Month: September 2009

Temporarily Single Dad

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For the past 5 days, I’ve been Mr. Mom.  My wife went away to a blogging conference in Asheville, NC and left me in charge of managing our 2 kids.  Being actively involved with my kids on a regular basis, this was not a daunting task, per se.  The hard part was not paying attention to work for that period of time – especially since my shine, new iPhone would chirp every few minutes telling me I have some new email to read.  But eventually I turned off that notification and got to the serious business of responsibly entertaining my posse.

First priority – getting them to school on time.  Grasshopper only just started going to daycare (2 days a week) and already being without his Mommy, he was very reluctant to go (though apparently his tears ended within minutes of Cricket and I leaving him there).  Cricket just started Kindergarten this year and has been loving every minute of it, but with the possibility of being able to stay home and play Lego Star Wars with Daddy she suddenly was on the fence about going as well.  But I got them there, they did there time, and got them safely home (all perfectly according to schedule).  But outside of that, it was play time – we went to the park almost every day, we went to a play place for the better part of one cloudy afternoon, and we spent a fair share of time watching a couple of movies and playing Lego Star Wars.

By the end of the long weekend, I was ready for reinforcements.  I love my kids, but I can only be jumped on so many times before needing to tag out.  I only took advantage of the in-laws once for a break (which I spent cleaning).  And I actually made semi-nutritious meals for them for all but 2 meals (pancakes are good for you, right?).  So all in all I think I did okay.  And today it was back to work … to deal with my other batch of kids.  Maybe I should go to a conference.

P.S. – Mywife (who now has 2 blogs) went to a blogging conference, but didn’t post anything the entire time.  Ironic.

33 Flavors and Then Some

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To my lovely wife on her birthday (yes you):

  1. You are a strict realist – a difficult quality to find these days.
  2. You remind me every day how important it is to express enthusiasm (something I’ve never been good at.
  3. I may not express this often, but you are a shadow in my conscience – I often will hit a gray area at work where I think about how you would handle the situation (then I remove the ass-handing part and do the rest).
  4. You have put up with more of my shit than you deserve.
  5. You understand the difference between emotional response and character.
  6. You don’t put up with nonsense (except the good kind … and some of mine).
  7. You have talents you have yet to cultivate and sharper faculties than you give yourself credit for.
  8. You never forget anything important (except where you put things).
  9. You are the best friend anyone could want – you are great in good times, and even better in bad.
  10. You have an electric smile.
  11. You have eyes that betray more confidence than you believe yourself to possess.
  12. You are independent.
  13. You are dependable.
  14. You are blunt and often sarcastic.
  15. You always know what to say to people.
  16. You could win any argument in which you engage – I have no doubt.
  17. You amaze me with your ability to teach someone something without giving them a single answer.
  18. You also amaze me in your ability to set pasta on fire – it is a rare talent.
  19. You could probably make a Thanksgiving dinner with your eyes closed.
  20. If there was one thing about you that I first fell in love with, it was probably your sense of humor.
  21. You understand that two people can disagree without being at odds (more rare than it should be).
  22. You can curse like a sailor.
  23. You have more tact than anyone I know.
  24. You have a zany streak that I plan to enjoy until we are old and gray.
  25. You don’t care about shoes, designer clothes, or hair products (that’s a good thing).
  26. You have a respectable appreciation for football.
  27. If you decided to go get an office job, I have no doubt you would ace any interview.  But you’d hate working in an office – they are highly unproductive and inefficient places.  You’d go mad.
  28. Because of you, our children are happier, smarter, and more well-rounded than I’d have expected them to be or than I could have accomplished on my own.
  29. You are self-sacrificing (you need to cut back on that, by the way).
  30. I have had and will always have respect for your opinions and wisdom.
  31. No matter how stressed we’ve gotten or divided we’ve found ourselves on issues, I’ve never felt disrespected or unappreciated.
  32. You may recognize that the song I paraphrased for the title of this post is off by one digit, but you are not the type of person to point that out (though I am).
  33. You may refer back to this list every so often to remind yourself of some of these great things about you, but I will never have to – you’ve made an indelible  impression on me and I thank you for it.

There are hundreds of other things that I love about you – many nuances and qualities of your character.  I hope that this short list at least brings a smile to your face on your birthday.  We all miss you at home and hope you enjoy your 33rd without us.

With love from your boob of a husband,

SilentBen

(I hope this is flattering enough that she doesn’t notice that I didn’t get her a gift … yet.)

Flash Forward

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Off and on I’ve had conversations about this new show coming this fall and about how it could be the new Lost (which I’m somewhat ashamed that I never found the time to watch).  Well the premiere has arrived and I’m here to report on my thoughts.  In short, it has promise and I will be keeping my eye on it at least in the short term.

The basic premise of Flash Forward seems to be this:  one day, out of the blue, everyone on Earth blacks out at the same exact moment and all for a period of 137 seconds.  During this blackout period, everyone gets a glimpse at that slice of time some 6 months in the future (though some see nothing at all).  The immediate result is calamity – countless deaths and injuries due to various types of vehicular accidents or inopportune locales (e.g., surfing), followed by chaos of people looting and taking advantage of the confusion.  But as the dust settles, there is a sense of unification – everyone has a definitive fate to consider and certainly something in common with every fellow man that they can talk about.

The epicenter of the story is around an FBI team that seems to quickly coalesce as the goto team in figuring out what happened to the world and what the visions tell us about our fate.  While the show is a fast-paced drama and I was able to connect with many of the characters very quickly, I have to say that I was surprised by some of the casting – specifically the large number of comedic talent used in such a serious show.  Among the FBI investigative team, they have cast John Cho (popularly renown as Harold), Joseph Fiennes (ok, serious – but I can’t help but picture him in Shakespearian garb), and Seth MacFarlane.  I have no doubt that everyone will play their roles well, but I can’t help but feel that some of their better talents will remain untapped in such a series.

The real drama and intrigue is in finding out who saw what and the mosaic (to use their word) that slowly comes together from the individual fragments.  It will also be interesting to whether knowing the future will have any impact on it – whether any of the outcomes can be avoided because they have been revealed, or whether they are preordained.  I have a feeling that they picked 6 months as the flash date so that they can put a nice bow on the season if it doesn’t get renewed, but it is way to early to call anything right now.  Another angle that is arising is the idea that this may not have been an accident and that at least one individual has been identified as having not been effected.  So there are definitely some fascinating mysteries to be unraveled.

So to sum up, I’ll likely keep watching the show and see how deep the rabbit hole goes.  It has all of the right ingredients and a cast I can get into.  But the moment MacFarlane starts doing funny voices, I think I may have to change the channel.

Leaps and Bounds

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An exchange between myself and Cricket in the car this weekend while she was looking at a dinosaur book (keep in mind that she just started Kindergarten 2 weeks ago):

Cricket: What’s a quadriped, Daddy?
Me: A quadriped is any animal that walks on four legs.
Cricket: What about ones that walk on two legs?
Me: They would be called bipeds.
Cricket: Oh, okay.
[pause]
Cricket: I have a hypothesis that most dinosaurs were quadripeds.
Me: Okay.  What does the word hypothesis mean? [just testing her]
Cricket: Its an idea that I can test.
Me: And how do you plan to test this idea?
Cricket: By looking at pictures in my book, Daddy.

I cannot take full responsibility for this – I think she learned a number of these words from a new show she has been watching called Dinosaur Train.  But the extent to which her thirst for knowledge has been amped up recently is phenomenal.  Hopefully this will lead her toward learning to read more readily than her interest in it has betrayed recently.  Once that door is open to her, there is no telling where she’ll go next.  But it is an exciting journey to watch.

Big Man, Tiny Desk

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Last night was Back to School night – my first of presumably many to come.  My Cricket started kindergarten last week, so last night my wife and I went to sit in hobbit-sized chairs at low tables to hear all about her school days.  It is still a little surreal that she has made this step – that she has grown from the squealing, crawling little thing that she used to be into this walking, talking little person that is now learning things away from home and developing her own experiences and opinions of the world.  Congrats, Cricket – oh the places you’ll go.

P.S. – I’ve decided that while I avoid using my kids real names here, I’m getting tired of always referring to them as my son and my daughter.  So from now on, my 5-year-old daughter will be referred to as Cricket and my 2-year-old son will be referred to as Grasshopper.  There are stories to go with those names, but I’ll save those for another day.