Road Trips, Memphis Beat, and Mr. Potato Head

It seems that my titles have expanded yet again. I am now not only a soon-to-be big brother, but also an older cousin. For those of you that don't know, I'm already a cousin, but a younger one. Now, I have even more responsibilities! It's like they think I'm some sort of robot sent back in time from the future to be extra awesome to all of my relatives, teach them things, help them grow up in the proper manner, and destroy the future leader of the resistance against the machines while he's still young!

With that news on my mind, my parents then proceeded to pack up all of my toys, clothes and food, and put me in the car saying that I had to go meet my new cousin. First, though, Mommy had to do some work for her job that made her stay in a nice hotel and eat for free. And Badger-Face gets to come along too.

And off we went to a place called "Jefferson City" for something Mommy called a "conference". I've never been to the capital of our great state of Missouri before! It was a riveting experience! One of the largest buildings in the city is this giant recreation of a nursing orb. "How metropolitan!", I thought as the homage to my younger days pulled into view. What a big bustling metropolis filled with interesting sights, and even more interesting smells.

Remind me to tell B-F not to park downwind from the trash bins again.

Since the hotel is "pet friendly", the dog managed to come along too. The cat, however, was sequestered to the house for the duration of our trip. I was assured that he would be ok, since he would have a big bowl of water, a big bowl of food, frequent visits from Nonny to check up on him and all the shows he would want to watch on Netflix while we were gone.

The best thing about this particular hotel, however, was the indoor pool! I got to go down and swim in it while Mommy went to her "conference" (which, if I understand correctly, is a place where people sit in a room with strangers trying not to look bored and listen to people talking about selling timeshares or something). Now, I've been swimming before. But, an indoor pool is pretty awesome. Especially when they have a blow up basketball hoop. Daddy taught me how to "dunk the ball" into the hoop which was made far easier for him since gravity stopped being a factor. And the hoop was only a foot high.

After the pool, I demonstrated for Badger-Face my recent mastery of the English language by pointing out letters on the TV can sounding them out correctly. Of course, if you're reading this blog, chances are you deduced that I can not only recognize letters, but put them together to form words, sentences, and a mildly entertaining story. But, he was truly astounded by it. Ah, the gift of a parent's simple laughter...

Once the conferences were over, it was time to get back in the car and head down to Memphis to see my grandparents, uncles and aunts, and my new baby cousin. We did make two stops of note on the way: 1. a place called O'Connell's in St. Louis. I mention this because I had the chance to sample one of the greatest inventions ever created aside from pie. The Gooey Butter Cookie. Imagine, if you will, a confection that closely resembles heaven, if heaven was made out of cream cheese and butter. Then, slap a large amount of powdered sugar on top. Then, take out your awesome stick (I found mine at Sharper Image), and smack it a few times with it. I'm pretty sure this is a portion of the recipe for these cookies.

2. Lambert's in Sykeston. They fling baked goods at you here. Seriously. And they give you a massive balloon while you eat, and not in the gassy sort of way. (OK, maybe that way too) Apparently, only the awesome people get them, since I was one of only a handful that did. I guess if they gave more out, it would impede the "baked good flinging process", which seems the most expedient way to get them from the oven to my mouth.

The way to tell that you are getting close to Lambert's is the appearance of large advertisements on the sides of the road, that Badger-Face tells me are called "Bill's Boards". Bill must have a lot of work to do and money to spend buying them, since there are so many of them. In Memphis proper, Bill has put up some boards for a TV show called "Memphis Beat". She cursed loudly every time that we passed one, because, she says, "they don't actually film in Memphis. They film in New Orleans! Hate you, Memphis Beat!" I think we made that the official rally cry for this trip...

Seeing my baby cousin was very nice. She's a tiny little thing! Mommy said that I was that small once, but I don't believe her. I mean, how could I have contained all of my beefiness in such a small package? But she is adorable, and I don't mind so much that I'm going to have to show her the ropes from time to time. I'm considering it practice for being a big brother. Also, I'm finding it hard to believe that I slept and pooped that much when I was younger...

As an extra bonus on the trip, my awesome uncle Jay (who, like daddy, has some sort of dead animal on his face.) gave me an equally awesome gift: a Mr. Potato Head made to look like someone called R2-D2. Badger-Face reminded me that he's the trash can from that Star Wars movie he's always going on and on and on and on about.

An excellent trip overall. Got to see my grandpa Poppy and grandma Yoda, my aunt Ashley, uncle Jay, cousin Katie, and all of my other family members. I miss you all very much when I am not down there!