On the 6th Day of spring break

Thursday - Shopping Day


We knew that at some point this week we would be heading to T-Town for a shopping excursion. We took the lazy day approach and left somewhere around lunch time. By the time we got to Texarkana, we were pretty hungry. We had already told the kids we would go to Chuck E Cheese for lunch during spring break, and Thursday was the lucky day.


We had a coupon for 100 tokens and a large pizza with drinks. Worked for us. The CEC in T-Town has rearranged their games since we were there last, and they added new games. By far my favorite was "Deal or No Deal." Yes, you play DonD for tickets! You can play regular for up to 40 tickets or you can play 'Double Deal' and try for 80. The first time I won, I took 25 tickets. Well, I actually took about 113 tickets. See, the machine had quit spitting out tickets at some point. I don't understand why people do not hunt down the workers and get their tickets. Well, I was not about to sit idly by while the 'need to be dispensed' count rises higher and higher! I found a worker and he got the machine working. Naturally, I kept the 'extra' tickets. No one else was claiming them.


So, I took my tickets and went to the 'ticket muncher.' I have to say the ticket muncher is the greatest invention in ticket-based arcading ever created. I always hated carrying around a gazillion tickets. The muncher lets me cash them in for a slip of paper. Nice. Even nicer? When the muncher comes pre-loaded! I fed my tickets in, not paying any attention. When I hit the 'print' button, my total came out as 125 tickets. Wahoo! Bonus! Once again, no one was standing around laying claim to the tickets in the muncher, so I was the victor or the spoils. Well, not really. At the end of the day, the kids got all the tickets.

We played several games until the pizza came. we ate, drank, and were merry. After that, we roamed around playing various games, winning tickets (or not winning as the case was sometimes), having a good time. Emily and I had our picture 'sketched' while we were there.


In the end, Tyler cashed in some of his tickets for a baseball-looking footbag (since they don't call them Hackey Sacks anymore). Emily oped for a pretty good sized stuffed/plush Tootsie Roll. She said she wants a Tootsie Roll purse to put it in so that it would have a good home. Tyler saved a bunch of tickets for 'next time.'

We left CEC and headed for Sears. While Shan and Emily looked at shoes and clothes, Tyler and I looked at electronics and tools. Have you been to Sears lately? Well, the one we have sports one of the smallest electronics sections I have ever seen. And really, I'm only a tool guy in theory. I like some tools, and I like to have tools, but really, I'm not very handy. In grade school, my nickname was "Handyman" because of my last name and my knack for finding solutions to various audio-visual equipment problems. Honestly, it was mostly dumb luck and some common sense - oh, and a deep desire to be the one to run the ditto machine.... Ahhh, the smell of mimeograph ink... I can still smell it.

Shan is wearing SIZE 10's now!!! That is AWESOME!! She had a great time trying on clothes and modeling for us. I cannot tell you how good she looks. I will post pictures eventually, but I have to get her to let me take them first. Any encouragement you can offer her in that department, please do.

We did a lot more shopping at the mall. Well, Shan and Emily did most of the shopping. Tyler and I just kinda hung around. Having said that, I will say that Tyler and I did buy some clothes. I bought a shirt for Easter and he got several shirts and shorts. He and I share shopping techniques - get in, get what you need, get out.

But, as I've said here before, when I know there is going to be a day of shopping, I don't mind hanging out while Shan does her thing.


After the mall, we went to Target. I am on several opinion websites, and the benefits of answering all those questions come in the form of free stuff. In this case, I had $40 in Target cards (or so I thought) and $100 in Best Buy cards. As we walked around Target, I looked through the computer games aisle, the DVDs, Wii games, baseball cards, etc. Now that I had these cards burning a hole in my wallet, I couldn't decide what I actually WANTED to buy. I took the cards out of my pocket and noticed that I actually had $60! Cool! That seemed to actually make the decision process harder. I finally decided to get a game I had been wanting for a while - FarCry2. Since it was only $30, I still had money left. I used it to help pay for the clothes bought at Target.


We left Target and dropped Shan and Emily off at Kohl's. Meanwhile, Tyler and I headed off to Best Buy. We walked around for a bit, again not sure what to buy. I decided the best option was a 4-way Wii remote charging station. We have a two-banger, but we seem to always run out of charge on the other two remotes. So, this way, we can keep all four charged up. Plus, after Emily saw it, she fell in love with the pink battery cover the unit came with. It actually came with four different colors: pink, blue, black, and grey.


As I was paying, I realized the Best Buy cards were not marked as to their value. So, I handed one to the cashier. $10 card. I pulled out another. $30 card. I pulled out another, at which point Tyler said, "Man, you're like magic! You just keep pulling them out. Think you could pull some out for me?" I laughed, and simply said, "Uh, no." The last card was enough to cover the charges and I still have change left over on it. Plus, I still have a full $30 card to boot.

Tyler and I headed back to Kohl's and waited outside for Shan and Emily. And we waited. And waited. And then we waited some more. I finally told Tyler to text Shan. A little bit later, she texted back and asked if we were there yet. We had been sitting in the parking lot for almost 30 minutes. I just had not communicated that to Shan. She said she and Emily had been wandering around Kohl's waiting for us. Communication FAIL. Oh well, by this time, I was hungry for supper, so we headed over to Texas Roadhouse.

Great rolls, awesome cheese fries, super steak. Our meal was fantastic. Afterward, we went to Cold Stone for dessert!


You would think that would be the end of the day. Nope. You see, after we got home, Shan put away clothes and I loaded up my game. Emily got in bed and asked Shan to read a story. Poor child fell asleep before Shan could even get into the bed herself. That was one worn-out girl. Shan got in bed and it wasn't long before she, too, was asleep. Me? I stayed up and played my new game. My 6th day of spring break didn't end until about 4:30 in the morning of the 7th day!

I'll be 40 next month, and I still love staying up until the wee hours playing computer games. I am my father's son.

On the 5th Day of spring break

EDIT: I had forgotten all about the "Chex Mix" incident in the recap of kitchen disasters. That has been added below.

On Wednesday, we got to babysit Kensley again! She has been sick, and on Wednesday, some of that was showing through. She called for her Momma throughout the day, but we tried keeping her busy. Emily and Tyler played with her and she helped Shan clean Emily's bedroom. While they were doing that, and I was helping by staying out of the way, I decided to do a little Spring Cleaning in the home office.

Shan likes to keep things clean and tidy as much as possible in the house. Now, shan is not what I would call a neat freak. I mean, the house can get a bit out of sorts and life is fine. In general though, the house stays pretty neat. The exceptions to that are the kids' rooms and the home office.

The home office is not exactly "my" domain, but since it is where the computers and where I do my baseball card stuff, I tend to spend the most time in there. And, well, I tend to keep things all over the place. There are times when you quite literally have to kick stuff out of the way to make a path to the master bath.

So, on Wednesday, I picked up, straightened up, and threw away a lot of junk. I have to admit, I feel a lot better about the office when things are clean again. You would think I would try to keep it that way, but I live in a world of 'organized chaos.' I can generally find anything I'm looking for. After I clean, I can't find jack for the first half day or so.


Around 1:00 or so, I got a call from the office. The power company wants to cut the power to the grid. They were under the impression that no one was working in our building because of spring break. Well, not everyone in our building takes the break at the same time so that we can still conduct business. The power company finally agreed to shut things down at 3:00.

At 2:45, the office called back and I walked the clerk through shutting everything down. We had one server that didn't seem to want to shut down, and by 3:00, the power company was very upset. I finally told them to cut the power. I figured the battery backups would keep the servers up long enough to shut down. After all, that is what they are for, right? I didn't hear anything back, so we'll assume everything went well. (In fact, on Thursday, I guided Terry (our clerk) through firing everything back up again, and we were good to go.)


Wednesday evening came, and with it the total collapse of all things food-related in the Henderson household. It started with supper. The idea was for me to make some bacon cheeseburger hamburger helper. Shan does not like hbh too much, but it's an "easy" and quick thing to make. Well, let's just see about that.

The hamburger meat was frozen, so I put in the microwave to defrost. As the time got close, I put the skillet on the stove and turned on the heat. I figured while I was doing all this, I'd call Mom and let her know we were booking our trip to New York. I picked up our cordless phone and could not remember my mom's cell number for the life of me. I thought for sure it would be buried in caller id, but no luck. So, I put the phone down and grabbed my cell phone. Of course, the only place I can get signal is at the front door. So, we talk for a bit and hang up. I go back into the kitchen, grab the meat and toss it into the skillet.


Now, the cooks out there are probably freaking out. You've read my stories of the kitchen, haven't you? If not, do a search for 'spaghetti' on here and prepare to be baffled. So, as soon as the meat hits the pan, there is smoke, maybe a little fire, certainly some serious 'blackening.' I try flipping the meat around to see if I can head some of this off, and I'm just making more of a bad thing. I get the meat out and set it aside, then run the skillet under some water to kill the cooking. After I clean the skillet, I turn the heat down a bit and try again.

It turns out the meat is not fully thawed. Great. I spend the entire time, cooking, scraping off cooked meat to get to the frozen stuff. After browning the meat for way longer than any normal person would need, I finally get it done. I pour in the milk, the water, and the sauce, then grab the macaroni. I tear open the package, and suddenly experience a temporary loss of muscular coordination. Elbow noodles fly everywhere. Everywhere except into the skillet, that is. At that point, Shan comes into the kitchen to see what all the clattering is about. She grabs the broom and graciously sweeps up the mess.

Meanwhile, I take what's left of the noodles and pour them into the skillet. It is somewhere in here that I realize I have the wrong skillet. It's too small for a pound of meat, all the liquids, and the dozen or noodles that made it into the mix. How did I reach this conclusion? well, you see, as I am stirring, things are jumping out of the pan and into the fire. Okay, we have an electric stove, but you get the idea. So, I grab the large skillet and pour everything into it. I also fire up another burner and place the new skillet on it. After 10, 90, 900, whatever, minutes, the stupid stuff is finally done. For what's it worth, the kids loved it.


After supper, Shan decided to make a lemon bundt cake. She never made it before, so she got out the recipe and started going at it. Fast forward to end of baking. Shan cuts into her cake and she hates it. It is 'almost' right. She says she can taste the corn meal or something, and the flavor is off by something. Not sure what. I try it and it does taste okay at first, but then something is not right. Shan is upset about her cake after all her hard work.

But, remember, this is the night for the kitchen from hell. Shan gets the recipe and starts to read it over. And there it is. The recipe is written such that when it tells you to put in 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda AND... And that was as far as Shan's eyes went. Turns out the rest of the statement was "1/2 teaspoon of salt." I'm hoping Shan will try the recipe again, even though she said it was a lot of work.

(Added) - Shan decided to make Chex Mix the easy way. She got all of her ingredients together, tossed them in the bowl, and stuck the whole thing in the microwave. We're not sure what happened, other than it being the day of the kitchen possessed, but the snacks came out a bit on the smoldering side. The zippy zapper had zapped them burnt.

I don't remember much after that, other than we started watching Idol late (see previous idol post). Really, by then, we were ready for the night to be over.

On the 4th day of spring break

Tuesday - On the 4th day of spring break, ummm, what *DID* we do?

We babysat our niece, Kensley, who is recovering from a rather nasty bout of the 'big D.' We had a good time with her and played several things throughout the day. I'd be more specific, but I guess everything was such a blur, I can't pinpoint specifics.

I did participate in my first-ever live fantasy baseball draft. Of course, my team is mostly Indians! I missed out on a couple, but that's because I was an idiot when putting my draft picks together. Oh well, guess we'll see how it all works out.

the other major thing we battled yesterday was a nasty thunderstorm that raged through here. It started out pretty mild, but at times, it was pretty explosive.

All in all, a nice day off.

On the 3rd day of Spring Break

Monday - On the third day of spring break, here is what we did...

Shan woke up VERY sick. She spent the whole day down and out of it. She is feeling better today, but is still a little slow-going. It worked out, though, because we were supposed to babysit our niece, Kensley. Well, she also woke up sick (as was Jess, her mom), so they stayed home.

The problem with writing these the after is that I can't remember what all I we did... So, today's recap will not be in chronological order, but rather more like a series of snapshots. Probably very badly developed snapshots....

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Emily and I moved the truck up to Mom's place and I broke out a bucket, soap and rags, and we hosed down the truck. There are many fun things about washing your vehicle with a 6-year old - getting soap everywhere, squirting the hose 'accidentally' on each other, etc. The downside is that the adult has to go back and 're-do' the areas that were 'cleaned' by the youngin'. I pulled this off by telling her that I had to clean the tall areas (true) and that my cleaning was making her areas kinda dirty again (sorta true). In the end, it all worked out and my truck looks clean as new!

Once we finished the truck, I swapped it out for Shan's van. Emily and I repeated the cleaning for the van.

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After washing the vehicles, Emily changed into her bathing suit and we played in the water for a while. My Mom has one of those nozzles that changes into different kinds of spray. Emily experimented with each one - shower, jet, flat, center, etc. She loved running through the water as it arced ('a rainbow,' as she called it). Of course, I had fun soaking her directly.

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Tyler, Emily and I played "Life" together. I ended up with the most money, but Emily was a very close second. Tyler was too busy earning $30,000 each pay day as an athlete. He said he was a ball player, but I told him that he must not have been a very good one! That came back to haunt me in the way of a 'salary swap' when he traded his 30k salary for my 100k pay. Ouch. So, there I was, a teacher making $30,000. Well, that's a little closer to reality anyway.

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At some point, we watched "Celebrity Apprentice," shaking our heads at what a slacker Dennis Rodman is on that show. I have to agree with Robin, though. I had no idea Melissa Rivers ever actually DID anything in life. Frankly, I believe she would be nothing if she weren't Joan Rivers' daughter. She produced those "big, red carpet extravaganzas" on TV. Really? I mean, okay... Has anyone ever actually ever WATCHED those? I mean, that's like me saying that I've produced over 100 videos. While that is a true statement, no one has seen any of them that I know of. Why not? Well, most were for demo/teaching purposes. But, even if I put them on YouTube, the point is this: If no one watches, who cares who produced it? Just sayin.

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At some point during the day, I managed to make it through the level I was working on in Advanced Warfighter. The level after that one, however, has proved to be hard because I have idiots on my team. Or maybe I don't know how to 'properly' command them yet. See, they run from point to point without checking to see what may be up ahead. I might as well be playing by myself instead of having these computer-controlled suicide daredevils on my squad! At one point, three guys went charging around a corner into an ambush. See, I would have gone to the corner and peeked around first. Not these geniuses! Let's imagine the scenario:

#1: "Hey, guys, the Captain told us to go around this corner where there might be some enemies waiting."
#2: "Well, he told us to execute the move, so we better get on it!"
#3: "don't you think we should take it slow?"
#1: "Shut up, you wuss! Let's move, let's move!"
#2: "Hoorah!"
#3 (standing over his fallen comrades): "Yeah, THAT was brilliant.... Captain, we have two men down here. Not that it matters much."

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On the 2nd Day of Spring Break...

Sunday: On the second day of Spring Break, some of the things I did:


(Before I start, I forgot to mention that on Saturday, we all took Emily's "HyperDash" game outside and spent quite a bit of time taking turns hunting down colored discs with our HyperDash wand. We had a LOT of fun!)

We went to church in the morning. I am very guilty about not wanting to go to church. Honestly, I'd rather hang out at the house. Sometimes, I know I have a lot to do on a Sunday and staying home would jump start those chores. I spent most of my life not going to church, so it is very easy for me to do (not go, that is). I was not brought up in church, though we did go every so often because my Great-Grandmother would take us along or because we stayed at a friend's house and they went to church, so we had to go as part of staying over. Shan and her Mom went to church. Because Shan was going to church when we met, I began going. At that time, we went to the Assembly of God.

Now, take a Northern-born boy who could count the number of times he went to church on one hand and throw him into a pentecostal Assembly of God church. It was like nothing I had ever seen. Now, in addition to not having been in church much, add a sprinkle of Liberal Arts college background. It was quite an experience. Over time, though, I learned the ways of the church and eventually found myself in a deacon's position. The downside (for me) to being in a small church in a position such as that comes in the form of church business. It was all church business all the time. I grew sick of church. Then, we had something of a falling out happen at the church and several of the families left, including ours.

So, to bring things back around again, we attend a different church, Central Baptist. I don't really care what the 'foundational truths' of any church are, as long as they preach from the Bible and have Christ as the center.

I do not preach to anyone. If you want to know what I believe, I'll tell you. If you believe something else, that's your business as far as I'm concerned. If you go to church, if you don't go, none of that is my business unless we're talking about it. Take it or leave it.

But, I enjoy going to the church we attend. I like singing the mix of contemporary songs and classic hymns. I enjoy the energy, humor, and wisdom of our pastor. I also think it's important for our children to learn the foundations of life. No matter what your belief system, I believe most of the 10 Commandments apply to life in general - don't kill, don't steal, respect your parents, etc.

So, even though I don't always 'feel' like going, I try to go because I think it's important for my children to see me go - after all, I cannot expect them to go if I'm not willing to go myself. I believe that should hold true, no matter what a parent is trying to teach their children.

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After church, we came home, changed clothes and ate lunch at shan's Mom's place. We had lasagna, which happens to be my all-time favorite food. That's a big thing to say, because I love all kinds of food. Yes, I am very picky and have several food-related idiosyncrasies, but I love food. Of course, my favorite lasagnas are those made from scratch - the noodles, the fresh meat, the wonderful sauces with just the right spices. But, I also enjoy the 'prepared' variety, too. Stouffers-type meals lack some of the richness and deep tastes of your favorite Italian restaurant, but the flavors are different in a good way (for me). Basically, if it's lasagna, I'm eating. Well, if it is 'traditional' (that is meat and tomato-based sauce). I think I've had chicken lasagna, and I am pretty sure I was not a big fan. And, you can forget any kind of 'vegetarian' lasagna. Heck, in my case, you can pretty much throw out anything remotely connected to the word 'vegetarian!'

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Emily and I watched "Toy Story" on DVD. I have to say, that is by far my favorite Pixar movie. "Cars" is close, but the original "Toy Story" makes me laugh out loud every time I see it, and I've seen it a LOT since going too the theater to see it in 1995. It amazes me that the movie is as old as Tyler and I could sit here right now and watch it again even though I just watched it yesterday (I am writing this on Monday). Emily and I ate popcorn and Milk Duds and had a great time!

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I spent much of the rest of Sunday working on my desktop computer, installing software and deleting things I didn't need from the two 'extra' hard drives. I also entered a stack of Indians baseball cards into my database. In this case, I had received a pretty nice-sized box of Indians cards, all of which were selected by the sender because he did not find them on my 'already own' list of cards. I only managed to check about 1/4th of the cards because Emily and Shan were on the trampoline and wanted me to come outside. So, I did.

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The three of us hung out on the trampoline for quite a while. Emily paraded across the pad in various poses and performing various activities, trying to get Shan and me to guess what she was doing. At one point, she was 'ocean waves' and then she was a ballerina. There was also one in which she stood on one leg with her other leg bent so that her foot rested on her opposite knee. She raised her hands in the air and then pooched her lips out. I thought she was a flamingo. I was wrong. With Shan's help, I was able to come up with water fountain (like in a park). And this was also not quite right. The 'right' answer was a 'penny fountain' - you know, one you throw pennies into?

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From there, we just kinda hung out, if memory serves, for a bit. Then, shan decided she was going to try on her clothes to see what still fit and what no longer fit her new, thinner body. Her rules was that if it did not flatter her, she didn't want it. She also wanted me to be honest when giving my opinion.

I'm a guy. I've been married for a while, and I've been on the earth a lot longer. Life has taught me to listen carefully for 'catch' phrases. You know, the ones that women use to 'catch' you saying the wrong thing! Well, the first couple outfits had me being ginger and somewhat politically correct. That is NOT what she wanted. It did not take long for me to shed the 'catch' and get down to business. I found it was actually pretty easy. If didn't like the way it hung on her, I told her straight up. Some things had been too tight once upon a time and now fit her very well. Some things had been too tight and now hung off her - they were now too big! And, of course, some of the clothes fit very, very nicely.

All of this serves as prelude to the shopping spree we will be taking later this week. Shan's very excited to head to the store for some flattering, great fitting clothes as the ultimate reward for all her hard work!

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While Shan was changing clothes, I was playing Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter on the computer. I received the game free when I bought my last pair of video cards. I had not loaded it up yet (the game is several years old now), so I thought, "What the heck." The premise is that you have a squad that you command through various scenarios. That's fine in theory. Honestly, the computer comrades are idiots. You can tell them where to go, and how carefully to go there, but in the end, my guys would charge off into a confrontation instead of waiting for things to line up for a more planned attack. I'm sure a lot of this has more to do with my lack of ability to lead and command computer-controlled troops than anything.

So, I would let the other guys head off in various directions while I stealthily picked off key enemies. Or, at least TRIED to pick them off. By the time I quit playing out of sheer frustration, I was more like a duck in a shooting gallery than a well-armed warrior. I was getting picked off as I ran from point to point, trying to sneak up on the baddies. I eventually just went 'balls in' with guns blazing.

If you've never played the game, I can attest that going full-out, full-in does NOT work. It's basically a good way to end up as hamburger.

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This post ended up going much longer than I ever anticipated. It was going to be a simple list of things I did. Instead, you were subjected to another episode of "Popped in my Head." Thanks for taking the ride.

On the 1st Day of Spring Break, this is what I did

Yeah, so I'm doing a "12 Days of Spring Break" thing... I can't promise it'll actually match the words/tune of the song, though... Oh, and we only get like 9 days for spring break, so there ya go.

Saturday - On the first day of Spring Break, this is what I did: taught 30+ teachers project-based learning with the use of technology and gave them each a flip video camera to keep for classroom use.

Yeah, that doesn't really work, does it? Oh well, that's what I did.

Oh, and then I also installed a new hard drive in my computer and installed Windows on it since my crazy computer was acting up. The advantage is that I now have two 150GB hard drives plus an 80GB hard drive in my computer. Of course, one of the 150GB drives is the old hard drive that still has all our data on it. Once I get all that moved, I'll reformat it and use it for games, videos, whatever.

So, technically, on the first day of Spring Break, I taught 30 teachers project-based learning and I reinstalled Windows XP! (Okay, if you work really hard, you can sorta make that work, but you kinda have to pretend you're sining the second day of Spring Break. But, you're not because that's for another post coming soon!)