Faces at Boondocks

We took the kids for a day at Boondocks about a month ago. Boondocks has two go-kart tracks, miniature golf, bumper boats, batting cages, rock climbing, an arcade, laser tag, and other assorted noisy things that kids love.

At the park, I was approached by a man who said, "You look really familiar. Have we worked together?" He said his name was Rod Williard, and in a moment, my memory clicked. He had grown up in the same stake as me in Maryland. He had attended the Rockville Ward and I was in Potomac South. He was best friends with the son of one of my mom's friends, Lou Fisher.

In any case, we stood there and yapped for about 30 minutes, catching up. It's nice to run into blokes from Maryland who grew up there at the same time. I don't have a photo of him to add to the blog, but we exchanged numbers, and vowed to get together for dinner. Perhaps he and his family will appear in a future post.

In this post, I feature close-ups of the kids. In the next post, I will feature a few action shots of bumper-boating and go-kart racing.

NEXT STOP: The Uni-Bomber! and Other Stuff

H.R. BunnyStuff -- Reflections on the Easter Bunny that Visited My Kids

For Easter, our kids attended an Easter egg hunt at their cousins' house. While at the house, the Easter Bunny paid a visit. And for some reason, the Easter bunny creeped me out. Maybe it's the hollow eyes. Or the serious, almost perturbed, purse of the lips. This is a face that says, "I'll visit your house while you're sleeping, sure, but if you don't take precautions, I may maul you."

This is a bunny spawned from the psychedelic surrealism of Pink Floyd's "The Wall," or from the whacked-out world of Syd and Marty Kroft ("H.R. Pufnstuf" -- see image above).

Thankfully, my kids were charmed by the Easter Bunny rather than unsettled. And my reaction is more a reflection upon me than upon the bunny. (Although if I woke up in the middle of the night on Easter Eve, stumbled sleepily into the living room, and discovered this particular bunny standing there in the dark, I do believe I would shriek, do a cowardly little dance, and knock myself out on a corner as I sprinted wildly away from the dead-eyed hopper.)

NEXT STOP: A Day at Boondocks

An Interlude with Hannibal Lechter

Before I blog about the psychedelic Easter Bunny, I needed to embed this link from NBC's "The Office." It is a scene that marries two of my favorite characters: Dwight from "The Office" and Hannibal Lechter from Silence of the Lambs.

(Now that I've typed that, I'm wondering if it is a misstep to admit publicly that one of my favorite fictional characters is Hannibal Lechter. Contrast this with my wife's favorite characters from Jane Austen and my mom's from Anne of Green Gables. Oh well. Up with cannibals.)

My Son, The Creature

There are some things in this life that must be dealt with immediately. Like ingrown toenails. And flat tires. And infestations of break dancers. And occasionally, your son -- if he happens to be a werewolf.

Ian is showing all the classic signs of becoming a werewolf: Claw-like nails. Ravenous hunger. And during the full moon, his face transforms into this snarl (see photo above).

Creepy.

For now, instead of shooting silver bullets at him, I find that throwing chocolate at him seems to keep him at bay.

NEXT STOP: A Visit from the Easter Bunny (If the Bunny Were Visiting from Pink Floyd's "The Wall")

Heidi Works the Kitchen Catwalk

Heidi, on the way to church, strikes an alluring pose. (Her "alluring" face looks eerily similar to her "annoyed with Chris" face.)

NEXT STOP: What Ian Looks Like During the Full Moon

Sabbath Zombie

Whoa.

And just like that, nearly two months zoomed by between my blog posts. Although, frankly, blogs are passe now. Apparently, the new thing is to live-feed your Twitter posts onto your Facebook using your iPhone.

(This is a sentence that, two years ago, would have been considered gibberish in English; I'm not so sure it isn't gibberish to me now. Twitters and tweeting and all the rest -- bah. It is strange that we now think of e-mail as a good-old-fashioned way to communicate. I'm not sure which is more disturbing: the fact that technology has passed me by or the fact that I'm ranting about it like a cantankerous old curmudgeon. When did I become a curmudgeon? And should I be alarmed that I find myself enjoying curmudgeonhood?)

Alas, I'm back. I had left off ready to post about a rare day off from the usual,hectic Sunday routine of prepping the family for church, herding all to church, and then surviving the miscellaneous and sometimes tedious adventures at church. Tess was sick that weekend, the last in March I believe it was. I drew the duty to stay home with her. Just before the other kids departed with Heidi to head to church, one of them, Lora or Isabel, snapped this shot of me.

What was I doing? Apparently I express the joy of an unexpected day off from church by zombie-shambling through the kitchen in search of brains.

NEXT STOP: Heidi's Sexy Vibe