"Murphy was an optimist!"
Of Being Dad – Smack Talk January 31, 2010 5:59 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Evan, Family, Noah, Of Being Dad , add a commentThere’s something wonderfully amusing in listening to the four year old talk smack with the thirteen year old.
add a commentAnd if the crik don’t rise… January 24, 2010 11:27 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Family, House, Of Being Dad , 3comments
Rains have come. The creek out back has enough water in it that we can see the water from the house. I just checked the trench, wanna be French drain, that protects our basement from flood and sure enough, the sides have collapsed. We don’t have water in the basement yet but will if I don’t get out there and dig us out. I need to be programming every second of today but this has to take priority. Back to the Mosquito Coast.
Note: On the above video, after the first twenty seconds or so I figure out how to not have that obnoxious noise.
The creek in this video is at least 5 feet deep.
Annnd they’re off! (to a bad start) January 16, 2010 9:49 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Cathy, Daily Life, Family, Of Being Dad, Sarah , add a commentSarah has a portfolio review today near Nashville for a summer art program where she would get to live at a university and work with some very talented people. This is very important which is why I cringed when I saw Cathy’s tweet:
Why is the teenager dressed like a clown for her portfolio review? [Source, Twitter, @cathymccaughan]
After a grueling day yesterday, I failed to do the standard road checks last night. This morning as the girls were walking out the door, I found a nail in a tire. The same nail I found in the same tire weeks ago and forgot about. No problem! I could plug it in minutes only I was out of plugs. 30 minutes later, I had purchased plugs, discovered McDonald’s at Northshore and Pellissippi still has free air, fixed the tire myself, signed a conversation with an old friend, and had two very upset women driving to Nashville. Good luck Sarah!
add a commentScience! December 19, 2009 9:10 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Amy, Daily Life, Family, Of Being Dad , 3commentsAs I held infant Amy, rocking her to sleep, I’d talk to her and tell her how much I looked forward to having conversations together. You know the joke: We spend the first part of their lives teaching them how to talk and the rest of their lives trying to get them to shut up. As I held infant Evan, rocking him to sleep, I’d have the same discussion. Eventually they did learn to talk and we’ve had some fascinating conversations.
Today Amy, 7 years old, asked, "What is radioactivity? Is it bad?" So I proceeded to talk to Amy about radio waves, the visual spectrum, light, ear drums, we drew an atom, and a water molecule. She listened and questioned and conjectured. That was fun!
Parenting Tip #423: Use a tape recorder to record a minute of your infant’s sounds every week. Their noises change from week to week and you will enjoy listening to the tape when they are older. Also, they love to hear their own noises so that tape in a Playskool tape player (vintage? Okay.. get a digital recorder) is good for about 20 minutes of babysitting or so I am told. This was some advice from a friend that I failed to follow with some regrets.
3commentsEvil Child December 17, 2009 8:51 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Evan, Of Being Dad , add a commentIt’s as if Evan can detect that I’m nearing my breaking point so he’s going to extra effort to try to push me over the edge.
add a commentDear Dharma and Evan… December 17, 2009 7:26 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Dharma, Evan, Family, Of Being Dad, Pets , add a commentDharma, I know you are a dog and I recognize that your brain may have a short circuit or two so let spell this out for you. Pooping in the walking path is not allowed! You are very funny and obviously have figured my gait out perfectly because your landmines are batting 1000. See if your doggie mind can read my human mind because the mental image I have right now is of a cold, outdoor kennel. Molly knows where to poop in this yard. Follow her!
Evan, I know you are four years old…four and a half to be fair…and the antique, crank out windows in this house have a particularly rewarding feeling to their almost steampunk mechanical opening action. However, when the temperatures at night are dropping to -1.6°C*, sleeping with the window open is inadvisable and does not lend to a friendly electric bill. If this behavior continues, I will have to increase your rent to offset the cost of heating this house. Oh, and you may catch a cold.
*Temperature conversion provided by Onlineconversion.com.
add a commentDoug’s Mantras December 14, 2009 8:34 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Doug's Mantras, Family, Of Being Dad, Philosophy , add a commentFile this under things I thought I’d never say.
add a commentClothing belongs in one of three places: on your body, the laundry, or folded up and put away.
From the mouths of babes December 11, 2009 11:24 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Evan, Family, From the mouths of babes, Of Being Dad , add a commentEvan, 4.5 years old seeing the food I just prepared: "Eggs!"
Me: "Do you want toast with your eggs?"
Evan: "Yeah!! What’s toast?"
Cathy wants me on the icy roof December 5, 2009 11:59 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Cathy, Christmas, Daily Life, Family, Holiday, Of Being Dad, Publishing, Video , add a comment add a commentThe Magic is Gone November 29, 2009 9:46 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Amy, Daily Life, Evan, Family, Of Being Dad, Of Interest , add a commentOne of the thrills of the single digits is raiding my desk. Often I come down to find my organized chaos in a disarray. To Amy and Evan my clutter is their treasure trove, as it should be, so I try to keep it child friendly. I fidget with my magic from time to time. My nickel to dimes trick currently lives on my desk in a ziplock bag so the money doesn’t accidentally get spent. I found the ziplock open. The nickles and dimes are accounted for but a critical piece of the trick has gone missing. Nevermind…I’m stupid. This reminds me of the time I purchased my first rainbow rod. I was in Disney World and the magician at the magic shoppe performed the trick so well that I understood exactly what to do. I purchased my own. I was so excited that back the hotel I pulled the wand from its container and tossed the instructions aside. I had enough prop magic to understand how these worked. I did exactly like the performer from the magic shoppe and my heart wrenched from my chest as I immediately broke the wand! The result of my actions had produce an outcome unlike anything the magician had done. It was totally unexpected and nothing I did seemed to fix it. That is, until I read the instructions and laughed myself to tears. So, the nickel and dime trick…it’s kinda like that.
add a commentAnd I thank you! November 26, 2009 10:51 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Family, Holiday, Of Being Dad, Thanksgiving , add a commentThanksgiving Holiday
In the United States, today is a day of thanks. I believe most Americans probably do not know the roots of Thanksgiving. Wikipedia is very thorough discussing United States Thanksgiving as well as Thanksgiving in Canada, Grenada, and the Netherlands. See also History News Network’s The Truth About Thanksgiving Is that the Debunkers Are Wrong and Top 10 Myths About Thanksgiving. Note: I have not fact checked the History News Network links. From Encyclopedia Britannica Online:
[An] annual national holiday in the United States and Canada celebrating the harvest and other blessings of the past year. Americans generally believe that their Thanksgiving is modeled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by the English colonists (Pilgrims) of Plymouth and the Wampanoag Indians. The American holiday is particularly rich in legend and symbolism.
Plymouth’s Thanksgiving began with a few colonists going out "fowling," possibly for turkeys but more probably for the easier prey of geese and ducks, since they "in one day killed as much as…served the company almost a week." Next, 90 or so Wampanoag made a surprise appearance at the settlement’s gate, doubtlessly unnerving the 50 or so colonists. Nevertheless, over the next few days the two groups socialized without incident. The Wampanoag contributed venison to the feast, which included the fowl and probably fish, eels, shellfish, stews, vegetables, and beer. Since Plymouth had few buildings and manufactured goods, most people ate outside while sitting on the ground or on barrels with plates on their laps. The men fired guns, ran races, and drank liquor, struggling to speak in broken English and Wampanoag. This was a rather disorderly affair, but it sealed a treaty between the two groups that lasted until King Philip’s War (1675–76), in which hundreds of colonists and thousands of Indians lost their lives.
[Source, Encyclopedia Britannic Online, History & Society::Thanksgiving]
I am thankful!
I am thankful for my wonderful family, the joy they bring, the laughter they elicit, the challenges they give me to grow, and their support for my non-traditional career choice. I am thankful for having great clients, some who have gone out of their way to keep me in work, during these economically trying times. I am thankful for all my wonderful friends in real life and online. I am thankful for having met Jason Jarrett on Seesmic and whose podcasts, along with his wife, Karen, have really helped me move closer to sustained happiness and away from the Five Poisons (greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt). I am particularly thankful for my wonderful wife who has supported my insanity when she would have been justified to turn tail and run screaming, who can make me laugh with just a look, who makes my heart flutter just thinking about her, and who has pushed me to be a better person than I ever thought possible. I could type the rest of the day simply about the thanks I could attribute to Cathy alone not to mention the numerous people and things I have yet to mention. So thank you all! And I give thanks for this wonderful life of mine along with all its challenges.
For laughs
Don’t forget today is the day to watch the WKRP Turkeys Away video.
add a commentI’m heating Knoxville November 17, 2009 9:11 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Family, Of Being Dad , add a commentI want a Christmas tree. Not the kind with pine needles but the kind you find in a submarine that tells you which hatches are open. With the beautiful weather we have been experiencing, our windows open during the day. The nights are a little to chilly. Of late, the heater has been turned on to combat the cold, but much to my chagrin, at least one window seems to remain open each night. If you have noticed slightly warmer days in Knoxville, you can thank my family and my elevated electric bill.
add a commentDad of the Year! November 11, 2009 8:56 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Family, Noah, Of Being Dad , add a commentI just stressed one of my children out so bad he threw up. Topic? Grades. Very effective technique to end a discussion. Have to give him points there!
add a commentOf Being Dad – Do what you say November 10, 2009 7:45 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Amy, Daily Life, Doug's Mantras, Family, Of Being Dad, Philosophy , add a commentOne of my mantras is "Say what you are going to do then do what you say." A child never forgets. If you promise a child you will do something, do it! Our calendars says that the movie Up is released on DVD today. When we saw Up in the theaters, I promised Amy she and I would go see the 3-D version as a father/daughter date. Life got in the way. The movie came and went. And today, she reminded me that I failed to deliver on that promise. Not a good feeling.
add a commentOf Being Dad November 6, 2009 4:06 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Family, Of Being Dad, Sarah , add a commentI just took Sarah’s temperature, 96.8. I think put my hand to her forehead and it was disturbingly hot! My chin dropped, her eyes rolled, and she raised the hair straightener…
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