and all of the money the act gets goes to saving more tigers.

There was also a dog act, a cat act, a bear act and an elephant act. On the human side they had a trapeze act, a quick-change magic act, a bmx trick act, a motorcycles in a metal ball act and a few others I've forgotten.

We ended up with 12 people in our group with TJ and I, Duncan, Cal, both grandmothers, TJ's aunt, her granddaughter, a friend, a friend of Cal's and his mom and little sister. It was quite a crowd.

After the circus, 9 of us went to eat at Hideaway Pizza then went home and relaxed.

A Comedy of Errors

A Comedy of Errors

So I'm sitting here in Jones, Oklahoma waiting for a tow-truck to take my younger brother's van back to his house. We were supposed to use the van to move some bookcases for my Mom. But that would be too easy; so my brother came up with a better idea.

He found another van in Jones that he wanted to buy for parts to help keep his van running. Now this is a 1972 v-8 van that gets very bad gas mileage. So rather than spend money keeping this van running, he should just get a different fuel-efficient used car. He didn't like that idea.

On the way out to Jones his van started cutting out. I'm not entirely sure how we're supposed to tow this other "parts" van back to OKC with his current van cutting out. We eventually get to the place in Jones and no one is home.

That's right, no one is home. He didn't call ahead to verify that anyone would be there. After leaving a note on the door he heads further into Jones to an auto repair shop. Of course it's closed but it's also the guy's house so he lend's my brother some tools and helps him verify that his fuel pump is out.

I call for a tow and since we are within a stone's throw from the edge of civilization, we get to wait for an hour and a half for them to get here.

Well, its only a Saturday. What better way to spend the day than to wait in the middle of nowhere waiting on a tow.

Too Much Time on Facebook

Too Much Time on Facebook

I've been neglecting my Blogger Blog (this thing) and spending most of my time on Facebook. It can be a neat place to hang out and waste time. I really like the chess playing application. The only problem is that I'll lose my train of thought and make a silly move about 2/3 of the way into a game and then spend the rest of the time making up for it.

As far as work goes, I'm still at Seagate and still enjoying the projects I am on.

As far as the house goes, I have tons to do. I do some of it but still play with the kids and help keep things moving forward with the family.

As far as politics go, It will be interesting to see what happens in Pennsylvania and with the Michigan and Florida delegations. I'd like to see the party (D) come together or they could fumble and lose what is still seen as a slam-dunk -- sorry about the mixed sports metaphors.

That's all for now.