Random Tidbits

My wife's birthday was last Tuesday. She is 26 again...

She insisted that I not do the normal take-her-to-dinner routine. I completely ignored this, got flowers, a sitter and made dinner plans. So, I took my wife to Fuji, a Hibachi style Japanese restaurant here (in the style of Benihana...but not near as clean).

Fuji is very good. The chefs are fun (especially at night), the food is great and you may or may not see a cockroach. These are things that you look for in a good hibachi restaurant. However, every time I eat there, I am reminded of something my good friend, Kevin Campbell, once told me.

"There are stages to Fuji.", he said. "You go from excited to be eating there, to starving while they cook, to satisfied, to feeling extremely over-full, to spending a while "reading" or "thinking" (insert your own "potty" description here). You do this all in about 45 minutes."

It makes me laugh every time I go to Fuji's.

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Today, our office had a big birthday party for our Vice President who turns 40 tomorrow. The Party coordinators thought it would be hilarious to dress in black and give her random "Over the Hill" gifts like pill boxes and seat cushions. They all thought it was original and funny.

It wasn't.

How do you tell people that their idea was awful? You can't. You just have to fake smile and secretly roll your eyes. Actually, my friend Garrett can. He tells people all the time when funny ideas suddenly turn out un-funny. It's a gift of his. But, he's not funny either, so it balances out.

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Started guitar lessons yesterday. I have always wanted to learn how to play the guitar. So two weeks ago, I finally decided that life was too short to keep putting it off.

It's not easy to play the guitar. I'm not going to lie to you. My fingers hurt, my rhythm stinks and I only know two chords (as of now). But I will get better...maybe.

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The College World Series starts today with my beloved Tennessee Volunteers facing Florida. Now that the CWS is happening, the NBA Finals are now completely obsolete. Before now they were only moderately obsolete.

Seriously, I am as big a sports fan as any, but I just hate the NBA for some reason. I love the Mavs. I love the Celtics. But the NBA sucks. It is almost unbearable to watch. I haven't watched an entire NBA Finals game since 2000. And, I loved the NBA in the 80's! I was a huge Larry Bird fan. I loved watching those old teams.

How does this happen? How did I lose interest so quickly? College basketball is amazing to watch. Most of these players played college basketball! Does the money corrupt them? Are the officials that bad? How do good college players suddenly lose their passion? It seems like no one gives a rip in the NBA. Oh well...it's only 6 weeks until NFL training camps open.

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And, finally, there is no greater one day activity in Texas than Schlitterbahn. We went last weekend and it is worth whatever price of admission they charge. Sure the slides are great. Sure, the pools are great. Sure, there was greatness is in realizing I wasn't the fattest person there...that makes me really happy. But my kids loved it. They smiled and laughed and swam all day and then fell asleep in about 4 seconds that night. They experienced pure joy with no worries.

That alone was worth any price.