The Boss Lady had a meeting this evening and she took The Princess. The Talker and I managed to get a lot done in the 3 hours the girls were gone.
We put out all of the trash and recycling for the morning and we got a little bit of work done in the backyard. We hung out for a while with the neighborhood kids and we watched a little Bob the Builder. Haven't been out in the workshop lately, so I am living vicariously through British claymation.
Quotes Weblog - Famous Quotes now features an excerpt from AtHomeDaddy. Helen Keller, Aristotle, Thomas Paine and AtHomeDaddy, together at last! Right now you can see it on the main page, but here is a direct link to the quoted poem.
Maybe I should try out more poetry, or maybe AtHomeDaddy should get a job! Thank goodness those guitar lessons start up next week. I got a comment yesterday from someone totally unknown to me (although her comments about guys named Mike make me wonder...), and now this. AtHomeDaddy is going big time. If The Princess could talk, she would be screaming with delight. Instead, she is just screaming.
Thanks to the local PBS station for changing up the morning routine of preschoolers all over town, without notice! We have enjoyed Sesame Street at 8 am since The Talker was old enough to be interested.
They re-arranged the schedule this week and have Sesame Street on at 7 am. If The Talker catches onto this and starts waking up an hour earlier for his Elmo fix, I am going to hunt down the station director at home and crank up some Elmo tunes in the Windstar, while sitting in his driveway at midnight for a month.
This guy went and screwed up a perfectly good routine for no reason. OK, he may have reasons, but his reasons are stupid. See, I knew I could think rationally about it. I am so depressed, I wrote a poem.
Some people are coffee junkies
Some dudes dig on dope
Some cool guys drink Dr Pepper by the gallon
Others, they snort coke
But all I really need
All I really want
Is ELMO and I want him at 8 o'clock
So it is not a good poem. Sue me.
Addendum
August 31, 2004 1:00 pm
I got an email response from the local PBS station. I guess I should take a hint. Complain about the programming and the Membership Services Coordinator will respond.
Hey cheapo, you are not a member, are you? That is why you don't know anything. Pay up and we will let you know in advance of schedule changes.
Hey at least they responded. But we are still watching Nick Jr. today.
The AtHomeTrio loves the new grocery store that we have been going to for the last month or so. If I can help it, we will never darken the door of the pharmacy again. See Why, at ADHDaddy. But otherwise, it is a great store.
AtHomeDaddy has declared this the best store in town. Reasons why?
1. Racecar Baskets. May not be important to you, but it makes shopping with The Talker a lot easier and more fun, because he is entertained at the store. Yes, we have left when all of the racecars were out on the 'track'.
That is it, really. They do have good customer service, much better than the last store we shopped at. But, I would grocery shop in a gas station if they had Racecar Baskets. They also have all sorts of great freebies for the kids, but in the end it is all about the Racecar Baskets.
Just so you know... Today we had a blue Racecar Basket with number 23 on the side. We could have used a yellow one with 15 on the side, but The Talker chose well. Last week we had a green one. Next week, maybe red.
Almost forgot, The Princess puked a pile on me while we were on Aisle 5. Guess she got queasy from shopping at a high speed.
A few weeks ago, while the SAHDs group kids were playing at a park a mother kept taking this stupid ladle - yes, a big soup spoon, away from all of the kids. She brought the ladle for her kid to play with in the sand. Her kid was not interested. Every other kid was.
Anytime another kid touched the ladle the mom would step in and take it away. She would say, "My daughter gets upset if anyone else plays with the ladle".
'So, teach your brat to share. Besides, she does not seem to care. You are just being a butthole'. That would have been cool, if I had actually said it, and not just thought it 5 hours later...
Today we went back to that park. I wish the Ladle Lady had been there, because I took the ladle out of our kitchen and had it in my back pocket, just in case. I was going to jump in as soon as she took away the ladle and hand the kid mine.
Then I could have said 'Here, since Ladle Lady won't let you use her big spoon, you can use mine. Feel free to go throw some sand at the old hag with it. You do know that it is OK to throw sand if an adult tells you it is OK, right? And you know there is a pile of rocks over there by the slide... I wonder what you could do with those. Think you could hit Ladle Lady's minivan?'
But then the kid would have probably told me 'Shut up, mister, I'll find my own spoon'.
Ladle Lady was a No-Show. Good for me, because I can't handle rejection from a three-year-old in the sandbox.
Tonight The Boss Lady gave approval to another of AtHomeDaddy's harebrained ideas for the backyard. Since the privacy fence hides the yard from view, I pretty much get free reign out back.
We have a retaining wall that runs down one side of our back yard. We can't really do much landscaping on the wall, because the neighborhood powerlines are buried there. YOU can dig, I'll even lend you the shovel. Go deep. It'll be a good show.
The Talker and the neighborhood kids like playing on the wall, so we are going to build a small deck on part of the wall. I want to build it big enough to put one of the kid-sized picnic tables or the art easel up there. (Yes, I know, we only have two kids, yet we have multiple kid-sized picnic tables. The Boss Lady is a sucker for Little Tikes stuff at garage sales and AtHomeDaddy brought home a wooden one on big trash day).
The deal is, AtHomeDaddy is to build this architectural masterpiece with the lumber that has been stacked beside the house for most of a year. WonderLady, the neighbor had the fence between our houses replaced last winter. The old fence was much better than the fence on the other side of our yard, so I was going to rebuild it over there. And there it is, stacked neatly beside the house eight or nine months later.
AtHomeDaddy noticed that the stack was starting to lean today, so that spurred the creative process.
Lookee there, the fence wood stack is leaning.
I ought to re-stack it.
What a hassle.
I'll just put it all out on the next big trash day anyways.
Let it lean.
Maybe I should just build something out of that wood.
Lookee there. A flat spot on the wall.
Think I'll build The Talker a deck.
Hey, Boss Lady, guess what I want to do...
Yep, it happens that quick. And notice, not once did I ever think about actually building the fence.
I bet you thought I would talk about the Bristol Race again, didn't ya? Nope. A much more important victory lap took place tonight, right in The AtHomeFamily's front yard. The Talker announced that he was going to tee-tee in the potty as he was ripping off his diaper at bedtime.
This is not unusual. Odd, yes, but it happens all the time around here, so it is not unusual. (I think there is a good country song in that last sentence...) The unusual part. He actually did it! So, running buck nekkid through the living room and out into the front yard, The Talker took his victory lap with AtHomeDaddy.
He did it so well, that he had to make a second victory lap around the front yard. No worries, we live on a cul-du-sac (That is French for dead end street) and the neighbors are all hermits, so nobody saw anything. But it was one heck of a good looking victory lap! And no, AtHomeDaddy was not buck nekkid.
Thank God.
Saw video of this while watching the race tonight. And to think I made fun of people who got married at Wal-Mart in my last blog post. Dang, that is hillbilly.
Is there anything cooler than a NASCAR Nextel Cup Night Race? The racing seems faster and the crashes are always more spectacular. Yes, AtHomeDaddy watches for the crashes. But at least I did not get married AT a Wal-Mart.
Back to the race, Bristol is awesome. 500 laps - 266 miles at up to 128 MPH on a half mile oval! At Night! With 42 other guys trying the same thing... Kind of like Houston rush hour traffic without all the guns and people flipping the bird.
Don't call AtHomeDaddy tonight, the race starts in a few minutes.
Oh yeah, The Princess did something the other day. She rolled over. Big news since she is so young. It is a little early for her to roll over. Then The Talker told us that he 'helped' her roll over. Turns out Humpty Dumpty was pushed.
Until recently, the decent looking yards on our block were all done professionally, EXCEPT mine. It has nothing to do with pride or responsibility. I am cheap. These guys get $60 to mow and edge a yard . That is with a weekly contract. $70 - $75 for an occasional mowing without a contract. Since you have to mow more than half of the year around here, the neighbors are laying out more than $1500 a year FOR MOWING! A couple of these families have teen-age sons, too... And they pay for mowing?!?!?
In the past, I would be out there every 5 or six days for a couple of hours getting the yard looking great. It was always easy because The Talker would take his afternoon nap and I would mow. Once the Boss Lady got home I would finish everything else up.
This year I have been lucky to get the mower out every ten days or so. Seems The Princess does not agree with the mowing schedule. She does not usually nap long enough for me to mow. So now, I am out there after dinner, racing the sun to get everything done, since I hate to waste a Saturday morning mowing when I could be fishing or sleeping. Tonight, I almost got finished. I still need to mow up on the retaining wall and work in the front flower beds. I guess there is no fishing this weekend.
But at least The Boss Lady did not have to work overtime to pay the mowing bill this week
Thought AtHomeDaddy had died, did ya? Too bad, still here. Just nothing exciting to report lately. Allergies and sinus infections don't count as exciting do they?
Ragweed sucks!
The Talker and AtHomeDaddy are both getting sick. Luckily, he is a lot better at being sick than me. If we were both whining this much I don't think I could stand it.
This is how close to death I am:
I ran out of Dr Pepper Monday night at 6pm. 27 hours and 55 minutes, as of this post. I have been hitting the Cherry Kool-Aid pretty hard, but it is not the same.
Short of the Grim Reaper paying me a personal visit tonight, I'll have to take the kids to the grocery store in the morning. Because now we are out of Dr Pepper AND sugar, so no more cherry Kool-Aid, either.
You really expect a guy live this way? At some point is it really worth it? These are the questions that I ponder in my caffeine-free state. (caffeine-free state - sorta like Indiana, I've spent some time there, but I sure as heck don't want to live there!) See, my mind starts to wonder without The Nectar of the Gods.
Maybe the Boss Lady will run to the store if I whine real loud.
By the way before I die, Rick, I hafta know, why no Dr Pepper on the Swill List?
The Princess had her first taste of something other than breastmilk tonight for dinner. The Boss Lady made some rice cereal the girl tried to devour. It took The Talker a few days to figure out the eating thing, and we all know how smart he is...
The Princess had it down in three bites. She is a super-genius, I am sure.
Also, check out The Simpson's quote at the bottom of your window. I think it is slick. Stole the script from some teen's blog and then I adapted the script to quote Homer. She had a rotating message, but it was too much script to copy and paste and then re-work. Because, unlike my children, a genius, I ain't.
Once in a while The Talker sleeps in one of my old T-Shirts. Actually, they are generally left-overs that I designed while working at recreation centers and kids summer camps.
Last night he slept in an art festival t-shirt from five years ago. This morning, he woke up very excited and ran into my bedroom proclaiming at the top of his lungs, "Look, Daddy, look at my cool dress!"
I was very proud. After all it is a very cool design on that shirt. I worked hard on it, never thinking that someday my own son might wear it to his prom.
The Mother of the Bride sent me a joke the other day. Thought I would share it with you. If my posting this joke breaches any copyright laws, let me know I will gladly sell out The Mother of The Bride for a small fee or assurances that she will do hard time...
A guy goes on vacation to the Holy Land with his wife and nagging, confused mother-in-law. Halfway through the trip, the mother-in-law dies.
So the guy goes to an undertaker who explains that they can ship the body home, but it'll cost $5,000. Or, they can bury her in the Holy Land for $150.
"We'll ship her home," says the son-in-law.
"Are you sure?" asks the undertaker. "That's a huge unnecessary expense. I can assure you that we will do a very nice burial here."
"Look," says the son-in-law, "two thousand years ago they buried a man here, and three days later he rose from the dead. I just can't take the chance with my mother-in-law."
The Mother of the Bride's joke. An oldie, but a goodie - and the joke ain't half bad, either.
Ba Dum Bump
I kid. I love that Mother of the Bride. I love that she sends nice Christmas gifts, I love that she calls on my birthday AND I love that she lives 3 1/2 hours away.
Ba Dum Bump
After church and lunch we all settled in for naps. The Boss Lady got to nap for an hour and scored a 6.345. The Talker slept two hours and the judges scored it a 7.894. Not perfect, but a nice effort. The Princess slept three hours and the judges scored it a 10. Perfection in action!
AtHomeDaddy slept 25 laps - about 25 minutes because people in Michigan can't seem to keep the trash off of the track. If it were not for all of the caution laps, I might have missed something exciting. Judges Score? Are you kidding, this is racing, there is only one score, First. (Or third, if like me, you root for Dale Jarrett).
If your personal philosophies runs closer to Play-doh than to Plato, check out The Random Home Simpson Quote Generator. I'll be back there often.
The Talker has gotten into trouble lately for yelling "No!" when asked to do a chore. Today at lunch, AtHomeDaddy asked him to do something and got the new favorite response "NO!"
So I reminded him that "You don't say no to Daddy, do you?"
What should he say?
"Yes. I do say no to Daddy." True, but he would have gotten in trouble for being sassy.
"No. I don't say no to Daddy." Right, but that would require saying no to Daddy and we don't do that.
So he chose to say nothing - good choice, because then I realized what I had asked him, and he was off the hook!
Not much time to catch up with the blog this week. The AtHomeTrio has been going crazy trying to get settled into the school-year routine. We had to sit down and map out the week for the AtHomeFamily on a markerboard. Seems like we have gotten everything done this week that we needed to, except hitting the Lotto.
Maybe next week.
It is now the third day of the school year and The AtHomeTrio is settling into a nice routine. Hopefully it will keep up until May 26th. This morning, after watching the recycling and trash trucks, we headed to the park to hand with the other SAHDs. This outing turned way too exciting when one of the three year olds walked away from the playscape.
He was found in the grocery store next door to the playscape. But the time spent searching for him seemed like an eternity, especially since I left The Talker and The Princess sitting with a dad and an 8 month old that I had only met half an hour before. It was too hard not to run past MY kids every few minutes while I was looking for the missing boy. Everything turned out fine, but once he was found, we headed home cause AtHomeDaddy needed a nap and a Dr Pepper!
Yesterday The Boss Lady spent 15 hours at her office. The AtHomeTrio stayed on the move all day to hold off the newborn-meltdown-sceamfest. A successful day! We hit a park in the morning, Toys R Us and Petsmart in the afternoon and we even went out to dinner. Bath and bedtime was tough. One of the two kids got a bath, but I can't remember which. Of course, there was a lot of screaming, so I might have been bathing a cat. Thank God AtHomeDaddy is not a single parent!
We are off to storytime this morning and may hit a park this afternoon. The Princess is already down for an early nap, so we may have hang out at the house if she is sleeping all afternoon. (Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?)
School starts tomorrow. Every little kid is dreading it and The Boss Lady is loves it! Well, she would if she could stay awake. The Princess decided that Sunday night would be a great time to eat every hour or so. Now, The Boss Lady will be off to a nice long day at school with no sleep. Plus, she gets to work 'Back to School' night after work - a nice 13 hour day. Also, 800 kids are hoping and praying The Boss Lady plays nice on Tuesday.
Want to come over and help me keep the baby awake today? Should be fun. We can make lots of noise. Because if The Princess sleeps all day, then she will be ready to party all night. Come on over, 800 kids need your help!
Hey Boss Lady, CBH
Bonus points for anyone who can tell AtHomeDaddy the context of the quote in the title.
The Boss Lady has encouraged AtHomeDaddy to find some evening guitar classes. She says it is good for me to be away from the kids once in a while. Can't argue with logic like that, so today I registered for my first lessons. I'll autograph a copy of my first CD for you.
Once the other members of The AtHomeFamily re-joined AtHomeDaddy at home (How is that for verbosity? Can you tell I used to be employed by a municipality?) we chilled out and watched The Olympics.
While the family was gone, I worked on a few projects in the yard. The veggie garden is no more. I ran the tiller through the remaining weeds and now have a nice plot ready to plant again. But now I think that I should just sod it and be done with gardening for a few years. I also got a jump on the laundry for next week and kept the house relatively clean, even though the football game watching party lasted until 12:30 AM because after the game, we watched Blazing Saddles. And you should not stop a classic movie right in the middle!
This weekend has been completely Wiggles free. Nice Bonus!
The Boss Lady let me skip out on the weekend trip because AtHomeDaddy is worn like an old t-shirt. Says she, "Stay home and rest. Enjoy the quiet."
Great idea! So what does AtHomeDaddy do? I spent the morning working in the yard and the afternoon running the tiller through the garden. No rest today. And now the guys are coming over to watch a little pre-season football. The Law Talking Guy, Racecar Man, Other Dad and maybe Norm will be hanging out to watch The Cowboys get beaten-up by the Texans.
I doubt if it will be too quiet around here, either but it has to be better than blogging all night.
The Boss Lady and the kids are off on a road trip with Pops this weekend. AtHomeDaddy was going, but The Boss Lady offered me a weekend at home, without the family. Just me and The Big White Dog.
I ran out in the garage when she offered, looking for paint or plumbing supplies. I figured the catch was that I had to finish a home improvement project while they are gone. Surely she expects me to be productive this weekend. Alas, the garage is empty. No paint, no plumbing supplies, no lighting to be hung. AtHomeDaddy wisely decided to take The Boss Lady up on her offer. I am home with nothing to do all weekend.
Maybe now I can get to the yardwork I have put off all summer. Or maybe I can finish reorganizing the garage. Or maybe I can get out the paint and touch up the kitchen.
Aww man, I am such a sucker. Now that I have agreed to stay home, I better have something to show for it when the family returns. On second thought, it might just be better to go spend the weekend with The Mother of the Bride.
I had one of those moments where you question every single thing in your life all at once. At 11:13 AM while standing at the park.
So we are off to the park, The Princess, AtHomeDaddy and Cookie Monster. He was Cookie Monster because he went to bed with a Halloween costume on and I had been unable to talk him out of it all morning.
I digress, There I was innocently watching Cookie Monster run around the playscape with a couple of girls from the neighborhood. One mom asks another "What formula do you guys feed your baby".
At this point, I am already looking for a bail-out from my Cookie Monster pal - C'mon hit someone, fall down and cry, ANYTHING! Because I know that the next question will be the same one, but addressed to me.
"What formula do you guys feed your baby". Why did I not answer Similac and let it go? Nope, had to go with the honest answer.
"The Princess is breastfed."
"Wow, how is that going with mom at work?" Then I was stuck watching my Cookie Monster chase girls while I was involved in a discussion about breastfeeding. And that is when it happened.
I thought to myself that only two years ago I was sitting at a desk working away the day. Now, I am stuck in a MOMMY CONVERSATION with no graceful exit. 20 minutes later, The Princess spoke up and bailed me out.
20 minutes.
It is not The Princess' fault. She is only 4 months old. Over time, hopefully she will learn to offer daddy a little help a little quicker, but it was OK for a first try.
Now the Cookie Monster, he should have been there for me. He is 2 1/2 years old. So he went to nap with no cookies. And I took away his costume.
Not really, but I sure am hoping that The Talker will be quicker to bail me out next time!
It is official, The Big White Dog and AtHomeDaddy have voted.
WE will henceforth and forevermore have at least two (2) consecutive weekdays in the middle of August of each year, where the temperature starts out below 70 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature rises to no more than 87 degrees Fahrenheit and the relative humidity never rises above 35%.
The weather is great here. Everyone is happy because we can actually play outside today without risking going radioactive because of the usual unbearable August heat & humidity double decker sammich.
Don't try to call us today, as soon as The Princess wakes up, we are outta here. That's right, The Princess is just waking up at 8:15! Maybe that is why life is so sweet today. Either way, we hit two parks Tuesday before noon, we might try for three today.
The Princess handled her FOUR shots this morning like a champ. Afterwards we headed to see The Boss Lady at work. The Princess got shown off, The Talker got to play on the playscape. Next to the playscape was a load of pebbles straight out of the dumptruck. The Talker ran up the pile and slid down on his rear for 30 minutes straight. He got dirtier than he has ever been in his life. Good Times!
AtHomeDaddy forgot to fill you in on the Chicken Attack this morning.
The Talker was playing with sidewalk chalk at the neighborhood park when a roadrunner jumped/flew/fell/something out of a tree and landed about five feet away. The Talker jumped to run away and the roadrunner took off as quick as a... Roadrunner.
The Talker, once he realized that there were no more birds after him, decided to chase the roadrunner. All the while he is yelling for me, "A chicken! Daddy, get da chicken!"
It is cool that the boy thought A, I COULD catch the chicken/roadrunner and B, I would know what to do with the chicken/roadrunner once I caught it! Once again, The One-Man-Fan-Club made me feel like a real man.
Too bad we didn't eat chicken or roadrunner for dinner. Maybe we will find a cow to chase tomorrow!
Thursday morning will likely go down as one of the most memorable days during my time as a SAHD. The Princess has her 4 month check-up, complete with a couple of shots. Usually we divide and conquer for shots days, but the pediatrician's office had to change our appointment, so The Talker and AtHomeDaddy get to handle this trip together. The Boss Lady will be busy all morning.
We are really looking forward to a little bit of extra crying and screaming Thursday morning! Maybe she will cry herself out and the afternoon will be quiet around here. NOW THAT would be memorable.
PeoplePC.com will be providing net service to The AtHomeFamily for the immediate future.
This is Part I of the AtHomeFamily's cost cutting measures. Don't be expecting a great Christmas gift. Cause if I can't have DSL, you can't have this.
We have not put the AtHome in AtHomeTrio today. In an attempt to curtail the amount of screaming that The Princess can do in one morning, we decided to stay on the go.
We were off to the neighborhood park at 8:30 AM to play with the 'locals'. Hung out so The Talker could play trucks until 10AM. Then, we were off to the SAHDs playgroup until noon. After that, The Talker and AtHomeDaddy went bowling while The Princess slept in her stroller.
The Talker pushed his ball and had a blast until he dropped the ball on his foot. After that, he was willing to let AtHomeDaddy tote the ball for him. He bowled a 70. Not bad for a 2 1/2 year old!
After a stop at "Chicken Nuggets" (aka Chick-a-fill or Chick-Fil-A) to eat and play, we headed home for naps. The Talker is down, but The Princess is screaming away.
Wanna comeover and see how loud we have to turn up the stereo to drown out baby screaming? The trick is, you cannot wake The Talker in the process, or you lose.
Today's junk mail harvest...
One envelope full of ads and coupons addressed to: To Our Neighbors At. This envelope comes from a company in Garden Grove, California. Close, but no cigar.
One ad magazine - with the banner title Serving Our Cities Exclusive Homes that is addressed to: Upscale Consumer. Yeah, right. These people ought to do a drive by of The AtHomeFamily's neighborhood. Might save themselves a little postage.
I guess it worked. I felt a lot better about myself as I was putting the junk mail in the recycling bin. Oh well, at least it is better than getting bills, right?
The Boss Lady and AtHomeDaddy are trying to get back into a nice routine. Since The Princess came along, we have been spoiled because both of us have been around the house a lot.
Now that school has started, The AtHomeTrio are trying to get a lot more things done around the house so that the evenings and weekends are not eaten up at the grocery store and waiting on the washing machine.
This morning we headed out to the new grocery store. It is not really a new store, but it is not the store we used to go to because they have race car baskets! The cart keeps The Talker happy which helps keep everyone else happy. Go to ADHDaddy to read a little more about the side trip to the pharmacy.
After the trip to the grocery store we dropped off the goods at home and went to the library. The Talker and AtHomeDaddy read books while The Princess dozed. That is, until we ran screaming from the library because of some 4 year old brat. This PIMA (Pain in my Ass) (Eternal gratitude to Brad Hall, wherever you may be!) was driving everyone nuts, except his mother. She was either deaf or just oblivious. As loud as that brat was screaming, I HOPE she is deaf.
Is it OK to put Anti-Barking Collars on other people's kids? It is more humane than having him de-barked. Just checking.
Rick's Atari Shrine
This site got me thinking about the old computers that I have had through the years.
It is true. I was a Commodore 64 guy. That machine ruled our house for several years. We had the computer and a couple of game cartridges for several years before we got a disk drive. We never had a tape drive. So, unless we wanted to play the cartridge games, we had to type in the Basic or Assembly programs and then debug the program and then run the program and then debug and then... Until we got the disk drive all of the games ended the same way, eventually we would have to turn off the computer. POOF!, another game gone. We had a modem, but I was never able to hack into anything.
Bro and I burned out a couple of these machines over the years. I typed my college papers on a C= 64 for the last time during the fall semester of 1990. There might be one still in the closet at The Queen Mother's house.
While in High School I also had a Tandy Model 100 that I would tote to my Algebra II class. The teacher allowed calculators, so I would write programs to solve the formulas. No wonder I made it through college without any math credits! I knew when I got it that the Tandy was hot, so The Queen Mother made me give it back. Luckily, I got to keep it until summer. And no, I did not steal it, the guy I was working for bought it cheap and gave it to me in lieu of pay. It still had the metal inventory tags on it. COOL!
Granny bought a computer - a speedy 16mhz with monochrome orange monitor (and a color ribbon printer!)while I was living with her. I finished the school year with Granny's machine. And I frequently turned in cover sheets with 4 color printing.
The Boss Lady and I bought a 50mhz Compaq computer with integrated monitor that lived at my apartment while at UNT. That was the last computer I ever had with on-site warranty repair. When the 3.5 drive died, Compaq sent one via next day mail and then they sent someone to install the drive the day after that. The Compaq was good for Doom, JB will testify to that! I think I did some course work on it, but mainly I wasted a lot of time on the internet with that machine. It is sitting in The Mother of the Bride's garage.
We bought another Compaq that died a horrible death. All I remember was it was black, it started smoking green smoke and I sent it away. Someone rebuilt it enough to run a few games and it is still at the Recreation Center.
We bought a Dell while The Boss Lady was in Grad school. It is still running, but the modem died. I run a couple of graphics programs on it to design toys and I use it to burn CDs because my burner never got XP drivers. It is in the garage/workshop.
The HP we use now is a something or other model that I don't care about. I long ago gave up caring what is under the hood of the computer, only that it works. This one only works sometimes.
Gosh I miss that C= 64. It never got viruses or blew out modems. Microsoft never tried to upsell me software every six months and the C= 64 was just bad ass, especially compared to those Atari pieces of junk! The guys that had those were real nerds!
Cat Litter Supplies
At the time of this post there were 249 items in this category on eBay. I find that astounding and hilarious.
And why do I find this funny? Because blogging while on Vicodin, thanks to a migrane, is always funnier.
The Talker has had a blast playing monster trucks in his room this weekend. The Boss Lady got him a rug for his room that has a city scene and road on it, so he has been driving over the buildings with his Bigfoot trucks. Kind of funny when the 2 year old is yelling "Crush da school!" and "Crunch da houses with da truck!" I don't know where he gets this stuff.
The Talker got a new Disc Swing today.
Actually, it is kind of like this one, but a lot cheaper. The Talker and AtHomeDaddy worked this morning cutting piece of scrap wood into a circle and hanging it with a carabiner and rock climbing rope on the swingset. Any backyard activity that requires a trip to REI is ok by us!
OK, airport security may not be funny, but TiVo keeping a guy outta jail? Now THAT, is good stuff!
Austin American Statesman, August 6th, 2004
It was Brian Teasley's custom-made microphone that was responsible for shutting down five gates in Terminal C at Dallas Fort Worth-International Airport this week.
Next time, he'll ship it instead of carrying it in his baggage, he promised in a story in Saturday editions of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Teasley, a member of Dallas-based pop-rock band Polyphonic Spree, had been in Austin where the group taped an episode of 'Austin City Limits.' He was taking a flight from DFW to his home in Birmingham, Ala., on Thursday.
The percussionist for the 25-member band had planned to do some recording at home, so he put the microphone in his suitcase.
When his suitcase didn't show up on the baggage carousel in Birmingham, he filled out the missing-luggage paperwork and went home. He didn't know the suitcase wasn't there because it was under scrutiny at the Texas airport.
A DFW terminal area and several gates were closed briefly after a routine baggage screening detected the device, which raised concerns because of the wires and threading caps running through it. A bomb disposal robot removed it, and it was taken to an open field.
By the time Teasley arrived home, he had quite a reception.
'I had Taco Bell in my hand, and all of a sudden, these cars block me in my driveway. They've all got tinted windows, 'X-Files' style,' he said. 'Then here comes one guy with a bulletproof vest on, another with a gun showing. It was a very harrowing day.'
Teasley explained that the item in question was not a pipe bomb, but a microphone.
'I told them we had just used it when we were on Craig Kilborn's show," he said. "I still had it on my TiVo, so I was like, `Come watch it with me.' After they figured out I was telling the truth, they were pretty cool. I was talking to them about music. But thank God for TiVo."
The first full week for The AtHomeTrio has been a success. We have started back on our routine of playing, trashing the house, running the roads and spending The Boss Lady's money.
Of course, the first mistake AtHomeDaddy made this morning was staying up half of the night reading old SAHD message boards. If you have ever heard my theory on SAHDs, then rest assured that I stand by my theory. If you don't know about the SAHD theory and it's corollaries, drop me an email an I'll fill you in.
This is a family place and some things just should not be said in public where The Queen Mother might hear.
We spent the morning at the neighborhood park, playing with several 5 yr olds who are excited to start school ASAP. It was funny listening to a neighbor girl explain the difference between preschool ("it's for babies") and big school ("It's for me").
Only 4 1/2 years and AtHomeDaddy will be out looking for a day job... I better get cracking on the resume'.
And the front yard and the van and the garage and the shed and the pool and the....
Props to Rick for the reminder of the old SNL skit. I have been using a paraphrased version of Eddie Murphy's line all week.
It finally hit 100 degrees here this week. Since we have a nice AC system, The AtHomeFamily hardly noticed until today. The kids and I hit the hike and bike trail downtown early this morning. We would have cruised along at a decent clip and gotten back in the car before the heat took command of the trail, but there was just too much to do and too many ponies to see.
Where else can you go downtown on a weekday morning and watch the local miniature horse rescue group walk ten ponies on the jogging trail? The Talker was in heaven, he got to pet the ponies for 20 minutes. The Princess was not impressed with the ponies and thought no one was paying sufficient attention to her.
Once home, the heat took hold of The Talker and he took a 3 1/2 hour nap! Maybe I'll get him to run some windsprints on the back porch tomorrow. AtHomeDaddy deserves another day of 3 1/2 hour naps. Don't you agree?
If today's title makes you want to listen to banjo music and stick flashlights up you nose, then you worked at too many summer camps while you were in college.
Besides that, I guess a better title would have been Dual Naptimes, since this is a celebration of the fact that The Talker and The Princess are both napping at this moment. Lately she has been playing until a few minutes before he wakes up, so there has been little rest-time for AtHomeDaddy. Except that yesterday I rocked The Princess for so long trying to get her to take an early nap that my leg fell asleep. The phone rang and I tried to lay The Princess in the crib without waking her as I was running to get the phone. It would have been funny to see. Glad we don't have a NannyCam.
Boss Lady, we don't have a NannyCam, do we?
The AtHomeTrio is off to the pool this morning. We are bypassing the neighbor's backyard pool and the near-by park pool to go to the coolest pool in the area. It is a 20 minute drive but well worth it.
The Talker loves this pool because they have all sorts of fountains and water play structures in a 9 inch deep pool. The Princess can sit and watch her brother run around like a soggy insane monkey on caffeine. And AtHomeDaddy will be the only man in the place, so that is always good for the ego!
It is supposed to be house cleaning and laundry day. We will see how that goes.
The Talker and The Princess were going to work on a card for Granny this past week, so that it could be mailed on Saturday. All the art supplies are out and have been ready for four days, but we never got around to the actual creative process.
So sorry.
The Boss Lady just told The Talker "It is MaMa's birthday today... She is Six Hundred." A direct quote.
Today The AtHomeTrio went swimming at the neighbor's house after we played at the park while it was cool this morning (Cool meaning less than 95 degrees and 124% humidity) and we cruised the mall for chicks. Besides that, everyone took long naps, so all is well in AtHomeLand.
The Boss Lady just reminded me That "not EVERYONE got a long nap today."
So sorry.
Got nothing for you today. Might as well stop reading now.
Since you insist... headache, skipped church, slept late, watched TV, napped on the couch, walked the neighborhood with the family and more TV.
See I told you to stop reading.
Posts
All Comments
