What do these three pictures have in common?

The correct answer would be, what we did over the weekend.

Friday night, we took the kids out and had our first exposure to "Friday Night Lights" as we caught our first Flower Mound high school football game with some friends. An average crowd of about 12,000 was there to witness the Jaguars fall to the Grapevine Cowboys, 20-7. While the girls had enough by halftime, it took me everything I could muster to drag Daniel out of the stands. I had to basically bribe him that we'd come back another time ... which we will of course. Sitting next to some neighbors, we couldn't figure out why they kept throwing that flanker screen, so we drew up what was sure to be a better gameplan up in the stands. I will say this: high school football in Texas is big-time. Bands, majorettes, color guard, you name it ... and most of the community in full support.

Saturday morning I woke up and was feeling awfully mechanical. That doesn't happen very often, but after taking the boy to swim lessons, and a trip to the Home Depot, I had the tank off the toilet and there were parts everywhere. Our downstairs potty, not unlike myself, has had a chronic leak for a little while now. You name it, I replaced it, and had that little porcelain beauty working like brand new in no time. Two hours later, why was there a small pool of water there on the floor??? It was satisfying to find out today that NO! It was not my plumbing ineptitude after all, but a faulty valve on the supply line ...

The rest of the weekend Dawn and I took on the herculean task of cleaning up our landscaping, mulching and planting new flowers for the fall. Picking out flowers for us is a lot like picking out furniture: 5 minutes in, you're throwing haymakers. I just want to get in, get out, and get it done ... like most guys. I thought I'd come out strong with the old standby: "If you like it, then that's all that matters", but for whatever reason she was still asking my opinion. I got nervous and back-pedalled and suggested some mums again and the next thing I know it's an episode of WWE Smackdown. That's the hardest part really. The brute effort of pruning everything and cleaning all the clippings and the 16 bags of mulch are nothing compared to the actual picking of the flowers. I snagged a Gerber Daisy when she wasn't looking and went through picking off petals. "She'll kill me. I saved my balls. She'll kill me. I saved my balls ..." Wouldn't you know the damn daisy had 9 petals.

We'll see many of you this weekend for the wedding and we can't wait to see you! For everyone we miss ... I promise kid pictures with the next post.