Family

Game Time, Pallet Time, Valen-times

From the 'Bowl to V-Day... Hope we don't get dumped!

wintermute (Kevin)

Feb 15, 2026 • 5 min read

In our family, a good bowl of salsa is the only super bowl we need :)

Saturday the 7^th, we headed over to my parents' house for takeout.

Liv asked me to set up the marbles, and I was happy to oblige!

Then we had dinner from Taormina's.

Gametime!

Then Sunday the 8^th was... gasp... the Super Bowl!

😱

O-M-G! I've been waiting for this all YEAR!!

🤣

Just kidding: I couldn't even tell you who won.

🤔

Come to think of it, I can't even tell you who played.

But statistically, I'll wager that it was probably the Cowboys and the Patriots. What other teams even are there?

With everyone else slated to be glued to their televisions all night, Kitten and the Molerat and I figured it was the perfect night to go out and have my belated birthday dinner.

I opted for Cancun.

That's a hell of a drive though, and we were losing daylight...

The sucky thing about going to Cancun is that Middletown Township went and shat out a good-for-nothing median right here, so that you have to pretend you're a... New Jerseyan? ...A New Jerseyian? A New Jerseyite?

Whatever. I don't know the official demonym.

At any rate, you have to drive past this perfectly good point of entry and go another block or two up the road and then turn around somewhere and backtrack like you're some New Jersey twat that can't turn left.

This is how it should have been designed—had Middletown managed to find and afford someone with a triple-digit IQ...

Instead, they spent their entire budget on that big dumb M on the corner of Lincoln Highway and Oxford Valley Road.

And so, you get this instead...

We still managed to get to the restaurant just before sunset the following evening!

And we enjoyed a Super Bowl of our own while we waited for dinner to arrive...

The Molerat ordered some kind of radioactive sizzle-plate that sounded like it had come straight out of Chernobyl...

Kitten got nachos and I got a burrito (and a pina colada the size of my head)...

🍨

And don't forget dessert!

Pallet Time

Joe and I had a work day on Tuesday the 10^th. We poached two pallets from behind the dumpsters here at the apartment, and another two from a neighbor of his.

Free wood!

Joe and Paula had an old mattress sitting out for the trash; but unfortunately it was only visible to non-garbagemen: The refuse collectors were indeed refusing it.

So, later that afternoon, Joe and I rented a U-Haul trailer and delivered the mattress to Philly dump ourselves. That's what that 3% city wage tax buys you, folks: You can take your own trash to the dump, any time you like!

The garbage-ass garbagemen sure as f--k aren't gonna do it for you!

Joe and I had dinner with Paula and their friend Bunny at Warminster West, and then we shotgunned three episodes of Letterkenny.

We worked again on Wednesday the 11^th—this time cutting legs and cross-braces and gluing up some shelf panels for a small bathroom table Paula asked us to build...

And Joe finally broke out the dowel jig I got him for Christmas...

Then Paula treated us to cheese steaks from Don Giovanni's for dinner, and then Joe and I watched a couple more episodes of Letterkenny.

Valentimes

Thursday and Friday were uneventful; but then it was Valentimes Day.

🙄

Didn't you just used love it when your classmates in second grade would call it "Valentimes" Day?

...And then, of course, you'd have to buckle up for all the booger-laden little cards and chalk-flavored heart candies everyone would hand out.

Fortunately, in adulthood you get buy-one-get-one offers from Qdoba on Valentine's Day...

...and even when you get there to find that it must be some Middle Eastern holiday and you have to wade through a sea of Indians just to order and pay for your dinner, you still get a kickass meal.

Also, Indians really seem to love white cars, for some reason...