In the morning, I'm makin' waffles

by: Sam

I found out today that my uncle once went running with Muhammad Ali.

When he was 15 and lived in New Orleans with my grandma and grandpa, he heard that Muhammad Ali was staying a few streets over, awaiting an upcoming boxing match. Uncle Richard decided to investigate and get to the bottom of this rumor. (Celebrity-stalking runs in the family.)

So, based on the movie Rocky, my uncle assumed that Muhammad Ali would be jogging around the neighborhood at the crack of dawn. Uncle Richard set his alarm for 3:30 a.m. and prepared to find the boxer.

He walked down to the supposed street where Muhammad was staying, and he took a seat. After a long while and no Muhammad-sighting, a defeated Uncle Richard began walking home.

Then, his persistence was rewarded. Muhammad walked out the door of a house and asked Uncle Richard what the heck he was doing awake so early. Uncle Richard said, “Well, actually, I was looking for you.”

The two then ran four miles together, with a limo creeping along behind them. At the end of the run, Muhammad gave the 15-year-old Richard nine autographs, to share with friends.

Uncle Richard still has all nine autographs to this day. Also, later during Muhammad’s stay, Uncle Richard went back to the house and met John Travolta. He said for a few weeks, the house was a revolving door of celebrities. … This is what I imagine heaven will be like.

Can you believe all that? Neither can I. I found this out tonight. This is my uncle who now lives in Virginia. He came in town today, originally to pick up my cousins, who have been staying with us this week. My cousins are now going to stay with us another week, so Uncle Richard will fly back tomorrow kid-less. (Aunt Linda’s a flight attendant. They get free flights.)

Speaking of free, have you been to Albertson’s lately? Have you seen those Yahtzee cards they’re giving out? Well, you get these cards, with 15 dice on them. You scratch only five dice, to reveal the numbers behind them. If you get five of the same number, you get a prize – anything from $5000, $1000, a cruise or a box of waffles.

So, Kenzie and I got in the car to go to Wal-Mart and saw one of these cards on the floor of my clean vehicle. It was left unscratched, waiting for the infallible luck of Kenzie and me to come along and bring it to life.

As we drove to Wal-Mart, Kenzie and I carefully agreed upon which dice to select for scratching. Before realizing our chance of winning, I confidently suggested scratching off all the dice in the first row. Then, as each of these slowly turned out to be a 4, I decided we should stray from the first row for the last scratch. Low and behold, I’m a genius, and we scratched a complete Yahtzee of 4s.

Giddy from our hard-earned Yahtzee, we scratched off the final box: “See your prize!”

ONE FREE PACK OF WAFFLES!!!!!

After going to Wal-Mart, we stopped at Albertson’s to claim our prize. It was like Christmas morning.

Then, we played Catchphrase later, and one of our words was “waffles.” Overcome with excitement, I shouted, “WE GOT THESE FOR FREE TODAY!!!”

Sharing my excitement, Kenzie shouted, “WAFFLES!!!”

It’s the little things.

Night,

Sam