Friday, January 22, 2010

Practice-run at Father Of The Year

It looks like I won’t be getting my Father Of The Year award this year. It seems I blew it before the end of January, but hey, it’s my first stab at it, so better luck next year.

I was out of the running the other night, when I tried to put Calli in her swinging chair. All was well, until I put the tray down, and pinched her finger. For an hour, I felt like a sack of shit, and though I’m sure she forgot it pretty quickly, I haven’t. There was even a little red mark – horror of horrors! My baby’s been blemished! And believe you me, there was a very different pitch to her cry than the standard ‘hungry’ or ‘fussy-for-the-hell-of-it’ whimperings! I understand it happens to every parent, but why oh why can’t I do all my learning from books? I should be able to make a deal with the Powers That Be that it’s my fingers getting pinched! Then, I’ll know where the danger is, and Calli can tra-la-la through life, with nary a scrape or blister!

When I told my mom about this, she remembered that when I was a wee scamp, I got a finger caught in the chain of an excer-cycle. The wheel only went one way. That’s it; no work-out equipment in my home! For the children! (Am I that transparent?)

Then today, she got her 4-month shots. She was an admirable trooper through the first one, like “OK, shit happens, and you get one free pass.” The second one brought a much different response. I’m sure the whole office heard, and she looked like her head had been swapped with a very shrill tomato! She got her mileage out of it too, and fussed until we got home, and Andrea could present her…lunch. I get it, they cheer my up too!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The Lists of Eight

Laura over at Vodka Logic tagged me to play Lucky Chinese Tag. I think it’s Chinese because eight is one of their lucky numbers, though I’m not certain of that. Feel free to correct me if I’m talking out my ignorance. Like VL, I’m also a little dry on ideas right now, winter blahs and holiday fatigue, I s’pose.
So here’s my lists of eight:

Eight TV Shows I Watch:
NCIS. Great characters, great writing!
Bones. Ditto
Ancient Discoveries. Looking for hints as to what was going on before our recorded history. I mean, we have a multi-billion year old planet, and about 7000 years of recorded history, doesn’t this bother anyone else?
Clone Wars, when I can find it.
The Daily Show. Jon Stewart is freakin’ hilarious!
The Cobert Report. J Stewart’s shadow-self.
Simpsons. Naturally
Family Guy. And Seth McFarlands other shows, but I’m out of space.

Eight Favorite Places to Eat & Drink
At home. I’m a bit of a hermit, and my wife works magic in the kitchen!
Celeihd’s (now closed) Live Music, and bitchin’ curry-pineapple wings & mushroom caps!
Wild Wings. Spotting a trend?
Furusato Sushi. A little pricey, but they’ve spoiled me!
Royal Thai. They’ve spoiled me for Pad Thai!
Dominoes Pizza. Hard to find pizza that doesn’t cheap-out on the feta!
Licks Burgers. Fast food set-up, but almost as good as a pub burger.
Looking for a good Indian Food place.

Eight Things I look Forward To
Date Nights
Calli having a 7:30 bedtime, so Andrea & I can get re-acquainted
Days off/free time
Getting paid to write
A bigger house
Having friends over for dinner
New podcasts from “I Should Be Writing”
All our kids being toilet trained

Eight Things that Happened Yesterday
Got a new dining room set.
Drove a large van for the first time. Scary/Wheee!
Took care of Calli as Andrea re-organized the kitchen.
Visited with Paul, who was kind enough to help me move this furniture.
Checked out the burger/pizza/etc place across the street. Not bad, but not Top Eight.
Chatted with a buddy in Vancouver that I used to play in a metal band with.
Found out that our former singer has had twins, and the drummer is singing opera.
Figuratively shat my pants about a metal drummer singing opera.

Eight things I Love About Winter
More comfortable to wear jeans and collared shirts.
New Years.
Christmas.
It’s pretty, on this side of the window.
It’s especially pretty in around my parent’s rural area.
It’s fun when my little car fish-tails, providing there’s no one close enough to hit.
Everyone’s complaining about the same thing!
Every day of winter is one less day of winter.

Eight Things on my Wish List
Financial independence
Korn Reunion, with or without Brian “Head” Welch
The Tea Party Reunion. The Band, not the political movement.
I hope we’re both there for Calli’s first word. Nng-Ga doesn’t count.
Nine Inch Nails playing my Birthday Party.
Sell more books than Dan Brown. That’s not a dis, just ambition.
Find the CD’s I lost.
Time to play bass & guitar.

Eight Things I am Passionate About.
My Wife.
My Little Girl.
The rest of my family.
Books.
Music.
Belief Systems, especially the Esoteric.
Being open to learn from all interactions.
Coffee.

Eight Words I Often Use
Apparently.
Cheers.
Thanks.
Shit.
Tarnation.
Persnickety.
Sweet.
Swinehound (pronounced “Svine-hoont.” All the best cursing is in German or Klingon. Japanese is good too, if you want to include a few generations on either side of the person being cursed).

Eight Things I Learned from the Past
It’s better to ask a stupid question than to make a stupid mistake, especially at the pharmacy.
That sweet black Mustang is a ghost car. Police, not haunted.
Attractive people can be shy too.
The truth of a story aren’t as important as it’s effect on the listener.
Don’t run in the dark.
Don’t go into a new social setting trying to prove how much I know.
Revolutions morph into the same-old-same-old.
If someone looks Bad-Assed, they’re probably really nice.

Eight Things I Want/Need.
Patience.
Time.
Money-Smarts.
Balance.
Recording Equipment.
“Jedi” to be a recognized religion.
An On-Suite with a Starbucks
A cottage on a small island.

Eight People I Want to Tag.
Bethany at All In The Mind of Belbin
Matt at My Journey into Locomotion
Adam at Throwing Quarters
Just Jules
Crazy Texas Mommy
Scribbling in San Antonio
Daddy Scratches
Plain Ol' Bob
Enjoy!

Monday, January 11, 2010

They're Ba-a-a-ak...

Remember the Mini-Pops? Back in the early 80’s, some label got some kids who could sing, and got them to do cover versions of popular songs. You may recall nine-year-olds singing “Hungry like a Wolf” and “Who Can It Be Now.” I’d imagine that these kids are now worse off than the real pop stars, who can at least still get booked at County Fairs.

Well, they’re back. Funnily, they’re re-doing “Africa,” since it’s back on the charts. A cover-of-a-cover, if you will. I can smile at that little piece of nostalgia, but when I heard some child singing Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” I went white. I’m especially troubled by the “…bluffin’ with my muffin…” line. Before I found out that (s)he was trans-gendered, I thought she was championing the cock-tease; not something I believe should be promoted among out eight-year-olds, and certainly not a good idea for any woman. Men tend to get very angry at such misunderstandings.

On the other hand, when I started paying attention to popular music, Prince’s “Purple Rain” was all the rage, and I think it helped me be very appreciative of gender-benders. That music was also very explicit, and it didn’t mess my head up too much. My sexual morals still reflect my parents more than the culture at the time. But that’s the furthest thing from my mind when I think of my little girl singing “…you spin me right ‘round when you go down…” I may be getting a little ahead of myself, since she’s barely linked vowel & consonant sounds.

I know that some of you have teenage girls – do I have my knickers in a twist over nothing, or is it time to buy a hydro-less cabin in the boonies, and go Amish?

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

House of 1000 Sniffles

I had heard nasty stories of colds that spread through the whole house, and now we’re there. It started with Calli, and I’ll tell ya, it’s pretty scary to have a coughing 3-month-old! At one point, she couldn’t seem to catch her breath, so Andrea took her into the bathroom and ran the shower to steam it up. It seemed to do the trick! We’ve been running the humidifier non-stop since.

Then Andrea caught it, and on Monday, as soon as I got to work, it caught up to me. I know, it sounds suspicious, but that’s how it happened. Being home gave my the chance to finish-off a book I’ve been slogging through for about two months: Sarum by Edward Furguson. Great book, but at 1033 pages, it was only a point of pride that kept my troopering-on through it!

Today, we finally got into the doctor, and apparently, there’s nothing to do that we aren’t already doing. We were concerned that it might get into her sinuses, since her feeding is all suction-based, and we didn’t want her to go hungry. Turns out, her sinuses won’t congest, because they haven’t developed yet. Well, someone had their clever-pants on when they designed babies that way!

We also found out that she’s two feet tall now! Yup, she gets the Gangly gene from her dad! As Andrea said, “three more feet, and she will have caught up to me.” I said that by next summer, she’ll be half as tall as her mom. I’m the only one who found that funny.

Tonight, we got the chance to carry-on a long standing father-child tradition. Calli pulled my finger, and I obliged. In 10 years, she will be afraid to bring friends home!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

New Years Oil-Dipping!

Let me just start by saying, we did the same thing for New Years that we do every year, and it was GREAT!

We had our traditional Fondue Party, and I’ve been bragging about it for about two weeks. Seems that it’s coming back into vogue, ‘cause a lot of people said that they were doing the same thing over the holidays, but most of them did it Christmas Eve.

We had the three-pot version: oil, cheese, then chocolate for dessert. And of course, wine & beer. OK, I was the only one drinking beer, but I find it easier to find a nice coasting-glow that way, and not bottom-out too early. Another benefit of this was having cold beer available for Dr. Pepper shots! (Evenly mix beer & coke in a glass, “Bomb” (drop a shooter of) Amaretto, and enjoy!) At least two guests don’t remember much after this point.

If you haven’t tried a fondue dinner, it comes highly recommended by most who have! It’s just such a relaxed, casual way to dine, and usually drawn-out over a couple hours. There is one draw-back though: prep & clean-up can be a brief career! Andrea and our friend Michelle spent a lot of NYEve cutting meat & veggies, and other chores. I spent over two hour the next morning puttering in the kitchen to put it back together. Even with a dishwasher, I had to do about four loads. I was about done by the time she got up, but I yelled “Thank God you’re up! That kitchen really needs some TLC!” She knew I was bluffing, but at least I still laughed!

As for resolutions: WRITE MORE! Getting that NetBook was a huge help, I got 1000+ words done yesterday, without leaving the main floor! Again, just puttering. Thanks again, Baby! My wife’s the Most Bestest Ever. I think I’ll keep her!

Hope you all had a great New Years! Anyone still suffering?