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This weekend was pretty quiet. The boys were away so it was just us and the baby. I washed the cars (threw out my back), fertilized the lawn, watched a few movies. Man I must be getting old. Chores, lawn and movie rentals on a Saturday? Well to compensate we did a little ritual we do about once a month. We invited my brother in law, his girlfriend and another friend over for some good old family fun, Rock Band.

If you don’t know what Rock Band is, you are missing the biggest video game craze to come around in a long time. It involves a Playstation3(or XBOX 360), an electronic drum set, 2 guitar controllers, a microphone, some beer, 4+ people  and hours of time to kill. You basically do karaoke plus play guitar and drums to new and old rock tunes on the big screen. It is hours of fun, embarrassing as hell and makes you feel like a wanabee rock star.  If you ever meet anyone who has it or get the chance to play it, do not pass it up. You will be hooked and submit to your inner rock geek.

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I was in Houston this weekend, and as is customary, I went with my wife to the Alamo Drafthouse for a movie and beer. A new film called The Forbidden Kingdom was playing, which was something I was looking forward to, and my wife was going to have to suffer through. We were sitting in the theater waiting to order, and for the movie to start, when a group of 10, or so, 10 year olds came in with a lady and sat a few rows behind us. I almost freaked out. I mean, we go to the Alamo for adult time, to have some drinks and watch a movie. Having kids in there is like having kids in a bar, its just a bad idea all around. Some may call me a jerk for caring about some kids in a movie theater, but they did end up yelling during the big fight scenes and annoying me a little. I suppose if it helps keep that theater in business during our economic troubles then I can live with it.

I think the real answer is to just stick to strange movies or chick flicks, and not action movies, and the kids will stay away on their own.  

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We like to go in caves. We have been in most of the public ones in Texas and New Mexico. We even crawled through the cave at Enchanted Rock when my wife was a few months pregnant. Our next step might be to do an adventure tour at one of the local caves which involves ropes, flashlights, helmets and a whole bunch of mud. What is the fascination with caves anyway? It must be that sense of exploring the unknown or the unreal. It is based partly on science fiction and the other part in returning to a primitive instinct I guess. Either way, it makes for a nice adventure.

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We took the kids to San Marcos this weekend to kill some time before a wedding Saturday afternoon. We went to a little place called Aquarina Springs and took the glass bottom boat tour. They really enjoyed floating around on the small spring fed lake and seeing fish, turtles and vegetation up close. Parts of the spring even bubble out of the bottom of the lake and look really cool. Our 18 month old daughter leaned over the rail and peered down into the lake in wonder the entire time. She would call out things like “fishy” and “turta”, and she wanted to get in the water to go “simmin”. It was a pretty nice way to spend a beautiful cool sunny day.