Whether you’re married or divorced, take this one question relationship test: who picked your wedding cake? According to wedding planner Samantha Goldberg in an article she wrote for Cosmo, when the bride chooses the cake, it’s a sign she’s too controlling, and the couple may very well end up getting divorced. The general concept sort of makes sense. Brides are often involved in every little detail of the wedding. What colors should the bridesmaids wear? Which flowers should decorate the church? What hors d’oeuvres should be served at the reception? But if the bride is so controlling,…
-
Dad's House
-
Relationship Test – Who Picked the Wedding Cake?
2 Jul 2009 | 3:01 am -
Road Trip Planning – Hotels.com Rocks!
1 Jul 2009 | 3:12 amAre you planning a road trip this summer and need to find places to stay? I gotta tell you – Hotels.com rocks! I just spent an evening booking rooms for a trip my daughter and I will take later this summer to tour east coast college campuses. I normally hate travel planning, but with Hotels.com I actually enjoyed the booking experience. (This is not a sponsored post, though maybe it should be – can I be the William Shatner of the Hotels.com road trip planning industry?) I’ve taken some killer road trips in my day, visiting every corner of the US – from Athens GA, to Graceland, to… -
Chemistry.com Profile – Maybe More Kids?
30 Jun 2009 | 3:01 amI’ve been using Chemistry.com for about two months now. The compatibility matching service has netted me exactly one date. (Woo-hoo!) Currently, there are ten women in some stage of the online matchmaking dance with me – interest shown, comparing relationship essentials, answering two questions, or emailing. Some of these woman take a few days between responses, others take weeks or even a month. I know people get busy – I was idle on Chemistry.com for two weeks at the end of my kids’ school year. Still, I wonder if at least some of these women might like me, but just aren’t sure… -
Single Dads are Pathetic Womanizers and Partiers? WTF!
29 Jun 2009 | 2:58 amLeave it to a bitter divorced woman to paint a picture of single dads that belongs in caveman days. A blogger named Lollie wrote an open letter to Kate Gosselin – Dear Kate, Welcome to Single Motherhood, where she spews venom about what divorced men are like. I know, it’s one woman’s opinion, and it’s based on her own experience. But to write crap like this boggles my mind: “Your ex-husband will become a party animal. Women will be all over him (still). Single dads are like puppies. Women love to take them in. He will have lots of dates. Women will date him because of the children. -
Mark Sanford, Eliot Spitzer, Gavin Newsom – Move Over!
26 Jun 2009 | 3:00 amForget the Jon and Kate divorce indiscretions – there have been some crazy affairs going on with politicians of late. South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford secretly left for Argentina to have a cry-fest with his secret lover. (Seems his wife knew about his mistress 5 months ago… huh? You can’t make this stuff up!) Upon returning to the US, Sanford gave a surreal press conference where he rambled on about hiking as a young boy, getting the soccer coach to act as chaperon, and saying how God’s law isn’t a “list of do’s and don’ts, just for the heck of do’s and don’ts.”…
-
Dad-O-Matic
-
Please Welcome New Addition to the Dad-O-matic Family: Chris Cuomo
30 Jun 2009 | 6:51 pmWe are proud to announce a new member of the Dad-O-matic team, none other than Good Morning, America’s anchorman, Chris Cuomo! I first ran across Chris on twitter after some very strong recommendations to do so from my wife who said he was a very devoted dad like our guys on here. So I checked out his tweets and sure enough the very first thing I see him sharing is how he and his daughter Bella know all the words to the movie “Finding Nemo”. I then shared a post I had written for Dad-O-matic, ironically enough, about “Finding Nemo” called “Lessons Learned from Finding Nemo”. -
The Straight Truth About American Potty Training
30 Jun 2009 | 3:50 pmThe Straight Truth About American Potty Training Before parents were able to easily acquire disposable diapers in any warehouse store across the country, the vast majority of children in the United States were potty trained prior to blowing to their first birthday. But that all started to shift in the late 1950s and 1960s when American parents first started to dance with the idea of putting off potty training until after their child’s first year, the idea being that they would take care of potty training their child prior to age two. At the time, this was a radical philosophy. The new… -
Tweet Your Kids #3
29 Jun 2009 | 6:40 amIn Tweet Your Kids and Tweet Your Kids #2, I wrote “Ever think ‘I should write that down’ when your child says something funny?” I use Twitter for that. Here’re some Tweet-worthy comments from my boys. Seven-year-old Zachary Zachary the Clown Zachary to Lucas: “We’ve got to be in bed by 7:30 or else Daddy’s going to get punished!” Showing Zachary: M. Jackson’s Thriller for 1st time. Zach: “Why are all the monsters dancing?” Momma: “Because they all like the same music” Mom: “Zachary, wear your… -
Drinking With Your Children
28 Jun 2009 | 12:39 pmThe waiter poured the glass of wine for my son and we raised our glasses to toast… Despite my instinctive fatherly discomfort and concerns, it was a ritual we could not avoid. After all, we were celebrating his 21st birthday… IT’S MORE THAN I CAN BEER… Yesterday, my son Zach turned 21. It is nerve wracking enough to have three kids of driving age. Now I also have one kid of drinking and driving age. CORRECTION: There is NO appropriate “drinking and driving age…” I should have said “now I also have one kid of both drinking age and… -
I am a rock star!
27 Jun 2009 | 12:23 pmMy wife and I work somewhat separate schedules. I work a typical 9-5 schedule while she works part time at a hospital. That means I spend some time watching our three boys by myself. When the kids get all spun up and I start to get frustrated we need to find something to calm us all down. How do I manage to keep three restless children (all under six) from driving me nuts? I play the guitar. I am horrible at playing the guitar. I only know three or four chords. I have an eclectic repertoire that doesn’t suite itself for children. But when the going gets tough out comes…
-
Dorky Dad
-
I have no attention ... Hey! Look at those fish!
29 Jun 2009 | 9:14 pmI have no attention span. It's true. I've never had one. It's not really an issue, for the most part, and I gave this fact little thought -- until I married The Wife.The Wife has a tortoise-like attention span (I'm assuming here that tortoises have long attention spans, given that it takes them so dang long to get anywhere that they have to be patient just walking around the yard; but who knows? Maybe they're constantly getting distracted, but they're just slow about it.)So I'm constantly reminded about my short attention span because she regularly devours books by Tolstoy and I can barely… -
Checking out the womenfolk
22 Jun 2009 | 6:39 pmWhen last we left The Boy, he was having trouble getting ladies' attention, despite his best preschooler efforts -- somersaults, jumping, laughing, dancing, making a general fool of himself, etc., etc.He is still having those problems.This evening, we went to a local park to watch my nephew play baseball, because I love sitting outside in sauna-like humidity desperately trying to make out the shadowy figures through the blinding evening sun.(Seriously, who the heck makes baseball diamond placement decisions? Are they drunk or just purely sadistic? Hey, Bob! Let's make sure home plate face the… -
So it begins: The Boy plays ball
18 Jun 2009 | 9:40 pmThe Boy started his career in organized sports this evening with a rousing practice session of T-ball. The day included an hour-long practice filled with lessons that will stay with the kids throughout their baseball and softball lives, like how to throw, how to field a ground ball, how to spit, how to grab your crotch and how to pick your nose on camera. (I think they get to chewing tobacco next week.)The Boy did well, even though there was no game and even though they spent the entire practice session on all that boring fielding stuff. "I didn't get to hit the ball!" he said.I did not do so… -
Maybe these infants aren't so fragile
17 Jun 2009 | 7:37 pmWe are a little more relaxed with The Sequel, our second child, than we were with The Boy. Specifically, I'm not going into the bedroom every 10 minutes to make sure he's alive. And I'm not thoroughly scrubbing my hands before picking him up.But there remains a belief in the fragility of infancy, and as such every single abnormal symptom he gets if often accompanied by an automatic call to the doctor's office. That call is, almost invariably, greeted by something just short of derision. You poor, pathetic, over-reactive parents of an infant. Sometimes, this comes from the nurse. But she… -
Musically solidifying my dorkitude
14 Jun 2009 | 7:09 pmOn Saturday, we went to a garage sale. We went to a ton of them, because a local neighborhood here was having several on the same day, a square mile of cheap, moldy, half-broken junk.I love garage sales, not because I periodically get something -- which I do -- but because I get to look at other people's garages. Or yards. And ogle whatever it is they have in there. Usually, I look inside at the neat shelves of tools and yard implements and think, "I'm going to reorganize my garage the second I get home." And then the second I get home I've completely forgotten about that declaration.But…
-
DadCentric
-
The Declaration of Dependents
2 Jul 2009 | 9:18 amWe the people of Castle TwoBusy, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common beer fridge and wine rack, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of free and easy... -
You Can't Swim in an Ice Age
2 Jul 2009 | 12:06 amWe were supposed to go see Ice Age 7:Dawn of Tony Orlando or some such nonsense. I was then going to post about it here for your reading enjoyment. Enjoyment is such a strong word. However, I'm fairly confident that... -
Books are Free, Knowledge is Priceless
1 Jul 2009 | 11:19 pmYou guys are so lucky- especially those of you that live in the U.S. or Canada and have a mailbox. Due to circumstances beyond my control the contest to end all contests has been extended! It's like the contest that... -
This post brought to you by Dell Children's Hospital and BlogPress for iPhone
1 Jul 2009 | 4:18 pmWritten at the ER...I'm typing this post on my phone in a dimly lit hospital room, my 19 month old asleep in my arms. SpongeBob is on mute on the wall-mounted TV, not nearly as entertaining as those Madagascar penguin... -
The Obligatory "Michael Jackson Was A Dad" Post
1 Jul 2009 | 7:00 am"When history is personified, and the person behind that history dies, history itself is no longer real." - Greil Marcus, on the death of Elvis Greil Marcus' quote can easily be applied to Michael Jackson. Live fast, die young, leave...
-
Bill and Jill
-
Everything But
17 Jun 2009 | 2:42 amSam’s not taking a bath here; he’s just hanging out. Whenever there’s activity at the sink, he busily pulls his little chair over, stands on his toes, and looks over the edge like Kilroy. He did this last night, and I jokingly told him, “Get in the sink, Sam-Sam!” Up went one chubby hock. He got his foot up to the drawer-front, then it stopped, and slowly slid back down to the chair as he peered over with raised brow. “Get in the sink, Sam!” I said again, laughing. He marked time in his chair for a few steps, then up went the foot again. I laughed… -
Watch Dada. Watch. Dada, Dada, DaDA! Watch. THIS!
15 Jun 2009 | 8:31 pm -
Nice Try
7 Jun 2009 | 9:15 am“Liam, can you think of anything else we need from the store?” “Bread.” “Yep, we’ve got that.” “Um… Crackers.” “Good one. Anything else?” “And… a fort to build?” -
The Old Man in the Field
5 Jun 2009 | 10:59 pmAnd his name is ‘Hitch Cowslip’. I think I’ll make a fake movie poster. Jill says he needs a sidekick. Like maybe a bale of hay with sass. -
The F Word
1 Jun 2009 | 11:12 amEveryone is happy. We’re on the cusp of a weekend. Bill is freshly home from work. He sits on the kitchen floor and pulls Nate into his lap and wraps his arms around him. “Hey Buddy! Do you know what day tomorrow is?!” “What?!”, asks Nate, beaming up at his favorite person in the world. “After tomorrow, Da-da doesn’t have to go to work for the next day and the next day! We can be buddies!” “What day?!”, Nate squeals. “It’s a day that starts with ‘F’,” I say. I blow air through my top teeth, perched on my…
-
HONEA EXPRESS
-
The Last Hurrah
24 Jun 2009 | 8:45 pmWe had been living the life transient and the pending move was wearing upon us all like the light at a tunnel's end that still required days of digging. We were sore and exhausted and our patience had long been packed.Atticus worried, he fretted and he frowned. His was not a world to be upturned for the sake of flight or fancy. His was a world created by him and was lived to the extent that he found happiness in it. The move loomed upon him and rested heavily across his brow. His light lay at the entrance of said tunnel.So it was that we decided to have his birthday party a couple of weeks… -
And the Days You Can't Miss
16 Jun 2009 | 11:43 pmI landed in Seattle at 10:30 on Sunday morning. It was Atticus' 6th birthday. I had been up since 4:30 and slept little on the plane. I hadn't had any coffee.24 hours earlier I had been holding the hand of my aunt on one side and my sister on the other. I stared at crosses and through a window and into the eyes of my father at the podium, alone and crying. His pain was loss and loneliness.My grandfather was behind me. I couldn't look at him. I couldn't look at anyone, but especially not him. Swimming in a sea of heartache is for country songs and bad poetry. There is no comfort there.My… -
A Lifetime and a Loss
11 Jun 2009 | 6:30 amWe arrived 3 hours early for a three hour flight. My mother would be proud. We ate oatmeal and pastries in a room that was equal parts Starbucks, pizza place and bar. It was almost early enough to drink. It would be his first flight. The kid was excited.Somewhere in a car on a mountain my wife was driving with a sleeping boy and every pet we have. She was making good time.My thoughts were lost in the day before. My father had called on Friday morning, the day before our move. He said she had about 24 hours left. That was what the doctor had said. The day before the doctor had said about 3… -
Chick Chat - Now With Penis!
2 Jun 2009 | 11:57 pmSo a long time ago I told the good people at Chick Chat that I would participate in a video segment featuring the dads of teh internetz (is that how they write that?), and then I forgot about it.Then I loaded up all of my belongings into a shipping container and sent them to another state. My belongings include my video camera and lamps.Then I had the week from hell. There is much stress in me. We're moving in a few days. We decided to sell the house rather than rent it sometime last week. Today we met with the Realtor. We've got a lot of shit to do.Then my grandmother started the painful,… -
The Trouble With Ashes to Ashes
26 May 2009 | 11:49 pmOnce again the state of California has proven that its label of liberal is nothing more than window-dressing and urban legend. orIt's the damn Mormons, don't you watch South Park?There are fingers and there are pointers, and excuses are thrown against walls and heads are smashed in alleys lined with blood and bottles sharp with anger and stupidity.It's not about politics. It's not about religion. It's about doing the right thing. You'll hear people say otherwise and they are wrong. There are few things in life less grey. This is black and white. This is right versus something far from…
-
Gunfighter: A Modern Warrior's Life
-
New Ink Tonight!
2 Jul 2009 | 3:48 amI've been patient. I've been selective. I've waited. I'm not waiting anymore. I'm getting a new tattoo tonight. Not only am I getting a new tattoo, I'm getting inked (again) by primo custom tattoo artist Paul Roe, of British Ink! Now, as if getting a new tattoo by Paul (who really is a cool guy) wasn't enough, I will be getting this new tattoo at ARTOMATIC , Washington, DC's annual, month-long, art festival... and Mrs GF is coming with me! Talk about date night!?! Awwwwww yeah! Expect photos (and even video) of the event soon! -
O Canada!
30 Jun 2009 | 10:04 pmIt's July first, my firends... and you know what that means, right?: It's Canada Day! That day, just three days before my own national holiday (and wedding anniversary) when our friends to the north celebrate their own national day! Canada Day has a special place in my own gunfighting heart, not because of People like Celine Dion or Jim CCarey (both of whom I plan to execute when I am King), but because of my Canadian Friends. People like Lloyd, Kathleen, Claudia, Kenny, Joey, The Old Cranky Bastard, Katie, Catherine, Tanis, Cori, Mick, Zanne, Cheryl, and so many unnamed others,… -
Michael Jackson: Dead
25 Jun 2009 | 7:45 pmA lot of the people that I know of that read my blog with any regularity are in the same, or are at least close to the same, age demographic as me. I'm 45 years old and vividly remember songs like "I Want You Back", "Stop, The Love You Save", "I'll Be There" and others, that were made famous early in the career of Michael Jackson, while he was singing with his brothers in The Jackson 5. Michael Jackson has traveled a long way from the early days at Motown, and a long way from his most famous solo albums "Bad", Thiller", and others, which garnered him incredible numbers of Grammy… -
WTF Wednesday: What Kind of Man Does This?
24 Jun 2009 | 5:29 amI know that I mentioned this last year, but I hope you won't mind if I talk about it again. I'm talking about that crisis of men who don't get it (MWDGI). Men Who Don't Get It are guys like the two particular examples that I saw yesterday at the Magic Kingdom. Mrs gunfighter and SoccerGirl decided that the first thing they anted to do at the Magic Kingdom was to ride the train that circumnavigates the park, all the way from the entrance, around the park and back to the entrance. Fun, right? Sure... why not, it's vacation, eh? So, there I was, in Mickey… -
Soccer, Travel, Random Thoughts, Music, Father's Day
21 Jun 2009 | 7:24 pmItem: Right. It's Father's Day. Happy Father's Day, Dad... sorry my call caught you just as you left church. Anyway, I'm glad that you heard from everyone by 1 P.M. I hope everyone reading this got to talk to their dad's today. If your dad is still living, and you haven't spoken to him yet... hurry! You still have time. It'll make his day. Item: This weekend was the Annual Father's Day soccer tournament that is put on by the Police Youth Club of one our local counties. I was told that this tournament attracted nearly 450 teams this…
-
Cheeky's Hideaway
-
Happy Father's Day, Dad!
21 Jun 2009 | 8:02 amI wrote this for the boys over at Dadcentric, and am republishing it here because I can and you can't stop me. Check out the rest of their memories there, then take some time to call your father and wish him the best. Chances are that Brut (by Fabergé) you bought him when you were 7 is still in the medicine cabinet, and he'd appreciate the call a little more.... I don't think my dad knew how to deal with me for the first 15 years of my life. He came from hearty German stock, grew up on a farm and quietly bore the weight of the world on his shoulders without a… -
Negligent Parenting 101: Children and Momentum
4 Jun 2009 | 8:15 pmWhen Cheeky was born we received a Bugaboo stroller as a gift. At the time it was kind of a big deal, a prestige item for moms in the city, but for good reason. It also happened to be the Hummer of strollers. Big BMX wheels, rack and pinion steering, positraction differential, and enough accessories to assemble a spare stroller from the left over parts. I balked at the idea of getting something so over-the-top (at least by the standards of the time), but transporting a kid around NYC, as we quickly learned, is much easier when your stroller could cameo in a Michael Bay movie.That does… -
Top 25 Songs of the Last 25 Years - The Top 5
3 Jun 2009 | 6:20 amAnd here they are: the grand, time-wasting finale! These are the five songs that, since I was a wee lad in 1984, have stuck with me the most, brought me the most joy, and to this day still move me to sing, dance, and generally embarrass myself in public. Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.Don Henley - Boys of Summer Don Henley - Boys Of Summerby jpdc11 The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary The Cult - She Sells Sanctuaryby scootaway LCD Soundsystem - Daft Punk is Playing at My House Guns 'n' Roses - Paradise City Tom Petty - Free Fallin' Let the debate begin! Think I… -
Top 25 Songs of the Last 25 Years - #15-6
31 May 2009 | 9:49 pmHopefully you all were duly appreciative of how awesome my top 25 songs of the last 25 years started out. (I took remarkably little shit for it, which, considering the presence of Mr. Brooks, surprised me) I have to admit I keep second-guessing some of those picks (a top 30 would have been easier) but it is what it is, and I still think I'd have made an awesome DJ at your wedding.This next 10 should be even better than the last, so without further ado here we go.Nine Inch Nails - Head Like a Hole Beastie Boys - Hey Ladies Ben Folds - Annie Waits Radiohead - Everything In Its Right… -
Top 25 Songs of the Last 25 Years - #25-16
27 May 2009 | 9:38 amA friend alerted me to the upcoming 25th Anniversary Issue of American Songwriter, in which they'll have a section on the best 25 songs of the last 25 years. They've apparently been conducting reader polls, contests, etc., to get everyone's feedback on what those 25 songs should be.By now you all of you know I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff. Hell, I spent an entire summer counting down my top 100 albums of all time, and every music meme that comes my way gets an inordinate amount of attention (while I systematically ignore all the tumultuous personal stuff…
-
Discovering Dad
-
Dads and Daughters – Make a Decision Already
28 Jun 2009 | 1:58 pmThis article written by Contributing Writer Matt Pfingsten. I usually sprinkle my posts with apologies and disclaimers designed to absolve myself of horrible wrongdoings and complete obliteration of everything that can be remotely considered good parenting. But this time I actually know what I’m talking about. I make mistakes when parenting. This particular post, while wrapped loosely around being a dad with a daughter, is more about being a husband who learned how to strengthen my relationship with my wife by finally getting over my insecurities of raising a girl and making some real… -
Discovering Dad Blog Carnival – June 2009
14 Jun 2009 | 6:44 amWelcome to the June 2009 edition of Discovering Dad Blog Carnival. The Discovering Dad Blog Carnival is a monthly carnival that includes fun and informative posts about unique experiences, perspectives and challenges of being a dad. It also includes posts that talk about the impact of dads on the lives of children, spouses and family members, as well as some general parenting posts of interest. Dan presents Flushing Toys Down the Toilet – Punishment Time posted at My Dad Blog, saying, “This article highlights the joys of children flushing objects down toilets and how to administer… -
Making Friends Like a Man
7 Jun 2009 | 12:50 pmThis article written by Contributing Writer Chris Lewis. Have you ever noticed how easy it is for many women to make friends of other women? Most seem to be innately tuned into the social steps necessary to establish and maintain relationships. Men on the other hand, not so much. I, for one, can honestly say it is not easy for me to develop friendships with other men. I don’t understand the proper male bonding etiquette, topics of discussion and how to get past that initial awkward moment of meeting. Do I enjoy sports, sure, but do I watch all sports, not on your life, especially with… -
Don’t Rob Your Kids
31 May 2009 | 5:24 pmThis article written by Contributing Writer Tom Bowns. A lot of parents rob from their children. I don’t mean they take money or possessions, I mean they take opportunities for growth. And they do it with the best of intentions. Every time a mom or dad takes on some chore that could just as well be done by one of his or her kids, the child is robbed of an opportunity to grow. A parent might think, “Well, it’s easier to just do this myself rather than show Billy how to do it,” or “I’d rather it get done right than let Maisy try,” or “I need this done right away,” or “I… -
Discovering Dad Blog Carnival – May 2009
25 May 2009 | 7:57 amWelcome to the May 2009 edition of Discovering Dad Blog Carnival. The Discovering Dad Blog Carnival is a monthly carnival that includes fun and informative posts about unique experiences, perspectives and challenges of being a dad. It also includes posts that talk about the impact of dads on the lives of children, spouses and family members, as well as some general parenting posts of interest. Kevin presents The Importance of Bedtime Stories posted at More4kids. Dan presents T Ball Season is Underway – Wow! posted at My Dad Blog, saying, “A humorous look at the bizarre experiences…
-
Dude to Dad
-
Breast Pump Test
2 Jul 2009 | 12:03 pmThat’s right, I said Breast Pump Test. And by “test”, I mean, I use it. And by “use it”, I mean, I put it on. So that’s that. I think you’ll laugh. Check it out. But never, ever, ever, ever, try it yourself. Seriously. Technorati Profile -
Milk TV – Dude to Dad Style
15 Jun 2009 | 4:23 pm -
D2D Review & Giveaway — Why you deserve a Tommy John Undershirt
9 Jun 2009 | 11:09 amThere’s an old saying that suggests that you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. While that may be true, I would also suggest that you don’t know what there is until you have it. As a child, I had the opportunity to take many flights on all kinds of planes, but I always sat in the coach section. Walking past first class, I noticed the seats were a little bigger (and perhaps a little bit more comfortable), but I could not begin to understand the vast difference between the travel experiences. Only years later, on a 10-hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany, would I have the… -
Thank You from Mrs Dude & Mrs Dude’s Boob Fund
16 May 2009 | 5:32 pmIn just 14 days, almost $5,000 was raised for families fighting cancer. We can’t thank everyone enough for all of their help! -
Dude to Dad: Record Setter AND Magic Bullet!
2 May 2009 | 11:07 amEmerson shows her magic baby skills!
-
Laid-Off Dad
-
Then and now
21 Jun 2009 | 8:50 pmAbout a week ago, a Canadian reporter e-mailed to ask me a few questions about being a laid-off dad. I get these every so often, in spurts and drizzles, mostly because lately a lot more people have a lot more time to do things like Google "laid off dad." And I am the first thing you see when you do that. (Although I'm a little more proud of being listed as one of the things LOD stands for, right there with Large Organic Debris and Laparoscopic Ovarian Drilling.) I don't normally answer these requests, because I think I've said all that there is to say about it. And… -
All hail the TwoBert quadrennial!
25 May 2009 | 8:29 amIt's a glorious Memorial Day here in the Double Hundy, and my sleepy neighborhood is just starting to bubble to life. For some reason I woke up this morning, unbidden, at 6:30, and when I got to my local I found a new installation by an artist named Scott Weiland. I asked the barista if it was the Scott Weiland, and she had no idea who he is.Which gave me pause. I mean, it's one thing if a younger person is blissfully ignorant of a band that consumed your soul as a kid (like that time someone asked me, "Wait. Sting was in a band?!?") But now I've reached the point when… -
The Fourth was with us (also the Second and Third)
5 May 2009 | 1:13 pmIt blows my mind that Monday was Star Wars Day ("May the Fourth be with you!"), because I discovered this after the boys and I spent much of the weekend watching "A New Hope" two and a half times. They wanted to see it a full third time--after Robert's mudbath that some observers might call a baseball game--but I restricted the viewing to cool stuff, like droids battling and battles droiding, so we could conjure LEGO battles of droids battling and battles droiding.The first viewing was Friday night, when the three of us settled in on drizzly, grim night. The boys sat…
-
Rude Cactus
-
Schedule For The Day*
2 Jul 2009 | 12:05 pm7:00 AM: Up, awake, coffee 8:00 AM: Pack for the beach 9:00 AM: Beach! 11:00 AM: Pizza and french fry time 12:00 PM: Snowcones! ** 1:00 PM: Back to the beach house for naps (Owen) and "quiet time" (Mia) 2:00 PM: Funland! 5:00 PM: Beach house/changing/head to dinner 6:00 PM: Dinner 7:00 PM: Boardwalk for an after-dinner treat 8:00 PM: Bed for the kids 11:00 PM: Bed for the parents I could get used to this. But sadly, it won't last much longer. * And by day, I mean everyday. ** My goal for this beach trip is one or more snowcones every day. So far, so good. -
Wish You Were Here
29 Jun 2009 | 8:00 amDear Internet, Wish you were here. No, really. It would be fun. I mean, the restaurants would all be really crowded and it would be a bitch to get a good spot at the beach. But it would still be fun. Anyhoo, you're not. So I'm just dropping you a line to let you know that the Cactus-Fish clan is here, at the beach, living it up. We're making sandcastles, walking the boardwalk, eating way too many French fries and snowcones and riding all kinds of rides. Be jealous, Internet. It's pretty awesome. Chris -
The Weeklies #91
26 Jun 2009 | 6:17 amThe Weekly Rallying Cry. Neda. The Weekly Stupid Product, Or At Least I Think It Is But I Don't Have Boobs So Who Knows. KUSH Support. Yes, finally - an in-cleavage breast support system. The Weekly Time Waster. Little Wheel. The Weekly Read. Lisa Lutz strikes again with Curse of the Spellmans, her second novel overall and the second in the Spellman series. Lutz is just plain awesome. And so are the Spellmans, the family of private investigators who populate her novels. They're fun, quirky, zany, silly, and incredibly well-written. What's odd is that they're funny but they also have a great… -
Thumbs of Green
25 Jun 2009 | 4:49 amWhen I was growing up, my dad always did a lot of gardening. Still does. I suspect he gets this gardening gene from his parents. His dad tended the roses at his church until his brain began to fail him. My grandparents gardened constantly. My grandmother - now in her 90s - still does. I thought, for a while, that this gene somehow skipped a generation. When I was a kid, I found this preoccupation with digging, planting and pruning tremendously boring. It involved neither music nor getting in trouble with my friends so I pretty much had zero patience for it. But for some reason, I never minded… -
Reality Bites
24 Jun 2009 | 5:02 amDespite my rallying cries against them, despite my absolute abhorrence of the way they've let their lives play out catering to the cameras and exploiting their children, I watched the very special episode of Jon and Kate Plus 8 on Monday night. Because I am a lemming and, like millions of other people, apparently, I can't avoid watching a good trainwreck. But instead of the usual schadenfreude-laden guilt I normally experience when watching a good reality TV flameout, I felt pure, unadulterated guilt. Watching the episode made me very angry and very sad. No surprise to anyone, they're getting…
-
THE FATHER LIFE
-
[TFL Update] Energizer Giveaway, Ask Bruce + more
1 Jul 2009 | 7:31 pmWe’ve got a great giveaway of an Energizer 15-minute charger + batteries this week… but first, some other cool stuff: Bruce Sallan, author of “A Dad’s Point-of-View,” just launched his own website. At BruceSallan.com, not only can you learn all about the man, you can also ask Bruce for advice. Give it a shot; I’m sure you won’t be disappointed! Andrew Nusca compiled a list of Ten Full Featured Laptops Under $750 over at ZDNet. I’m still amazed at what you can get for well under a grand in the laptop world – decent power, memory,… -
[A DAD'S POINT-OF-VIEW] Do Men Have Strong Emotional Support in Their Lives?
1 Jul 2009 | 7:07 pmDo men really have good support for emotional issues, on a regular basis? When a man reaches a certain age and he’s depressed, he’s struggling with his place in the world, he’s going through family problems or a divorce, or he’s facing financial and job worries, etc., where can he turn? Add into the mix that he’s a single dad and has no immediate family around and you have my situation a few years ago. When my marriage first broke up, I was blessed to find a circle of men that supported and guided me through the horrible ups and downs that followed. No, it wasn’t some… -
Fathers Must Be Warriors
30 Jun 2009 | 9:53 pmTo put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right. - Confucius While spending time with a Wisconsin Army National Guard unit currently serving in Baghdad, Iraq, I had the privilege of listening to them debate, explain, and vent their feelings about the state of America. Their unique viewpoint was shared and debated while preparing for, executing, and reconsolidating after missions. Since they are… -
[REVIEW] Energizer 15 Minute Charger
30 Jun 2009 | 9:52 pmWe managed to get our hands on the Energizer 15 minute charger to see if it’s true to it’s word and if it’s worth your hard earned money. First, the contents of our test unit: a 15 minute charger, 2 AAA batteries, 2 AA batteries, wall plug, directions, and a bonus 12v plug handy for travel. We were impressed with how small the charger is; you could easily pack it for trips, and can it be kept in a convenient location – say a desk or near your entertainment center – without standing out too much. In our environmentally conscious lifestyles, we like… -
Seven Reasons to Fall in Love with Hiking
29 Jun 2009 | 11:00 pmHiking — some define it as simply putting two feet down in rhythm, and so it is. It is walking extended in terms of time and glorified by specialized gear, which brings it in touch with a universe of diverse topics. This is a diet sport. Putting those two feet down in front of each other for an hour on level terrain burns 400 calories. On elevated terrain, it burns 900. Figure in some of the rock or wood obstacles along certain paths and the numbers rise. This is an exercise sport. Not only does hiking build leg muscle; it trains the cardiovascular system. Those fortunate enough…
-
MetroDad
-
The MetroDad NYC Interview
30 Jun 2009 | 4:30 pmDuring this blog's lifetime, I've been interviewed for dozens of magazines and newspapers. However, in all honesty, I've never really liked many of the interviews. I think this is primarily for two reasons. One is that, for the most part, the interviewers tended to already be fans of this site and I think that any truly good interview requires some conversational tension. I find the best ones tend to be conducted by people who don't like you and, more importantly, don't want to like you. The second reason I'm not a big fan of those articles is because the only thing… -
Twenty of My Favorite Things About Being a Father
21 Jun 2009 | 7:07 amBeing a father is one of my favorite things in life. This is somewhat surprising to me because my father was not a very good role model and, to this day, he and I are not very close. In fact, when I was younger, kids used to come up to me and say, "My dad can beat up your dad." I'd say, "Oh yeah? What time?" In all seriousness, my fractured relationship with him has forced me to spend a lot of time thinking about parenting and what kind of father I want to be to my own child. It's not easy. In many ways, parenting is the hardest job I've ever had. I like… -
The Genetics of Butter and Comedy
15 Jun 2009 | 5:17 pmMy mother was a premature health nazi during an era when it was believed that smoking cigarettes was good for you, fried chicken was the 6th food group, and Twinkies improved blood circulation.Of course, I'm abundantly grateful to my wonderful mother for leading me down a path of healthy living. However, growing up in my house was like living in a vegan snack stand at Burning Man. We had no soda, no candy, no chocolate, no chips, no cookies, and no strawberry milk. It was all so painfully torturous that I eventually started selecting my childhood friends based on what kinds of snacks… -
Three for Tuesday
9 Jun 2009 | 8:19 amEMPTY THREATS, KOREAN DEATH STARES, AND JENNIFER ANISTON Once kids realize that you're not serious about a threat, you're fucking toast.This past weekend, we were at The Doctor's house in the Hamptons. We had a fantastic time playing in the pool, taking the kids to the beach, chasing them around the backyard, and cooking all weekend. By the time we got home on Sunday night, we were exhausted. When we walked inside the apartment, I told Peanut that if she didn't immediately take a bath, then she couldn't have any dinner. She started to whine until I couldn't take… -
24 Hours in the Life of a Twitterer (sic?)
14 May 2009 | 6:16 pmThere are certain cultural references that both divide and define generations. The Doctor and I recently spent an entire weekend in the Hamptons quizzing his 22-year-old nanny about music. It completely blew our minds that she had never even heard of Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, Nirvana, New Order, or The Cure. How was that fucking even possible? Heck, I've never listened to an Englebert Humperdink album but at least I've heard of him. After we got over the shock of feeling old, the Doctor and I came to realize that kids today don't know shit about music. Just kidding.Want to know…
-
Child's Play x2 - A dad and his twins
-
Dear God, it’s me Matthew
30 Jun 2009 | 11:05 pmAbout a month ago, as the kids and I were driving in the car, we noticed a very long funeral procession traversing along the local freeway. It was a quiet Saturday morning and the sight of at least 50 to 75 cars following each other in a single file line was unmistakable. The fact that there were four motorcycle cops rushing up to the nearest onramps and shutting down traffic to allow the procession to proceed only added to the sight. Of course it wasn’t long before I heard a little voice from my inquisitive little boy (who, by law, is mandated to ask more questions each day than a… -
What being a dad means
21 Jun 2009 | 11:38 pmDear Swee’Pea and TheMonk, Today is Father’s Day. When I was growing up, this day meant very little to me. Since my own father died when I was six, Father’s Day was often a painful reminder that my father wasn’t around to celebrate the day with. But then 28 years after the death of my father, you two came along and, all of a sudden, Father’s Day had meaning again. My first Father’s Day was just days after you were born and I didn’t really get what being a father meant. That was the curse of not growing up with a father - I just didn’t know. But… -
A picture says 365 words
15 Jun 2009 | 11:15 pmSo I got this hair-brained idea. Okay, granted, one could argue that the vast majority of my ideas are hair-brained but this one sat in my head for a while and it was harder to shake loose than a stubborn booger. So I went with it. See, the idea is this. For the next year I will, upon leaving the house, line up each kid at the door and take their photograph. The goal, of course, is to look back on their fifth birthday at all 365 photos and see the transformation in a matter of seconds. But then there are also other intriguing elements that I have discovered in just the four days we have done… -
Four Years and a day
14 Jun 2009 | 12:09 amEver since I was mentioned in Entertainment Weekly, I have been struck with the biggest writer’s block in the history of the world. I have several half-finished posts in my drafts folder - each one being questionable to being EW worthy. But there’s nothing like a life milestone to jumpstart the writing. Yesterday, Swee’Pea and TheMonk turned four. First, I need to start with the most obvious question. A question that I’m sure every parent faces when one minute they are wandering the halls in a sleep-deprived daze to suddenly contemplating some Christian… -
Entertainment (Semi) Weekly
6 Jun 2009 | 4:37 pmHey there! If you’re here after reading the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly and you took the time to actually look me up on the internet (I mean, seriously EW, I really appreciate the love but would adding the web address have killed you?!), then I say you have a lot of time on your hands. Nonetheless, you’re here. So take a look around. Some favorite posts of mine are right over there on the right so kick back and prepare to be dazzled by my “irreverent” humor. (I won’t lie to you. I had to look “irreverant” up in the dictionary. I’m…
-
DadThing.com - A Dad Blog
-
The Village
26 Jun 2009 | 5:03 pmIt’s been pretty hot here lately. Somewhere around 90 degrees every day…and 98 degrees in our house! Yup, our air conditioner took a big ole crap! Why do these things break when they are needed the most? And on top of that Ace came down with strep throat. When he’s feeling good…he is lying around. When he is feeling bad, he needs to be held. I can barely stand the heat just sitting here by myself, let alone holding a 100 degree, crying, 25 lb boy! So, we’ve been staying at Grandma’s house (which has AC) until the parts for our AC unit come in and I… -
Now Ya See Me, Now Ya See Me With Only One Eye
17 Jun 2009 | 8:43 pmAce is rough. He does not play nice…sometimes. He does not think twice about smacking the shit out of you, or kicking you in the nads when you are holding him, or pulling your hair (if you have any), or….poking your eye out! You heard me right…poking your eye out! Momma and Ace were playing on the floor and Momma took a fingernail to the eyeball. She said it hurt like hell, but we both kinda hoped that it would be better in the morning. Actually it got worse. I came home from work at lunch to find Momma with an eye that was nearly swollen shut and bloodshot like she… -
That Crazy Blue Elephant
13 Jun 2009 | 10:27 amWell, that crazy blue elephant has returned again this summer…reekin’ havoc upon Ace in his very own backyard. That damned thing comes out every time it gets warm and teases him with a small shower of cool water, just big enough for a three foot tall person to run through and cool down on a hot summer day. And then once he gets close enough to enjoy the small shower… WHASHOOSH! The elephant explodes with a massive flood of freezing cold water that pours down on him…sending him into shock and he runs for his life… He reaches safety just in time to see the… -
A Weekend Of Backflips
6 Jun 2009 | 9:17 pmToday we were at the ballpark watching one of our friends daughters play softball. Ace and I went to the playground. Of course, Ace is not quite big enough for the playground. He can’t climb up to get on the slide, and he is not tall enough to jump on the swing set. So, Daddy gets to play too. Ace was swinging…Dad was pushing…Ace’s hands keep getting lower and lower on the chain. He was eventually holding on to just the rings on the swing’s seat and not actually the chain. He was getting wobbly and I was afraid we would end up in the emergency room. … -
Rocks and Shit
1 Jun 2009 | 9:27 pmWe spent the weekend in my home town at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Riding the 4-Wheeler, lying by the pool, going swimming, and doing a little bit of partying on Saturday night. Ace, however spent the weekend sharpening his speech skills and getting lessons from some of the best out there… Aunt Amber and Aunt Amy taught him some silly Frog song and he spent the weekend running around saying “mmmmm-eckkkkk mmmmm-eckkkkk mmmmm-eckkkkk-eckkkkk “. Don’t ask me… Aunt Amy also thought it would be just darling for him to start his flirt training. She…
-
DIYFATHER
-
DIY Decorating Daddy Style - Roommates
2 Jul 2009 | 2:47 amDo you sometimes think ... our nursery / children's bedroom looks a bit sad. Then you come up with all sorts of amazing DIY and home decoration ideas that ... ONE DAY ... you're going to do. Well - there's a great short cut for us busy dads. It's called "roommates" and it means you can turn a somewhat boring nursery or bedroom into a pretty cool place your kids will love. The concept is simple, cheap and fool proof (like most brilliant things in life). Roommates products are basically fancy stickers that you peel off and stick on the wall. The adhesive they use sticks to just about any… -
What's the world's biggest problem?
2 Jul 2009 | 2:26 amIn the 1930's, when The Times of London asked Britain's leading intellectuals what they thought was the biggest problem in the world, author G.K. Chesterton sent back a quick postcard response saying, "I am." He was on to something. Too often we don't take personal responsibility to say that we are the biggest problems in our marriage, with the way our kids behave, and with how poorly our job is going. Instead, we look to point fingers. But real men take responsibility for their actions and, when things aren't going well, look in the mirror first. That kind of humility is what saves… -
Book Review: "Smart Start" a great resource for dads
30 Jun 2009 | 4:32 pmA wee while ago we were given a book to review – “Smart Start” by Margaret Sassé who established the “GymbaROO” programme for early childhood development and learning which has been widely adopted and has become a global success story with over 100 Gymbaroo centres established worldwide . Sadly, Margaret passed away on the eve of her book being published on May 2nd this year. Her passion in life, to help children reach their full potential of physical and mental development through simple exercises is well captured in her book. Why is his relevant for Dads? Because statistics show… -
DIYFather top 5 amazing transport videos
30 Jun 2009 | 3:29 amIf you've got children who are totally fascinated by different types of transport ... check out our list of TOP 5 youtube transportation videos. We've compiled them here for easy access so you can watch them with the little ones and see how they react! At number 5 - it's ... a high speed train coming out of a tunnel! At number 4 - it's ... a truck convoy! ... read more >> -
A Dad's Point of View - Don't Take it Personally
29 Jun 2009 | 1:46 amI know my column is from my personal perspective, and often about my personal life. Yet I feel this topic is more confessional than many others and affects me too often. I take things too personally. Having this deficiency is truly toxic when you are raising kids or beginning a new marriage, both of which define my present state of affairs. Let’s give some examples and see how many of you relate to them. Easy ones are when ShortRib (my wife) isn’t smiling, isn’t talking much, or doesn’t respond quickly to an e-mail, or text of mine. I always assume that it’s my fault or something…
-
Doodaddy
-
Boy Trouble
19 Jun 2009 | 3:19 pmBoo fell in love again yesterday. Not to worry: it happens all the time. Happy about the swing or the company? It was the first summer meeting of Boo’s kiddie-acrobatics class and W–, the new boy, was a bit teary. Boo and W– didn’t exchange two words during class, though afterward she and I both knuckle-knocked him in a show of support. (That’s how we roll out here in ‘Frisco. Leftist fist bumps are de rigeur.) That was the extent of their relationship. That night, though, she would not stop talking about him. “W– was crying today. It was his first day as a Tootsie… -
What if someone walks in?
15 Jun 2009 | 4:34 am“Paranoid Daddy” should have been in contention for my blog title: I spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about what my parenting would look like if someone just happened to walk in at any moment. I’m not talking housework, here: I figure a little chaos is reasonable for a two-kid household. No, I actually arrange the little remnants of Boo’s passage to make it look like she’s been eating balanced meals. To wit: A lunch of strawberries, a bit of sausage, boiled egg, and milk, right? Not too bad! Except that Boo ate one bite of sausage and licked a strawberry before she… -
Nursery School Spy
12 Jun 2009 | 1:27 amWell, it took a week of nursery school, but Boo finally asked me about my sex life in front of all the other parents. Solo free climb up Mount Lots-of-Rocks We were sitting in the schoolyard at pickup time, surrounded by a frothy mass of child and parent and stroller. As I witlessly pursued the usual post-school inquiries that kids universally loathe ("Did you do art? Really? You did?"), Boo interrupted with a question of her own. "Daddy, when you and mommy are taking a shower at the same time…" Oh, hell, I think. Furtively glancing around to see if anyone is… -
Toddlerstilsken
9 Jun 2009 | 4:00 amIt’s after midnight and I’m wiping down the dining room table for the third time today. At three, Boo has mastered the skills necessary for fine dining but remains less interested in demonstrating said table manners than in performing creative food experiments. Boo pretends she’s laundry to get my attention. Tonight, I find that she’s somehow julienned a cucumber slice into a strong glue, adhering remnants of cheese and crumb to the table, the seat and legs of the chair, and the rug. The virtues of the eat-in kitchen (which we don’t have) over the dining room (which… -
Dear Boobaby, part XL
7 Jun 2009 | 4:02 pmDear Boobaby, Images of Month XL We mostly use Roman numerals for these letters; that makes you XL months old. Extra large, indeed: every day you seem taller and bigger, more solid little girl than any kind of baby. You’re more lucid and funny and stubborn and just plain more grown up than ever. Even the baby clothes you insist on wearing every few days are getting larger — you squeeze into the 18-month clothes instead of raiding Claudia’s newborn outfits. Monsters have become rather an obsession for you. The giants of preschool literature — Sesame…
-
ED UNLOADED - Parenting through a Daddy's eyes
-
Birthday Party at School (Part 2)
2 Jul 2009 | 9:28 amFor any party to be successful…You just need 3 essential Ingredients: 1) McDonald’s French Fries 2) McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets 3) Potato Chips We had sandwiches as well, but these were the top 3 most requested items for Nicole and definitely Must Haves for her party. As you can see….they all wanted MORE!!! Nathan and Nadine were there to celebrate the birthday as well….As usual…they were too busy to talk :P Nicole could not decide on what type of cake she wanted for her birthday….First it was a Princess, then it became a Dora…soon it was Strawberry Shortcake…but we decided… -
Birthday Party at School (Part 1)
29 Jun 2009 | 7:00 amThis post is long overdue… Nicole had her Traffic Light Party on the 19th of June. (Read about the Origins of Traffic Light Party here!) Well, on the day of the Party, all of us had to wake up early and the whole family made our way to school! We dropped by Middle Road first to pick up the Balloons and cheap party goods. (This is where the party shops at Concourse shifted to). We arrived to a “Roaring Reception” when we reached the school…And they were chanting “Party…Party…Party!” when we reached the school gates. Excitement was surely in the air! We started off with games in… -
Youth Camp Grand Finale Video
27 Jun 2009 | 11:34 pmThe ET Zone Castaway Camp is over! We had great fun…it was tiring but I believe everyone enjoyed themselves and I will just sum up the last few days in this video! The photos are much better than last years…thanks to Aaron Low, and the video is great as well! U can check out some of our older videos here! Many thanks to Shiying and Joshua for making it possible! Do watch the video before you leave and remember to vote for me as well, as you will stand a chance to win a FREE CANON CAMERA! If u have problems watching the video, you can click here to go directly to the site. Do let me know… -
Waterbomb Madness
26 Jun 2009 | 12:26 amThis is edmund reporting live from St. John's Island.We are starting our annual water bomb youth olympics very soon!There is a sense of tense anticipation on the impending war!Edmund Tay from his Blackberry -
Stuck on a Castaway Island
25 Jun 2009 | 10:28 pmHi guys! Have not had the time to update my blog lately as I am at St. John's island for our youth camp. We had an awesome first night, where the presence of God came and touched many lives.Lots of youths came crying to the altar call, as they made decisions to go deeper in love with God!Believing for a more awesome meeting tonight!Edmund Tay from his Blackberry
-
First Time Dad
-
I’m Back!!
29 Jun 2009 | 7:52 pmI’ve finally handed in my last assignment and I’m unofficially done with my Master's degree. Of course I need to get my results for my last two papers this semester but after that I’ll be graduating. Woo hoo!!!This has dragged on for more than a year and a half and I’ve totally neglected my blogging pretty much throughout the whole period. Worse I’ve neglected all my blogging buddies during that time too! SORRY FOLKS - I'll make it up to you!! Wow so much has happened since then! The worst news was the recent passing of Michael Jackson! I have grown up to his music and been a fan of… -
Oh to be young again...
7 Mar 2009 | 8:32 amNo no I'm not feeling down or anything. It's my little girl's 4th birthday today and I'm as happy as can be! I've been so busy lately that I feel that I've been neglecting her a little and wifey and me almost did not have a party because we have exams both this week and next. But try explaining that to a little girl. Besides it's something I've wanted to do since last year and I didn't want pust it another year. Moreover she asked for a party this time. She is growing up I tell ya! My little girl is growing up! Anyway we somehow managed to get things done between classes. It wasn't ahrd… -
Lost
17 Feb 2009 | 8:04 amOkay Okay...so I've been lost for a while. Can't help it....busy at work and busy at school and of course busy with the little one. Yes, it's a juggling act of enourmous proportions. This term is deemed to be a short term, which essentially means that we ahve to cram three months work into two months. In addition to that at work we're down two staff at the office so basically it's just time time time or the lack of it. Actually I've been meaning to post about my little one's first day at school....which was of course last month. Man were we proud parents just beaming at the sight of our… -
Merry Christmas
24 Dec 2008 | 4:36 pmWe' like to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year! If you know the tune Grandma Got Run Ove By A Reindeer...play it or Hum it before starting this clip...my gift to you all! HO HO HO -
Bear With Me...
3 Nov 2008 | 10:01 pmMy good friend and magical Genie Princess Marzie is celebrating her 2nd Blogiversary this year! What an achievement! Congrats!! To commemorate the event she is having another one of her great contests!! The prize…a Mariuca Teddy Bear….the challenge naming the bear!Well that's easy…a name came into mind right away… I dub thee.....Marzipan!!! and my sister Penelope!Why I chose Marzipan…well firstly because it has Marzie in it and secondly because the color of the bear was a shade of almond and since Marzipan is also made out of almonds, plus Marzipan s sweet just like Marzie is, so…
-
Building Camelot
-
Weekly Round Table: Happy 4th of July!
2 Jul 2009 | 1:14 pmSince tomorrow (July 3rd) is a holiday and I plan on kicking back and enjoying this 3 day weekend I’m brining you the “Weekly Round Table” a day early. I didn’t think you would mind. I hope you all have a fun and safe holiday weekend and I’ll see you on Monday. Here are your weekly links: Stats on Tap: Annual Beer Consumption by State [Slosh Spot] A great new comic for dads by a dad [Planet Saturday] What will your children value when they grow up? [Domestic Cents] 30 Days to a Better Man Challenge Wrap-Up [The Art Of Manliness] 7 Essential Superpowers for Dads… -
Why You Should Write For Building Camelot
30 Jun 2009 | 10:00 amWriting and maintaining this site takes up a ton of my free time and I’m looking for 3-4 contributors who want to write one article a month for Building Camelot. That’s all – just one article a month for the next 3 – 4 months. Are you interested? If so, that’s great! You can contact me, shoot me an email or leave me a comment below and I’ll get back with you quickly. I’ve been writing Building Camelot for quite some time now and I’m looking to slow down my posting frequency and get some writers on board to help out. I want to maintain the… -
Building Camelot Rewind: June 2008
27 Jun 2009 | 9:08 pmTime flies when you’re having fun right? I was browsing my archives the other day and got all nostalgic so I decided to highlight some of my posts from June 2008. I can’t believe that it’s almost July (where did this year go?) and before the month slips by, let’s take a trip down memory lane and look back at some of my old posts from Building Camelot. I hosted the 6th and most manly of all Manivals: [June 2nd] BC was in the spotlight over at The Father Life [June 5th] 6 great sites to help dads get involved with their kids [June 10th] Here are 5 sites you should read… -
Who Wants To Win A Premium Account To Picnik?
26 Jun 2009 | 1:54 pmDo you love taking and editing your digital pictures? Have you checked out Picnik yet? Picnik is an awesome, easy-to-use web-based photo editing program that can help you make professional looking pictures and collages quickly without the need to learn or buy expensive software. I was lucky enough to receive a premium account from the folks at Picnik and they want to help spread the love to my readers. That’s right – I’m giving away 2, 6-month premium accounts to Picnik so you can add some awesomeness to all of your photos. If you’re new to Picnik, I suggest you check… -
Jumpstart 3D: Safe And Fun Online Eduction For Kids
25 Jun 2009 | 11:51 amIf you’re looking for a safe, fun and easy place for your children to learn online then you have to check out Jumpstart.com. Trusted by 20 million parents, Jumpstart.com is an online, virtual world that’s full of games and adventure for kids ages 3 and up. With games that actually teach your children different skills, Jumpstart.com is a great place for your kids to learn math, reading and other skills year round. Using a new service called thisMoment, I’ve put together the following “slideshow” showing images from Jumpstart 3D as well as actual videos of my…
-
Daddy Brain
-
The The 40-Year-Old Version: Book Review & Author Interview
26 Jun 2009 | 9:24 amHere I sit, having freshly completed, The 40-Year-Old Version: Humoirs of a Divorced Dad. I’ve committed to writing a review, which is fine by me. The book is refreshingly good, and I enjoyed it immensely. But where do I start? How do I do it justice without sounding like dozens of other positive reviews of Joel’s [...] -
Life is Like a Tinfoil Ball…
24 Jun 2009 | 7:14 amI’ve got a silly story to share about something I do at work. Well, at least it might seem silly. I have been making a tinfoil ball out of the foil I wrap my bagels in. Let me tell you, that ball started off small. But as time went on it grew in stature, ever so [...] -
The Speeding Ticket
18 Jun 2009 | 11:58 amA few weeks ago, I received a speeding ticket while traveling to work. I was running late because one of my boys was up all night, so I was severely dragging my butt. I had no intention of speeding. But my fatigue, coupled with listening to a Zig Ziglar audio book, created less than optimal conditions for [...] -
Spare the Rod: Don’t Hit! (Part 3)
16 Jun 2009 | 10:41 amIn this final installment of my discipline and The Bible series, I’d like to ask the following question: Could you imagine if we only did what our forefathers (and foremothers) did? Just because our forefathers did things a certain way does not make it the best way, or the right way. If we only did what our [...] -
Spare The Rod: Don’t Hit! (Part 2)
12 Jun 2009 | 11:37 amIf the Old Testament of The Bible was written 6,000 years ago, then people who take it literally may be taking the word of God out of context. The meaning of words and concepts have changed drastically over the past 60 centuries, which leaves lots of room for misinterpretation. Shoot the Ball! For instance, take the example [...]
-
Wired: GeekDad
-
Superhero Hook-up Chart Makes Your Romantic Life Seem Simple
2 Jul 2009 | 6:30 amSix of These People Are Closely Related. And Then It Gets Complicated. Marvel Comics Image My twins just started watching Wolverine and The X-Men on Nicktoons Network. I didn’t want to watch because I liked it when the X-Men were about more than just Wolverine but they were interested, so I relented. It’s not just all about Wolverine, which was a relief to me, and they liked it well enough. Quicksilver, who’s with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants on the show, drew the only question. My daughter had read Avengers: Knights of Wundagore and wanted to know why he was bad now. I… -
A Look Back at the OLPC XO-1 and a Peek at the Road Ahead
2 Jul 2009 | 6:00 amSeveral years ago Nicholas Negroponte began telling us of his quest help address the lack of good education in developing nations. The key to realizing his vision was a $100 laptop that could be sold in large quantities and handed out like text books in these areas. For much of the tech community, all we heard was “$100 laptop!” If building an innovative platform to foster learning in millions of children who have never been exposed to much technology wasn’t challenging enough, making that platform durable, reliable, and inexpensive should be impossible. Over the past two… -
Independence Day Safety Tips For Geeks and Dads
2 Jul 2009 | 5:30 amExplosive Fun, but Dangerous (image: Howstuffworks.com) Saturday is Independence Day and that means Barbecues, family get-togethers, sunshine and perhaps the beach. It also means fireworks. Tons and tons of fireworks. Ranging from hand-held sparklers to homemade explosives bordering on illegal or actually being illegal. Here at GeekDad, we know all about the D.I.Y. mindset that is ingrained in all the GeekDads out there. We also feel that there is one simple rule before starting any D.I.Y. project, and that is “safety first.” We also understand that as GeekDads it is our… -
Lunch With Alan Dean Foster, Part II: The Star Trek Book
2 Jul 2009 | 5:00 amImage by marceatsworld via Flickr If you joined us yesterday for Part I of my interview with Alan Dean Foster, you learned about his writing schedule and method. Today, learn about Foster’s experience writing the novelization for the most recent Star Trek movie, what he’s working on next (hint: it’s more Star Trek) and a few other things. To prepare for my interview, I listened to the audiobook version of Foster’s Star Trek book. I very much enjoyed listening to it while driving to the Maker Faire, and the narration by Zachary Quinto was done very well. The book… -
Top Ten Things That Parents Should Know About Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
2 Jul 2009 | 4:30 amThe characters from Ice Age and Ice Age: The Meldown are back for the third installment. Scrat, the squirrel (?) is still trying to get that ever-elusive acorn. Manny and Ellie await the birth of their baby mammoth. Diego the saber-toothed tiger wonders if he’s getting too “soft.” Sid the sloth steals some dinosaur eggs to create his own family. 1. Will I like it? If you liked the first two, you will probably like this one. If you hated the first two. . . Well, it may be better than being stuck in the house on a rainy day. Or if it’s hot and your air conditioner is broken, the…
-
GreatDad.com
-
Jack Black discusses sibling rivalry and parenting skills
20 Jun 2009 | 5:00 amAny father who has more than one child is undoubtedly familiar with the challenges of sibling rivalry. -
Movie Review: Year One
19 Jun 2009 | 5:00 amTwo weeks after Land of the Lost entered theaters, filmgoers are being asked once again to travel back in time, though in this installment it's to the very beginning. -
Daddy's Home - Things Parents Say
18 Jun 2009 | 7:30 pmDaddy's Home is a humorous commentary on today's family life, with an emphasis on the role of the modern father, through the eyes of a stay-at-home-dad. -
Using parenting skills to deal with teenage dating
18 Jun 2009 | 5:00 amAs a child enters his or her teenage years, some fathers may fear the inevitable situation of watching their offspring get introduced into the dating world. -
Perusing weekly grocery fliers can lead to savings
18 Jun 2009 | 5:00 amDespite what the economy may or may not be doing, many fathers have come to adopt money-saving habits as part of their regular parenting routine.
-
HeirApparent
-
Armed and Traveling
1 Jul 2009 | 6:06 pmHowdy folks – still trying to catch up from last week’s epic Gulf Coast adventure and sadly this blog has gotten the least of my attention as of late. I WAS able to cobble together a new Armed and Fatherly for Dad Blogs and it posted this morning. The topic du jour is appropriately traveling with infants, and is a hopefully enlightening romp through the best gear for hauling your infant/toddler long distances in the car. Check it out if you have a moment. -
Thoughts on Time and Distance
26 Jun 2009 | 6:10 amI have just recently (last night) returned from a business trip that has been by far the longest stretch of time I’ve been away from my daughter since she emerged from the hole slashed with a surgical machete by our OBGYN over a year ago. The trip itself was epic, spanning two tradeshows and highlighted by a 19 hour overnight trek in a van loaded primarily with rubber sports balls. It was an adventure to be sure, but by the end I will have been away from my family for ten days, which is an awful lot, and it has been an emotional struggle to get through. I would be lying if a small… -
On A Notable Occasion, Part Deux
20 Jun 2009 | 12:00 pmHaving devoted space on this blog a month ago to my wife and mother on the special occasion (Arbor Day, if memory serves) I though it would only be fair to devote today’s column to the most important father in my life: me. But at the behest of a few friends who suggested that may come off as ‘narcissistic’ and that I was ‘full of myself’ and even ‘ego maniacal,’ I’ve devoted this instead to MY Dad, who actually IS the most important man in my life. Dad has instilled in me many of the qualities and interests that define who I am, and how I act,… -
On the Occasion of Your Birth
20 Jun 2009 | 6:00 amExactly one year ago today, my little Justine emerged from my wife and sent forth a borning cry that still reverberates throughout every day of my life. It is fitting that the occasion of my daughter’s birth will always fall around a day where the world is reminded of the role that I undertook what now seems like an eternity ago: fatherhood. Happy Birthday, Justiney! -
A Long, Strange Trip
19 Jun 2009 | 10:39 pmHowdy folks – it’s currently 12:45 AM on Father’s Day eve and rather than being asleep next to my amazing wife I instead am trapped in a small seat carved our amidst hundreds of water bottles, rubber athletic balls, and a ton of tradeshow booth, trying desperately to fall asleep. My company has two tradeshows, one in Orlando, and one in San Antonio, with only a day in between. Consequently I am in a van, somewhere in the panhandle of Florida in the middle of the night. Weeeeee! If you are so inclined, I am blogging our adventure over on our company blog –…
-
gamingwithbaby.com | all your diapers are belong to us
-
A Letter To My New Best Friend
1 Jul 2009 | 1:27 pmDear Hoochie,Please forgive me while I preface these words with what some would consider a derogatory title. In your delightful exchange earlier I didn't get a chance to find out your name, but you didn't try to find out mine either, so we'll just call it even for now, OK? However, as much I would've liked to have known your name so we could become fast friends, it's just too hard not to use such a descriptor because you certainly presented yourself as such in public.As anyone who has ever frequented a grocery store can tell you, there is an unwritten set of rules that is expected on entering… -
happy father's day
21 Jun 2009 | 9:23 pmA hand-made card. Simple. Colorful. Beautiful. Great attention given to every exacting letter of “Happy Father's Day” and “Dad.” But the card is not mine. Those beautiful shapes, letters, and words are for someone else. Someone who doesn't know the pain of losing their child to another. One who doesn't know what it's like to stare into an empty room for months wishing that the perfectly intact mess strewn about it's floor showed some sign of movement by it's purposed occupant. One whose only connection to author of those words stems from marriage to her mother. Not once have I ever… -
The Black Nerd Strikes Again
5 Jun 2009 | 10:36 amIf you're reading this via RSS feed, you never know what could be missing on gamingwithbaby.com. -
The cute explody ones
26 May 2009 | 7:14 amIf you're reading this via RSS feed, you never know what could be missing on gamingwithbaby.com. -
The lil Manatee
20 May 2009 | 6:51 pmIf you're reading this via RSS feed, you never know what could be missing on gamingwithbaby.com.
-
spain dad, a baby blog
-
Paradise
29 Jun 2009 | 11:58 pmThe woman in front of us was holding her sleeping daughter in her arms. Her husband was in front of her pulling their luggage and pushing a stroller with a sleeping baby through the herd of backpackers and the men picketing with their signs for hotels and cars for hire and wine tours and excursions to the top of the volcano.I was relieved when the family pointed at the sign with the name of our hotel written on it and pushed their way over to talk to the man with the sign. I was relieved because I could follow them through this mess of people, and as the woman glanced behind and smiled at… -
Flamenco
22 Jun 2009 | 12:24 amAlleke got her first flamenco lesson in Plaza Mayor while we were walking home from the ice cream shop.Watch Flamenco on Vimeo. -
Natural Childbirth in Madrid, an interview
11 Jun 2009 | 3:52 pmFor those who are curious about what it's like to give birth in Spain, I got to sit down with April this afternoon and interview her about her second pregnancy and how she's gone about choosing a birthing center in Madrid.This interview is also available to listen to as a podcast.Kelly (Spain Dad): In terms of having a natural childbirth in Madrid, what are you looking for in a birthing center? What are your priorities in order of importance?April: What's most important to me is a birthing center's approach to childbirth and pregnancy. I'm looking for an approach that assumes giving birth is… -
Being Berber
7 Jun 2009 | 12:59 pmOur friend Chris sings and plays piano for a band called Being Berber in Madrid. He was eating lunch at our house on Saturday when April asked:"Alleke wants to know why you have hair on your face."Chris grinned at Alleke, then scratched his soul patch in thought."Musicians have hair on their face so they look cool," he said with a shrug.April turned and interpreted this for Alleke. "Chris has hair on his face because he plays piano." -
Amy Swacina School of Dance
5 Jun 2009 | 12:27 pmAlleke is a proud graduate of the Amy Swacina School of Dance in Madrid. In other words, we leave Alleke with Amy (our ballerina friend) while we go to Spanish class, and they twirl around together in her living room. Here are the results:Watch Alleke dancing ballet on Vimeo.
-
Zoe's Dad
-
Blends
22 Jun 2009 | 8:02 pm"Could I have another zwer-wink, please?""Zander. It's a D. Say it. Dah Dah Dah. Dah-Rink.""Zwer--""No! Dah. Dah. D. Say the D."Zander has problems with diction. Certain letters and words he is just unable to articulate correctly. I blame his fingers. Namely the fact that he continues to suck them and essentially has learned to speak with his fingers in his mouth. His tongue is so used to forming words around the fingers that even when he takes them out--you can't tell the difference.It drives me nuts!And so… -
Pretty in Pink
17 Jun 2009 | 8:31 pm... ... -
Ed Read a Book--and Then Reviewed It!
16 Jun 2009 | 5:21 pmI read a book. A real book with pages. There were no pictures. Just words and by my count--a lot of them. It's not often that I actually read a book so I'm making note of it here. In fact, the last book I read was sometime last summer--maybe the one before.But it was a productive summer because I read two books.Cormack McCarthy. The Road. (I hated it!) And No Country For Old Men. (Loved it.)I'm going to try and do better this summer. See, here it is June 16th and I've already finished a book. Then again, Zane started reading ... -
And Then He Didn't
15 Jun 2009 | 3:48 amHe crashed into the car.He crashed into the garage.He crashed into the basketball post.I tried to be encouraging and made a mental note to get more Bandaids.He crashed into the dog.He crashed into his sister.He crashed into the fence.I offered a few pointers and tried to recall if there were ice packs in the freezer.He crashed into the grass.He crashed into the tree.He crashed into nothing.Clearly, his frustration was peaked. I offered more words. He glared in a manner that told me I should stop talking. This was something he was just going to have to figure out on his… -
Let the Festivities Begin
5 Jun 2009 | 4:30 pm...
-
Looky, Daddy!
-
Wedding Lemonade
28 Jun 2009 | 10:21 pmSummer posts will be scarce. There's not much to be said about that. Last year I bravely promised a drink recipe a week just to keep you coming back, and I managed a whole five of those before summer drowned me in grass clippings and sunscreen. Let's see if I do better this time.Wedding Lemonade.I only tasted it once. It seared a memory into my 8-year-old brain even as it seared away the lining of my 8-year-old esophagus. For years to come, it reduced me to a kind of lemonade paranoia, asking with what must have been maddening constancy whether the pitcher of lemonade I saw in the fridge… -
Good Influence
22 Jun 2009 | 4:49 pmI wasn’t yet asleep when my dad came into my room and asked for my help. If he did this now, it wouldn’t be that surprising—a man in his sixties has a multitude of uses for a man in his thirties, even at just before midnight—but I was still in high school and I had no idea what could bring my dad to my room asking for help in the middle of the night. When he told me to get dressed and meet him in the driveway, I understood even less.“And wear something dark,” he added as he walked out, leaving my bedroom door open.During my youth, my father owned a number of cars, most of them… -
You Wish You Knew How to Quit Me
19 Jun 2009 | 4:36 amI shared how the twins got their names over on nameberry today. Don't click if you named your kids Hester. -
Side Effects
17 Jun 2009 | 6:55 amSo apparently, when your child's behavior is controlled by anti-seizure meds, you're not supposed to yell at her for it. Which sucks. As a general rule, my parenting style is pretty straight forward: Misbehavior met with swift retribution. I learned it from God. But now I'm being asked by paid professionals to greet Kathryn's uncontrolled bursts of anger with "understanding" and "redirecting," even though the only thing I can think of to redirect her toward is the television and the reminder that the cable that came free with our house probably won't be free much longer.On Saturday, Kathryn… -
The Fine Line
11 Jun 2009 | 5:46 amSo yesterday I posted a photo of Victoria, her left eye swollen half shut by a bruise. And then I took it down.I know why I posted it. I didn't post it because I felt you should see it. I didn't post it because I thought it would contribute something of worth to the world of parenting blogs. I posted it because it was there. I posted it because I hadn't posted anything to this blog in six days, and that length of time was weighing on me. And so when Victoria awoke yesterday morning with her eye swollen seventeen different shades of black, I photographed it. Then I cropped the picture close…
-
Tales From The Dad Side
-
The Change From Sweet To Creepy
2 Jul 2009 | 3:15 amI have a brief matter of housekeeping before we get to today's post. Some of you (at least one person emailed me within an hour of my usual publish time) may have noticed that I didn't post yesterday, which is a testament to my habitual nature (as well as your need for routine). Yesterday was Canada Day, which is a statutory holiday, and a long time ago I decided that I would typically post on "working days" only (to avoid feeling pressured to post on the Monday of a long weekend).Of course, next week I'm taking vacation time, and will probably lapse in my posting again. However, none of that… -
Compensating
30 Jun 2009 | 3:15 amThe Way I Am - EminemI have long maintained that we (parents) parent our children in response to how we were parented, that we try to raise our kids in a manner that corrects any mistakes we feel our parents made (and theoretically emulate anything we felt worked well). Growing up, my father worked shift work at a factory. When he was on days, he'd be home for dinner but would (somewhat understandably, in hindsight) fall asleep immediately afterward and awaken just before our bedtime. On Friday nights, he'd go out drinking at his club right after dinner. If he was working days on the weekend,… -
The Nightmare Of Bathtime
29 Jun 2009 | 3:15 amBefore we get to today's post, for those lurkers readers who only read via feeds, I have made some changes to the layout of my blog. They are subtle at first glance, but are actually fairly significant in the area of site navigation. So, if you're interested in such things, click through. Either way, if you have thoughts about it, please share in the comments.Behold! The Night Mare - Smashing PumpkinsWhen Munchkin was the age that Buddy is now, although I tried to connect with her, I was nowhere near as close with her as I am with Buddy today. So, I was rarely, if ever, in charge of bathing… -
Neglectimommy Volume 4
26 Jun 2009 | 3:15 amSome Days Are Better Than Others - U2Welcome to Volume 4 of Neglectimommy. You can read about the origins of this serial (and view the first comic) in the first volume.Neglectimommy ArchiveVolume 1Volume 2Volume 3It's hard to believe (at least for me), but it has been almost a month since I published a Neglectimommy comic. Whatever. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and shit like that. As always, I welcome feedback (even if it's accusing me of something completely untrue); if you don't like them, I'll stop publishing them (although I'll probably keep making them because my wife loves them… -
"Tell Me A Story From When You Were A Little Boy"
25 Jun 2009 | 3:15 amStory Of Her Fate - Screaming TreesLast year, I wrote about how Munchkin wanted to hear stories from when she was a baby. The made-up stories mentioned in that post didn't last too long (I don't remember specifically why, but I suspect it had something to do with MTM taking issue to me telling Munchkin she got wasted and puked on our lawn as an infant), but her desire to hear stories from her infancy never waned.Somewhere along the line, she developed a curiosity about our childhoods: what we were like, what our siblings (her aunts) were like, what our parents were like, what things were…
-
Amanamongmommies
-
Zoo Are You…Zoo Zoo, Zoo Zoo…
1 Jul 2009 | 11:17 amDaily Pictures: Zoo Trip The wife took Tuesday off so we could go to the Zoo as a family. Our favorite zoo is the Milwaukee County Zoo just outside of Milwaukee WI. The drive is a little over an hour, but well worth it. This was the first time that our youngest has gone to the Zoo and he had an amazing time. By far his favorite places were the Fish and Reptile House and the Goats at the Farm. The big tanks made it easy for him to stand there and see the fish go by at his eye level. They have a few Leopard Sharks and he truly was excited to watch them. The goats walking up to him… -
Pictures and Shatered Nail
27 Jun 2009 | 9:03 am4yo had Team Pictures for T-Ball this morning. Getting out of the van I thought it would be a good idea to shatter my big toe nail. UGH! -
Costco Trip
26 Jun 2009 | 8:51 amTime to go spend too much at Costco. I think every item costs at least $10.00 and I can never get out of there on budget. need to find a few things for the summer and hopefully make my way out alive. -
A Great Day For The Boys
25 Jun 2009 | 9:23 pmDaily Picture: Barefoot In the Grass Busy Fun Day Well today was a busy and fun day for the boys. We went to Six FLags Great America today for a few hours. We have season passes thanks to my Father In Law and we also had a few free tickets for this week. So I brought my Brothers Wife and Son with us to play at the water park. The boys had a blast and it was good to be out for a while. Then this evening the two older boys had a birthday party from 6:00 to 8:00 at a Jump House Place and again they had a blast. All the boys were tired and the kids had a wonderful day. The Bug Hunter. -
Dad is Home From The Hospital
24 Jun 2009 | 2:57 pmDaily Picture: Happy Swimmer With summer coming on really strong this week the boys have spent a lot of time in the pool. My little passive solar heater has working amazingly well, almost too well. The kids love the water warmer so it is not bad, plus it costs nothing extra to have the warmer pool. 48′ of black tubing a few clamps and you have a way to warm up the pool. Dad is Home Well my Dad came home from the hospital today and as soon as my wife gets home I am heading out to see him. Too much to bring the kids anywhere near him at this point. He will be having more tests…
-
Pleasant Nights
-
Molly
28 Jun 2009 | 1:12 pm -
Water Lilies
27 Jun 2009 | 1:12 pm -
Water Lily
26 Jun 2009 | 1:12 pm -
White Flower in Black and White
25 Jun 2009 | 1:12 pm -
Delicate pink flower
24 Jun 2009 | 1:12 pm
-
A Family Runs Through It
-
Hiawatha 2009
2 Jul 2009 | 11:42 amWe took another excursion on the Hiawatha Trail this week.I think it's the ultimate family bike trip. 17 miles of incredible mountain scenery, through nine tunnels, and across seven high trestles.And best of all, it's all downhill.My kids normally tire out after two or three miles of bike riding, but the Hiawatha's gentle grade allows them to pedal without pushing too hard. Which is good for me, too.We introduced some friends from Minnesota to the trail, and they loved it. Especially at the end when the shuttle bus was waiting to take us back to our car.If you want to know more about the… -
Reminders
30 Jun 2009 | 3:13 pmWe're not here right now. We're riding the wild bike trails of North Idaho.In the meantime, I appreciate the reminder emails you've sent me.Yes, I know, I said I would post my daughter's Second Grade Super Test. And I promised to show "after" pictures of our new patio. And there's that Summer Beach Bag book giveaway.I'm sure there are a few other things that have slipped my mind. Let me know if you remember better than I do.I hope you're packing as much fun into summer as we are. There are only two months until school starts up again, so get busy! -
Missing Mommy
26 Jun 2009 | 12:52 amDay Three of the single-dad act and all is well. Except tonight, my daughter finally uttered those words I was expecting:"I miss Mommy."I've been trying to keep the kids occupied with other thoughts and activities. Games, movies, bike rides, swimming lessons, McDonald's, gardening, and Legos. But none of those can match the power of the Mommy!Speaking of swimming lessons, my son had a breakthrough this week. He figured out how to dunk his head underwater without flooding his sinuses. He did it by humming, and now he hums a merry little tune while gliding through the water.It's a small… -
Sadness and Victory
24 Jun 2009 | 1:42 amYes, I know. I'm late picking the five winners of the Father's Day book giveaway.We had some sad news on Monday. My wife's paternal grandmother passed away after a long illness. What's even sadder for my wife is that this comes just two months after her maternal grandmother died. Feels like too much loss in such a short time.But that's life. We grieve, and then we need to move on. There are hungry kids to feed, dirty laundry to wash, cluttered counters to clear, and overgrown lawns to mow. And this week I'm doing it all by myself as my wife travels to another state with her family to put… -
Birthday Rules
21 Jun 2009 | 11:55 pmFather's Day? What Father's Day?Today was my son's birthday, and we made the entire weekend out to be a celebration of his 11th year of life. So, there was little time for me.But that's okay. One part of the birthday rules is that BIRTHDAYS RULE!At least I got to participate in the festivities.On Saturday we met up with friends for a leisurely bike ride along the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes, between Cataldo and Kingston.We found a perfect picnic spot, where the kids could explore along the shoreline. They found all the cool things: a dead snake, an old tire, a beaver dam, and fresh mountain…
-
I have to wipe his what?
-
Stay At Home Dad’s Get Less Sex Because Their Wives Work
25 Jun 2009 | 10:30 pmStay At Home Dad’s Get Less Sex Because Their Wives WorkTonight I asked Lilly to go upstairs and get naked, not exactly in that order, or with those precise words. She responded with, “I have too much on my mind,” of which she was referring to her job. Her work can be, and currently is stressful. That’s when it struck me. My wife has sex with me less often because she is the working -
Lick Your Plate
22 Jun 2009 | 10:56 pmLick Your PlateMy passion for good food has led me to eat it. Oh, and to write and shoot it. So I got hired on to do a column at Dad-blogs.com, all about food. So if you ‘re a foodie like me and like fancy foods with lots of herbs and spices and foreign food and chocolate and homemade bread and purging yourself until it hurts, then you should follow my new column. See you there! -
Perilous Predicaments
17 Jun 2009 | 11:44 pmPerilous PredicamentsOur children are our most precious assets. As a new parent I often worry about his well being. Fear often tugs at my heart. Fear of the unknown, of what could happen. There are so many harmful things around a helpless baby. With this new collection of photos I am expressing what I am fearful of, of the dangers my son currently faces. Yes, I want them to shock you, I -
Play Me The Blues Baby
15 Jun 2009 | 11:43 pmPlay Me The Blues Baby After two days my boy has mastered his harmonica skills. Okay so indulge me here for a bit as I gush over my boy and his mad skills. I've never, ever been around babies untill my own little guy here, so I don't know what they are capable of. So when I stuck this harmonica in his mouth and he figured out he can make noise with it, well it was exciting stuff. You -
Occupation: n/a
12 Jun 2009 | 12:00 amOccupation: n/a“What’s your occupation”, the bank teller asked me. Occupation? Why does she need to know my occupation just so I can get this check cashed? I’ve been a member here for a while now anyway. Didn’t they already collect all my info when Lilly first gave me access to her money? And I’ve been in here a dozen times, and this time they ask for my occupation? What gives. All
-
Nuclear Family Warhead
-
Remembering Claire
2 Jul 2009 | 7:35 amOur thoughts and prayers go out to the Weasel Family today as they cope with the loss of one of their own. Claire Elizabeth passed away 2 weeks after her birth in 2002. Please take a moment today to remember WeaselMomma and her family. Launch It: -
Anticipation Is…Making Me Wonder Why Carly Simon Didn’t Wear A Bra On The Cover Of Her Album Titled “No Secrets.” Wait, I Think I Just Answered My Own Question
29 Jun 2009 | 11:40 pmTIME FOR A SWIM I feel like Snerdley McDweeble pacing his mother’s basement waiting for his Ukrainian mail-order bride. Or Ralphie waiting for Christmas morning so he could unwrap his Official Red Ryder carbine-action 200 shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time. I’m as anxious as an emaciated piranha lurking downriver from a swim camp for the morbidly obese just before adult swim. I’m a little excited (can you tell?), and now; I’m out of metaphors. Damn, I was rollin’ there for a minute. I have a surprise… -
Sunshine (and dirt) On My Shoulders
26 Jun 2009 | 9:28 pmNUKEMOM & NUKEBOY1 One camping trip last week coupled with a trip to the New River in Foster Falls, Virginia today has led me to my present state: banging out this post while listening to John Denver. I know, I know, Dr. Isaid No is laughing hysterically right now, and that’s to be expected, but I’m secure enough in my musical manhood to type that out loud; JOHN FREAKIN’ DENVER! Yeah! Dan Fogelberg is cued up after that, so there. Where was I? Oh yea, 1975; so anyway, I’ve been on this whole granola-back to nature-mother earth thing lately. Don’t… -
A Whiter Shade Of Pale
22 Jun 2009 | 12:49 amI’ve found the ultimate diet plan. You’re guaranteed to lose 12 pounds in 2 1/2 days. It’s called; “The Scout Camp Diet” and it works. I should know, because I invented it over the latter part of last week. All that is required to make this diet work is to hike 12 to 15 miles per day in 90 degree heat. Results will increase if you start the plan in the rain and end it in 60 percent humidity. Night chills and subsequent night sweats are just part of the exultation you will feel while on this plan. Need to lose 3 pounds before dinner? Easy, just… -
Setting The Bar Reeeally High
15 Jun 2009 | 9:53 pmGreensboro Flight Attendant Flight 93 The kids got out of school on Friday. Their weekend was packed full of fun and excitement. Now I’m fearing that we’ve painted ourselves into a corner; what do we do for an encore? Friday night we went to a baseball game in Greensboro. It’s a downtown stadium that’s only a few years old. There is a monument out in front of the gate honoring one of Greensboro’s bravest citizens; Sandy Bradshaw. We, of course, sat in a luxury suite. As you know, the NukeFamily has become accustomed to a certain level of affluence…
-
IN SEARCH OF FATHERHOOD(R)
-
THIS DAY WILL COME: NICOLE S. DANTZLER
30 Jun 2009 | 4:54 pmWE ALL HAVE SMILEDAND WE ALL HAVE LAUGHEDBUT WE ALWAYS HOPED AND DREAMEDWE IMAGINED THE DAY THAT WOULD BRING US TRUSTTHE DAY THAT WOULD SET US FREEOUR HEARTS ARE FREE BUT OUR SOULS ARE CHAINEDWHAT CAN THAT POSSIBLY MEAN?THAT OUR HEARTS CAN SOAR BUT OUR SOULS ARE TRAPPED BY A LACK OF HUMAN BELIEFI STAND ON TOP OF THE WORLD WHILE LIVING IN SUCH POVERTYTRYING TO OVERCOME MY DOUBTSBUT I HOLD ON TIGHT NEVER FORGETTINGTHAT SOMEDAY THIS DAY WILL COMEWHEN YOU FEEL THAT YOU’VE GIVEN UP ON HOPELOOK BEHIND YOUWE ALL HAVE MADE IT THIS FARWHY GIVE IN NOWALL THE HURDLES WE JUMPEDEVERY MOUNTAIN WE… -
ENRICHING THE SPIRIT: CARRY GREAVES
30 Jun 2009 | 4:41 pmFrom time to time, many of us, even in our glorious hour, have the tendency to look outside of ourselves for some form of validation. And in doing so, we will never be able to see the inherent potential that lies within us that is continuously shouting out to be awakened. So when we solely depend on others rather than ourselves to do for us, when we are physically and emotionally capable of doing for ourselves, we then lose the tenacity that’s required in order for us to succeed. What is actually needed is for us to challenge ourselves and bring out the best that is in us to the surface and… -
TO THE FATHERS OF THE WORLD.....
21 Jun 2009 | 5:25 amIn many ways – and for many reasons – Fatherhood transcends the boundaries of geography, religion, language, culture, economics, ethnicity and politics. Day after day, Fathers from all Walks of Life throughout our global village experience the joys and challenges of positively shaping the minds and souls of their children. Fathers inherently understand that children are more than mere extensions of themselves . . . that children are our future – our bridge to the future. Children are a man’s heart and soul. A man will walk through fire for his children – if that is what it takes to… -
U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK H. OBAMA LAUNCHES NATIONAL CONVERSATION ON FATHERHOOD ... MOVES FATHERHOOD AND MEN'S ISSUES TO AMERICA'S NATIONAL RADAR SCREEN
20 Jun 2009 | 3:14 pmOn Friday, 19 June 2009, The Honorable Barack H. Obama, President of the United States, launched a National Conversation on Fatherhood. A Town Hall Meeting on Fatherhood was conducted at The White House in which Fathers joined President Obama in discussing what is being done to strengthen Fathers and families and the communities in which Fathers work and live in. The President along with a group of Fathers and Mentors visited a number of non-profit organizations in the Washington, D.C. area that provide mentoring and support services to young men. President Obama, a Father himself, has made… -
H.R. 2115: MEN AND FAMILIES HEALTH CARE ACT OF 2009 -- THE FIRST STEP IN ESTABLISHING AN OFFICE OF MEN'S HEALTH IN THE UNITED STATES
18 Jun 2009 | 7:15 am
-
Memoirs of a Stay At Home Dad
-
Grean Beans! Ballerina Costume, Nonnie was Here, Pink Eye-Yuch
20 Jun 2009 | 9:49 pmMore soon... -
"Just Chillin Out" "I'm Your Daughter, I'm Your Daddy" "Oh My Gosh" "That's a Good Idea" Gella is Here!"The Pleasure Is All Mine"
30 May 2009 | 9:39 pmSome of the more memorable phrases that Emma has been using.... When I ask Emma what she is doing she now frequently says, "I'm Chillin Out." She cracks me up, picking up all of our phrases.When I say to Emma, "You're my daughter and I'm your Daddy" she repeats "I'm your daughter I'm your Daddy." We have to work on this one...LOLWhen she is surprised, upset, or amazed, Emma will say, "Oh my gosh! -
Being a Stay-at-Home Dad is Just Fine ... Except for That Feeling of Isolation
6 May 2009 | 9:05 amI completely agree with the feeling of isolation! It is hard to explain and I am not even sure that stay at home moms would understand how strong this feeling is with men..... I have heard from Moms that they feel the same sometimes but I truly doubt that it is as intense in women as it is in men--in general....Instead of sitting in traffic for a long drive to his office in Concord on a recent -
The Baby Puked, Meera, Potty with Gianna, Kathy Kathy, Popstickle, Memorizing Max & Ruby Song
2 May 2009 | 6:02 pmEmma likes taking baths with her dollies. For awhile she would bring them in with their clothes still on but after awhile we took the clothes off beforehand as the princess dresses are too nice to get ruined. Anyway, she has a big doll that we just call baby. Baby is a doll that has an open mouth and bottom that will drink from a bottle and go pee. Baby took a bath with Emma and I thought it -
Women Are Wired Differently
28 Apr 2009 | 8:30 amThis is an article reprinted from another blog, http://simplefather.com, that "validates" my feeling that women and men are naturally different(in general)in respect to children, etc... This guy works full-time and his wife stays home with their two daughters but after a day with the girls he realizes what stay at home parents go through everyday, every week, every month, every year.... Although
-
meta-dad
-
Play it safe this 4th of July
2 Jul 2009 | 2:48 pmThe latest report from U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) indicates that there were reports of seven fireworks-related deaths and an estimated 7,000 hospital emergency room treated injuries in 2008. In 2007, CPSC had reports of eleven deaths and an estimated 9,800 injuries. Injuries have declined but safe practice and common sense are paramount this holiday season. The CPSC has teamed up with the Justice Department to enforce the legal sale and distribution of fireworks. Last month, a federal judge sentenced Jon Cea and Vincent Cea to 24 months and 36 months in federal prison,… -
Educational summer activities
1 Jul 2009 | 3:42 pmThis is the 20th year teaching in the Los Angeles Unified School District for Henry Anker. Over the years he has developed a number of flash-based tests for kids, grades one through six based on the State’s Standard Test. He’s currently serving as an ITAF (Instructional Technology Applications Facilitator) in Local District 3. So if you want your kid to get a jump on next year’s testing or needs to play catch-up, check out his tests, he covers all the bases. At the end of each section he offers summer reading for that grade level, as well as other helpful sites with quizzes… -
Kids Mood Cubes
24 Jun 2009 | 3:33 pmPlanning on going camping? Or maybe you just need night light where there is not plug to be found, these LED Mood Cubes with colors flowing from one to the other soothingly may be the answer. 2.75″ x 2.75″, battery powered lights $6.50 each [+ shipping] at Glow Source -
Boon baby-safe bath toys
23 Jun 2009 | 5:55 amBoon has a ton of fresh BPAa-free bath toys. Why is BPA-free toys better, you may ask? Well, to answer that clearly, one must understand what the problem is with BPA’s to begin with. BPA’s or Bisphenol A as it is commonly known is an organic compound used to make certain types of plastics. What makes this stuff so nasty is the fact that it’s an endocrine disruptor. This means when you are exposed to enough of it it starts to sending your hormones misinformation and wreaking havoc & causing irreversible damage throughout your body. So, yes, BPA-free toys are good things… -
5 more great Father’s Day gift ideas
15 Jun 2009 | 10:09 amWe all know how hard it can be finding that perfect gift for your dad, or husband. Here are a few good ideas to help you find something good for your dad or the father figure in your life. 1.) Shave and a haircut- get him a gift certificate to his favorite barbershop or coiffeur. To make it extra special, get him the Works complete with a barber shave- find a place that gives the old-school hot towel & straight blade service, there’s nothing better. Here in LA, there is Denver-based Floyd’s Barbershop is a solid option. The shop is wrapped in Rock n’ roll posters, the…
-
all that comes with it
-
New Rules
1 Jul 2009 | 4:19 pmOver the last couple of weeks we’ve implemented an new set of rules surrounding television in our house. Basically it boils down to the kids only being able to watch it between the hours of 7am and 9am and 5:30pm and 7:30pm. That’s still three and a half hours of TV viewing, and so well above the recommended two hours suggested by the experts. But you can’t help wondering if those experts actually have kids of their own to try and deal with. Or if they do, are they some sort of freaky Stepford children who spend hours sitting nicely in the corner playing with tasteful wooden… -
The Good (and Bad) Life
28 Jun 2009 | 4:00 pmI’ve really made some headway in the garden this year. Over the past 12 months it’s gone from looking like this: to this: Ok, so they are taken from different angles, but you get the idea However fortunes have not all run smooth on Old McHughes’ farm over the past couple of weeks. On the plus side my vegetable crops are doing really well this year. My peas, potatoes, and pumpkins in particular are growing like the proverbial clappers, and we ate this years first home grown strawberries at the weekend too. Even the apple trees appear to have had a reprieve and are fruiting away… -
A slight change of plan
26 Jun 2009 | 4:53 pmAgain I’ve already emailed this to everyone I think needs to read it, but just in case I’ve missed anyone in my general incompetence I’m republishing it here. If you’ve already responded to me via email then don’t feel the need to do it again in the comments unless you feel you want to. I’ve had an incredible response to my appeal for people to come on the walk of Hadrian’s Wall next July. So far a whopping 49 people from all over the world have said they are interested in coming along. They range from as far away as Australia to as nearby as, err, my… -
RT: Herring1967
26 Jun 2009 | 12:37 amHave you ever wondered how all those sick jokes that emerge after the death of a celebrity Well now I can tell you, they are all made up by UK comedian Richard Herring. When I went to bed last night the news had just broken that Michael Jackson had died. When I open my eyes this morning and did my customary post-wakening checks (Alive? Safe? Location? Bladder Status? New Email?) I happened to scroll through twitter and noticed that Mr Herring had pumped out a staggering number of tweets about the end of the King of Pop’s reign. Here’s a quick selection. If you are a big Jacko fan… -
Blu-ray review: Beverly Hills Chihuahua
25 Jun 2009 | 3:36 amJust why the commissioning producers thought that that a film entitled Beverly Hills Chihuahua would draw in an audience is a mystery to me. The very prospect of watching it instilled me with dread as I put the disk into the Blu-ray machine and I’m sure I wouldn’t be alone in that. Other films in the talking animals genre feature cute animals like pigs (Babe) or parrots (Paulie), and of course Dalmatians (Full Metal Jacket). Chihuahuas however are not cute, they are pretty much repellant as is the vacuous celebrity culture that appears to have adopted them. So, perhaps unfairly,…
-
At-Home Dad Newsletter
-
My son made me a waffle for Father's day....
21 Jun 2009 | 8:42 am -
More exposure on parenting bill excluding at-home dads
27 Feb 2009 | 9:17 amThanks to reader Joe Akers, Rep Davis has more comments to mull over to read opposing her bill which excludes dads from her parenting bill. He sent in this letter below to the St Louis Post-Dispatch which was published last nightIt seems that Ms. Davis has sponsored a bill that will provide a yearly tax credit for stay at home mothers. While I applaud her recognition that parents who stay at home deserve compensation, she has left out what I feel is a key component of this bill. It has come to my attention that she specifically wants to exclude… -
Dads shut out of parenting bill because "only women can be nurturers"
27 Feb 2009 | 7:36 amOn my hot seat today is Rep. Cynthia Davis, (R-O'Fallon), and not just because she bought herself a truck for personal use with state money a bunch of years back, or what I think are questionable parenting techniques. According to KMOU of Columbia, Missouri, Davis is trying to push a bill through the house to pay at-home moms $600 each year they care for children under the age of 16. A nice gesture, but dads need not apply. Davis informed the NBC affiliate reporter Sarah Hollenbeck "only women can be nurturers" and has intentionally left dads out… -
Rep Davis denies dad nurturing father quote, but well... she said it.
25 Feb 2009 | 8:03 amLast night I received a video from reporter Sarah Hollenback that shows her interview with Rep Davis. But first off, my thanks to the dozens of e-mails the readers sent to Cynthia Davis and reporter Sarah Hollenback of KOMU TV in response to her story about a new bill offering $600 a year to moms but not at-home dads. No doubt the story has hit a nerve. Please send any future emails to Rep Cynthia Davis so we can put more pressure on her to change the language of this bill to include at-home dads. If anyone knows other officials that need… -
Boston Globe Media Request for Boston-area at-home dads
10 Feb 2009 | 10:42 amBoston Globe work-life columnist Maggie Jackson is looking to interview new Boston-area stay at home dads who made the switch because they've lost their jobs in the last year. I'd like to ask about the psychological shift to being home after a layoff, and about how household labor - chores, childcare etc - is divided when mom is the breadwinner. Deadline: Friday or maybe Monday. Please contact her at maggie.jackson@att.net and send a line or two about your circumstance.
-
Cynical Dad
-
Shopping
28 Jun 2009 | 8:56 pmI hate shopping for big-ticket items. I research until I'm blue in the face, often taking months to reach a decision. Those who have been reading me for some time may remember it took me three months to buy a laptop.My wife feels we need a new car. While both cars run, they are both getting up there in mileage. Her vehicle, the one we'd be getting rid of, currently has 167,000 miles and an air conditioner that doesn't work anymore (and for those of you who don't know, it gets damn hot here). My car has about 145,000 miles, but its our family vehicle, so even though it's a newer model than her… -
Colorful Songs
26 Jun 2009 | 9:01 pmOn Wednesday night, I did another one of my Nameless Twitter Radio Shows. This week's theme was songs with colors in the title. Here's the playlist:Violet by Hole (me)Pink Triangle by Weezer (me)White Wedding by Billy Idol (Father Muskrat)Blue Monday by New Order (Mr. Big Dubya)Behind Blue Eyes by The Who (Cats... Books... Life Is Good)Stay Gold by Stevie Wonder (Charming & Delightful)Pretty In Pink by The Psychedelic Furs (Sashalyn)Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones (Cool Zebras)Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden (Hope4Peyton)Pink Houses by John Cougar Mellencamp (FlipFlopsChels)Orange… -
How My Mind Works
23 Jun 2009 | 9:29 pmOn my post about The Myrtle Beach Sea Monster, SeattleDad left the following comment: "And don't be surprised when the knock comes on your door and 'they' haul you away, shut down this site, and threaten those of us who have commented."But as I passed a DOT sign (the kind that normally only speaks to Steve Martin) on the highway today and noticed it read "Military Exercise 1 Mile Ahead," I immediately thought the same thing. I realized that the government had found out about my post and had set up this whole "Military Exercise" as a way to kill me. It would be reported that I was… -
The Myrtle Beach Sea Monster
22 Jun 2009 | 9:13 pmIf you are with the press and would like to conduct an interview with me or request high-resolution copies of the images below along with sixteen unpublished ones, please email me at cynicaldad@gmail.comI have always believed that encounters with UFOs, Bigfoot, Chupacabras, sea monsters, and other unexplained phenomena happened to people who lived out in the sticks that had just stumbled upon them, usually after drinking. Most scientists, researchers, and people with an interest in said phenomena never seem to find themselves face-to-face with the unexplained.Until now.On the morning of June… -
Five Things
21 Jun 2009 | 9:31 pmHey, guys! We're back from the beach in one piece. Sorry I don't have a proper post for you guys. That'll come tomorrow. Meanwhile…Ridemakerz Giveaway I'm giving away a $75 gift code to RIDEMAKERZ, an online store where you can create your own radio-controlled vehicle (think Build-A-Bear for cars). Click here for details.Imperfect Parent My latest While Mom's @ Work article went online while I was at the beach. It's about the worst part of any vacation: the trip there. Check it out and let me know what you think.Wish You Were Me? I'm going to a David Sedaris book signing on Tuesday night.
-
Poop and Boogies
-
Sleepy Stories
2 Jul 2009 | 4:25 amNow that Maxfield and Wyatt are in bunk beds I cannot read them bedtime stories anymore. They both want to look at the pictures and, quite frankly, I don't have the strength or stamina in my arms to hold the book out in their direction while reading, plus I can't read upside down (I always admired teachers who could). So now, I have to just tell them stories. Once they are settled into their beds I will lay on the bottom bunk with Wyatt to say prayers and tell stories for about 5 to 10 minutes.I have run through all of the classics such as the Three Bears, Three Pigs and Jack and the Bean… -
My First Car.
1 Jul 2009 | 6:24 amMy first car was a 1976 Ford Granada which was the color of rust and gray primer paint. It's two door body was practically made of rust, compound putty and wood filler. I bought the car, a month before I turned eighteen, for 300 bucks. The lady who sold it to me told me it needed some work. I made sure I had some extra money to pay for a paint job but I knew I would need to do the sanding and repairing myself.The first repairs I made to the body were to ensure it would pass state inspection. I patched all the holes in the driver side floor and made sure that the roof stopped leaking. I tore… -
Always Someone Cooler
30 Jun 2009 | 3:25 amRecently I read an article about how "old" people are ruining "new" inter-net sensations like Facebook and Twitter.The article explained how "Kids" today are upset with the fact that their parents are signing up for Twitter and Facebook accounts. Twitter and Facebook was the playground for the youngsters and they are annoyed that mom is trying to "follow" or "friend" them. The article claimed that both Twitter and Facebook are gaining popularity with the Baby Boomers and the 35 plus demographic and that is a demo that advertisers want. It is only a matter of time before the kids find a new… -
MLT
29 Jun 2009 | 4:00 amTwelve years ago I met Lauren. Twelve years ago was our first date. Twelve years ago I fell in love. I am still falling. She is better than a nice MLT- a mutton lettuce and tomato sandwich where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe...they're so perky. I love that. Also twelve years ago I used Just For Men on my goatee. -
Changes
25 Jun 2009 | 6:10 pmI have been working on trying to get eveything lined up for the new look of Poop and Boogies. By working I mean I have called two people; one to design the look and feel of the blog and the other person to do the installation. I am treating this process kind of like how the recipe of Krispy Kreme donuts is handled, not one person has all the ingredients/recipe, that way it is a big secret.Before I work out the final details I wanted to see if anyone who reads this blog has any suggestions or recommendations. I am looking for feedback. If you would be so kind, could you answer a few questions…
-
iVegasFamily
-
school, vacation and buffness
16 Jun 2009 | 8:24 amIt's an exciting day today. In about 20 minutes Z-Dub is returning to school after 6 months at home. I think we're more excited than he is, but at least there's excitement. I know what you're wondering, "why is he starting school in the summer!?!" Actually, it's a summer academy in preparation for preschool in the fall. He's going to have a lot of fun as each week is themed, such as art, music, travel, culture, etc. I'm sure he'll learn a lot. And he's going to have an instant classmate as his cousin is enrolled as well. HotMomma is looking forward to having a break. Z-Dub has been a handful… -
prick!
10 Jun 2009 | 6:56 pmI hate needles. I hate needles. I hate needles. I hate needles. Yep, I hate needles. You get the picture. And tomorrow I have to get blood drawn for a series of diagnostic tests. Needless to say, I'm freakin' the f%*k out in anticipation. I'm such a wimp. This is going to be way more difficult than getting my dangling bits groped by the male doctor and an ultrasound tech. There are six things that may happen at 9 a.m. tomorrow... 1. I may throw up. 2. I may pass out. 3. I may (unintentionally) smack the nurse. 4. I may run away while screaming like a girlie b#tch. 5. I may cry. or,… -
something to be happy about
9 Jun 2009 | 11:06 amI haven't heard great news like this in quite a while. All of us in the blogosphere learned today that after more than two years of trying to concieve, with the help of modern medicine Xbox and his wife ET are finally expecting. Those two have been on an heartwrenching journey. They've experienced a rollercoaster of emotions that included hope, optimism, desperation, sadness and disappointment as each month's cycle came and went. Despite it all, they never gave up. It makes me happy to finally see them achieve what they've longed for. I can't wait to read their all-too-familiar pregnancy… -
a weekend of firsts
8 Jun 2009 | 8:09 pmWe've been through these milestones before with Z-Dub, but it doesn't take away from the excitement. The Deuce is entitled to the same attention from his excited parents. This weekend we achieved several. First, and most important, The Deuce cut his first tooth. It's way earlier than Z-Dub did. Of course, he's been grumpy as a result, but not too bad. This weekend also was time for The Deuce to graduate to the high chair. In doing so he started on baby food too. He's also been gnawing on baby biscuits. He's had quite an exciting weekend. And finally, my favorite milestone is his… -
progress
4 Jun 2009 | 7:27 amMy quest for renewed buffness is in full swing. I started this mission a month ago after realizing I look pretty ridiculous at the pool with my spaghetti arms and chicken legs. Not to mention my non-existent ass. I know...too much information.Since I made this declaration, I've been working out fairly consistant -- at least four evenings a week. I think I can see a difference. HotMomma says she does, but I don't know if she's just saying it to build my confidence. Hopefully she's not f#%king with me.Now that I'm back to working out regularly, I also want to get into something to get the…
-
Mitch McDad's World
-
What Happens In Temecula….
30 Jun 2009 | 7:30 am….should stay in Temecula. But it won’t. I was in Temecula, CA, last weekend for a wedding in its wine country. I was rolling solo because we just couldn’t work out the kids, etc, and MRS had to stay home. You’d think that I’d have gone completely crazy, boozed all night, and perhaps taken full advantage of the freedom that a man in Temecula with his own hotel room might take. Well I did … almost. I boozed till around midnight because I’m old and I’d rather sleep. And I took great advantage of my hotel room. Yes, honey, I’VE STILL GOT IT. -
There Are No Boundaries In Marriage
22 Jun 2009 | 2:53 pmLiving with all women for the better part of the last decade has eroded my masculinity to a critically dangerous level. I feel like I might any day engage in any of the following behaviors: menstruation, watch an episode of Jon and Kate, have an unpredictable mood swing, bake for therapeutic reasons, withhold sex, abandon all semblance of logic and reason, have the urge to go dancing with my friends, post a seven year old picture on Facebook to look thinner, get Botox, lactate, buy People Magazine because it’s “fun,” infest a story with seven hundred unnecessary details,… -
The Voice Project
15 Jun 2009 | 11:56 amClick the picture to go to the Facebook Page for The Voice Project. Great cause. Check it out. Join the group on Facebook. Posted in Causes Tagged: Facebook, The Voice Project -
Define Cheating
5 Jun 2009 | 6:41 amRecently in the periphery of the McDad world, two marriages have directly imploded due to Facebook facilitated cheating. The proximity of these episodes to us is pretty close, so I can only extrapolate this data into a virtual Facebook inspired cheating frenzy. As Mitch, I have at this moment 586 of you as friends and at least two thirds of that number of you are female; that’s quite a stock pond for me to work with. Of course, in this scenario, my anonymity would likely hamper my extra-curricular attempts. My real life Facebook account is stocked with a mere 68 people at this… -
The Curse Of Flight 945
28 May 2009 | 1:01 pmFirst and foremost I would like to apologize to the passengers of Southwest flight 945 on Monday. On a typically bumpy approach to Denver, my darling little Lulu (3.5) woke from her nap on my shoulder and, slightly dazed, proclaimed, “Daddy, I throw’d up.” The small amount of drool on her lip suggested otherwise. As I grabbed a napkin to wipe her mouth, she started making gurgling sounds that suggested that her statement was more of a prediction than a proclamation. Before I could processes the situation fully, the puke was erupting and my fantastic…
-
Creative-Type Dad
-
My Little Ballerina Girl
25 Jun 2009 | 7:00 amThere are certain first moments I’m going to remember about my daughter forever: the day she was born in a tub, her first word (which by the way was “dada”), the day she took her first real walking steps, the first birthday party with the Elvis impersonator, the first day of preschool, and now I can add her first ever ballet recital to the list.A full 3 and a half hour extravaganza (not including intermission.)I can’t honestly think of another moment that I was more anxious about. Well except maybe her actual birth, and that late-to-the party Elvis impersonator comes to mind too.While… -
The Father’s Day Conspiracy
15 Jun 2009 | 7:25 amWhy do people hate Father’s? The TV, Stores, Magazines, Organizations, Advertisers, America, Cats -- just about everybody.It’s not difficult to notice that for Mother’s Day the entire month of May is devoted to ‘Mom’. There are pastel posters everywhere with all kinds of slogans, special commercials with fancy jingles, charity walks with celebrities raising money for all kinds of women causes. And who can escape the ads for gift suggestions:$10 Talking Greeting CardsFlowers with fruit in the vasesShopping gift cards$70 Champagne Brunches JewelryEngraved anythingCustom memory… -
Tough Love vs. Spanking
4 Jun 2009 | 10:20 pmMost people think it is improper to spank children, so I have tried other methods to control my kid when he has one of those moments.One that I found effective is for me to just take him for a car ride and talk.Some say it's the vibration from the car, others say it's the time away from any distractions such as TV, Video Games, Computer, IPod, etc.Either way, my kid usually calms down and stops misbehaving after our car ride together. Eye to eye contact helps a lot too.I've included a photo below of one of my sessions with my son, in case you would like to use the technique.Sincerely,A… -
Ronald McDonald Is Evil and Has Bad Taste In Music Too
29 May 2009 | 7:00 amI told my daughter McDonald's burned down – all over the place - and that we can never go there again.Why? Because of the Kidz Bop CD’s they were giving out with the Happy Meals.For the last 9 months after her Ballet class I’ve always taken her to the nearby McDonald's for dinner. Its become our little once a week tradition that we both look forward to.Sitting there almost feels like we’re in an 80’s commercial: a 3-year-old dressed in her Ballet clothes with Dad across the table usually instructing her how the Happy Meal toy works.But this day was different; she got a Kidz Bop CD… -
“What I Want To Be When I Grow Up”
18 May 2009 | 11:00 pmNo, this isn’t my list. I already know what I want to be when I grow up: Mr. T. Or a king/dictator/emperor of a small island in the pacific with a KFC franchise.The weekend was fun as it was just my daughter and I while the wife was busy at some workshop for her MBA program. We spent most of the time drawing, painting, swimming, playing video games, and watching movies – we FINALLY saw that Monster’s Vs Aliens movie in 3D. I was disappointed as it was totally overrated. When the credits rolled my daughter turned to me and said in a serious voice “the monster movie wasn’t that…
-
modern day dad
-
Can We Please Stop Praising The Baby Dangler?
29 Jun 2009 | 12:14 pmEnough of the Michael Jackson tributes already. Almost every morning I turn on the Today Show on NBC, and today was the first morning since his death that the news has been at least fifty percent something other than Michael Jackson related. On Saturday morning I even switched over to a business show on Fox News (to get a break from the wall-to-wall "king of pop" coverage on NBC), and what do you suppose they were talking about? Michael Jackson's money.Sure, I loved (and love) Thriller as much as the next guy, and no one can deny he was the amazing performer everyone says he is. -
Tauntaun Sleeping Bag, Boy-rettes and a Pink Plastic Octomom Sculpture
17 Apr 2009 | 11:14 amEven though last week was my kid's spring break from school, I've managed to write about some pretty interesting stuff over at Babble in the last month or so. Some of my favorites are:The Tauntaun Sleeping Bag. The Empire Strikes Back's favorite beast of burden made into a kid's sleeping bag. And I thought they felt cozy on the outside.Boy-rettes. Alterna-hipster boys with long hair need something cool to keep their long hair out of their eyes. And while I know I shouldn't have a problem with this, I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a part of me that this… -
Morrissey's New Dad Pose
26 Mar 2009 | 11:44 amCan someone tell me what exactly is going on with the album art to Morrissey's new album, Years of Refusal? As a childhood devotee of the Smiths (and fan of Morrissey's solo work), the idea of him with a baby is at worst weird and at best kind of funny. And while this was pretty much my initial reaction to the actual image, it got me thinking about whether or not there was some deeper meaning to the whole thing.Stereogum had a butterfly/caterpillar theory to it (revolving around the apparent jeweled butterfly and "caterpillar" on the baby's head and Morrissey's arm… -
Leveraging? Collateralized Debt Obligations?? The Crisis of Credit Visualized
24 Feb 2009 | 10:41 amI think it's safe to say that most of us, if not all of us, are a little confused as to just how the hell things got so bad with the economy. Check this video out by Jonathan Jarvis. It does a rather good job of explaining things visually without over simplifying. The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.[via perpendum.com via bitterkenny] -
Photo Projects For Kids From Photojojo
9 Feb 2009 | 2:42 pmPhotojojo is one of my favorite photography resources on the Internet. Every now and then I get a great email from them with a cool idea for photographic projects, tips or general inspiration. And one of the more recent emails was all about photo projects for kids.Face it, if your kid has a cell phone, then chances are he or she has a camera too (and if they don't, then they almost certainly have on one their cell phone). The photo ideas for kids from Photojojo include playing with perspective (as pictured) and my favorite, create a kind of photo time capsule for yourself.Anyway, it's…
-
Mommy Daddy Blog
-
Passion’s Calling Me. Water Addiction.
2 Jul 2009 | 4:07 amPhotography is a passion of mine, so I will be doing more photo posts. They are much more fun to do and they come naturally. I have some posts that I’m writing and if it takes me days or weeks to do so, I’ll get them done, but I will not rush through them. I will not let blogging become a chore. I’m a P.O.S among other things. Jayden’s been taking lots of baths lately. We think he has a water addiction. Normally we don’t let him bathe back-to-back-to-back because of his eczema, but the olive oil baths are helping legs. *smooch* *smooch* *smooch* Why Kids Should… -
Katja Presnal + e.l.f. Cosmetics + Snazl + You = LIVE Paaartay!
30 Jun 2009 | 12:53 amImage of Katja Presnal My good friend Katja Presnal of Skimbaco Lifestyle will be hosting her First Ever Interactive LIVE Multimedia Snazl show TODAY on Tuesday June 30, at 2PM EST! The show is part of e.l.f. Cosmetics BlogHer stories series, done by Snazl.com, and can be seen at both of those sites as well as SkimbacoLifestyle.com. If I am able to grab the embed code when the show goes live, I’ll have it streaming here on Mommy Daddy Blog as well. During the show, Katja will be giving away a total of 5 $25 gift cards to e.l.f. Cosmetics! The first gift card will go to the person… -
Buzz of the Week – June 28th, 2009
28 Jun 2009 | 12:32 amGiveaways Summer Family Tips From Scott Common Sense + $50 Visa Giveaway! – During the month of June, Scott Common Sense is all about making the most of the time you spend with family and friends. Scott Common Sense is definitely a great go-to destination for tips and advice. We’ve teamed up with Scott Common Sense to giveaway one $50 Visa Gift Card to put towards those backyard barbeques, along with coupons for Scott Long Lasting products. (ends 6/30) Reviews Balcony Makeover With Walmart And The Home Depot – I’ve been itching to do something with my balcony ever since the… -
Summer Staycation Cleaning Tips From Mom Central & MommyDocs
27 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pmNot only are families spending less money during vacations, they are spending more time at home as well. Hey, I’m enjoying our staycation. I’ve never appreciated home as much as I do now, but staying home equals bigger messes and more chores. According to a recent Clorox survey, over 60 percent of the Moms surveyed reported an increase in cleaning around the house as their families now spend more time at home. And, not surprisingly, Moms reported wanting to save time and money for all of this extra cleaning. Mom Central got together with the MommyDocs and came up with… -
How to Budget for a Family Vacation with Julie Casserly
24 Jun 2009 | 8:09 pmWith the economy in the condition that it is, families are starting to spend less money on summer vacations. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Practitioner Julie Casserly of ChicagoHealers.com says, “Position yourself to be lucky to spend the amount of money you actually have for vacation, instead of going into debt and later on having to pay for past choices. No one likes having what I like to call a “spending hangover”…it takes all the fun out of going on vacation in the first place”. “It’s all about what free cash you have to be able to afford a vacation…
-
Parenting Message Boards - Parenting.com Community
-
spitting?
2 Jul 2009 | 1:24 pmso Caleb is in this stage where he thinks he needs to spit. its driving me CRAZY!!! he spits outside, inside, on his toys (gross!) and he will just sit there and spit just to watch it come out of his mouth!! i dont want to slap him in the mouth for it because i dont like that, but i have tried everything i can think of! taking his toys away, his drink away, and even putting him in time out! but nothing is working! does anyone have any ideas what i can do? i really want this to stop! -
It's Time to Gear Up...
2 Jul 2009 | 1:24 pmBe prepared for our resident freak to start attacking. I understand that it's easy to be offended and fight back, I've been guilty of it too. It's best to ignore anyone who is obviously trying to offend people. Not just because it's probably our little 'friend' but also because no one wants those types hanging around anyway. -
Congrats angel25705
2 Jul 2009 | 12:41 pmnot sure if we are still doing this? but i just noticed that angel25705 has gotten to 100 posts!!! so congrats on 100 posts!!! :D -
they let anyone have kids
2 Jul 2009 | 11:48 amI just read this story on AOL and it truly makes me sick. I do not know how anyone could be this stupid, and they dont have to pay for it, their poor baby did. I forget who said it on here but there should be a law where you have to have a license to have a kid. http://news.aol.com/article/python-s...child%2F552884 RIP poor baby girl. -
Has anybody used an AB belt that works?
2 Jul 2009 | 11:20 amI'm am all about finding that miracle cure for my abs and I know this is very unrealistic, but I can dream can't I? So has anyone tried those AB belts that are supposed to give you washboard results?
-
Writer Dad
-
DAD!
2 Jul 2009 | 10:00 amThis post revisits a theme I’ve written about previously in, “Dad, DAD, DAD!!!” Any one of us who has ever given birth, brought a baby home from the hospital, or been in the same room with a child for over 5 minutes can probably relate. Has anyone ever considered that the universal hearing loss of the elderly might be entirely by choice? I wonder if there’s a line that could be drawn between hearing loss and children raised. I’ve no idea what kind of capital it would require, but it’s probably worth the fund raising to get a team in Geneva to start working round the clock on the… -
Finding My Friday Again
29 Jun 2009 | 8:13 pmThe helter skelter of the last few weeks has prompted me to run this particular “Deja Tuesday” post. This was originally written sometime back around mid November of last year. Since then “Finding my Friday” has become one of my favorite phrases. It is slightly rewritten to reflect the new year and my new understanding of the comma, but is otherwise mostly in tact. Enjoy! Life never unfolds quite as expect, and hoping that it will is more than a little like swatting fog. Days unfold, weeks disappear, and we often find ourselves doing our best when we simply catch up… -
6 Rules For Remarkable Marital Communication
24 Jun 2009 | 6:54 pmCommunication is the central ingredient to any prosperous marriage. My wife and I work together; our worlds orbiting and intersecting every day of the week, during most of our daylight and all of our dark. This would be a strain on many a couple, yet after a dozen years and two children together (the youngest starting kindergarten in the fall) we continue to grow stronger each day. This would not be possible if clear, consistent communication was not at the dead center of our days. By no means do Cindy and I share a perfect marriage, but it is a thriving, healthy union between two best… -
Yo Recuerdo Mi Papí - I Remember My Papi
21 Jun 2009 | 10:04 pmToday is an anniversary. Last June 22 was a Father’s Day I will never forget. Though I had been writing a few months already, it was a secret known only to the three members of my household and my Papí. During the last year of his life, my grandfather lay in bed quietly eating candy by the handful and impatiently waiting to join his Honey, recently passed after seventy-four years by his side. Every Saturday during those last two years I would drive to his house to spend some time with him, never knowing for certain if that drive would be the last. Papí was the first person I told I… -
My Dad - A Father’s Day Poem
18 Jun 2009 | 1:00 amMy Dad If there was an adventurer who agreed to enlist in search of the awesomest father to ever exist, He’d have to hunt every record throughout every land, from the countries with mountains to those filled with sand. When he was all finished, he’d return empty handed, though I would not be surprised because that’s just how I planned it. I already knew my father was the best. I was only putting the world to the test. Other dads are tiny trikes. My Daddy is a car. Other dads are ukuleles. My Dad is a guitar. Other dads are just a sprint. My Daddy is the race. Other dads are only…
-
Raising Eli & Ziggy
-
Lotus Symphony 1.3: Day 3
2 Jul 2009 | 7:11 amOn day 3 of using Symphony I decided to do the same reporting task in excel that I just completed a few days ago for management. Basically it was a comparison of the number of users utilizing our Enterprise Single Sign-On product per application as compared to previous months since deployment. In Excel, I can get the job done in ten minutes, including the creation of a fancy chart my managers drool over. In this scenario, the data is gathered and the only thing I have to do is create the fancy chart. I will be honest, I anticipated this to be an extremely easy task. A simple 3D vertical bar… -
Lotus Symphony 1.3: Day 1 & 2
1 Jul 2009 | 1:48 pmIn my testing I am going to compare the functionality of Lotus Symphony 1.3 to Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007 because those two products are the biggest competitor to Symphony in the market. In my workspace, Office 2003 is the deployed version of choice with many of us IT guys struggling to cope with the 2007 version (slower, horrible navigation…don’t get me started). The idea is simple, IMHO a competitor of the Office suite of products should do things Faster, Easier and Better than the market share leader. If you can’t win business because it is better, you should not even… -
IBM Symphony 1.3: A Test
29 Jun 2009 | 6:12 amI bleed blue. I have been so intertwined with IBM products for the last 15 years that I really don’t remember when my job did not include administration of Lotus Notes, Websphere Portal or even going as far back as cc:MAIL (yes…I know…IBM only bought the Lotus brand a few years back, but does it matter?). In that time, I have watched Lotus Notes go from version 3.x (yes, I missed, or don’t remember v2.x) to the full glory of 8.5. There have been years that I have been an angry IT professional, and years where I was extremely proud of the product line Lotus was… -
As a Parent: No Remorse about Michael Jackson
26 Jun 2009 | 7:38 amPeople are shocked that I am not sad about the passing of Michael Jackson. They wonder why I have a negative attitude towards the singer, and think his death is not a tragedy. Let me make this clear, I am a parent first, and the allegations of his predatory behavior towards kids stands out far more than his accomplishments in the field of music. He created a ranch to lure children into his trust, and I feel he abused it. Even if he never did a single thing to any child, his admissions of some of the behavior “done out of love” was flat out wrong. I can’t celebrate a man who… -
Jon & Kate + 8 = MESS
25 Jun 2009 | 6:02 amI have to be honest, I have never watched the show, but lately it is hard to not look at any online news source and see the bitter battle being fought between this man and woman which will eventually, if not already, damage their 8 kids. Did I really say 8 kids? Who in their right mind has 8 kids. I don’t pretend to know the story, or really care, but I tell you what. There is a double edged sword associated with divorce and overall, in the cosmic sense of everything, seems to be a lose-lose situation. Happiness How long can someone pretend that a relationship is healthy when inside you…
-
REBEL DAD
-
I'm Mr. Seahorse
30 Jun 2009 | 10:53 amAt the Mall of AmericaOriginally uploaded by Rebel DadIf you like your children's books with a healthy dose of gender-equality (or better yet, widespread destruction of traditional gender roles), you really ought to be reading your kids "Mr. Seahorse," an Eric Carle book on all of the fathers of the sea and the way that the whole pregnancy/egg-hatching thing becomes dad-first when it happens under water.At the aquarium beneath the Mall of America, dads can do the seahorse thing and put on a fake belly that reads "I'm a Seahorse Dad." Corny, yes. But fun. -
A Local TV Broadcast That Puts It All Into Perspective
24 Jun 2009 | 4:39 amOK. It's official. If you are a TV producer doing a national piece and you don't try to book Jeremy Adam Smith, you're doing your job wrong. I love this piece, which -- visually -- isn't that different from the run-of-the-mill dad story. But it makes clear that we're dealing with changing gender roles and that is what makes this trend interesting. -
Donating Your Dadness to Science
23 Jun 2009 | 2:29 pmMore good stuff from the academy. If you meet the criteria, consider checking it out:FATHERS WITH BABIES STUDYEvery day, in the United States alone, over 10,000 men become the fathers of new babies. Surprisingly little is known about the social and emotional experiences of fathers with babies and young children. In an interest to improve the well-being of new dads – and to foster the well-being of their children and families – the purpose of this study is to better understand the experiences of dads with babies, as well as the causes and consequences of the joys and challenges these… -
While We're Still Feeling the Dad's Day Buzz
22 Jun 2009 | 9:05 amI wanted to take a second to put in an additional plug (not the first, and certainly not the last) for the At-Home Dad Convention, which will be held in Omaha this year on October 10. Given that there are a lot of new AHDs (or so the media would have us believe), I'm hoping for a stellar turnout. So block your calendars now and keep checking Southwest for good rates. Registration rates are signficantly lower this year (thanks to all of the new sponsors), and this should be another great opportunity for dads of all stripes to share experiences. -
Pampers Has Figured Out That I Am a Dad. I Think.
21 Jun 2009 | 4:18 pmEvery year, I give the Pampers people a hard time because they send me Mother's Day e-mails telling me how great it is that I am a mom and how special moms like me really are. It is one of those subtle reminders that society still doesn't see moms and dads as equally fit parents. (Or equally committed consumers.)But I should note, in the interest of fairness, that I did receive a Father's Day greeting from them:Hello BRIAN,Moms get a lot of focus, but now it's Dad's day in the sun! Dads share their own special bond with their little ones that deserves special thanks and appreciation. ...Now,…
-
Rice Daddies
-
Portland Daddy Group
24 Jun 2009 | 9:13 amPortland Dads at Home(cross posted at bigWOWO)I learned of this group maybe a month ago, but they got written up in the Oregonian just this past week. Check out the article here.I've communicated with some of these guys through e-mail, and they seem very nice. I think it's a great idea for dads to do community activities like this, even those of us who aren't Stay-at-Home-Dads. We humans are communal animals, and kids have so much more fun when they're playing with and surrounded by other kids. If Eric, the guy in the video, had success in a small city like Portland, I can imagine that… -
Mei Mei and Me
23 Jun 2009 | 9:45 am(Cross posted on bigWOWO)Edit: Okay, I just saw some of the later videos, so I have to correct what I wrote. Some of the later DVDs in the series are quite high tech and shot from China. They look like they had professional choreographers and makeup artists, and the sound quality is professional. So the following only applies to the other ones we saw. My bad, Mei Mei.My original post:For parents trying to teach their kids Chinese, there's a huge selection of Chinese language DVDs out there. My three year old son Gun-Gun has checked out Ni Hao Kai Lan, Language Tree, and a bunch of others,… -
Happy Father's Day!
21 Jun 2009 | 9:04 amphoto: Don Quixote by Honoré DaumierHappy Father's day, Rice Daddies!Here's to fatherhood, and how it changes every frakking day.Rabbit Dragon and Pony Princess are both getting so much older. The school year is over, didn't it just start?Today at the hardware store we got Rabbit Dragon his first set of house keys. A season ago, house keys had never come to mind. But now we go on family bike rides, and he's always the first to reach home, doing the pee-pee dance while waiting for the lumbering parents and the kid sister to finally pull in and toss over the keys.It feels so ad hoc,… -
Lyrical Feet
19 Jun 2009 | 7:16 pmcross-posted at Noraebang.She had asked about dance last year, and even the year before. There were roadblocks before, and sometimes excuses. But, I couldn't sit idly by while time passed and she grew out of the dance phase. She has only one childhood. Her friends in school were doing it, and she had asked about it again. So finally she got her wish when I signed her up for a month of summer dance camp. They do lyrical, jazz, tap, hip hop, and ballet from 9am - 2:00 pm every day. Her favorite is tap, but primarily because I think she likes the shoes and making noise. After the first day, I… -
A couple announcements...
9 Jun 2009 | 8:25 amFirst, to anyone coming to us via NPR's Tell Me More with Michel Martin, on which I'm privileged to be a member of a dadblogger roundtable for the second June in a row, welcome to Rice Daddies! You can listen to the segment on the NPR website here.Second, to anyone in the LA area this weekend who is mixed-race, the parent of a mixed-race child, or otherwise interested in multiracial issues, please check out the free, second annual Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival at the Japanese American National Museum in LA's Little Tokyo, Friday June 12 and Saturday June 13. Click thru that link for…
-
Snowdeal
-
the eric update - day 1821: the little prince.
28 Jun 2009 | 7:05 pmodin, somewhat patiently hanging out on the most super awesomest tree swing before his pre-birthday party with a few friends. -
lazyweb: name that native prairie plant!
27 Jun 2009 | 8:21 pmc'mon lazyweb, help me identify this native prairie plant on the organic valley hq grounds. a beauty, no? update: informed sources tell me it's an ox eye sunflower. -
um, yeah, gardening is totally stress free.
27 Jun 2009 | 7:41 pmin addition to our home garden and employee garden, i'm also helping to maintain a much larger community garden at organic valley. clearly, someone has a sense of humor - all the moreso when you have a lot more weeds than the chief marketing executive's plot ;-( stress free or not, the 50 or so tomato plants in the community organic valley garden are coming along quite nicely! i think we're going to get to use the organic valley kitchen to process the bounty. -
whatever you do, don't tell theresa marquez.
27 Jun 2009 | 7:02 pmi went out to organic valley hq to tend to our employee garden and i noticed the plot maintained by theresa marquez, cropp/organic valley's chief marketing executive, was just bursting with peas. so, i might have helped myself to a couple hundred. just kidding, she said they were there for the taking and i was all too happy to take her up on the offer. she has an astounding garden, and while picking peas i wondered how many chief marketing executives take the time to tend to an employee garden. my guess is that the answer is none. -
the eric update - day 1820: picking pre-birthday party strawberries!
27 Jun 2009 | 6:29 pmwhooey, the strawberries are coming in strong! we're going to make some might good strawberry shortcake for odin's pre-birthday party bash out at norskedalen tomorrow! you can see the wall of raspberries behind him that are just beginning to ripen.
-
sweet juniper!
-
2 Jul 2009 | 6:50 am
2 Jul 2009 | 6:50 amThe mother of one of my daughter's friends asks, "Is she not supposed to play princess?"I have never told my daughter she couldn't play princesses. We may have had a few conversations about how princesses aren't good role models, but I've NEVER said she couldn't pretend to be one. Apparently while playing at her friend's house, my daughter whispered, "My dad doesn't like princesses. He says -
Two Big Posts Today
30 Jun 2009 | 8:23 amAt day camp pickup yesterday, one of the instructors reminded me that we need to bring a white t-shirt today because the kids are going to make tie dye. When I remembered to tell my wife last night, we had forgotten that the kid and I turned every piece of plain white clothing we owned pink last summer during our own tie dye adventure. The neighborhood wig shop sells white tees, but they only -
Friday Afternoon Street Urchin Blogging
26 Jun 2009 | 12:04 pmA few moments ago I held my baby in the rocker and listened to his murmuring around the mouth of the bottle. Every afternoon for over a year now I have done this until he falls asleep, at which point I set him down in the crib and creep out of the room. Today he just pointed towards his crib and said, "In." I put him down giggling and chattering, sure that he wouldn't be falling asleep any time -
Streets With No Name
23 Jun 2009 | 7:49 amThis past winter, the snow stayed so long we almost forgot what the ground looked like. In Detroit, there is little money for plowing; after a big storm, the streets and sidewalks disappear for days. Soon new pathways emerge, side streets get dug out one car-width wide. Bootprints through parks veer far from the buried sidewalks. Without the city to tell him where to walk, the pilgrim who first -
Auf Wiedersehen, Kindermullet*
19 Jun 2009 | 9:15 am"The time has come. It has to go.""What? No.""Another old lady called him a girl today.""Was he wearing the shirt with flames? No one ever confuses him for a girl when he's wearing the shirt with flames.""He was all in blue.""But I haven't taken him to the demolition derby yet. And I wanted to take him huntin'."". . .""But it's county fair season!"". . .""Hey, I let you talk me out of naming him
-
Tom Drapeau's Blog
-
Book: Here Comes Everybody
28 Jun 2009 | 11:59 amHere Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky My review rating: 5 of 5 stars This is the best book I’ve ever read on the intersection of anthropology and the internet. Shirky has tremendous powers of observation, and his text is unencumbered by societal norms and restrictions. As is written on the front book cover, “Revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new technology, it happens when society adopts new behaviors.” The book tackles several coordination, cooperation and publish then filter scenarios via in depth analysis of… -
KidWonder is 2!
23 Jun 2009 | 6:59 amIt seems like just yesterday I was wearing the paper hospital outfit, staring at the clock, waiting until I could go into the operating room and see KidWonder for the very first time. Now he’s all grown up! Here’s a pic of the boy and his MomWonder, at his restaurant of choice, the local Applebees: Most of the meal consisted of KW laughing hysterically at the idea of being itchy. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a toddler crack himself up–he laughed so hard he fell off his booster seat! A good time was had by all. Now, back to your regularly scheduled… -
Chicken Alfredo over Biscuits
18 May 2009 | 7:26 pmMy friend Travis reminded me not too long ago that you should never try anything that isn’t at least version 3.0. Well, if each new recipe is another major version of the Tom cooking machine, we are finally in the money! Today’s attempt was at Chicken Alfredo over Biscuits, a nice comfort food dish from Betty Crockers Quick & Easy Cookbook. I have to say, this one was quick and easy. I didn’t have as much of the frozen vegetables as I wanted (recipe called for 1 pound, I had 10 ounces), but I didn’t notice an imbalance in the finished product. It was very, very… -
Great Picture of KidWonder From the Big Day
5 May 2009 | 6:55 pmPosted via email from Tom’s posterous -
Pan-Fried Ravioli in Vodka Sauce
4 May 2009 | 8:15 amI tried my hand at another Betty Crocker dish last night, a Pan-Fried Ravioli in Vodka Sauce. Some notes on getting the ingredients and prep: I couldn’t find the exact right proportions at the local A&P for this… I got a 20oz bag of beef ravioli (recipe calls for 25oz), also I got the Emeril brand vodka sauce, since it was lighter (110 calories per 1/2 cup, vs. the 150 for the others.) Couldn’t find Asiago cheese, and mistakenly used Mozzarella cheese instead of their option B (shredded Parmesan). Also, did not read the instructions closely enough on the prep, and ended…
-
The Battle of Wills
-
I Get Up Again
28 Jun 2009 | 5:49 pmMany years ago, I was roaming the neighborhood searching for friends and fun. I found a group of kids I knew well hanging out in their regular spot. On their agenda...was boxing. It sounded like fun to put on a borrowed pair of gloves and duke it out in a ring formed with metal trash cans. Since I didn't know much about boxing, I was quickly knocked down. After falling over trash cans and suffering the shame of being beaten, I didn't get up. My only response was to throw the gloves off and run home crying, bloody and shamed. I have never boxed since.It isn't much different in our Christian… -
What are the implications of this message?
27 Jun 2009 | 10:33 pmWhat are your thoughts? -
Father Son Saturday
27 Jun 2009 | 8:44 pmIf you are looking at the length of this post and wondering if you want to read it...ask yourself this question: What do donuts, box turtles, hammers and haircuts have in common? Read on to find out!Father Son Saturday started early this week. Last night, on a trip to Staples (where I got $90 stuff for free) and Lowes (AKA - "The Man Store") we hit a gold mine. Our mission at Lowes was to find a father/son project. I was hoping to get a pre-fab birdhouse we could put together easily. When I stopped a worker to ask for directions to the father/son project isle, he asked me to wait a second. A… -
Is that an iPhone?
26 Jun 2009 | 6:24 amI never actually thought I would have an iPhone, but I am excited to say that after a very generous gift (a 30 year old savings bond), I am the proud owner of a new iPhone 3Gs. Following a week of familiarizing myself with the phone, I thought I would offer a review of it.I have been a Mac user for the last 5 years. I was first given an iPod nano by my youth group and my love for their products slowly grew. I have owned/used a Mac mini, MacBook Pro and 30 gigabyte iPod as well. When the iPhone first came out I was excited. However, I couldn't justify the mind blowing $400 cost and there were… -
Isabel
18 Jun 2009 | 5:46 pmI wrote this article back in January of 2004. Just the other day this story came to mind and I haven't been able to make it go away, so I tracked it down in my archived documents. Let me know what you think.1 Thessalonians 4:9Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 10And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more.I will never forget Isabel’s big, brown, teary eyes as they peaked over her mother’s shoulder, the first time we ever saw each other.
-
The Busy Dad Blog
-
How to Completely Remodel Your Home in 30 days and 12 Easy Steps
21 Jun 2009 | 8:24 amAs some of you may know, my house recently underwent a total makeover. Whenever people see my house, they always ask "how long did it take?" And then I say "one month," and then they laugh. And then I laugh and we move onto other subjects. It's not worth explaining. But here on my blog, I've got time. So I'm going to explain step-by-step how to remodel your entire house in 30 days. I'm also going to give away a $100 Home Depot gift card. You know, happy father's day, bribing my readers to leave comments, buying your affections and all that... Step 1 Move your family to a new city and find the… -
When a Blogger Meets a Blogger Grillin' Up the Rye
7 Jun 2009 | 9:50 pmThis is a no-brainer post. First of all, who doesn't like grilled cheese? Second, who doesn't love Rachel from A Southern Fairy Tale? Well this post features both, so I'm guaranteed a win. As some of you who read Rachel's blog know, she was here in L.A. back in April as a representative of Kraft Foods (she's like foodie mafia, that Rachel) to attend and cover the 7th Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational. As I am a devotee and occasional participant of Rachel's Mouthwatering Mondays recipe series, I could not pass up the opportunity to hang with the Queen of all that is "tonguegasmic" and grab… -
Next Comes "Can You Drop Me Off a Block Away?"
28 May 2009 | 8:31 amSunday was spectacular. I'm sure that knowing Monday was a day off contributed to that sentiment, but getting up to catch the first matinee of Terminator Salvation with Fury definitely propelled the day into cyborg ass kickin' mode from the start. After lunch, I took Fury with me to the dog park. The dog park in our neighborhood incorporates a huge fenced-in dog area with a playground next to it. Since I can't see the playground from the dog area, we brought along our walkie talkies so I could check on him every once in a while (an underrated parenting tool - one of my first posts ever… -
I'm Such a Brat on Video
27 May 2009 | 11:48 amMy cleaning intervention courtesy of the Style Network's Trish Suhr (Clean House) is up on How I Clean Now, as well as a new post. Go there and check out my posts, as well as those of others who have subjected themselves to this crazy thing they call "cleaning your house." Or just watch it here and then go. -
Clean My House? Pfft. You'd Have to Pay Me.
20 May 2009 | 11:44 pmI really, really, really hate it when people call my bluff. Because the folks at Pledge promptly cut me a check, sent me a box full of Pledge Multi Surface spray and said "OK, sucka, get to it." AND blog about it on our website How I Clean Now while you're at it. This proves a few things: I actually can blog more than once every 23 days (I actually have 4 or 5 posts up already). Writing about how you don't like cleaning, why you shouldn't clean, and teaching creative ways to avoid cleaning constitutes writing "about how you clean." Take that, suckas! People are happy whenever you…
-
The Hygiene Chronicles
-
Moving on Out
15 Jun 2009 | 7:30 amI began writing this post on May 24 and just haven't gotten through it because of packing. Now, it's all done and it seems appropriate to finish.Tonight is the last night in our house. Sixteen years of being in one location ends tomorrow. The closing date for the DC house is June 18 and the moving trucks arrive in the morning. When I get home tonight, the only left to go into boxes is the toaster and coffee maker. We've raided Home Depot every couple of days for wardrobe boxes and paper to wrap glassware. The house echos since there are no pictures anywhere and all that dominates each room is… -
What I Learned in Grad School
21 May 2009 | 3:15 pmThe program may be over, but the lessons stay with you forever.At 42, I discovered that accounting was based on credits and debits. Who knew?Cliques are still rampant as hell. You find your academic soulmates within 2 days.Professors LOVE to have you read their text books. Hell, at $99 a pop, it probably pays better than teaching the 4-week class. Half.com can then sell that same book and recoup almost 45% the original value.Finance is one of the most complicated aspects of business. But if you master it, you're golden. I still have no short-term memory. I mean the moment I would open a… -
Rights, Privileges and Responsibilities Thereunto Appertaining
16 May 2009 | 6:00 amThe day I thought would never arrive, finally happened; Graduation. Two years ago, I began the long journey of grad school. Last night, it all came to a closure as I walked across the George Washington University stage. While the celebration commemorated my achievements, I walked on behalf of four others, who without their support, I never could have gotten this degree. Through their actions and encouragement, they made it possible for me to go to school. Last night was about them just as much as it was about me. To my son's moms: You have done so much to give Corey the best life a little boy… -
First Class?
13 May 2009 | 7:12 amDear Post Office,Let me be blunt; I hate you. I've written before about how stupid you are. It amazes me you are able to stay in business, except that you really have no competition. I can only hope that the Internet makes you so obsolete that you go out of business.Last year you screwed me with your Automatic Postage Machine. Being so excited not to deal with your personnel, I used if for every transaction possible. In February 2008, when I went to buy 100 stamps for work, it issued Christmas stamps. Quite obviously, I couldn't use them for business given that our all customers are not… -
Family Time
10 May 2009 | 3:35 pmThe little boy who sat next to me was probably 4. He wore a pair of striped shorts and Diego tee shirt. He was playing with his cars. He kept to himself though he talked a lot and tried to get his mommy's attention. Every once in a while he would ask questions.Another little girl sat right behind me on her daddy's lap. She was pretty fussy and spent most of her time grabbing at her food. She cried a couple of times but hey, she was only 2 so who could blame her.How nice to see parents out with their young children. Family time is always treasured and I love watching people spend their…
-
Thingamababy
-
Helping Children Wash their Nose
2 Jul 2009 | 10:58 amI suck snot through a tube, so I shouldn’t be one to laugh. Oh, but I laughed and laughed at this video. When you’re squirting water through your nose, don’t smile like you’re having the time of your life. Nasopure is a plastic nasal irrigator taking the neti pot industry by storm. I mention Nasopure on Thingamababy because the company’s commercial states, “even 2-year-olds can do it.” A neti pot, of course, is a typically small ceramic pot with a long snout used to pour warm salt water in one nostril and out the other. It was first popularized among… -
Baby Link Roundup #8,126
1 Jul 2009 | 12:07 am1. The Bathroom Song (the fun begins halfway through): [The video is from rathergood.com, a mish-mash of odd stuff.] 2. What to do if your child has super powers (a FAQ for concerned parents) 3. Tips for a yard sale success [I've written from the buyer's perspective] Pretend it’s Father’s Day links: 4. Second-chance family: adopted by a man who used to date her mom 5. Raising a princess single-handedly - an unexpected solo parenting story [link via Daddytypes] 6. Catch: a Father’s Day Tale: -
Work-in-progress: The Ultimate Children’s Book Nameplate
29 Jun 2009 | 12:40 amI have three beliefs about children’s books to share. They are not open to rational argument or counter examples or people pointing out exceptions to the rule. They are my deeply held feelings. For months now I’ve been contemplating a new type of book nameplate – the area on the front page of some books where a parent writes his child’s name. Even if you disagree with my beliefs, you may still embrace aspects of my nameplate. I am interested in your suggestions for improvement. Statement of faith: Books are for sharing. “As a child, we didn’t have that many… -
Ten Ways to Ruin Children’s Books
26 Jun 2009 | 1:41 amNew alternate title: Watch a blogger piss off his entire readership with one article. The quickest way to sully a children’s book is to write your child’s name in it. Your family only temporarily owns books. In a few years you’ve sold, gifted or donated them to other people or organizations. New children now have your wonderful books, but when they open the covers they are reminded the books aren’t quite as special. They are used. Don’t get me wrong. I love used books (I own thousands). I love them so much that I’m tired of seeing people permanently scar… -
Mom Won a Major Award
25 Jun 2009 | 1:05 pmMy 5-year-old daughter has become infatuated with writing forms and taping them to our living room wall as part of her pretend play. And by forms, I mean documents she has Mom and Dad fill in with personal information. She tapes a pencil to the wall. This week’s form was a drawing contest which required us to supply our name and cell phone number and to recreate a stick figure house displayed on the form. For the past few days I’ve been reminding my daughter while placing my hand on her shoulder, “Next week Mom will be away at a conference for four days, so it will be just…
-
Tread Heavily
-
Happy Birthday Meme!
10 Jun 2009 | 7:25 pm -
Being Faithful
23 May 2009 | 10:20 amJust as we were letting go of some things around the house to raise money for Peru, we were hit with something that might have made it impossible for me to even go to Peru. We didn’t make a killing at the yard sale, but we did sell most of the good things we had to offer and were going to be able to put around $200 towards the trip. The rest would go to getting the kids clothes for the summer and other summertime related expenses that we know are coming up (camps, classes, etc.) I left the sale very early because Hollis had a soccer tournament that he had to play in over at Forsyth… -
Peru Yard Sale!
15 May 2009 | 12:48 pmThis may be the first blog post I have ever seen advertising a real-life garage sale… But, that’s what I’m doing! If you happen to be in the Atlanta area, our neighborhood is holding their annual community yard sale this Saturday from 8:00AM to 1:00PM. My wife is going through our house as I type this, looking for stuff we can get rid of to help pay for the mission to Peru. I see a lot of stuff that I really don’t want to lose sitting in the foyer with a yellow sticker on it, so that’s why I am waiting until she finishes before I go out and start on the Garage. -
It is Crunch Time for Peru!
11 May 2009 | 6:33 pmI have less than a month to raise the rest of this money for the Mission Trip to Peru. Am I worried? Yes. Am I discouraged and fearful? Absolutely not! Tonight I am finishing my letter to friends and family and will be sending them off tomorrow. I will also be handing them out at church this weekend after being talked into it by the folks who have done all of this before. When I started these plans, the amount seemed like it wasn’t that much, but as the deadline looms and our personal budget shrinks, the amount seems to grow by the minute. I am writing this to provide full disclosure to… -
Trip Report: Lost Sea Adventure
27 Apr 2009 | 1:30 pmAs den leader of the Tiger Cubs of Pack 205, it is my duty to go with my little Tiger on several cool trips during the course of a school year. Back in October we took the entire family on a rain and fun-filled weekend of camping on Lake Lanier, and this past weekend he and I went on an overnight trip up to The Lost Sea in Sweetwater, Tennessee. The Lost Sea is a very large subterranean tourist attraction that says they have the largest underground lake in America. You can go year-round and take a guided tour through the caverns. During each tour, you get to take a ride on a glass-bottom boat…
-
Xbox4NappyRash
-
Give us a wave
30 Jun 2009 | 11:27 amShe has a wee belly you know.Not much, and no one other than us would ever notice. We know that all it really is is a little swelling or bloating, but that doesn't seem to matter. It's so much more than that.It really is one of the nicest sites you could ever see.Speaking of which, in a couple of days we hope to see an even better one. On Friday we have our first scan, 7 weeks and 5 days into the pregnancy.The as of yet unnamed bugger has now turned from an embryo into a foetus, (or a fetus, if you like to spare vowels,) its nervous system is developing rapidly, including its brain, and wee… -
Hey, you, whatsit...
25 Jun 2009 | 9:25 pmA decision must be made.We need a name with which we can refer to this mutating being that has my wife growing out of it's arse.Calling it 'my baby' is only going to cause confusion when that name is already bestowed upon my iPod, PC, photo printer, telly, and Smartphone.Add the fact that ET and I can't ever agree on anything, to the delightful news that mood altering hormones have started to kick in, and we are having some trouble pinning a 'name' down between us.You really haven't played a game of chicken until you've allowed a hormonal pregnant woman bring her face to within an inch of… -
Berries and buds
23 Jun 2009 | 9:23 pmThe apple seed baby has grown.Well, I'm assuming it has grown because it's now being compared to a grain of rice, or a blueberry, depending on what you read.Firstly, I'm not so sure a grain of rice is any bigger than an apple seed, and secondly, telling your average thirty-something year old Irishman that something is similar to a blueberry is about as useful as tits on a bull.I'm not comfortable with all this measuring up against healthy foods and fruit business. I'd much prefer if they compared its size to things I'm familiar with.'This week your baby is the size of a malteser, or a… -
Something in my eye
21 Jun 2009 | 9:30 pmFather's day was never something that registered with me, it never really came into my radar.I woke yesterday morning in a self inflicted haze, to find ET standing over me.My fear that she was about to beat me about the head and face with a bedside lamp or some such weapon was luckily found to be uncalled for.She presented me with a gift and card, the card read as follows:I'm somewhat concerned as to where ET may have developed paper cuts in retrieving the card, but for a six week old embryo with a couple of buds for hands, that is some nifty penmanship.Another day of moronic grinning… -
The nuts & seeds of the matter
18 Jun 2009 | 1:52 amMy child is the size of an apple seed. One whole seventeenth of an inch long.Within a couple of weeks it will be up to one third of an inch. At that rate of growth, in two months it will be taller than I was in college.What is more interesting is that in the last week or so, it's heart started beating. ET would say that the fact it possesses one means it's already more evolved than it's father.I'm not sure how something the size of an apple seed can even have a beating heart, so either it is something they make up to stop us getting bored of it all, or it's the most fascinating feat in all of…
-
Mr. Big Dubya
-
25 From 25 - Part III (and final)
25 Jun 2009 | 9:27 amAnd, I wrap up the Top 25 of the Past 25 Years and almost four months ahead of schedule. Take that TwoBusy. Come back tomorrow when I announce a contest to win a copy of Ghostbusters: The Video Game for the Wii.Now, on to the music.The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes AgainThe Silencers - I See RedThe Cure - LullabyU2 - Trip Through Your WiresDepeche Mode - But Not Tonight -
25 from 25 - Part II
23 Jun 2009 | 10:07 amIn order to allay TwoBusy's fears that I won't finish this meme, here are #15-#6 in my Top 25 of the last 25 years.Gene Loves Jezebel - Desire (Come and Get It)The Cult - Love Removal MachineLove Spit Love - Am I WrongMighty Mighty Bosstones - Someday I SupposeOasis - SupersonicPaul Weller - Wishing On A StarThe Replacements - Can't Hardly WaitCold Water Flat - Magnetic North PoleGuns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' MineFine Young Cannibals - Johnny Come HomeStay tuned - I'll wrap this up before October. -
25 From 25 - Part I
10 Jun 2009 | 10:34 amSonofa...Apparently some people have not learned. I got tagged in yet another meme and by some people I thought knew better. Though they seem to know I could not resist this one. And not only did I get tagged on their respective sites, I had my card pulled on twitter as well. What's the matter guys? Couldn't hire a skywriter?I will use Tony's method of compiling: #25-16, #15-6 and then my top five. And like him, I'm not offering up the why - unlike TwoBusy, who is apparently DadCentric's resident Nick Hornby - I have a real hard time expressing/justifying why it is that I like certain songs… -
One hour down - 2,688 (give or take) to go
3 Jun 2009 | 2:07 pmI meant to write about all this earlier, but I was on vacation. Twenty years ago, May 25, 1989, I left the comfortable confines of my parents' house for basic training at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. I sit here flabbergasted at how quickly time goes by and how events eventually unfold. I believe in those "forks in the road" moments - that these decisions I made then ultimately brought me here now. This is a first installment (of not too many) about the 16 or so weeks I spent at Fort Sill - some of it is blurry and I won't/can't include everything, just some of the highlights.The alarm went off at… -
When Jesus Speaks, People Listen - Maybe Not Right Away Though
12 May 2009 | 9:34 amDamn my third grade reading comprehension. Or maybe it's that I have the attention span of a toddler who got into the Easter chocolates. But apparently, I missed a meme. And one from he who shall not be named. Um...no, that's not right. That's some other guy. No, this was one from Black Hockey Jesus. A DadCentric comrade. He who shall not be blamed for tagging the rest of us with a meme. He knows not what he does. Well, maybe he does and he's just some sick, sadistic bastard. Which does make him perfect for DadCentric. In any event, I should probably thank him since he's given me something…
-
The Republic of T.
-
links for 2009-07-02
2 Jul 2009 | 1:04 pmThe Republic of T. » Blooming Late, Blogging Late Now, I find myself worrying that maybe I missed my opportunity to “be somebody” or “make something of myself.” There’s a feeling that something is passing me by right now, and I can’t catch it; that I missed the boat because I got to the dock a couple of decades too late. (tags: life career) Creating Passionate Users: It's not too late to be a genius It's never too late to be creative. It's never too late to make a difference. Just…keep…trying s***. (tags: blogging career creativity achievement aging)… -
Digest for July 1st through July 2nd
2 Jul 2009 | 12:30 pmHere are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for July 1st through July 2nd: Key Bush Torture Lawyers Still at Workl - America’s Matrix - Who Sits at the Health-Reform Table? - More Global Interfaith Unity Through Hatred of Gays - Equal Opportunity Triumphs Again in Missouri - An AMA change of heart? Not really - Unprotected Sex: Abstinence Education’s Main Accomplishment - We Already Have a Popular Single-Payer Health Care System — It’s for Active Military and Veterans - Slow Down: How Our Fast-Paced World Is Making Us… -
links for 2009-07-01
1 Jul 2009 | 1:02 pmJen Grisanti: Passion and Work Do these two words go together in your world? Are you passionate about what you do? Are you happy when you wake up every morning and excited to see what the day will bring? If not, could you be? (tags: working) Sharon Glassman: What is Work? Part II: Finding Your Passion So, how does someone get across an ocean of fear of change to Work They Love? (tags: working) Sharon Glassman: What is Work? Part I: New Definitions In the days before World War II, human work was similar to the classical definition of work in physics: an exchange of energy. But today, Tom… -
Digest for June 29th through July 1st
1 Jul 2009 | 12:00 pmHere are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for June 29th through July 1st: Right-Wing Insanity: Former CIA Official Wishes for Terrorist Attack on U.S. (!) - God Tells Joe the Plumber Not to Run for Office - Apologists for the Rich Are Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel - In Right-Wing Bizarro World Military Coups Are the Embodiment of Democracy! - The Root of Madoff’s Evil - For Many, Marriage Is Sexless, Boring and Oppressive: Time to Rethink the Institution? - Johann Hari: The Stonewall Riots Haven't Stopped - They've Gone… -
You Can’t Win
1 Jul 2009 | 6:41 amThere’s one Michael Jackson video I forgot to add to the previous post. I thought of it because I found myself humming it yesteday. You can’t win - Michael Jackson - The wizUploaded by xBillieJean. - Explore more music videos. I guess the lyrics spoke to me. I was looking for a song the expressed how I felt most of yesterday. You Can’t Win (Sung by Michael Jackson) You can’t winYou can’t break evenAnd you can’t get out of the gamePeople keep sayin’Things are gonna changeBut they look just like they’re staying the sameYou get inWay over your…
-
Daddy Types
-
Why Not...Use A Tool Cart For A Changing Table?
2 Jul 2009 | 2:02 pmIndeed. Congratulations to Cookie editor Meryl's friend Sara and her husband for this innovative use of an automotive tool cart for a smart, sleek and chic industrial-style changing table! The industrial changing table that launched Daddy Types, which I made from a $50 Harbor Freight enameled steel tool cart, is still going strong, though we haven't used it as a changing table for K2, so much as a diaper and blanket dumping ground. Also, Colgate seems to have bulked up the Mini-Contour Changing Pad, which used to be 30-inches long, and is now 33". Meanwhile, I've been looking to swap it out… -
Uh, Yes I HAVE Heard About The Boyfriend's Python Strangling The 2-Year-Old
2 Jul 2009 | 1:21 pmWhat I hadn't heard was that the lid on Jason Darnell's pen for his 8.5-ft Burmese python was "a quilt and some rope." Un. freaking. believable. Also, Shaiunna? Or is it too soon to ask? OXFORD, FLORIDA -- Charges Possible in Python Strangling + VIDEO [floridaytoday via everyone] -
Somewhere In New Jersey: Citroen DS21 Wagon On eBay
1 Jul 2009 | 8:52 pmRemind me again why I lament the absence of awesome euro station wagons in the US when there's a perfectly restored 1971 Citroen DS21 on eBay right now? Why cry over not being able to spend EUR30,000 on an Opel, when I could probably get the DS home for a mere fraction of that? How much more could it cost to have A/C added before the resto is complete [because, uh, obviously, it's still in progress]? And couldn't I get some LATCH attachments welded deep within the seat frame somewhere for a few pennies more? Am I the only one thinking this? I must be, because even though the Citroen was the… -
Snopp! You Must Not Hop On Pop!
1 Jul 2009 | 6:26 pmA young Swedish couple has decided to raise their kid gender-neutral, and is not revealing whether the two-year-old is a boy or a girl. The paper Svenska Dagbladet interviewed them in March [google translation]. They used the aliases Jonas, Nora and Pop, and they just call the kid Pop. Or whatever. Frankly, to hear the parents talk about it, the whole thing sounds totally happy and normal. Except for a few playground scowls and all the feminists freaking out around them, of course. Like the Canadian author Susan Pinker, who argued a bit too myopically about the scientific proof of genetic and… -
Expensive Tastes
1 Jul 2009 | 2:17 pmK2 just drank my wife's prescription eye drops. Poison control says the steroids are in such low concentration, it's not a problem, which frees me up to be angry at having to spend $98 on a replacement bottle because the insurance company says it's too early for a refill.
-
ART DADA
-
Walt Whitman vs. Walt Disney
23 Jun 2009 | 1:00 pmMy neighbors often assume that our son is named after Walt Whitman, maybe because Whitman lived in Brooklyn, maybe because Brooklyn parents tend to give their kids pretentious names.Our Walt is named after Walt Disney. As I described in another post, this has caused some consternation among my neighbors. I am equally perplexed as to why anyone would name their son after Walt Whitman.Walt WhitmanWalt Whitman wrote poetry a century before the Beats made poetry cool. Leaves of Grass is his most famous work. I've never read it. You probably haven't either.Walt DisneyWalt Disney was one of the… -
Visions of 2050
15 Jun 2009 | 7:50 amPart of being a sci-fi writer is getting the future wrong, like Arthur C. Clark anticipating commercial flights to the moon in 2001. Sometimes the error goes the other way, underpredicting the technology. Check this 1892 imagining of aerial warfare in 1955.Egad! The commies have the balloon!That's part of the fun of reading sci-fi, my buddy Rob said. Rob is a dad and a writer so I proposed this challenge - we're both going to write sci-fi stories for our sons to read in the year 2050. The story must begin on New Year's Day, 2050 and describe everyday life in some way. The goal is to predict… -
Take This Organic Cucumber And Shove It
8 Jun 2009 | 2:44 pmThe Park Slope Food Co-op brings out the worst in me. When I joined, I thought the experience would have the opposite effect, imagining myself standing shoulder to shoulder with my fellow man, proving that there is an alternative to the hyper-capitalist system and getting some cheap, organic produce in the bargain. Instead I find myself suppressing the urge to punch my fellow man in the head.I've never been community-minded. Drumming circles, Teach for America and Plato's Retreat have never appealed. I've always fancied myself the individualist but now that I'm older, mellower and a… -
Suck
29 May 2009 | 6:50 amThe little guy is using a lot of new words these days and one of them is "suck". My Good American Wife thinks he means stuck because he says it while entangled in the magazine rack or up on a piece of playground equipment he can't climb down from.I suspect that he means suck because I use that verb all the time, as in the Park Slope Food Co-op sucks. Such language may not be appropriate around toddlers but it is a necessity at the co-op, a place where even the most basic finctions of a grocery store cannot be counted on.Being stuck can also suck so the meaning isn't clear. And sometimes he'll… -
That's Not My Assailant...
26 May 2009 | 6:06 amA friend gave our son this book, one of the "That's not my..." series. Pirates, once the scourge of the seas, are now cute. This is wrong. We need to teach our children that criminals are scary. Here's what Amazon.com would write about my book, "That's Not My Assailant..."This disturbing board book is aimed at very young children. Real mug shots are designed to develop a distrust of strangers. Babies and toddlers will cry while turning the pages and pointing to the suspects.That's not my assailant. His mohawk is too green.That's not my assailant. His facial growths are too small. That's not…
-
Nagoh
-
The most annoying sound in the world (not really)
26 Jun 2009 | 12:51 pmWhen he did this, I immediatly thought of one of my favorite movies. But to me this sound was cute :) -
Hey Babeee!
19 Jun 2009 | 11:15 am -
Jack Bauer watch out!
13 Jun 2009 | 1:48 pmI missed video Friday this week, so I am posting one day late. The last time I shot a gun I think I was 10 years old, I have never shot a hand gun. From the video, you can see I do not do this very often, but it sure was fun!! Thank you Doug for taking me to do this. It was A BLAST! -
Crackers in the Barrel
8 Jun 2009 | 7:56 amMy wife loves her some dessert, and I am not talking about me. I am talking about ice-cream and sweet things like that. So last night at about 8pm we thought it would be a nice treat for us to go to Cracker Barrel. Just her and I together to have a nice dessert out alone. Desmond was in bed, and a sleep for the night, her folks kept a listen out for him, we would only be gone an hour tops. As we pull in we noticed it was busy for being so late, we approach the “host” but he really could have been a hostess if you now what I mean. He was polite to us. He reached for the menus, we… -
See it?
3 Jun 2009 | 5:41 amDesmond with a death grip on Bert! We won some tickets to go see Sesame Street Live from the Credit Union and some radio station last week. Last night we picked up our tickets and found our way to the Centraplex to see the show. We had to get there an hour early because we also had won tickets to go back stage and meet some of the characters, and have pizza with them. We were a little worried how Desmond might do, as he is not into Sesame Street yet, and sitting still is not something he is into these days. We decided to give it a try, it was free to us so what did we have to lose. With that…
-
D is for Dad
-
Ahoy there!
2 Jul 2009 | 12:48 pm“None pities him that is in the snare, who warned before, would not beware” – Robert Herrick The other evening as I was washing the dinner dishes Ava, the four year old, ran over to the sink looking for some way to help. I explained there wasn’t much she could do with the dishes at this point but if she could get the play room cleaned up we could go outside for a bit before bedtime. Off she ran. Roughly three minutes later she comes thundering back up the stairs voicing loudly a complaint, with a bit of concern, around an ant she spied in the playroom. I assured her we would take… -
Graduates in our midst
4 Jun 2009 | 12:44 pmIf there were any planets colliding this past week it may have been my fault, and for this I apologize profusely. You see, we had one of those eventful weeks that leave a lasting impression on the heart, soul and pocketbook. Which events are these you ask? None other than the graduation from high school of my oldest child and only son and the graduation from pre-school of my four year old daughter. I’m grateful these events occurred a couple of days apart. Had they been back to back I’m not sure my increasingly feeble mind and weepy soul could have handled it. Today I feel old When one is… -
Shield or Apron
7 May 2009 | 7:40 amOver the last few months, maybe even over a year, my young son and I have not been seeing eye to eye. He has gotten stubborn, argumentative, and difficult. He has even learned to pit Mom against Dad by playing the “But Mom said?” game. It’s really been getting on my nerves. It feels like he and I have been at it for so long that the next argument is just a continuation of the last. It does not take me more than just a second to whip myself into a fury at the slightest hint of his mouthiness. I don’t give him a chance to try to weasel his way out of chores. The warden… -
It almost made me cry
11 Apr 2009 | 7:15 pmAnyone that knows me knows I love movies. I even have this uncanny ability to find something worthwhile in most bad movies. Chick flicks. Action. Drama. Documentaries. Children’s movies. Westerns. Musicals. I love them all. I’m not the guy that can recite movie lines or remember all the characters or actors but I can always tell you how a movie made me feel. I’ve only walked out of one movie in my life. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Absolute crap. This evening, after my wife left for work, the kids and I turned on the movie Bolt. None of us had seen it before and the day had been… -
One Saturday Morning
30 Mar 2009 | 3:00 amPink Panther Land of the Lost Scooby’s Laff-a-lympics Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle Hong Kong Phooey Underdog C.B. Bears These are all Saturday morning shows I remember watching and looking forward to. Some of these made it past the first season and I can recall pretty well the commercials that would tease us as the new season approached. I could hardly wait. Saturday mornings were sacred back then. They were as much for the kids as they were for the parents. A nice opportunity for the kid to shake off a week full of teachers and other adults telling them what to do and what not to…
-
Daddy and Daughter Blog
-
Having Two Kids
28 Jun 2009 | 12:51 amIt has been a while since I wrote something about my child. Chloe is now turning 3 years old on July 4. She is now studying yes at the age of 2 years and 11 months old she's ready to learn and mingle with other kids. Me and wife just thought of getting her into nursery just to have some fun and for her to become more sociable. On her 3 weeks in school we have found out that she can eat on her own using her own spoon and while her classmate ate and getting messy with their food our kid is doing great when she got out of her classroom and I pick her up her teacher told us parents that the… -
Vince Carter is an Orlando Magic
28 Jun 2009 | 12:49 amGuess what this is a wrong move bringing Carter to the Magic will create a lot of destruction for the team the playing time of Hedo and Rashard will be sacrifice and we all see that they are as good as anybody else. They traded Altson this is a no brainier they should dump Nelson when they had the chance is Stan that stupid Altson is the reason they got in the finals at the first place and we all see that they lost to LA because they use Nelson instead of Altson common are they blind. Good luck to Vince it will just be a New Jersey type of season for him just like the days with Kidd and… -
Shaq in Cavaliers Uniform
28 Jun 2009 | 12:42 amShaquille O'Neal is officially a member of the Cavaliers for the upcoming 2009-2010 season. Yes, it will be a big factor to have him with Lebron but the question is, does Shaq have enough diesel power to help the Cavs or will he be just another Ben Wallace that is a none factor in Cleveland? But sure thing though when Shaq is around a talented player like the caliber of Lebron he produce a trophy. Remember when he got his 3 rings with LA with the help of Kobe and with the Heat with the aid of the “Flash” D-Wade. Let’s just see if they can handle my Celtics big three. -
Do You Hate The Los Angeles Lakers?
19 Jun 2009 | 4:10 amDo you hate the Lakers? Well if you ask me yes I hate them ever since I watch NBA when I was only 12 years old and now that I'm on my 30s I still hate them. I don't like Kobe Bryant for me he is a jerk and a Jordan wanna be. He might be good and has a passion to the game but I really don't like the guy. For me the L.A. Lakers are forever be villains and the Boston Celtics will always emerge victorious and the heroes of the game we all love. I just hate the Lakers. Kobe and his team sucks. -
Kevin Garnett Had a Successful Surgery
11 Jun 2009 | 4:07 amKevin Garnet is now healthy and ready to contend. This was announce by Boston Celtics official website. Garnett appeared in 57 games this season for the Celtics averaging 15.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.11 steals and 1.19 blocks in 31.1 minutes.The Celtics really missed his services he is the defense anchor and the emotional leader of the team. If he only played the playoffs the Celtics will easily destroy the Bulls and the Magic and they will also spoil LBJ's championship dream. We might see a finals rematch between the Celtics and the Lakers and for sure KG, Paul and Ray will take…
-
Daddy Forever
-
Dads and Grads Books Giveaway Winners
1 Jul 2009 | 10:01 pmThe winners of the Dads and Grads Books Giveaway are Nigel Williamson, Lisa A, Dad of Divas, Sunnymay, and Mozi Esmes Mommy. I used a random number generator to select the winners. Special thanks to Hachette Book Group for sponsoring the giveaway. I will contact the winners for shipping info and then forward the information to Hachette Book Group. Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd -
Summer Beach Bag Books Giveaway
1 Jul 2009 | 12:01 amWe have another giveaway offer from Hachette Book Group. This time, we’re giving away ten books. Five winners will each receive a set of all ten books in the giveaway. Just leave a comment to enter. The deadline is July 23rd. The giveaway is limited to US and Canadian residents. No PO Boxes please. Here are the books in the giveaway: Obama’s BlackBerry by Kasper Hauser When Obama stated that if elected, he would keep his Blackberry, debate echoed through Washington and among the ranks of the Secret Service. What would it be like to have a president who could Twitter, send text… -
My Little Painter
30 Jun 2009 | 12:01 amWhen are kids old enough to be helpful? You parents out there know what I mean. Kids want to be helpful, but that usually means more work for us parents and the chore will take a lot longer to finish. Funny how little kids think chores are fun, but when they get older they hate chores and don’t want to do them. Back to my question, when are kids old enough to be helpful? Is it nine? Eighteen? Never? I’m bringing this up because we painted the living room last week. As you can imagine, all four of our kids thought painting would be fun and wanted to help paint. Yes, even the little… -
Energizer 15 Minute Charger Giveaway Winners
25 Jun 2009 | 12:29 pm[Update: Anthony lives outside of the US and did not mean to enter the giveaway. He was only leaving a comment. The new winner is Danielle.] The winners of the Energizer Rechargeable 15 Minute Charger Giveaway are Annalene and Anthony. I used a random number generator to select the winners. Special thanks to Energizer for sponsoring the giveaway. Note: Amazon currently has the Energizer Rechargeable 15 Minute Charger on special for $23.49 (list price is $45.99). Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog© 2009 Online… -
Do As I Say
23 Jun 2009 | 12:01 amWhen I look at this photo, I see four cute kids. It’s my job to make sure they stay that way and not menace society when they grow up. Every day I’m forced to make decisions that will influence my kids for many years. Make a wrong decision and the kids start their journey to the Dark Side. So, what do you say when you’re eating ice cream and the kids ask if they could have that for breakfast too? Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of…
-
ANTI-RACIST PARENT
-
What if Racialicious wasn’t just a blog, but an actual experience?
2 Jul 2009 | 11:33 amby Carmen Van Kerckhove Wow! I just checked our stats and it turns out we had close to 400 people registered for my free teleseminar yesterday, “Love and Sex: What’s Race Got to Do With It?” Those of you who joined me live - thank you! Those of you who missed it, don’t worry. If you registered, you will get an audio recording via email. (You can still register for the audio now if you’d like to hear it.) As you know, this call was a preview to a new program I’m launching called The Racialicious Experience. Let me tell you more about it. I’ve been… -
Open thread
2 Jul 2009 | 3:57 amTalk amongst yourselves… Heres something to get you started from this week’s Newsweek magazine: If my purse ever gets stolen, it’s Dave Chappelle’s fault. In the spring of 1997, I attended a barbecue at the home of a friend in Los Angeles. Since the party was almost exclusively populated by a particular type of television writer (think Conan O’Brien), I was taken aback when a young black gentleman entered the festivities. Given L.A.’s then-fearsome reputation as the home of rogue cops, riots, and drive-by shootings, I was scared that the newcomer was a… -
Gratuitous cute kid pic
2 Jul 2009 | 3:38 amIt’s Thursday, which means it’s time for another gratuitous cute kid pic. This one comes from reader Jenn F., who says: “These are my sons. Danny is 6, and Rome is 3. We adopted Danny from Ethiopia in 2007, and the boys have been fast friends since the day they met.” Got cute kids? Send their pics to team@antiracistparent.com Advertisement: New Demographic: anti-racism trainingworkshops that mobilize people to work towards an anti-racist future No Tags -
OMG…Remember “Free To Be…You And Me?”
1 Jul 2009 | 11:10 amI may be dating myself when I say that I used to have the “Free To Be…You and Me” album on heavy rotation in my play room when I was a wee Tami. Thanks to Soul Bounce, I rediscovered this charming performance of “When We Grow Up” by Roberta Flack and Michael Jackson on the ABC special of “Free To Be…” that aired in 1974. Some 30 years later, the message is still empowering to children. Of course, seeing Michael Jackson performing this tune gives it special resonance. From Wiki: Free to Be… You and Me is a record album and illustrated songbook… -
Peanut Butter and Race Relations
1 Jul 2009 | 3:56 am[Editor’s note: On Monday, we published Jackie Morgan MacDougall’s response to the controversy surrounding her year-old MomLogic post about an incident where her three-year-old son asked why her co-worker’s face was brown. Today, we have a response from Morgan MacDougall’s co-worker, Winter Johnson. This, I think, is an illustration of why conversations about race can get so darned muddy and difficult. We all come to them with different context. Morgan MacDougall said of her colleague’s response: “…her post has surprised me a little just with two…
-
Daddy Dialectic
-
Do Fewer Fathers Want to Become Stay-at-Home Dads?
25 Jun 2009 | 2:38 pmCareerBuilder announces: The number of guys who'd consider becoming stay-at-home dads has dropped from 49 percent in 2005 to 31 percent this year. This is based on a survey of 800 working fathers.How can we reconcile that number with the staggering number of Father's Day stories about laid-off fathers becoming stay-at-home dads, or the rising visibility of caregiving fathers in our culture?That's easy: We are now in the midst of an all-hands-on-deck economic emergency. Even employed parents feel under the gun at work, and many are facing furloughs, salary cuts, and benefits reductions. In… -
ABC 7 News: Growing Shift in Parental Gender Roles
23 Jun 2009 | 10:55 amIs the embed not coming through? Click here! allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/static/flash/embeddedPlayer/swf/otvEmLoader.swf?version=&station=kgo§ion=&mediaId=6879634&cdnRoot=http://cdn.abclocal.go.com&webRoot=http://abclocal.go.com&site="> -
Father's Day Link Round-Up, Part Two
22 Jun 2009 | 8:26 amPresident Obama Speaks to Dads About Fatherhood: "Just because your own father wasn’t there for you, that’s not an excuse for you to be absent also -- it’s all the more reason for you to be present. There’s no rule that says that you have to repeat your father’s mistakes. Just the opposite -- you have an obligation to break the cycle and to learn from those mistakes, and to rise up where your own fathers fell short and to do better than they did with your own children."Mother, May I? Helping Moms Back Off So That Dads can be Dads: "Negative gatekeeping… -
Raising Hell: For Ella, my daughter, who asks why?
21 Jun 2009 | 9:41 amNote: this is the intro to rad dad 14. I want to call on fathers everywhere to make a commitment to all youth and not just their 'own.' On the night Barak Obama was elected, he threw out this rhetorical question: If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible… I’d like a chance to answer. Yes, Mr. president, there are. Let me start with a story and then some facts: Just two days before my daughters and I were leaving on a 5 week trip to southeast Asia, I heard a call come into my home phone. It was a collect call. My heart froze; it was… -
Take the Daddy Shift quiz!
20 Jun 2009 | 7:19 pmAre stay-at-home dads all a bunch of slacker artistes living off of wives with MBAs? Do they spend all day surfing porn sites and having torrid affairs with dissatisfied neighborhood mommies? Are breadwinning moms dumping their stay-at-home husbands for high-powered lawyers? Who are these guys and gals, anyway? Stereotypes abound about reverse-traditional families, but if you want the facts, take this quiz.1. During the past fifteen years, the number of stay-at-home dads has:A. Stayed the same B. Increased only slightlyC. DoubledD. Tripled2. During the same period, the number of working moms…
-
JamesSpratt: A London Blog
-
Frankie, Month 20
2 Jul 2009 | 12:49 pmKate shot again whilst I was in Trinidad. Fit as a butcher’s dog my girl is. Show as slideshow [View with PicLens] -
12 Week Scan for #2
24 Jun 2009 | 3:15 amKate had the 12 week scan for #2 a little while back. I bloody missed it as was abroad. Bit of a wriggler apparently. Looks like we’re getting one with a tail too. We find out the sex at the next scan on the 24th July. Boy or girl? -
Belgrade
8 Jun 2009 | 10:17 amI didn’t get round to passing comment on Belgrade yet. I liked Belgrade, what I saw of it. IMHO any city on the water AND built on hills is pretty much already half way there as a decent city. There was one particular street, who’s name very helpfully I cannot remember, but if you are ever in town I do suggest you go. Think it begins with C, but that could be their C, so an S between you and me. Then again it might not. Think it ends in ’ska’, which again narrows it down considerably for Belgrade. Cobbles leading down a gentle slope; al fresco dining; lots of Serbians… -
Frankie, Month 19
21 May 2009 | 5:32 amTaken last Sunday morning down in Brighton with cousin Bonnie. Show as slideshow [View with PicLens] -
Dear Frankie, Aged 1½
20 May 2009 | 2:01 pmDear Frankie, Right baby, things have rushed along all too fast. May! where did that come from? “No time, no time.” I now find myself on my third trip away. The current contract I had wanted for about three years; that I started eight months ago, is now in full swing. This means I’m working abroad a lot so I didn’t see you for the majority of your 18th month, in fact so far it’s averaging that I’m away for three weeks then back for just one. So you and I have spent far less time than we should together. This is not cool, but it’s just the way the old…
-
People in the Sun
-
This post should have been about my torture device
26 Jun 2009 | 1:52 pmI wanted to write about my torture device.This is actually an antique from the Middle-Ages, originally used to remind people who forgot they were Jewish that they were indeed the children of Abraham.You climb a little step. It's pretty comfortable. A nice handle on each side. Very stable. Look, it's a little cup-holder thingy. And look at all these buttons!So this post was supposed to be about the torture device I have upstairs, the one that makes my face look like a ripe tomato, makes me cry inside, scares me... The torture device I hate because it reminds me on a nearly-daily basis how I… -
I need a vacation from my vacation
16 Jun 2009 | 12:12 pmHere's the short, inoffensive version. Because. And because I feel better. And because who cares, anyway. And because what's the point? I'll just say one thing: Sometimes I look at myself and see too much fucking average, and it makes me feel stupid and redundant. But then I go back there to the constant stress of aggressive drivers and endless war and constant fear and family guilt and family quarrels, and I look at myself and feel a little proud that I've made it through as a half-functioning human being. I'm not doing that bad after all.Now on with our story.David Simon was on our plane to… -
See you in two weeks
26 May 2009 | 7:39 pmAgain, it's time to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and head on East. There will be stories when I come back. And pictures of cute babies. And that's about it. But it will be fun, so don't abandon me.Meanwhile, head on to Puntabulous and see my speaking role in The Starship Puntabulous.And you still have some time to vote for the Wishful Writer in Murphy-Goode, PICK ME!And see what you can do to help Jeff get his business off the ground in Thank you! I'll TAKE that help.And click that "Random Post" tab above the header (or here). It will take you places.Speaking of the Star Trek movie, if… -
My Quadrophenia Story
22 May 2009 | 9:58 pmIn about a week, we're going to Israel again. But before we get there, we're going to spend a couple of days in London. We plan to have a beer where we met.View Larger MapWhich also means it's time for another London roommate story.This guy was the king of London. Everyone knew him. He was handsome, and he was cool, and he didn't give a fuck. He didn't give a fuck about his friends, and we liked that about him. He went to India and pooped hash, and we thought it was cool. He once said the most romantic thing he'd ever done was share half an ecstasy pill with a woman he met in a club, and we… -
A Short Post About Human Nature
16 May 2009 | 10:34 pmIt was a nice day, so we took a walk around the block. Look at the big bus! Cover your ears! It's an ambulance! How cute you are when you say Hi to everyone you see... Maybe I should do the same?Where are you? Oh.He was standing a few feet behind me, looking at the ground, then walking slowly in a circle. I walked back and saw the caterpillar. Look how many legs he's got! He's cute, right?It was slowly moving toward him, then it arched its back and turned the other way. We followed it. My little kid interested in nature. How cute!We continued following it. If you look closely, you'll see this…
-
The Man Page
-
Sparking an Idea Thursday : How To Finish What You Start!
18 Jun 2009 | 5:58 amWelcome to Spark an Idea Thursday’. Each week we’ll be sharing some great ideas for a topic of interest to our readers. We invite you to grab our image and carry the tradition through to your own blog! If you do, please link back to this post so we know where you were inspired! Today’s topic? Spark an Idea to Finish What You’ve Started. This week’s “Spark an Idea Thursday” is all about finishing what you started! Now I think this is a great topic but I’m going to put a little twist on this one, OK? What I’d like to talk to you about instead is WHY… -
The Legacy of One Young Man Remains Strong This Father’s Day
15 Jun 2009 | 8:40 pmWithin 24 hours, the Andre Sobel River of Life Foundation Can Give a Family Hope and Relief This Father’s Day Father’s Day takes a moment out of the year and our increasingly hectic lives to recognize all the special Dads and father figures who have provided us with love, guidance, and support, both spiritually and by supplying our basic needs. Single fathers, especially, face unique challenges, but when the unimaginable happens, the diagnosis of a child with a terminal illness, new pressures arise: mounting bills, demands at work, and the probability that one cannot remain at… -
Spark An Idea Thursday : How To Show Appreciation For Your Clients
4 Jun 2009 | 5:14 pmWelcome to ‘Spark an Idea Thursday’. Each week we’ll be sharing some great ideas for a topic of interest to our readers. We invite you to grab our image and carry the tradition through to your own blog! If you do, please link back to this post so we know where you were inspired! So as a new business owner I am trying hard to stand out from the crowd and go the extra mile for my clients. And as luck would have it, this weeks “Spark An Idea Thursday” is all about how to show appreciation for your clients. Well in this crazy world we live in I think it’s the simple… -
Father’s Day Giveaway: Skin Care Gadget for Dad
4 Jun 2009 | 3:14 pmDads, here’s your chance to win a Clarisonic Skin Care System. Here’s the down low on our Father’s Day Giveaway prize: Clarisonic Skin Care recognizes that men are just as discerning about their grooming products as women are. Created by the inventor of the Sonicare toothbrush, the Clarisonic uses sonic technology and works with the skin’s natural elasticity to unclog pores for deeper cleansing without stripping the skin. Using the Clarisonic prior to shaving will open pores and give your man the closest shave of his life. The launch of their men’s Graphite Gray… -
Hi, and I’m a PC
2 Jun 2009 | 7:26 amMy name is Nick Bostic, I’m one of the Sparkplugging interns and I’m a PC. The fact that I’m a PC has been further solidified lately and is part of the reason you haven’t seen me here yet. Apple has been killing my PC. Let me back up a moment… I grew up on PC’s. I assembled my first Intel 8086-based computer when I was five and that was before it was normal for a five year old to even be on a computer, let alone building one. I was a beta tester for Windows 95. I helped my dad in his consulting business switching out advertising agencies from…
-
Savvy Daddy - For super dads everywhere
-
My Father's Day "Do-Over"
29 Jun 2009 | 12:50 pmby Phil Stott Do-over? Done. Wow. Not even a week since I wrote about wanting a Father's Day do-over, and I've already had it. (In fact, as I write, it's not even a week since Father's Day.) Sure, my special day do-over lasted a mere two hours, and involved standing in a horrendously uncomfortable spot atop a bench in the middle of Manhattan, peering through a chain link fence, but it was one of the best breaks from my usual routine that I could have come up with. It also fulfilled almost all the rules I laid out in my previous post, in that it was centered around a sporting event, and… -
Ask the Savvy Daddy Expert MD
26 Jun 2009 | 1:56 pmby Tony Chen You may have seen that we here at Savvy Daddy have recently added a distinguished Panel of Experts. You can see their bios here, but basically these folks are profs, physicians, clinicians, and academics that are savvy gurus on topics relevant to us dads trying to raise great kids. These experts have been gracious enough to answer real questions from real dads - email me your questions (tony at savvydaddy dot com) and I'll be passing along the most relevant & compelling questions to them. Today, we are honored to present to you Dr. Russell Robertson, Chairman of Family… -
Can I get a do-over for Father's Day?
23 Jun 2009 | 6:52 pmby Phil Stott Am I ever glad that Father's Day is over. Maybe it's because I live on Long Island, where the weather ruined just about every plan I could've made for the day (not to mention most of the month of June): not only did it prevent me from road-testing the new barbecue tools that showed up gift-wrapped in the morning, it also ruined the tradition I had going of watching the final round of the US Open. And, on top of all that, we had to make a trip to the mall. On a Sunday afternoon. To return stuff. Not the most fun that can be had on a day held in your honor, let me tell you. -
5 Great Road Trips for Kids
19 Jun 2009 | 8:54 amby Phil Stott In my last couple of posts I've covered a couple of subjects related to taking kids on a (relatively) pain-free road trip: planning before you go, and in-car entertainment systems (otherwise known as using your imagination). Here, then, is the concluding part of the series-five destinations that are more than worth the journey, even if the young 'uns scream all the way there. 1) The Grand Canyon Make no mistake about it: if you live in the continental United States and you haven't visited the Grand Canyon, you're missing out in a big way. I'd attempt to describe the feeling of… -
Raising Boys with Purpose
16 Jun 2009 | 10:52 amby Tony Chen You may have seen that we here at Savvy Daddy have recently added a distinguished Panel of Experts. You can see their bios here, but basically these folks are profs, physicians, clinicians, and academics that are savvy gurus on topics relevant to us dads trying to raise great kids. These experts have been gracious enough to answer real questions from real dads - email me your questions (tony at savvydaddy dot com) and I'll be passing along the most relevant & compelling questions to them. Today, we are honored to present to you Michael Gurian, a NYT best selling author of…
-
A Suitable Wardrobe
-
Maintenance: Madame Paulette's Stain Removal Kit
2 Jul 2009 | 7:00 amI know little or nothing about the cleaning services of New York's Madame Paulette, but the company's Professional Stain Removal Kit is unsurpassed in my experience. The point of on the spot stain removal is that the sooner a stain is removed the less it is likely to cause irreversible damage, and one of Madame Paulette's kits demonstrated this just the other day when it removed a salad dressing -
In the Pink
1 Jul 2009 | 7:00 amSunny day clothing recently that included suede shoes from Gaziano & Girling, a chalk striped fresco suit by Thomas Mahon, striped shirt by Hemrajani, and a Charvet bow tie. Pink is perhaps the most complementary color to combine with gray, as light blue is with navy. White in the square, tie, shirt and suit serves to blend the elements together. And medium and dark grays are the best time to -
Of Stingray and Antelope
30 Jun 2009 | 7:00 amDimitri Gomez is one of a handful of the world's best bespoke shoe makers. He works by himself in a space within the Crockett & Jones store in Paris. Gomez is one of the few makers who makes a fitting shoe (the black shoe in the photo) before he begins work on the final product. The fitting shoe is open, so he can see exactly how foot and shoe are interacting. A man who obviously enjoys his work -
Waiting for Guyot
29 Jun 2009 | 7:00 amThe front sidewalk of Marc Guyot's Cape Cod Shop in Paris is a pleasant place to spend an hour smoking a cigar in the sun. The scenery is always the same and yet ever different - women in summer clothing and the occasional well dressed male. Inside, Goyot's store is beautiful as if by accident. It is a small space that has been crammed with cloth and clothing from top to bottom until there is -
Small Spoils of Travel
28 Jun 2009 | 7:00 amSmall spoils of travel from a week on the road. There is a wine micro-dot necktie around my neck, a sized (no buckle in the back) black grosgain bow tie in my bag, and a silk madras four in hand, navy with maroon bow tie and three Irish linen hanks on the bed. Both bow ties have what I think of as the Charvet shape, unlike the butterfly style usually seen in the United States. They may be a bit
-
Nordquist Blog
-
The First Five
30 Jun 2009 | 12:50 amI recently wiped my PC in preparation for installing the release candidate of Windows 7. It used to take a couple of hours to install Windows from scratch and then a couple of days before I had all my applications reinstalled and configured just right. But those days are over. I’m spending more time on Facebook and Twitter and have replaced a number of applications with simplified web apps. I replaced Microsoft Outlook with Gmail last year and haven’t looked back. Google Docs has nearly replaced Microsoft Office. Yet I still rely on a few applications that haven’t been… -
The 76 Cent Sandwich
29 Jun 2009 | 12:33 amI came across this news article where a 24-year old man was attacked for his bologna sandwich. Now I’ve heard of kids getting attacked for their iPods or Air Jordans before, but a bologna sandwich? Yet that’s not what caught my eye. According to the article, “Police said Hamilton has a swollen lip and his face was covered in blood. The police report listed the value of the sandwich at 76 cents.” Specifically, that last sentence has been on my mind. For example: Who determined the sandwich was worth 76 cents? Does the police department employ a sandwich appraiser? If… -
Dad’s Two Jobs
28 Jun 2009 | 3:16 amThe games start the minute mom runs into the store leaving me alone in the car with the kids with no adult supervision to be found. And by game I mean anything that mom would veto but that might slip by dad. “Dad, let’s take turns saying all the jobs you do. Then we’ll say all the jobs mom does.” This feels like Bert and Ernie, I say to myself. “Ok”, I reply assuming I got off easy. Any game that doesn’t include exposing bare buttocks is progress. Celebrate the small victories, I say. “Dad kills the spiders”, begins Anna with what… -
Respect Your Customer’s Time
28 Jun 2009 | 12:27 amToo few companies respect my time. This past week I spent nearly 15 minutes jumping through a telephone tree maze only to find out the department I needed to speak with was closed for the day. I’ve waited in line for 10 minutes while one employee calls another to price check an item costing less than five bucks. How many times have you discussed a problem with an employee only to have them say, “I can’t authorize that for you. You’ll need to speak with my manager”? Do you give your employees the authority to make your customers happy? Or have you put up processes… -
Window of Opportunity
26 Jun 2009 | 12:19 amSo maybe we let Kai stay up later than we should. Or gave him a few more Animal Crackers or sips of Diet Coke. I may have given him a slice of gum or two when Kim wasn’t looking. When he hid the Tivo remote for a day we laughed it off. Had it been Lincoln, who knows if Scooby Doo privileges would be reinstated. Whatever the reasons, the arrival of Kai has been different. Different from the previous three. I’d like to tell you I was deeply involved with each child when they were newborns and toddlers. And I was to some extent, but it wasn’t consistent. There’s a…
-
Ramblings of a Single Dad
-
Double-whammy: Farrah and Michael
25 Jun 2009 | 4:45 pmOur generation was hit with two losses today. Whether or not you liked either of them, there's no denying the roles they played in American culture during the prime of their respective careers, the memories of our own youth they will always represent, and the piece of our childhoods they take with them. I say we remember them this way.Memories of both of them will always take me back to simpler -
It's Payback Time
24 Jun 2009 | 5:44 pmFor those of you who have been loyal to the ramblings on this blog, I have an offer for you.If you friend me on Facebook or MySpace, or follow me on Twitter, you will find a link that will get you the Friends and Family rate at participating IHG Hotels (the family of hotels that includes Intercontinental Hotels, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Candlewood Suites, Staybridge Suites, -
Wordless Wednesday: 6-24-09
23 Jun 2009 | 9:01 pm -
Father's Day 2009 Rocked!
22 Jun 2009 | 3:00 amDavid did a good job of choosing gifts for me this Father's Day. In addition to the four pound box of Twizzlers he got me, he also picked out these cool pool/beach towels!I liked his choice of bands, for sure. I think it's safe to say that this Father's Day literally rocked! I hope yours was a good one! -
Wordless Wednesday: 6-17-09
16 Jun 2009 | 9:01 pm
-
5ksandcabernets
-
June 2009 running totals: Two bills and then some.
30 Jun 2009 | 11:18 amI ended this month with a swift 10-miler this morning, averaging just under 7:30 min/mile for the distance, including 7:05 min/mile for the last six miles.The mileage total brought me to 241.66 for the month. Its the most miles I've ever done in any month, eclipsing the 194-mile January. This month I had 12 runs of at least 10 miles and have 34 such runs halfway through 2009.I had 28 double-digit runs in all of 2008.Now I don't have the speed of Kamran or Jess, and I am not running as many weekly miles as Sadie or Heather, but 200-plus is something to be proud of.And I think I ran smart… -
There is a cow in my car
29 Jun 2009 | 6:43 amI bought the Britax toddler car seat for Noah a few weeks ago. Babies R Us only had this weird cow pattern. From everything I read (and from what Noah's mother told me), this car seat was supposed to be one of the safest around.So, I put down the cash and put the seat in my car. Every time I get in my car, it just looks like there is cow in the back seat. But Noah seems to like it. -
A running partner to keep me honest
27 Jun 2009 | 3:22 pmLong runs are easier when you find someone to run with who runs at about the same pace as you do.When I was running my long runs too fast, I was sort of a tweener. I was behind the really fast guys, but ahead of the rest of the pack, and so I spent three-fourths of my runs kinda by myself.Since I'm now running "smarter" I've paired up with this cool guy, Jonathan. He has helped me keep my pace steady. For instance, during Saturday's 14-miler, every mile between 2 and 9 was between 8:27 and 8:35 min/mile. Now that's what I call consistency. (I picked up the pace the last five miles, going from… -
Prince vs. Michael Jackson: It doesnt matter anymore.
26 Jun 2009 | 2:24 pmWhen we were teenagers, my brother and I used to have these arguments all the time about who was better: Prince or Michael Jackson.I always went with Prince.(Purple Rain, International Lover, When Doves Cry ... Come on, whats not to like.)Cedric went with Michael.From all the adoration that MJ is getting after his death Thursday, Cedric may have been right.And even sadder is that the argument doesnt matter any more. -
Separated at birth: Me and David Alan Grier?
24 Jun 2009 | 3:15 pmI missed my run Wednesday morning because I was drinking too much at WineStyles the night before. But one of the bar patrons kept saying I look like the comedian, David Alan Grier. If only I had his money and influence... (Hey, maybe he'll read this post and help me with a job. I was a Thespian in high school, you know.)What do you think?
-
Danz Family
-
5th Blogiversary
10 Jun 2009 | 10:05 pmToday the DanzFamily.com blog is 5 years old! Over the past five years I've written 719 posts, received 2105 comments and 70 trakcbacks (anyone still do these?), and put up about 1900 pictures. Over a thousand visitors stop by here each day and well over a million have dropped in since inception. (None of the public counters have been in place the whole time.) It all started shortly after my first son was born and my father died. Since then, my mom and Mary's last grandparent passed away and two more sons were born as well as three cousins. Friends too have passed away, while new ones have… -
Saturday Soccer Practice
7 Jun 2009 | 10:03 pmDrew and Will after soccer practice yesterday at Soccer City. -
65th Anniversary of D-Day
6 Jun 2009 | 5:30 amToday marks the 65th Anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy, France, during WWII. It remains the largest single-day amphibious invasion of all time involving 195,700 Allied personnel, of which 160,000 were troops, in over 5,000 ships. From the National D-Day Memorial Foundation: "On June 6, 1944, 150,000 Allied soldiers clambered aboard heaving landing craft and braved six-foot swells, waves of machine gun fire, and more than 6 million mines to claim a stretch of sand at a place called Normandy. Their mission was to carve out an Allied foothold on the edge of Nazi-occupied… -
Tiananmen Square 20th Anniversary
4 Jun 2009 | 10:19 pmWith today being the 20th anniversary of the the Chinese government's massacre of innocent protesters at Tiananmen Square, I was curious how President Obama would respond. What words of wisdom would he read from his teleprompters? *crickets chirping* Nothing. President Obama is too busy on his second Sorry-Muslims-America-Sucks tour to take notice of the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square. Even if he wasn't busy bad-mouthing American abroad, Obama still wouldn't have said anything. He's too dependent on the Chinese communists to purchase his never ending billions of dollars of dept. This… -
Government Motors - One Step Closer to Socialism
1 Jun 2009 | 10:46 pmGeneral Motors declared bankruptcy today, which would have been a good thing if it has simply been allowed to fail, gone into bankruptcy, followed the law, unshackled itself of its unmanageable burdens, and emerged a leaner, meaner, more competitive company. But, oh no, this is Amerika in the 21st century, and now the hand of Marx and Lenin rise from the grave and guide our government loving President to take control of GM and pay back his political cronies. The U.S. government already threw $19.4 billion at GM under the guise of keeping it out of bankruptcy when the real purpose, all along,…
-
Dad of Divas
-
Project 365 (229/365) - Diva-PJ's Friend
2 Jul 2009 | 1:09 pmDiva-PJ's Friend, originally uploaded by dadofdivas.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------New to the Divadom?Please Subscribe to my RSS Feed! Subscribe in a readerQuestions?Drop me a line at dadofdivas@gmail.com -
Project 365 (228/365) - Dad of Divas' Girls
1 Jul 2009 | 3:15 amDad of Divas' Girls, originally uploaded by dadofdivas.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------New to the Divadom?Please Subscribe to my RSS Feed! Subscribe in a readerQuestions?Drop me a line at dadofdivas@gmail.com -
30 Days to a Better Man-Day 30: Get a Straight Razor Shave
30 Jun 2009 | 7:05 pmBrett over at the Art of Manliness is having a 30 day challenge for all of us guys out there - to become a better man. I encourage all of you to check it out and take the pledge. Today, he challenges all guys to talk to Get a Straight Razor Shave.I can honestly say that I have never had this type of shave. I actually do not get to an actual barbershop much as J-Mom will cut my hair and it saves our house some money overall. In reading what Brett has to say though about this, it sounds intriguing, and something that I would like to experience at least once in my life.My only question about… -
30 Days to a Better Man-Day 29: Conquer a Fear
30 Jun 2009 | 7:04 pmBrett over at the Art of Manliness is having a 30 day challenge for all of us guys out there - to become a better man. I encourage all of you to check it out and take the pledge. Today, he challenges all guys to talk to Conquer a Fear.I had to think about this one for a bit to see what I wanted to conquer and I am still unsure to as what it is that I want to attack. There are not a lot of true fears that I can think of. I mean, I am not afraid of heights, open spaces, spiders....I am afraid of losing my family, even though I know that this will probably not happen. This is one that I think I… -
Project 365 (227/365) - Dad & Diva-PJ
30 Jun 2009 | 3:52 amDad&Diva-PJ, originally uploaded by dadofdivas.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------New to the Divadom?Please Subscribe to my RSS Feed! Subscribe in a readerQuestions?Drop me a line at dadofdivas@gmail.com
-
HighTechDad Blog
-
5 “Hidden” iPhone 3.0 Firmware Tricks
1 Jul 2009 | 9:12 amI have been playing around quite a bit with my new iPhone 3GS and the apps and firmware therein. I can’t say enough positive things about the release so I wanted to write about a few items that people might not know about because they are buried away or not immediately apparent. I’m sure there are many people who have already found these tidbits, so this is for those who haven’t. If you know of other gems like these, please leave a comment. In no particular order: Turn on Battery Percentage Selecting multiple images for sharing Opening links in the browser Testing the Voice… -
My Wife’s Father’s Day Shopping Challenge
30 Jun 2009 | 8:44 amIt’s been well over a week since Father’s Day crossed our paths. I pretty much killed myself trying to get reviews out on some of the products that I have received over the past couple of months that I thought would be good gifts for Father’s Day. Since Father’s Day has passed, I have been slowing down a bit. However, I did want to talk about a challenge that I gave to my wife for Father’s Day. I was contacted by a PR firm of T.J. Maxx and Marshalls with “a mission.” They would provide two $25 gift certificates, one for each store. I, or in this case,… -
Guest Post: “Moving a High Tech Dad to Assisted Living”
29 Jun 2009 | 9:16 amNote: This is a guest post from a colleague of mine, Harris Loeser, that I felt was an appropriate topic for my site but from a different angle that I have not really touched on: technology concerns for those in their golden years. I just spent a long weekend moving my kids’ high tech Grandfather (my Dad) and low tech Grandmother (both 88 yrs old) from their condo of the last 15 years to an assisted living facility. In the course of this move, I re-learned one key lesson which made this move go relatively smoothly. Allow me to explain that my Dad is not a technologist, but a lawyer and a… -
How to Fix Apple Mail Not Saving Passwords – Keychain First Aid
23 Jun 2009 | 8:00 amRecently I was plagued with having to repeatedly enter and re-enter my passwords on some of my email accounts using Apple Mail. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. I would get asked to enter when sending email from a certain account as well as when trying to receive email from a completely different email account. Other email accounts seemed to work just fine. The Mail application just didn’t seem to want to remember my passwords even though I clicked “Remember this password in my keychain” every time. It turns out that to fix this problem, there is a… -
Restore Missing iPhone Applications after 3.0 Firmware Upgrade
22 Jun 2009 | 8:06 amI was excited like many others to get the new Apple iPhone firmware 3.0 update last week. Installation was not an issue for me, even after coming from a jailbroken 2G (original) iPhone. That is, until I started looking for some of my applications. For some odd reason, there were several of my applications that had just disappeared. I finally found a fix which I will go into in a second. Here are some of the symptoms and things that I tried first (gathered from around the web and from my own experimentation): Could not locate via Spotlight search – searching for the name of the app showed no…
-
Always Home and Uncool
-
JumpStart.com Membership Giveaway
1 Jul 2009 | 3:57 amIf you have kids between ages 3 and 7 who like computer games but you are iffy on the safety and educational value of those silicon babysitters, then have I got a deal for you.I'm giving away TWO 3-month memberships to JumpStart.com, an online virtual 3D world for kids. JumpStart.com comes from the award-winning makers of JumpStart and Math Blasters educational software.You have two chances to win:The first membership, which also includes a CD-ROM game "Trouble in Town" that works with the Web site, is being given away on DadCentric.com. You can read my review on JumpStart.com and enter the… -
Twelve
27 Jun 2009 | 9:01 pmIf you can't see the video, go to my YouTube page.Related postsWhen Love Walks in the Room - Nov. 13, 2008To My Love, On the 11th Anniversary of our First Night of Unprotected Relations - June 27, 2008 -
Happy Frickin' Father's Day!
20 Jun 2009 | 11:43 amThe last thing anyone should think is that I'm a perfect father. As proof, I offer this:I don't recall what I did to prompt my son into making this a few weeks ago but it must have been pretty rotten because he actually presented to me without hesitation.Did I take his Nintendo DS away?Make him finally change out of his pajamas on a weekend?Force him to eat a vegetable?Eh. Another rite of passage down. Now I feel like I'm getting somewhere in this crazy job.Beside it was only one sign. I still have one of these:And TWO of these:Good me: 3. Bad me: 1. Do I try to run out the clock now?Here are… -
Have a Safe Summer -- Hide Until Autumn
18 Jun 2009 | 6:16 amSummer's almost here and we all know what that means: Long, warm sunny days spent hiding in the basement curled up in a fetal position.You may chuckle, my semi-health conscious reader and please do. For the moment, medical science still endorses laughter as good for you. That is until a researcher chokes on his morning bagel while guffawing at his colleague's latest joke about the two microbes, the rabbi and the pole dancer. Then it'll all be Dr. Oz pushing "Be Dour and Sour and Live Forever!" -- next on Oprah!Anyway, my personal experience and a few minutes on Google have convinced me that… -
Where It's At (Two New Posts and Thing 1 is Prone)
16 Jun 2009 | 4:00 pmThanks to all of you for your comments and concerns about Thing 1. Her blood test results came back fine, nothing wacky appeared on the X-rays and yes, I'm looking into getting her into a kiddie yoga class and even sending her to my masseuse.Meanwhile, as I type, she's lying on the floor, arms extended and raised in front of her doing the "Supergirl" stretch the PT/OT folks at the hospital taught her.(She says to tell all of you, "I @#$%ING HATE SUPERGIRL! SUPERGIRL IS DEAD!" Such a precious child.)I'm happy to report that it's been a week and she's stuck to her regime -- except for a…
-
LiteralDan
-
IL to ME Odyssey: Indiana, Ohio & Pennsylvania
1 Jul 2009 | 12:00 amHere are more of my observations on our car trip from Chicagoland to visit family in Northern Maine, part of the series of short posts: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio & Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine.INDIANADistance Traveled: 154 milesBathroom Breaks: 2• Indiana's most noteworthy form of welcome to weary travelers of I-90 is the stench of a sewage treatment plant for at least the first 20 miles. What could be more likely to invite us to get to better know our neighbors to the east? Perhaps a series of spike strips across all inbound lanes?Or maybe a… -
IL to ME Odyssey: Illinois
29 Jun 2009 | 1:00 amI figured I'd break down my observations on our car trip from Chicagoland to visit family in Northern Maine into a series of short posts of thoughts on our time in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and almost all of Maine.For a bonus, on our way home we also added Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey.ILLINOISDistance Traveled: 30 milesBathroom Breaks: 3• We started out the trip only about an hour behind a schedule we never intended to keep, but then my 5-year-old son D-, who had recently fallen at my parents' house and hit his head, said he… -
Snake heads, heifers, and Carnaval
25 Jun 2009 | 1:00 amSurprise, surprise, here I am on a Thursday just to throw you all off.But wait, no... scratch that now-outdated post opening. Blogger has had some kind of issue with scheduling posts in advance this week, so now it's actually Friday as usual.Here I am sitting in a hotel in New Jersey in the middle of the night, dreading getting back behind the wheel sometime late tomorrow morning, and I've got to pile on finding out that just like I feared as we crossed state after state all day, Blogger never published my post.It's really not unlike the dog owner following behind the dog with a plastic bag… -
Classic quotes, Vol. 16
24 Jun 2009 | 1:00 amHere are a few choice quotes just from the past two weeks of our vacation alone, this time all from my 5-year-old son D- and 2-year-old daughter M-:M- (slapping my legs while she sat on the toilet) I'm cwapping your pants!*D- (after winking at our now-fawning waitress, while smiling coyly) What's your name?M- (asked of Grandma absolutely out of the blue, then restated by D- after she understandably questioned what M- had asked) Why does Santa have helpers?M- (a moment of clarity during a minor tantrum in a restaurant) I'm fwustwaited!!M- (on another occasion, reaching up and pushing on my… -
I've got your Father's Day right here...
22 Jun 2009 | 1:00 amA belated Happy Father's Day to the approximately 3% of my readership who is both male and a father, and same to the husbands of 92% of the rest of you.I spent my day sleeping in, using the computer (for a welcome change of pace), and playing outside with the kids, who are trying to see if it is scientifically possible to melt the paint off the walls out here in Maine with the sheer quivering force of their pent-up energy.While that may sound all quaint on the surface, I want to know what it says about my performance as a father thus far that the most attractive games to my son involved, in…
-
corndog and rootbeer
-
Son Meet Hockey
13 Jun 2009 | 10:26 am“What’s that?”“It’s the Stanley Cup Final”“What’s that?”“It’s called Hockey”“How come they---“AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGHGHGHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”“How come you yelled?”“AAAAARGARRGGGH... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Goodbye Sweet Heart
21 May 2009 | 12:08 pmThis is not a home. It is a love story.It was at the end of what would later be called our first date, looking for furniture for her home, me along for the ride solely because of my cargo capacity... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
The Night We Bought the House
28 Apr 2009 | 4:29 pmYour mom packed you kids up along with a bunch of toys and met me after work at the other house, the one that we didn't want to buy but the one we had to see nonetheless because it was on the market... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Slainte
17 Mar 2009 | 9:40 pmThis month has been a complete whirlwind. We've been undergoing supersecret project 9000 which is of a sensitive nature and a complete timesuck. However from within this frantic dervish of which I... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
The Young Damien Hirst and Other Rainy Day Projects
16 Feb 2009 | 10:01 pmUggg the rain. Yeah I'm not a rain person. I'm not a cold weather person either. Most people think it's ridiculous that I would consider Northern California as too rainy and too cold but....it is.... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
-
Unraveling Life's Mysteries
-
Day 44…The Rebuttal
Even as I was handing her my keyboard to my blog, I knew it wasn't a good idea. What would she write about? A funny story about one of her sixth grade students? Something funny the cat did? Maybe a bit of satire on how a beach girl had to ... -
Day 44…
He has been underfoot for over a month. In the beginning he kept himself busy with prepping and painting various rooms of the house. Tomorrow he begins the final phase of "that project." He has managed to clean under beds and behind furniture that has not been moved in years. ... -
I Got Carded…
My wife got me a wonderful birthday gift a couple of weeks ago. Two tickets to see my favorite baseball team. The "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" were playing the San Diego Padres on a gorgeous Saturday evening. This was a combination birthday gift and date night rolled up in ... -
It’s Been My Privilege…
I have the honor and the privilege to be the father and step-father to three beautiful daughters. They are constant reminders of why I was put on this earth. Not only are they the loves of my life, they are the constant fodder for this blog. You see years ago ... -
Rule #1…
When the bill for your domain name comes up for renewal, PAY IT IMMEDIATELY. Don't file it under your junk mail.... It's not fun to have your site down for a couple of days.
-
Annoyingly Boring?
-
“C” Is For Completed (150/365 v2.0)
1 Jul 2009 | 7:59 pmProject 365 // Day 150 v2.0 The patio is done, and to celebrate my three youngest had a dance party on said patio. Once again, kudos to Bill Cummings and crew. Great work, very happy with it. Seriously, if you are in southeast Massachusetts and in need of any stonework, give him a call. 781-934-5702. Tell him I sent you. Now, just have to get the stairs from the slider built. -
“B” Is For Bill Cummings Hardscaping (149/365 v2.0)
1 Jul 2009 | 8:18 amProject 365 // Day 149 v2.0 We are having a patio put in, should be done Wednesday afternoon. Hmmm, perhaps “C” is for Complete is in the works. Bill is a great guy, if you are in need for a patio, walk or wall give him a call… 781-934-5702. Tell him I sent you. -
“A” Is For Acquired (148/365 v2.0)
29 Jun 2009 | 10:20 pmProject 365 // Day 148 v2.0 Alright, I have decided to do another A-Z series as I enjoyed it last time. So here we go with “A” I acquired these filters yesterday thanks to the kindness of my father-in-law who had them from way back when. Now I just have to figure out what they can do for me. -
Dunkin’ Mobile (147/365 v2.0)
29 Jun 2009 | 7:15 amProject 365 // Day 147 v2.0 We went to the Pawtucket Red Sox game yesterday and watched the PawSox lose to the Syracuse Chiefs. On the way home we passed a Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffee car. Seeing that the PawSox, Red Sox and US Soccer team all lost in the span of about an hour, the coffee car was the highlight of the drive home. -
No Fireworks (146/365 v2.0)
28 Jun 2009 | 7:46 amProject 365 // Day 146 v2.0 We went over my sister-in-law’s last night to watch Braintree’s fireworks. They were fogged out. No chance to try to shoot fireworks (something I have never had any lucky with), so just a shot of a house. Maybe we will try again tonight as they have been rescheduled.
-
One Dad's Life
-
The Neighbor's House is on Fire!
2 Jul 2009 | 10:46 amIt's no secret that I'm just a bit of a Nintendo fan. In fact, if you are a regular reader (thanks to both of you!) then you know that if I had MY way, my life would revolve around music, Nintendo, and photography. Please note, I'm not excluding my family, pesky as they may be, just as I'm not excluding eating and sleeping! No nasty emails, please.So, last night, as with many nights, I wanted to spend a bit of time playing Animal Crossing. I have to collect all the available fish, bugs, clothes and furniture after all!Animal Crossing is a pleasant, slow moving… -
Wordless Wednesday - Annie: Day 1
1 Jul 2009 | 4:46 amAlthough "behind the scenes" work has been going on for some time, last night was the first cast rehearsal for this fall's musical from our production company, Christ Memorial Productions. We're doing "Annie" this September (for two weeks - 18th, 19th, 20th, 25th, 26th, 27th!) and boy did the Muny set the bar high this past week! Their production of "Annie" this year was the best I've seen. Still, I promise that you will not be disappointed with our production. Anyone who has ever seen one of ours will tell you the same!Here are a couple of… -
What's Up?
30 Jun 2009 | 10:34 amWell, things have been crazy busy in the "One Dad's Life" household. So much so that normal things haven't been getting done. Ahem.It seems that since school has been out, the "summer vacation" thing just hasn't taken hold, yet.For the past two months, I've had employees from Asia (both China and India) in town. I like taking them places and showing off our great town, which has an impact on our weekends, of course. On top of that, we have the usual weekend rehearsals, church services, dance classes, etc.During the week, my normal work schedule… -
Found Poetry
26 Jun 2009 | 6:12 amWhile cleaning out the dark hidden corners of our coat closet floor, we came across a crunched up piece of notebook paper. Generally, the instinct is to just throw this in the recycling bin, but for some reason my wife opened this one up and took a look at it.It's a good thing she did! It turned out to be some poetry, obviously written by my first grader earlier in the year. She is ALWAYS making up songs and poems, and can do it on the fly, but this is one that she took the time to write down. It obviously wasn't for school or anything, since her name wasn't on it and… -
13-year Old Quote of the Day
25 Jun 2009 | 5:24 amThis past Sunday, on Father's Day, I was picking up some of my employees that are visiting the United States from India. They were going to celebrate Father's Day at my house. My youngest daughter, who we'll call "Rachel" since that's her name, was with me. My wife and older daughter, Rebecca, were building a set for this week's VBS program and were not in the car.Rachel LOVES it when people come to the United States from Asia. Loves it. So she is in rare form, showing off, singing, and generally making a loud nuisance of herself. The Asians love…
-
Fighting Monsters with Rubber Swords
-
Guest Blogging: Marketing Tips For Authors
30 Jun 2009 | 6:50 amSquirrel monkeyOriginally uploaded by floridapfeFor those of you who are writers, particularly of nonfiction, I wrote a little somethin' somethin' for Tony Eldridge's Marketing Tips For Authors.I wrote specifically about developing a platform, which for nonfiction writers can be sort of a twitchy concept. "To even be considered for publication, you must have a great platform!", we're told, and yet it seems to be one of those terms that means whatever a particular agent or editor or publisher thinks it means.Well, now you can add my particular take on the matter. That ought to keep everyone… -
It's time for my stories
23 Jun 2009 | 11:27 pmSchuyler is taking a summer school class, one that deals specifically with reading. Yesterday she brought home a little story book she'd been assigned, and she excitedly read the first story to me. I was so pleased with how well she did that I set up the camera and had her go through it again.This will give you another opportunity to observe her verbal speech, along with the actual words that she's reading for comparison. Mostly, though, I just wanted to let her show off a little. Reading is a hard skill for nonverbal kids to learn, and I think she's kicking it old skool.By the way, the story… -
I have a face made for radio
23 Jun 2009 | 11:26 pmOriginally uploaded by Citizen RobIf you're in the Dallas area, or if you like to listen to streaming programming on the web (and really, who doesn't), you can catch me on the radio this afternoon at 2:00pm central on the North Texas Kids Radio Show with Dr. Minette Riordan.You might be tempted to think it's the End Times just hearing the words come out of my mouth, but I will be on The Word, KWRD-FM 100.7 Christian Talk Radio. Weirder things have happened.Anyway, I think the interview went really well, and I don't think I said anything that will upset any tenderhearts out there in Radioland. -
California
23 Jun 2009 | 11:08 amI thought about doing a detailed wrap-up of the 2nd Annual Microcephaly Convention, which we attended over the weekend and where I presented a speech, but I think my previous post probably expressed how we felt pretty well. It really did feel like we were attending what was going to be, unbeknownst to us, a family reunion. It was a life-changing experience.Outside of the conference, we had a good time as well, aside from my issues with our rental car at the very beginning of the trip. Now, in my own defense, the car rental lot was in a dark spot underground. Furthermore, the attendant simply… -
prosapia monstrum
18 Jun 2009 | 11:16 pmWe are at the 2nd Annual Microcephaly Convention, and it's late. I really should be going to bed. California is two hours earlier than Texas, and it's been a long day. But I needed to say this now, while I'm still in the middle of it.Tonight, Julie, Schuyler and I sat at a table with two other families, both of whom I feel like have become, in a short evening's time, part of our family, too. But in a very real way, they already were.Because each of those families have a child with polymicrogyria, just like Schuyler.They are the first kids with PMG besides Schuyler whom we have ever met. And…
-
Velcrometer
-
The Quarter in Movies (Part 2)
1 Jul 2009 | 8:07 pmThe Quarter in Movies (Part 2)The second part of the second quarter of the third or fourth...sommething...I don't know, just skip to the reviews.Drag Me to HellOh, how I wish Chao and I saw the version of this movie that everyone else loved so much. I saw it in Wisconsin, which I blame for the fact that the version I saw seemed to want to trade in both highbrow horror-suspense and shots of eyeballs getting gooshed into the heroine's face after she drops an anvil