Go See Cal!

The other morning, NPR was doing a story about the auto dealer industry and it profiled LA car dealer icon Cal Worthington (and his dog Spot!). And it brought back a flood of memories from my days in the mid-80s living in SoCal.

The Angelinos out there know what I'm talking about. But for the rest of you, one of the great things about living in the LA area was Cal Worthington's late night car commercials. All his commercials started with "Here's Cal Worthington -- and his dog Spot!" and out would walk this man in a big cowboy hat, along with "Spot", who was never a dog. Sometimes Spot would be an elephant, or a tiger, or a hippo, or what have you. And the jingle (which would periodically change) was always pretty dang funny ("If your wife is a-naggin' and your tailpipe a-draggin', go see Cal!").

They were the perfect commercials: outlandish, funny, completely over the top. You always wanted to watch to see what Cal would come up with next. I remember them vividly over 20 years later. Here's a typical commercial out of Cal:



So here's a mashup of a bunch of the crazy things Cal did in his commercials. If you don't want to watch the whole thing (you really should -- it's a hoot, and you get to hear many different stanzas of the "Go see Cal!" jingle -- "I will stand upon my head until my ears are turning red"), at least skip forward to the 2:50 mark, where you can see the roller skating monkey, and the shot of Cal riding the hippo.



Heh, classic stuff. The man was a marketing genius.

Go See Cal!

Birthday Weekend

So we celebrated Abra's 7th birthday this weekend. On Saturday we had a houseful of 1st grade girls for the big birthday bash. First, Brenna led them in a craft project, making little people out of beads and pipecleaners:


That met with mixed reviews. But bless her at least for trying -- I was hiding in the kitchen at the time. The next activity went better, as the girls played a spirited game of "tape the carrot onto the snowman" (think pin the tail on the donkey...). Then finally we just popped tons of popcorn and sent them upstairs to watch a Fantasia for a while.

(The whole time, the cats were all shut up in the basement. Healy was howling nonstop at the basement door for two hours...)

After Fantasia, it was time for present opening, a very loud experience where even Abra herself had to ask everyone to quiet down.


Finally it was time for cake. Actually for cupcake. Abra had requested penguin cupcakes for her birthday, and Brenna pulled off a masterpiece of cupcake decorating:

So we impaled one of the penguins with a candle in the forehead and sang Happy Birthday


And then the girls proceeded to eat their penguins:

So then the birthday party wound down, the kids went home, the cats were let out, and Mom and Dad made a few stiff drinks to recover.

Sunday morning we had round two -- presents from family. Here's one of my favorites -- the kid is a basketball fan, loves to watch Cavaliers games with us, knows all the Cavs by name (LeBron, Z, Boobie, etc), asks about the final score every morning when she wakes up, and so we got her her very own Cavs shirt:


After dad cleared the snow off the driveway, it was time to go sledding at Coventry playground. Here are the girls all bundled up and ready to ride.


And here they go! (Make sure you listen for Thalia's squeals of delight....)

And again:

Heck, even Mom got into the act!


For the grownups, sledding really becomes enjoyable when the kids are old enough to carry the sled back up the hill. Happily, this season we are at that point.


Thalia in particular liked to roll down the snowy hill:

Action!

Then finally everyone got cold enough that we came home and made a fire and had hot cocoa.

Later we'll stick 'em in front of the TV with some new videos so that slacker mom and dad can watch the NFL conference championships in peace...

Oh, and finally -- this will make her Yiayia and Papou happy -- for her birthday dinner Abra asked me if I could make Avgolemono Soup!

Smart Child

A conversation just now in my living room:

Thalia: Daddy, Kansas is losing to Michigan State.
Me: Yes, honey, I saw that.
Thalia: Mom is rooting for Kansas.
Me: Yes, she is.
Thalia: That's because she grew up in Kansas!
Me: That's right. I'm rooting for Kansas, too, actually.
Thalia: That's because you don't like Michigan State.
Me: That's right, honey. That's right.

Two Years Ago

This happened:



And she hasn't left me yet! Thanks, hon!