Saturday night

Had a rather pleasant day with the family. Went shopping at a local thrift sore (that has amazing stuff - very clean and kids clothes are dirt cheap). I've stopped frequenting all but 1 thrift store, cause of the low quality of stuff they have. But this particular one is kept goign by donations made from the military bases (at least I think they are). A lot of the toys are in perfect condition, and the clothes hardly look worn (some even still have tags on them ). On average, I'll spend about $20-50 per visit (once per week or once every other week) - but the clothing articles for the kids are generally around 45-75 cents each. And the toys - Blues Clues galore! All the stuff that the "hip" kids have outgrown - my 2 yr old is righ ton the cusp of loving. He has always liked Blues Clues, but recently has REALLY REALLY gotten excited about the program. He'll sit and watch -and whenever that blue paw print comes onscreen - "CLUUUUUUUUE Da, CLUUUUUUE". When Joe or Steve act like they don't see it, he stands up, and starts pointing frantically at it, like "Right there, dumass!! Are you blind?!" Reminds me of some of the gestures Ive made, stuck in line at 7-11 with only a Big Gulp, and having to point out the particular box of death sticks the asshole in front of me want to induce cancer with. "DO you have it in the blue pack?" "I don't think so - we have it in the blue tipped pack ,with the green stripe" 'Never mind - give me a different brand with a specific box type that you're out of". Pretty soon Im yelling at both of them , and pointing frantically at the box the customer wants, that the cashier has created some form of retarded visual block in order to be able to avoid seeing. AHGHHGHG!! Fuckin smokers piss me off! Opps ----went right off on a rant there. .. .sorry.

Lance has been getting more adorable as the days go on. I was really worried that he was going to be a momma's boy, having breast fed for so long (like until a day before the wife went back to work!!). But things have been workign out just fine. Diapers, bottles, naps, interactive time.....all going smoothly. I even ventured out to a park the other day - the weather was sooo nice, and in the 70's. It's gone back to the 40's now - it was a fluke - so we played wyile we could. At the park, we had a blast! Logan ran all over the place, played with the bigger kids, and flirted with all the pretty girls (that's my boy!) - Lance was chauffered around in his carrier, and got to see the sights, and some fresh air. I would have used the double stroller I got ($15 used!!), but it was in the wife's vehicle at the time. The hardest part of the trip was when it was time to go - and we were what seemed 400 miles away from the truck - I had Logan up in my left arm , and Lance carried in his carrier with my right arm. What a workout!

The only component I haven't worked back into my "regular" weekly routine is being able to manage the phone calls for my company. I really haven't even been able to return calls. When the wife gets home, there's a "fill in mommy" time, so she doesn't feel left out. There's a while of "family together" time. Hunger is the next emotion to take command, so it's off to eat. Then, time for the dojo. If it's a non-dojo night, the activity doens't stop until around 9pm or so, when it's really too lat eto start returnign phone calls. I'm going to have to start riskign calling during their naptime, but it always sucks when you're in the middle of a big important (and business like ) meeting, to have a screaming kid start up in the background. Most of the times that this happened, they were most understanding (being parents themselves), but it was still embarassing for me.

I've decided that Im going to start going to the local YMCA in the mourning, and trying to get an hour work out in. I'm pretty sure that the baby has been added - and I've been very pleased with their daycare facilities in the past (the few times I used them for Logan). I'm hoping that I can start a routine, and get the kids used to it without damaging them emotionally. I can really use an hour of workout time during the day--not only to enhance my dojo stuff (or compensate for how much it sucks), but also to ge tme back in a decent shape. I'd been hoping that all the martial arts I do would give me a major cardio workout, and get rid of this pot-gut I have, but it's still here! I've got some Tae Bo dvds - guess I might also try putting them on during the day (if the YMCA thing don't wok out). I want to look better - I want to be in better shape - I want to get the attention of beautiful 20 yr olds who think that a guy (self confident in all his masculenity) whocaresfor his own kids is just the sexiest thing.....ooops....started thinking out loud again...ignore that last part.

Well - that's about it for today.