Quite a night...

As I posted previously, last night presented a few unusual opportunities for me.. One was to go see a minor league baseball game. I realized that it's been almost twenty years since I last went to see a baseball game, mostly because without a major league team here in New Orleans, it all seems kinda pointless somehow... Still, there's something about a couple of ballpark franks and an ice cold beer that makes a night game magic.

The usual gang turned out... Dave, Danielle, Ringo and Sondra... sadly, Silverfox had to work, and the boys were with their respective bio-dads so I was flying solo. Just as well, as Short Stuff has the attention span of a goldfish, and Pint Size isn't really ready for such events yet. Here's a really blurry shot of the gang in the stands:
(BTW Dave, we really need to come up with a better name for the usual gang than "the usual gang"... we're geeks, for crying out loud! I'm thinking "the Battlestar Irregulars".)

This next picture will amuse my long distance readers, I think... Remember last week when I said only in Louisiana would an ugly, orange toothed rat be mascot material? I present to you Boudreaux, Mascot of the New Orleans Zephyrs:

Yes, he's supposed to be a nutria. Crazy town I live in.

The real reason we all came to the ballpark was of course not for the game, but for the MINIKISS concert afterward... Dave and I got very excited when they showed the midget KISS cover band in their skybox on the jumbotron, and we ran up there so Dave could get his picture with Mini Paul Stanley:
From that point on, Dave stopped counting strikes, outs, and innings... and simply counted down innings and outs "till we ROCK!"

The Zephyrs won, which was kinda awesome because it's always kinda awesome when the home team wins. We then made our way to the outfield, where MiniKISS took the stage:



I have to say, they were better than any of us expected... for a group that sounds like a bad joke, they were all capable showmen and very entertaining. Mini Gene Simmons was great at doing a lot of the typical Gene Simmons stuff, (like the tongue thing and the fire blasts), and Mini Paul was a solid frontman and singer. Apparently big rockers can come in small packages. They didn't confine themselves to KISS material either, and brought down the house with a great rendition of the hit Guns and Roses song, "Sweet Child of Mine". As Mini Gene repeated several times through the night, "We're MINIKISS and can do whatever the hell we want!"

They seemed a little shocked that most of the crowd stayed though the entire performance... and had an onstage huddle when the crowd wanted an encore. Dave joked that they must have run out of material on the ipod that they used for some of their backing music. When Mini Paul asked the audience "uh, can we repeat a song we already did for you?" we all laughed and cheered for more.

Afterward, they spent some time doing autographs on the stage:
We hung out for a bit waiting for them to come down to the field, joking about how disappointed Sondra was that they didn't have Midget roadies, as well. Before long, they made their way off the stage to pose for pictures with those of us that stayed:
When I got my picture taken with them, I jokingly apologized for not being a hot chick. Mini Paul countered "That's okay dude... you look just like that Family Guy guy!"

"Yeah, and you look like Paul Stanley, but I bet you get that a lot." I said, thinking I probably weigh more than your whole freaking band, ya shrimp!

Any hurt feelings I might have had disappeared when I saw the photo that resulted. These guys were consummate professionals with a real appreciation for their fans... They even recognized a couple that had been at one of their shows in Miami right after Katrina, and talked to them with genuine concern in their voices about the couples struggle to return home after the storm.

MINIKISS, you guys ROCK!

One night only...

That's right. The premier midget kiss cover band is playing after the zephyr game tonight. I am so there.

If only George Peppard was as cuddly...

Last week it was star trek, this week... it's ewoks.

Field Trip!

As the school year winds down, Pint Size's Pre-K class starts doing field trips. i was lucky enough to go along with them to Storyland. Pint Size was way more interested in playing among the fauna than any of the slides or playground equipment:

His teacher came to the rescue, though... and took him down a slide or two to get him excited about it:

After that, he was all about it... that one slide at least.

(sigh) Kids.

While we were at mobicon...

A lady in Abbyville is suing the local Wal-Mart because they were letting a wild Nutria roam the store as their unoffical mascot. For those of you unfamiliar with the wildlife here in southern Louisiana, this is a nutria:
Only in Louisiana would a 20 lb orange toothed rat be considered mascot material.

Fortune cookie post...

It reads, 'now is the best time for you to be spontaneous. Serendipity! '

Nothing takes me back...

Like soft serve ice cream on a warm day. One of the things I miss about living in the NYC metro area is the old "Mister Softee" ice cream trucks I grew up with:

Here in the south, they seem to only have Good Humor trucks, which is simply not the same. While Good Humor trucks are stocked with coolers of pre-made ice cream products, the Mister Softee truck was like an old time soda fountain on wheels. He had a full-on soda machine, a shake mixer, a giant soft serve machine, a hot fudge warmer, and an old style whipped cream maker all in the magical little world of his truck. To a young geek, these things must have been built on the same principle as the TARDIS. When you ordered your icy treat, it usually took a few minutes for the ice cream man to make it for you.

I remember when I was a kid, we had an awesome Mister Softee guy that would prowl my neighborhood. He would always park right in front of my house, and stay there until my Dad had heard "pleasepleasepleaseplease" about a zillion times. Dad used to joke that while kids are naturally attracted to ice cream trucks, nothing attracts ice cream trucks like a couple of fat kids playing on the sidewalk.

Of course, I would counter that a Dad that was seemingly addicted to milkshakes didn't hurt either...

So Dad would eventually relent and give us five bucks and his milkshake order... which would take forever for the guy to make, and all of the neighborhood kids would stand in line behind us glaring at me and Jay, (who of course had ordered our cones first, and had to eat them before they melted). Lord help us if Dad had ordered anything more complicated than that though... I seem to remember a threat of violence the one time Mom ordered a bannana split.

To his credit, our ice cream guy never left until every kid in the neighborhood got what he wanted, and he always allowed ample time for each child to run home and beg their parents for money. We would all sit on the stoop in front of my house enjoying our ice cream until at least five minutes after the Mister Frostee's chime had faded in the summer heat, planning what we would order from him tomorrow...

I can olnly hope Short Stuff's memories of his youth will be as pleasant.

Mobicon 2009

It's been a busy week for us here at casa Cerio, and this week's posts are going to be largely about what I did last week... Beginning with this years Mobicon, which was this past weekend.

Mobicon is a very special Con for me and the wife... It's where we met, where I offically proposed, and the one con that we can both cut loose at. Most notably, Silverfoxes costumes become way more elaborate for this con. She's lost a lot of weight since she returned to work and upped her game considerably this year, starting with a really hot lookin pirate outfit. Here she is striking the Captain Morgan pose while hanging out with Dizzy and Lex at the local Popeyes:

Yes, she looks faboo... and it of course begs the question of where was I while Silverfox was off carousing and screamimg "Avast me hearties!" at random folks? in the game room hanging with Dave, of course. We had an idea for a Heroclix scenario involving Godzilla and a Mega-blocks constructed city, and seeing how Pint Size and Short Stuff were okay with grown men borrowing their toys for the weekend, we decided to have a monster battle royale. Here we see Godzilla taking a few swigs from my bubba keg before charging into battle:

You know, the movies never really pointed it out, but that lizard is such a lush. Soon though, he was giving his all against the likes of Iron Man:
We had a blast. The best part of it for me was sitting in this room full of serious miniature wargamer types staring at the two drunk guys in the corner laughing their asses off after Godzilla knocked a Mega block building over onto Aquaman. The final score was Godzilla 1, Marvel Universe 2, DC Universe 0.

Ahhh... good times.

The next day brought with it a slight hangoverand a Costume change for Silverfox, who looked positively fetching in her Steampunk Catwoman costume:
Seriously, if I had a dollar for every time someone said "Damn, your wife is hot!" I could have paid for the hotel room. Nothing inflates my ego like the "lucky bastard" look fanboys give me when I walk in with my lady on my arm. It didn't hurt the stares factor that she usually had Lex in tow:
For those of you with pittifully low res monitors, that button on her collar says "Evil Henchman #1". This picture was taken just before they both went and bought more Henchmen at the charity slave auction, who all wore buttons Silverfox had made for the occasion that gave them each an "Evil Henchman" number.

It wasn't all fun and games though, I had two ghost hunting panels to put on, (and I'll post about them as soon as I download the pics off of Silverfoxes camera), which went really well.

Silverfox and I got to spend a lot of time together, (which I really miss since she went back to work), and I got to hang with friends that I don't see as often as I would prefer. It was just an awesome time.

In the intrests of fairness...

In regards to my previous entry, I would like to clarify that Short Stuff only chose Oldflame over his Mother because Silverfox had already told him that she had to work on the day of the award ceremony.

Silverfox is the most awesome mom ever, and her son loves her very much... as evidenced by the fact that the little girl in his class that Short Stuff has a crush on looks just like a miniature version of Silverfox.

Family matters....

Today Short Stuff had a special breakfast ceremony at his school because he has been on the honor roll all year (straight A average) and he was allowed to have two adults there to celebrate the event. He was super proud of himself, and with good reason.(see picture in previous entry) Last week, though... picking which two parents to invite was causing the boy some grief.

When I asked him who he wanted to come to the ceremony, I was really just trying to give him a chance to pick his Bio-dad over me if he wanted... but Short Stuff got a big thinky-type frown on his face for a few minutes, without answering me.

"Only two?" He asked after a few minutes, looking at the invitation the school had sent home.

"That's what it says, kid..."

"Okay... I want you and OldFlame to come."

"What? what about Mommy and Daddy?" I sputtered, my mind reeling from the awkwardness that would theoretically ensue from the boy's idea. Bio-dad just moved in with Oldflame, so it wasn't entirely out of line for the boy to suggest her, but still...

Fortunately everyone else was working today so it was just me at his big day... but it got me thinking about how complicated Short Stuff's family tree really is, and how decisions like this are going to plague him his entire life... I mean, the kid has Me, Silverfox, Bio-Dad, and (erring to the optimistic side) Oldflame as parents from here out... in addition, he also has an affinity for Pint-Size's Bio dad and his family to think about, effectively giving him Five parents that Me and Silverfox have been telling him he needs to have respect for. That means ten Grandparents, and untold numbers of uncles and cousins that have to be considered when inviting relatives to any important event in his life from here on out. Not to mention that I complicate matters for him by refering to a few of my friends as "Uncle Stacey" or "Aunt Drew". (A time honored Cerio tradition, thank you... Dad is real proud of how he has carefully screwed up family, friend and gender roles for me and by proxy, for my son.)

I may have to make him a chart.

On the bright side, it means he has a whole lot of people that care about him and his brother... and at least he's not as bad as Ray Stevens:

Short stuff's big day...

How does cj roll? On the honor roll!

Saw the New Trek Movie last night...

And it was much the awsomeness. Abrams overdid it a little on the lens flares, but otherwise the movie rocked. Go see it (so that they make more) and my little nerdy heart will be forever grateful.

I will end this entry with one and only one spoiler, about what was perhaps the most emotional moment of the movie for me:

R.I.P. PORTHOS
2149-2162

You were the best friend a captain ever had, and will be missed. (sniff) Damn those engineers and their transporter experiments!

Queen, the final frontier...

Going to see a sneak preview of the new Star Trek movie tonight... I'll give an opinion tomorrow. In the meantime, more Youtube silliness...

The reboot I want to see...

In honor of thr new Trek movie, I will make this a trek themed week here at DOA, starting with the coolest youtube video ever. Make sure you turn up the volume on this one.