Saturday, June 13, 2009

Pizza Party

Had our sons birthday party at Durkins Pizza this morning. Had 9 kids total and arrived at 10am. Mr. Durkin had an area set up for making pizzas with the kids. He also gave them a tour of the kitchen. He really did a great job entertaining the kids AND adults from 10-11. He didn't bake any of the disaster pizzas that the kids made so we ordered 2 medium cheese pizzas, 2 XL pizzas, 2 cheese breads and drinks for kids and adults.

My wife made a cake that looked like a pizza. I wonder if Duff from Ace of Cakes would be proud. It looked awesome. After the cake and presents it was really time to head out. We hadn't discussed price so when it came time to settle up he only charged me for the food. The total bill was $48. I handed him $100 and he looked at me like I was weird. I told him $100 probably wasn't enough considering he got there early, wasted some product making practice pizzas and used up an hour of his time. If we had a party at a "party" place we'd easily been charged a couple hundred dollars PLUS all the food and so on. He took the cash and said he would tip the kitchen help.

What a deal. 2 hours of time, food included, very little clean up. I am so glad we came up with this idea.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Happy B-Day BillyV

I've known BillyV for over 30 years. Our friendship is the longest standing friendship that I have and even when he lived in Texas and I in Missouri we stayed in touch. We did live in Texas together for a few years and now he's back in Missouri as I'm stuck in Texas.

I miss his friendship and hope to see him a lot this summer as I visit the St. Louis area for about 30 days.

Hope you have a great birthday and I hope you survived the Missouri storms that hit Wednesday night according to my dad.

Storm Chasing

My wife would rather take a vacation on a storm chasing guide than some cruise or mountain get away. Tonight was a little crazy. The westward sky grew grey around 6pm as it often does. When we got to church I overheard an associate pastor say he had been watching the doplar radar most of the afternoon. After signing our kids in my wife and I headed for a lite dinner. On the way her friend called saying a tornado had touched down near her place just southwest of where we were.

Tornado sirens began to go off as we pulled up to the burger joing. We sat at Freddy's Drive In and could see the sky turn multiple colors. Something was coming. We ordered a burger basket to split and I called my friend B to see if he could give me a weather report. He informed me that a squall line was headed our way and it stretched from Oklahomo down thru the DFW metroplex. He also informed us a tornado touched down just south of us.

The wind began to pick up and it began to rain as we ordered our ice cream. We were torn between staying at the restaurant or trying to head back to the church. We made a dash for it and as soon as we got to our car the local tornado siren went off. I thought I would park in a bank drive thru and wait it out. It was next door. No luck since cars filled every slot. I then pulled behind The Great Wall of China restaurant just out of the majority of the wind and tiny hail. As we sat there we couldn't see anything. The building blocked most of the weather as well as our view of what was coming. At one point I gripped the steering wheel and held my foot on the brake. I then said, "We could be in the middle of a tornado." My wife told me to put my cone in my left hand and hold hers!

After what seemed like 10 minutes the 70+ mph winds dwindled and it was just raining. We survived. We did get to church 40 minutes early to check on the kids. It appeared all was well and we went to a nearby RadioShack to check the availability of a Nintendo DS "Lite" for our daughter. We got to see the weather report from 3 stations and some footage of the current storm.

From what I've read from Facebook friends and visual damage to fences and trees it seems like this one was a doozy. Now I know what it means to pray without ceasing.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Peter Piper Pizza

Took my 2 kids and one of their friends to Peter Piper Pizza today. Got that coupon in the mail you know. $10 in free tokens with a large 1 topping pizza purchase. Guess how much I ended up spending WITH receiving the tokens and I didn't buy any more?

A. $11.99
B. $18.00
C. $26.50
D. $35.00

I ordered the large pizza and asked for 1/2 cheese 1/2 pepperoni. I don't know why I paid an extra 60 cents for getting pepperoni only on 1/2. Maybe it had to do with the way she rang it up. I then ordered the buffet for me and drinks for each of us. The total out of pocket was C. $26.50. 3 small kids drinks cost $5 with tax. That is pathetic.

While we waited for the pizza I let the kids scout out the games. They ended up finding 6 tokens and about 10 tickets. I was finished eating by the time the kid's pizza came out.

The kids had fun. For the $11 worth of tokens they ended up getting: 1-2 foot long pixie stick, a small package of stickers, a few tiny erasers and a squish ball with 3 foam rockets.

Pizza wasn't bad. I won't go back for a LONG time. The kids had a great time and like BillyV posted on his blog I tried not to sour the occasion for the kids. In my mind the value wasn't worth what I spent. For the kids, they loved it. I really didn't get much fight about leaving when it they ran out of tokens. Only my son asked me for more tokens. NO!

Laying Sod

I bought 8 peices of St. Augustine to put down in my friend's yard Wednesday. She got a letter from her Home Owner's Association about fixing bare spots. We found this place way out in the middle of nowhere called A1Grass. They had a 1/2 pallet of St. Augustine as well as Bermuda. I bought 8 1foot by 2 foot peices of sod.

My friend has bare patches in her yard for a few reasons. First she isn't watering the way she should and it is either weedfest or bare ground. Second it is a shaded place and Bermuda doesn't do well in the shade, especially with little or no water.

Solution options:
1-put down Bermuda grass seed and water
2-put in St. Augustine plugs and water'
3-put down St. Augustine sod and water

I'm trying option 3 and don't really know how much work it is going to be. I actually have 9 peices and will see how much that takes care of. I can always go back and buy more. Each peice cost $1.50 so I want to do it a little at a time.

I prefer St. Augustine to Bermuda. Each kind has it's pluses and minuses. St. Augustine should grow in the shade, it just needs WATER!

Monday, June 08, 2009

Tale of 2 Detailing Days

Friday I detailed 4 cars at school since I didn't comp that day out. I detailed a Honda Accord for someone who worked on my personal laptop a few times. I then detailed a Chevy Aveo for a room parent who did a lot for our grade level team. For teacher appreciation week he forgave us of lunches that he had paid for since January. For me it was about $70 worth. A third car I detailed was a Volkswagon Jetta for a teacher and I only charged $20. The last car I detailed for a lunch, minus me tipping. It was a Pontiac G6 Convertible. All of these cars required an interior cleaning and exterior prep before waxing.

Well, today I was asked to detail 3 cars for a family who often has me do their cars once a year. The first car I did was a brand new Buick Enclave. The guy was cleaning it when I arrived. All I had to do was apply and take off the wax. The 2nd car I spent the most time on was a 2002 BMW. It required me removing some tar and paint from the rocker pannel. Still I only did the outside of the car. The last vehicle was a Dodge Ram Quad cab and it was spotless as well. I removed a little bit of tar and waxed on and waxed off in about an hour.

I worked much harder Friday and spent about 6 hours total. I netted about $25 worth. I detailed inside and out of these cars. Today I only detailed the exteriors and 2 of the cars I didn't even have to prep for waxing. When Steve asked how much I figured I work for about $25 per hour and said $100 would be plenty. He said he would write me a check for $125. That was nice.

Either way I ended up in the plus and enjoyed being outside cleaning cars.

Saturday, June 06, 2009

This Year's Take

I had a great homeroom this year for sure. I already miss my kids and just hope next year will be as good. We just had teacher appreciation week a few weeks ago so I didn't know what to expect on the last day. Here is what I got from my students:

-$50 combination card to movies/Chilis or On The Border
-$25 Olive Garden
-$20 Cinemark movies
-$15 Target
-$40 Scotty P's
-$10 Starbucks
-$25 Cinemark movies
-bag of about 10 king sized candy bars
-sunblock and Dallas Mavericks cap

I got a few really nice cards. One student wrote me a personal note of how well her year went. As a guy I think I get less teachery gifts and end up with more gift cards.

A lot of kids were crying this year as well. Not so much last year.