#81

I am visiting my friend Billy V in Columbia MO, home of the Mizzou Tigers. We had lunch at Shakespeares, a downtown pizza place. It wasn't bad. The atmosphere was better than the pizza. Afterwards we went to the Mizzou store and when we walked through a little deli to use the restroom we got locked out and had to go back outside in order to get back in so we just left. We ended up going to Walmart and I was really dreading the throng of shoppers.

To my surprise the store was relatively calm for December 23rd. I ended up getting my brother a Mizzou coozie and while looking for a white longsleeve or mock turtle neck I came across a good number of #81 Owens jerserys. He last played for the Cowboys 12 months ago and these jerseys were on clearance racks in Dallas last January. I was shocked to see them listed for $29 and these were the cheap jerseys. Makes my $23 purchase last Friday seem like a great deal since Witten is still on the team.

Guess they shipped all #81 jerseys up north hoping the simple folks here in Missouri wouldn't know any better. I should have checked for Green Bay Favre jerseys.

KFC Response

I got a quick response this time especially since I sent the link to my blog that complained about KFC and last of customer service. The email was nice and offered me $20 in KFC credit. We'll see if it shows up. Will post when it does.

Do you think KFC will go out of business like the other places I visit do?

Another One Bites the Dust

I think I am only going to post about eating from now on.

Last Saturday after mowing for most of the day I decided to treat the family to a late lunch. Of course I had a coupon for a place called Dodie's, a cajun seafood place. My wife informs me that it is no longer open at the location we used to visit, but I knew there was a Dodie's sportsbar just down the highway a bit. I looked their number up online and called asking about them honoring the coupon. The girl said they did not.

We ended up going anyway as I was hoping to catch the Cards/Cubs on tv. When I got there all the TV's were on college football and I was informed that was all I was going to get. We stayed and within minutes the band started playing. It was LOUD. We found out that they were setting up for the night and they only played Separate Ways from Journey.

I think this restaurant was related to the other seafood place, but the menu was less seafood and had a larger variety. My wife and I split a catfish dinner and the kids split a kid's popcorn shrimp me. Overall the food was good and our server was great. May go back again sometime.

Yum Yum to GONE

Friday I was going to order Chinese food Yum Yum to Go, a from a place owned by the family of a student I had last year. I was really busy Friday and realized our school lunch was in about an hour. I hopped online and typed in their web address. It came back "not found." I google searched and again no luck. We ended up ordering McD's at the last moment.

Saturday while out mowing I drove by the strip where it is located and was going to pick up a flyer in order to have their number for future references. As I drove up I couldn't find it. The sign was gone and it was replaced with a Nail salon sign.

Not being stereotypical, but did this family keep the building and just switch occupations?

"Extra long nails just 4 dollar more."

Un KFC Again?

Last May I posted about printing a coupon Oprah endorsed for the new grilled chicken for KFC. It had a barcode on it and you had to print a new coupon per customer. I took my family of 4 and when I got there they didn't honor the coupon "Due to the success of the promotion........" I went in and was told to fill our a form which I should have known better when I filled out a torn piece of paper with my name and info and one for each family member. After about 2 months I contacted KFC via email through their customer service "Contact Us" link. I shared what I went through and again never heard from them. So, just last week I contacted them again asking for my free meal OR just a simple apology. I included that I would never visit a KFC again until I got the meal or an apology. It has been a week and I've not gotten an email.

What would you do? Just write it off and visit again? Stick to your guns and never go back? Keep complaining and let everyone know about the poor customer service? Tell me?

I think I will write one more email and just link this post for them to read. At this point, I will never go to KFC again. I know they are in kahoots with Taco Bell and I went there last night so what do I do with a Taco Bell?KFC combo store?

Pots and Pans

My wife shopped at Kohls and Sunday and while she was out I realized we had the new booklet advertising their upcoming sale so I tried to call her to tell her to wait. No luck, her phone was dead. She purchased a Calaphon 10 piece set on sale for $180 plus tax. We took it back Sunday night and I repurchased it last night and did I get a deal.

My coupon was for an extra 20% off-new sale price $144.
Plus we earned $30 Kohl's cash- $30 additional plus
Plus the lady who helped me found a FREE Gift-$70 Calaphon Dish/Lid.

By using the coupon and waiting our net savings/deal ended up being about $136. WOW. All that on a $180 purchase.

He shoots, he SCORES!

Another Restaurant Bites the Dust

When we got back from St. Louis I really had a craving for a breakfast sandwhich from The Bagel Factory. About a month my family stopped by on the way to church only to see a sign on the door saying "Closed today." We did go back a few weeks later and enjoyed a perfect breakfast. We talked to who I think was the owner and the guy who has always made our food. I asked about that Sunday and he said they had a few issues that day. On this visit we found a banner out front that said, "New Management, Cheaper Prices." The food was indeed cheaper and just as good.

Well, since we were running late to church on Sunday I decided to take the kids for breakfast before church. I was leary when I pulled in and the banner was barely hanging. As we got out of my truck another couple tried to open the door and it was locked. A lady nearby said they had been closed for about 2 weeks. BUMMER.

I just wonder if I am so cheap that I like places with cheaper prices and coupons which in the long run cause them to go out of business.

I took my kids to Einstein's Bagels and ended paying $15 for our breakfast which would easily have been about $10 or so from The Bagel Factory. I hope they manage to pull it together and re-open.

Slowing Down

I kind of feel like a ball player at the end of their career. They just don't hit as many homeruns as they used to. The magic number for homeruns was at 754 for a LONG time and some guy named Barry Bonds, with the aid of steroids, past that number and ended up with about 760 something. Well, I'm at about 651 posts and haven't posted in about a month. I guess I'm really busy and it is easier to just post something on FACEBOOK. I guess I like Facebook since I am connected with my closest friends.

The one thing about Facebook I don't like is having to accept or reject friend requests. "Will you be my friend?" There are some people I just don't want knowing my business. And I have a few friends that I have decided to hide their comments for various reasons. I sometimes get a request from someone I worked with a while back, but didn't really know. If I have to ask someone who it was I probably should ignore the request.

I think I would like to be consistent with blogging again because it lets me share things going on at a little bit more indepth. I'm very inconsistent to what I may post, but I think that is good. I really fizzled out this summer when I went to St. Louis.

We shall see! Maybe I can take some online steroids and bump my numbers like a few ball players have.

Froggy Got Baptized

This morning our church had a baptism service where about 30 people were baptized. Kids 5 and up were in the service instead of chidlren's church. How great the impact. My daughter on the way home asked if dogs went to heaven. I told her dogs don't have a soul and therefore can't accept Jesus as saviour. Well, tonight my 5 year old son asked me to re-inflate the pool. Wasn't long before he and a "toad" friend were swimming together. About 5 minutes in he says, "Hey daddy, froggy got baptized."

You never know when life's magic moments will occur.

Just a Few Things

We went to Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro Arkansas and the weird experience of the trip was driving thru Hope AR. It is the birthplace of Clinton, but that is not strange. What was strange or weird was seeing the thousands of small white FEMA trailers that were used during the Hurricane Katrina days. These things are packed in like sardines for acres. Not sure if they are usable anymore.

The day after we got back from our trip the a/c blower on my truck stopped. Fortunately for me I only had 35,300 miles on my truck and it was covered. Another 700 miles and I'm sure that would have cost me about $500 bucks.

Today was my first official day back at work for the 09-10 school year.

This Weekend

Wow, I packed a lot in this weekend. Last Thursday I went to the midnight showing of GI Joe. Friday I mowed for a friend and that took up 2 1/2 hours of my day. I played cards both Friday night AND Saturday night. Sunday we got up and decided to head for Arkansas. My wife had been wanting to go camping since Spring Break. There was no planning and prepping involved. Our main destination was Crater of Diamonds State Park. We found out online that the campground was closed. We left our house about 9:45am, gassed up, then headed east. We stopped on the way for groceries and arrived around 2:30pm. It was HOT! We basically checked the place out and asked where would be a good place to camp.

We arrived at Narrow Dam campgrounds about 4:30pm. While setting up a park ranger informed us that we were setting up our tent in a restricted area. After talking with him for a while he recommended another campground nearby that might be more enjoyable. It was right on the water and had a beach swimming area. We made it there and got our tent set up by 6pm. We purchased 3 day fishing passes, hunted for worms, went swimming, fished and then had hot dogs and smores before dark. We packed it in.

We bedded down about 9:30. As of 12:45am I had yet to fall into a deep sleep. At one time I saw the moon as it glided across the sky right about our open screened tent. We packed up camp by 8:30am and headed to search for diamonds..

We spent about 4 hours total sifting through the Arkansas soil searching for the big one. It is really just a field that has been plowed. You rent a bucket, screens and shovel for about $20 and we paid $18 as a family to get into the park to dig. It was really hot so we found a large tree and started digging. As far as we know we didn't find any diamonds. This couple acre area was deemed not a profitable place to mine for diamonds, but a few big ones have been found there.

As we were finishing up our daughter reminded us that she had gymnastics practice. We hurried and left by 1:15pm and made it home by 5:30. Just enough time to shower and get to practice.

FUN times!

The Zone McKinney

I took my kids this morning for pizza at Alfonzo's at The Zone in McKinney. It had been a long time since we had visited, but the last time we visited we saw changes due to new ownership/management. After visiting today I doubt I'll ever trek across town to visit either the pizza place or the arcade area.

What went wrong at Alfonzo's Pizza:
It was about 12:30 when we arrived. I would think this is peak lunch time, yet when we arrived there were only 2 other people having lunch. Of the 6 pizza slots only the remnants of 2 pizzas existed. When we ordered the buffet I was charged for kids drinks which comes with their meal. The high school worker was nice, but not knowledgeable at all. I asked about 3 generic questions and was answered with, "I don't know." The guy making pizzas did make what I asked for although when I asked for bbq chicken he responded that he wasn't sure if they had any chicken. The lettuce was not so fresh and was JUST lettuce instead of a normal mixture with purple cabbage and carrots. The dessert had yet to be put out. When he did put it out there was nothing to pick it up with(fingers). I was bummed they didn't have rice krispy treats.
They ran out of plates so I reused mine twice. Loud music was blaring from the pizza making area.

What went wrong at The Zone arcade:
When we visited about 4 months or so ago it appeared as if they were shutting down. They were decreasing the number of games they had. Today many of the crane machines were almost barren. You could see the bottom of the machines on at least 3 of the games. Other than that many of the games didn't give out tickets or were just out of order.

In it's hey day the place was busy. Today it was a ghost town. Kids are out of school and this place should have been hopping. I can't see this place staying in business much longer. That's a shame.

Don't Tease

Last week I went to a few teacher workshops. Teachers in Texas are expected to take 18 hours of Professional Development throughout the year. To help with this most districts have weeklong summer workshops for subject specific areas. One day I took a morning session and in my class there were only 5 people. I knew the instructor well since she is a curriculum person for my subject area. She started the session off by saying we'd get out early since we had such a small group. She posted a time......11am. So when 11am came and went the whole group got a little antsy. 11:20 and she is still instructing and then started asking for feedback. She asked what we could use from this workshop in our classes. AND then she asked what she could do better to make it more relevant next time. REALLY? It was 11:28 when she said, "We are going anywhere until everyone shares something."

Somehow I walked out of the class 1 minute early. I really wanted to tell her in front of everyone that she not should say we are getting out early when indeed we didn't. I've experienced this with this person a few times prior so I was leary when she said we were getting out early.

This would be like telling a kids they could have ice cream later and not coming through for them. Or a wife telling her husband that maybe there could be some quality time after the kids go to sleep tonight. Once that carrot has been dangled that is all a guy is thinking about all day. Then the night comes and it doesn't happen he is bent. Well, I left the inservice bent. I am still wondering if I should email her the constructive feedback or will it only put strain on things since I will be working with her all year long.

Good Day

I was really looking forward to being back worshipping at Hope Fellowship this morning. We woke up and got out on time. My daughter was to leave from church for her first ever camp today. One last minute visit to a convenience mart for a disposable camera and a snack for her. The number one highlight of the day happened while I was walking down the sidewalk towards the front door of the church. My daughter voluntarily grabbed my hand and we walked side by side to the front doors. That really hit the spot. One one hand I see my little girl growing up and going off to camp for the first time. In the same frame of time I am reminded that she is still my little girl.

After church we ran and got her a quick snack since they won't have dinner until 5 or so. We came back to church and checked her in at 11:30. The bummer thing is we found out that she will be in a cabin with girls and counselors from another church who have 12 kids going along with our 100 or so. She didn't have any separation anxiety that we saw. We said our good byes and walked away.

We had our favorite lunch, Durkins, with our son. Durkin informed me that the Cardinals were on national TV against the Phillies. After lunch we came home and my son got me to jump in our pool and play wiffle ball with him. Then a trip to the swingset to dry out. I think he is enjoying all the attention since sissy is gone.

Gym Talk

I went to the gym and somehow got there without my MP3 player so I ended up on the treadmill just having to watch the 3 TV choices. Usually ESPN sports is on so I parked myself in front of the ESPN tv and set the treadmill for 60 minutes. About 20 minutes in 2 ladies(girls, women), a little younger than me, got on 2 treadmills next to me. For 20 minutes I got to hear about relationships, men, dating, children, family, divorce, housing arrangements and so on. It was kind of weird feeling like I was eavesdropping.

So in a weird way I learned that one of the girls started dating her future husband at 15, got married at 20 and had a son a year later. A few years later the husband ran off with the daycare person. She said they were a great couple until they had children and then they grew apart. I heard that men take a lot longer to grow up. I learned that her mom was older than her dad and they divorced when she was 18. Her mom is now dating someone 13 years younger than the mom, but 10 years older than the daughter.

You get the point. It was just weird. I felt like I was violating someone's privacy, yet also felt like they were talking about stuff that should be talked about in a more private setting. I know where her mom lives, her dad lives. I know her mom is into horses and her dad into motorbikes and 4 wheelers. She had a sister and 2 brothers. I was trying to figure out how much older her parents were than me.

I'm glad I ended up with a pain in my rear, really, so I ended up stopping after 40 minutes and 300 calories. Guess I could have stopped and moved to a different treadmill.

Back from Missouri

A friend dogged me tonight about my absence from blogging. It isn't like I don't have lots of time since I haven't worked since June 6th. I guess it is something that I've done regularly for about 5 years or more so for about 45 days I didn't even open blogspot other than a few times to update my blogs about my kids. So I'm back!

Saturday June 19th I took off early for St. Louis with my 2 kids. We really stopped just ONE true time on the way. I got gas and McD's in Waggoner OK. From there we were in the truck for 5 1/2 hours. I did stop at a store right by my dad's so technically we stopped twice.

It was special to make it for Father's Day as we spent the day with my dad who is 69 years old.

Highlights of the trip:
-Father's Day
-I made $365 one day helping detail 20 cars
-Food: Seamus(3), White Castle(3) Cecil's Pizza(3), Ted Drewes custard(2), Lions Choice(3), Gus's Pretzel dogs, eating Ameghettis in Berra Park
-I gained 4 pounds
-I brought back my brother's 79 Jeep CJ-7
-I watched 2 Cardinal games, both wins, both FREE
-4th weekend I saw 3 different fireworks shows
-Six Flags with family, my kids can ride more rides
-bowling 4 times
-mowing my brother's yard 5 times

Why 30 days in St. Louis? Family, friends, food and fun. ALSO, I have been back home for one week and really have a hard time doing NOTHING. I waste so much time when I don't have to do things. That is about to end. My teaching workshops start next week. Not everyday, but here and there.

I hope to get back on a regular basis. While I was away Facebook kept me busy.
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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.

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.

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!