Monthly Archives: January 2009

What I learned from Bo and Luke

For Christmas this year, Emily got me the entire DVD collection of the Dukes of Hazzard.  As a kid of the 70s and 80s, I was fortunate to enjoy some of the greatest television shows ever made – M*A*S*H, The Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider, Air Wolf, Cheers, and the Smurfs.  I am delighted to watch the Dukes of Hazzrd with my kids as I am pretty sure that I was Isaac’s age when I was first really drawn to the Duke boys.

So, we got down to business watching the series from episode 1 (which, by the way, explains a lot of stuff about the series). The kids and I giggled and cackled and have been singing the DoH song at the top of our lungs.  It has been a great trip down memory lane.  I distinctly remember playing the Dukes in second grade.  Mrs. Kuhn’s desk made for a great General Lee and her yard stick was a perfect bow for me to shoot my dynamite arrows.  It was an awesome time to be a kid.  I guess it is posible that any time you are a kid, it’s an awesome time…but seriously, I had the Dukes of Hazzard to grow up on!  My best pal at  the time acquired a generic tv guide that had Daisy Duke on the cover.  You know Daisy, the prettiest woman ever (aside from my lovely wife)!  Anyhow, we knew we had something special but we also had enough information about the birds and the bees to know we couldn’t just parade around with the thing either.  Brainstorm…we found an old plastic lunch box my uncle gave me and gently laid Daisy into the box and set to work digging.  She remains buried somewhere in my parents’ yard to this day.  Anyhow, Isaac started talking about shooting a  yard stick bow and arrow and I knew we’d started a proper education for our kids.  Here are some things I learned:

– The good guys win…sometimes it’s hard to know who the good guys are at first, and they don’t always wear a white hat (or drive a Cadillac with horns).  They almost always have a dynamite tipped arrow and a bow on hand though.

-A lady is to be respected and treated right. The extent of her lady-likeness is inversely proportional to the length of her shorts.

-A properly waxed hood is important for proper aerodynamics and fuel efficiency and is properly buffed with one size too small Wranglers.

Emily - age 9

-I married WV’s finest Duke girl.  She was cute then and is even cuter now!

So, I learned some lessons, but I am left with several questions, namely about how the human species propagated itself through the 1970s.  I think I first mentioned this question after seeing Soylent Green.  Hair styles and clothes, and goofy come-on lines should have excluded most people from spreading their DNA.  Even if folks somehow got around that problem, I cannot imagine how the men had sufficient “swimmers” to make the trip.  I saw way too much of Bo Duke, if you know what I mean.  The Duke boys wore jeans that were at least two sizes too small.  Well, I don’t want to say too much more to embarrass myself so I’ll leave the rest to you.  “I may be crazy, but I ain’t stupid, this is crazy Warren, over and out!”

Just Playing Around

We got a bunch of new games for Christmas this year. We have been in an all out game playing marathon this week. I’ll give you a quick rundown on a few of them. Family game night has lots of options now! Anyhow, here is my impression of a few games…

Game night options

Apples to Apples – holy moley, this is an awesome game! Basically, each person gets 5 cards, each with a word. Each person puts down their card that most closely describes the “target word”. It’s a lot of fun…especially with small kids. For example, once the target word was cuddly. The submissions were basketball and lobster. As the judge, I had to decide which was most cuddly. Interesting game for sure!

Guess Who? – sort of like Clue with out the murder. You get 25 people and have to eliminate faces based on characteristics like eye color, beards, etc. We’ve had a bunch of fun with this one.  Abigail is a master!

Life, Pirates of the Caribbean edition – If you know the regular game of Life, you pretty well get this edition…just add a parrot on your shoulder and say “arrrrr” a lot more.  You pay in dubloons rather than dollars!

Dominoes – this has been our big time winner. We’ve played just under one million rounds of Mexican dominoes in several different variations over the past week. The kids have a fun time playing this although I think the adults (we’ve played with everyone) have had the most fun. I had no idea dominoes was actually a cool game!

Playing dominoes Playing dominoes

We are working hard to institute a regular family game night.  We play games a lot but I suppose as the kids get older that it will be more difficult.  I figure we’ll start a tradition now if we can and hope it sticks.  Do most people have a family-something night?

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

We all stayed awake until after midnight to ring in the new year! Isaac had to endure watching me smooch Emily so my evening was made! We played dominoes and Life and watched movies. It was a good time! I am a bit too tired to type any more. Happy 2009!