Monday, October 22, 2007

Blog Number 226

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Saturday we were invited to a birthday party.  Let me clarify the word "we" here as it is slightly important to the big picture.  Originally I thought that "we" only included my daughter (who is the same age as the birthday boy) and my son (who is the same age as the birthday boy's older brother).  I also assumed that my wife would stay as she is very good friends with the birthday boy's mother.  I was informed on Saturday morning that I was also included in the "we" and as such, I went.  There was going to be pizza and cake so that soothed the issue a little in giving up part of my Saturday however given that I worked for about 6 hours last Saturday and that the mother-in-law and sister-in-law were with us for part of this past week, I was really looking forward to doing nothing this weekend.

The party was a costume party and more specifically it was a Star Wars themed costume party.  There ended up being a Boba Fett, a Princess Leia, an Anakin Skywalker (the birthday boy), a Storm trooper, and at least 3 Darth Vader's.  I went as "My Son's Dad" which (if you did not know this) was a minor character in Star Wars III - Revenge of the Sith.  I will forgive you if you missed the scene he was in as it was not central to the story.

One thing that was set up for an activity was a piñata in the form of Darth Vader's head.  They had this head strung up from a tree with some white rope and (I will be honest here) it looked a little scary and (given the recent issues our neighboring state has had with nooses lately) perhaps a little out of place.  The kids lined up from smallest to biggest to take turns whacking this thing.  The rope broke after 2 hits from the first kid and then (after an attempt to string it back up) it fell again.  At this point in time I think i would have given up, cracked the thing open and then pass out the candy.  The dad of the birthday boy was a little more committed than I and decided to hold the piñata and let the kids take turns.

Now I have seen this scenario played out on countless episodes of America's Funniest Home Videos and I'm telling you (for those of you who have lived under a rock and have never seen this) it never ends up good for the dad (or whoever is holding the rope).  Statistics show that a full 98% of the time, male reproductive organs are damaged (much to the chagrin of the studio audience).  I had a choice here now, I could look away squeamishly or I could pick up the video camera and try to win $10,000.  In the end I watched through my fingers of my hand that I had over my face during the final few whacks that sent the candy flying everywhere.  All ended well fortunately though my daughter (who didn't quite get the concept of hitting the head of something to explode it so you can get candy) seemed relieved after candy came out (and not some other bodily fluids).

In the end the kids had a good time, the pizza was pretty good and we got out in about 2 hours.  The wife then left me at home with the kids while she spent the next 4 hours at a neighbor's house at a combo Pampered Chef / Mary Kay party.  In the end my Saturday was shot but such is life.  At least I didn't have to hold the piñata (or watch some guy take it in the midsection doing so).

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

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