The family went out of town this weekend. The pets and I stayed behind. Once again I could have done lots of fun and daring things. Instead, I worked on the truck, skipped church, steam cleaned the carpets and scrubbed most of the rest of the floors in the house.
Clean tile and carpet may not do my eternal soul much good, but it sure is good for my soles, to be walking barefoot on shiny floors.
I just picked up 30 shoes off of the living room floor. Thirty.
The Princess had three pair and three mismatched shoes. Why does an 18 month old need at least six pair of shoes? To go with the other three pair in her room, of course.
The Talker had the most creative mix. Five pair of shoes. Two pair of tennis shoes, one pair of hiking boots one pair of sandals and a pair of cowboy boots. Shoes for all occasions. He looked at his pile and grabbed the toy shopping cart to move them back to his room.
My pile was the most consistent. Three pair of brown Birkenstocks and a pair of grey running shoes. Once again, why three pair of almost identical sandals? I have a good answer, but it involves me getting another pair of Birkenstocks, black this time.
And The Boss Lady, she wins and award for getting her shoes closest to the closet. One pair, white tennis shoes, was all she contributed to the living room pile.
This evening's excitement was brought to you by The Princess and the letters E, M and S. And the numbers 9, 1 and his identical twin, The Other Number 1.
Yep. 36 hours after taking the kids on a tour of the downtown fire station, the big yellow ambulance came to our house. The Princess was pissed off, and she made herself pass out. The Boss Lady was the one who found her, face down on the living room tile.
By the end of the visit with EMS, The Princess was talking and smiling at the paramedics. Mainly she was really glad to be sitting on the couch in mommy's lap and not going for a ride in the big yellow ambulance.
One of the families in our neighborhood pulls a flat bed trailer behind a Suburban for trick or treating. That way the kids don't have to waste time walking long distances between houses. I guess they get to cover more of the neighborhood and get loads more candy this way, too.
Our family provides the alternative transportation for kids who are too young or parents who are not letting their kids trick or treat for hours on end. This is a picture of our low budget version.
At one point I counted six kids riding on our garden wagon. Luckily, the kids are all still pretty small. And the other dads helped push on the hills. What you miss seeing in this picture though, is the additional wagon that is tied to the back of the garden wagon. The kids crammed treat bags back there, so that more bodies would fit on the wagon.
We only hit about 20 houses, but the candy haul belies that fact. Between The Princess and The Talker, we brought home at least 5 pounds of candy. Never fear, I spent some time today sorting out the chocolate and setting the rest aside. The kids can fight over that pile. No sense in wasting good chocolate on them, though. They would not enjoy it as much as a guy with a big purple sombrero.
The Princess and I are running through a pile of candy the size of a watermelon while The Talker naps. And she found a new low level of humor when I burped.
I burped. She laughed harder than ever.
I burped again. She was laughing so hard that her eyes were watering.
I repeated the performance and she threw her head back and let out a huge belly laugh.
After 10 minutes of this, I was red from burping. She was red faced from laughing so hard. And I think both of us were nauseous.
Think she would die laughing if I barfed?
A friend of mine has gotten me hooked on Sudoku puzzles. They print them every couple of days in the local paper, but the website is the way to play!
My best time, 11 minutes, 55 seconds on an easy puzzle. According to their bell curve, I am well below average. Still, I feel good that 19% of the players are slower than me.
Last night The Boss Lady and I were treated to a night out. One of The Boss Lady's childhood friends has moved into our neighborhood. She watched the kids for us and sent us to one of her favorite restaurants, The Melting Pot. Plus, she handed us the keys to her car, a really nice Lexus.
After gorging on a Cheddar and Emmenthaler Swiss Cheese veggie fondue appetizer and the Center Cut Entree (Filet Mignon, Black Tiger Shrimp, Chicken Breast, Peppercorn Pork Tenderloin and Teriyaki Sirloin)in a Coq au Vin fondue, we decided on the Flaming Turtle Chocolate Fondue for dessert.
They should serve the dessert fondue with a chaser of insulin. I thought I might turn diabetic after eating chocolate dipped marshmallows that had been coated in crushed Oreos. But I have never been one to waste food, so I ate them all. The Boss Lady was a little more health conscious. She dipped fruit and cheescake in the chocolate and caramel.
There was a chef's salad in there somewhere before the Flaming Turtle, but as Homer Simpson said "You don't win friends with salad", so who cares.
Everything was awesome, even the salad. But if you go to The Melting Pot, don't forget to sign the loan documents beforehand at your bank. And take me. I'll teach you how to really get those marshmallows covered.
After dinner we were real creative. We drove out to the construction site of a school that The Boss Lady would like to run next year. Then we drove home. But since we were in a nice car, we did take the long way home.
The kid's had a ball. They ate at Chick-Fil-A and went to a carnival at church. They were even in bed when we got home!
What a nice night. I still don't know exactly what we did to deserve it, but thanks, DamnYell.
The first words out of The Talker's mouth this morning were "Daddy, I wanna play play-doh". No real stress for mom there.
The second round of talking would have caused problems for Mommy, though. "I was dreaming about babies. Mommy has a new baby."
Dang, now I feel guilty for getting a great night's sleep. All while The Boss Lady was off birthing a baby... And finally, why is AtHomeDaddy always the last to know?
The Talker, as he walked into the kitchen, from playing in the backyard: "Look Daddy, I got the dog poop off of my feet."
"Well that's good," I said, not wanting to know any more details.
As I lifted him into the kitchen sink: "Let's wash your feet. Don't want any poop on them."
"Yeah, and we better wash my hands, too."
It is pretty amazing, what one can do with a helpful three year old, some swim noodles and daddy's work clothes. Who cares if he looks as if he has scoliosis and bow legs. The Talker is very proud of his creation.
The Princess deserves some credit, too. She slept late yesterday, making this whole thing possible.
But not as late as she slept today. It is 9:10 and the girl is still out. Yeah for daddy!
Just for the record, 9:50. One hour and 50 minutes later than usual.
This morning, after running some errands, the kids and I headed over for some pre-lunch park time. The Talker recognized a girl that he has only played with once. I could not remember her name, but the boy has great recall of names. Last time she was at the park with her grandmother, this time she was with her other granny.
Today's grandma asked if I was "the stay at home dad her daughter told her about". Since Other Dad lives right across the street from her daughter, I assumed she was mistaking me for him. The she explained that she has already met him. I was even more confused by her comment, but The Princess fell hard and cried, so I never got around to asking what she meant. Plus, the kids were having fun, and she was not running out of the park with her granddaughter, so I did not worry about it.
Later though, she hit me with a doozy. The Princess was trying to play with the buckles on the little girl's stroller. Also, she figured out where the snacks were stored, under the stroller, so my human grackle was not moving. Not until someone shared that snack.
Granny told me that she is a retired gifted and talented high school teacher. And that it is "obvious that your girl will need gifted services in school. Especially if you do a good job getting her ready for school."
What? Huh? Who the heck are you? You are such a great high school teacher that you can assign labels to 18 month old kids? Damn, pretty pretentious, dontcha think, lady? I am glad those smart kids in Dallas got to benefit from your insight and wisdom. Bitch.
I have no doubt that my kids will be smarterer than me. It would be hard for them not to be. But this is the same thing as someone telling me that the boy is a good candidate for a ritalin and focusin cocktail every morning with his breakfast.
I never have held gifted/talented teachers in very high regard. Probably goes back to me being left with the other kids while the geniuses got to benefit from the best learning methods. Or maybe I just think that kids need to be educated with their peers. All of them. Even the dumb ones. And the one eating paste in the back of the room.
Well, maybe not all of them. Keep the ugly kids away from mine. I don't want that stuff rubbing off on my beautiful little genius darlings.
The AtHomeTrio went to Costco this morning. We got home several hours later, and we forgot to buy diapers, but the kids and I had a great time.
After we shopped, we ate lunch at the snack bar. Cheese pizza for the kids to share and a hotdog for dad. Then we all scarfed on ice cream. A good outing and an easy lunch.
While we were eating, the snack tables were full. We ended up sitting at the last table, which was big enough for 8 people. Three strangers joined us. And did they ever get an earfull from the boy.
After he introduced everyone, he let the others know exactly what our plans were for the day. He is not a shy child. A shy child would not include bathroom breaks if he were to share his itinerary with complete strangers. By the time the other people left, they knew that The Princess blew out a diaper in the car and that our dog was in trouble for eating a tree.
They were really nice and seemed to enjoy The Talker's stories about baseball and pirates. But for some reason they ate REALLY fast.
This afternoon was our neighborhood costume parade. The kids and the wife were planning to attend, while I worked on the truck and watched NASCAR.
My work on the truck turned out to be menial, the race was boring and I could not nap, so I joined them as the parade was beginning. I also wanted to win a few 'Good Husband' points, so I rode to the parade with the bike trailer. That way The Boss Lady would not have to haul the kids the entire route in the wagon. Plus, I would be able to bring one or both of the kids home easier than the wife could.
During the parade The Talker rode in the bike trailer with a neighborhood friend he has not seen in a long time. And another buddy stood on the back of the trailer. Wish we has some pictures of Darth Vader, Batman and the Blue Knight cruising the 'hood.
In the end, the kids wanted to play at the park, so I left the family behind, so that I could get back to making no real progress on my weekend projects. The boy ended up hitching a ride home with a neighbor and The Boss Lady and The Princess enjoyed a nice quiet walk home.
When they all headed to church this evening, I really kicked my weekend into high gear and watched the Astros almost win another one.
Go 'Stros!
Click on the picture for full sized imageThe Princess is trying to figure out to make apples.
This morning, when we went to play with a neighborhood friend, the same house we partied at yesterday, she found most of the neccessary ingriedients. Or so she thought. After her life-changing experience at bobbing for apples, the girl showed some good reasoning skills.
As soon as we walked into the friend's front yard, she started yelling for them. "Applesh, Applesh. Yum, Applesh."
A few minutes later, I found her dragging the water hose out to the now empty tub that once hosted the apple bobbing game. While she was working so hard, she was telling me "Applesh, I make applesh, Daddy."
Unluckily for her her, the apples did not magically appear. But she only had to wait for her lunch plate a couple of hours later for that to happen.
The Gruesome Twosome and I attended a Halloween party yesterday afternoon. Even though I started having doubts about the scheduled date while taking the kids over there. Could I have miss understood? Might the party be next week instead?
The Knight, the pig and I had a blast. And during the party I realized that The Talker was playing out in the wooded back yard, and he only checked in with me a few times. Mainly when he needed help eating something. But he never came to me to whine or tattle.
I can't remember a time when he played this independently. Especially for this long. It was great. Better than great when you know that I really needed the extra concentration to keep The Princess out of the apple bobbing tank. No, she was not trying to swim, but she was taking a bite out of each apple and putting it back in the water. She marked at least six apples. And she actually ate two and a half others.
The boy started getting back to himself, when the costume came off. At the end of the party, an older kid ran off with the entire unbroken pinata when the hanging string broke. The party host rescued the booty and shared with everyone... The Talker has finally decided that it was funny. Until this morning, he was still whining about the thief. I think he was ready to string that kid up on the pinata rope.
Our world record attempt is on hold. It is already hitting 90 degrees and we decided to eat lunch inside. Outside play was surely a successful idea for this morning.
After playing in the backyard for a while, we pulled out the bike and trailer and headed for the park. No other kids were there when we arrived, but we played for a few minutes and a crowd appeared. The kids and I hung out there for an hour or so, only stopping because everyone else was leaving. It seemed a little odd to be the first to arrive and the last to leave.
Once we got home, The Princess decided she needed some beauty sleep, no need to have two ogres at the afternoon party, so The Talker and I played hot wheels on the back patio. After naptime ended, we took a little stroll to try out the new Halloween costume. Sir Night is sure to be a hit at the party. The girl's costume is not ready yet. Who throws a party 12 days before Halloween? But the boy and I tag-teamed and found all of the necessary pieces to set her up with a new version of last year's costume. Freebie! So the knight and the pig-girl will be heading out to the party later today, after we all have a snooze.
Other than that, the big news of the day, I am washing my pillow. While not sleeping last night, I realized that my pillow stinks. Hopefully this will work out OK, because I seem to develop a serious attachment to my pillow. Anytime I change to a new one it takes me weeks to get a decent night's sleep. I'll try to get it all flattened out and perfect again at nap time.
Edit - Awwwww Mannnnnn, it was only the pillow case that was funky. I risked my perfect pillow for nothing. When I put the pillow case back on it, I realized which was the real violator. I changed sheets yesterday, but that pillow case must have been run through the laundry with that new "smells like crap on death" laundry soap.
since the kids and I are going to set a new record for The Most Consecutive Hours Played Outside. Think Guinness will be interested?
We will not just be enjoying the weather today. The real point of this effort ends with me getting a decent night's sleep. Between a barking dog (not ours) that woke us up several times, our own barking dog who woke us up later, a crying 18 month old who just wanted the dogs to SHUT UP and a preschooler who wanted to play at 6:36 this morning, neither the wife nor I managed to get any sleep.
The Boss Lady has a full day of work, followed by a night out with the neighborhood hens. Used to they got drunk, played dice, ate a good meal and talked about me. Now they just eat, drink and talk about me. Tonight there might be a bonus, though. The dessert will be made in our kitchen, so maybe some extra scraps will end up being left behind...
The kids and I are heading to a costume party this afternoon. A knight, a princess and an ogre. Guess who I get to be... Plus, the 10,000 calories of candy and raw sugar should really help make everything go REALLY smoothly on a long day.
Yesterday the kids and I took the minivan in to get the tires rotated and balanced. It has been needing it for a while. We were finished in an hour, but since we were there at 8:20 in the morning, it was pretty painful to keep the kids entertained without bothering everyone else in the waiting room.
So we walked around the shopping center. The other stores were closed, but it kept the kids from driving everyone else nuts. While they were actually working on the van, we stood and watched. The kids would cheer and clap every time the guys would do something to our car. Yeah! They took off a wheel! I bet it is the fist time the tire shop guys have gotten a standing ovation for doing such a fine job.
This morning we took The Boss Lady's car in to get the same service. But we waited to go, so that we could eat lunch at Burger King, across the parking lot. I figured it would take longer at 11 o'clock, but the kids would be happier.
Man, I am good! My plan worked perfectly. We spent most of the morning at the park, ran home for diaper change and potty stop, headed to tire shop/ lunch stopping back by the park on the way to pick up The Talker's forgotten sandals and then we headed home. Rotated, balanced and fed.
Now everyone is resting or napping, so I could clean something. But I think I'll just sit here and gloat about my perfect parenting.
When I was living in a dorm in college, my roommate and a bunch of friends from the dorm always hung out in the lobby of the dorm. There was this odd shaped little corner of the lobby that was never used. There was a chair or two, tucked beside several phone booths. But no one ever sat there.
For some reason several of us started sitting down there, just chatting and watching the world go by. The best part of hanging out in the corner was watching everyone come and go through the dorm lobby. It was certainly the easiest way to keep up with all of the dormitory gossip.
Eventually we robbed more chairs and some tables out of a study room. For some reason, no one ever seemed to use THAT room, anyways. Suddenly, ALL off the cool people, like me and JB, started hanging out in the corner. It got to where the regulars could not find a seat in the corner when we needed one.
So we staged a sit-in. One weekend JB and I decided to sit. Nothing else planned. We could play cards or called for pizza. But mainly we would just sit and watch the world go by. Lots of other people came and sat with us throughout the weekend. We did not stay for the entire weekend, but we did manage to not accomplish anything else during those days. And we sat a long damn time down there.
I think this is when the corner got it's name. Those memories are a little fuzzy but I am pretty sure JB and I were the ones that started calling the space Procrastination Corner. We joked that we would make a sign for it... someday.
Well this weekend I was hanging out in the garage, sitting in my chair, watching football and NASCAR. There were woodworking tools all around. I could have easily made a sign. But I did not. Instead, the neighbor came over to see what I was doing. I offered him the truck seat. We hung out for a while. We talked about fixing the car. And lots of other stuff. Good times.
Since the real Procrastination Corner is 250 miles North of here, the old dorm is now women's only housing and we have not sat there in over 10 years, I think I finally found a suitable replacement. But it needs a better name than PC2. I'll have to think about it. Maybe JB will come over and help me come up with a name that will last for generations... And we'll make a sign... someday.
C'mon over and hang out. You can sit on the truck seat. But I'm not adding any more chairs out there. That is what started all of the problems the first time.
By the way, I saw an article about the old dorm in a alumni magazine a few months ago. They had a picture and specifically pointed out the "coffee bar in Procrastination Corner..." The legend lives! But if JB and I were still around, that coffee bar would have to go. We were Dr Pepper drinkers.
This is what I found when I went to check on the boy this morning. I took this picture about 10 seconds after he woke up, so I am pretty sure he had a little party last night.
A single rubber boot, a bucket, a Potato Head hat, a pirate sword and a wooden gun. Right beside the stuffed bunny puppet. I feel bad for the bunny. Whatever that party was about, I think it involved Wabbit Stew.
for this weekend, I managed to waste most of the afternoon on the wife's car. I washed and waxed it early. And I spent a couple of hours trying to polish the headlight lenses. They sell some stuff at the auto parts store to make dull plastic headlight covers shiny and clear again. But keeping with the other theme for the weekend, I am cheap.
We shall SEE how well my efforts work. Last week I noticed that the headlights seemed dim, but I was not sure if it was because the lenses were dirty or because the alternator was not putting out a full charge. After fixing the alternator, I was sure the lenses were to blame. So I used some rubbing compound and 000 grit steel wool to get most of the crud off of the lenses. It took a while, because I did not want to leave scratches. So I buffed as lightly as I could.
After I was satisfied with the result, I put a coat of auto paste wax on the lenses. Hopefully that will keep them clean for a while.
The Boss Lady and kids are gone for the weekend. They left Friday after lunch and should be home some time Sunday evening. With all of my hobbies, you might think that I would spend a free weekend doing fun and exciting stuff.
Nope.
I decided last night that this would be the weekend I finally made the light go off. The Boss Lady's car has a light that shows if the charging system has a problem. It has been popping on every few days for a couple of weeks. And in the last couple of days, it seems to always be lit.
I have not exactly ignored it, but I could not figure it out. The battery was recharging fine. The car was not having any trouble starting. The alternator tested ok, the belt looks good. Everything I could think to check was fine.
After Racecar Man and I put a code reader on the car this morning and we spent a couple of hours chasing other problems, we were still left with a shiny little light on the dash. I ran to the auto parts store and asked to have the alternator tested for a 3rd time.
The manager helped me out and tested the car quickly. He noticed everything was fine ands suggested that I replace the voltage regulator and alternator brushes. I played dumb (something I do well AND often) and I admitted that I thought the regulator was inside of the alternator. He pointed it out on the side of the alternator and he took the time to explain that the brushes were underneath the regulator and it would not take an hour to swap out both parts. But of course, they did not have the parts in stock.
I found the regulator and brushes in stock, two auto parts stores later. They asked if I wanted the Mazda style or Motorcraft style brushes. I just wanted the right ones. Doubtful that the Mazda style brushes were the right ones, I opted for the Motorcraft style. But they were out of stock. So zoom zoom, I bought the Mazda style. While looking later online, I found that the two have identical parts numbers...
After installing the new parts and still seeing the light on the dash, I cried.
I took the brushes out, put the old ones back in, with a little modification, and Viola', no trouble lights on the dash! Unfortunately, when I was reinstalling them, I dropped the old brushes and a spring fell out. I never found the spring, so I formed a new one, out of a much larger spring. But I did not really trust this new spring, so I wanted to look closer at the new brushes again, perhaps I could rob a spring out of them.
Then I realized that the new brushes had a little tab that keeps the internal springs in place while you install them. Once you get everything buttoned up, you pull the tab and the brushes engage. But I only figured that out because I pulled the tab and the new part exploded all over the garage!
I managed to reassemble the brushes and reinstall the retainer tab. Then, I re-replaced the old brushes and re-re-installed the new voltage regulator. And after a few donuts in the cul du sac, NO MORE TROUBLE LIGHT!
And my seats were not rattling during the donuts, either.
I have recently realized that I have a bad case of WannaNewCaritis. I think there is a cure. A Mini Cooper would be the easiest cure but not the most practical, since I really want to replace the minivan. The Boss Lady's car is 10 years old, but running fine for her 15 mile a day commute.
So realizing that we NEED something big enough for family road trips, I have a new obsession. The Chevrolet HHR. I saw one a few weeks ago at a stop light. The only one I have seen so far.
The Chevy dealerships here in town have not gotten may of them, yet. And they can't keep them on the lot for more than a few hours. They can't even keep the brochures in stock. Which means these cars are either really cool or just scarce. Either way makes me want to get one even more.
Thanks to Rick for the heads up, I am now blogging through MS Word.
The kids and I ran a few errands this morning. We ended up downtown and it was raining, so we went to the newest Whole Foods grocery store. The kids went a while back, but I wanted to see the store, especially the cart escalator, a big hit, and the chocolate fountain, a big miss.
After you shop, you can take your cart into the underground parking garage with you, on moving ramps. The Talker, who hardly ever wants to ride in the grocery cart, certainly had fun on this ride. It is kind of funky, because the cart wheels lock somehow onto the ramp. I tried moving it a little to the side, so that other people could pass us, but it was stuck tight.
The chocolate fountain turned out to be a bowl of melted chocolate that overflows and circulates while the staff dips fruit in the chocolate. It was pretty boring, since I was expecting a swimming pool sized puddle of milk chocolate.
But the best fun of the morning was found at the fish market. The counter staff picked up a giant halibut and showed it to The Talker. He was impressed by the 45 pound monster. Also, they sell redfish there, so we will be making a return trip, soon.
We spent less than $2 this morning. A few dried cranberries a handful of banana chips and some fresh ground peanut butter. We shall see if The Talker actually likes it, or if he just likes watching the machine grind up the peanuts…
The entire neighborhood, at least those families with kids under 5, came to play at our house last night. The first nice fall weekend night, a UT victory and the opening of White Trash Fire Pit Season were all great reasons to celebrate.
Don't know about the fire pit? Lots of neighbors have fancy fire bowls on the patio. We have a broken barbecue pit sitting on the ground, surrounded by rocks. Looks like a cross between an Old Testament altar and a Boy Scout project gone horribly wrong.
Anyways, we lit the playscape with Christmas lights and everyone had a blast. The kids ate hot dogs and marshmallows while the male adults revived another neighborhood tradition. Bad Wine Night.
A neighbor empties out his wine closet and brings the entire haul over. Then, starting with some of his father's homemade vino, we try to find one bottle that is worthy of NOT being poured out on the grass. Last night, the first three went straight to the ants, including the homemade liter in a plastic vodka bottle.
By the fourth bottle, I was out of the tasting. The other men continued. They made it about 1/2 way through that bottle before moving on to the next. Which was neither finished, nor dumped out. I found it sitting mostly full, on the picnic table, later in the evening while I was cleaning up.
There was another bottle somewhere. Oh yeah, Law Talking Guy put it in the freezer, to chill. And then forgot about it. As it turns out, Mondavi '96 White will eventually blow it's cork in the freezer. This morning The Boss Lady found the wine flavored fishsticks and a fermented grape smelling freezer to prove that.
After a quick clean up, that bottle joined 5 others, in the recycling bin. Now I worry about what the recycling guys will think about our weekend. Probably more exciting if they just use their imaginations.
The kids and I headed over to our neighborhood park this morning. We were going to make a quick stop and then head to Costco. But the weather was awesome and there were a lot of kids to play with, so we stayed right up to lunch time.
Usually at this park, and at the others that we most often visit, we are known. But today, it was like a throwback to my first days as a Stay at Home Dad. We did not know any of the kids at the park. And the moms, save for one, were a rude lot.
One of the kids at the park decided that The Talker was being a bully. I watched very carefully after I heard him say it the first time. The Talker was doing nothing worse than any other kid. So I knew that he was not bullying the older kids. Plus, it really looked like that kid was being a little punk. He seemed determined to keep The Talker from playing with or near the other kids.
I waited for a while to see if mom would deal with junior. After 15 minutes, and hearing him call my son a Bully for the 5th time, I was ready to deal with the kid myself. And I got the chance.
Mom had wandered off to answer a phone call. So junior and I talked. Well, I talked. He cried. After I told him that he was the one being a bully, junior ran off to his mommy, whimpering. Mommy was annoyed, because I had spoken to her child and broken his tender heart.
So I threw a rock at her, The Talker pulled her hair, The Princess knocked her cell phone in the dirt and we left.
OK, really, I started to explain what was happening, but she was rude, what a freaking surprise. And she told me that if her son called someone a bully, it was with good reason. I really wanted to say "takes one to know one", so we left.
As we were walking to the car, it was very satisfying to hear her kid screaming at her. She told him that it was time to go and he was shrieking "You're MEAN! I'm staying!" Guess, he knows mean people as well as bullies
The last couple of days have been nice in the mornings, 75 degrees, or so. This morning, more of the same. Of course, the afternoons are still hitting, 90, but we can just stay inside and nap during the heat.
This morning, The Talker wants to be outside. It is nice and cool out there. Of course, sine we are not leaving the house this morning, I could not convince him to wear pants. Or even shorts. Who needs 'em? Buzz Lightyear underwear work fine, thank you.
But then he was cold. So that is MY boy, out in the sandbox, pants-less, shoe-less and wearing last year's jacket and hood zipped up tight.
Things are returning to the usual around here. The Boss made it home Saturday afternoon. We celebrated the reunion at our favorite barbecue place. Glad to see you, now let's go eat some cow.
The kids could not have been pried off of mom Sunday, so I went fishing. Twice. I was at the lake before sunrise, and I fished until early afternoon. Home in time for NASCAR and then I headed out to a private pond for a couple of hours in the evening.
Further signs that things are getting back to normal? The wife is working a 14 hour day. And doing it on 4 1/2 hours of sleep, thanks to a female child who decided to visit with momma for half of the night.
I just folded about eight loads of laundry. I must really be tired of dressing the kids out of the pile in the living room.
But, like a freshly laundered amoeba, the pile will surely regrow. I would not wan t The Boss Lady to miss out on all of the fun, would I?
The Boss Lady has been gone for 36 hours. And we are starting to show that fact.
The baby did indeed sleep in her clothes last night. She was tired and I was trying to get the boy in the tub. I finally got her out of those clothes, at 7:45 this morning.
Also, I just realized that the diaper cover I had on The Princess all day yesterday is actually part of her best dress outfit. But it looked really cute with the blue denim dress, too.
The Talker watched a movie yesterday. In the middle of the afternoon. Instead of napping but he was quiet. Plus, I knew he would get hyper later, at the neighbor's house and that he would be their problem.
There are growing piles of laundry. I hardly ever fold laundry. The Boss Lady does it. But I do keep the clothes washed. Except this week. There is still a pile of clean clothes from before she left AND there is a pile in the garage, of things waiting for a spin in the washer. And it is growing, quickly.
through the day.
We played with the neighbors this morning and then we all headed over to the library for story time. With a stop at Krispy Kreme afterwards. Everyone needs a little sugar buzz at nap time, right?
Later, the boy went to visit the neighbors, while I took little sis to a Dr's appointment. Everything went well and we won't have to go back in for 6 months.
The Mother of the Bride made it through her surgery fine. Don't know much else. The wife and I have each been a little too busy to chat.
The kids went to visit a different family this evening, while I went to a funeral visitation. Nothing weird about that. Except that my old staff were begging me to come back to work. It's been 3 years, give up already!
But that was not the weirdest part of the day. That came a little later, when I went to pick up the kids at 8:00 tonight. I walked in and The Talker told me, "I'm tired."
Now that was weird.
The Mother of the Bride is having surgery this morning, so The Boss Lady has gone up there for a few days. The kids and I have lots of fun and excitement planned until the weekend.
The Princess has a Dr's appointment downtown this afternoon and The Talker is heading to a friend's house then. So after dropping him off, we have 45 minutes to drive downtown. No problem, except that we have to stop at the pediatrician's office to pick up medical records, first. And since the front office staff there hate me AND I am not sure exactly what records I need to get from them in the first place... I bet that will just go sooooo smoothly.
And seeing as I forgot to give her highness the royal dosage last night, she will probably be feeling great about the time of the Dr's appointment. She just loves to be messed with when she does not feel good. Ever seen a pediatric urologist cry? Today might be your chance.
I have a funeral to attend on Thursday morning. The children will be getting farmed out to the highest bidder for a few hours, or whoever can watch them while providing me with the least hassle. Offers? Anyone?
This morning, the kids and I are planning to head to story time at the nearby library. I took the boy a few years ago, but one of the librarians reminded me at the end that "kids who don't sit still, don't get much out of the story." Maybe I'll dope them up before we go. Don't want to stress out the librarian.
And to top off a morning like this, we ran out of Dr Pepper about 16 hours ago. But there happens to be a grocery store right next door to the library.
Pops was here for several days this week, riding out Hurricane Rita. Now that he is back home, he said there was no damage to his house. Except the damage he caused while trying to cover windows and protect the house. Lucky for him. Also his travels today were much better than he expected. The usual 3 hour trip only took an extra hour. Unlike the 8 hour trip up here on Thursday night.
The Boss Lady helped run one of the evacuation shelters on Friday and Saturday. Many people were ready to head home Saturday, so they shut the shelter down Saturday afternoon. It made for a long week for her. But we finally had some family time today, between church, NASCAR and naps.
The kids and I all enjoyed having another adult around for a couple of days. They got to play with Pops. I got to work around the house and get the yard mowed. During the week. During daylight. And I planned to fish. But I didn't go, since I did not want to be out in the 106 degree heat. Even to chase defenseless little fishies around the lake.
I like fishing. I do not like heatstroke.
In case there is any doubt about The Princess, rest assured, she is a girl.
Proof? We have been found by the American Girl company. The people who get little girls hooked on $100 dolls. Somehow they have our address now. And like fishing equipment or cocaine, it seems that a single hundred dollar doll just won't satisfy a little girl for long. Thus, they push, I mean sell, accessories and friends for their addictive wares.
And they hide it all by teaching the girls about history and cultural experiences. They might as well make a doll that needs drug rehab, too. I do know for a fact that the customer service staff will advise you to beat a mis-behaving American girl doll*.
But hopefully, before The Princess can ask for a Molly or Samantha doll of her own, she will learn to say...
"Grandma, look what I want for Christmas..."
*The doll was not actually misbehaving, it's eye was stuck. But they did advise hitting it's head on a table, to free the eye's movement. But I don't know if they advised to knock the doll upside the head, while her pre-teen owner wasn't watching.
My new found glasses lasted all of 48 hours. NO, they are not lost again. They are mangled. Done. DOA.
The Princess decided to help me out yesterday by bringing me my glasses. If I had left them carelessly laying around, I would have foreSEEN this disaster. But they were laying in the middle of our 5 foot square dining table. OUt of reach of MOST 16 month olds. Not her. She moved a chair over and climbed aboard, just to SEE what was up there.
Usually, she finds a crayon or something else that we have pushed into the middle of the table to keep away from 16 month old monkey-children. Yesterday she SAW gold. Or glass. And somewhere between the middle of the dining table and the laundry pile where I was working, metal and glass carnage ensued.
So, after The Mangler wakes up from her nap, we are off to the eyeglasses shop to SEE if they are able to undo the damage. Luckily, the staff there are usually pretty nice and they can straighten some ugly bends in the thinnest of wire frames.
And they like kids. Especially ones that bring in business by wrecking daddy's glasses.
I thought I lost my glasses back when I went on a road trip with dad. For more than two months I have been sure that I left my glasses in the hotel room when we checked out. I know for sure I left my swimsuit there, so it was not hard to believe that the glasses were there, too.
So for two months I have been wandering around, without my glasses. My vision must not be too bad, though. I was able to get my driver's license renewed during this time. But I guess I just forgot to wear them to the DMV. Because my glasses have not been sitting in the unclaimed glasses box behind the motel counter, they have been in my tackle box, since my last trip to the lake.
Now I remember pulling them off when I was running through the rain and hail to the car. I did not want them to fall in the gravel and get scratched. Good thing I protected them. Anyways, thanks to the upcoming fishing season, I found them this morning.
And The Boss Lady thinks my hobbies don't pay off...
The Princess is possibly the least blogged about member of our family. Excepting the cats, but if you count them as family, then you may leave, now. But I want share a little about our 16 month old girl child.
A few weeks ago I started keeping a list of all of the words she says. Not just parroting words, she will repeat anything, but words that she uses repeatedly and purposefully.
The list got too long and I got distracted by other stuff. Plus, I did not expect it to be a list of more than 25 words or so. When I last counted, the list was approaching a hundred words. There are lots that we have not written down. I did not alphabetize the list at the start and it turned into a pain, making sure that a word was not already included.
I'll refrain from sharing the whole list but here are some highlights of The Princess' word list:
Meee!
Mine!
Mama
crackers
puppy
beans
car
buckles
yellow
Thank you
You're elcome
nose
booger
Wha happen?
Where Daddy go?
pink
kittyeee
more
16 months. The Talker better watch out, or he will be getting a new blog name for Christmas. Maybe something like He Who Doesn't Talk as Much as Little Sister
While The Talker and I were wandering around downtown and hopping trains a few days ago, we got the weirdest compliment of all times.
A man sitting at a train stop told me "That is a good looking boy."
I gave my usual response "Thanks. He is a good boy."
Then train guy continued "He looks just like you. If I was the judge on the bench and there was a problem... There wouldn't be any question. That's your boy. Of course, it could end up costing you a lot of money..."
Train guy was really considerate, too. We sat a few seats down from him and The Talker fanned his hand in front of his face and pinched his nose before I noticed the guy was smoking a cigarette. But quicker than I could move the boy, train guy moved 10 feet downwind. He then laughed back to me"Don't want his momma wondering where you took him. We can't let him go home stinkin' like smoke."
I laughed and thanked him again as we climbed aboard the train to Granny's house.
The Boss Lady was scheduled to go out of town for a one day conference yesterday. Since she was driving and we could hang out with The Mother of the Bride during the conference, we planned to make it a quick road trip.
The Original Plan (Insert laughter here)
We were going to stay one night in a hotel along the Dallas light rail line, so that the kids and I could hop trains during the day and see the tourist-y stuff in downtown Dallas. The downfall to this plan was the fact that we would have nowhere for The Princess to nap during our railroading adventures. Bringing the stroller would help, so our plans were finished.
The biggest problem with the perfect plan turned out to be no available hotel rooms within walking distance of the trains. So we moved on, to The Second Plan.
The Second Plan (More laughter, please)
The revised plan involved a one night stay at the house of The Mother of the Bride. The kids would have plenty of play space; Granny would surely not make us check out early, so naptimes would also be possible. The trains are only a 15 minute drive from there, so The Talker and I planned to ride the trains, while The Princess played and napped at Granny’s house. And later in the day the kids, Granny and I could find something to do so that she could spend some time with both of the kids. Most likely $1 carousel rides at the mall.
A Retelling of Actual Events
We left home a night earlier than planned, so that I could attend a funeral with my parents. We stayed with them one night and left the next afternoon to drive 45 miles to the Mother of the Bride’s house. The kids always have fun with my parents but we did not plan to stop and see them, since this was such a quick trip.
The Talker and I rode the trains through Downtown Dallas. And, thanks to a poorly timed potty break, we spent an hour wandering around in a train station 100 feet below the city. Luckily, there is a restroom down there. But only if you are a cute 3 year old boy and the Transit Police take pity on your Daddy.
After a quick lunch, we all loaded into Granny’s minivan to go to the mall. The mall has an indoor playscape (ironically sponsored by the local hospital) and the carousel in the food court, which now cost $2 each, by the way. Our afternoon of riding the carousel quickly turned into a couple of rides and a stroll around the food court.
Once we met up with The Boss Lady, we hit the road for home quickly. Still, we did not get home until 8:30. The last hour of the ride was a lot of fun. The kids would not leave each other alone. They were both whining and we were pleading, (but not whining, we don't do that), with them to be quiet and to relax until we got home. And for thirty minutes I did not hear a peep. Because I rolled all of the windows down and shut off the air conditioner. The road noise was loud as heck, but at least it did not sound like a whiny 3 year old. Or his sister.
In my last post, I needlessly disparaged The Babysitter.
True, she did send an email, containing most of what I blogged. But we also knew she was kidding. Which made her email even funnier, because we never expected her to tell us something like that...
She likes dogs and would never give them ANY chocolate. She really likes our kids, too. Also, she does not have a foul mouth and I have no fears of her being around the kids. Or my guns or booze.
I needed to clear my concscience and let y'all know the truth.
Besides, she is giving us the Realtive's that I Like Rate and I don't want her to get mad and quit.
Let me introduce The Babysitter, newest member of The AtHomeDaddy cast. Sort of. She has been there, but in a nicer form. A couple of weeks ago, I brought My So Called Aunt's oldest daughter over to watch the kids while I cleaned the house.
We are doing it again today. But check out this note we got from The Babysitter (I edited it a little, but not much):
...I let the boy run around the house and I let both of them throw food on the floor.
I don't change the kids, I let them run around stinky. I brought Fuzzface and Furrbutt around so there was more chaos. I let your dog out and run all over the place and I fed him chocolate.
I give all of them all the cokes they want and lots of sugar. And they don't have a bedtime.
I stay on the phone and eat all the snacks and leave the wrappers on the table...
P.S. I would drink up all the DP's but I hate Dr Pepper! And I expect a really good reference some day.
that the smallest rooms in the house take the longest to clean? I had a goal this morning to get the bathrooms cleaned. 2 rooms, less than 100 square feet, total. I was up and running, with a scrub brush in hand, at 7am. After an hour in the master bath, I was almost done. Another hour in the kid's bath this afternoon and the job was finally finished.
Maybe the bedrooms are easier because you can just haul stuff from one room, to another and hide it there. Too hard to do with a bathtub. Or I would have hidden it in the master closet.
Which is on the list for getting cleaned on Wednesday morning, but maybe I should plan on it taking all afternoon, too.
There is no way for me to fully understand the scope of Hurricane Katrina. But here at home, there are thousands of people who fled the area hit by the storm. Some are living in hotels, thousands in the convention center and many more scattered all over town in private homes with friends and family or new acquaintances.
Yesterday, the kids and The Boss pulled out several bags of toys and books to donate, along with some clothes. While they were working on this, my wife kept explaining to our 3 year old that he was picking out some toys for kids that did not have any right now. It almost made me cry when she told me later that the first thing he wanted to give were his two very favorite toys. I was amazed at how much he could care about kids he never met.
So this morning we all went to the centralized donation drop off site. I don't know what I expected, but it was not what I saw. Dozens of my former co-workers were manning the site, a 5 story parking garage that was filling up quickly with donations.
Sometimes it was easy to think that working for "The City" meant you were just part of a huge anonymous workforce. Today, it was awesome to be able to point out several of my work friends to the kids and show them what nice people they all are. And how much they are all pitching in to help people they will never know, too.
The Boss Lady and I have talked for years about buying a canoe.
First, we were renting apartments and didn't have a garage to store it in, so we did not buy one. Then, when we bought a house, we got busy working on the house so the garage has always been full of other stuff and we did not buy one. Then The Talker was born and we wanted to wait until he was bigger to buy a canoe. Then The Princess was born and...
A couple of years ago, I started fishing and then I really started wanting a small boat. So I bought a boat this morning. It's not a canoe, but a little aluminum john boat instead. A neighbor had it in a yard sale. It is only big enough for one adult, one kid and some fishing gear, but that is enough for us. Plus, this boat will fit right inside the bed of the truck.
Once The Talker and I drove down to pick it up, I decided to clean it up a little. And while I was doing that, Uncle Lemon arrived with more boating news. His mom has an old boat that she would love to get out of her barn. And it is a little bigger than the recent purchase.
This one has an 18 hp outboard and a trailer. It hasn't been run in years, but the boat is fiberglas and stored out of the weather, so it should be in OK shape. I think Uncle Lemon and I will head out on Monday to go check out the bigger boat.
Then The Boss Lady and I will need to decide what to do with our newly acquired armada. And I assume that her plans don't involve keeping two boats.
The offspring and I went back to the bouncers this evening. I wanted to make sure we got the most out of our cash. That place is pretty expensive, even on half price day. Plus, I wanted to make sure that the kids slept well tonight. I know I will. If I can just make the floors and bed stop bouncing.
Also, while running around today, I filled up both cars. $2.81 at one stop, $2.76 at the other. It looks like the kids and I will be hanging out under the backyard shade again next week, too.
The Talker and The Princess have napped for hours and hours today. We went to an indoor inflatable playground this morning. The kids had a blast, even though The Princess was a little timid at first. The Inflatable Wonderland has four full sized bouncers set-up, along with one area for toddlers, a dragon that the kids played inside of and a huge double slide. All inside of an air-conditioned space in the mall.
After we got home and had lunch, there was little argument over naptime. I suspect that is because the kids are wasted, but it might just be that I promised to take them back this evening, since The Boss Lady is pulling another 15 hour day. Plus the admission is an all day pass, so they let you come and go in between bouncing.
You would think that I might get a lot done around the house while they slept, right? Well, you know, someone had to coax The Princess into playing. Besides, I had two kids to keep up with, so I am twice as tired from jumping.
But I can't wait to go back!
After getting spammed multiple times on every recent post, I am turning on 'Word Verification' for this blog. Now you'll have to type in the jumbled letters that appear at the bottom of the comments screen.
Sorry for the hassle. Spam sucks. In all forms.
The kids and I are sick and tired of being stuck inside because of the heat. So we ventured outside to the playscape for most of the day. Of course, we took a couple of breaks, one to go to the park and to a neighbor's for water play in a couple of kiddie pools and for a while, the kids napped. Otherwise, we were making use of the great backyard. Or at least as much of it as we could cover with shade.
The new sails on the playscape inspired me, and now we have a shade over the swingset that is large enough and high enough to still allow the kids to swing on all three swings, without leaving the shady spot underneath. Add to that the collection of picnic umbrellas we have scattered around the and it has turned into a cool place to play, even in 100 degree heat. Heck, we were out there for more than 5 minutes WITHOUT sunscreen lotion!
We have two picnic tables to choose from, an art easel, a sandbox and most of the slide covered in shade now. Today's efforts are just a prototype, though. I made use of a couple of king-sized sheets and a bunch of spring clamps from Harbor Freight. I had to adjust the shade several times as the day wore on. Hopefully, when we make something more permanent, it will not have to be adjusted every couple of hours. But I might wait until the spring to add anything permanent.
After all, there are only six more weeks of this heat, and we can venture back out without playscape shades or the asbestos suits for the kids.
I wanted to rent a movie last night. So I checked the $1 a day movie kiosk at the grocery store for Napoleon Dynamite. No luck. Not available.
The Boss Lady suggested Sin City. No problem getting a copy of that from the rental machine. That should have been my first clue...
Let me tell you. I watched about 15 minutes. It was mostly black and white, at least in the beginning. It was odd. I was confused. So I left the wife with her dark creepy crime thriller and watched pre-season NFL. Even saw a former UNT player on the field. Go Booger!
And just for the record, he isn't the only UNT alum playing. Brad Kassell, Cody Spencer, and Brian Waters are all out there, too.
So in summary, for my money, I'd watch it again. The football game. Not the movie. Too odd for me. And no UNT alum involved, as far as I know.
When I was a kid, one movie just scared the holy crap out of me. OK, that might not be true. Several movies scared the holy crap outta me, but one scared me worse than all them. The funny thing, I don't even remember seeing it, I just remember it scaring the hell out of me.Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. So through all the years I worked with kids, I never once showed that movie for a rainy day time filler. Believe me, I showed them some really lousy movies. For example, showing this movie comes to mind as one of the lowest points of my professional career. But it had rained for a week. Straight. And I was delirious.
Anyways, The boy was watching an add for a game based on this year's version of the world's scariest movie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And all of that background, to tell you when he saw the commercial and some graphics of Charlie, he said to me, "That looks scary. I don't want to play with that."
Amen, Brother. Preach on.
A lot of times our schedule is set by special request. The Talker's first words this morning, "Daddy I was thinking about the fire truck playscape and I think we should go."
You betcha. Once the kids and I were up and dressed, we cruised down to the Fire Truck Park, like we have lots of times before. Today though, there were no school groups to contend with. So we played for an hour there.
Later we headed over to the botanical gardens to check out the fish ponds and to have a little snack. Some of these Koi fish look bigger than The Princess. So just sitting and watching them is entertainment enough for the kids for a long while.
In fact, it must have worn out the girl. She slept all the way home and is still napping, an hour later. The boy? I think he is working up a new fish story for us all. He has been playing in his room for 25 minutes. Quietly.
I better go see what he is up too.
For the record, the fire truck is red.
I have seen no less than 7 red Miatas in the last two days. On the way to the auto parts store yesterday I saw three in a row. One had a tan top, the others, black. One had no barn doors, the others did. One of those had one headlight open while the other was closed.
While running to meet some SAHDs for lunch, I saw two more on the freeway. Both had the tops down. And just now, on the way home, saw another. It looked brand new with a black top and dealer tags.
None of them had Alabama tags on them.
I chose not to mow. And I stand by that choice. But if I don't get out there tonight, I might have the neighbor's hunting me down and shackling me to the mower. Of course, I waited long enough to mow the back yard, that now the front needs a trim, too. At least it will all get done at once this time.
Guess my evening won't be too exciting. Especially since it should be a weekend already. For some reason, I lost a day this week. All day Thursday I was really anxious for the weekend to start. Then at dinner I realized it was not yet Friday. So today, the kids and I have used this newly discovered weekday to do nothing .
Sure we watched a little TV and played with Play-Doh for a while, but otherwise, we have been useless. And I am planning to stay that way all weekend. Right after I finish mowing the yard.
The good news (for the children, at least): I did not get carried off by mosquitoes last night. Not even a single bite. And no heatstroke either
The bad news (for the children, at least): Since we had free coupons to a pizza place that has a big arcade inside, I did not get around to mowing the yard last night. Therefore, we have to hang out inside today. Don't want to risk losing any children to insect-buzzards.
Maybe tonight. Or not... We do have those freebie baseball tickets.
I am off to mow the back yard. It should only take me an hour or so, but it is still 100 degrees out there and I am pretty sure the mosquitoes just carried off the neighbor and her German Sheppard Dog.
If I dress to keep the bug at bay, then I shall die of heat stroke. If I dress in the usual Birkenstocks and shorts, then I surely will be a mosquitoes meal.
Wish me luck.
Can someone explain why The Boss Lady was startled by the sight of a tumor, when she was watching a show titled Face Eating Tumor on TLC?
Wouldn't you think she should realize that there was going to be a tumor sighting during that show? Well, she didn't.
And why, oh why, is this post of interest to every spammer who ever posted Blogger comments. I have now removed 10 comments tonight. Before this post, I have only ever had one or two spammy comments on the entire site.
Three times today someone has told me about a bumper sticker that belongs on my truck... Here is a link to a pic of my sweet ride, just in case you haven't seen it.
It may be just an odd coincidence, or it may be that I am just so shallow that I could be summed up on a couple of 4x12 stickers. I'll leave that for you to decide.
The three stickers?
My Great Pyrenees can beat up your student
Work is for those who can't fish
And the best of all...
I break for... Aww hell, NO BRAKES!
The Boss Lady had a giant fish tank in her front office last year. It must hold a couple of hundred gallons and a dozen huge fish. This year, they moved it to another office. The Talker misses the tank. The Boss Lady does not.
It was big and got kind of stinky at the end of the school year. But most of all, she is glad it was gone when it cracked this week and leaked all over the other office. Rescuing the fish and preventing a flood provided lots of excitement for a late afternoon. But you ought to hear The Boy tell his version of the story.
In his tale, He was the hero. We were not even there. He broke the tank, when he hit a home run baseball. Now really, would I let him play baseball next to the aquarium? With a real baseball? Inside? With mommy right across the hall? I think not.
But then, he caught all of the fish and ate them up. But miraculously, he also saved them from dying by putting them in buckets. Later, he took the fish to the elevator and let them ride with him to the library where he read them some of his favorite books until the fire department came to put out the fire. What fire? Who said anything about a fire?
Anyways, I think my boy is going to be a great fisherman. Because he can already tell a really great fish story.
We are having friends over this afternoon, to play in the kiddie pools and to hang out on the playscape. It is pretty hot out there, but hopefully we can find enough shade, so that the kids don't roast.
Like most things, there is an ulterior motive to this afternoon playdate. We are going to a house warming party this evening and I would prefer that the kids be worn out before we get there. No sense in trashing someone's first house before they even move in, right?
One of The Boss Lady's childhood friends is moving in, about 15 blocks from us. It is close enough that the wife wants to walk over and pull the kids in the wagon. Me? I wanna drive the truck. We will she who wins.
No, that wasn't a typo.
This morning, I put off running an errand because The Talker did not want to go across town until he ate lunch. The only problem with this delay was that our hour long round trip would now happen right before nap time.
So I cut a deal with the boy. We would wait to go downtown, but he had to keep his sister awake and happy in the car, so that we could be home for a real naptime. And this way, daddy gets to rest, too!
He had a great plan. Snacks, stuffed animals, books, hot wheel cars, juice and music were all drug to the car to help keep The Princess from snoozing. And his plan worked pretty well. She was wide awake and laughing when we headed home. She was reading a map with him when we were almost home.
And then, I realized the boy had a secret weapon. About 5 miles from home, I saw him slip her a pacifier that he had hidden in his pocket. So she started her nap a few minutes early. Keeping his sister must have been a big job for him, though. He is in his room, now, snoozing away the afternoon.
Yeah for Daddy! Do I rule naptimes, or what?
Today, I begin my 4th year as a stay at home dad (SAHD).
What a long, strange and stinky trip it has been.
Some days it seems like I really need to get back to the 'real world' and other days I am pretty sure I was made to do this. Today? It is still early. Not sure how I feel about it today. Give me another 3 years of being a SAHD and I should know.
There is no time to contemplate now. We are off to a SAHDs playdate.
I spent most of the afternoon loading MP3s onto the new hard drive.
My iTunes library now holds:
About 20 CDs worth of music
522 different tracks
An impressive looking 1.3 days worth of tunes
63 songs by George Strait
My entire KGSR Broadcast collection (Volumes 4-12)
Only 19 Cowboy Junkies tunes
Only one U2 disc
All of the discs I have loaded, except for the KGSR collection, were just laying around in various CD players. Later, I'll tackle the 200 disc changer in the living room. Then, the George Strait and Cowboy Junkies counts will go WAY up.
And finally, I went to sleep last night listening to an MP3 disc with 156 of my favorites playing! Good Sleep!
But I'll try to keep it clean, since it is an issue that is really important to me as a stay at home dad, not just because I am a big whiner...
The kids both have nasty coughs. I have an even nastier one. It is allergy season. Welcome to Austin. All them trees? Pretty, aren't they? And as Yoda would say, "Cedars, they are. Lots of pollen put out, they do. Them all down, let's cut."
I digress.
Anyways, no one is sleeping well. The boy was up several times. The girl was up for good at 6:15. The wife, she was up at 6:30. And me? I was faking a drug induced coma through it all. I admit it.
My lovely bride took the kids to Target at about 8:30 this morning. I was having a wonderful dream and sleeping better than anyone had all night. Then the door bell rang. Twice.
The first time, it just became part of my dream. The second time, it really woke me up. I guessed that the family was locked out of the house. So I went to the door in my pajamas.
To find a business card for a siding and window company.
And a dude standing in my front yard.
So I asked him in my kindest and most caring voice, "You ring my ^(*&^@# @#(*& (* @%!& @#* )_@(* doorbell? On the one day I got to sleep a little late? My god man, you have a death wish? Twice?"
I think he was surprised. But not as much as the guy with him who had just rung the neighbor ladies doorbell. Now she was REALLY pissed. I could hear her giving that guy hell from across the street.
I went inside, got a shirt and went back to find the guy still in my yard. I think he was hiding, in case neighbor lady wanted a piece of him, too. I asked him if it was his business card. He says it is. I pointed towards the house and told him that our house already has siding on it.
He told me "They did a good job on it."
So I shared a secret. We would be buying windows soon. Just not from him. Because he ruined a perfectly good dream involving me, Lindsay Lohan, Herbie and Yoda wielding a chainsaw...
In case you want to know who NOT to buy windows or siding from, I kept the card for a souvenir. It is all I have to remind me of my beautiful dream.
Besides, I might need to call the 800 number on that business card a few hundred times tonight. Why not? The kids will be up all night and nothing better to do, have I.
I want an iPod. Real bad. But, I usually have expensive taste in toys and this is no exception. I really like the high end models.
One of these might be possible. But the expensive ones would be better, because I would not have to spend so much time away from my family, swapping tunes.
I downloaded iTunes, just to play a little and to burn a few MP3 discs. I have a portable CD player that plays MP3s but I have never tried it. So I thought I would burn a few discs just to try it out.
I am digging the iTunes software enough that I have imported 20 discs and I am going to burn a few MP3s for the car. My current plan involves reinstalling the old hard drive, and using it to store a bunch of my favorite discs. That way, when I do end up with an iPod (and I will, Boss Lady, don't you worry...), I'll be ready to fill that bad boy up.
The child that we were pretty sure was part demon, back when she would not sleep for more than 45 minutes at a stretch, The Princess, now 16 months old...
Turns out the rabid monster genes are coming back. She is sleeping fine, now. Most of the time. But she has this growling thing.
Yep, growling.
She seems to think it is hilarious to come up to someone and growl at them. She even growls at her toys and dolls. It is all pretty funny. Unless you are snoozing away a migrane on the couch and all of the sudden this demon-monkey is climbing on top of you to growl in your face.
Then so funny, it ain't. The good news is, the demon monkey child landed safely on the pile of clean clothes. The bad news, she thought flying across the room after giving daddy a heart attack was funny, too.
Back in May, The Talker went to the ER. For a quick release from there, all he had to do was give a urine sample. Instead, we stayed in the exam room for a few hours, because he just wouldn't go. He flat out told the Dr "No." when he was being bribed with treats or getting to go home. Finally they just sent us home. So The Talker won.
This morning, The Princess was having a checkup. They needed a specimen. Tough. She held her ground. And they gave up, too. And they sent us home. So The Princess won.
Kids, 2. Medical staff, Zero.
Friday was a surprise day for AtHomeDaddy! Usually I like surprises, but I am leary of them this time of year. The Boss Lady has started back to her full time school year schedule. Being an idiot, I thought the transition would occur this week. So I was looking forward to her having one last Friday off. And I had lots of great plans.
But, I am a moron. Turns out the previous Friday was my last day of freedom and I did not take full advantage of it. This past week, she not only had to work on Friday, she put in a half day on Saturday.
We went to Sis's house for a really late birthday party on Saturday afternoon. Is it really a birthday party if you hold it 4 months after the fact? Someone should call the party authorities on her.
Sunday we visited a church in our neighborhood. We have been driving across town to go to church for almost 10 years, except for a couple of years that we lived in that neighborhood. Now, we are anxious to find somewhere a little closer to home. It was odd to see people from our neighborhood sitting in the church with us. But I think it is something that could really work for us.
Sunday afternoon, we napped. Everyone. At once. The kids snoozed for 3 hours, the wife for 2, and I crashed for about 200 miles, right in the middle of the Brickyard 400.
All in all, a good weekend and a good end to the summer, even if it did happen a week too late. Of course, if my sister was in charge, the summer would not end until December...
Back in December, Pops helped me build a playscape for the kids. The SS JOllie Squishy Bug has been sailed on many pirate-y adventures since then. Back when I designed it, I wanted to make sure we could eventually add on other features. And the first add-on, a stretched canvas roof is half way done. That is why I left the tall support posts,when we finished building it.
I was just going to stretch canvas over the top deck and make an ordinary roof. But this playscape deserves something different, so The Boss Lady and I designed two sails for the roof. Each sail will cover half of the deck.
I installed the frames last night. I re-installed the frames this morning. But I did it correctly, this time. Hopefully this weekend The Boss and I can cut the canvas down to size and get it secured to the frames. And I am even more hopeful that it will look good when it is done.
If it does look OK when completed, we thought of a way to shade the swingset with a giant sail, too.
than buying at deep discounts, is seeing The Princess enjoy her new treasures.
Notice there is no pacifier in this picture! And she is still smiling. That must be a really good wagon...
The Target store near us is expanding. They are doing a huge remodel and addition, all while trying to keep the store open. We have avoided the mess for several months but thanks to The New Big White Dog, I needed a replacement TV remote, so the kids and I ran over there.
Found a couple of good deals for the kids. So now I will brag...
Wagon For 2 Plus. Nope, didn't pay $60. Or even $50. $12.48 on clearance.
Right below it, on the same shelf, I found a Playskool Le Cafe Set. Not for $60 on Buy.com. No sir. Would not play that. I would not have even paid $40 for the McKids one, on Amazon. But I would pay $14.98.
I admit, I was tempted to buy up all of the clearance stuff they had, another cafe set and a Step 2 Climber for toddlers. But this stuff would have gone straight to being listed on eBay and I finally decided it was all too bulky to bother with shipping.
The Talker is officially over his tonsil surgery. He had to wait 14 days to eat anything crunchy. So last night for dinner, he celebrated by shoveling taco chips into his face as fast as we would let him.
And today for lunch, his favorite is back. Peanut butter and about a pound of Color Blaster Goldfish crackers with Streaming Strawberry frozen yogurt and red cranberry juice. If I had to go for two weeks without eating my favorite foods, I think the menu might be a little more exciting. But this is a pretty good list for out 3 1/2 year old. Sometimes he goes all day without eating this much.
I am glad to have the crackers back, too. Nothing easier to fix for lunch than a big pile of crackers on a plate next to a big spoonful of peanut butter.
what those other dogs ate while they were here for a week and a half, back in June, nothing compares to this morning.
The new Chief Butthead of the House Award goes to New Big White Dog!
This morning's (actually it all happened in a 15 minute period...) tally of destruction:
The receipt from some auto parts, no big deal
The lid to a new bottle of kid's sunscreen, cost $6
The TV/Sat remote, cost currently $4 + $9 shipping. But it is THE TV remote, dang it. And I am pissed. How am I going to keep my out of shape if I am always getting up to change the channel?
Not to mention that the receiver is broken and you can only change channels one direction...
The summer is officially gone. The Boss Lady heads back to work in 10 hours. It has been a good summer. But now it is gone.
This weekend, she took the kids out of town for one last roadtrip. I skipped out. I was going to get a lot of things done. I planned to be both productive and to have a little fun with my 30 free hours.
Productive? Not at all.
Fun? I watched Smokey and the Bandit on CMT. Twice.
What else you gonna do with a free weekend, when your truck won't start?
It has been a while since I gave you a peek at the kids, so here are some links, though only one is of yesterday's zoo trip...
Both of 'em at once!
The Princess, enjoying dinner.
Under the aquarium.
Our flasher.
This is my current PC wallpaper shot
We got up early yesterday morning and headed up to Cameron Park Zoo. It is about a two hour drive and we wanted to get there early, before the heat made the day un-bear-able.
The Talker had a very specific list of animals he wanted to see. He wanted to see the monkeys, the tigers and the elephants. It just so happens that these are the first three exhibits you see, IF you are willing to walk the opposite direction of most of the traffic. Since a day care group was headed the other way, we went the monkey-tiger-elephant route.
The only problem, the elephants were not out in the exhibit, yet. Guess they were sleeping late. The Talker loved everything about the zoo. He checked out every animal that we saw and tried to name any that he knew. Mommy and I were really surprised when he knew what a Javelina was. In the same exhibit they had a small herd of white tailed deer. Just like the ones that roam our neighborhood. Guess he thought it was akin to putting our cats on display.
Makes me wonder if they want an exhibit of worthless furry mammals...
The kids day was highlighted by time in the play area, water fountains for splashing and all. That and the returnm trip to the elphants, tigers and monkys. Everyone was awake, this time. Mom's favorite part of the day? The two hour nap they, including her, all took on the way home.
My favorite part of the trip? The side trip to the junkyard. More about that on TruckinDaddy.
I might get around to posting some pics later. Of the zoo, not the junkyard...
how or why but the new hard drive is large and in charge, now. It is booting and running fine. And no, I did not have to reinstall the Operating system. When I tried to, it would not let me and then it booted on restart.
Who cares? Not me, or you, most likely .
I know for sure that it is working, too. The old hard drive is in a box on top of the computer cabinet. So unless I am hallucinating again, this new drive rocks!
The Boss Lady goes back to her full schedule in one week. So this week we are planning on doing a lot of nothing. Some years we make one last summer trip, but not this year. We are just going to hang out here and goof around town.
Best of all, no plans and no alarm clocks.
We went to Cabela's this morning. So after I messed around with the old computer for most of the afternoon, I took off this evening to go cat fishing with my new cat fish set-up. But sticking with the theme of the afternoon, of not being able to accomplish ANYTHING..., as soon as I got a line in the water, a bolt of lightning hit about 1000 yards from me, up on the dam. Damn!
Then it hailed and rained like hell and I ran like heck outta there. No fish, but at least I made it home without getting zapped by 80 kagillion volts.
Our family computer is dying a slow and agonizing death. It has never been a great computer, so to prolong it's suffering, I have recently added a DVD/CD Writer drive and doubled the RAM memory, thanks to Pops retiring his old desktop machine. I hoped the increased memory would help the computer be more stable and not glitch as often, but the problems have persisted.
So we started thinking that the hard drive must be freaking out. It was also sitting at 90% full. Yesterday I picked up a new hard drive. It has a lot more storage space than the old one, but it had a $50 rebate that made it one of the cheapest drives in the store.
I had to run back over today, to pick up a PCI host card. Once I got the card installed, getting the drive up and running was pretty straightforward. Except that I can't boot up the computer from it.
Meaning that it is basically useless, even though I spent about 5 hours trying to figure it our today. So here I sit, with my loud dying 40 GB hard drive spinning away. At least I have a nice back up of the old drive, now.
If anyone wants to give me some advice on getting this thing to boot up, feel free.
The Talker is feeling a little better this morning. Good enough to take a truck ride with dad this morning, before mom left for work and good enough to regret this entire week. He is really tired of the sore throat. And two weeks without ANY goldfish crackers? That part of the recovery just might cause him to kill over and die.
He told me this morning, with tears in his eyes, "I want to go to the hospital and get my tonsils back."
But then Sponge Bob came on and the tonsils were forgotten, once again.
People whose birthday is July 21:
1676 Anthony Collins, philosopher
1620 Jean Picard, astronomer
1899 Ernest Hemingway, novelist
1911 Marshall McLuhan, writer
1920 Isaac Stern, violinist
1924 Don Knotts, actor
1938 Janet Reno, former U.S. Attorney General
1946 Kenneth Starr, lawyer
1948 Yusaf Islam (Cat Stevens), singer, songwriter
1948 Garry Trudeau, cartoonist
1952 Robin Williams, actor
1957 Jon Lovitz, actor
1968 Brandi Chastain, soccer player
1970 AtHomeDaddy, mediocre truck guy and lousy fisherman
The boy feels lousy today. His throat must really be hurting, because he won't say anything. He is pointing and gesturing, but no talking. And that is a once in a lifetime experience. He is hanging out in our bedroom, watching old Disney VHS movies, just so his little sister can't get to the TV and change the channel during all of the good parts. He is really tired, because of the medicine and the 4 AM wake up to take more medicine.
She is bored silly without big brother around, but we have been playing "Shopping Cart/Baby Stroller Crash Up Derby NASCAR Race" through the kitchen, dining room, front hall and living room. She laughs at the chase and I need the exercise, so it is a good activity. She is almost over whatever made her feel bad enough that we took her into the pediatrician on Monday morning. Now if she will just start sleeping at night...
The dog is quickly getting over the mystery limp, thanks to a visit to the Vet on Monday. Luckily, he does sleep all night.
The Talker is now tonsil-free. He is tired and dopey, but that is true of most of us in this family. The Children's Hospital of Austin staff was awesome as usual. I highly recommend going there if you want your tonsils taken out (and you are under 17). They will even let you ride a Mighty Hot Wheel to the surgery room if you want.
Plus, after the tonsils are gone, they serve up Blue Bell Rainbow Popsicles. Big time bonus! Almost makes the surgery worth the hassle.
Sorry for the delayed update. But I had to go get my driver's license renewed after we got home from the hospital. Believe me, I would have much rather had my own tonsils removed than wait there for two hours just to recite my Social security number and read one line off of an eye chart. I guess I faked the eye test good enough, I realized when I got the front of the line that my glasses were at home!
Today at lunch we talked to the boy about his surgery coming up on Tuesday. His tonsils and adenoids are coming out Tuesday morning. He was eating lunch when we broke the news to him. He sat still, looking at us with his hands over his mouth until I reminded him about THE BOX of MYSTERY .
He got a box from The Mother of the Bride on Friday. Luckily the wife warned me that it was coming, so I did not let the boy into it too early. Inside were supposed to be toys for him to play with after he gets home from the hospital. And they still will be. Mostly.
It is just that I needed a quick bribe to get him to go to the hospital today, so we could tour the surgery area and show The Talker a little about what would be happening. He did not want to go, until I promised that he could pick one thing from THE BOX of MYSTERY when we got home.
The tour included stops to get everyone dressed up in scrubs and face masks, showing the kids a few medical tools like the oxygen sensor that he will wear on his finger, a quick peek into an operating room and a stop in the recovery room.
The kids had fun and the boy had an answer for every question that was asked. Including whether or not he has been to Hawaii. Turns out, he has. At least that is what he told one of the cute college girls that was leading the tour.
But the highlight of the afternoon was THE BOX of MYSTERY . The Talker picked out a pirate ship to play with. The other toys have to wait on top of the piano until the next time he comes home from the hospital.
Mom and Dad loved the pirate ship, too. Once it was finally put together... The boy played with it for 2 hours, non-stop. And only a couple of times did we find The Princess sitting ON the dining table, beside her brother and the pirate ship.
We had him play with the pirate toys on the table, since there were lots of small parts. But now that The Princess can just climb right up and sit on top of the table, we either need to get a new place to play with the pirate ship, or she might need her own BOX of MYSTERY from grandma, for after she falls off of the table and has to go on her own tour of the Children's hospital...
For the first time in 45 days! We took a quick victory lap around the front yard when it started. The skies are dark and nasty looking, so hopefully it will keep up for a while.
Well, maybe not a man, but The Talker is getting closer. He is officially 3 1/2 years old today. And to celebrate we are getting ready to have him gutted.
He goes in next week to have his tonsils taken out. So that part of the celebration will be delayed a few days, but at least he gets a week of popsicles and ice cream as a pay off.
Steve Vaught is walking across the United States, from San Diego to New York City. I saw an article about this on CNN and thought it blog worthy. I added a link to his web journal to my sidebar.
I have wanted to find another adventure to follow since Charl de Villiers finished his solo circumnavigation on a 37 foot sailboat.
Two statements really jumped out at me during the CNN spot this morning:
Mr Vaught said during the interview "If you want to be anonymous in this country, gain a hundred pounds."
And later in the story, a well wisher said "God looks after the brave and the foolish..." This is an idea that has stuck with me for years and I was glad to hear it shared out loud.
After The Boss Lady got home from work yesterday, we went down to the new Cabela's, about 45 minutes south of here. The shopping was pretty light, a new pair of sandals for me, a sticker for the truck, a wooden pop gun for the boy and a patch for the diaper bag. We spent a lot of time checking out the mounts on display. They had everything from an elephant to a flock of geese.
The boy enjoyed the laser shooting range a lot. For the rest of our time in the store he kept telling me, "I wanna go shoot some more guns." The range might have been the best part of the trip for me too. I would sight the rifle at one of the targets, and The Talker would stand beside me in a shopping basket and pull the trigger. We missed a lot this way, but we hit a few targets, too.
It is a nice store. And when fishing season gets here for real, I am sure the boy and I will need to make a few dozen return trips.
On the way home, we stopped at the best Mexican food place in town, Matt's El Rancho. It was really loud, but the food is the best. Ever. If you come to town, I'll take you there. It's right on the way home from Cabela's.
Thanks to Pops for upgrading his technology and loading us up with his old computer stuff, I am getting to watch one of my favorite movies, as I enter this blog. The DVD drive is nice, the flat screen monitor is nicer, but I think I like the powered speaker system with the nice subwoofer most of all.
Thanks, Pops.
Can you guess the movie? This posting's title is the only hint you get.
Dad and I were going to sailfish for a while at the coast this week. Then we were going to visit friends of Dad's parents at an Army Division Reunion. I don't remember my Pappy, he died when I was about three, so I was looking forward to hearing stories from men who served in World War II with him.
Dad's back went out on Wednesday, so we cut our fishing and visiting short. And since she was in no shape to drive himself home, The AtHomeFamily met me at The Queen Mother's house last night. We got home this afternoon from the unplanned 600 extra miles. And this chauffeur was tired.
So a quick recap from the road:
Fishing was lousy, at least if you count the fish caught. Only count the time in silence away from the kids and the fishing was AWESOME!
We traveled part of the state that I had never seen. The fam and I will be heading out there again soon. It was a nice drive.
And speaking of nice drives, Pops had a new asphalt driveway laid while we were there. The Talker now thinks that he will get to play on the mini steam roller on our next fishing trip, too.
And the highlight of this weekend? The 2 hour and 20 minute drive home today. Sometimes this drive takes 4 hours or more, thanks to road construction and idiot drivers. But today, we cruised 80 the whole way. Thankfully, cops don't really seem to care how you drive in a minivan...
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