A collection of thoughts....watch where you step please

First of all, I'd like to send a special THANK YOU out to the Saturday Morning Post blog. You can also find their URL on the Blogroll on the right. I had found their blog..loaded with cartoons.. and one caught my attention. There's a dad, getting in the car with his kids, for a long trip...and he explains to them that they can listen to their Disney songs only once....and then it's DADDY's turn. He adds "I hope you like Afrika Bambaataa and the Zulu Nation".
I had just burned a "for the car" cd, and the boys LOVED Planet Rock!

Anyways...it said ther ewas a gift for the first posters to the site....so I commented, and didn't give it much further thought. Low and behold..the same day that I sent out the first Free Lunch that I offered...I received a manila envelope with an adorable snowman notepad and a snowman pencil. The first page thanked me for commenting. Not only was a suprised by the thought/sentiment ...but it must have taken some serious websurfing to track down my address! (I wonder if they used to work for Student Loans! They can find ANYONE ANYWHERE!)

DEEP THOUGHTS AND STUFF:
I always knew that I would make a good father. That I would make a good dad. Since I first received the news that my wife was pregnant, I've had all sorts of topics run though my head. How will I do when it's time to change diapers? How will I do as a full time at home parent? How do I explain God and religion? What pitfalls have I seen others do that I can learn from and avoid raising a schmuck?

But today, I was faced with a topic that, if for only a moment, cross circuited my brain like no other had in a while. It all happened after what was a simple question. SO simple, that it came from my 3 year old. It left his lips like a butterfly leaving a flower....it floated on the breeze as we played outback..and then entered my ears as a gentle whisper...and then BAM!!! Stopped me in my tracks.

What was this simple question, you ask? What could a 3 year old ask that could possible temperarily disable the mental process of a 35 year old man? He walked over to me, holding a small brown colored ball shaped thing, and asked...

"Dada ... is this dog poop?"

I'd like to think that there were first instinct...but 1st, 2nd, and so forth all tried to get out at one time....and I stood there like an frozen idiot.

Ok - first instinct is to take it away from him - until it can be identified. Second insticts says that if it IS poop, while wanting to get it away from him, I sure as hell don't want to hold it in MY hand!

I muttered some unintelligible sounds...then managed "drop it!", sounding like I was auditioning for a police show.

Turns out, it was a dirt covered rock. And here I thought I had most of the "tough" questions of the universe figured out.


Gonna Pay For It
Ok - I have decided to do something that I am not proud of. In the past, I have done this with willing parnters. Sometimes it was fun..sometimes I regreted it afterwards. Sometimes there were cool "toys" involved. Sometimes, I did it all by myself..and had a blast! But, inlight of recent developments at home...I am left with no other options. Finding someone to do it with would only take too long, and mean embarassing myself if the wife finds out. I do have a rep to protect. So...tomorrow I will seek out a "professional", and actually pay for it. It hurts. I've neve rhad to pay for it in my life. Some people have don eit willingly..some have beed begging into it, but never an exchange of money. This is a new low for me.

Tomorrow, I will take my computer (HAL-2006) to BESTBUY and pay $40 for them to install the already installed video card. (Thought I was talking about sex, huh??... If they had that at Walmart, I'd never come home!) They said that if they can "fix" whatever the hell is not allowing the TV tuner part to work, it'll be $40. If they cannot get it to work (it is deamed incompatable with my system) they will charge me nothing, and will allow me to return the video card. I consider myself computer aware. I knwo how to go into bios, how to search for conflicting irq,,,bla bla bla... but it sucks being faced with a "brain" problem and having to pay some OTHER geek to figure it out.

OTHER STUFF:
I got tagged on another blog site....and will try to list all the stuff required of me below. Fo ryou reading, it'll be no time difference...for me typing this..I will have to take a few minutes to track down the other blog....brb...

Ok it was Clares Dad.
I apologize for any other tagging Ive gotten and have not followed up on. I hope to do better this year.

Ok here goes...
Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot.
Cynical Dad
Cape Buffalo
Mr. Big Dubya
Clare's Dad
Adventures Of Darth Daddy
_________________
Select five people to play (but only if they want to).
ok - I suck at selecting people...Some people are flattered..some get pissed off , lik eyou sent them some chain letter email. So I leave this open....if you read this, and want to participate...please do.

What were you doing 10 years ago?
Hmmm 1996. Man, I can't think of a thing. I was still pissed off that music sucked. My almost fatal motorcycle accident was in 93..I has lost alot of weight. I may have (and I say this honestly), been in college and running my own stripper company. I had my own party entertainment company for a for years at this point, (doing children's parties as costumed characters), hired a few female strippers (didn't last long), and had my own 6-man male dancer team (nightclub shows and private parties). I also had recently received my now-wife's foot up my ass to stop talking about my master degree, and actually GO GET IT! SO , I think I was also workign on my MsEd.

What were you doing 1 year ago?
Scan thru the archives... you will find that I was doing pretty much the same thing as I am now. Lance was only 3-4 months old. Logan had just turned 2.

Five snacks you enjoy
FUNYUNS!! The wife hates these! More for me!!
Chocolate Zingers
Pringles
Twizzlers
Gummi bears

Five songs that you know all the lyrics to
Im proud to say almost anything from the 80's! I love music, and have tried to get the kids involved in music as well. I'll often made cd for the car that have a mixture of classical, 70's, funk, disco, country, rap , rock.... whatever. But the only grunge I ventured into was "Teen Spirit". But no one really knows the words to that damn song.

5 things I'd do if I was a millioniare
1. Re-establish my credit
2. Buy a nice farm-like piece of property, far enough in the country that it'd be nice and quiet, but not too far away from a Walmart.
3. Set up trust accounts for my kids and wife.
4. Spoil my mother rotten - new car, new house..the works. (But not a house that is too close to my new country farm estate...let's be realistic here)
5. Track down every single manager that I ever worked under, where the end result of my employment was me quitting or being fired...... Buy every damn company that they are workign for. Fire all of them!! (For reasons that would not allow them to collect unemployment)

5 bad habits you have
1. I casually swear . Not a lot, and not the really really bad ones... but I do need to monitor myself better around the kids. It was fine when they couldn't talk, but some of my phrases have come back to haunt me.
2. KNot giffing a dam aboot myspellin werd when i tipe
3. My temper with Logan. We all lose our cool sometimes....I have never done anything that was not remedied with an apology . But this is something that I must work on . We all should.
4. I am the KING of the half finished project.
5. Since having the kids, I have been procrastinating - and put up holiday decorations the DAY OF the holiday. I got better with this Xmas.... we put the tree up a week before Xmas. But, it is STILL up. It's very pretty, and useful as a big ass night light!

5 things you would never wear/buy again
1. Any computer with has proprietary components
2. An AMD cpu
3. A full sized plastic protective sports cup with jock strap. I started using on that has a combo of plastic and rubber, and it fits soo much better. Also, I started wearing the brief rather than the strap holder. Less moving around, more comfortable - less "insidents"
4. Any food product from Big Lots. One timeI found out that the last 3 mini donuts were moldy - after I had eaten the first 4.
5. ANYTHING with the words ODU / OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY / or DENVER BRONCOS / or PITTSBURG STEELERS. ODU sucks - their grad level counseling dept sucks - and as a died hard Browns fan, I would rather run around naked than ever be seen in a denver or steelers outfit.

Favorite Toys
1. My computer - when the damned tv card works!!
2. All my Star Wars toys - vintage and new - they have been passed on to the boys, and we play with them (together) for hours.
3. My katana. It's just for practice, (not a vintage blade or anything), but it was a goign away present from my first dojo when I was a kid. It's an honor to use it now for iaido class. It's also a miracle that it wasn't lost or destoyed over all this time.
4. Legos / Licoln logs
5. This neat little AIREO mp3 player > Google it , or check it out on ebay. For $100, it's a pretty neat little device. Big memory (by todays standards), pick up radio, can locate hotspots for wifi, wireless transmitter to fm.

(everyone sing along.....)

AND A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE!

Night all (or as Logan still wishes everyone we meet)....
"HAPPY NEW YEAR. See later alligator...affer while crockidile"

Shannon