Mild Amusement

As you all probably know, I live in a house in which little kids roam freely during the day. This has led to many an interesting conversation , ridiculous amounts of fun playing with Legos , and some spectacular battles of wits . All in all, it's pretty fun having the munchkins around. However, it does come with a price. My house has been largely transformed in order to make things safer and all-around better for little kids. Doesn't sound like the sort of thing that'd draw a chuckle, does it? I was once that naive, too. For starters, we had to prevent the kids from getting into drawers cabinets, so that they didn't hurt themselves or play with items that weren't toys (e.g., flour). The easiest solution was to put child-proof locks on just about everything, so that's what we did. When we got brand new china cabinet, though, my parents opted to simply not have any knobs on the drawers that were two feet or less off the ground. It saved some work, and it made it...

Looking back, I have something of a history of being denied food and drink when going out. It's no fault of my own, but I somehow end up in situations where what I want doesn't happen. I usually just roll with the punches, so it all works out. Still, I think the powers that be are trying to test my limits. This time around, the meal itself was what was questionable. Obviously, there's a story here. Let me explain. A while back, my friend said she'd be in town, and she wanted to go check out one of the local  CrossFit gyms. Seeing as how we both enjoy kicking our own butts via the euphemistically named "Workout of the Days," we planned to meet up at one of these gyms and then head out for a meal afterward. As is wont to happen, though, the best laid plans changed. First, I injured myself . It really wasn't a drastic injury, but it was enough to limit my movements. Honestly, I was a little concerned that I wasn't going to heal in time for the a...

(If you've never heard of the term before, hammy is sometimes used as slang for the hamstring muscle) I'm not entirely sure how, but during my shed-building adventure , I somehow managed to hurt my hamstring. It was a very mild injury, since I didn't even notice it until the next day. In fact, I didn't even notice it until the work day was over on the next day. Clearly, this was not a life-changing injury. Still, something didn't quite feel right in my leg. In fact, I started suspecting an actual injury after heading down to the gym and talking to the trainer that was on-hand. After some quasi-diagnosis at the check-in counter, we figured that it wasn't just a bruise, but more likely a mild strain. That made sense given what I felt in the afternoon, but it was still a little disheartening. Injuries are never fun, but the worst part was that the trainer told me to be very cautious. Any kind of jerky or explosive movements were off limits, and even the things...

(The title of this post means " nails " in Spanish. It'll soon become obvious why I titled this that way.) One of the joys of being a home owner is the weekend construction project. There's almost always some maintenance to be done on the house, and some of that inevitably involves some minor carpentry skills. The latest project was to tear down a shed we had in the back yard, and to build a larger one its place. This one actually involved legitimate carpentry skills, so we called in for some backup: my brother and one of his friends. Now, he came over to look at it before we started any of the work, and he figured it'd probably take about four hours to complete. The demolition was the quickest part, and once the base/floor was set, the rest was just a matter of cutting boards to the right length and putting them up. Sure, we had to angle the roof and lay down some shingles to account for rain, but if we allotted a couple of hours for that part, we'd be se...

With the holiday break, I was able to spend a little more time with my family. Specifically, I saw more of my brother and sister. Now, I've mentioned before that things get interesting when you put multiple Chang siblings together. Heck, we even have  our own language to help describe the shenanigans that usually go down between us. Even with the usual banter, though, there are some moments that are truly stand out. I've written once before about some of my brother's shining moments  in messing with solicitors, but my sister is no slouch, either. For a very simple example, let me explain what she did to buy my brother's birthday gift last year. She wasn't entirely sure what to get him, and she didn't have the luxury of daily conversations to guide her. In addition, she also wanted to avoid him buying himself the same thing she was going to get him. Now, you might see obstacles, but my sister saw an opportunity: she asked him, "tell me, [brother], what c...

I tend to joke around a lot with most of my friends, and anyone who has known me for any extended period of time knows why I call myself a smartass at times. Not surprisingly, it's not uncommon for me to tease someone about random things. It's not malicious, just some friendly ribbing. Of course, with good friends, there are far fewer things that are off-limits, so it gets even more interesting. Take my old friend from middle school. We're both grown men with the trappings that come with being full-blown adults now, but that doesn't stop some good-natured teasing back and forth. A few of us guys were over at his house one night, and we were generally goofing off. His wife was right there with us for most of the night, but by about midnight she complained of a combination of fatigue and not quite feeling right. Bummed that she had to leave the merry-making, we wished her a good night and turned down the volume on said merry-making (I did ask if we should just call it a...

A few years back, I took a trip to London. I'd never been there before, and one of my friends happened to be studying abroad there, so I had a place to crash. We even managed to squeeze in a weekend trip to the mainland, so all in all, it worked out well. Well, with maybe one small exception. My friend was single at the time, so she was dealing with some of the usual dating routines. As it happened, there was a guy who was interested in her, but she wasn't interested. I heard all about it during the course of the trip, so I was well aware of this guy's intentions. Well, my friend and I were getting ready to go out one night, when this guy suddenly started messaging her. Me being a guy, I had already gotten dressed, and I was more or less waiting around for her. At that particular moment, she didn't have the energy or patience to deal with him. So, she did the only reasonable thing she could: she handed me her laptop, and told me to make him go away. Not wanting to b...