fun

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Dear Jack: GlowGolf (Real Glow-In-The-Dark Miniature Golf) A Family Friendly Review

3 years, 9 months.

GlowGolf: Real Glow-In-The-Dark Miniature Golf- A Family Friendly Review

Dear Jack,

Back a couple of months ago for Father’s Day, you (and Mommy) got me a Groupon for GlowGolf. We just now got around to cashing it in this weekend, here at the end of the summer.

GlowGolf: Real Glow-In-The-Dark Miniature Golf- A Family Friendly Review

Yesterday at school, you mentioned to your teacher Ms. Michelle that we were going golfing over the weekend… for my birthday. Birthday, Father’s Day… same difference.

GlowGolf: Real Glow-In-The-Dark Miniature Golf- A Family Friendly Review

She helped you make a birthday card for me. I loved it! I’ll be hanging it up on my wall in my office: “That’s you and me driving a train,” you explained.

Then this morning, you were so excited in anticipation, you celebrated by making a “Christmas tree” out of your basketball hoop and random plastic animals.

basketball Christmas tree funny

I suppose when you’re 3, it’s easy to confuse Christmas, Father’s Day, and my birthday.

While GlowGolf locations can be found all across America, the one closest to us was just down the road in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

GlowGolf (Real Glow-In-The-Dark Miniature Golf) A Family Friendly Review

I knew it would be fun, simply because it would involve our family and something we’ve never done before.

And sure enough, we totally had a blast!

You’re just 3 months away from turning 4, but you are definitely old enough to appreciate and enjoy it.

GlowGolf (Real Glow-In-The-Dark Miniature Golf) A Family Friendly Review

Granted, you aren’t old enough to play by the rules. In other words, we didn’t bother to actually take score.

In fact, you helped Mommy and me by scooting the ball in the hole anytime we got close to the hall.

How thoughtful!

GlowGolf (Real Glow-In-The-Dark Miniature Golf) A Family Friendly Review

At this particular GlowGolf, there are 18 different holes and you can play them up to 3 times. I was impressed by the glow-in-the-dark artwork surrounding us.

Also, note to self: Next time we go, make sure to stand right under the black light each time you take a picture. Even though the light is “black,” it makes for clearer pictures!

Yes, we will definitely be going back. Not simply because it was the perfect way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon, and because it’s really cheap ($8 for adults, kids age 5 and less only $3), but because Mommy won a free ticket for next time!

GlowGolf (Real Glow-In-The-Dark Miniature Golf) A Family Friendly Review

The final hole is a Plinko-like toss-up where it’s fairly easy, yet random, to get a hole-in-one. But if you do, as Mommy did, you win a free game!

I just happened to catch a shot of her making the winning putt!

Thanks for my Father’s Day/birthday/Christmas gift. I had a really fun time with you and Mommy. That’s the best kind of gift you can give me anyway.

Love,

Daddy

1 Comment Posted on parenting, Storytelling

A Southern Fried, Sunday Afternoon Play Date

August 6, 2013 at 11:00 pm , by 

2 years, 8 months.

Dear Jack,

After testing out the adventure of taking you to the races at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway with us, we decided to invite your best friend Sophie and her parents along for the next race.

It was interesting because I could tell Sophie enjoyed watching the races just as much as you did, but in a slightly different way:

She is a highly verbal extrovert. You are a highly verbal introvert.

Sophie wanted to talk to you and share snacks.

You wanted to eat your own snacks and watch the race; as the “grumpy old man” look on your face in this picture clearly demonstrates.

I was actually surprised you let Sophie wear your skull and crossbones sunglasses… or as you call them, your robot glasses.

Basically, if it meant she didn’t get to eat your food, you were willing to sacrifice the shades.

It was funny when I asked Sophie’s mommy how she liked the races as we were leaving, because her response perfectly reflected my own: “That was different… but I had a good time.”

I must say that being at the races this weekend reminded me how truly Southern living in Nashville can be sometimes… or at least I should say, in some places in Nashville.

The races began with a prayer, which is fine by me. However, the prayer devolved quickly:

“Dear Lord, we thank you that we can all be here at the races today. We just ask that you will keep all these drivers safe today…”

So far so good. But then…

“And Lord, we pray that you will help these cars go faster than they ever have before, so that all the fans here today will be entertained like they never have before…”

{Insert record scratching sound effect here to imply a surprise in the story flow, like they do in cliche movie trailers.}

“And I just pray, oh Lord, that for all the people who decided to stay home today instead of coming out here to the races, that the next time they decide to not come to the races, you would make them feel bad and realize just what they’re missing by not being here with us today.”

That was the point where I stopped taking the prayer seriously, and started looking around, catching eye contact with Sophie’s parents, as to say, “This must be a joke, right?”

Nonetheless, the man ended his “prayer” like this, I kid you not:

“And I pray all this in Jesus’ name, boogity-boogity… AMEN!”

I felt like I needed to ask God for forgiveness simply just for being present for that.

(It actually reminded me of one of my favorite bands, Cake, with their 1998 song, “Satan Is My Motor”; which I interpret as a song about the dichotomy of impure motives versus good intentions.)

Perhaps the most confusing part of the opening prayer was the fact he prayed that the next time people decided to stay home, that God would essentially curse them, but not this time.

Sophie and her parents stayed about an hour after we left, which was at the end of the third race. I learned from Sophie’s mommy, that in the fourth race, two of the cars bumped into each other and the drivers got out of their cars to start fighting each other.

Fortunately, the drivers’ pit crews held them back from actually hitting each other in the face.

I think next time, the opening prayer needs to cover that too.

 

Love,

Daddy

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Review Of Sunburst Adventures Whitewater Rafting, Ocoee River

These days, each year for your wedding anniversary, you’re evidently supposed to post a picture on Facebook of yourself with your spouse on your wedding today, with a caption reading something like this:

“Happy Anniversary! I can’t believe it’s been (insert number here) wonderful years of wedded bliss…”.

Review Of Sunburst Adventures Whitewater Rafting, Ocoee River

Meanwhile, my wife and I were too busy on the morning of our 6th year anniversary (July 5th) to update our Facebook statuses…

We left at 6:23 AM in the Toyota Highlander to go to Benton, Tennessee for our 9:30 departure from Sunburst Adventures for whitewater rafting! I had been rafting several times thoughout my high school years, but mainly on the tamer Nantahala River near North Carolina.

But on the Ocoee, the ride is wild enough to require a guide. My wife had never been at all. It had been 9 years for me.

Review Of Sunburst Adventures Whitewater Rafting, Ocoee River

Simply put, going whitewater rafting was the perfect way to celebrate our 6th year wedding anniversary. I was particularly pleased with the set-up of Sunburst Adventures, as compared to other companies I have gone with in the past.

The guides were fun, free-spirited, and great at communicating the directions. (We loved our guide, Abby.) I was also impressed with the facilities as well; not run down at all.

Review Of Sunburst Adventures Whitewater Rafting, Ocoee River

The family of four that my wife and I were placed with in the raft were a great fit for us. Turns out, randomly, that the dad of the family and I graduated from the same small high school, 12 years apart; in Fort Payne, Alabama. We had never met until this weekend and only learned what we had in common halfway through the trip!

Going whitewater rafting brings people together. It’s not scary, but it is thrilling. So it only makes sense that my wife and I chose whitewater rafting as a way to celebrate our anniversary.

Basically, it’s impossible to not talk about how fun the trip was afterwards. You just can’t be bored doing something like that.

Review Of Sunburst Adventures Whitewater Rafting, Ocoee River

Plus, you get to be outside enjoying God’s green Earth, breathing fresh air, and feeling the sunshine.

Our son is only 3 and a half, so he’s not quite old enough for an adventure this thrilling. Until then, my wife and I have sort of decided to make it a new tradition to go whitewater rafting each summer.

Thanks for reading my newest Family Friendly Daddy Blog review! You didn’t have to, but you did. I wonder what I’ll review next?

38 Comments Posted on People, Recaps, Uncategorized, Writing

Movie Guy, at Your Service: The Social Network (Plus, Which Actors are Jewish)

Why this movie guy proclaims it to be “Movie of the Year”.

I am extremely picky when it comes to movies.  Extremely. Very seldom do I finish seeing a movie and say, “There’s nothing they could have done to make that any better.  It was perfect.”  But that’s what I said to my wife as I left the cinema on Saturday afternoon after seeing The Social Network.

For a person who hasn’t seen The Social Network yet, and especially for a person who hasn’t even seen a preview for it either, it would be easy to think of it as Facebook: The Movie, some light-hearted movie about how facebook got started.  Fortunately, the movie’s title doesn’t contain the word “facebook” in it.  “The Social Network” is the best possible title because the film retraces all of the random people it took to invent, expand, sustain, and make a confirmed success out of the website.

I always assumed that Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg himself was the responsible for it all.  Played by Jesse Eisenberg, facebook creator Zuckerberg comes across as an obsessed college student with Aspergers (he’s just extremely intelligent, instead), so consumed with his website idea that despite making facebook about socializing with people, that his last concern in the world is actually having real friends.

It’s interesting to see how Zuckerberg journeys through the entire movie, constantly finding ways to improve facebook, plowing through real-life friends along the way, collecting and adding their ideas to his growing snowball of a website.  I had no idea that Napster creator Sean Parker, cleverly portrayed by Justin Timberlake, at one time played an important part in it all.

A key factor in The Social Network‘s success is its dark and sophisticated tone. It’s not just Trent Reznor’s musical contributions going on in the background.  I can confidently state that the movie can’t be described as “fun” or “trendy”.  It’s not quirky in the ways that made Garden State a comedy as well as a drama.  The Social Network is simply just a drama, but an infectiously interesting one.  I was impressed how they could fit the coolness of an R-rated movie into the limitations of a PG-13 rating.

When the movie ended, I came to terms with the fact there was no real climax or truly resolvable plot… just like facebook.  In the movie, Zuckerberg compares facebook to fashion, in that it never ends.  The Social Network, from start to finish, is an ongoing, constantly evolving entity.  For me, the whole movie was a continual plot line and climax. This offbeat formula captures the idea of facebook so well.

For me to say that The Social Network is the movie of the year is to say that it’s better than Inception.  So just to be clear, for me, it was better than Inception. My guess is that most people who have seen both movies will disagree with me. But the cultural relevance, perfectly executed acting, and snappy pace of The Social Network kept my mind from ever wandering.  And in age where things like facebook only encourage ADHD behavior, a movie that can keep my attention for a solid two hours and one minute deserves a prize for that alone.

Ethnic Backgrounds of the Main Cast

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The Speed of Life: Trapped in a Time Machine

We are time traveling every moment of our lives.

Greek-American comedian Demetri Martin explains in his Comedy Central special “Person”, that he invented a time machine.  The problem is, it travels at the normal rate that time passes, so basically it’s just a cardboard box with “time machine” written on it with a permanent marker.

So much of childhood is waiting for it to be time for something: trapped waiting for your parents to get off of work to pick you up from daycare or waiting for school to be over so you can go home or waiting to be old enough to do something your current age prevents you from doing.

And obviously, waiting is always a part of life.  Adulthood is no exception- waiting to graduate college, waiting to find the right person to marry, waiting for a good job, waiting for a promotion, waiting for enough money to get out of debt, waiting to pay off the house, waiting to retire.

And all this talk of all this waiting makes me think of one of my favorite songs from the famous Country band from my hometown, “I’m in a Hurry” by Alabama: “I’m in a hurry to get things done, though I try and try until life’s no fun.  All I really gotta do is live and die but I’m in a hurry and don’t know why.”  Ultimately, when we by default view each stage of life as just another one to be waited out, we miss quality moments and surprisingly meaningful stuff in between all the waiting: Like being trapped in a time machine that travels at the normal rate of time passing.

For a similar post by the same author, read Taking the Time to Stop and Smell the Play-Doh.