Reality Me » Cathy http://realityme.net A juggling technophile shares personal stories, challenges, humor and perhaps some political commentary. Sun, 27 May 2012 01:43:41 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Evening goal – relax http://realityme.net/2012/05/26/evening-goal-relax/ http://realityme.net/2012/05/26/evening-goal-relax/#comments Sun, 27 May 2012 01:38:48 +0000 Doug McCaughan http://realityme.net/?p=14297 I really wanted to have a nice relaxing Saturday night to clear my head and find some extra happiness. Oh, of mice and men! Slow FTP. What could I do? Naturally, run to the steamed broccoli drive-thru. While at the local Chinese buffet, struggling to understand what the staff was trying to say, my phone buzzed with a panicked child, "The bathroom is flooding! Come right away!" I reply, "but I’m not at home." The ten year old quandaries, "where are you?" My head explodes, picturing a naive child talking on the phone, a wife unknowingly cleaning in the basement, while rivers flow through my home. All was well. The flood was bad. But our saving grace, were the tampons for they absorbed it well.

]]> http://realityme.net/2012/05/26/evening-goal-relax/feed/ 0 From the mouths of babes http://realityme.net/2012/05/24/from-the-mouths-of-babes-337/ http://realityme.net/2012/05/24/from-the-mouths-of-babes-337/#comments Thu, 24 May 2012 16:40:34 +0000 Doug McCaughan http://realityme.net/?p=14284 Tommy: "We need a kitten."
Me: "No we don’t."
Tommy: "I’ll take good care of it."
Me: "When you have your own place to live, you can have a kitten."
Cathy: "If you clean the litter box for our cat every day for one month, you can have a kitten."
Tommy: "Yea!"
Me: "Make it six months."
Cathy: "One month."
Me: "I don’t want another cat!"
12 days later, Tommy: "12 days and I’ve cleaned the litter box every day."

I think I have roughly 18 days to build Tommy a small apartment near Amy’s clubhouse.

]]> http://realityme.net/2012/05/24/from-the-mouths-of-babes-337/feed/ 0 Wednesday http://realityme.net/2012/04/26/wednesday/ http://realityme.net/2012/04/26/wednesday/#comments Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:49:45 +0000 Doug McCaughan http://realityme.net/?p=14222 I cannot improve upon Cathy’s Pulitzer Prize worthy post. Do read!

Kazoo taps for cat funeral

]]> http://realityme.net/2012/04/26/wednesday/feed/ 0 Air conditioner doubles as fire starter http://realityme.net/2012/03/21/air-conditioner-doubles-as-fire-starter/ http://realityme.net/2012/03/21/air-conditioner-doubles-as-fire-starter/#comments Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:48:39 +0000 Doug McCaughan http://realityme.net/?p=14117 Our air conditioner has died. Last time it died was in July/August of 2007 and the temperatures were so hot that the insurance company paid to house us in a hotel for the 9 days of the repair. This time the weather is bearable and the repair is quicker. However, this does not come without drama. While the repairman was checking on the outside unit, he asked me to throw the 30 amp breaker at the inside unit. When I did, the breaker box erupted in flame and threw a shower of sparks. This small breaker box (holds a 30 amp dual pole breaker and a 60 amp dual pole breaker) does not currently attach to our wall so I was holding it in my hands at the time. Very exciting!

Apparently the breaker did exactly what it is designed to do. After opening the box, not a wire was burned. No insulation melted. I just received a light show. I can imagine that if I were to dissect the breaker itself that the innards would be melted sludge.

So, the breaker kept the house safe. Now, the big lesson I learned: Don’t ever tell the wife there was a fire inside the house!

]]> http://realityme.net/2012/03/21/air-conditioner-doubles-as-fire-starter/feed/ 0 From the mouths of babes http://realityme.net/2012/02/01/from-the-mouths-of-babes-332/ http://realityme.net/2012/02/01/from-the-mouths-of-babes-332/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:34:54 +0000 Doug McCaughan http://realityme.net/?p=14063 Cathy: "Get off the Internet! Clearly!"

]]> http://realityme.net/2012/02/01/from-the-mouths-of-babes-332/feed/ 0 While Cathy was away, the boys played! http://realityme.net/2011/10/25/while-cathy-was-away-the-boys-played/ http://realityme.net/2011/10/25/while-cathy-was-away-the-boys-played/#comments Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:02:01 +0000 Doug McCaughan http://realityme.net/?p=13966 Cathy went to visit Sarah in New York City. The grandparents basically had Amy and Evan for the entire trip and Noah for much of the trip. That left Tommy and me at the house alone. Tommy, like Freakzoid, gets sucked into the Internet so I basically had the house to myself for duration of her trip minus the time I spent for clients and the time I spent juggling at Boo at the Zoo. So what happened in that time? The yard had a major cleaning of the junk which had been accumulating for a decade. The house received a sweeping and mopping. Then there was this surprise for Cathy:

]]> http://realityme.net/2011/10/25/while-cathy-was-away-the-boys-played/feed/ 1 Creating experiences for your child is parenting http://realityme.net/2011/10/17/creating-experiences-for-your-child-is-parenting/ http://realityme.net/2011/10/17/creating-experiences-for-your-child-is-parenting/#comments Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:51:04 +0000 Doug McCaughan http://realityme.net/?p=13952

cathymccaughan Oct 16, 3:51pm via TweetDeck

Cat Stevens on the XM and 9-y-o chirps: "I remember this song from the big rally in DC. Let’s do that again." #colbert

]]> http://realityme.net/2011/10/17/creating-experiences-for-your-child-is-parenting/feed/ 0 From the mouths of babes http://realityme.net/2011/08/28/from-the-mouths-of-babes-330/ http://realityme.net/2011/08/28/from-the-mouths-of-babes-330/#comments Mon, 29 Aug 2011 01:55:41 +0000 Doug McCaughan http://realityme.net/?p=13869 Evan, 6 years old: "Can I go next door and go swimming?"
Mom: "Were you invited?"
Evan: "No, I’m going to ask."
Mom: "That would be inviting yourself and is wrong."
Evan: "So can I go see if they will invite me?"
Mom: "No. That would still be inviting yourself."
Evan, stomps off exasperated: "I’ll just go stick my head in the toilet!"
Evan, from the back of the house: "Quit laughing!"

]]> http://realityme.net/2011/08/28/from-the-mouths-of-babes-330/feed/ 0 Happy Anniversary Cathy! http://realityme.net/2011/08/25/happy-anniversary-cathy-5/ http://realityme.net/2011/08/25/happy-anniversary-cathy-5/#comments Thu, 25 Aug 2011 21:14:55 +0000 Doug McCaughan http://realityme.net/?p=13865 Ten years ago today and after nearly two years of dating, Cathy and I were married at Gatlinburg’s Ye Ol’ Tyme Photo Boothe and its been one grand adventure since then!

August 25, 2001

This has the best decade of my life beyond any shadow of a doubt!

]]> http://realityme.net/2011/08/25/happy-anniversary-cathy-5/feed/ 0 DomesticPsychology.com url shortener http://realityme.net/2011/05/25/domesticpsychology-com-url-shortener/ http://realityme.net/2011/05/25/domesticpsychology-com-url-shortener/#comments Wed, 25 May 2011 13:48:32 +0000 Doug McCaughan http://realityme.net/?p=13638 I’m a strong believer in owning your content. URL shorteners like http://bit.ly/ and http://3.ly/ bother me in that if the business changes or goes under, your short links die. http://3.ly for instance has been acquired or changed to http://qr.net which I still feel was a bad business move. If the business becomes unethical, they could sell your short links to redirect your traffic elsewhere. So, just like I believe you should view Facebook and Twitter as temporary places for content (much like a bulletin board on a college campus) and instead host your own site like http://domesticpsychology.com/blog/ (much more like a library or museum…and yes I know Twitter gets archived at the Library of Congress), I believe you should own your own url shortener.

Anyhow, to live by my own words, I thought I’d buy Cathy a domain for her own url shortener for DomesticPsychology.com. My first thought was http://dp.me After two cups of coffee, I rethought that one. I’d say I am not sure Cathy would want to direct people to http://dp.me but then again I haven’t ever broached the subject :)

]]> http://realityme.net/2011/05/25/domesticpsychology-com-url-shortener/feed/ 0 From the mouths of babes http://realityme.net/2011/05/16/from-the-mouths-of-babes-326/ http://realityme.net/2011/05/16/from-the-mouths-of-babes-326/#comments Mon, 16 May 2011 14:49:54 +0000 Doug McCaughan http://realityme.net/?p=13596 Cathy via SMS: "Y didn’t the cat puke everywhere BEFORE u left?"

]]> http://realityme.net/2011/05/16/from-the-mouths-of-babes-326/feed/ 0 Slow to learn http://realityme.net/2011/05/12/slow-to-learn/ http://realityme.net/2011/05/12/slow-to-learn/#comments Thu, 12 May 2011 18:19:33 +0000 Doug McCaughan http://realityme.net/?p=13584 On your wife’s birthday, it is ill advised to quip, "getting older makes you snarky!"

]]> http://realityme.net/2011/05/12/slow-to-learn/feed/ 2 Of being dad http://realityme.net/2011/05/06/of-being-dad-19/ http://realityme.net/2011/05/06/of-being-dad-19/#comments Fri, 06 May 2011 13:42:57 +0000 Doug McCaughan http://realityme.net/?p=13574 Don’t suggest to your wife that she get a mammogram for her birthday. Just saying.

]]> http://realityme.net/2011/05/06/of-being-dad-19/feed/ 0 From the mouths of babes http://realityme.net/2011/05/01/from-the-mouths-of-babes-325/ http://realityme.net/2011/05/01/from-the-mouths-of-babes-325/#comments Mon, 02 May 2011 01:13:40 +0000 Doug McCaughan http://realityme.net/?p=13563 Cathy: "Normal people don’t name flies."

]]> http://realityme.net/2011/05/01/from-the-mouths-of-babes-325/feed/ 1 From the mouths of babes http://realityme.net/2011/02/23/from-the-mouths-of-babes-321/ http://realityme.net/2011/02/23/from-the-mouths-of-babes-321/#comments Wed, 23 Feb 2011 23:22:27 +0000 Doug McCaughan http://realityme.net/?p=13299 Wife, texting: "What’s your plan?"
Me, texting back: "Homegirls!"
Wife, texting: "Wear a condom."

Thank you Apple. Your autocorrect on "Homebound" has either gotten me in serious trouble or given me a hall pass.

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