January 10, 2011
I am in the middle of 4 days off from The Target and getting some much needed rest. The weekend was nice with Beth and CJ and video games and Xavier basketball and NFL playoffs and church and Chipotle. And sleep. I have a tendency to wake up every morning around 5am, but one of the nights I did not. I do not get up at 5am-aka the butt crack of dawn-unless I have to for work, but I do get to lay there and think about work instead of sleeping most of the time.
The problem started when I used to have to be at work around 3am. Even though I do not have to work that shift anymore, I did it long enough that waking up early became normal. Fortunately, the longer I get away from that shift, the later I sleep, but the current cycle is 5am. Soon, 5am will be part of normalness as the required get up time for old men so they can meet at McDonald's for coffee and play canasta. Or whatever game old men play at McDonald's. Then I can get a job there so I can talk to people and not see their rolled eyes when I try to be nice to them. Except for that one old McDonald guy who had a farm.
But I progress, which I guess to be the opposite of digressing because I was speaking of the future.
Anyway, have you seen my Bethie lately? Hubba hubba! She has lost, and kept off, some poundage. I know, she was lovely before, but now she is thinner, happier, and kinda into herself. Not into herself, like googling herself, but in the way that she does not throw things at the fitting room mirror while trying on clothes. She has new yoga pants that make me want to try some yoga on for size. How much weight has she lost? Not sure, but I would guess 25 pounds or so over the past six months. I am sure I am wrong, but maybe she will comment and let you know the specifics. Remember that she is 5'8", so that does not mean she weighs 100 pounds now, but she looks really good. She will also be so excited that I was talking about her weight with you all.
So how has she done it? Ready for the solution to all your problems-if you are overweight...though I am not saying your are...I think you look great...oh crap.
She dieted and exercised!!! I know! She is writing a book about it. Check Amazon soon and you will find it under books about diet and exercise. Not too many of those.
Okay, I just reread that paragraph and am wondering how much trouble I am going to be in from my now diva better half, but then I remembered that she is the only one that reads my blog, so I am okay. Bethie, you look awesome.
As for me, I exercised on Saturday with CJ. We did a 15 minute cardio workout from the Exercise On Demand cable channel. We both finished and no one needed a defibrillator, but neither one of us was feeling great about our stamina afterwards. And I was sufficiently sore yesterday. Not in my legs as expected, but in my neck. Weird. I think it was the jumping jacks. Yes, they still make you do jumping jacks in a workout. Who was this original jumping Jack and why does he have such staying power? Have jumping jacks been around longer than Jack Lalanne? Do they go back to Jack and his nimble candle-jumping self. That would make the actual form more challenging...ya know, having to keep your nasty bits from touching the flame.
I just got it! Why the jumping jacks and all. It just occurred to me that the workout we did was led by the trainer of the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. It was a dude (who has to be roiding to be that big, right?), whose name was Jay Johnson, I think.
It was, I just googled it. He should not be confused with Jay Johnson, the ventriloquist. I do not know what kind of shape he or his dummies are in. So this beefed up Jay Johnson had to train some cheerleaders. Jumping jacks makes sense now, doesn't it? You get it, right? Grown hotties jumping? Body parts bouncing? What? You got it the first time? Oh, my bad. I was picturing Beth doing some jumping jacks in her new yoga pants. Must go google something else. Bye for now.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Monday, December 27, 2010
Got any butter?
December 27, 2010
It is not too much longer that we can type 2010. In a few short days, we will be typing 1/1/11. Who needs curved numbers? I know there are couples that decide to get married on special numerical days like 8/9/10, or 10/10/10, but will anyone try to get married on 1/1/11? New Years day seems like a bad idea. The rehearsal dinner would be off the hook, but the hangover at the wedding? Not a great idea.
I think these special dates and deciding to get married on them, are just a trick by the bride to get the groom to remember their anniversary. I am skeptical that it will work, because their anniversary will never fall on the special number day again. Will 8/9/11 be special? I guess we will see.
I remember the anniversary of Beth's big day because it was one of the highlights of my life. 7/27/91 was the date. We will be married 20 years in July. When I call it Beth's big day, I am not saying it was a bigger day for her than me, I am just reminded how everyone kept referring to the wedding as the bride's day.
So that is not why I am here today. First, I am off..woot, woot. Second, the holiday is over...woot, woot! Unfortunately, I have cancelled my sister's visit as I am way too burned out to be my usual entertaining self this week. Also, I could not get my schedule switched to accommodate the visit. My hope is that we can get together up here sometime when it is warmer. When CJ heard the news, he cancelled his appointment with the locksmith. He was going to have a lock installed on his side of the basement door (aka the man cave) just in case his cousins decided to play the "hit the big kid in the nards" game.
As for the holiday season, we survived at the Target. We had very good sales and no one got hurt. People were ready to spend this year, but most of them waited until the very last minute. Thursday and Friday were both wack and doodle. By the time I left on Christmas eve, I was exhausted.
I do, however, have one funny story to come out of the season.
One night, I pretended I was back in college, and ate a bag of microwave popcorn for dinner. The whole bag. It is the perfect meal for a 46 year-old intestinal tract. The next day, I was feeling it in my innards.
I took my 2 minute break at work, and went to my favorite stall in the men's bathroom. As I was doing some thinking, in came a man and his 3 daughters. Apparently, he was unaware of the family bathroom we have over by the pharmacy. It was totally relaxing to have the four of them share this experience with me. However, the dude sounded like a very good, patient father (plenty of patience required to be the father of 3 girls, I would think). The girl he was helping was the youngest. She sounded very cute, even when she asked dad, "why does it smell like popcorn in here?"
Quietly, I washed up and departed.
It is not too much longer that we can type 2010. In a few short days, we will be typing 1/1/11. Who needs curved numbers? I know there are couples that decide to get married on special numerical days like 8/9/10, or 10/10/10, but will anyone try to get married on 1/1/11? New Years day seems like a bad idea. The rehearsal dinner would be off the hook, but the hangover at the wedding? Not a great idea.
I think these special dates and deciding to get married on them, are just a trick by the bride to get the groom to remember their anniversary. I am skeptical that it will work, because their anniversary will never fall on the special number day again. Will 8/9/11 be special? I guess we will see.
I remember the anniversary of Beth's big day because it was one of the highlights of my life. 7/27/91 was the date. We will be married 20 years in July. When I call it Beth's big day, I am not saying it was a bigger day for her than me, I am just reminded how everyone kept referring to the wedding as the bride's day.
So that is not why I am here today. First, I am off..woot, woot. Second, the holiday is over...woot, woot! Unfortunately, I have cancelled my sister's visit as I am way too burned out to be my usual entertaining self this week. Also, I could not get my schedule switched to accommodate the visit. My hope is that we can get together up here sometime when it is warmer. When CJ heard the news, he cancelled his appointment with the locksmith. He was going to have a lock installed on his side of the basement door (aka the man cave) just in case his cousins decided to play the "hit the big kid in the nards" game.
As for the holiday season, we survived at the Target. We had very good sales and no one got hurt. People were ready to spend this year, but most of them waited until the very last minute. Thursday and Friday were both wack and doodle. By the time I left on Christmas eve, I was exhausted.
I do, however, have one funny story to come out of the season.
One night, I pretended I was back in college, and ate a bag of microwave popcorn for dinner. The whole bag. It is the perfect meal for a 46 year-old intestinal tract. The next day, I was feeling it in my innards.
I took my 2 minute break at work, and went to my favorite stall in the men's bathroom. As I was doing some thinking, in came a man and his 3 daughters. Apparently, he was unaware of the family bathroom we have over by the pharmacy. It was totally relaxing to have the four of them share this experience with me. However, the dude sounded like a very good, patient father (plenty of patience required to be the father of 3 girls, I would think). The girl he was helping was the youngest. She sounded very cute, even when she asked dad, "why does it smell like popcorn in here?"
Quietly, I washed up and departed.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
The only good lawyer is...
December 14, 2010
Beth is on the Griff today. Well, hopefully not really, cause she is tutoring a boy named Griff this afternoon after school. To be literal would be gross and creepy. Griff is like 15 for those of you thinking that he is a high schooler and they are almost 18 and ... stop it.
Beth is also the subject of today's lesson on dream interpretation. She had a bad dream last night which woke us both up, surprisingly, and led to a nice back rub for her and a weird explanation from CJ this morning. (I had a typo there that Beth got a bag rub, but I think I may have gotten in trouble for that). As Beth left for school and drove herself and CJ to the high school, she explained her dream to CJ and his friend. She told how she and CJ had been driving, but stopped to walk across a bridge. The bridge was rather high and had no support rail. There was another man walking along near them who was wearing a suit and tie, for no apparent reason. The man accidentally fell off the bridge into the water below. Beth had awoken due to the fear that either she or CJ had been so near to falling off the bridge also. CJ's reaction was not as panicked about his near death experience, but more matter-of-fact about how the world lost another lawyer. I guess only lawyers wear suits in CJ's world. Kinda speaks to how often he sees me in a suit. Really not necessary to wear one around the Target or the trailer park.
Speaking of Target, we are surviving the holiday season thus far. We had 5 inches of snow over the weekend which did not help sales by any stretch, but if the weather holds until Christmas, I am confident we will get it all back in the long run. Mixed in there along the way is CJ's birthday. He will be 14. Both yow and zaa. He is taller than me now and has a deep voice and hairy legs. However, for the record, I am still receiving my daily hugs and he has not started smoking the ganja yet.
After Christmas, my sister and her family will be stopping by. They have never been to our house, so it should be fun. They live in Atlanta, so I am not sure how much snow the kids have seen. Hopefully, there is still some on the ground and it is not 10 degrees outside so we can take them sledding or something.
Finally, since I obviously do not post very often, I will tell you that we are going on vacation at the end of March and looking for tips on great warm places. We have been to Universal in Orlando twice and stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel, AND LOVED IT! That is CJ's suggestion again whereas I have suggested the Caribbean somewhere. Being that our budget is around $3000, my idea is starting to sound out.
So where do you guys go that is warm and teen friendly? And old people friendly for me? Anywhere that has a theme park or fun stuff and a cafeteria style restaurant that closes at 6:00? Places with big print on the menu and none of that crazy after hours loud partying? Ya know, after the hours of like 10:00. And finally, a place where me and my banana hammock swim gear can fit right in?
Looks like we will be staying home for vacation again this year. Rats!
Beth is on the Griff today. Well, hopefully not really, cause she is tutoring a boy named Griff this afternoon after school. To be literal would be gross and creepy. Griff is like 15 for those of you thinking that he is a high schooler and they are almost 18 and ... stop it.
Beth is also the subject of today's lesson on dream interpretation. She had a bad dream last night which woke us both up, surprisingly, and led to a nice back rub for her and a weird explanation from CJ this morning. (I had a typo there that Beth got a bag rub, but I think I may have gotten in trouble for that). As Beth left for school and drove herself and CJ to the high school, she explained her dream to CJ and his friend. She told how she and CJ had been driving, but stopped to walk across a bridge. The bridge was rather high and had no support rail. There was another man walking along near them who was wearing a suit and tie, for no apparent reason. The man accidentally fell off the bridge into the water below. Beth had awoken due to the fear that either she or CJ had been so near to falling off the bridge also. CJ's reaction was not as panicked about his near death experience, but more matter-of-fact about how the world lost another lawyer. I guess only lawyers wear suits in CJ's world. Kinda speaks to how often he sees me in a suit. Really not necessary to wear one around the Target or the trailer park.
Speaking of Target, we are surviving the holiday season thus far. We had 5 inches of snow over the weekend which did not help sales by any stretch, but if the weather holds until Christmas, I am confident we will get it all back in the long run. Mixed in there along the way is CJ's birthday. He will be 14. Both yow and zaa. He is taller than me now and has a deep voice and hairy legs. However, for the record, I am still receiving my daily hugs and he has not started smoking the ganja yet.
After Christmas, my sister and her family will be stopping by. They have never been to our house, so it should be fun. They live in Atlanta, so I am not sure how much snow the kids have seen. Hopefully, there is still some on the ground and it is not 10 degrees outside so we can take them sledding or something.
Finally, since I obviously do not post very often, I will tell you that we are going on vacation at the end of March and looking for tips on great warm places. We have been to Universal in Orlando twice and stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel, AND LOVED IT! That is CJ's suggestion again whereas I have suggested the Caribbean somewhere. Being that our budget is around $3000, my idea is starting to sound out.
So where do you guys go that is warm and teen friendly? And old people friendly for me? Anywhere that has a theme park or fun stuff and a cafeteria style restaurant that closes at 6:00? Places with big print on the menu and none of that crazy after hours loud partying? Ya know, after the hours of like 10:00. And finally, a place where me and my banana hammock swim gear can fit right in?
Looks like we will be staying home for vacation again this year. Rats!
Thursday, November 4, 2010
But it worked for Todd Marinovich's dad
November 4, 2010
Hello to any of you that may actually stop by here to see if there is a post. I appreciate your faithfulness.
There have been some things going on, so I wanted to get some of them down on computer, if you will.
With cross country season done for CJ, he has really thrown himself into homework and drums. The same way a feather is thrown into a fan. Well, not really that badly, but there seem to be some distractions in his brain. No, not girls so much yet. He and Taylor....
Wait, wait...now we have a story.
Halloween was last weekend. CJ and his friends had a Latin Club thing to go to during which they collected cans for a food drive, and then it was trick or treat time. Except that CJ is an eighth grader and 13 and does not want to trick or treat anymore. That is fine with me. I see plenty of older "kids" in their twenties out there treating, but if CJ wants to end his begging career early, who am I to judge. I hope he never ends up homeless (for a lot of reasons), but he is going to lack the skill of standing on a corner and begging for food now that he gave up beggars night.
So the activity became bringing boys back to our basement. The game system and computer are all that a few eighth grade boys need for entertainment. At least the ones CJ had here. Beth and I gave out candy, and along came some more eighth graders. The group in the basement was four boys strong, and it quickly became 3 more boys, AND TWO GIRLS when I told them CJ was in the basement. One of the boys could not even actually take candy from me as his one hand held the baseball bat that was part of his bat wielding bunny costume, and the other hand held a young lady's hand. Letting go for either of them would apparently end the relationship right there and then, so the grip was maintained for the duration of their stay and beyond.
So in keeping up with the headcount in the basement, just like the Nintendo DS game, Brain Age, I had it at seven boys, TWO GIRLS. Then along came two more GIRLS, and one of them was Taylor. At least I thought it was through the costume and makeup and the "no talking to the weird dad" thing. So GIRL #1, (who is an adorable CC team mate of CJ named Lydia), did the talking and asked if they could go to the basement and say hello. Absolutely. Headcount now, seven boys and FOUR GIRLS. If you have not seen our basement, eleven toddlers down there would be crowded. Eleven teenagers all hopped up on candy with You Tube access? Smells like trouble.
However, before I could get nervous and think about getting the hose, two boys and two girls exited the house. Trick or treat was about over, Beth and I were cold, so we came back in. There seemed to be a lot of giggling going on in the basement, but that was actually one of the boys. 13 year olds mature at different rates, as do 43 year olds as it turns out.
So rather than make much ado about nothing, eventually all boys AND GIRLS leave our basement, except of course one of the boys. There is always one kid who you have to offer to drive home before they get the clue to leave on their own. No, it was not CJ, he is a keeper.
Anyway, we will call that our first boy/GIRL party, and I think all went well. Pretty harmless, I think. It may take awhile to get the smell of Axe out of our basement though.
So here are the parenting moments I have taken from this and one other thing that has happened. First, as it relates to Halloween night, I think it is cool that CJ is willing to stay here and invite kids over. I interpret it that as I am not nearly as embarrassing to him as he likes to make me think. I did make an effort to not "say anything funny", though references to hand checks and pot sniffing dogs were pulsating through my brain. Beth and I would like to keep him close as long as possible.
Second, I would like to give advice to any dad out there that has been in my predicament. I am a big fan of sports. Loved playing them, love watching them. CJ, not so much. Does not care to watch them. Isn't obsessed with playing team sports. His favorite part of the games when he did play involved the treat after the game.
Therefore, I had two choices if I wanted to bond with my son, which I wanted to do very badly. Actually, I did not want to bond with him badly, I wanted to bond with him goodly. Carp, you know what I mean.
The first choice was to force/guide/guilt trip/push CJ into sports. Keep signing him up and coaching him to be better or want it more. Try to convince him that it was more fun than he thought. Take him to games and bribe him with concession fare so that we would watch Xavier basketball or Cincinnati Reds baseball and have some awesome father/son bonding.
The second choice was for me to start taking an interest in his interests. That is the path I have chosen. It isn't as hard as you might think, and fortunately, he is not into ballet or opera. So I have found a PS3 game that I could play without becoming so frustrated that I threw the controller against the wall. Scaring your kid, not the same as bonding. Also, I go to his music ensemble practices to watch him play percussion and then ask questions about music and his part in it so that I can learn and be a part of it. Did you know that playing the triangle is much trickier than it looks? No, really.
And finally, I have started reading some of the books that CJ likes. I wanted him to read The Hardy Boys series when he was younger because I grew up on them, but he wasn't into Frank and Joe and all their mystery solving. However, he is into The Hunger Games Trilogy and now The Last Apprentice Series. I told you about The Hunger Games already, but I just finished reading The Last Apprentice, Revenge of the Witch, and now when he does his book project this weekend, we can share out thoughts from the book together. It really works.
So if any of you are dads, or play one on TV, or know one in real life that is trying to bond with a youngster, let him in on what I have discovered. For all I know, it may even work for mothers and daughters. I am not sure because I thought all girls were crazy about cooking and dressing up and have been for generations. Is it a good thing I do not have a daughter?
Hello to any of you that may actually stop by here to see if there is a post. I appreciate your faithfulness.
There have been some things going on, so I wanted to get some of them down on computer, if you will.
With cross country season done for CJ, he has really thrown himself into homework and drums. The same way a feather is thrown into a fan. Well, not really that badly, but there seem to be some distractions in his brain. No, not girls so much yet. He and Taylor....
Wait, wait...now we have a story.
Halloween was last weekend. CJ and his friends had a Latin Club thing to go to during which they collected cans for a food drive, and then it was trick or treat time. Except that CJ is an eighth grader and 13 and does not want to trick or treat anymore. That is fine with me. I see plenty of older "kids" in their twenties out there treating, but if CJ wants to end his begging career early, who am I to judge. I hope he never ends up homeless (for a lot of reasons), but he is going to lack the skill of standing on a corner and begging for food now that he gave up beggars night.
So the activity became bringing boys back to our basement. The game system and computer are all that a few eighth grade boys need for entertainment. At least the ones CJ had here. Beth and I gave out candy, and along came some more eighth graders. The group in the basement was four boys strong, and it quickly became 3 more boys, AND TWO GIRLS when I told them CJ was in the basement. One of the boys could not even actually take candy from me as his one hand held the baseball bat that was part of his bat wielding bunny costume, and the other hand held a young lady's hand. Letting go for either of them would apparently end the relationship right there and then, so the grip was maintained for the duration of their stay and beyond.
So in keeping up with the headcount in the basement, just like the Nintendo DS game, Brain Age, I had it at seven boys, TWO GIRLS. Then along came two more GIRLS, and one of them was Taylor. At least I thought it was through the costume and makeup and the "no talking to the weird dad" thing. So GIRL #1, (who is an adorable CC team mate of CJ named Lydia), did the talking and asked if they could go to the basement and say hello. Absolutely. Headcount now, seven boys and FOUR GIRLS. If you have not seen our basement, eleven toddlers down there would be crowded. Eleven teenagers all hopped up on candy with You Tube access? Smells like trouble.
However, before I could get nervous and think about getting the hose, two boys and two girls exited the house. Trick or treat was about over, Beth and I were cold, so we came back in. There seemed to be a lot of giggling going on in the basement, but that was actually one of the boys. 13 year olds mature at different rates, as do 43 year olds as it turns out.
So rather than make much ado about nothing, eventually all boys AND GIRLS leave our basement, except of course one of the boys. There is always one kid who you have to offer to drive home before they get the clue to leave on their own. No, it was not CJ, he is a keeper.
Anyway, we will call that our first boy/GIRL party, and I think all went well. Pretty harmless, I think. It may take awhile to get the smell of Axe out of our basement though.
So here are the parenting moments I have taken from this and one other thing that has happened. First, as it relates to Halloween night, I think it is cool that CJ is willing to stay here and invite kids over. I interpret it that as I am not nearly as embarrassing to him as he likes to make me think. I did make an effort to not "say anything funny", though references to hand checks and pot sniffing dogs were pulsating through my brain. Beth and I would like to keep him close as long as possible.
Second, I would like to give advice to any dad out there that has been in my predicament. I am a big fan of sports. Loved playing them, love watching them. CJ, not so much. Does not care to watch them. Isn't obsessed with playing team sports. His favorite part of the games when he did play involved the treat after the game.
Therefore, I had two choices if I wanted to bond with my son, which I wanted to do very badly. Actually, I did not want to bond with him badly, I wanted to bond with him goodly. Carp, you know what I mean.
The first choice was to force/guide/guilt trip/push CJ into sports. Keep signing him up and coaching him to be better or want it more. Try to convince him that it was more fun than he thought. Take him to games and bribe him with concession fare so that we would watch Xavier basketball or Cincinnati Reds baseball and have some awesome father/son bonding.
The second choice was for me to start taking an interest in his interests. That is the path I have chosen. It isn't as hard as you might think, and fortunately, he is not into ballet or opera. So I have found a PS3 game that I could play without becoming so frustrated that I threw the controller against the wall. Scaring your kid, not the same as bonding. Also, I go to his music ensemble practices to watch him play percussion and then ask questions about music and his part in it so that I can learn and be a part of it. Did you know that playing the triangle is much trickier than it looks? No, really.
And finally, I have started reading some of the books that CJ likes. I wanted him to read The Hardy Boys series when he was younger because I grew up on them, but he wasn't into Frank and Joe and all their mystery solving. However, he is into The Hunger Games Trilogy and now The Last Apprentice Series. I told you about The Hunger Games already, but I just finished reading The Last Apprentice, Revenge of the Witch, and now when he does his book project this weekend, we can share out thoughts from the book together. It really works.
So if any of you are dads, or play one on TV, or know one in real life that is trying to bond with a youngster, let him in on what I have discovered. For all I know, it may even work for mothers and daughters. I am not sure because I thought all girls were crazy about cooking and dressing up and have been for generations. Is it a good thing I do not have a daughter?
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Even Meatloaf can't write a song about this.
October 19, 2010
I went a little Deepy McDeepster the other day on ya. I can't be Hi.Larry.Us all the time don't ya know. Or any of the time, some of you are saying.
Does anyone remember the Meatloaf song Two Out of Three Ain't Bad? Not to be confused with On Top of Spaghetti, all covered with cheese...
Well, I have realized I am oh-for-three. Here is what I am talking about.
I was revisiting why I started this blog back in July of 2009, and I came up with three reasons. One was to become famous as bloggers have a tendency to be. Actually, I do not know how many famous bloggers there are, but I do know that some have gazillions of followers and I wanted to be one of those special contributors to society as we know it. As it turns out, I am not funny enough, thought-provoking enough, dedicated enough, or wild and crazy enough to have good blog fodder every day. I have some faithful readers (thank you Katie and Beth), but that falls a little short of the gazillion mark.
Wow, a little self-important you say? Yeah, it sounds like that, but that is really not the main reason I started the blog, it was just a hopeful by-product so I could quit my job and make a living sitting on my arse.
The two more important reasons I started this here blog have to do with my family. For some reason, I have had the Michael Keaton movie, My Life, stuck in my head since I saw it 100 years ago. He finds out he is dying around the same time he finds out he is going to have a child. Therefore, he videotapes segments of life-teaching moments that his child can watch in the future to know about his dad. It was a real up-lifting movie. Can someone hand me a hanky just thinking about it. However, I always thought I was Michael Keaton, or at least his character in that movie, so I decided that some day I was going to die before CJ was old enough to hear all my words of wisdom. As it turns out, I mistook which Michael Keaton movie I really wanted to emulate. It should have been Mr Mom. Beth did not really help me out with that one either as she has not gone out and gotten that corporate job with the opportunity to sleep with her smarmy boss. Thanks sweetie, no really, thanks.
So I had a brush with my mortality earlier this year. It was not a big broom-sized brush with death, it was more like one of those little paint-by-numbers paint brushes brush with death. I had this brain/ear thing for which I was tested for MS only to find out there is nothing actually in my head. Apparently, the pain in my ear when I am sleeping is actually caused by the hamster that spins the wheel in my brain taking the night off to sleep, and he falls out of bed sometimes with gravity smashing him into my inner ear. What? That is what it said on the diagnostic printout. They would not charge me all that money and lie to me.
So, I am not dying. Well, I am, but really slowly. My death certificate does not have an expiration date on it.
So the last reason I started this blog was to communicate with my family. A friend of mine from college writes a letter at Christmas time every year that he sends out to his family and friends telling what has happened with his family. It is usually quite funny, especially the year he tried to convince everyone that they had another baby and named it LeBron. He grew up in Cleveland, and LeBron James used to play basketball in Cleveland. I thought I better explain that for people that live in Portland where they do not know of such things.
It was not a stretch, therefore, to think that I could have a blog, and my brother and sister could check in on my family whenever they wanted. They could also then give me less grief about how little I phone them. However, their lives are rather hectic, and they have never gotten in the habit of checking in on my blog. Plus, they grew up with me, so they stopped finding me funny a long time ago.
So, I am finding less and less incentive to keep blogging, at least regularly. If you can call two or three times a week regular. I know people trying to poop certainly would not call that regular. So I will probably become even more constipated, or less regular. Depends on how you want to look at it. I will be posting when something comes up that I want to chronicle for CJ to refer back to someday, but how often Beth gets pulled over by a police officer is about as unforeseen as how often CJ misspells a word like "Sindy".
Perhaps I will be here more often than I think.
Finally, in other news, congrats to CJ for finishing his cross country season with a personal best time of 14:40 for two miles. He did awesome and even recovered from tripping over another runner at the beginning. CJ, if you read this, I am very proud of you and look forward to seeing you grow up. Please try to be funny every once in a while so I can find something to post about. Or you can do something awesome like joining the Junior Cincinnati Youth Wind Ensemble and nailing that triangle solo. (He is a percussionist, and they bang things to make sound-again for Portland where they are still trying to figure out if sounds are made from trees falling in the forest.)
Thank you all for reading this rather long post, but they may be longer now in correlation with being less frequent. That actually does not make sense, but I cannot think of another appropriate poop reference.
I went a little Deepy McDeepster the other day on ya. I can't be Hi.Larry.Us all the time don't ya know. Or any of the time, some of you are saying.
Does anyone remember the Meatloaf song Two Out of Three Ain't Bad? Not to be confused with On Top of Spaghetti, all covered with cheese...
Well, I have realized I am oh-for-three. Here is what I am talking about.
I was revisiting why I started this blog back in July of 2009, and I came up with three reasons. One was to become famous as bloggers have a tendency to be. Actually, I do not know how many famous bloggers there are, but I do know that some have gazillions of followers and I wanted to be one of those special contributors to society as we know it. As it turns out, I am not funny enough, thought-provoking enough, dedicated enough, or wild and crazy enough to have good blog fodder every day. I have some faithful readers (thank you Katie and Beth), but that falls a little short of the gazillion mark.
Wow, a little self-important you say? Yeah, it sounds like that, but that is really not the main reason I started the blog, it was just a hopeful by-product so I could quit my job and make a living sitting on my arse.
The two more important reasons I started this here blog have to do with my family. For some reason, I have had the Michael Keaton movie, My Life, stuck in my head since I saw it 100 years ago. He finds out he is dying around the same time he finds out he is going to have a child. Therefore, he videotapes segments of life-teaching moments that his child can watch in the future to know about his dad. It was a real up-lifting movie. Can someone hand me a hanky just thinking about it. However, I always thought I was Michael Keaton, or at least his character in that movie, so I decided that some day I was going to die before CJ was old enough to hear all my words of wisdom. As it turns out, I mistook which Michael Keaton movie I really wanted to emulate. It should have been Mr Mom. Beth did not really help me out with that one either as she has not gone out and gotten that corporate job with the opportunity to sleep with her smarmy boss. Thanks sweetie, no really, thanks.
So I had a brush with my mortality earlier this year. It was not a big broom-sized brush with death, it was more like one of those little paint-by-numbers paint brushes brush with death. I had this brain/ear thing for which I was tested for MS only to find out there is nothing actually in my head. Apparently, the pain in my ear when I am sleeping is actually caused by the hamster that spins the wheel in my brain taking the night off to sleep, and he falls out of bed sometimes with gravity smashing him into my inner ear. What? That is what it said on the diagnostic printout. They would not charge me all that money and lie to me.
So, I am not dying. Well, I am, but really slowly. My death certificate does not have an expiration date on it.
So the last reason I started this blog was to communicate with my family. A friend of mine from college writes a letter at Christmas time every year that he sends out to his family and friends telling what has happened with his family. It is usually quite funny, especially the year he tried to convince everyone that they had another baby and named it LeBron. He grew up in Cleveland, and LeBron James used to play basketball in Cleveland. I thought I better explain that for people that live in Portland where they do not know of such things.
It was not a stretch, therefore, to think that I could have a blog, and my brother and sister could check in on my family whenever they wanted. They could also then give me less grief about how little I phone them. However, their lives are rather hectic, and they have never gotten in the habit of checking in on my blog. Plus, they grew up with me, so they stopped finding me funny a long time ago.
So, I am finding less and less incentive to keep blogging, at least regularly. If you can call two or three times a week regular. I know people trying to poop certainly would not call that regular. So I will probably become even more constipated, or less regular. Depends on how you want to look at it. I will be posting when something comes up that I want to chronicle for CJ to refer back to someday, but how often Beth gets pulled over by a police officer is about as unforeseen as how often CJ misspells a word like "Sindy".
Perhaps I will be here more often than I think.
Finally, in other news, congrats to CJ for finishing his cross country season with a personal best time of 14:40 for two miles. He did awesome and even recovered from tripping over another runner at the beginning. CJ, if you read this, I am very proud of you and look forward to seeing you grow up. Please try to be funny every once in a while so I can find something to post about. Or you can do something awesome like joining the Junior Cincinnati Youth Wind Ensemble and nailing that triangle solo. (He is a percussionist, and they bang things to make sound-again for Portland where they are still trying to figure out if sounds are made from trees falling in the forest.)
Thank you all for reading this rather long post, but they may be longer now in correlation with being less frequent. That actually does not make sense, but I cannot think of another appropriate poop reference.
Friday, October 15, 2010
I wonder what district we are in?
October 15, 2010
As you may know, I am always efforting to find things for me and CJ to talk about. He is not into watching sports, so there goes a lot of potential material. We both play Call of Duty, Modern Warfare II on PS3, and that is good for some conversation. We talk about school and girls as much as a teenager can tolerate with his dad, so that takes up about 10 minutes per week. We talk about how awesome Beth/mom is, but after a lot of "isn't mom the best back scratcher ever", or "how about that delicious dinner mom made last night?", or "I want to find a girl just like mom someday", or "aren't I lucky to have picked out the perfect mom for you?", or "when will mom be home, I miss her so much!"...we need to move on to other topics.
Therefore, I decided to read The Hunger Games. A lady at Barnes and Noble recommended it for teens, and CJ has ready the whole trilogy. He really liked the first two and wrote a paper about the third one and how a better ending would be............. I don't know since he did not want to spoil it for me. So I read The Hunger Games a couple weeks ago, and read the sequel, Catching Fire, this week. Both of them end in cliff hangers that make you want to read the next. Thus, I am waiting to acquire the third, Mockingjay, as soon as CJ retrieves it from whomever he lent it to.
So, here is why I bring this up. It is a little surprising to me that this series is meant for teens. The style in which it is written is obviously at a level to aid the comprehension skills of this age level, but the content is very challenging. Partly, the challenge comes form all the killing that takes place. Additionally, the reasons behind the killings are very thought provoking. The premise is that our country has been divided up into districts after a rebellion, and the Capitol keeps everyone down by having peacekeepers in place and rules that squelch any potential rebellion. There is no travel between districts and food is scarce. Finally, every year, each district draws the names of two teens from their district to represent them in The Hunger Games. These participants kill each other off in an arena until one victor remains. Everyone is mandated to watch and the theory is that each district will understand that the Capitol is in charge and that the games are punishment for past rebellion attempts. It is a very elaborate affair that is treated like the Olympics or something similar, which is quite a mockery of the real fact that they are killing off children.
I am way oversimplifying the story as you should read it yourselves, but I hope you are getting my point that it is a rather deep premise. I wish I had read the books at the same time as CJ so that we could discuss it as he went along. Now I have to finish the whole trilogy before we can discuss some things about it. It is also not a book that the whole class read together, so CJ was on his own to come up with content interpretations. I am really curious how he went about understanding the political undertones of the story.
However, yesterday, I started to really feel the need to share part of what I was getting from the book. I know very few people read my blog, and even fewer read my blog and have read The Hunger Games. Therefore, take what you will from this thought.
Do many people realize that every thing we do is ultimately a learning experience? There is a reason that ancient civilizations used to hold their elders in such high esteem. They have experienced more of life and can mentor the younger people. I think about my relationship with my coworkers and how much I have learned from them, but one of them told me Friday night that she appreciated the fact that she learned from me what work ethic was. It came as a shock to me. I thought I was teaching these newbies about processes and best practices, and concrete things. It did not dawn on me that leading by example is still something that works for people. I mean, sure, we have had discussions about leadership style and how your mood or delivery affects it. But that seemed more concrete to me and that I was just speeding along their development. But work ethic? I always thought you had it or you didn't. But I wasn't born with it. My mom bugged me all the time as a youth about how lazy I was. As I grew older, I realized that all her nagging had turned me into a responsible adult. It would have been nice if I had been born with it so that I didn't have to listen to all the nagging. Wouldn't my mother be proud today to hear someone tell me that she learned about work ethic from me. If she weren't dead already, she may have had a heart attack.
Therefore, as you go through your day, your week, and your life, please try to remember that each thing you encounter is a potential learning experience. Every learning experience is then something you are welcome to share with others. It is teamwork, people. Ultimately, we are all on the same team. I will throw a little religion at you-the team we are on is God's team. He gave you a special skill set, just like Katniss, Peeta, Haymitch, or Prim? Do you realize the impact you can have on others? Think about it, work with it, pass it on. Thanks for reading.
As you may know, I am always efforting to find things for me and CJ to talk about. He is not into watching sports, so there goes a lot of potential material. We both play Call of Duty, Modern Warfare II on PS3, and that is good for some conversation. We talk about school and girls as much as a teenager can tolerate with his dad, so that takes up about 10 minutes per week. We talk about how awesome Beth/mom is, but after a lot of "isn't mom the best back scratcher ever", or "how about that delicious dinner mom made last night?", or "I want to find a girl just like mom someday", or "aren't I lucky to have picked out the perfect mom for you?", or "when will mom be home, I miss her so much!"...we need to move on to other topics.
Therefore, I decided to read The Hunger Games. A lady at Barnes and Noble recommended it for teens, and CJ has ready the whole trilogy. He really liked the first two and wrote a paper about the third one and how a better ending would be............. I don't know since he did not want to spoil it for me. So I read The Hunger Games a couple weeks ago, and read the sequel, Catching Fire, this week. Both of them end in cliff hangers that make you want to read the next. Thus, I am waiting to acquire the third, Mockingjay, as soon as CJ retrieves it from whomever he lent it to.
So, here is why I bring this up. It is a little surprising to me that this series is meant for teens. The style in which it is written is obviously at a level to aid the comprehension skills of this age level, but the content is very challenging. Partly, the challenge comes form all the killing that takes place. Additionally, the reasons behind the killings are very thought provoking. The premise is that our country has been divided up into districts after a rebellion, and the Capitol keeps everyone down by having peacekeepers in place and rules that squelch any potential rebellion. There is no travel between districts and food is scarce. Finally, every year, each district draws the names of two teens from their district to represent them in The Hunger Games. These participants kill each other off in an arena until one victor remains. Everyone is mandated to watch and the theory is that each district will understand that the Capitol is in charge and that the games are punishment for past rebellion attempts. It is a very elaborate affair that is treated like the Olympics or something similar, which is quite a mockery of the real fact that they are killing off children.
I am way oversimplifying the story as you should read it yourselves, but I hope you are getting my point that it is a rather deep premise. I wish I had read the books at the same time as CJ so that we could discuss it as he went along. Now I have to finish the whole trilogy before we can discuss some things about it. It is also not a book that the whole class read together, so CJ was on his own to come up with content interpretations. I am really curious how he went about understanding the political undertones of the story.
However, yesterday, I started to really feel the need to share part of what I was getting from the book. I know very few people read my blog, and even fewer read my blog and have read The Hunger Games. Therefore, take what you will from this thought.
Do many people realize that every thing we do is ultimately a learning experience? There is a reason that ancient civilizations used to hold their elders in such high esteem. They have experienced more of life and can mentor the younger people. I think about my relationship with my coworkers and how much I have learned from them, but one of them told me Friday night that she appreciated the fact that she learned from me what work ethic was. It came as a shock to me. I thought I was teaching these newbies about processes and best practices, and concrete things. It did not dawn on me that leading by example is still something that works for people. I mean, sure, we have had discussions about leadership style and how your mood or delivery affects it. But that seemed more concrete to me and that I was just speeding along their development. But work ethic? I always thought you had it or you didn't. But I wasn't born with it. My mom bugged me all the time as a youth about how lazy I was. As I grew older, I realized that all her nagging had turned me into a responsible adult. It would have been nice if I had been born with it so that I didn't have to listen to all the nagging. Wouldn't my mother be proud today to hear someone tell me that she learned about work ethic from me. If she weren't dead already, she may have had a heart attack.
Therefore, as you go through your day, your week, and your life, please try to remember that each thing you encounter is a potential learning experience. Every learning experience is then something you are welcome to share with others. It is teamwork, people. Ultimately, we are all on the same team. I will throw a little religion at you-the team we are on is God's team. He gave you a special skill set, just like Katniss, Peeta, Haymitch, or Prim? Do you realize the impact you can have on others? Think about it, work with it, pass it on. Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
I have a brother?
October 11, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkKHsdKCG8Q&NR=1
Does anybody remember this commercial? I lived in Louisville at the time and used to see it all the time.
Speaking of Louisville, I spoke with my brother yesterday. I know. Emails go unanswered, blogs get ignored, and phone calls stay unreturned. Well, I actually never call my brother, I do not do good phone, but the other two things are fairly accurate. So why did I get a call from my brother? Well, he is selling something of course. His daughter is selling cookies for a fund raiser and wanted her favorite uncle to have a chance to get in on the ground floor. Hopefully, that is not where the cookies are right now. Anyway, like a good neighbor, and a great uncle, I have signed up for three tubs of cookies. Won't my peers at The Target be so excited to be getting cookies for Christmas? I think so too!
So they are not baked cookies, that would not contribute to the warmth of me (or hopefully Beth) baking cookies to give out for Christmas. They are frozen, pre-proportioned, and fresh cookies.
As it turns out, my brother has the same sense of humor as myself. It is one of the few traits that let us know he and I are not adopted. He is blond-haired, pale-skinned, blue-eyed, and nice to people. I am brown-haired, dark-skinned (for a white dude), brown-eyed, and not nearly as nice as he. However, we have the same sense of humor, and the same facial structure. We are also about the same height. So there you go, practically identical.
So back to the sense of humor thing.
As we discussed these cookies, I told him I liked the idea that the cookies were the same as how I liked my women-meaning fresh. He thought I meant that I liked my women frozen and pre-proportioned in little baggies. Somebody is watching too many episodes of Bones.
So we chatted for a bit and they are doing fine. He should get the cookies in a couple weeks and then we have to arrange delivery/pick up. For all his local suckers, I mean customers, his son is delivering the cookies on his bicycle. I have asked for the same service, but 100 miles is outside of his delivery window. Fortunately, my brother has a good-sized freezer in his basement to store my cookies until I see them next. Hopefully, the cookies do not smell like rotted flesh after being stored in the freezer with the limbs of missing women.
As for my family, they are off to school and work today whilst I lounge around in my jammies and enjoy a week away from The Target. Got to get the juices rejuvenated for the impending holiday season.
Today's activitiy beyond the lounging will include gathering up clothes that do not meet the one year rule qualification. If I have not worn them in a year, they get donated. There are some clothes upstairs that I do not think meet the five year qualification, so Goodwill will be seeing some clothes that are currently out-of-style. Anyone need some jean shorts or Hammer pants? Speak now or find them at Goodwill next week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkKHsdKCG8Q&NR=1
Does anybody remember this commercial? I lived in Louisville at the time and used to see it all the time.
Speaking of Louisville, I spoke with my brother yesterday. I know. Emails go unanswered, blogs get ignored, and phone calls stay unreturned. Well, I actually never call my brother, I do not do good phone, but the other two things are fairly accurate. So why did I get a call from my brother? Well, he is selling something of course. His daughter is selling cookies for a fund raiser and wanted her favorite uncle to have a chance to get in on the ground floor. Hopefully, that is not where the cookies are right now. Anyway, like a good neighbor, and a great uncle, I have signed up for three tubs of cookies. Won't my peers at The Target be so excited to be getting cookies for Christmas? I think so too!
So they are not baked cookies, that would not contribute to the warmth of me (or hopefully Beth) baking cookies to give out for Christmas. They are frozen, pre-proportioned, and fresh cookies.
As it turns out, my brother has the same sense of humor as myself. It is one of the few traits that let us know he and I are not adopted. He is blond-haired, pale-skinned, blue-eyed, and nice to people. I am brown-haired, dark-skinned (for a white dude), brown-eyed, and not nearly as nice as he. However, we have the same sense of humor, and the same facial structure. We are also about the same height. So there you go, practically identical.
So back to the sense of humor thing.
As we discussed these cookies, I told him I liked the idea that the cookies were the same as how I liked my women-meaning fresh. He thought I meant that I liked my women frozen and pre-proportioned in little baggies. Somebody is watching too many episodes of Bones.
So we chatted for a bit and they are doing fine. He should get the cookies in a couple weeks and then we have to arrange delivery/pick up. For all his local suckers, I mean customers, his son is delivering the cookies on his bicycle. I have asked for the same service, but 100 miles is outside of his delivery window. Fortunately, my brother has a good-sized freezer in his basement to store my cookies until I see them next. Hopefully, the cookies do not smell like rotted flesh after being stored in the freezer with the limbs of missing women.
As for my family, they are off to school and work today whilst I lounge around in my jammies and enjoy a week away from The Target. Got to get the juices rejuvenated for the impending holiday season.
Today's activitiy beyond the lounging will include gathering up clothes that do not meet the one year rule qualification. If I have not worn them in a year, they get donated. There are some clothes upstairs that I do not think meet the five year qualification, so Goodwill will be seeing some clothes that are currently out-of-style. Anyone need some jean shorts or Hammer pants? Speak now or find them at Goodwill next week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
