Monday, October 12, 2009

Things we did this weekend





The overt consumer materialism thing ain't for me however several months ago our main television started showing strong signs that it was approaching a terminal end of useful life, so we thought it best to get a new one before it blew up.
When after everything else has been eliminated and the television picture goes to static on the screen and a weird smell starts drifting through the house its best to get a new television.

Our purchase of a 40" LCD screen television went extremely easy with the giant retail corporation more than happy to sell us one using the credit card we had with them without coughing up one of the kids as collateral. It was quickly setup back at the house with a minimum of fuss even with the usual snarky comments from my wife. That television gave excellent service until an unfortunate even that happened just last Friday night.

Darth Spoilboy came into my room sometime late Friday evening while I was trying to sleep to tell me that he had inadvertently "hit" the television while entertaining several of his friends playing X-Box360. Puzzled and with more than a few cob webs running through my brain I went to inspect the damage but did not realize how bad it was even with Dragonwife busting a couple of gaskets upstairs.

I found a crack in the screen very similar to one you might find in a car windshield after it had been impacted with a small rock. It took the shape of a star but the resulting damage had never the less royally screwed the picture as you can see. Now I must admit I was a little upset but I hadn't quite gone into orbit like Dragonwife who had the poor kid close to being drawn and quartered in front of his friends. I am a little puzzled still, a few days later, about his explanation over how he hit the screen but its all water under the bridge now. Sunday afternoon Spoilboy and I took the television back to the place we bought it with the copy of the extended warranty we bought and were promptly told we were shit out of luck. The expensive extended warranty not only doesn't cover accidental damage but it would cost just about the same amount to buy a new one as have our not yet six month old television repaired. Of course this was something we found out Sunday afternoon but a more pertinent question is what do the next day after having an expensive and not yet paid for television ruined?


You go to the Carolina Renaissance Festival up near Charlotte, North Carolina. After a frustrated Dragonwife almost canceled the trip a near mutiny that resulted changed her mind and we all piled into the car and made our way up.

On a side note it must be stated that I almost had a mutiny on my hands with the selection of music I brought along. Naturally, Buffett was my choice but neither my wife, son, or his girlfriend, Darth Shopalot, thought much of my musical tastes. Even Miss Wiggles, who normally would have agreed with me, went to the other side forcing me to surrender and listen what they liked on the radio. The picture here is of the two traitorous Sith Lords, Shopalot on the left and my son, Spoilboy on the right.





Trying to be a good husband I pointed out to my wife the wide selection of brooms she could purchase at the festival to get her around town. My sense of humor, as with my music on the ride up, was unappreciated to the extreme. Even after I pondered out loud that she at least could purchase her mother one, as long as it the broom stick was extra strong. Much to my surprise that comment didn't go over any better.
















No one call Child Protective Services, that's just my son holding my beer. The drunk look on his face is just an act, I promise.















The festival hosts many performers with a very wide spectrum of acts. This guy is doing his impersonation of a statue. While I kept Miss Wiggles on a metaphorically short leash around this guy doing his thing another, younger child, tried to make off with the small box, that is slightly out of this picture, that he was using to collect money for his "performance".











This is Don Juan of "Don Juan and Miguel"an act that showed their talents with whips, comedy, and some less than spectacular sword fighting although I wouldn't tell them that. They were hilarious and if you get the chance to visit a nearby renaissance festival see if they are performing.















This troop of performers are called "Barely Balanced" and did some great tricks doing some serious acrobatics, juggling, fire breathing, and comedy.

I had to really admire all these performers who did some very difficult acts out in the open were the weather can at a minimum cause you to make a fool of yourself to a crowd that might not be very forgiving. At worse, given some of what these guys were doing, a mistake could kill you.








As the day was drawing to a close we stumbled upon Ms. Sarah Marie Mullen as she was playing her harp. Miss Wiggles was in awe of what she was doing and after a set Ms. Mullen gave my daughter a short lesson in playing the harp. I did record it and if adding the video hadn't thrown my computer into spasms I would have included it. I may try again on a separate post although the video is short.

As much as my wife might disagree lust played no part in my demanding we purchase several of her CD's.









The kids on our way out after the purchase of several expensive hats. I tried to get Dragonwife in the picture but upon threat of severe pain I was reminded of our agreement about her showing up on my humble blog,

















I don't know why I included this picture in the post. It may be because it was the only one where my stomach didn't make me look pregnant. Or it may be because the skeleton is a good analogy of my dead sex life. Either way we had a good time and if I wasn't so tired and wanted to bore the living daylight out of y'all even more I would have included more pictures.

18 comments:

Laura said...

What an awesome post! I loved it. :)
Especially the Renaissance Festival! I've always wanted to go to one of those. It looks like a lot of fun.
I remember wanting to learn to play the harp when I was younger (I think I still would..) My parents just kind of waved it away and demanded I keep up with the piano. (Blah!)

I loved all the pictures. You got some really good ones. :) It made me want to go even more! I would have loved to have seen Miss Wiggles try to make off with the Statue's loot box. :)

Great picture of you too! Nice to see you! :) Don't worry, you're still a hottie.

Ouch! RE: busted tv set. What can I say? "KIDS!".. I worry all the time about ours too. The boys are so rough. It's only a matter of time before I'm blogging about the same thing happening here.
I'd be upset but I don't watch much tv so I doubt I'd blow a gasket. My parents used to embarrass me in front of my friends ALL the time so I would for sure keep it in until the extra kids were gone. Of course.. they are VERY expensive so, your wife had every right to be upset.. (threw that in there in case she's reading this.. ;P)

Well, I suppose you're off to buy a new TV then eh? :P

((Hugs))
Laura

Utah Savage said...

Sunshine beat me to it, so I e ho her, Wow What a wonderful post. I know what you look like now. Oh joy! I look far more pregnant than you.

Your kids are gorgeous, even your drunk son. Lovely photos. Maybe Miss Wiggles will become a harpist.

SJ said...

Dude,
you make me want to go to one of these Renaissance fairs in nearby (to me) New Jersey.

They may not always remember to say so, but they're lucky to have you as the head of the housefold.
Most fathers faced with a broken TV set would just throw more money at the problem isntead of finding a way to bring everybody together.
-Which makes the broken set a blessing in disguise.
-SJ

Commander Zaius said...

Sunshine: The only bad thing about going to that festival was us not getting a motel room and going another day. Of course with my son's girlfriend going with us on that trip it was out of the question.

As for the television, we are flat broke and we will have to deal with one workable television until we pay that one off.

Utah: The kids look good, I on the other hand actually felt like I was coming down with something that day. Of at least I had not recovered from working third shift and was just still tired.

SJ: The kicker in all this that did piss me off is that knowing how my son acts at times I know I told him at least three times to be very careful with that damn television.

Beach Bum said...

OOh er ... very mellow response re LCD TV ... I think I would have been siding with Dragonwife. Mind you, I'd have been the one on the 360 to start with.

Randal Graves said...

Dude, how does one bust a teevee screen? I know they're not made of steel, but doesn't one have to generate some serious force? Proof that kids are the diabolical offspring of Satan.

Nice shots, but dude, you went to a Renaissance Faire. No photos of bosomy medieval hotties?

Laura said...

Sorry I made it sound like YOU had personal experience (on my blog) with a mammogram. Haha.. I just meant that you had warned me.

Have fun with that prostrate exam! Yikes.. Of course I do have to go for a pap soon so.. I think we're even again. :)

((Hugs))
Laura

Kentucky Rain said...

This was a delightful read Beach. I have said it before and I will say it again: You are a lucky, lucky, man!

I must admit however that this story seems to be missing an integral part of the ending. What really happened to the TV?

Unknown said...

Ha. Funny. The kids are cute, even you do give them beer. Must agree with them. ;-)

Ren fair people are totally nuts. I had two kids whose mothers were into the Ren fair thing and they would arrive dressed up in their garb to drop their kids off at school. One was the town harlot and the other a beer wench.

rainboy said...

this is what i miss reading all this time ... glad to be back after a long long time bro...
how have you been, :)

Marja said...

So I can't stop laughing Just what I needed this morning after receiving some bad enw this week.
orry about your TV Children are awesome aren't they. We had it last year Not as bad as you thoug We had bought an expensive camera for christmas for darling son and he dropped after a week. Told the truth when he went with us to the insurance company (I know we should have learned him to lie)\
and no cover of course
I love the pictures of the festival They are awesome and you must have had lots of fun. Great to see some faces behind these names you spill on your Blog including yours

Vigilante said...

Is that Darth Spoilboy holding your beer? Wow, Has he grown up. Sorry to miss a shot of Dragonwife.... I'll keep my eyes peeled, even if I don't hold my breath!

Commander Zaius said...

The True Beach Bum: Don't get me wrong I was upset myself. When we bought the LCD we went crazy and bought a Blueray player as well. While I'm no videophile I got to admit watching a movie in HD is pretty sweet.

Randal: Beats the Hell out of me. All Spoilboy said was that he got up, became slightly off balance, and hit the LCD with his X-Box controller. In the interest of total disclosure there has been a couple of times my son had gotten mad and threw things resulting in dents in the walls of his room. right now I chose to ignore what that possibility and will allow my son to live. At least until he pays for the broken television.

Sunshine: No worries, glad you mentioned my name.

Madmike: I think my son threw something either getting mad at the game he was playing or simply horse playing with his buddies. While I have my moments thinking about grounding him until he is 35 if that's the worse damage he causes we will have come off easy.

Pagan Sphinx: Yeah, I agree on the Ren fair people. They even rival the trekkies I've seen dressed up like Kirk, Spock, Picard, and the others.

Vicky: Fairly good except that the big bosses at work have put me on the 11:00pm to 7:00am shift at work. It was thrown a monkey wrench into just about everything. Glad you are back.

Marja: Yeah, after the examining the television I called the warranty company and told the truth about how it was broken. The guy on the other end wasn't rude but he sure as Hell got it across to me that I was shit out of luck and they would not fix or replace the television.

The festival was great and I wish we could have gotten a motel and gone back the next day.

Vigil: Actually Darth Spoilboy turned 14 yesterday. Just four more years and he will be out the door to college. Had a little talk with him a few days ago being that he starts high school next year and that his little butt would be going to college so he had better keep his grades up. Not to brag but his grades are actually pretty good this year but with him approaching the age where he can get his driving license I need to get him to understand that school comes before a car, his girlfriend, and his buddies.

zeppo said...

The most pressing question in all of this is, what kind of music was so unappreciated? Lynyrd Skynyrd isn't really cool anymore, you know. If they ever were....

zeppo said...

Too bad about the TV, tho.

lime said...

ok, i am a week late getting here but when i was catching up and got to the bit about what the skeleton symbolized i couldn't help myself. i empathize completely. it's either laugh or cry, thanks for the laugh.

Keshi said...

hey BB ur looking goooood! :)

Keshi.

Commander Zaius said...

Zeppo: The unappreciated music was my Jimmy Buffett CD's. As far as Lynyrd Skynyrd is concerned, that is almost a religion down here, except for me. Whenever it was played around my high school the students got all goofy and mystical. I just thought it was weird but I have always been a stranger in a strange land.

And the television? I having Blue-Ray withdrawals.

Lime: Tell me about it, since I've been put on night shift at work I behind on everything. I haven't written anything real in weeks. When I have free time, I don't feel like writing and when I feel like writing I have dinner to cook, help my daughter with homework, clean some portion of the house, or any number of other things.

The skeleton, yeah, night shift has made bad situation even worse.

Keshi: Hope you are feeling better. Miss your posts.