Finished the garden, let's party

The AtHomeTrio finished planting the garden this morning. We are officially out of space to put another thing. The Roma tomato plants and marigolds went in this morning. The tomatoes, for marital harmony, I hate them, but the wife loves 'em; and the marigolds for the bugs.

My grandmother always had me plant marigolds all over the garden. The bugs are attracted to the flowers and leave the veggies alone. Plus, it makes the garden look a little prettier while you wait for the seeds to sprout.

The final roll call for the garden: tomatoes, two varieties, onions, red, white, yellow and the some from the wife's grandmother's childhood farm, green beans, pumpkins, watermelon, cucumbers, carrots, lettuce, mesclun mixed greens, mint, dill, cilantro, oregano and rosemary. It is a full house back there. Hopefully we can have a feast in a few months.

The kids and I got the back yard ready for our party tomorrow evening. OK, I worked on the yard and playscape, the kids played together nicely for a couple of hours. Most days that is even better than them trying to help me out...

A new flowerbed is planted. The backyard is mowed and edged. The playscape pea gravel is raked smooth. And the grass is watered. Bring on the herd of families. As long as no one looks inside the house, we are ready for them.

Garden Update

The kids and I planted lots of lettuce and basil last week. They are really interested in the garden now, because the seeds are starting to emerge. I figure they will have fun watching for another couple of weeks, but once the boring work starts, like keeping the garden weeded, I bet I'll be working out there by myself.

Today we planted watermelons, pumpkins and cucumbers. Later this week we will put out a couple of tomato plants and plant some beans. Then we will be finished planting. In a month or so we should be eating some of our lettuce and greens. By July we should be eating fresh watermelons.

Dry this on for size

Back in December we bought a gas dryer from a neighbor for $25. It is a huge machine, much larger than the gas dryer we bought new six years ago. But when we hooked it up, it sounded awful. Lots of screeching, grating and noises that just should not come out of a dryer.

I had visions of hooking up the second dryer, to speed up laundry service around here. But our old dryer must be mourning the death of his pal because it decided to quit working last week, too.

I ran to the laundromat one night and dried five or six loads of clothes. I hate the laundromat, but it is kind of nice to not wait for hours to get all of the laundry dried. 36 minutes, and I was on my way home.

Yesterday morning I decided to check the bigger dryer to see if I could make the noise stop. Once I got the thing torn apart, I found the problem. A three cent screw had worked loose from a roller and it was grinding on part of the motor. Since I had the entire thing apart, I put on a new roller and belt.

After getting it all buttoned up, and a couple of side trips to the hardware store for a new gas line and the right connectors, we are back in the laundry business.

Stay tuned to find out the fate of our old dryer.

Goodbye old friend

I feel like I should say something meaningful and appropriate. That is what you do when someone who loves you dies, right? Well today it happened. One of my dearest old friends is dead and gone.

The new satellite receiver arrived on the big brown truck. As soon as the kids were down for nap time I tore into the living room to swap out receivers. Three minutes and we were all hooked up. After a quick call to Directv to get the new unit activated, life is back to normal. Heck, it is better than normal.

I have a sat receiver with functional buttons and a remote that works. Bonus, there are no teeth marks on the remote and everything is shiny and plastic-y smelling. And out of respect for my old sat unit, who put up a great fight for all these years, I plan to keep it that way.

Adios my little square buddy. I would tell you that you are going to a better place, and I would also say that I will never love the new receiver like I loved you. You were my first. But let's get real, my ass will be on the couch all weekend long and by the end of the next NASCAR race, you'll be a distant memory.

Buried with full honors? No way. You are heading for the dumpster. But at least after they plant you in the landfill, you won't have anyone chewing on your accessories for the 50 million years it takes you to return to dust.



This is what he looked like on his last day with us. Notice that I did not want to risk satellite TV withdrawal, so I cut the power cord right off. It was a lot easier than un-bundling all of the wires behind the entertainment center. To add insult to injury I dropped the dang thing and broke the card cover door off of it, when I was yanking it out of the entertainment center.

More Power!

For the last couple of years The AtHomeFamily has been regretting our last computer purchase. Well, no more.

Three times in the last year I have had to reformat the hard drive and start the computer over from scratch. For a while I was really good about making periodic backups to CDs. But after I added a new hard drive last summer I thought our problems were fixed. Since then I have had to format and start over once again.

I don't know what the problem was. And I don't care, either. That computer has been robbed of a couple of parts and loaded into the box for a Goodwill drop off later today.

We had lots of problems with it. I think it was because we cheaped out on it. The Boss Lady and I both had good computers at work, and our puny little HP at home was just not fast enough to keep us content. It had some cheap processor in it and a tiny fan installed that did not keep the guts cool enough. Even after I maxed out the RAM and added a huge new hard drive we still had problems.

Anyways, we have a new Gateway. And this bad boy is smokin'. Pentium D, 1G of RAM, XP Media Center, 300G Hard drive, 19" flat screen, TV tuner DVD burner, and a multiple media card reader. And unlike our last purchase, this bad boy runs quiet.

And a bigger bonus, I think the motherboard commited suicide on our old machine. It rebooted while I was sending some email and all I could get after that was the blue screen of death. But it is all good because I was able to pull all of my data off of the HP's hard drive.

I am a happy little boy, folks.

Good customer service? What a downer

Back in August, the dog ate my remote control that controls the whole world. OK, it only controls the TV, DVD player and the satellite connection, but there are days that these three things are the only things that matter in the whole world.

I bought a universal replacement remote, but it died an early death last week. No dogs involved this time. I cannot get the universal remote to control the satellite box. So all week I have kept the semi functioning original remote with the replacement. Combined, they could perform the most necessary functions.

Last night I decided to call our sat provider and ask/beg/plead to see if they would make me a deal on a new controller box and a remote. I was expecting a fight. Heck, truthfully I was looking for a fight, and I was coming armed with the facts. We have been subscribers for 5 years. $30 a month for 60 months. You do the math. I am sure that if you guys give away equipment to new subscribers and people who move, you can hook me up with a replacement.

And they did. No fight. No crying. No pleading. I did not even have to ask very nicely. Within 5 minutes, they had me set up to receive a new receiver and a receiver box remote controller in three days via Fed Ex. No fuss. No arguments.

Dang. Now I'll have to go fight with some other anonymous customer service rep. Maybe I'll call the gas company. Surely they would put up a good fight.

Garden update

The AtHomeTrio worked out in the garden a little on Tuesday. We planted Sweet Basil seeds. And a lot of them.

I was planning to scatter a few seeds into one corner of the garden plot. The Princess was having fun and before I could stop her, she dumped the entire packet of seeds on the ground. The seeds were too small to pick up, so we will just have a lot of thinning out to do in a couple of weeks.

Otherwise in the garden, the onions are growing well but the lettuce and greens seeds have not started popping up, yet.

FYI, There are 9 1/2 days left to prepare the house, yard and kids for a church party at our house. Today's mission, making a list of everything that has to get fixed/cleaned/replaced/scrubbed/planted/hidden before the party.

It 's all in how you are raised

I let the kids watch Finding Nemo this morning, while I was trying to get a little laundry and house cleaning finished

For those who skipped the 2,243 showings of Nemo at our house, early in the movie Nemo's mother is killed by a shark.

Right as that scene is about to happen, The Talker turned to his little sister and prepared her.

"It's OK Baby Girl, Nemo's mommy is just at work. Nemo is just playing with his daddy today. She's not getting deaded by the shark."

Celebration that turned out OK

The Boss Lady wanted to celebrate her last day at her old job by going out for Italian food. Our favorite place closed down about a year ago and I don't think we have eaten at any Italian restaurants, except The Olive Garden, since.

There is nothing close, except for a Romano's Macaroni Grill. Since this was a special meal, we decided high dollar dining would be OK.

Now on to the bitching:

The hostess stuck us in the back of the almost empty dining room. No big surprise, since the kids were eating with us. But I hate getting crammed in the corner. Must be left over anxiety from my elementary school principal's office.

The waiter was quick to get drinks and take out order. That is not bitching, but those are about the only things he did right all night. It is hard to give good service when you disappear for half an hour.

The kid's food came out really early, before our meals. Nice if the kids are starving, but the pain is that they will finish quicker and then we can't finish our own EXPENSIVE meals. But they did help slow down the meal. The kid's food and plates were just about boiling hot. After blowing and fanning a smoldering cheese pizza for ten minutes, I was about to hyperventilate when my food arrived.

My food was over cooked, but the potion was huge, so I figured I could just avoid the edges and still have an OK meal. It was also near the point of spontaneous combustion when I first bit into it. But it tasted really good. I was going through the water like crazy, since the sausage in my meal was really spicy. That is, I was drinking a lot until I got cut off. After waiting 15 minutes for water, I finally got up and grabbed some from the drink service area across the dining room.

The waiter came back to clear the table and asked how was everything. He did not wait for the long answer. When she told him that her food was overcooked, he was gone with our plates. And of course, the only time he returned quickly to our table was with the check.

Luckily a manager cut him off with our check to explain that he has comped The Boss Lady's meal. He seemed concerned about everything else, so he got an earful. We were willing to pay for our meal, since we did eat. The manager wanted to know why we had not complained to our server. I explained that it is very hard to complain to The Invisible Waiter Man. It was pretty obvious that the waiter should not have been too busy at 5pm and the manager told us, "Gosh, he didn't even have that many tables to serve".

The manager understood that we were not planning to return. So he comped our entire $50 meal. Then he handed us his card and asked us to let him make it right another time. We will see about that. But there is a pretty good chance we will try again, but we will be calling ahead to make sure that some manager is on duty.

The long and the short of it all

If you want the long explanation for the pictures in my last post, scroll down a little. If you want the short version, stay here for a second.

The short version: Fingers should not be under shopping carts. It is not broken. The wrap stays on for another day or so.












And the long version: The kids and two neighbor kids went to Costco with The Boss Lady Saturday morning. When they were heading into the store, The Princess fell and the cart rolled right over her left index finger. Actually, it went right down the length of her finger, from her hand to her fingertip. By the time the herd got back home, The Princess had a swollen and sore finger.

I was supposed to take some food to our church at noon. Instead I took the girl to the ER and The Boss Lady carried the salad to the church, with the three kids in tow. The girl slept in my arms for a couple of hours at the ER. While the wife dealt with feeding and entertaining three kids. They X rayed and saw no major problems. So they fitted a temporary splint, which is bigger than a normal finger splint, because she would have ripped one of those off in a few milliseconds. Then they sent us home.

So in the end, she got a big gauze and fiberglass wrapped hand, which is very useful in smacking big brothers around. The Talker got smacked upside his head a few times this weekend by Big Hand Sister. The Boss lady was worn out from keeping the herd happy. And I slept at the hospital in a plastic chair for a few hours.

Sounds like I won this Saturday.

Pretty well wraps up our weekend...

Garden update 1

Our garden is ready and the onions are growing well. I planted them a little over two weeks ago. This morning the kids and I planted some Green Ice lettuce and some Mesclun greens mix. I don't think we have ever grown either of these in the past. Hopefully they will grow well. This is also the first year in a while that I have actually gotten the lettuce planted early enough that we should get a good crop before summer.

That sums it up nicely

When we ran to the grocery store this morning, we only needed one thing. Who cares that it is 50 degrees and raining. We were out of Dr Pepper.

I told the kids that they could have a donut when we got there, since they have been playing nice together all morning. So we bought three things. Two donuts and a 12 pack. Much different than our usual hour long trip that fills the basket to overflowing.

When we got to the cash register The Talker looked into our almost empty basket and told me "But Daddy... We forgot everything".

I feel so conflicted

The kids are playing nicely. But we are out of Dr Pepper. So it is time for a grocery run. But they are being so nice to each other.

Screw it. I need caffeine. Everybody to the car, NOW!

My new heroes

I have a new respect for at home parents who don't have access to a car during the days of hanging with the kiddos. Especially when the weather is not nice enough to play outside. I have gone crazy hanging out at the house the last few days. The Boss Lady's car decided to take a vacation. So we sent it to the car spa resort/repair shop.

Turns out I knew just how to fix her car. I tried to do it. The part I bought was close. But you can't get the CORRECT parts except from some guy named Elmer in Moose Jaw, Alaska. And he only ships his ignition switches by a slow boat. Which must make a port call in Honolulu. After 4 days, we are still waiting on the part.

Saturday and Sunday were both rainy and cold enough that we stayed home. All weekend. A record for our family. Scratch that. The wife and kids went running around, I stayed home all weekend.

This morning we are off to Chuck E Cheese with several neighbor families. Not really my idea of a great hang out spot, but it has to be better than watching another 3 hours of Go Diego Go. Or spending 13 hours in the office, like one of my other heroes is doing today.

Gotta love the growth spurt

The Princess is right in the middle of a growth spurt. She has been sleeping two or three extra hours everyday. Yesterday we were up and running at 7. By 10 she was napping while watching TV in the living room. From 11 to 2 she was asleep in her bed. She went back to sleep for 30 minutes or so at 3:30. And she slept all night. (OK, The wife says she woke up once for a drink.)

So you would think that we are getting a lot done around here while Sleeping Beauty snoozes. Oddly I am not. But The Talker and I have gotten to read lots of books and do lots of puzzles this week.

Need to improve your eyesight? Clean your kitchen

The kiddos were playing quietly this morning. Don't really want to know what they were playing. I was just thrilled that it was quiet!

Anyways, I decided to tackle the disaster that has over run our kitchen. And after an hour of cleaning, the kitchen looks awful.

No, I did not forget to wash dishes or scrub counters. I even scrubbed the stove and microwave. Everything is clean.

But know I can see how bad this room really needs to be painted. And the floors that I never finished staining two years ago... And the really nasty crack in the slab, right through the middle of the room. It shines like a beacon. Begging for foundation repairs. Bet that'll be cheap!

Damn. If I left the mess alone I would have never seen any of this other stuff.

Wanna play Questions? Are you afraid you might get your ass kicked by a 4 year old?

A dozen years ago my cousins introduced me to a game called Questions. The premise is simple. Some asks a question. And the response has to come in the form of a question. Then the original person asks a question in response to that one and so on.

Little did I know that 8 years later a Questions master would be born. I should really think about changing The Talker's blog name. Something like The Grand Inquisitor would be much more fitting. For one thing, his sister now talks more than he does. But the main reason would be that he seems to go days on end only asking questions.

This evening I am letting the kids watch Monster's Inc. while mommy works late. During the first 27 minutes and 54 seconds of the movie, a movie that the boy has seen scores of times, he asked 63 questions. Sixty freakin' three.

You do the math. However you count it, that is a lot of questions per hour, coming out of a little mouth. I guess it is better than curse words, but sometimes I wonder...

And believe me this is not confined to movies. The Talker is sort of like a living and breathing version of 20 Questions that does not stop after 20. Or 200. So now I am hiding in the kitchen because my brain is too tired to answer anymore questions.

Right now there is only question on my mind. Where is the vodka and the cough syrup?

The good and the bad

The good news - It is a Friday, it is only 35 hours until the start of the NASCAR 2006 season, and it is a Friday.

The bad news - 13 hours ago I overheard The Boss Lady telling the kids that she will be at work really late on Friday. Wha? Huh? On a Friday?

At least it is raining, so we get to be stuck inside all day, too!

Just what every Daddy wants to hear

The kids and I went outside this morning, to check on the damage. It must not have gotten as cold a s predicted. No harm done, it seems.

In fact, it is a really nice day, so the children played on the playscape while I finally got around to doing some much delayed yard clean up.

While I was working I heard The Talker as if his sister wanted to play. Her hesitant response, "Play what?" was met with a very sure answer. "Tattoo shop!"

I did not get a lot of work done after that. I was a little busy making sure the boy did not decide to ink up his sister. That would be really fun to explain to the wife.

Besides, what kind of tat does an almost two year old girl go for? One of those tribal center of the back things? Too Nineties. A little butterfly on the hip? Too teenager. How about a crucifix covering her left bicep. That would go over great in Sunday School, don't you think?

I think he broke my brain

The boy woke up an hour early this morning. Don't know why. Don't really care. I just know that I was nowhere near ready to get rolling.

So after breakfast he wanted to watch a movie. Thinking I might get a few minutes to nap before little sister woke up, I let him watch Shrek 3D.

But watching the ogre in 3D was not good enough for him. He wanted to share the early morning 3D experience with dad. So I lay on the couch with 3D glasses on, watching too.

Now? He is watching again. And I am trying to get my eyes to readjust. Now everything has a weird purple tint and seems to be jumping out at me. Blogging in 3D is a little odd.

And now we can all see what happens when AtHomeDaddy doesn't get enough sleep. But believe me, it is even scarier in 3D.

Getting ready to garden

A few days ago I tilled up most of the garden plot. Sunday afternoon I moved a huge pile of leaves into the garden and tilled the whole place again. Since the garden is overgrown with a year's worth of grass and weeds, I still have a lot of work to get ready to plant.

The dog decided that the fresh dirt was too good to ignore. Kodak thought I built the perfect digging pit. So last night, while the dog watched and looked sad, I fenced the garden with 3 foot tall wire fencing.

This weekend we will add some compost and plant some onions and lettuce. It still may freeze, so we won't put out anything big for a while.

The kids helped me draw out a plan for the garden. We are going to grow watermelons, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, onions along with some herbs. Plus this year we may try to grow corn.

I always try at least one new thing each year. In the past we have tried purple hulled beans. They tasted like you would think a purple bean would. At least 15 different tomato varieties. We finally settled on Romas and Sweet 100 Cherry tomatoes. They grow best in our garden. This year, we might have one plant of another variety.

We tried squash and pumpkins. We got one of each. Too much work to harvest one. We tried birdhouse gourds. The vines damn near took over our backyard. And the gourds molded when we tried to dry them. Too much work to end up with none. And gourds stink to high hell.

So this year we are sticking to the basics. I want the kids to see some success. And hopefully we will all have fun while we get really dirty.

Park run

The AtHomeTrio started the week off with a bang this morning. We headed to a really nice park to hang out with the stay at home dads group. We were one of the few families that showed up, but the kids did not care. This park has a huge playhouse that can keep kids entertained and exploring for hours.

After a couple of hours at the park, both of the kids snoozed in the car on the ride home. Hopefully they will still nap for real, later today.

Diaper Strike!

AtHomeDaddy is calling a Diaper Strike.

No, I am not refusing to change diapers. Since The Princess is still wearing them, that would be mean. But I am officially declaring my intention to not pick up diapers that are left in the hallway during the evenings.

See, The Boss Lady has a bad habit of tossing diapers in the hall, with the intention of taking them to the trash after bath time. Now to be fair, they are never stinky diapers. That would be REALLY gross.

And sometimes they sit there until I pick them up later in the evening or the next morning. As of this morning, when I found 2 diapers on the floor, they will be sitting until the responsible party picks them up or until the dog or a child tries to eat them.

So if you come over, watch your step in the hall. And if you want to cross the picket line, that is OK, too. I won't hold a grudge. Unless you are a diaper tosser.

The world's worst girl toy

Need a gift for a kid you hate? Need to buy that jerky little kid around the corner a birthday present? Well do I have the perfect toy for you... A Fairytopia Magical Mermaid Barbie doll. Even the name sounds stupid, right?

Yesterday The Princess found an still boxed up Christmas gift in her closet. And who can resist "Daddy, can I play with my new Barbie? PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZE?" I tried to get the doll out of the box quickly, because my daughter was squealing with delight, just anticipating her turn with the new doll.

And now I know why The Boss Lady never opened this piece of junk. It broke. BEFORE I got it out of the #$)&()(#&$# box! The tail fin won't stay on, so we have a mermaid without a tail floating somewhere around the house. The Princes has already moved on to playing with real dolls.

The fin and bikini top are both now taped in place. But that won't work for long. The Talker is bound to get a few peeks at the mermaid's rack, because the plastic bikini is just barely covering the goods.

And that hair. Didyaknow that they sew the Barbie hair to the box? Yep. So The Mermaid is already losing her hair because I did not remove it from the box correctly. And did we really need another thing that sheds in this house? I think I hear the vacuum cleaner crying in the hall closet.

So if you feel the need to make some little girl cry, fork over a half naked prematurely balding tailess mermaid toy. It will make her day really special.

Finished with the wall

I finished building the retaining wall yesterday. It rainied hard on Saturday, so I was out of luck then, but yesterday afternoon it was dry enough to work outside. The only thing left to do is to finish moving pea gravel from the driveway.

And to post some pictures, to prove that I actually finished a project.

Plus, while working outside I decided what the next project will be. I am going to start up my veggie garden again. Last year I decided it was too much work with two little kids. But this year they are getting a garden space of their own. Maybe we will grow a bean teepee or something fun for them.

Halfway there. Now where was I going again?

The wooden retaining wall around the playscape is officially half finished. All that is left is one back side and a funky 45 degree corner that runs to the rock retaining wall. It looks pretty good so far, but I still have several days of work to do.

This afternoon The Talker helped me out for a few minutes. He wanted to saw, so we busted out the reciprocating saw and cut the scrap ends off of a couple of four by fours. Afterwards he told me he really likes the noise the saw makes. After one cut he was gone, off to swing some more. Big fun!

Hopefully I will get finished this weekend. Everything looks pretty well done, but lots of loose ends to tie up. But this is that point that I usually get distracted by some other project. Around here that is normal. I come from several generations of Starters. There is hardly a finisher in the whole family line.

Mmmmmmmm, math. Tasty

The kids and I just returned from our trip to the grocery store. The Talker wanted some Chex Mix. So we decided to buy a couple of boxes of cereal and to make some ourselves.

The Queen Mother made some for the kids during Christmas. OK, actually, Mom made me some spicy Chex mix and she had some of the mild stuff that she had just made. When we left, I stole it all. Anyways, the kids loved it.

The Talker helped count the ingredients and measure everything out. The Princess helped stir. And I am pretty sure that she drooled right into the pan...

The kids are chomping at the bit to get some home made Chex mix. But it has to cook for another half hour. That should kill whatever germs she drooled into our snack, right?

Playscape progress

Here are a couple of pictures from the playscape renovation.

The first picture was taken before we got a good start. The rocks are already under the climber, so it isn't a true 'BEFORE' shot.



And the next picture shows most of the low retaining wall that I have finished so far.



I finished the slide landing pit last night after dark, so the kids haven't even seen it finished yet. The weather should be good today, so we will be giving it a good trial run.

And finally, you can see that I have a ways to go with the wall. Then it is back to moving more rock, to finish up.

Precocious little fingers

When we took The Princess out of her baby bed, we quickly realized the need for another way to keep her contained at night. It only took her a couple of nights in the toddler bed to figure out how to open her door knob, giving unfettered access to the whole house while mommy and daddy slept.

So we bought the dreaded door knob covers. Little plastic clamshell looking things that go over the knob and spin freely, unless you grasp them just right. Kind of like child proof pill bottle lids for your doors. Especially in that kids usually master using them quicker than the adults.

The Talker has mastered the new door knobs, which is fine. The Princess? She can't make the covers work, BUT she has figured out how to take the covers off of the door knobs. She reaches inside and pries the plastic halves apart.

Guess it is time to break out the duct tape. Then, I can either tape the pieces shut and keep the knobs covered, or maybe I can just tape all of her fingers together and avoid the problem completely.

Dog run progress

I have finally grown tired of the mountain of pea gravel in my front yard. So yesterday I spent the bulk of the day moving barrows full of rocks to the side yard. I am setting up a dog run over there. I still have to build a gate, to actually keep Kodak in it, but that can wait a while. And sadly, it did not make a dent in the pile of rocks out front.

The dog does fine when our kids are playing in the yard, but some of the neighborhood kids are a little intimidated by the hairy beast. Which is understandable. He is only 18 months old, so he still acts like a puppy, but he weighs 95 pounds.

Plus, he likes to run right at the kids and turn at the last possible second. It is sort of worrisome when you are an adult and the beast is charging at you, much less if you are a kid and Kodak is way bigger. There is nothing like a game of "Chicken" between a 95 pound dog and a 25 pound toddler.

Anyways, I want to be able to put the dog into the run when kids are playing in the yard. But after he wears himself out, Kodak loves watching them on the playscape, so I set him up with a good view of most of the play area.

$90 MP3 Player review

As Rick reminded me, I never shared any more info about my newest toy.

I have really enjoyed having an MP3 player. In the last couple of weeks I have spent countless hours ripping my CD collection into Windows Media Player so that I can sync them to the player. But that has been cool, since I have listened to a lot of music lately that I haven't heard in years.

The Sansa m240 is small, lightweight and it has good sound quality. It fits easily in my pocket when I am out walking or working in the yard. And since I just got a good deal on rechargeable AAA batteries, it is nice that it runs for 15 hours or more on one AAA. The box said it would hold about 240 songs. I filled it up with about 200. And they were ALL George Strait songs! If I reduce the quality when I rip the music into my computer I can get a few more songs on it. But really, who needs more than 200 George Strait songs in their front pocket?

A couple of features I don't love about the player: There is no way to delete a song through the player controls. You have to remove songs when you sync with Windows Media Player. It also seems that some of the functions are harder to use when the battery gets low. For example the backlight won't kick on when you make a selection. And I am not wild about the earbuds. Maybe I have really big ears or something, but they seem to fall out a lot. Plus, if I don't put them in just right, they hurt my ears after a few minutes.

And music should not be about pain. Unless you are listening to me play guitar...

So there you have it. A quick run down of my new MP3 player. I don't think I did too bad for $90.

Weekend plans

Since it has not rained for real in more than two months, I assume that it won't rain this weekend either. Except that I am hoping to get some work done in the backyard on Saturday. My plans will surely bring on a thunderstorm, right?

I am about 25% done with the playscape fall zone. A lot of the pea gravel is in place and the general layout is decided. Now I just have to build the retaining walls. I dismantled a nice retaining wall when we brought the gravel over. So now I am cutting off the spikes to start assembling the new wall.

After getting all of the lumber cleaned up I am going to try and lay out the pieces to have minimum waste and the fewest number of cuts. I did not get this fat by not being a little lazy... Plus, I would like to end up with 12 uncut posts that I can use when I rebuild the fence on one side of our yard.

That is really bad

When we walked in to the pharmacy at Costco, the receptionist called the kids by name. She likely remembers them from our three previous trips to the pharmacy in the last three days. But just the fact that we are known in the pharmacy is a little odd.

I swear I am not doping the kids just to get a good night's sleep. Besides, The Boss Lady would tell you that sleep plan does not work. Since the kids hardly sleep through the night, but her loving husband can snooze right through the chaos at 3:15 am. Didya know there IS a 3:15 am? I'll take your word for it.

And the worst part of the trip? The diaper blow out. Not so bad by itself, but the fact that we were out of diapers in two, TWO, 2, BOTH diaper bags meant that The Princess got to parade around the store free and easy. A little inspiration for the pharmacy. "I've got a juice-loaded toddler without a diaper and I'm not afraid to use her. Now hand over the amoxicillin."

In the end everything worked out fine. The drugs came quickly, The Princess stayed dry and we provided a lot of entertainment for the other people waiting for drugs. Plus, there are two diapers now hidden in the car to make sure we don't go without again.

I will tell The Boss Lady where one diaper is, just in case she gets stuck in a lurch, like we did today. But the other is hidden really well and it will remain my little secret. As long as I remember where it is when it is needed.

Another one bites the dust

The Talker is sick. He has a light case of the flu and an ear infection. But you would not know it if you saw him. He is bouncing off of the walls and the mouth is going 50 billionty miles an hour. Which is approximately 13 billionty times faster than normal. Even the pediatrician questioned if the boy was really sick.

If it were not for the fever, I would think he was fine, too. Except for the VOLUME! When this kid get sick, he gets LOUDER and more hyper! How in hell does that work? Every other human in the world gets sick and wants to rest. This child get ill and he is ready to party.

God, I just hopes he never get mono or anything else that will keep him home from school for a week...

Now we are off to Costco for prescriptions. And maybe an indutrial size bag of cotton balls for my ears.

Who wears the pants around here?

The Boss Lady just brought me some baby shower invitations she is preparing for a neighbor's party. Not only did she want me to see them, but she wanted my opinion about them.

"Are these girly enough?"

"How am I supposed to know if they are girly?"

"Aren't they pretty and froofy?"

"I think I am offended that you can trust my judgment about what is girly and froofy."

Now pardon me, while I go knit a new shower curtain.

This is party is going to be great

The kids and I ran to the grocery store this morning to get the birthday party goods. The Talker, wearing his Spiderman Halloween costume, was really excited while we were picking out candles and paper. At one point he started dancing in the aisle and yelled "This is gonna be GREAT!"

So Spiderman covered all the bases with his picks. He is having a Shrek birthday cake, King Kong hats, a Sponge Bob candle and Blockhead plates. We don't need no stinkin' theme birthday party.

That is just wrong

My allergies are killing me. I haven't been able to smell anything for days. But when The Princess opened her door this morning, the stench from her dirty diaper almost knocked me down. The dog ran for the yard and her brother ran for his room.

I'm surprised the smoke detector did not go off.

They aren't all jerks

I was looking back at some of my recent past posts and I can see a trend that I did not intend. It seems that most days I blog about anyone other than the family, it is only because we have run into some jerk during the day.

So I was wondering why this is what I blog. And I came up with a couple of reasons. One is that I just tend to remember the jerks. And I can usually spin the funny side of those encounters pretty easily. Plus, there are lots of days that the kids and I only see a handful of people. We spend lots of time hanging out around the house. Sod on days that we don't get out much, if we do have an encounter with an idiot, it is usually pretty memorable. But my mom always told us if we did not have something nice to say, make sure the other guy can't hear you when you start talking behind his back.

So today I wanted to watch for people being nice and friendly to the kids. We really only dealt with 4 people all day. And they were all nice. A Home Depot electrical department guy was really helpful and he stood there talking to the boy for 5 minutes, when The Talker launched into a story. On the way home we stopped at the park. There was only one family there and the kids were well behaved and everyone played great together.

So there. Nice things about people. Betcha didn't see that coming, didya?

What a year...

Well, The Talker might not wear his pirate hat as often as he did last year, and he usually tells people his correct age, but I am a little sad to see him pass three years old. As of tomorrow we will have a 4 year old.

And since his birthday happens to fall on Friday the 13th, here is a little something to get you past your paraskevidekatriaphobia (Also known as triskaidekaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia), here are a few resources for you:

Snopes.com
National Geographic

And a recipe for Absolutely Best Brownies, because brownies make everything better, right

Lone Daddy Revisited

Adventures of Darth Daddy shared about a common experience for Stay at Home Dads: being the only male over 6 at the playscape. This morning we experienced the same situation, but with a little different result.

The Princess and The Talker wanted to go to the indoor playground at the mall this morning. So we headed over there right at 10. I was hoping that the kids would play hard for an hour and wear themselves out. Usually we are one of only a few families there that early. But this morning a mom's group had a playdate scheduled there.

When we walked in the gruesome twosome headed out to play. And everything was fine, until a mom arrived with a twerpy 5 year old. I don't know what he said to the Talker, but as soon as he walked in he told the boy something. The Talker looked really sad and came to tell me. He never would repeat what the kid said, but by the other boy's body language and his laughing when The Talker walked away, I knew it wasn't nice.

Every time the son would get within a few feet of the brat, he was told "Go away. You're Stupid." I quickly told The Talker to tell him "Quit being rude to me. I can play here, too." And The Talker did just that, loud and right in front of the twerp's mom. But she did not even bat an eyelash. Guess she is used to people calling her kid a brat.

When the twerp came running around a corner and slipped on a book that he had thrown on the ground, it took all I had not to laugh at him.

OK that is a lie, I was bad. I laughed. Out loud. It felt good. But my kids did not hear me, so it is OK.

He cried and pouted to his mom. She never batted an eyelash, then, either. I guess she is used to the little brat whining and pouting. I knew this was going no where good, and fast. And sure enough twerpy shoved The Talker off of a toy. I was standing right there. And I jumped on the brat.

"You will stop pushing him, NOW! You don't have to play with my son, but you have to stop calling him names and being rude to him."

Everything calmed down after that. The brat pouted, The Talker played with the other kids, and everyone had a great time. Except maybe the twerp, but I don't care. And it felt good. Still does, too.

We left pretty quickly after that. We headed out to cruise down to the Mickey Mouse store. And a different boy, maybe 15 months old, walked out right behind us.

We were almost round a corner, at least 50 feet from the playscape, so we just stopped. It took one of the play group moms two full minutes to notice that her son was missing. But of course she ran out and was really grateful that we had waited with her son.

Oh wait, that is what I would expect. She walked over, griped at the kid and ignored the three of us. At least until I glared at her and grunted "Your Welcome."

"Excuse Me?"

"I waited for several minutes, with your son here, because no one was paying any attention when he walked out with us. So you are welcome."

Then we turned and headed for Mickey's house. I felt no need to wait for her to show any appreciation.

Wellookeethere

There might be dirty laundry in the kitchen. And the Christmas tree just came down last night. I still haven't gotten around to brushing the girl's hair. And this morning I have been in the kitchen checking email and reading the news online for longer than I should have.

But we must be doing something right. Just look at these kids. They have not killed each other while I have been distracted. In fact, they are sitting here reading in the kitchen. And being nice.

weird.



Of course, two minutes later the little demolition unit in pink decided to renovate the bookshelf. But at least she is reading. And now I can get started cleaning the kitchen. Or maybe I'll blog some more...

Too much excitement before naptime?

The Talker is really excited. The truck just came to pick up our big trash. We only get to set out things that won't fit in the city garbage can every seven months. So it is a pretty big deal. Almost every house ends up with a pile in front of it. Kind of like mini monuments to the suburban consumer.

The best part of it all involves Racecar Man and I scouring the neighborhood, looking for treasures. This year I brought home a reel mower, a bunch of lumber and a couple of patio umbrellas that I scrapped for the canvas. And a little something for The Law Talking Guy, but you can read more about that over here.

But the best part for the boy is that they use old trucks to pick this stuff up. Our normal pickup is done by an automated truck. The driver operates the arm to unload the cans from inside the cab. But the trucks they use for bulky pickup are the old style trucks. The giant hydraulic hopper and two guys riding on the back. So The Talker gets to watch them crush all of our big stuff.

The highlight of today's pick up was watching an old wooden picnic table get smashed to bits. The plastic art easel was pretty exciting, too. And the fact that I picked both of these items up during previous bulky trash collections made it even more fun to watch. (I grabbed the easel at least two years ago. And the picnic table at least three years ago. Both from neighbor's piles.) Maybe next time I'll pick up a bunch of old TVs or computers, so that we can watch them crush something REALLY cool.

An Open Letter to the lady at the grocery store:

Yes. I did tell my 21 month old daughter that she has to wait until she is twelve to buy cigarettes. But I promise I will be really mad at her if she buys any smokes before she is 17, like the rest of us did.

Besides that, I only said it to see if I could get a reaction out of you. And the way you blurted out "Oh my god, what did he just tell that baby..." was exactly what I wanted to hear.

Thanks for following us around the grocery store. I still don't know if you were checking up on me or stalking me because I looked so fantastic in my 8 year old jeans and Birkenstocks with socks. Whatever your reasons, It was nice to know that wherever we went this morning, there you were, too. And your little side comments about the way the kids were acting and the things we bought? I enjoyed them very much.

Yes. The kids were acting like animals. It is called pretend play. They were pretending to pirates and baby jaguars. Kind of like when you pretend to be a nice human. And yes, kids are loud and messy. Especially two at a time. Which is almost exactly how I imagine you at dinner time.

And the beer aisle? Yes, I took my children down the beer aisle. Twice. The second time was only because you looked so disgusted the first time. But you'll be happy to know that I could not find what I was looking for, so the kids will be alcohol free at lunch. Unless I dig to back of the fridge. Then I might find some beers I hid the last time Sis came to visit.

If I do find any booze in the house, I'll let you know. You can come over and monitor meal time, too. Besides, you need a stiff drink to lighten up, lady.

Creepy lady, the next time you see us at the grocery store, just walk away. Or I might have to take you out with my racecar basket full of screaming baby jaguars and pirates.

Daddy's Toy

Well, it isn't an iPod, but I finally bought an MP3 player today. Now I just have to wait 10 days or so for my new toy to arrive.

Since I ordered it through Costco.com, I had to pay shipping and sales tax, but it was still a few bucks cheaper than any other site I found.

I was ready to spend $100 for an MP3 player with half of the memory, so I am excited to find this deal. I hope it works out.

The parents are always the last to know

I need to add a new character to the cast.

But for now, let me introduce The Talker's imaginary friend, Pablo.

Pablo started out as a character from The Backyardigans. But I guess a blue penguin needs to stretch his wings once in a while. Pablo is pretty much involved in every aspect of The Talker's life right now.

Pablo helps decide what the boy should wear in the mornings and what games they should play in the yard. And the wife and I just realized how involved The Talker is in this imaginary play time. Evidently the neighbors knew. When I mentioned it to one of the moms, she just said something like "Uh. Yeah. Haven't you noticed before?"

Nope. Not until today at lunch. While Pablo was eating tater tots.

But maybe it is because I like Pablo hanging around. He never yells in the house and he always cleans up after himself. He does not eat much and he never pees on the potty seat.

So I think we are all OK with having Pablo around. After all, the kids and I all need a good influence like Pablo once in a while.

But if Pablo cuts The Talker's hair, he is out of here.


I was going to end right there, but I'll explain. Every time we cut The Talker's hair he talks about Pablo trying to cut his hair for a couple of days. Which is totally unacceptable behavior from an imaginary friend. Especially one who may or may not be a penguin

15 hours and two clean machines

Yesterday afternoon I tried to get a few lingering projects out of the way. I repaired some of the kid's toys, I worked on the playscape and I decided to install a WinTV card that has been laying around here for a few weeks.

I got it installed in the family computer fairly painlessly. But I really wanted it in the computer I keep in the garage, since my tv out there died last fall. Before the card would work I needed to upgrade to a newer operating system. But I also had a hard drive sitting around, with a newer OS on it. The trick would be getting it all to cooperate.

I decided to start with a clean garage computer and I formatted the harddrive and reinstalled XP. But I did all of this through the family computer. And then afterwards I could not get the main hard drive to boot back up. It wanted a password before XP would start, but I never set it up with a password.

I finally gave up, borrowed some installation disks, and followed Rick's advice. I backed up a few files, formatted the hard drive, reinstalled XP and got back under way.

Since then I have spent the rest of the day getting
everything up to date and running again. And I got my garage computer cleaned out, too. Now XP has a home inside the house and out in the garage, too.

But my TV card still won't work.

Flu season is upon us

The wife and I are both sick today. She has the flu and came home early from work yesterday. Last night she was up most of the night, so she is trying to nap a little today.

Allergy season has started for me. So I feel like I have the flu, but I get the benefits of no fever and a lot more snot.

I have worried about this problem since I started staying home, 3 1/2 years ago. What would we do if both adults get sick at once? The answer? I'll let you know when we find one that works. For now I am just trying to keep the kids content and quiet and breathe at the same time.

Because they are fine and dandy as strawberry candy. They both feel great and are full of energy. Which just makes it a lot harder to keep up today.

Think if The Boss Lady coughs on the the kids it might slow them down? Or would that just cause the neighbors to call Child Welfare?

How to Spend $40 at 11:15pm...

The game has only been over for 45 minutes, but I am already home with my National Championship t-shirts. It pays to live right behind the spoting goods store. Still, I was about the 50th person in line even though I left the house within 5 minutes of the end of the game. They would only let each person buy two shirts. So no, I did not get you one.

University of Texas National Champs

On the 8th day, God created pea gravel

And then he laughed his butt off, knowing that someday AtHomeDaddy would spend a week moving about 25 tons of the stuff into his own driveway.

After 8 days of work, we have moved the pea gravel from across town. Most of it is in the driveway, waiting to be hauled to the playscape. And it might wait a while for it's final ride!

Today we rented a UHaul truck and we abused and misused that truck nearly to death. We loaded about 4 or 5 yards of gravel into it, to make our final run.

So the final cost of our free gravel?

$95 for the truck
$25 for gas for the truck
$54 for a new wheel barrow
$20 for a wheel for a borrowed wheel barrow
$65 for gas for dad's truck
$25 for snow shovels
$50 for the teenager who helped load and
$75 for takeout food all week, since we have been too tired to cook

I bet we got $500 worth of pea gravel and $1000 worth of lumber out of the deal. Still, you can do the math. I am afraid that if I run the numbers on this free project, I might cry.

It might be a long year...

I hope this is not a sign of things to come for 2006.

I just spilled my very first Dr Pepper of the year. Right into the dishwasher. That I was still emptying of last year's clean dishes. And since all of those dishes are now dirty again, the dirty dishes in the sink won't fit in this load.

Starting the year with a sink full of dirty dishes... Sigh.



I am thinking I should copyright that phrase. It might make a good blues album title or it could become the title of Dr Phil's next book.

One of my proudest moments

as a Stay at home dad...

The Princess saw the mop bucket sitting on our front porch and she proclaimed "That's Mommy's bucket."

Right on, baby girl.

The Boss Lady's Christmas rock

C'mon over sometime and let The Boss Lady show you the rock she got this year. It is a beautiful thing. Too bad she can't wear it to work. But the bruises and blisters that it left on her hand. Those she wears proudly.

But free is free.

Monday morning we started moving about 10 yards of pea gravel from across town to our back yard. Yes, we could have bought some and gotten it delivered, but free is free.

Some friends bought a new house and the previous owners took a huge playscape when they moved. But they left behind a 20 foot square pad filled with pea gravel about 10 inches deep. And our friends wanted it out of the back yard. So I got stupid, or maybe stupider, and said we would take it and use it under the kids playscape.

Three days of hauling rock with a pickup truck and a small trailer left a pile in the driveway bigger than The Boss Lady's car. It is kind of impressive and dumb to think that the wife and I moved all of this rock by ourselves. And we still have about a third of the rock to bring over here.

Yesterday I started moving rock to the backyard, because we were out of space to pile anymore in the driveway. I moved about a quarter of the pile to the playscape. I'll post some before and after pictures, soon. But for now, gotta go move some rock.

Three days without

telephone service - not so bad. Even got to miss The Mother of the Bride singing Jingle Bells for the kids, a family Christmas tradition.

Of course, since she got no answer, she tried many times to sing to the kids. But then again, the phones were out, so we missed ALL of the singing calls!

Three days with spotty DSL service and lots of dropped connections - gawd awful. I thought I might have a stroke before I got back online.

Santa brought her world domination

A few days ago someone left three books and a board game on our front porch. They aren't Christmas gifts, I guess, because there was no tag and the presents were not wrapped. I assume that one of our neighbors left them for us.

The books, the first three in the Hank the Cowdog series. The board game was an almost new game of Risk. Looks like it might have been played only a few times.

Tonight after Santa's snacks were left out and the kids were off to bed, we set up the game board. The Boss Lady whipped my ass. In an hour and a half.

Years ago my roommate and I would keep one game of Risk going for an entire weekend. No such luck for me tonight. It was an ugly bloodbath. Made even uglier by the wife's gleeful gloating.

Now she has a case of blood lust and is curling up with a DVD copy of War of the Worlds. And I think she might be waiting to conquer Santa, when he comes down the chimney, too.

That's my boy!

Last night we took the entire herd to the Trail of Lights. And while there the kids waited to see Santa.

Do you know what The Talker asked for? Do ya?

Proud father gleefully puffing out his chest...

An iPod

I don't think he knows what an iPod is, but if it is good enough for dad to want one, I guess he wants one, too.

For the record, I am pretty sure I over heard The Princess ask for a set of tires for an old Chevy truck....

The stress might be getting to him

The boy slept almost two hours late this morning. And the first words out of his mouth?

You can't eat glitter.

Could this be a response to having too many females in one household? Or is he just going insane at an early age?

Help! I'm out numbered

The Talker and I are seriously out of our league this week. The balance of power has shifted to the dark side of the household, since there are two extra female people staying here this week. Making the score for the week, 2-4. They win.

We are still out numbered, even if we add in the animals. Then, the score is still 4-5.

We brought two nieces home with us on our quick trip and they are staying a few days. And they are almost teenagers. Which makes me feel really old and uncool, all at once.

Help me Obi Wan. You are my only hope.

Fun with family

The AtHomeFamily is off on a road trip for a couple of days. Heading to a family Christmas party at The Sister of the Bride's house this evening and a bigger family thing Sunday afternoon.

The weather might get nasty while we are up there, so wish us luck and bring on the fun and food!

The Music Man

This week the kids and I have been very crafty. We have made cars out of boxes that are big enough for the kids to walk around inside of and pretend they are driving, and the crayons have taken up permanent residence on the dining table.

But tonight The Talker and I worked on a project that we have been planning since we found a big rubber band last week at the park, a shoe box guitar. But seeing as we haven't bought shoes in a while, we had to modify the design a little and use a plastic box.

And The Talker can rock this guitar. Just check out his Rockstar pose...

We are proud to be 100% baby bed free

The Princess has been climbing in and out of her baby bed since last weekend. So Sunday we set up the toddler bed in her room. I was hoping to get it painted pink or purple before she needed it but now it looks like she will be snoozing in the same silver toddler bed that The Talker used.

And it looks like she likes her new big bed!

Staying with the theme

of the morning cleaning chores, I ran into the kid's bathroom to clean it up and to make sure it was ready for this afternoon's playdate.

A quick inventory of the bathroom floor:

Three pair of 4T underwear, Spongbob and Batman were each well represented

Three boy's socks

One pair of Darth Vader shoes

One pair of Spiderman sandals

Two hotwheels

A pile of sand big enough to build a castle

A Buzz Lightyear pajama shirt

A Spiderman costume, that wasn't even bought until November...

And two red plastic maracas. Music always sounds better in small spaces, right?

So I guess sitting on the john gives the boy a creative outlet, so to speak. And I guess I better get cleaning. The party starts in 3 hours.

Is this really it?

I heard the trash truck rolling around the corner, headed that way. In our house that means two things: Get the last of the dirty diapers out to the curb and run through the back yard and poop scoop one last time. We have to take these drastic measures, because we only have once a week trash pick up. You can figure out the rest of the problem.

So while I am poop scooping my heart out and trying to beat the trash truck to the curb, what song is going through my head? It should be something cool and rebellious like Twisted Sister's , "We're Not Gonna Take It"? Or Even "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)", right?

But no. I am a dad. Of toddlers.

So the song of the day? "Isa, Turn the Wheel" from the soundtrack of Dora's Pirate Adventure.

Damn. And I really wanted to be cool. Just once. For a little while.

By the way, I think should serve as an excellent example of exactly why daddy needs an MP3 player for Christmas. And did you scroll down through the Twisted Sister link? That would have been a cool class to take. I bet that professor has an MP3 player.

Got a lid I can borrow?

It is official. My job as Stay at home dad just got a lot harder.

This weekend The Princess successfully climbed out of her baby bed several times. She already knew how to climb in but it was nice because once she was in, she was stuck. Now, she is free to roam, day or night.

I brought the toddler bed down from the attic a week or so ago. I was thinking that we would set it up during Christmas break. No luck on waiting that long, though. She isn't totally sure about staying in the toddler bed all night yet. And for her nap today, she wanted to sleep in the crib. We will keep the baby set up for a while and just swap the mattress back and forth as The Princess sees fit.

I was thinking that we could just make this easier on everyone. We do still have the other dog crate in the garage. And that thing is a lot bigger than a toddler bed...

Ice Day recap

She just better not get used to it.

The Boss Lady was off yesterday, since the whole area was iced in. So she got to sleep late. Because I am such a nice guy.

She got to watch while I folded the laundry that I had just washed and dried. Because I am such a nice guy.

She napped the afternoon away. Because I am such a nice guy.

She even had lunch and dinner made for her. Because I am such a nice guy. Even though dinner was just left over lunch, it still counts as two meals, right?

Me? What did I get? Leftovers for diner and a stack of laundry to put away.

And Brownies. The girls made brownies. So we'll call it even, OK?

Think I'll put this one here...

Told to me by The Talker, 10 seconds ago, after I took the baby's nose sucker thing away from him.

Snot is boogers in your nose. It is very slimy. You take them out of your nose with your finger and put them someplace you would like to put them…

Man, I am glad the computer was only two feet away!

What a horrible toy... or maybe not.

Since she is home, The Boss Lady is cleaning out the kid's closets today. And that means I have to stay away.

The first step in her clean out involves going through all of the loose toys and throwing away any toy that does not have all of it's parts. Also, she can get rid of a ton of the little gimme toys from fast food kid's meals.

This is where I usually get involved, I end up going through the cast- offs, trying to explain why we should keep a particular piece of a toy.

And this morning I did a double take before I got banished from the trash bag. I found a toy that even I was ready to trash. It was part of a spinning top that had a label that said "Amazin' ADD BOY!"

The wife cracked up and had me read the toy again. And it is not as offensive as I thought. It actually says "Amazin' Addaboy!" As in way to go, that a boy! Not like, Hey you, doped up kid...

The dawn of the next ice age?

This city goes nuts anytime the weather drops below 40 degrees. And since it has now been raining and below freezing for more than 24 hours, this whole place has just about come to a stand still.

Except for the people involved in the almost 200 reported fender benders this morning. 200! Before 9 am? Of course it really helps that the TV news is encouraging poeple to stock up on the essientials like bread milk and batteries, just in case the bad weather stays for a while. You might want to get some tire chains people! Or just wait until the spring thaw -- in a couple of hours.

The Boss Lady is out of school today. And we are planning a family day inside our nice and warm house. Lots of laundry and cleaning to be done.

Words that could make me cry

It is raining today. Add to that we blew the entertainment budget yesterday at the bouncers, and we have the makings of a boring day at home. Lucky for the kids, I was out of Dr Pepper. So we cruised a couple of grocery stores this morning.

The kids were little heathens in the first store. This is one of those fancy stores where everything is so expensive unless it is on sale. Turns out nothing was on sale. So we ran across the street to our old grocery store.

The kids were great in this store. Could be that I did not cram them into the basket side by side. Or it could be that we stopped by the bakery and bought a round of fresh donuts for everyone. Whatever. Once home The Talker asked to watch Aladdin. The Princess and I played in her room for a while and then we played built puppies with Duplo blocks. Big fun for all. And none of these puppies bit The Boss Lady!

Somewhere during the middle of all the fun, I left to clean the kitchen. The Princess came to play at the dining table and then I realized she REALLY needed a diaper change. Ohmygosh, how can a 28 pound child do that?

Hint #236 for new dads, if you can smell them in the next room, change 'em.

After a quick snack, The Princess looked at me and said the words that warm a daddy's heart, "Daddy, I tired, wanna nap".

Eloquent, ain't she?

The check BOUNCED!

Yesterday I blogged about out 18 cent check.

So after contimplating what to do with the windfall, the kids, the check and I headed over to the Inflatable Wonderland to see if we could spend it all in one place.

Although the $.18 did not cover out entire admission price, we had a blast. The kids took three hour naps. This means that the going rate of a three hour nap is $1.70 per kid, per hour and a dad with leg cramps from 2 hours of bouncing. A good deal in my book.

In fact, we had so much fun that we went back over there after dinner. This time mommy played, while daddy went shopping for new shoes.

Just FYI, I did not find a killer deal on new running shoes, but I did score a pair of Levis 501 for $28 at the Mervyn's closing sale! So I may still need new shoes, but I look super cool in my new button flys!

We're rich!

When we took The Princess to her last Dr's appointment, we overpaid. Not at Target, at the Dr's office.

So in yesterday's mail we got a reimbursement check from our insurance company. Now the kids and I are going to go nuts and try to spend it all in one place.

Which should not be too hard, since they mailed a check for 18 cents! Yep. $0.18.

It cost them 37 cents to mail it to us and goodness knows how much to process the check. I'll update you when we spend the family fortune.

Moving days

This weekend The Boss Lady got a wild hair and decided to swap the kids rooms. She and I talked about doing this last week. Several good reason justified the swap. And after another weekend of toting toys and stuff, the switch will be finished.

The Talker gets a much bigger, but a lot colder, room. The Princess, who cannot stand blankets, gets a room that is a lot smaller in the deal. But she might not wake up with icicles on her earlobes, since the smaller room stays warmer at night.

The Talker? He does not really care. The boy would sleep in his birthday suit in the tundra. He don't need no stinkin' blankets. Besides that, he sweats like a pro football player at night.

Both kids seem happy about swapping rooms. And I know mommy is, because The Princess has slept better two nights in a row.

Hello?

I have been unable to view my own blog pages today. Good thing there has been nothing exciting happening. I'll update when I can access my sites.

AtHomeDaddy ain't so dumb, now is he?

I have to leave to go to work in a couple of hours.

Real, honest, paid by the hour work. The first time I have done that in about 3 months. And back then I worked 2, yes two, hours. This will be the first time will I have worked more than that in a year or more.

And what would cause me to seek out gainful employment on a Saturday afternoon?

Being broke? Nope. I am used to that.

Nothing on TV? Are you nuts? The Big XII Championship game is on today and I'll miss it.

What could it be? Did The Boss Lady agree to watch 2 extra kids all day? BINGO, we have a winner!

The neighbor kids are here for eight hours. I'll be driving a bus and listening to the football game on the radio, while the wife builds up good will in the neighborhood.

Let's see. Babysitting 2 extras all day or driving a bus for park tours?

Sign me up for a driver's seat.

Here we don't go again

My keys were missing. For several days. I just found them, thanks to you guys.

I was going to ask for you guys to post where you usually find your keys, after searching for them. And hopefully one of you would give a great comment that would jog my memory.

But I saved you the hassle and found my keys in the garage, on the workbench, under a pile of Christmas light boxes.

Thanksgiving recap

The AtHomeFamily had a nice long Thanksgiving break. The Boss Lady has been away from work for 6 of the past 8 days, so we had a lot of family time. Thanksgiving day we spent the morning and early afternoon at a family reunion, with 75 of my closest family. OK, it was more like 25 people I know and 50 people I have seen before (most likely at last year's family reunion).

Thursday afternoon we hung out here with my Mom and Dad and Bro and Sis and their families. There might have been a few more people around, too. We all ate ourselves stupid, thanks to The Boss Lady.

But here are a few things that I need to clear up about our Thanksgiving:

1. Yes, I did eat all the icing off of a piece of cake and then I took the cake back to my mom, telling her that I was finished with it. And yes, that is OK. But only when it is called an Icing Cake.

2. The worst part of the family reunion, we don't cook the turkey, so we have no left overs for Friday afternoon Turkey Sammiches.

3. The Talker only got hit in the head once with the football. Of course, it was the first throw of the day. And for him, the last. But the way he tells the story now, my third cousin beat him with a pile of football shaped rocks.

4. A helpful hint: when at a family reunion with an almost four year old, keep it simple. Everyone should either be a cousin, an aunt or an uncle. No sense in wasting half of the morning trying to explain what a third cousin is...

5. 11 and 0. Bring on Colorado.

Who needs Christmas?

The Talker thinks Christmas has come and gone. Thanks to his new cousins. Who are actually The Babysitter's cousins, not his cousins. But you try explaining that to an almost 4 year old.

The boys sent over some of their old Playmobil toys, including this castle set.




We have had this toy sitting on the dining table since we brought it home. And it might stay there forever. The boy was up at 6:15 wanting to play with the castle. Mom sent him back to bed, but he was up for good at 6:50. And the castle kept him entertained until almost 8.

I could tell you about all of the great things I got done around here, while the boy was playing. But no. I was busy playing along. This thing is COOL!

It's gonna be a good Thanksgiving

It is The Boss Lady's favorite holiday. And we are ready to go. Just look at this spread...

Confession is good for the soda

I admit it. I am a scavenger.

I love finding something that a neighbor has thrown out and making good use of it. But until recently my scavenging has been sort of limited.

A few examples of scavenged things around here:

Almost all of our potted plants are in hanging baskets or clay pots that I have picked up during Neighborhood Big Trash Collections.

The Play Deck. Built more than a year ago out of lumber from an old fence that our neighbor wanted to replace. The deck is still in use.

All of our patio furniture, except one table that I built. But even that has a scavenged table top on it, now. In fact, some stuff we bought a few years ago has already worn out, but our freebie stuff is still here.

But lately I have gotten more brave with my scavenging. The Boss Lady suggested that it might have to do with successfully getting the truck back on the road, and I think she is on to something.

Last night I brought home a refrigerator, something like this. One of those dorm fridge set-ups has been sitting beside the curb since last weekend. It is pretty decent looking, too. Two stainless steel doors, with a small freezer up top. I bet it isn't a couple of years old.

I got a pleasent surprise when I plugged it in. Everything was working, except the compressor. That is a big deal for a fridge, but I kept dorking around with it, anyways. Really now, I would not expect it to be working right, since someone was throwing it out, right? Tonight I found a loose connection in the thermostat. Once I tightened it up, the compressor kicked on just fine.

Woo Hoo! Cool sodas in the garage! I may never come inside again.

Well, after Thanksgiving, anyways. The Boss Lady talked me into bringing my new treasure into the kitchen for the rest of the week. She will be cooking for a herd on Thursday night and our fridge is filling quickly. So my shop fridge is pulling kitchen duty for the time being.

But it is OK with me, because I like cold sodas in the kitchen, too.

A clothes hound? Here?

The Boss Lady sat and folded clothes last night while she watched a movie. By the time she made it to the bottom of the laundry pile, she folded a small mountain of laundry and sorted it all into baskets.

Me? I was working on the truck and reading. But that is beside the point, this is about the clothes...

This morning I put the clean and folded clothes away. And the breakdown of clean clothes went something like this:

The Princess had two stacks of clothes, that took up less than half a basket.

The wife and I had all of our clean clothes together in one basket, that was not yet full.

And The Talker had so many folded clothes that they filled an entire laundry basket to overflowing. But what should I expect when the boy changes clothes at least four times a day...

Chicken Run

The Talker was really well behaved this weekend, so he and I got to go see Chicken Little this morning. He had a blast, getting to do something special, that he EARNED. I had a blast, watching him.

He was mesmerised by the movie. He gives it two Buffalo Wings WAAAAAAAAAAAY up! But my fun was mainly watching him watch the movie. He was the only kid in the place who was laughing at the funny parts.

After the movie we stayed until the end of the credits, because he wanted to breakdance on the shiny floor in front of the screen. Awesome stuff. Almost enough to make me forget the $13 matinee tickets and the $9 popcorn bill.

The boy knows comedy. He loves slapstick. And he has a great laugh. He makes a pretty good movie watching partner, too.


An aside, The Talker has a new favorite DVD. Pops gave him three episodes of The Three Stooges on a DVD. He laughed so hard that last week's milk came out of his nose. Now that is funny...

Yeah for pokes in the eye!

Reds, Blacks, Spots and Sheeps, Oh my...

The AtHomeFamily is now home from the weekend get-away. While we were gone I managed to stay away from the fam most of the time.

Friday night we got into Pop's house at about 8:45. I was fishing by 9:30. Friday's haul, Two Spotted Seatrout. They were not large, but it is nice to bring home some fish on each walk back from the pier. Walking through town with a couple of fish will always get comments from passing motorists. It is a great ego boost! And now these pals are happily chilling in the deep freeze together.

Saturday morning I drove to Pop's property on the far side of the bay. You can see his property from town. It is a mile or less by water, but it is a 23 mile drive. I didn't have a boat and I don't like to swim, so I went the long way. Came back with two nice Red Drum, one 21 inches and one 27 inches. The best part of Saturday's fishing, watching that big Red hit the sailline so hard that the whole 600 foot long rig shifted about 15 foot to the side. COOL!

The small red bit me on the right thumb when I was showing him to the kids. When I yelped and dropped the fish, it scared the kids. Then the other fish bit my left thumb. And it hurt worse. And scared the kids even more. So now they have been filleted and are learning to be nice in the "Time Out Freezer".

The fish. Not the kids. They are in bed.

The kids. Not the fish. They are in the freezer...

Anyways, the reminder for the day: Don't put your thumb in a Red's mouth or it will scare your children.

This morning we all went over to fish at Pop's pier. And with three lines in the water, we had a total of no luck. It was cold and damp and windy, so the fish won. For a while.

After lunch, the family napped and Pops and I went fishing again. This time we went to a place in town, by the commercial shrimp boats. Our first spot was a bust. Our second spot was a bust for me. Pops was reeling 'em in like crazy. He caught a nice small Red, a Spotted Seatrout, a Black Drum and a Sheepshead.

We moved to another spot and I finally got to reel a few in. I caught a couple of Sheepshead and a Black Drum. Between the two of us we kept 6 fish. The Speck and one Black Drum are in the small freezer, waiting for a dinner date Monday night. The rest are in the deep freeze, where fish belong.

Because if you don't freeze them, they might bite you and scare your children. And nobody wants that.

Just like nobody wants any more details about this weekend...

Fishing run

We are taking off for a weekend at the coast. The Boss Lady wants some quality time with the kids and Pops. I bet they find something fun and exciting to do. The last time we were there, the kids got to watch Pops get a new driveway.

And I hope to get a lot of quality time with the fishes this weekend. I am thinking positively and taking an empty cooler with us, to haul back my spectacular catch. Bring on the Flounder and Redfish. The sailline is getting put to work this weekend. We are leaving in a couple of hours. I bet I can be on the pier by 9 o'clock. And I might stay there until Sunday afternoon.

Have fun, stay safe and if you see anybody messing around our house this weekend, tell them to clean up after themselves.

Ewwww gross... Gimme some...

The baby just came walking into the kitchen eating a Cheeto. Now I know for sure and certain that we ran out of Cheetos a week ago. I know, because I hid from the kids and ate the last of them.

I don't really want to know where the girl got her Cheetos. But I am a little sad that she did not offer to share. Does that make me odd?

Byt the way, I suspect the Cheetos came out of the gap between her booster chair and the dining room chair that it is strapped to. There are usally enough crumbs down there to have kept the Donner Party alive through another winter.

Once in a while...

I remind myself that there are a lot of things The Boss Lady does that I can never replace around here. Yesterday's chaos would be a great example.

The kids and I went to Burger King. The Princess had a Dr's appointment and The Talker was heading to My So Called Aunt's house for a couple of hours. I figured that letting the kids eat and play for a few minutes would be a good plan before we went our seperate ways. And if the boy wore himself out and wanted to nap while we were gone, so much the better.

Within 5 minutes of sitting down The Talker was off playing. No big deal. I packed up some of his food to send with him. He could eat later, when there was not a huge playscape beckoning. And the girl and I could chow down while he played.

And this is where The Boss Lady would have excelled.

I asked The Talker if he wanted fruit punch or lemonade to drink. Red fruit punch won out, after he debated for a while. Making things easier on myself, I filled both kid's cups with watered down fruit punch. The Boss Lady would have been smarter than that.

But of course, The Talker did not drink anything, because he was playing. And I was watching him, not watching her. Because that is when she decided to wear the fruit punch. It covered her pants and shirt. We ran to check for spare clothes in the diaper bag, but no luck. What a feckless daddy.

So I packed the lunches, grabbed the kids and we headed to the aunt's house with a quick stop at Target to pick out a new outfit for the girl. I matched, with the help of a nearby mom, a pair of pants and a sweater to a white onesie shirt and we split.

I was about to pull off the trifecta. Fed the kids, redressed the girl and still on time for the Dr's appointment! And the rest of The Boss Lady's expertise would have kicked in right here.

Auntie and I tag-team dressed the girl and it was obvious that the pants were sized for the wrong kid. The boy could have worn these pink leggings. And the sweater seemed a little tight, but a quick roll of the pants legs and she was dressed.

When we met up with The Boss Lady she checked the girl over. She found pants two sizes too big and a 19 month old girl squeezed into a 6 month sized sweater. But the colors matched really well.

My big mistake? I never looked at the tags on the clothes. I checked the hangar tags. See, a mommy would not have done that. A clueless dad, maybe.

And a smart mommy would have never given The Talker a choice about drinks. Lemonade would have not left a huge stain all over The Princess' clothes in the first place.

Welcome to Texas. Now go home!

This morning the AtHomeTrio went to our neighborhood park. The kids seemed tired and they did not really interact with the other kids. After 10 minutes a mom showed up with a boy almost the same age as The Talker and a girl nearly as old as The Princess. I encouraged The Talker to go over and introduce himself. Within minutes these guys were old pals. The Princess was hitting it off pretty well with the little sister, too.

These guys just moved here and it turns out each of the kids is two months younger than ours. This is exciting because The Talker usually ends up playing with kids older or younger than himself. There are only a couple of boys his same age in the neighborhood. And even fewer who are home during prime playtime.

A little later one of our neighbors showed up with her son, who is one of The Talker's younger friends. And all three boys played well together. A sight to behold, for sure. One of the other boys asked to go on a hike down the nature trail and The AtHomeTrio tagged along.

The moms were already acquaintances, so they chatted and I eavesdropped while toting The Princess down the trail. The new mom griped about everything from the heat to the number of ads for guns on television. OK, I'll grant you, it has been hot this November, even for Texas... And even if it is warm, it is hunting season, thus, the sporting goods stores are advertising their wares. She complained about the trail and the fact that snakes might be lurking anywhere. She whined about the house they are renting. She bitched about the lack of affordable private schools in the area. And she groaned about the way the streets are laid out in our neighborhood.

And somehow, she managed to note after each complaint, she had never encountered anything like this until moving to Texas four months ago. Every single thing.

While we were hiking with the kids, the other mom had to leave. So I got to enjoy a 40 minute rehash of all of these complaints and many more. And without fail, according to the whiny lady, they were all problems unique to living in Texas.

But after listening to all of that, this lady REALLY annoyed me with one simple thing. After letting her kids play with mine for almost two hours, she would not call either of my kids by their names. It was always "that boy" or "that girl". In the end, The Talker was annoyed, too. When we were leaving the park he said bye to everyone and he reinforced to the new mom "My name is The Talker, my sister's name is The Princess. Now you won't forget again."

I bet if he could have he would have given her a map and pointed the way back to Kentucky.

What's next? His own poinsettia?

The Talker has been asking for some new bedroom decorations for two solid weeks. Really, he has been begging for one specific item.

"...A nutcracker. Shaped like a skeleton. For my room. PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZE Daddeeee...."

I have no idea where he got this idea. I don't know if he saw a skeleton nut cracker somewhere, or if he just dreamed it up. But tonight his dream mostly came true.

He is sleeping soundly, with his newest prized possession on his dresser, right next to his bed. A Christmas soldier shaped nutcracker. No skeleton this year. We will have to check next year, when the Halloween decorations come out. But he did get to pick this one himself from an entire shelf of nutcrackers at the Dollar Tree store.

$1. To make our son's dream come true. A good deal all around.

May all of The Talker's dreams be so easily fulfilled.


I must add, that none of this would have happened if we had gone shopping at Target, like The Boss Lady wanted.

At the last minute I begged to go to Harbor Freight Tools. After The Boss Lady told me to quit crying and she turned toward the tool store, she decided to take the kids into the Dollar Tree while I drooled on the tools.

So The Talker should really thank me and Harbor Freight Tools for his nutcracker. Not his mom. She just took him shopping and let him pick his prize out. And she paid for it. And my tools, too. And she drove us there and back. And she listened to me yak about the truck the entire time....

Migranes on Parade

This morning my brain decided it needed a day off. So it called a general strike. Bring on the migrane.

And the kids decided that going downtown for the Veteran's Day parade was a great idea. Me? What is the difference? Cooped up in the house with two kids and a broken brain, or standing outside watching old cars, high school marching bands and my busted thinker.

So we split for the city. A quick stop by Krispy Kreme turned the wait for the parade to start into a sidewalk breakfast picnic. The kids had a lot of fun before the parade, picking up leaves out of a vacant lot. The Talker was getting very good at realizing the differences in the leaves he hauled back to show me. Some were pointy and others were round. One even had bird poop on it. Exciting stuff.

The parade was nice. The kids got candy. What else matters at a parade? And luckily, the kids were worn out. So now my brain is getting a little rest during the kid's simultaneous naptimes!

Let's pile on a little more excitement

This morning the kids decided that being up before 7 would be great fun. The boy was up and going before me, but it was OK, because his mom was still home. As the wife walked out the front door, I peeled myself out of the bed and found The Talker sitting in the middle of the dining table playing with the barber's clippers. Lucky for his three day old haircut, he had not figured out how to turn them on.

The Princess knew something exciting was going on, so she decided not to miss out on the fun. But her real fun came a couple of hours later, during her trip to the Pediatrician's office. All in all, it was a good visit for the 18 month old. Mommy was there and no shots were given. Brother got to play with toys the entire time and he still came away with stickers and suckers. He thought it was not a bad trip, too.

After lousy naps all around, the dog needed to be at the vet's office. And I forgot to set up the minivan, so he had to cram in behind the rear seat. Lucily it is only a mile or two to the vet's. $88 and really painful hour of keeping the kids entertained later, I was wondering why we have a dog. And kids. At the same time. What were we thinking?

This evening The Boss Lady had to work late. 14 hours after she walked out the front door she is finally home. And AtHomeDaddy is off the clock.

Goodnight.