Bode in the Hood

Happy 22nd-month birthday, Little Bodeman. Pretty soon we'll stop tracking the months and just concentrate on the years (although it is amusing to think that Ashley is 466 months old...)

We had a rather fun weekend. We went to Benson's Animal Farm, but that's really not the name of the place. If you've watched Dane Cook's special on Comedy Central, Benson's Animal Farm is the name for a place in one of Dane's bits that has rides and animals and just a good time for little kids. The place we went to is actually called Young's Dairy Farm and it fits the description for Benson's. Thus, that's what I call it, much like I call Water World in Denver Wally World for the fun park in the movie, Vacation. Anyways, lots to do at the farm. First up was to pet some animals. Here's Bode and a goat.
Next we went into the barn, and I must say the smell was a bit gamey. They could of used a few gross of candles from Bed Bath and Beyond, but I guess that's one of the draws (horrors) of the farm. What made the smell even more appealing was Ashley stepped in nice pile of dung (guard your forks, people), so the smell actually followed us wherever we went. As it turns out, literally five minutes before we went into the barn, a cow gave birth. And this farm is old-school in that NO ONE helped. No vet, no farm-hand, nothing. Just a mama cow in labor. Here's a picture of the cow and her calf--note how the little fella is still quite wet (eeeyouuu!)Next, we went inside for some ice cream. Young's Dairy Farm (Benson's) is famous for its home made ice cream. It was quite yummy. Bode and I split a shake, while Mommy had a cone. A large group of folks from Bode's daycare made the trip, so here are some pictures. First, here's Bode with Mommy, Alyssa, and Alyssa's Mom, Brandy.
Next, we have about the same people, except Miss Michelle, one of the room care providers, is in this one. Bode really recognizes people and even knows their names. He'll usually say good-bye to Miss Michelle ("Bye-bye 'Chelle"), and when we were looking at this picture, Bode pointed and said, "Chelle."
We then headed back outdoors. There's an area with some tricycyles and big-wheels. Bode doesn't yet have the ability to pedal, but he did enjoy getting pushed. Here are some action photos.To finish things off, we went on a tractor ride around the farm. It was a beautiful fall day, so the ride was quite pleasant.
Today, the weather has turned cold. Lows are forecast to be in the 40's. Yikes. Fortunately, Bode is prepared. He's learned the word, "jacket" and always wants to put one on.
The mighty Auburn Tigers are now 4-0, undefeated in the month of September. Of course, they were 4-1 last year and finished the season 5-7, so let's not start planning a bowl-game vacation just yet. Pleasant week to all.

Bode Dancing

Greetings on this lovely fall day--if you define lovely as raining, which I do on a football Sunday. It's sort of an excuse to stay indoors and watch TV (the Steelers play the Bears today at 4:15 in the p.m.) The other reason it's a glorious day is the Mighty Auburn Tigers improved to 3-0 with a thrilling 41-30 victory over the Mountaineers of West Virginia. The game was supposed to start at 7:45 p.m., but lightening caused kick-off to be delayed for over an hour. Thus, the game did not end until after midnight. Amazingly Ashley and I watched the whole game (although we did have TiVo setup to record in case we dozed off). Thankfully, Bode slept in until...6:30? Yes, we'll all be napping today.

Earlier this week, I had an interesting conversation with Ashley. She had gone shopping on Sunday and bought some new clothes. As we were leaving for work on Monday morning, Ashley asks, "So do you like my shirt?" It was plaid. And while her ensemble was probably fine from a fashion sense, I didn't like it. So I replied, "No, not really." My honesty should not have surprised Ashley, as I've told her many times, "If you don't want my honest opinion, don't ask for it," with the only exception to this rule being when she gets her hair done ("It looks great, honey. It really does.") Nor do I see anything wrong with what I said. But somehow, me not liking her shirt translated in her head to, "Gosh you look ugly today." She was very quiet on the drive to work. I thought she was tired, but evidently she was stewing over my comment. After awhile, her lip pouts out (much like Bode's does) and she mutters something about me not liking the shirt. A man without almost 10 years marriage experience might have tried to respond, to somehow win this unwinnable pot like a Texas Hold'em player drawing dead on the river. Not me. I kept quiet. I've learned. :-)

I don't regret saying I didn't like the shirt, as somehow this would have led to a series of plaid clothes in my wardrobe. It's like a guy who's been dating a girl for a few months. Perhaps she offers to give him a back-rub. To his horror, he quickly realizes this girl has no skills in this area. But does he say it feels bad? Of course not, thus resigning himself to bad massages the rest of his life**.

Bode really likes to dance. A woman at daycare even commented that, "Bode's got some moves." This morning, I brought a radio out to the family room. We're not convinced he's a future contestant on So You Think You Can Dance?, but here are some action shots.
Finally, here's a movie of Bode cutting that rug to Little Richard's Long Tall Sally.

Overall the weekend was pretty good. I ran in the USAF Marathon on Saturday, but sadly, I did not do as well as I had hoped. I went in trying to run a Boston Marathon qualifying time of 3:15:59, and I was confident I could do this. I cruised through the halfway point in 1:33:10. However, around mile 16 I started having muscle cramps (both calfs, both quads, both hamstrings...basically the trifecta of leg pain). I ended up walking a good portion near the end, as my quads simply refused to work (for those that don't know, a cramp is not something you can just power through). I'm proud that I finished with a personal best time of 3:40:58, but disappointed. That being sad, I don't envision trying to qualify for Boston again in the near future. Ten kilometers is about as far as I ever want to run, and the only running I'll be doing this week is to the refridgerator. I've got a summer's worth of ice cream to eat! Pleasant day to all.

** This is just a fictious anecdote. No way is this related to me or anyone I know (I love my leg massages).

The Fair

Happy Labor Day weekend to everyone. Hopefully you've done anything but. We've been laboring our a*ses off. Saturday morning, Ashley and I ran in the Alterfest 5K run (3.1 miles for you non-runners). It was a beautiful morning--cool and low humidity. We both did very well--Ashley finished 4th out of 16 in her age group (47th overall out of 127 runners). I finished 3rd overall and ran a personal best time. Before you think this is more impressive than it is, I must say there is another local 5K race tomorrow morning. This race typically draws 500+ people, and most of the fast ones at that. So my third place is kind of like the bronze medal at the Goodwill Games :-)

The mighty Auburn Tigers started the season off with a bang last night, beating up on a resilent Louisiana Tech team. Auburn played well the first half, but a critical fumble and a lack of pass rush made half-time at the McGuirk home an unhappy time. Fortunately, Auburn turned it on in the second half, and even had an 85-yard TD pass. Final score 37-13. Yea!!! Thus, Ashley has been in a good mood for the first time since the Bush administration on a Sunday during football season.

Today we went to the Montgomery County Fair. We went early before the crowds (freaky hicks) showed up. We walked through all the animal pens, which Bode loved. He was able to pet a bunch of them, although we encouraged him not to try to pet the chickens and roosters. Here are some photos. First, here's Bode with a sheered lamb.Next here is Bode and one large pig.This little goat was happy to let Bode give him (or her) or nice rub.Bode, one hot chick (aka Ashley), and some chickens.
Finally, here's Bode trying to pet a horse.After the fair, we went up to Alterfest, which is a carnival/fund-raiser for Alter High School, a local Catholic School. It's an impressive event, complete with rides, bands (good ones), beer (yes, beer--Catholic, remember?) and...gambling? Yes, gambling. I don't know how this is legal, but there are a bunch of black-jack tables, poker, and a Texas hold'em tournament (winner gets $3,000). And no, it wasn't play-money, or money for tickets. Real money (and lots of it--it certainly wasn't one-dollar bills being played). They also had a roullette type game. What surprised me most (other than the booze and gambling) was that kids were allowed to bet on roullete. Bets were typically a buck, but sometimes there were two or even three dollar bets down on a number. Now, I'm not against gambling, booze (those under 21 weren't allowed to drink), or even strippers (those college girls gotta earn a living ya know). What I don't understand is how this is all legal. What sort of permit do I need to fill out in order to get gambling legalized and have my own little Bellagio here at Casa McGuirk?

Ashley took Bode on one of the rides at Alterfest. It was a big slide. Ashley carried him up a bunch of stairs, and the two of them sat of a large rug and slid down. It was probably twenty feet up and sort of steep but not dangerous. Bode loved it. After the ride, he goes running for the stairs, wanting to do it again, much like he does for the slide at the park. We tried to explain it to him that each ride is $5.00 ($2.50 for him, $2.50 for Ashley). This didn't sit well with him, so we had to drag him away from the slide. If I were a better gambler, I would've won some money and paid for a day of sliding. As it is, we left Alterfest and stopped off at a park on the way home. The slide wasn't as good, but Bode still had a great time.

I'm sure we'll all sleep well tonight. Pleasant Sunday.