My Name Is Earl...

No, not the TV show...me. My middle name is Earl. Norman. Earl. Hall. That's the name that my parents gave me, and I've had it my whole life. Both my first and middle names are family names (a great-uncle and a grandfather, by the way) that have been passed on down through the generations to me.

Anyway, I bring my middle name up because like the title character of the NBC sitcom, this Earl had a run-in with karma (you reap what you sow...) just the other night.

Here's the story.


At T.G.I.Friday's on...er, Friday...Tara and I had a horrible waitress. She spent most of her time at the table next to ours, talking with someone who apparently was either a good friend, or co-worker with the night off. Anyway, I think she came by only once to check on us, and only refilled my Tea glass one time. That's a pet peeve of mine.

She walked by a few times, and I thought she would surely notice that my glass was empty, and offer to refill it. I thought wrong. She either didn't notice, or didn't care.

When the check came, I told Tara that I wasn't going to leave her my customary tip, as the service was sub-par. While I wanted to leave her pocket change, Tara talked me into a little more than that. "It's not that I didn't tip her, it's that I didn't tip her very much...", I muttered as we walked away, hoping that she'd realize we thought she wasn't good at her job.

In walking to our car, karma decided to teach me a lesson. It occurred to us that we'd left Jaxson's bottle on our table. I stiff the server, and we leave something behind. Great...karma!

We found out that we'd left the bottle, when the not-so-decent waitress, was a decent enough person to bring it out to us in the Parking Lot.

I felt horribly. She could've just decided to "not notice" and let us drive off without the bottle. She didn't though, and brought it out to us.

"Don't you feel terrible?" Tara said, and I agreed that I did. Maybe she was having a bad night...who knows. She was kind enough, even though I wasn't kind to her, to do the right thing.

From now on, I'll give servers the benefit of the doubt. They work hard, and often don't make what they should, because of schlubs like me.

There's a lesson in there somewhere...

We went back and "made it right", and are glad we did. Tiff, if you're reading this...sorry, again.


We've done more lately than shorted a server. On Thursday, I fell for a classic new father scam...hard. As I walked into the Day Care--I call it school--where Jaxson goes, they said, "Be sure to check out Jaxson's pictures this afternoon...they are so precious."

I didn't know that they even took his picture at school. They did--here's proof:

As you might guess, I took one look and said, "I'm prepared to give you a thousand dollars for these RIGHT now!" They weren't quite that much, and we do have pictures of Jaxson dressed as a Cowboy. Why a cowboy? I don't know, but we've got them anyway...

...Isn't he adorable?

(Please tell me he's adorable. I spent too much on them not to get a comment, or 65...)


So that was Friday and Thursday...

Saturday was our company picnic at work. It was a good time. We had a GREAT turnout at Cedar Canyon Dude Ranch. I was looking forward to it, because a lot of people from work had been asking to see Jaxson, and this was their big chance.

Let's just say that he was a BIG hit with my co-workers. Some thought he looked just like me, while others said, "I'm glad he doesn't look anything like you." Either way, he's our kid, and we love him.

Tara and Jaxson left pretty early, and I stayed to the end. She enjoys going, but it was tough for her having to wrestle him around while I "worked", so she came home.

When I got home, we played around with Jaxson a little, and took a few good pictures and videos. Here they are...enjoy!

I hope that everyone was able to view the last video we posted. I'm going to try to put them up pretty often. I'm trying to keep them "short and sweet" so that they don't bog down your cyber-world. If you do have any problems with them...let me know. I'll try to figure out something to make it enjoyable for everyone.

Here's two quick videos showing what Jaxson has been doing lately--sharing his slobber with us:

...and with the world:

We hope you're having a good week. Tip your waitress. You never know when you're going to see her again...

Until next time...

The Halls