Life in the Mind of a Modest Genius

Happy Birthday, Izzy!

I make sure to address every significant death out here so I thought I would switch it up for once.  This is different than the other birthday celebrations I have addressed in the past.  This one is THE actual birth day of one of my relatives.  You will have to forgive me because I'm only about five days late in getting around to it.

My cousin Brandon Brown celebrated his birthday on December 4th along with a couple of other folks (I had to no exclude Sam.  Come to find out his birthday was recorded wrong in Facebook soit wasn't the 4th).  I received a message from Brandon early the next morning.  He and his wife welcomed their daughter into the world at 11:58pm on December 4th. 

Khloe Isabelle Brown tipped the scales at 6.14 lbs and tallying 19.25 inches.  Both mother and child are fine and Khloe is now home with her folks.

The first thing I thought of when I saw the name "Khloe" was that dingy Kardashian chick who married Lamar Odom.  Unfortunately, it's even spelled the same way.  I hope as my little cousin gets older that other Khloe will become more irrelevant so nobody will have to make that association.  Until that happens, I'll be calling her Izzy.  Yes, I know it's not a whole lot better since that brings to mind the chick that killed Danny on "Grey's Anatomy", but hey...it's the lesser of two evils.

Izzy now has the distinction of sharing her birth day with Brandon.  I now have someone else that I can mention the next time that date rolls around.  No clue what Brandon got for his birthday, but you couldn't ask for a better gift than that.

Another Birthday Smörgåsbord

We have come upon another calendar day where more than a few individuals I personally know share the same birthday.  It's a fortunate coincidence for them that it just happens to land on the day in December that is the foundation of my beloved fraternity.  That date I will always remember.  The birthdays, as much as I hate to admit, I would probably forget were it not for Facebook.  Hey...what can I say?  I have a terrible memory.

First and foremost is Auntie Ann.  My favorite Des Moines auntie.  It doesn't even matter that she's my only one in Des Moines.  I owe her a great deal of gratitude for more than just being an influential elder.  She was there for me not that long ago when I was going thru a rough patch and needed a place to stay.  While it was a very humbling experience for me, Auntie went out of her way to make sure that things were as normal possible.  Yet another example of some of the amazing family I have.

I surprised her by stopping by her place after work today.  Not sure how much of a surprise it was though.  I texted Makea the day before to make sure Auntie was going to be there when I got off.  I told Kea I was going to pay a surprise visit, but something tells me she probably told her mom I was coming.  It's all good.  Auntie Ann acted surprised so I'll take that.  I think she was more surprised by the fact that I got her something.  It was the best birthday card ever.  Why?  Because it came from me, of course!

If we were to go by age, the next up with my my LB (line brother), Mike Brown.  For those that don't know what a "line brother" is, it means that he and I pledged together.  I remember him always getting a hard time for the fact that his birthday fell on the same day as the Frat's birthday.  For the longest time, I thought he was making it up just trying to be funny.  It took him showing me his driver's license to prove it.  And what a driver's license pic it was.  Imagine a Black version of a Flock of Seagulls with glasses.  That was his pic.

I should probably do a better Job of keeping in touch with Mike.  Although to be fair, it does go both ways so the same could be said of him.  The communication has been better since he finally joined Facebook.  His new truck business has him fairly busy though so his time is limited.  At the very least he's always a text/FB message away.  Even if it may take him a minute to respond.

Not sure which one of the remaining two is older so I'm going to go with family before phamily.   That brings me to Brandon Brown.  He's my cousin by way of Mom's side.  The official connection is Aunt Dietra is Mom's sister and Brandon is Dietra's oldest son.  I just recently discovered that Brandon doesn't live in Kansas City like the enormous amount of my other relatives do; however, he's not that far away with his current residence in Columbia.

Brandon is a proud veteran of the US Marine Corps.  He was one of the individuals who had the distinction of serving in the military overseas in I want to say Iraq?  I'm sure if I'm wrong either he or another family member reading this will correct me.  I do know that he was in harm's way for quite a while.  I'm definitely not alone in being thankful that he is with us today and wish him the best as he and the missus prepare to start a family of their own.

The last individual is one of my very own frat brothers, Sam Reed.  Ironically enough, he also hails from that Notorious Omicron Pi Chapter.  I'm not supposed to be using the term "Notorious" so don't tell nobody.  Anyway, Sam came entred the black and old gold fold after Mike and I had already graduated Iowa State.  He's part of the new blood from the chapter that helped revitalize it with a renewed vigor.  He and the other bros from that era were just the shot in the arm that the chapter needed.  Which brings me to the biggest event on this date...

103 years ago on this date, seven visionary men set out to change the collegiate fraternal landscape.  These "jewels" had enough foresight to realize that their actions on Cornell's campus in Ithaca, New York would lay the groundwork for a foundation that would last for generations.  Over a century later, that social and literary club has grown to an intercollegiate fraternity with over 200,000 members affiliated with over 680 chapters all around the globe.  Sam, Mike and myself are just three of the many brothers that are fortunate to be a part of such an amazing organization that focuses on manly deeds, scholarship and love for all mankind.  Here's to many more years to come... 

OSIX!

Random Pic of the Day

Gave Thanks

This is only about five days late.  For really no good reason either.  If I applied myself, I probably could have churned this one out sometime over this past weekend to at least get closer to the Thanksgiving holiday.  I figured it wouldn't be the end of the world if it didn't get out in a reasonable amount of time though so it's all good.

My actual Thanksgiving started off with a nice half day at work last Wednesday.  Another great thing about that place is we get paid to get "early outs" on the days before major holidays.  I was able to spend my early time off picking up the Dark Knight from the shop.  It wasn't all the way completed, but was done enough to be ready for the holiday trip.  I tried not to let it bother me that it had been there for over a week and wasn't yet finished.

Thanksgiving day and dinner was spent in Ames.  That's what the picture you see here is.  It had been a LONG time since I've had some scalloped potatoes and was able to get my wish for Thanksgiving dinner.  Outside of Popeye's cajun mashed potatoes and gravy, scalloped potatoes are my favorite type of potatoes.  The only thing that would have made that dinner even better would have been some greens.  Unfortunately, all the stores were out of the collard greens that I prefer.  No biggie though...it was still an amazing dinner.

The plan was to get up early Friday morning and hit the road for Bloomington for the weekend.  When I say early, I'm talking about 4am.  I could have rescheduled the alarm clock on my iPhone for that time as opposed to the weekly 6am time it's normally set for.  I just didn't feel like going thru the hassle of having to switch it back.  Instead, I decided to use this alarm clock app I found at the Apps store.  It would have been a great plan if I would have remembered to have the app activated before I went to bed. 

My natural alarm clock woke me at 5am since I failed to set the iPhone one correctly.  That put me on the road an hour later than what I had planned on.  That one hour ended up making a difference.  By the time we arrived at Mom and Dad's, everyone was up and eating breakfast.  We had just missed out on a fresh batch of Mom's world famous sweet rice.  No worries though.  We were able to get our share of it over the next couple of days.

I had the added surprise of being able to see Mariah during the Thanksgiving holiday.  Mom and Dad had flown her in Wednesday night so she was in Bloomington for the weekend as well.  It always warms my heart to see her smiling face.  Even moreso when it gets to be in the presence of Mom and Dad who rarely get to visit with her as it is.  I still look at her and continue to be in awe about the fact that my little girl is actually a woman.

Our Friday arrival meant we missed out on the big feast from the night before.  Fortunately, there were plenty of leftovers.  Including the chocolate cake that didn't make it thru the night.  My personal favorite though was the cornbread.  It tasted entirely too good and too fresh to be leftovers.  I could have made a meal off just that and still been content.

My favorite moment of the weekend was the ride with Dad to O'Hare Airport to drop off Mariah for her flight back to Kansas City.  Mariah enlightened Dad and I on some of the nuances of "New Moon" that we didn't know since we haven't read the books.  It still didn't make me appreciate the movie anymore, but it was interesting nonetheless.  On the way back, I was able to spend some quality time with Dad talking about any and everything in what seemed like the shortest two hours ever.

The road trip naturally provided more opps which translated into another photo album: Thanksgiving 2009.  Although I was able to capture some good moments, the best one was deleted from the camera.  I caught Teandra in a picture perfect moment after she had just spilled a huge cup of hot chocolate on the counter.  I should have thought to hide the memory card so she couldn't delete it.  I'll know better next time. 

An Early Thanksgiving

Last year this time, the Boys and Girls Club hosted their early Thanksgiving dinner.  Except that was the one in Des Moines.  And for some reason, they chose to have it much earlier.  How many people did they really think were going to be off work by 4pm? So it almost seemed like that Boys and Girls Club was doing it more for the benefit of the kids.  Nothing wrong with that, but it just would have been nice if it was better timed so the parents could be involved.

The Ames location wisely chose for their dinner to commence at 6pm.  That was plenty of time for parents to get off work and get there without having to rush.  They even had ample parking for everyone thanks to an empty field adjacent to their tiny parking lot.  It's just a good thing it was a decent fall day.  That would not have been a pretty sight watching cars navigate a muddied field if it had rained and/or sleeted.

They had converted half of their gym into a makeshift banquet hall.  It reminded me of "Revenge of the Nerds" when the nerd freshmen got relocated to the gym as their new dorm.  Instead of beds, there were tables with white plastic for table cloths.  The chairs were a hodge podge assortment that looked like they raided garage sales.  It was the spirit of the moment that counted though.

There was a contingent of guys from the local Iowa State chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha (Pikes) serving the food to everyone in the buffet style set-up.  I was trying to figure out if they were pledges and maybe it was part of their service project or if it was the fraternity just trying to do a good deed.  Either way, they were all very respectable.  One of them even offered to carry G's cup of juice to the table where we were sitting when he saw our hands were full.

G recognized the "Alpha" on some of the t-shirts and automatically made a connection...

"Hey...they're Alpha just like you."

I laughed, "No...not just like me.  That's a different fraternity."

"So do you go against them?"

Another smile, "It's not that we go against them.  We aren't two teams playing a game.  We're just two different organizations."

"What did you have to do to be an Alpha anyway?"

"I had to go thru a process.  Once I was done with the process, I became an Alpha."

"Oh..." he took another bite of his turkey, "Do you like our gym?"

I love how he can just switch gears like that.  I thought for a minute there that I was going to have to find a tactful way to explain the "process" to him.  He was content with that answer so I was good.  Plus, I enjoy it more when he talks about himself.  Or even his theories.  How else would I have known that he hypothesized that the scoreboard in the gym isn't run by anyone?  Apparently, it just senses when someone scores and it changes the score accordingly.  That one really cracked me up.

I didn't think I'd get full from such small servings, but I really did.  Not that it had anything to do with the dinner.  A troop of Brownies (which I think are the first step before Girl Scouts?) were walking around the gym with platters containing various cookies.  When I saw my favorite type of sugar cookies, it was all over.  AND they had homemade rice krispie treats.  It's like they knew I was coming.

Happy Birthday, Diah!

I'm sure glad she put up her age on her Facebook page or otherwise I wouldn't have known.  I wanted to say 30, but I knew that didn't sound quite right.  I'm doing good to remember my own age some days (35-years-young...thank you very much).  I decided to play it safe and not even include her age when I wished her a happy birthday.  That way there was no way I could get it wrong.

I thought about going up to Bloomington to surprise her for her birthday this weekend.  Unfortunately, the Dark Knight had other plans.  I took it in to get serviced on Friday morning thinking they would have it done by the time I got off that evening.  Not so much.  I apparently misunderstood why they were giving me a loaner.  It wasn't only so I could get back to work.  It was because they wouldn't be able to get to my ride until early next week.  So I was stuck with a loaner that was in no condition to make a 5-hour trip. 

Instead, I did of course call Diah to see how her day went/was going.  I caught her just as she was going to the mall to do some shopping.  Shopping for more birthday presents I think she said?  I really wasn't paying full attention because the Iowa Hawkeye/OSU Buckeye game was on and I was trying to multitask.  It would have worked better if I didn't call during the most crucial part of the game (fourth quarter with the Hawks driving to tie up the score).

One thing I did catch from the convo is my little niece Jozalyn (Diah's daughter) made Diah breakfast for her birthday.  I didn't even know Jozalyn could cook.  Although she is her mother's daughter to I'm sure the apple didn't fall too far from the tree.  Diah can cook up some stuff too.  Always has been able to.  I can remember back in the day I would jokingly ask her to make me some french toast and she would do it.  And that would be some GOOD french toast.  Sure, I was hungry so anything would have tasted good, but it was still good nonetheless.

Sounds like she got some pretty nice presents for her birthday.  As she ran down the list, I heard she missed the one I was going to get her.  Whew, that was close!  She'll just have to wait until the next time I see her to get it though.  I know it's going to be difficult for her to go without this new package of socks, but she'll just have to manage.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, POPOO!

I told you I was terrible at remembering birthdays.  I've been keeping an eye on the calendar trying to make sure I don't mess around and miss my sister's birthday (November 14th....November 14th....November 14th...) then Popoo's messes around and sneaks up on me.  I still would've have forgotten it if I didn't get a message from Auntie reminding me of it.

I've been making it a habit to keep the photo albums to the right to a fairly small number.  As certain ones get older, I remove them from the sidebar altogether.  Otherwise, that list of photo albums would span the entire sidebar.  Someday I may activate them all again just to make all of my photos available to everyone that's missed them.  Yeah, because I'm sure there are just a huge number of folks that can't wait to see my old photos.

Anyway, the one photo album that I've kept up there  for two years now has been Popoo's 90th Birthday Celebration.  It is my way to maintain an homage to my grandfather.  Subscribing to that old theory that folks should get their roses while they are still alive to smell them.  I know Popoo doesn't get on the internet that often if he does at all.  However, any and everyone that comes to my site can still see it and still see how much he is revered and loved.

In addition, it helps me remember that even after Popoo hit that milestone, he's still going strong.  I hear stories at work everyday about these folks that have parents in their 90s, 80s and seven some in their 70s that are struggling.  Some are in nursing homes, some are in hospices, some are on their last leg.  Here I am having a grandfather kicking it at 92 that is still jetting around town with a schedule more hectic than some folks half his age.  Like Auntie Ann told me, there's been plenty of times she'll go to KC and find he's hard to catch up with.  He's supposed to be taking it easy, but he's just too busy to do that.

It's gotten to the point now where I can't even imagine what it would be like to have Popoo around.  It's selfish to think so, but I really don't want to imagine it.  The one thing that should always remain constant is when I go down to Kansas City he and Grandma will always be at that same house in the Quindaro neighborhood.  I'm not ignorant enough to realistically think that would always be the the case, but it sure would be nice.  Even if he won't always be there, he'll always be with me.

Kansas City at Warp Speed

The last time I planned to make a quick trip to Kansas City to visit Mariah, things didn't work out quite the way I anticipated.  I ran into my normal weekend sickness brought on from eating the wrong food the previous evening.  That and the funding was lacking a little.  This time around, the stomach was fine but the funding was still an issue.  Nevertheless, I wasn't going to keep that from keeping my promise to go see my oldest.  It just meant that my visit would be a brief one.  Still, even a few hours with Mariah was worth it.

My road dude and I hit the trail early and arrived in KC around 11:37-ish.  There are few things better than seeing Mariah open that door with a huge smile on her face.  I couldn't wait to give her a hug and a big kiss.  It seemed like I hadn't seen her in forever when in reality it had only been a few months.  Just absorbing that moment of her glow was priceless.  It had me beaming before she cold even say a word.

We went to give the Dark Knight a much needed car wash while Mariah proceeded to fill me in with everything that had been going on with her.  None of it was trivial by any means.  It helped me to get a better understanding of what her current goals are and how she plans to reach them.  I couldn't help but be impressed with the strides she was making.  Not to mention how focused she was being with the direction she wants to go.  I have to make sure I can do whatever I can to help keep her on that track.

You KNOW the first stop on the list was Gates.  Although my budget was tight, I had already incorporated that trip in.  Afterall, we had to eat lunch.  I had been to Gates several times and that's the first time I ever noticed they don't have any time of kid's meal and/or menu.  G was wanting ribs so I had to get him some regular short-ends.  A plate I could usually finish myself.  He downed all but two without fail.  Mariah had their wings which I had always wanted to try but could never tear myself from getting due to the delactibility of their beef plates.  She seemed to enjoy them immensely so maybe I will deviate next time.  I certainly couldn't that trip because the beef sammich I got for myself had me more than full.

Obviously, the next stop was Popoo and Grandma's.  That's a necessity whenever I'm in KC.  It's also one of the few spots that I still know how to get to without having to mapquest it out.  I knew I would be catching them off guard and I didn't want to put Grandma out.  She always asks if we want anything to eat which is why I hit Gates first.  However, that didn't stop her from making some of her world famous sweet tea at the spur of the moment.  Best tea in the entire world.  I should have brought home a couple of jugs with me.

While we were there, some Heinz 57 dog came wandering into Grandma's backyard.  She informed me he was the neighbor's dog which the neighbor allowed to run loose  With a portion of his chain still attached to his collar.  She assured he wouldn't bite so I proceeded to attempt to befriend him by petting the little fellas.  He looked nice enough, but the minute I got my hand close enough, he sure did nip me.  That's when Grandma abruptly changed her stance and told me he would bite.  I couldn't help but laugh at how she offered the news so nonchalantly as if she had warned me from the beginning that I shouldn't mess with him.

Popoo enlightened me with a discussion on how home remedies took the place of hospitals back in the day.  It all started as we were talking about how his health was doing.  It progressed into him explaining how folks in his days used various plants from various trees to create teas that would serve as substitutes for vaccinations.  Apparently they were so effective that medical doctors started imitating it in the form of medicine that hospitals could disseminate.  It's always great to get a personal history lesson from Popoo.  He even reminded me that he gave it to me for free as his trademark smile slowly emerged. 

The reason why my time with Mariah had to be short was because she had to work that afternoon.  She has a part-time job at Panera Bread at the Legends Mall there in Kansas City.  Dropping her off there was my first time ever seeing the epic mall and it was quite impressive.  It was designed as if they were trying to combine the concept of an outdoors outlet mall with a regular one.  The gorgeous weather and the Halloween atmosphere they had going on that day made for some nice photo ops. 

It may have been only three hours there, but we squeezed in a lot in that small timeframe. Enough time to knock out another photo album:  Mariah in KC.  Even though it was a quick visit, it was still enough for me to cherish the quality time I got to spend with Mariah.  So much so that I look forward to returning to KC again very soon. 

Ride the Maverick

The weather report said it was supposed to be 56 degrees and partly sunny.  The weather report lied.  I guess they could consider themselves mostly right since the sun was out for a bout an hour during the day Saturday.  That could technically constitute "partly".  However, it certainly wasn't the good football game-watching weather I anticipated.  Still, when Uncle Johnny mentioned he was going to Kent's game at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, I jumped at the opportunity to finally go see my "little" cousin Kent play at the college level.

G and I got there minutes before Uncle Johnny arrived only to discover there were no tickets waiting for us.  Kent was supposed to have tickets at the 'will call' window', but the lady informed us they had been signed for and taken by someone else?  I'm hoping it was just an oversight since I decided at the last minute that I was going.  At any rate, big props to Uncle Johnny who graciously offered to buy tickets for us instead.  We didn't have to worry about the game being sold out either as there were plenty of available seats to choose from.

For this to be a D-2 game, it was chock full of entertainment for us.  It started early on in the game.  The UNO Mavericks had to punt in an early series and the Central Missouri Mules (yes...that is their actual team name) came with the rush.  It looked like dude was going to get tackled, but he shook off a couple of opponents like he was a runningback.  He managed to get off a great punt in the middle of traffic with no problem at all.  Seeing a punter shrug off a defender like that was just funny to me.

I couldn't believe how big some of them boys were for that to be a D-2 game.  Our seats were a few yards behind the Mules (that name still cracks me up) bench where we could see the players up close and personal.  Some of them cats had the build of NFL players.  They easily stood over 6'6" and looked like men among boys.  It made me wonder why the Mules didn't utilize their tight end a little more because he clearly had a match-up advantage everytime he lined up.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what the stadium deejay was thinking with his song selection.  Football games are supposed to have music that gets you pumped up throughout the game.  How does "Let It Be" by the Beatles do that?  I was trying to find a lighter so I could wave it in the air.  At least one of the songs they played was a cut that cousin BT made.  It's just too bad they only played the first 30 seconds of it instead of letting it play thru.

G made the observation that all the players with small numbers were the ones making the big plays.  Such as the three picks that the Mavericks got off the Mules.  All coming from a defensive back with a single digit.  Or the longest runs of the days coming from runningbacks in single numbers.  G even managed to call out a couple of intended receivers before the quarterback would eventually hit them with a pass.  His football IQ is getting to be pretty good for a 9-year-old.  Despite my best efforts, it's clear that his favorite sport will be football instead of basketball.

UNO represented pretty good at home for a while there.  They were giving Central Missouri's sorry quarterback fits as they went into halftime with the score tied 14-14.  Then the Mules came to life and started scoring at will in the second half.  They only made matters worse for UNO when they took out their scrub quarterback and put in in their Vick clone.  If he had been in the from the beginning, the score would have been much worse than what the 49-31 tally.  It made me wonder if the Mules were just toying with UNO by having their real starting quarterback sit out until the fourth quarter.

So how did Kent do?  Well for the entire two plays that we saw him in, he did pretty good.  I thought he would start and play most of the game.  He hardly got any tick at all.  BT said it could be because he was a situational player.  I was trying to figure out what situation that might be.  Second half during light rain only?  Not that I have room to talk though.  It was giving me flashbacks to my high school varsity basketball days when I only played during the waning minutes of a game.  At least Kent was competing on a collegiate level.

We knew our time at the game had come to an end once the rain started really coming down in the fourth quarter.  We tried to stick it out as long as we could thinking that it would eventually let up.  Unfortunately, it never happened.  G and I were fairly equipped for the showers with our weather-resistant jackets, but Uncle Johnny and BT weren't.  We ultimately decided it wasn't worth it to brave the elements any longer as soon as the Mules put the Vick clone in and he ran off a 60+yard touchdown.  Not before I was able to secure enough photos for the latest photo album: UNO vs. Central Mizzou though. 

HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY, G!!!

I should be ashamed of myself for getting this entry in late.  Not that he reads my blog anyway, but it's the though that counts.  Since I was out of town on G's actual birthday, the least I could have done was got the post in on time.  I probably would have been able to if it weren't for my laptop issues distracting me. 

Anyway, I did still call G to wish him a happy birthday on his birthday.  He was pretty nonchalant about the whole thing.  Pretty much like it's just another day for him.  In fact, he even commented that he couldn't figure out why everyone was deciding to call him because it was annoying.  His words, not mine.  He's definitely my son though in regards to not having a fondness for lengthy phone conversations.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I already got him an early birthday present by taking him to see "Where the Wild Things Are".  He was cracking me up because he pointed out the things that were different about the book.  I'm still not even sure where he read it since he doesn't have a copy.  Maybe I'll go ahead and pick up one for him to add to his collection.  Then I can also refresh myself with the classic as well.

I wish I could say that it seems surreal having a son who's a year away from being in the double digits.  I wish I could talk about how old that makes me feel.  Been there, done that.  It's safe to say that I'm past that phase now.  With my oldest being 18, that anti-euphoric feeling of getting older has become fairly commonplace.  Thankfully, having a son that's 9 and sill encountering all the new things that comes with his education of life helps to keep me young at heart.