Random Ramblings: Family Edition

* For his latest Cub Scouts meeting, Pedro Tulo learned about knife safety and how to effectively use a pocket knife. I consider it a huge win that he only cut himself and drew blood once during the evening.

* Pedro Tulo also got to carry out the American flag and hold it on court during the national anthem before Sunday's George Mason-Saint Joseph's basketball game. As a tangent, attending Mason basketball games is a very easy and fun family activity. General admission tickets for the men's team are $10, there's free parking, and it's easy to get into and out of the parking lots.

* When talking with a neighbor recently, The Moose said that he doesn't want to play baseball this spring because he doesn't think he has a chance of being a professional player. Of course, he wants to play flag football instead since I guess he thinks he's going to make the NFL. I’m 5’ 7” and could never come close to running a 40-yard dash in 4.3 seconds, so it seems unlikely that he’ll have the size or speed to play sports professionally. Anyway, I tried to explain that you play sports for fun and to be part of a team. Selfishly though, I'm enjoying the current basketball season so much more than the baseball season. While he usually has basketball practice once a week with two weekly games, they rarely last more than an hour. During baseball season, he would also have games or practices three days a week, but The Moose would need to arrive at his 6:30 game by 5:15, and we wouldn't leave the field until around 8:45. That made for some very long days.

* Luigi did something to the web browser on my phone which reset all of my stats on Wordle, Quordle, etc. My Wordle stats showing only 4 games played looks really sad.

* Luigi’s kindergarten teacher told us that he is one of her easiest kids. He has the teacher fooled! Yes, Luigi is adorable and can be sweet, but he has regular meltdowns at home for various reasons where he screams like he’s being tortured in The Princess Bride. His most recent meltdown was because he wanted to make Valentines Day cards for his classmates and was told no since 1. it’s still two weeks away, 2. it was bedtime, and 3. most importantly, we don’t have the cards yet.

* It seems like the lead story almost every other day on national newscasts is winter weather. There have been deadly and crippling storms throughout the county the last few months. While the DC area has been fairly lucky so far, I have three flights coming up over the next few months going to Wichita (through Atlanta), Denver, and Florida. Really hoping for no or minimal delays.

* Finally, Costco is dangerous. If I see any type of snacks on sale, I’m buying them. Do I really need two monster bags of Chex Mix? No. Did I buy two monster bags? Of course!