New Year's Eve Memory

I ran across these pictures as I was clearing up hard drive space on the iMac.  As we're about to ring in 2011, here's a New Year's Eve moment some of you Virginia Beach friends might remember.

I'm thinking I was in the 8th or 9th grade when we had a New Year's Eve party at my folks' house in Salem Village.  Breakdancing was in full effect.  I was a member of the Fil-Am Rockers breakdancing group.  We were a very credible group that had bookings for performances and everything.  I remember performing at some of the hotels on the boardwalk, a couple of festivals and even doing a gig for a Senator.  Hey, he was a  State Senator but who's counting?  Most of the members were at the house that night..the night IT happened.  IT was Billy Cassity's incredible headspin:

Bill Shree executed the most awesome headspin ever on that memorable night.  I forget how many revolutions he made or how long he was in the air.  It must've been at least a half hour - in Inception time.  We were in shock as it happened and erupted in giddy screams of joy, laughter and congratulations after it happened.  It was as if we were watching Michelangelo laying on his back painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  Thank you for that headspin Bill Shree - a humble Spaniard who delivered the morning newspaper to earn his wages (yes, a paper route) and drove an old monster Cadillac to school everyday that brazenly occupied three parking spots.  Bill would always live on in breakdancing lore because of his New Year's Eve accomplishment.

On the left is Ant Brown covering his eyes in disbelief.  Yes, it was comparable to looking directly at the sun.  That's Jaried Frogosa at the top left sporting the big 80's hair and the cutoff shirt to allow the ladies to see his guns.  You can't see it but I'm sure Jaried has a hairbrush in his rear pants pocket.  I'm on the right with my Ocean Pacific shirt, baggy pants and rad mullet.  Although my hairstyle says business in the front and party in the back, on that special evening, the hair balance of power was definitely on the party side.  There I am, arms extended and ready to sacrifice my body to protect one of my Dad's prized possessions - his big Sony stereo speakers.  I was prepared to get kicked in the head if it meant that Bill Shree's legs wouldn't come crashing down on Dad's speakers.  You would think that while wearing those parachute pants, Bill's legs would have a more controlled dismount, especially with the side zippers open to facilitate the aerodynamic characteristics of the pockets, helping to capture more air and control the deceleration velocity during the endgame of the headspin.  No such luck.

These two pictures belong in a time capsule.  Parachute pants, Members Only jacket, headspinning, hairstyles, fashion and teenage drama.  I wish the quality of the picture was better but what do you expect from a Kodak Disc camera.  Remember those beauties?  The photo even has my brother Beanie on the left with his Bruce Lee Kung Fu gear posing with his revenge fist.  Beanie has since changed his preference for martial arts.  He's very much into his Jujitsu now.  The teenage drama part - well, the girl up front is Jenny Chapman, one of my ex-girlfriends who started dating my good friend Ruben Soliman after we broke up.  Ruben is the guy sitting behind Jenny.  I should point out that Ruben's hair is both feathered and layered.  I didn't bat an eyelash at him dating my ex.  I just don't do grudges.  Still don't.  But now that I look back with more mature eyes, it might not have been the most comfortable evening for Jenny.  Maybe her expression in the picture says it all.  Ah, to be young again.

I just noticed my Mom's Lladro porcelain flowers on the lower left corner of the picture.  If Bill Shree had come crashing down on her Lladro, I would've been paying that off instead of saving up for my next Sergio Valente shirt.

I'm not sure what headspinning moment tonight's New Year's Eve party will bring.  But like many years ago, hanging out with good friends is always a good start.  That and making sure you don't break anything, from a headspin dismount or any other party action.  

Time to get ready for tonight's party.  Here's to 2011!

Christmas!

We just got slapped in the face with the Christmas magic.  There was plenty of laughing and too much eating at the Cruz household this past Christmas as Carol and I were blessed to have my brothers and my sister bring their talents to Memphis this year for the holidays.  It was an awesome time that passed way too quickly.

Jake is a firm believer in Mr. C. but the pre-teens, CJ and Jena have their doubts.  They were overheard discussing the finer points of Santa Claus' supposed existence well into Christmas eve.  At any rate, they sure did rip through the wrapping paper Christmas morning like they were true believers of jolly old Saint Nick.  

Jena is sporting her Christmas gifts from the Bass Pro Shop.  A big fishing fan, she's a girl after my own heart.  Even in the cold weather, she wanted to get out and do some fishing here in Tennessee.  She's not afraid of worms or the other slimy stuff that confounds other little princesses.  Her purse is still not a purse.  She refers to it as "that thing that holds many items."

Always a popular gift - CHC.  Cold hard cash.

 

I surprised Carol with a Swarovski crystal piece of four birds on a perch.  When we were living in Miami, these wild parrots would come hang out in our backyard and make all sorts of cool noises.  We have a small collection of Swarovski crystals as keepsakes from the various places the Navy has brought us.

Although Memphis didn't have to cancel any football games because of inclement weather, we did get a light dusting of snow on Christmas day.  Here we are reveling in our pseudo White Christmas, flip flops and all. 

My sister Darby drove up from Houston, Texas.  We're all smiles even though both of our football teams - the Houston Texans and Miami Dolphins blew leads and are knocked out of the playoffs.  Beanie and Lee's team, the Dallas Cowboys, didn't fare any better.  Not a good football weekend for us but a very good family weekend.  

Here's Carol checking out one of her favorite Christmas presents - the Dyson Animal vacuum.  Oh yeah, I'm romantic like that.  I'm thinking Carol's got a future as a Price is Right girl.

I was amazed and disgusted at the same time after seeing what a couple of sweeps of this vacuum picked up.  We were lying around in that?

Flannigan and Serena got along better as time passed but not to the point where we could let them hang out freely at the same time.  It was like keeping the prison yard bullies away from each other.  Bummer cause I know Flannigan had plans to hump many of our family guests.  

Anytime the Cruz's get together, we plan on adding a few LBs.  Alan grilled a turkey, Darb cooked Mom's famous pineapple ham, Beanie roasted two lechons and of course Carol made some nice desserts including her carrot cake and dump cake.  Plenty more too.  As we say in post all-you-can-eat-buffet debriefings, "we hit it... and we hit it hard."  Pictured here is Darby's ropa vieja and empenadas.  So dang good.  And fat free too.  Darb has definitely expanded her cooking prowess during her time in the Lone Star state.

Jena picking at the pork lechon like the Dad picking at the turkey from "A Christmas Story."

There's nothing like eating, laughing and just enjoying the company of loved ones.  I know family can be difficult at times, especially during the holidays, but I'm blessed to have low maintenance, fun loving family members.  We were bummed as everyone had to head back home.  Jake exemplified our collective mood as he put out the big fat sad lip on the day that his cousins had to depart.  Heck, I'll take the big fat sad lip any day if it means getting to hang with my bros and my sis - even if just for a little bit.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas.

Holiday Video

Check out the video CJ made.  Bring back the big hair bands!  Merry Christmas everyone!

CJ's Holiday Video

Bad Markers

I'm not fully sold on the name of this product.  From the reviews I got from CJ and Jake, this marker set was not a blast:

CJ's criticism was a little more bold than mine:

Although Dustin Hoffman parlayed his use of this simple word when describing K-mart in the movie, "Rainman" to a best actor award, I wasn't crazy about the boys' liberal use of "sucks."  But in this case, I think it was appropriate.

Now I'll be the first to admit that Jake can be rough with any coloring products - crayons, markers, paint, chalk, yogurt, jello, etc, but it seemed like no time at all before these marker tips frayed and were practically useless.  Anyway, we decided to make this whole experience a parenting moment and show the boys that you can do something about poor quality.  We wrote a letter to the company.  Lo and behold, they mailed us a brand new set of markers.  The boys were impressed.  Good on you, Color Loco.

Hopefully this blog post didn't su... never mind.

Random Thoughts #1

I've got the best Mom anyone could ask for.  Happy Birthday Mom.  I love you.

Jake's announcement to his kindergarten class today:  "Everyone, I have a loose tooth today.  You must all leave me alone."

Tennessee gets a lot colder than I thought it would.

On my recent visit to Korea, I was reminded that kim chi in a jar is not as good as fresh kim chi.

I consider it a success when my work email inbox is below 200 emails.  Not much success lately.

The Miami Dolphins may not win the Superbowl this year.

Navy moves are never easy.

Who knew that Santa Claus made a regular stop at Bass Pro Shops?

Hand models are creepy people.  See video if you don't believe me:



Until next time...

North Korea

Tensions are high between North and South Korea right now.  To get a better understanding of the mind of the leader of North Korea, click on the link to check out a provocative introspective of Kim Jong Il:

Kim Jong Il Looking at Things

The Iron Bowl

College football in the south is a religion.  The annual Iron Bowl (Alabama versus Auburn) is absolute fanaticism.  For non-southerners, I won't try to attempt to explain the ferocity and emotion that this game evokes from drawlers in Opelika and Montgomery and twangers from Tuscaloosa and Greenbow.  This one is deep in tradition and history, boasting some great players in this game - Joe Namath, Kenny Stabler, Bo Jackson and Bill Newton to name a few.

What do you mean you've never heard of Bill Newton?  Yeah, me neither.  But like I said, lots of history with this game.  38 years ago in the Iron Bowl where Auburn was staring down the barrel of a sure defeat, Bill Newton, a walk-on linebacker for the Auburn Tigers, blocked two consecutive punts in the final six minutes of that 1972 game to defeat the #2 ranked team in the nation.  Both blocked punts were returned for touchdowns.  Final score:  Auburn 17, Alabama 16.  Allow me to use my vast math skills to tell you that the only offense produced by Auburn that day was a measly field goal.  Didn't matter.  They still got the W.

But that was 1972 and this is 2010.  Surely this Newton phenomenon only happens once in a blue moon - or a blue and orange moon I guess.  I had the pleasure of experiencing the 2010 version of the Iron Bowl in the company of Carol's family in the great state of Alabama during this past Thanksgiving weekend.  They're all huge Crimson Tide fans.  I can only think of one member of Carol's family that's an Auburn fan.  To ensure this rebel's safety, I won't divulge her name in this post.

Many Bama fans will tell you that if the University of Alabama loses every game of the season but beats the War Eagles of Auburn, it's still a successful season.  For those that watched the game, you can probably guess that the first half was all smiles.  The Tide was definitely rolling.  Who knew that the missed opportunities would come back to haunt them in such a big way.  The second half didn't go so well.  It's not every day that a Nick Saban led defense blows a 24 point lead.

I have a theory on the loss.  I saw an interview with Coach Saban.  He was talking about how all the players would go to some of the coaches or players' homes for a big Thanksgiving meal.  Shoot.  That's the problem right there.  The turkey tryptophan knocked out the players in the second half.  I saw how the Oregon head coach had his team wait until after their game against Arizona before dining on their Thanksgiving meal.  Just saying.  Next year Saban - no turkey for the players!

So here's Carol and her cousin Angela giving the "voodoo hands" to the television while Auburn has the ball.  It was a pretty funny sight watching the entire room wiggle their hands towards the TV like they're flicking boogers.  I think this jinxing tactic actually worked for a couple of plays.

The more voodoo hands, the better.  I believe in this particular instance, the hands caused a much needed sack on Auburn quarterback, Cam Newton.

With Alabama's starting quarterback and star wide receiver out for the last part of the game, things looked bleak in the fourth quarter.  Unfortunately, Cam Newton and his "play for pay" drama was too much for even the voodoo hands to overcome.  It was a somber mood following the Alabama loss.  Well, at least there were Thanksgiving leftovers and the accompanying tryptophan to knock us out of our misery after the game.  

So who could've predicted that 38 years later, another Newton phenomenon would occur in this most fabled of games?  I guess it was time for another blue and orange moon.  There's always next year.  Roll Tide!

Sweet Thanksgiving

We haven't celebrated Thanksgiving in Alabama with Carol's family since Carol was pregnant with Jake.  And even then, I was out at sea so it was only Carol and CJ enjoying a southern feast while I was haze gray and underway fighting for turkey and stuffing with 5,000 of my best navy shipmates onboard the aircraft carrier, USS JOHN F. KENNEDY.

So one of the best things about this current tour in Memphis is our proximity to family.  It's about a four hour drive to Birmingham.  We've already made the trip a couple of times.  This is the closest we've ever been to either of our families throughout my entire career.  Driving to Greenbow, Alabama for Thanksgiving was a no-brainer.

Along with the traditional Thanksgiving grub that was so delicious it would make Paula Dean smack her momma, there was also plenty of mind blowing sweets to help accelerate the tryptophan-induced food comas we would soon succumb to.  Allow me to share two sweet delicacies that stood out during this nice break with family.

Jake discovered strawberry milk.  Since his first try just wasn't pink enough, he of course had to pour in another dose of that sugary goodness.  I believe the spoon was able to stand up on its own in that glass.

If all the Halloween candy wasn't enough to send your kid to the dentist, how about this bad boy to ensure the presence of holes in the mouths of the little ones?  Wrapped around the Kit Kat candy bar walls and the M&M roof is an actual chocolate cake.  Amy, you outdid yourself.

I'm embarrassed to say that I did not partake in either treat, even though they were both fat free.  Yeah, right.  Milk and I haven't seen eye to eye for years.  As far as the cake, sometimes it's better to just soak in the Picasso with your eyes rather than take it home.  

Tennessee Living

Some random shots of Tennessee living:

There seems to be a Cracker Barrel every quarter mile in Tennessee.  In addition to getting a heck of a breakfast at the CB, you'll also get smacked in the face with the loud orange and white.  Honky tonk baby!  

It's a barbecue bonanza out here in Tennessee.  There's the Germantown Commissary, Corky's, Top's, the Rendezvous, Barbarosa and many others.  I have to say that I still have Bob Syke's BBQ on the top of my list.  That's blasphemy in these parts since Bob Syke's is an Alabama establishment.  Hey, I like what I like.

There are some serious bugs here in Tennessee.  It's tough to keep your car clean with so many insects smashing themselves against your vehicle on a daily basis.  During the summer, you gotta keep your mouth closed while jogging unless you want to digest some impromptu bug protein.

The home of Federal Express, Memphis is a world-renowned distribution center.  When you absolutely, positively have to eat good barbecue dressed in loud orange and white, come to Tennessee.

There's some good fishing in these Tennessee lakes.  Just ask famous bass fisherman, Bill Dance.  He's got a weekly fishing show where he proudly wears his Tennessee Volunteers ballcap.  I caught this guy with a lipless crankbait.  Don't worry.  I'm a catch and release guy.  

So while you're fishing in Tennessee, you might want to keep an eye out for water moccasins or his other legless cousins.  Don't worry.  I'm a see a snake and run guy.

Driveway socializing is how we roll in our fun Tennessee neighborhood.  Folks just pull up their portable chairs, pop open a beer or soda and let the kids play their hearts out up and down the street.  You'll get the occasional yell of "CAR!!!" from the parents when someone pulls onto our street.  It's just friendly neighborhood USA here in our neck of the woods.  Hope you enjoyed the quick stroll with me.  Until next time.
   

Tennessee Politics

Some of the Alabama kin-folk came up to visit us not too long ago.  Dang, that sounded southern, didn't it?  While on the road to visit Graceland, Carol took a picture of this car:

Here's a closer look at the sign on top of the car:

Yeah, I would say Tennessee leans just a little towards the right.  I wonder if this guy voted in the November election?  For the record, I do not have this same sign planted in my front yard. I'm just a humble sailor that will support and follow the orders of the President of the United States, no matter what political party he belongs to.  If I have any pet peeves at all, it's when my military buddies get on Facebook and bad mouth certain politicians, including the President.  That's a big no-no in my book.  As officers, we take an oath to support the big man, not just the guy we voted for.  Okay, off my soap box now.

Flannigan!

Losing Fred, our dog for 16 years, was a big blow for the Cruz family.  We'll never forget him.  We had plenty of conversation on whether we were ready for another addition to the family.  It almost felt like we were cheating on Fred just by having those talks.  But after a while, we felt it was the right thing to do.  CJ's strong opinion on the topic had a lot to do with the decision.  He was going dog crazy.

So we started visiting the various animal shelters in the area.  Flannigan immediately caught Carol's eye.  I think he gave her a funny look and head tilt.  He was very cautious and shy in his cage and we never heard a single peep out of him - not a single whimper or bark.  The Humane Society folks said he came to them in rough shape.  He was either abused or involved in a serious accident.  They think he was burned or drug by a car.  He had no fur on the left side of his body and he was extremely skinny.  The good folks at the Humane Society did a great job of getting him well though.

Some of you have heard my pitch before on rescuing animals from shelters and humane societies.  There are some really good animals there that need homes.  The alternative for these creatures is not good.  Don't plunk down hundreds of dollars for purebred pets from pet stores or breeders.  Save a doggie life instead!

So here's good old Flannigan.  He's a little over a year old now.  We're picking Labor Day as his birthday.  Close enough for government work.  Best guess is he's part boxer, part border collie.  We don't care.  He's all Cruz now.


What an awesome dog he is.  We should've known by those first couple of looks he gave Carol that he was really smart.  With just a little bit of training, he's already picked up several tricks.  He knows sit, shake hands, down, stay, roll over and will fetch the ball all day long.  He's also housebroken.  Unfortunately, he doesn't know how to grab me a beer yet but we're working on it.

That dog loves his momma.

His best doggie friend is Daisy, a beautiful lab who lives next door.  They roll around like there's no tomorrow.  It won't be long before Daisy will be bigger than Flannigan.

So here's a quick video that shows some of Flannigan's quirkiness.  I don't know what he was doing with that tennis ball.  Pretty glad to have a yard for Flannigan to romp around in.  Have a great weekend.

Eye Protection

Eye incident #1:  Curiosity gets the best of Jake and gets hit in the eye with a ceiling fan while investigating the view from the top bunk bed.

Eye incident #2:  Jake gets hit in the eye with a plastic baseball bat.

So this morning, Carol and I wake up to see Jake like this:

Maybe he's doing his best to prevent a third incident?  For those who think things come in three's, I should point out that the real incident #1 was putting his finger in the pencil sharpener. I think he's had his fill of incidents.  Here's to a safe Halloween.

World Record Curly Fry

There's good and bad in this picture:

Yeah, Jake's eye looks pitiful after accidentally getting hit in the eye with a baseball bat.  Good thing it was a plastic bat instead of something like adamantium.  So Carol and I had one of those long parenting evenings in the emergency room where you're quickly reminded that your other perceived emergencies like work stuff, the weekend plans and piles of laundry don't mean jack squat.  You just want your kid to be okay.  And he was.  Whew.  Side note:  Couldn't the hospital have given us the reams of paperwork to fill out while we were just sitting around the waiting room doing nothing?  Instead, they give us the paperwork at the end of the visit to ensure we get the special wonton extended ER experience.  Grrr.

So after our late night ER fun, we do what any good nutrition-conscious parents would do - hit the Arby's drive thru window.  And that's where Jake stumbles across this beauty of a curly fry.  That's gotta be a world record holder there.  I challenge you to show me a longer one.  And we even had six inches of this fried magic break off.  I know what you're thinking.  Chris photo-shopped that bad boy to impress friends.  Nope.  That's pure potato goodness you're eyeballing there my friends.  You can live a lifetime without experiencing a starch that amazing.  It was yin and yang in action.  A baseball bat to the orbital socket followed by the mother of all curly fries.  A good trade-off?  I think you know the answer to that one.

Goldilocks

After yet another silly incident in the Cruz household, I was reminded of Goldilocks from the famous fairy tale - you know, the little blonde that rudely trespassed at the Three Bears' property.  I always thought she got a free pass in that story.  There she was messing with other folks' furniture, eating their food and even sleeping in their beds.  The nerve of that little girl.  Maybe a better alternate ending for that story would be something like, "...and the Three Bears saw her sleeping in the bed.  They quickly dismembered her and gnawed on her bones for an afternoon snack.  The End."

So here's what happened the other day.  While typing away at the computer desk at home, I suddenly felt the earth shift underneath me.  I came crumbling down to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

"And Goldilocks broke Baby Bear's chair..."  

If a chair breaking down under the weight of your rump roast ain't a sign that you need to lose some weight, I don't know what is.  After hearing the crash and bang of me tumbling to the floor, Carol rushed into the room and immediately fell out laughing after seeing my pitiful self on the floor next to the chair I had just demolished with my immense girth.  I'm always happy to entertain my lovely wife but dang, did she have to laugh so hard?  I swear milk would've flown out her nose if she was drinking some.

So this was the first sign that I might want to leave my work desk and get on the treadmill once in a while.  The second sign was getting ready for the Navy Ball.  While putting on those high waisted pants for the dinner mess dress uniform, I was reminded of how stuffed sausage is made.

I know.  I know.  I'm in a lot better shape than most people and I shouldn't complain.  Gotta keep yourself motivated somehow though.  Ridicule is as good as any.

BTW, did you notice the white paw on the right side of the picture?  More on that guy later.

Packing at Pei Wei

If you say you don't like the lettuce wraps at P.F. Chang's, than you're a dang liar.  That's some good chinese food there, and this is coming from a guy that's eaten food in China.  So in China, do you think they just call it "food?"  Never mind.

Anyway, we were stoked to find out that there's a Pei Wei restaurant near the house.  Pei Wei is the faster and more casual version of P.F. Chang's.  Same menu and everything.  Just cheaper prices and no long waits.  I highly recommend it.  Love the mongolian beef.

Just don't go packing at Pei Wei.  Check out their sign.  Once again I'm reminded that, "you in the south now boy."

Kraft Not-So-Easy Mac

I was reminded the other day that I'm an idiot.  Allow me to explain.

Carol is really good about packing lunches for me and the boys.  The teachers and lunch ladies at school have even commented on the beautiful and healthy lunches that Carol packs for CJ and Jake.  Well, we had a late one at the emergency room the other night.  Baseball bat to the eye for Jake.  I'll get to that story later.  Everything is fine now.  Anyway, to lighten the load on Carol, I told her not to worry about packing me a lunch the next day so she could sleep in.  I would just take one of those microwaveable Kraft Easy Mac macaroni and cheese things.  How hard could it be to prep one of those?

So lunchtime rolls around at work.  I read the directions on the package.  I pour in the proper amount of water and nuke it for the prescribed 3.5 minutes.  Well, I get distracted with the never-ending slew of emails and realize that I've still got the Easy Mac in the microwave just sitting there all by its lonesome.  I figure it's cold by now so I nuke it for another minute or so.  Then I add the cheese powder just like the directions say and mix it up as best as I could.  Here's the end result:

I botched it up bad!  I inadvertently microwaved all of the water out of the thing so the cheese powder didn't have anything to mix with except for gooey clumps of over-nuked macaroni.  The picture doesn't do the ineptitude of my "cooking" any justice.  A baboon couldn't have messed this thing up any worse.  One bite would have zero cheese while the very next bite would be a cheese overload.  Yeah, I still ate it.  It was a pride thing.

The only redeeming thing I can take from this latest bout of stupidity is that at least the fire alarm didn't go off and the fire trucks didn't come to our building like they did two days later after someone burned up some popcorn pretty bad at work.  Hah!  I'm not the worst.

There is one other redeeming thing from this whole episode.  I giggled my head off.  After a very stressful time with Jake and the emergency room, it was good to be able to laugh at something - even if it was myself.

Good thing I married an awesome cook.

Fall is Coming

The temperature was in the 70's today.  Nice.  You could actually see your breath this morning.  I am digging this.  Much better than the sweltering heat we've been getting.  Here's a picture that Carol took a couple weeks ago of the bank that's right outside of the base:

111 degrees?  That's crazy talk.  I am reminded once again that "you in the South now boy."  Enjoy the weather wherever you are.

Fortune Cookie

Check out this fortune cookie that I got from CJ:

I gotta say that this particular fortune cookie maker possesses incredible penmanship.

So I've got this idea for a new style of fortune cookie.  It's a humorous spin-off called "Misfortune Cookies."  They'll have terrible fortunes inside like, "Your house will burn down tomorrow" or "You will come down with a horrid case of diarrhea after eating chinese food."  You know, something to giggle at instead of reading the same old sunshine in a bottle stuff that you get from normal fortune cookies.

You know what.  I better check something first.  Stand by please...

Dang it.  Just googled "misfortune cookies."  Someone already had the same idea:

Survivor

I admit it.  I'm a reality TV junkie.  The whole family is into it.  One of our favorites is Survivor.  So I'm on a work trip to Norfolk, Virginia a few weeks ago and who do I see at the quarters on base but none other than...

...Rudy from the very first Survivor show.  We got to talk a little bit.  He was in town for a Navy SEAL reunion.  Very cool.  He's probably one of my all-time favorite Survivors.  Too bad he didn't win.  That's one tough guy.