Father's Day in Pictorial Retrospect

 Those crazy Father's Day traditions.  In my family, the dad makes waffles for the family.  So there you go... waffles with bacon (thanks, Mommy) and milk.  Darned delicious if I might say so myself.  Every year I say I need to do this more than once a year.  Maybe I should... but for the third annual Erb Father's Day Breakfast, a full tummy was had all around.  Look at those girls!

 Yum.  Bacon and waffles.  Cold glass of milk.  Much like the hokie pokie, that's what it's all about.

Our girls chilling inside an old abandoned building on the Paramount Ranch.  It's somewhere between Malibu and Calabassas in the hills of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Waffles and Other Things

 So Fathers Day has come and passed but not before Daddy busted out some tasty waffles for the big day.  Somehow the Erb tradition started when Aunt Pat coerced Grampa to fix waffles many years ago on a June Sunday morning.  Gramma said it wasn't right as he's supposed to have the day off but Pat posited that was the day he needed to prove his "Dad-ness."

Deep in the Heart of El Segundo

Many years later hopefully Daddy has proved his "Dad-ness" as well.  Of course everyone would need to ask Mary Jane and Betsy Jo but they really don't have much of a say yet.  Not to say that Mary Jane can't talk (oh, she can!) but she doesn't have the profundity yet to question Daddy's role in the great holiday known as Fathers Day. 

The Prophet

Sometimes you might have to go to an outside source... say... a mule deer in Grand Canyon Park.  He seemed innocent enough.  Of course this picture was taken before the births of Mary Jane and Betsy Jo but what you don't see in this picture is the deer saying, "What's up there, Daddy-O?"  Foretelling the future?  Hmm... methinks so.

Anyway, Daddy is looking forward to a roadtrip next week.  Many pics to come.

Mary Jane Makes a Father's Day Statement

She would prefer to eat the sign though.

Father's Day

Nothing quite like tradition. A long time ago in the Erb family, a new tradition was created around Father's Day. Typically in most families the father sits around and gets generic gifts like a new tie or power tools. We don't follow that mold. Good thing because I don't wear ties to work and I really don't use power tools all that much (sans Bunny Cage Building Day). In our family, the father of the family makes waffles for the rest of us. Yes, making the dad work on his day. Then again my dad only cooked two meals: waffles and barbecued food. Hmm... sounds like me.

So this morning after Mass, I gathered with Miss Jill to figure out this whole waffle thing. Add some mix with some egg whites... throw in some oil and a bit of milk... voila! Waffle batter. Now time to make sure that waffle iron works. I poured in the waffle batter in and when the time was up, there was a bona fide waffle in there. And Miss Jill tasted the first product and it was good. Well, "very good" according to her. Then I created two more batches and you can see the ultimate result in the upper left hand picture. Waffles, syrup... perfection. And no bunnies to try and them all (they were still in their cages).

As you can see on the lower right hand picture, the finished product was quite supreme. Throw in some bacon and milk and it was the best Father's Day batch of waffles I had ever made. Of course that sets the bar high for future Father's Day breakfasts but that's quite alright. I can live with the anticipation.

Of course next year's Father's Day might have a hungry little Mary Jane expecting lots of waffles. Hmm... wondering if she'll know the word by then. I bet she will.

Chip Argues with Aunt Cherry Bugg over Father's Day

Yesterday, Chip got into a bit of a row with his aunt regarding the meaning of Father's Day. Cherry Bugg wanted to go see Papa Bugg who usually resides on top of Mister John and Miss Jill's bed. Cherry Bugg asserted that her nephew could not see him until she was done talking with him. Usually, Papa Bugg tends to be cantankerous and usually asks the other rabbits if they have any "smokes." While I have never know a rabbit to smoke, Jill and I believe that Papa Bugg picked up this bad habit while in the merchant marines.

Chip was not allowed into the room and he and his aunt briefly brawled. While he was seemingly no worse for the wear, he still wanted into the room to say hello to his grandfather. Luckily Miss Jill and I later came home and assuaged the struggle.

Ironically, Papa Bugg spent most of Father's Day in the back yard with some of his other children so Cherry Bugg and Chip essentially squabbled over hanging out with Clifford, the Bunny Stopper! (see a clip from last year's blog).