Dukie in Training

The Stars aligned for the Caughran family a few weeks back when Duke got the #1 seed in South Region. Reliant Stadium was hosting the south regional this year so if Duke made it to the Sweet Sixteen they would be playing in Houston. Luckily they did and Lisa, BC and I all went to Reliant Stadium to root for the good guys (Duke).

We don't have any little kid Duke gear for Colin (Mainly because I was terrified of kids when I was in college), but Lisa was able to make a Duke shirt for him (Go embroidery machines).

Outfit:


At the game, Colin was sporting some blue hair in his support of the Blue Devils. He was amazingly good at the game. He really likes to people watch and everyone loved his blue hair, even the Purdue and Baylor fans.





During halftime, we took him to the concession areas and let him run around on a leftover platform that displayed a Ford F-150 during the Rodeo. He loved being able to run freely and hit on unsuspecting women that walked by. I think if one of the lady's BFs didn't come up, BC would have definitely gotten some digits. He was dancing to the halftime music and high fiveing and Fist bumping everyone that would make eye contact with him. We might have a future Blue Devil mascot on our hands.



All and all we had a great time at the games. Of course Duke is going to the Final Four, so we were happy (this post might not be as chipper if we had lost).





These were the first steps taken to ensure that BC has an unhealthy obsession with Duke Basketball. I better start saving money now if he wants to attend. Now I just need to figure out a way for him to say "Go to H*ll Carolina" without getting in trouble with Lisa.

Walking, Walking and more Walking

For once, the Caughran Family took full advantage of the beautiful weather this weekend. In the past we have napped through the beautiful days, sat in the car driving somewhere, or spent the day shopping. All respectable activities, but none of them truly maximizes a beautiful day/weekend.

Anyone in Houston this past weekend can't argue that this was the best weather weekend of 2010 (Twenty-Ten, not Two-thousand-Ten . . . get it right). I joked that big Houston Companies should plan their recruit's trips to Houston in March, any other month would scare them away. Now if they wanted to be cruel, they would wine and dine them in March and then set their start date in August.

Back to our weekend. On Saturday we got up early and headed to the Livestock Show and Rodeo/Carnival. We walked a good 3-5 miles around the Reliant Complex. BC loved the animals, especially the pigs. He even called one of the spotted ones Tysie (I don't think Tysie would appreciate it since he has lost 13% of his body weight since going on a diet). We also saw some cows, sheep and other livestock.

We then went to my parent's house to visit them and my sister and their kids, including the newest addition Bobbie Bess (3.5 weeks old as of our visit). The kids played outside next to Clear Lake.

Sunday morning started horribly since Day Light Savings time robbed us of an hour of sleep. (This is by far my least favorite day of the year.) Once we shook off the lost sleep, we headed for downtown to participate in the 21st annual AIDS walk. I think everyone had a great time and it was for a good cause. Luckily BC is too young to understand innuendos or else I would have been very upset with one slightly inebriated participant with his comments to a police officer. I think I am slightly scarred from it. We walked over 4 miles. Lisa would have probably complained about the walking, but we walked with my boss's wife, who is 9 months pregnant, and she did not complain once. Although Lisa could play the pregnant card, she was trumped by someone that was more pregnant (not sure if there are levels of pregnancy since it is an all or nothing thing)

Later that evening after BC took his nap, we took him and the dogs for one last walk of the weekend. Although Tysie has lost a good amount of weight, the Vet says he needs to lose more via exercise (walking). BTW, Tyson has been recovering very well, and the vet said that his level of recovery without surgical intervention was 1/1 million (One caveat is that they told us that he had a 40-60% chance of recovery with rest versus 80% chance with surgery last I checked, 40% is about the same as 1/1 million).

So as a recap, we walked a good 8-10 miles this weekend.

Bye-Bye Curse . . . Hello Zoom-Zoom

If you have talked to Lisa or I in the past month or so or read the blog, you would know that the Mercedes was having a tiff with Lisa. Well since the Mercedes doesn't have a vote, and Lisa has 1.5 votes, we decided to get rid of it and get a new vehicle with a third row. A week or so ago we got a new Mazda CX-9 from Austin.



Why Austin? Because none of the dealers in Houston could get the vehicle we wanted, and we didn't want to wait for one to come in eventually. I learned a lot about how Dealerships work and which dealers are straight forward and which are sketchy. My only advice is to talk to multiple dealers and make sure you get them to clarify anything that is vague. Also we decided on the price with the sales manager before we even visited the dealership. The process of getting the car was by far the easiest when you don't have to haggle on the price. I felt bad for all the other patrons that were going back and forth with their salesman for a price.

Now that we have the car, I don't really miss the Mercedes, but there is an added benefit that I wasn't aware of. The Altima is officially mine. Before it wasn't clear whose car was whose and the maintenance of both vehicles suffered. Lisa always seemed to want to switch cars once hers was out of gas. Now the Mazda is Lisa's and the Altima is mine.

Amazingly, Lisa has let me drive her car a couple of times (but only when she is in the car too). It is pretty nice and I am glad that Lisa is happy with it. It is an SUV so it doesn't get the best mileage, but as Lisa put it best "Just had my first date with the Mazda. He took me to the gas station, he's not a cheap date! At least he didn't order the most expensive thing on the menu like that punk Mercedes"

At the wire

Short post today. Everyone can sleep easy now. We have finally put all the Christmas lights away. They were finally stowed and put in the attic with less than 5 hours to spare before March. That was a close one.

Mercedes Seeks Revenge and a Fright

It was pointed out to me that my last blog was bad karma for me and the Mercedes. After leaving the Mercedes at a friends house, it was dead. There was absolutely no juice in the battery. This is a major problem for this particular vehicle because it brings to light a major design flaw. The battery is in the trunk and the trunk needs power to open. Thus when your car is dead and you need a jump you cant access the battery. Newer versions have a location under the hood to jump, but this one does not. We thought about jumping off the starter or alternator, but neither Josh (friend that had a large paper weight in his driveway) nor I felt comfortable attempting this.

We eventually found that under the passenger floor mat is a place to jump the vehicle (under the carpet behind a metal plate). Note we found this after 3 hours of futile attempts to get is started and trips to Autozone. You could view this as the Mercedes causing problems for more than Lisa, but she did orchestrate me leaving it at Josh's house so I could ride with him because she said the Mercedes was acting up. So it was reacting to her actions. I took it to Autozone and the battery, starter and alternator were fine. Lisa and the Benz need to make amends.

The fright:

After Church on Sunday (not that you couldn't have guessed the day), we stayed after with friends again to let the little ones play on the 2 story playground. BC loved it. Lisa took him to the top and rode down the slide with him. The slide is pretty fast and way to dangerous for him to ride alone. He wanted to ride again and so I took him. As we spun down the spiral slide, I didn't want to slow down (where is the fun in that?) but I didn't want to let the boy's head slam into the wall, so I stuck my elbow out to steady us. When I got out I found that I had rubbed my elbow raw. Oh well. We all got ready to leave and I noticed something. I didn't have my knife. . .

So there are few places that I can think of that are worse than a kid's playground to lose a knife. I mean it has no safety and it is spring loaded. I could just picture a kid finding it and who knows what would happen. Luckily my name isn't on it. The search began. I climbed up and down the jungle gym and climbed the slide trying to find my knife. I went up and down the path I took trying to see if it was caught somewhere. I looked underneath the play area. All to no avail. I gave up and decided to check at home and if I didn't find it to call the church to warn them. It was on my dresser at home. All that panic for nothing. Lisa thinks the Mercedes had something to do with it.

Lisa hurt the Mercedes' Feelings

I don't know how it happened, but Lisa definitely upset the Mercedes Benz. She might have dinged the door, made a snide comment or neglected to wash it, but whatever she did, the Mercedes is seeking its revenge.

Over the past week or so, the Mercedes has not been good to Lisa. Last Thursday during the downpour, the Mercedes broke down on 59 north stranding Lisa on the left shoulder. I left work to go save her and let her take the Nissan to pick up BC from Mother's Day out. She swears she didn't run out of gas and that the Mercedes broke down, but once the Sheriff gave me a gallon of gas it ran fine and has been running fine since I filled it up (the range and gauge said it was bone dry when it stopped running) The check engine light did come on, but the mechanic said that the codes were related to lack of fuel.

I am 99.9% sure that lack of gas was the problem, but Lisa swears it had gas. I now think that the Mercedes is punishing her and purposely showed it had gas when in fact it was empty. . .

Here is another example of the Mercedes punishing Lisa. The other morning I get a call from Lisa, after she loaded the kid in the car, that the Mercedes wont start. She said it wouldn't turn over and the radio would not turn off. So she missed her appointment and I made plans to get a ride the next day so she could drive the Nissan. When I got home, I planned to jump the Mercedes and get the battery checked. I thought I would try starting it and it started. The next morning it started and I drove it to work. I think it doesn't like Lisa anymore and wont run for her.

Any thoughts on how Lisa and make up with the Mercedes?

JITBox = Vomit . . . kinda

Well it has been awhile since I updated the blog. Lisa has been out of town (don't remember where exactly) and I have been busy with work. But I do have a new story since Lisa's return.

As you may have figured out from my last blog and new side post, Lisa is prego. (I would say knocked up as it is my preferred nomenclature, but Lisa thinks it has a negative connotation.) As with BC, with this Baby she has terrible morning sickness. Enough background, now to the story.

You might not believe it is possible, but we have had two vomit events within 48 hours in JIT-box parking lots. Normally this would not be news as some think JIT-box always leads to a vomit event. This is not my opinion, I actually like JITB. What is unbelievable is that JITB had nothing to do with the vomit events.

On Thursday night we were driving to Kemah to go to Ichibans for dinner (Lisa had been craving it) but on the way BC got sick and we had to pull over (JITB parking lot). After 30+ minutes of Lisa cleaning up the mess, we headed back home since BC was sick and did not need to be out. I was very proud of Lisa because she was able to overcome her morning sickness and overall nausea to take care of her boy. She truly is a good mom.

Then less than 48 hours later, we are headed to Kemah (again) to go to a party at my parent's house. Along the way, Lisa's morning sickness overcame her and we had to pullover again. Randomly we pulled over to a JITB (a different one I might add). Luckily we were prepared and had minimal cleanup.

So to recap, Lisa is back, the parasite is causing nausea, JITB is good food although lately proximity to JITB leads to my family getting sick. Strange.

I guess the next time I want breakfast after 10:30am or want two tacos for 99cents I will have to bring plastic bags for Lisa and BC.