daughter

wife has a nine month head start on her relationship with daughter. she also stays home with her. so, needless to say, daughter favors wife over me.

i always joke i'll never catch up, but she is affectionate with her dad now and again.

today is one of those days. she asked me to read stories to her in her room. this made my day in many ways. not only was she wanting to play with me, she wanted to read. so the proud parent in me quickly assumed she'll be a genius when she grows up. i was very happy.

but i told her to fuck off. nascar was on tv.




psyche!

steady rain, no wind

our back porch is about 14 feet wide and goes out 18 feet from the house. it is covered, but not enclosed. we have a set of patio furniture taking up about half of this space with a grill and wood bench on the other half.

i love sitting on this porch at night and relaxing with a cigar and a near beer. tonight it was raining. but since it was not windy, i liked this. i'm one of those freaks that likes the sound of rain. it is very mellow and while i am surrounded by back yards, there is also a wooded area nearby. so it is a very mellow scene and i can really relax. sometimes i'll get into watching all of the planes in pattern as they approach our airport.

every time i do this, i wind up somehow thinking of my three colleagues that died in the accident. it's done in a good, respectful way. somehow i am letting them know i appreciate moments like this more than ever. i take nothing for granted.

this was a fitting end to a good weekend. a salad weekend of sorts...one that won't stand out, but a good weekend overall with weather, family and productivity. the good ones that blend into the background.

wife is pregnant so i am trying to pick up some more slack while she adjusts to it all. now that she has daughter, it's not like her first pregnancy when she could simply take a nap. the appetite is back too while the little succubus inside her saps her energy and nutrition. just 8 weeks in and the gravity is clear...the little bambino needs a lot of fuel to develop.

so now our house has plenty of comfort foods. my favorite have been the fritos. she's been into cheese a lot too. none of the cheez whiz, american/nacho cheese stuff either per se. provolone and munster were the latest. :-)

now i need to figure out how to eat better and/or run. my diet is shot and i am running less these days. so i've put some weight back on. can i get away with sympathy gains? oddly enough i recall having a similar gain this time last year. so maybe it's just summer as a whole.

daughter is keeping us on our toes. she's testing us, but nothing major. mostly she winds up cranking at the end of the night. and by this i mean she's cranky. tonight was no different, but it was punctuated by her falling off the basement stairs and clocking her horse. mom witnessed it and wigged out too. this never helps matters unfortunately. but both calmed down and daughter has a knot on her check to show for it.

got our latest pictures back and took some "art" pics for fun. by this i mean it was not pics of daughter or family, but pics of various subject matter i take for fun. so i click on bloggers new upload/image file icon and merely find directions of how to link to images already online. cheap bastards. if you're not going to add the capability, don't turn the answer to a question into a friggin formatting icon on the interface. if only to manage expectations.

but this new browser is not all it's cracked up to be. i like the new template choices and all, but my last post got eaten at some point. this made me want to fly out to seattle and kick somebody's arse. not that said post would have won my ANY prizes, but it felt like a good post. the kind of post that keeps me from deleting this pocket mirror of a backpat piece of shit self love fest blog.

it also becomes the yin to work blog's yang. i wind up playing them off each other so i wind up blogging all the time, but i switch between the two to avoid burnout. well, the night my post was half-eaten, i nearly deleted both blogs and turned my monitor into an aquarium (insert link here to show the site that has done this and includes step by step directions).

so, to recap: good weekend. fuck blogger.

the turd and other life changing events

just got back to work after having a great vacation. we didn't go anywhere, oddly enough. just hanging out with the family and relaxing did the trick. still trying to get back into the swing. so instead of focusing on work, here i am.

but it's simply been too long. you jackskulled fuck socket.

the turd: daughter loves to swim. as much as you would expect a three-year old to enjoy it. luckily she still has no fear. it means you need to watch her closely, but she's also a lot of fun. we took her to Parky’s Wetland Adventure which is more than a sprinkler on the lawn, but much less than a waterpark. cross a themed jungle gym/swingset with a sprinkler and there you go. the lame name is due to the fact that it is a free adventure sponsored by the parks system.

the park opens at 11 am. but the world gets there well before this. any young kid would want to get wet as soon as they arrived, so by the time the doors opened, the crowd was ready. we made our entrance and grabbed a good seat to hang out for awhile. unfortunately i did not have to throw any elbows to do this. boy do i miss rage and anxiety.

after a few minutes, i see some life guards gathering by a mom and her baby. they're pointing. the kid did not have a swim diaper on and a turd escaped and was officially in Parky's Wetland Adventure.

no shit.

cut to scene from caddyshack.

ok, where do i begin to rant here? first of all, i strongly encourage you to buy some diapers and toss one in a pool. it's like inflating a life raft - with lead. for the parents that are too cheap to buy swim diapers, don't take your kids swimming.

mental note: trademark the country song "you can swim in my toilet, cause i peed in yer pool." along with the personal classic "three daughters, two ex-wives, one jesus." fuck you ascap.

so anyway, this mom doesn't understand the big deal. i should have flung dung at her and when she reacted as most anyone would i would try and help her see the point of shutting down Parky's Wetland Adventure for 45 minutes to cycle out all water once to make sure it was fecal free.

man i love scatatological references. triple word score here, eh?

so all of these kids that were hell bent to run through the sprinklers are now screwed and have to wait another 45 minutes after spending less than 20 up to this point. sweet lord, talk about cruel and unusual punishment. take them to chuck e cheese and tell them they can do whatever they want except for eat and play games.

what's new in the world?

when i saw this news report from the UK, I assumed they meant University of Kentucky. from the "hey ya'll, watch this" files:

Drinking and shotguns in your pants don't mix
Man jailed for illegal firearm possession after shooting self in groin

so in one corner of america, the food pyramid is being redesigned.

and this WAS the start to a great fat joke. then blogger ate my post. and i really want to abolish blogs as a whole now. yeah, it was not an ephiphany. but it's late enough that i am now sour an all things blog at least enough to go to bed. :-(