Children & Random Cheap Shit

After the previous night's Dark Horse power hour, I had a bit of a headache.  Erica was in worse shape.  But being the dedicated and lovely people we are, we were off to Lil Reggie's birthday party at Fun Run in Liberty.  I'd post a link, except I never want to go there again.
In my mind it was going to be like TunnelTown used to be.  I say used to be, because as far as I know the only one left around here is in Lee's Summit, and that might as well be the opposite end of the earth.  If you don't know what Tunnel Town is, you must have had an awful childhood.  It's basically a building full of a maze of tunnels, and rope bridges, and all of the fun things that come with tunnel playgrounds.  It was not uncommon to find a small child in there sobbing because they could see their parent through the porthole but not get to them.  Pussies.
ANYWAY, in reality it was a strip mall space full of inflatables.  You know what I'm talking about, shit like this.  There was also a 'town', which some poor sap built from plywood and labeled with Sharpies.  In the town was a jail, a fire station, and a Build-a-Bear-esque shop which I believe they called a 'pet store' but I could be wrong on that one.  Apparently there was an arcade on the other side, but I didn't venture that far.  They had a snack bar, and the people who worked at it were all assholes.  I didn't go to the bathroom there either, but I was told by hungover/pukey Erica that the toilet didn't work.  When she went to tell an employee they said "Great."  ALL OF THIS FOR THE LOW LOW PRICE OF $7.50/child!  If I didn't have such lukewarm feelings toward children, I believe I'd buy a large metal building and fill it full of those eyesores and only charge $6.50. I should probably say here that I'm sure the place is lovely if you have children.  I just don't think it measures up to Jungle Jim's Playland from the days of my youth - yeah, you remember that?!  Apparently there is still one in Utah - luuuuckies.

Birthday Boy (:

After dropping Erica off at Union Station and a failed attempt to visit the WWI Memorial, Mom and I went to Red X.  Now there's a link worth posting.  Red X is the kind of place that you have to set aside an entire day if you really want to experience it all.  It's a store, sort of.  It's almost like a combination liquor store/discount grocery/flea market/hardware store.  They have an area of weird off-brand shit, where I found a genuine BADGER toothbrush, they have an area of cheap t-shirts, lots of groceries, tobacco products, a huge liquor selection, and it's also where bells go to die.  I probably should have taken a picture of them to demonstrate what I mean...It just seems like every time a bell (we're talking large bells, church bells & such I assume) around town is no longer going to be put to use they drag it over to Red X, where there are at least a dozen large bells outside.  I wonder if there's a story behind that.

They also have fun house mirrors.