Whew!

April has been a busy month so far. Chuck E. Cheese as a belated reward for the science fair success. Lamb reminded me that I'd promised her a trip there after she put in so much work on her 1st grade science fair project. I know that Chuck E. Cheese has a bad reputation for parents. But really, for $20.00 worth of tokens, we got in over two hours of playing capped off with the purchase of cotton candy and assorted candy with the tickets won. And nobody came down with any virus from grubbing around with other plague-infested children.

The key, of course, is to avoid the over-priced pizza made with crackers, a scattering of cheese food product, and MSG. Go with the tokens and get out. Which we did. We headed to the nearby Target where Mister bought some more presents with some birthday money. I had to veto some computer games because I'm really tired of games that work on my new computer but not his recently memory-upgraded three-year-old computer. Lamb and Mister each have their own computer (Is it nerdy to take some pride that I have four computers in my home but only two televisions?), but they often need to use mine for various games. Lamb, especially has several online games with little cute characters roaming through a cute online world. Sigh. What can you do? I'm the only one with high speed Internet access? And Lamb got a toy called Mymeeba. I never heard of it but it is an electronic game with a soft toy locked inside that grows on the screen when you win hearts. It evolves from a little speck into a grown thing. Pretty cool, actually. It took Lamb about a day to go through the games and release the stuffed, colorful blob.

That day was topped off by ordering pizza from a real pizzeria on the way out of Target which was ready by the time we reached the place. Much better pizza this way. So a pizza and $20.00 worth of tokens bought a fun afternoon and dinner. Not bad. It helps that it has been a year since I took them to Chuck E. Cheese. Perhaps I'd sour on it with more frequent trips.

And we had a nice dinner with some of my family for Easter. As I've written, I'm very happy about how welcome Lamb is. Easter of course included coloring eggs. Mister is not too old to enjoy it and Lamb is in her prime. So sadly, though neither likes hard boiled eggs, I got two dozen to coddle and color. Mister is old enough to soak the eggs for deep colors. Lamb has that enthusiasm that allows time only for pastels. I'm sure there's some deep analogy I could write about concerning this, but after a week of an egg diet--fortified with beer whenever possible--I'm in no condition for that. Plain hard boiled eggs with salt. Chopped up hard boiled eggs on toast with cheese. Chopped up hard boiled eggs on rice with soy sauce. Chopped up hard boiled eggs with mayonaisse for sandwiched. You get the idea. Plus of course the explanation that this holiday isn't about the Easter Bunny but about Jesus going up to heaven.

Still, the candy-filled baskets were the biggest hit. I've given up on jelly beans since they will last until Halloween when they get tossed. I have to be desperate for sugar to raid that source of candy. Lamb even accepts that at some point the Easter Bunny will return and retrieve the baskets to use them next year. Re-use is better than recycling, sweetheart. Mister seems amused at my pronouncements on the matter, being old enough to be in on the secret.

Mister and I also headed out to the Michigan spring practice early one Saturday morning. It was really cool. We skipped the line for the locker room tour. Instead we walked into the stadium on a sunny but cool day to get over-priced concession snacks and watch the alumni player flag football game. That was a hoot. It was good to see some famous football names from near and distant history. They had a good time and the play-by-play was good natured and light-hearted. We skipped the actual scrimmage, although we could have stayed to watch a half hour or so, because we also had tickets to the last home game of the Red Wings.

We made it to the Red Wings game over an hour early. And it worked out well. I departed from the online directions at the last momenton a hunch, and ended up on the Civic Center exit ramp that went right into the Joe Louis Arena parking ramp. Hooah! That skipped numerous steps on the directions list.

We got a frozen lemonade for Mister and a large beer for me (it's a hockey game, cut me some slack). We wandered around since we've never actually been to a hockey game. A little old man walked by me, no more than two feet away, and I said to myself, "that's Gordie Howe!" Actually, I said that to Mister. And when two young men in suits were visible behind him, I knew for sure. And yes, it was the great one since he headed for a table to autograph copies of a book he was selling. I'd know that face anywhere.

Our seats were high up but we had a great view. And just let me say that a lot of female hockey fans are not unpleasant to view. I'm just saying.

We enjoyed the game a great deal despite the outrageous penalty call that gave Chicago a penalty shot that won them the game and denied us overtime. I asked Mister if he wanted to do this again next year and he said yes indeed. So I'll try for a couple games next year. It has to be after the Super Bowl since Mister doesn't really pay attention to hockey until after football is over.

And miracle of miracles, I found my way out of the ramp and immediately recognize that I was going the wrong way. This despite my general lack of a sense of direction and and dreadful lack of knowledge of downtown Detroit. I did a quick turn-around and I was heading for the river. I could see the Ren Cen and knew if I got down there I'd find the freeway and I'd be fine. We at least got to listen to a sports talk show on the way home that got the bad call out of our system.

And this weekend, Lamb and Mister are on a short vacation to Chicago. Their mom is good about stuff like that and they get to travel because of her. I don't have the travel bug, really. The annual Toronto trip is great. But if it was up to me, the kids wouldn't see nearly as much. So I'm happy they enjoy the whole travel thing.

So a busy April so far and it is only half over. Next week it is take your child to work day and I'll take Lamb and Mister up to see the Legislature in action. For Lamb I'm sure the M & M dispensor in my office will be the highlight.

It's good to be a dad.