A happy day for Dad

My day yesterday went like this: up early to finish a garage project to add some overhead storage - I was two tightened screws short of my goal before I had to go to the next matter, which was viewing some homes for sale with Angela. We got in all the real estate tourism we could until it was time to race home and pick up Luca and Gabe.

Luca had to be at a birthday party downtown for his best buddy, being held at LaserQuest (no, not a LASIK surgery center, a laser tag place). Unfortunately, it was also the day of a heavily publicized waterfront concert featuring Luis Palau, so streets were closed making it difficult to get to the place, find a place to park, and bring Luca in while still keeping Gabe with me. Ultimately, I managed to do that, although we arrived at about 4:07, which, as Luca reminded me, made us late for the 4 pm party. Oh well. I had two hours to kill with Gabe while Luca lasered his way to fun (no fortune was involved, but he did get a cool disc-shooting toy in his goody bag).

I took Gabe to the west side of town across from the Vanderbilt campus to Centennial Park. We had been there a couple times before, and Gabe really enjoyed the slides and swings there. When we arrived, he realized that there were no open swings, and so headed straight for slides. After about 20 minutes of playground fun, he came over to tell me that he was hungry. I asked him what he wanted, and he gave me The Standard Gabe Reply: "I doe knooooow". I suggested that there were hot dogs, hamburgers, icees, snow cones... He decided he wanted an icee, but I couldn't find a vendor. So I asked him if a Sno-Cone would be alright, and after I pointed out what one was, he agreed.

We took our Sno-Cones over to a patio table in front of the Centennial Cafe. We sat underneath an umbrella that shaded us from the bright sun on an absolutely beautiful day, weather-wise. The sound of Jazz music emanated from the speakers. Gabey and I were digging into our Sno-Cones, enjoying the respite. Then Gabe says, in his sweet 5-year-old voice, "Dad... this is the LIFE!" I looked over at him approvingly and he repeated "This is the LIFE!"

Yes it is, Gabey, yes it is.