Okay, there were some good things about it too, but after the Utes horrific loss to UNLV (whom we haven't lost to since 1979) I just had to say it. It was so bad. How could we have creamed a #11 ranked team and then been shut out by UNLV? Not so good.
The Utes got smashed nearly as completely as did my father-in-law's car when he was involved in an 8-car pile-up on I-80 and 9th east on Friday evening. Scary. Troy and I were out enjoying some Thai food when we got a call from Carol. Somebody was speeding and swerving all over to get in the fastest lane and hit someone who then hit Morris. Happily, he was not hurt badly, despite the fact that his car was flipped over and he slid along the road upside down for many yards. We're so grateful for his protection. He spent a night and a day in the hospital, and he's certainly very sore but he's here in one piece, and that's the important thing.
Other events of the weekend included a totally crazy birthday party for one of CTP's schoolmates. The party was at a nicklecade on Redwood Road, and I must confess that I really didn't want to go. I tried to think of a good way to get out of it, but really, I knew how bad CTP would feel if he knew he missed it. So we went. Wow. Never been to a nicklecade before - quite the experience. I've never heard bedlam like that before in my life. After cake and presents in the party room, we were set loose on the games with a plastic cup full of nickels. C just about went berserk. The lights flashing and whirling, the constant pinging, dinging and ringing of all the games - he didn't know which way to turn. He'd stop at a game and just shove nickels in, and he'd give the thing about 10 seconds. If he couldn't figure it out by then he'd whip around two or three times until another game won his attention. No chance he'd give a game a second try to attempt to do better at it, one chance was all anything got. 
That is until he found the Lost World game, in which you sit in a booth and shoot at dinosaurs with a red or blue plastic gun. It was in use when he saw it, and was willing to wait for about 15 minutes for a turn. When we finally got in the thing gobbled up nickels so fast we were done in about 2 minutes. C was disappointed but coped well and didn't flip out when I told him our lack of nickels meant it was time to exit. R was with me too and she bopped from game to ride to game almost as quickly as her brother, just usually in the opposite direction. By the time we made it to the car I had a pretty ringing headache, but was happy all the same that we went because the kids had a great time. Oh yeah, I did try really hard to help them earn some tickets. You know, you play ski-ball or something and if you do well a little slot spits out orange tickets at you. People were walking around with streams of tickets wrapped up in their hands. I obviously don't have the nickelcade-knack, because despite my best efforts we wound up with a total of 33 tickets, and that's after four of them were donated to us. At the little shop at the end of the room, we were able to purchase 33 tickets-worth of plastic crap. Luckily 33 tickets buys you only very little crap. One blue sticky hand, one plastic diamond ring, and one miniscule green spider. I must say, I'm a little tempted to go back and try again on that ski-ball. I'm hoping to up my prize to a blow-up hammer, which costs 250 tickets. It's going to cost a lot of nickels, I think.
Dad's going to kill me, but I also must confess that I think he must have done something to make my mom very angry, and she has taken sweet revenge. Just kidding. Really what happened is that they both love Charlie Chaplin, and there was some sort of Chaplin night down town. There was a movie playing and you could go see it for the very 20's price of two bits, and dressing up was encouraged. I'll have to save another blog entry to describe my mother's Halloween-tick, but she ADORES dressing up. Dad - not so much. But he adores my mom, so when she wanted to dress up, he said okay. I don't think he realized that she would be getting him a chain-gang outfit, not a dapper 20's golfer or gangster or something like that. They came over on Friday night to show off their costumes and they both looked great, though Dad had a bit of a grim set to his mouth. As it turns out, not many of Salt Lake's Chaplin lovers share my mother's passion for costumes, and my parents were one of maybe 20 other people who got gussied up. As Halloween approaches, perhaps I will blog an ode to my mom and her many costume episodes. I love you both.
Here's miss RAP attempting the now forbidden nap. Forbidden because when she takes them she's up until midnight. Darn it, she's still just a little too tired to go without one, though, so this is the result. Falling asleep standing up. By the way, this evening when I asked her if she was ready to get in her jammies, she replied, "No, I need to be in my poop."
The Utes got smashed nearly as completely as did my father-in-law's car when he was involved in an 8-car pile-up on I-80 and 9th east on Friday evening. Scary. Troy and I were out enjoying some Thai food when we got a call from Carol. Somebody was speeding and swerving all over to get in the fastest lane and hit someone who then hit Morris. Happily, he was not hurt badly, despite the fact that his car was flipped over and he slid along the road upside down for many yards. We're so grateful for his protection. He spent a night and a day in the hospital, and he's certainly very sore but he's here in one piece, and that's the important thing.
Other events of the weekend included a totally crazy birthday party for one of CTP's schoolmates. The party was at a nicklecade on Redwood Road, and I must confess that I really didn't want to go. I tried to think of a good way to get out of it, but really, I knew how bad CTP would feel if he knew he missed it. So we went. Wow. Never been to a nicklecade before - quite the experience. I've never heard bedlam like that before in my life. After cake and presents in the party room, we were set loose on the games with a plastic cup full of nickels. C just about went berserk. The lights flashing and whirling, the constant pinging, dinging and ringing of all the games - he didn't know which way to turn. He'd stop at a game and just shove nickels in, and he'd give the thing about 10 seconds. If he couldn't figure it out by then he'd whip around two or three times until another game won his attention. No chance he'd give a game a second try to attempt to do better at it, one chance was all anything got. 
That is until he found the Lost World game, in which you sit in a booth and shoot at dinosaurs with a red or blue plastic gun. It was in use when he saw it, and was willing to wait for about 15 minutes for a turn. When we finally got in the thing gobbled up nickels so fast we were done in about 2 minutes. C was disappointed but coped well and didn't flip out when I told him our lack of nickels meant it was time to exit. R was with me too and she bopped from game to ride to game almost as quickly as her brother, just usually in the opposite direction. By the time we made it to the car I had a pretty ringing headache, but was happy all the same that we went because the kids had a great time. Oh yeah, I did try really hard to help them earn some tickets. You know, you play ski-ball or something and if you do well a little slot spits out orange tickets at you. People were walking around with streams of tickets wrapped up in their hands. I obviously don't have the nickelcade-knack, because despite my best efforts we wound up with a total of 33 tickets, and that's after four of them were donated to us. At the little shop at the end of the room, we were able to purchase 33 tickets-worth of plastic crap. Luckily 33 tickets buys you only very little crap. One blue sticky hand, one plastic diamond ring, and one miniscule green spider. I must say, I'm a little tempted to go back and try again on that ski-ball. I'm hoping to up my prize to a blow-up hammer, which costs 250 tickets. It's going to cost a lot of nickels, I think.
Dad's going to kill me, but I also must confess that I think he must have done something to make my mom very angry, and she has taken sweet revenge. Just kidding. Really what happened is that they both love Charlie Chaplin, and there was some sort of Chaplin night down town. There was a movie playing and you could go see it for the very 20's price of two bits, and dressing up was encouraged. I'll have to save another blog entry to describe my mother's Halloween-tick, but she ADORES dressing up. Dad - not so much. But he adores my mom, so when she wanted to dress up, he said okay. I don't think he realized that she would be getting him a chain-gang outfit, not a dapper 20's golfer or gangster or something like that. They came over on Friday night to show off their costumes and they both looked great, though Dad had a bit of a grim set to his mouth. As it turns out, not many of Salt Lake's Chaplin lovers share my mother's passion for costumes, and my parents were one of maybe 20 other people who got gussied up. As Halloween approaches, perhaps I will blog an ode to my mom and her many costume episodes. I love you both.
Here's miss RAP attempting the now forbidden nap. Forbidden because when she takes them she's up until midnight. Darn it, she's still just a little too tired to go without one, though, so this is the result. Falling asleep standing up. By the way, this evening when I asked her if she was ready to get in her jammies, she replied, "No, I need to be in my poop."
2 comments:
Boy, I'm with you on the nickel-cade, doesn't sound like a place I'd enjoy for too long. Though a nickel for a videogame? Did they have pac-man? :)
Great pictures -- I didn't know your mom was such a Halloween-o-phile. Well done! They look great dressed up. I think I heard about the Charlie Chaplin thing while we were in SLC; was it sponsored by KUER? Very cool.
And, finally, I love the picture of Ms. R. Adorable. Poor thing. Can she take a 15-minute power nap or no such luck?
Glad you survived the weekend. Sorry about the Utes.
R just makes me laugh. She must get it from your mom. lol Too bad about the Utes.
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