A juggling technophile shares personal stories, challenges, humor and perhaps some political commentary.
Happenings in a 5 child, 2 adult household.
My oldest son is doing a class project in ecology. He is writing two posts a week and soliciting comments which he will compile or aggregate into his report. He cannot complete his project without comments. Please take a moment and read his posts. If you are so compelled, please comment on as many as you can. Thank you!
His posts to date:
Please make the comments on Tommy’s blog.
My nearing 4 year old German Shepherd is laying on the porch. The outdoor cat is rubbing on her and laying in her lap. The nearing 6 month old German Shepherd is in the yard with her head quirked and a perplexed look on her face as if to say, "Now’s your chance! Why aren’t eating it?!"
Rich pulled together another great gathering of great minds. Hopefully Lissa will have the official round up. You know..my beer damaged brain keeps wanting to introduce her as Leesuh but her name is Lihsuh. I’m so sorry!
In attendance were Cathy (minus business cards…sorry), Rich, Lissa, Tommy, Victor Agrenda (Knoxvillians probably want to read him here), Joseph Agreda, Frank Murphy (and son), Jon Katsiros, and a friend of Jon’s (sorry..I missed their sites). Michael Silence had planned to attend but something must have come up. Apologies if I left anyone out.
We secured a large space of the absolutely packed (and valet parked) Wild Wing’s Cafe. Now we probably overstayed our welcome. Little note to management, simply asking if we could free the table would be better than slowly turning up the radio. When the radio didn’t run us off, they turned the televisions to a ball game at LOUD volume. As we left, the TVs suddenly quieted. That was funny! The venue was nice but I think we are still looking for the ideal spot which combines fun, food, adult beverages but child friendly (I suppose that’s optional), wifi, and the ability to socialize.
What happens at a Blogfest? We get to see the faces behind the words we read in feed. Of course as video and audio become more prominent by citizen journalist publishings that statement loses some of its oompfth. Still, nothing compares to the energy and dynamics of real life conversation which is what I believe Loic Le Meur (Whoa! He’s my younger brother’s age!) is attempting to duplicate with Seesmic. New ideas are generated, laughs, laughs and more laughs, food is consumed and beverages, economic and social boundaries are breached bringing people in different walks of life and opposing political views together on common ground, introductions are made and new readers created in this pioneering land of blog. Overall, good times are had. Of course, I miss seeing Randy Neal, Dr. Helen, and the blogfather himself, Glenn Reynolds at the table. Lookout Glenn! You’ve just been RealityMeAlanched! And yes, to all those I didn’t name, I missed you too!
Oh, one, is that Sylar?! (Sylar’s IMDB) And, two, my wife thought one of the guys in attendance had "really sexy eyes."
Other Blogfests:
Update: Lissa posts about A Wild Blogfest and Rich has his wrap up. Frank has posted blogic: the gathering and Tommy put down a few sentences. Cathy talks about the restrooms at Wild Wings Cafe.
Evan, 2.5 years:"Dada, take upstairs me dada."
My son speaks in American sign language! I wonder if ASL sentence structure is simply a more natural way to speak. Perhaps all hearing people should talking American sign language.
Dad: "Amy, I like your ankle bracelet."
Amy, 5.5 years old: "It’s not really for your ankle, but I want to be like my sister."
I think Cathy’s writing is fantastic but I happen to be biased. I find Domestic Psychology a pleasure to read (again with the bias). I am tickled to announce that Cathy has been recognized by Guy Kawasaki and has joined the likes of Jack Lail in Alltop! Cathy is in the Alltop Life category along with some familiar blogs such as xkcd.com, indexed and Sarcomical. Congratulations to Cathy! (Does this mean I don’t have to program anymore?)
When the two and a half year old pours his milk into your tea, don’t throw his empty glass across the kitchen. It’s a real bad example to the children and makes a big mess. Just laugh and get some more tea.
In talking about Gentlemen’s Top Cuts in my post I don’t need a haircut but I’d sure enjoy my visit!, I failed to mention how they are conveniently located within walking distance of my son’s middle school. Now Noah NEEDS a haircut constantly. His hair grows like a weed. Noah is also a blogger! Judging by the porn Noah likes to surf (yes, he got busted and no he doesn’t do it anymore or at least he covers his footprints better) and how much longer it takes him to bathe now-a-days, I think Noah would very much enjoy GTC. Noah would probably even write a review and link to the GTC blog. Tommy on the other hand would not set foot in the building. I tried to get him to go to Hooter’s for lunch once and he said he’d stay in the car.
Would I seriously let Noah get his hair cut there? Sure! It is not a strip club. The site doesn’t say children are not allowed (now many spas do not allow children so that may change). And his friends would be all kinds of jealous! It’s just a barber shop with pretty barbers. After poking around the blog for a bit, I can tell they really are catering to men so I’m a little less sure. I spoke to GTC and they are family friendly. I doubt they’ll do a lot of family business. Now, Hooter’s does a huge family business (believe it or not!).
Update: Cathy points out that barber shops don’t generally offer "twig and berry" waxings. My description of "It’s just a barber shop with pretty barbers." could be a tad off base.
When I get up in the morning I brew coffee. Really I brew it whether I want coffee or not. I brew about 2/3‘s a pot. This morning I see my 14 year old daughter leave the house with a 32 ounce insulated mug and it doesn’t phase me until I step into the kitchen to pour my joe and have to get a step ladder to pull the carafe off the ceiling. It is so light it’s floating! I guess the time has come to start brewing a full pot again. I hate seeing teenagers drink coffee but if it makes them feel more grown up that’s fine by me.
[audio:http://realityme.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/mytypicalmorning.mp3] (download)
30 minutes of my day.
In preparing for our father daughter dance last night, Amy explained that I had to wear my "meeting clothes." See, some people have dress clothes or even church clothes but apparently in the eyes of my sweet little five year old, I only get fancied up when I have to leave the house for a meeting! I love that girl!
"If I hafta wear a dress, then Daddy has to wear his meeting clothes." [Source, Cathy’s Twitter]
I had the pleasure of my first ever father and daughter dance last night. My daughter was beautiful and moved with grace! Of course, watching one other father and daughter burn up the dance floor made me wish I had brushed up on some dance steps. Amy and I laughed, jitterbugged, swung, locked elbow to elbow squaring dancing for Rocky Top, and just plain boogied! I stood on the sidelines while she did the cha cha two step. I forgot to Tango with her which she had requested. Of course, the only way my date would accept a dance from me was if I placed my left hand on my chest, extended my right arm out in her direction with a flip of the wrist, dipping my head and making an exaggerated bow. The gym was packed with familiar faces and Amy danced with her friends and had discussions with other dads. I foresaw the future as one of the older girls frequently ditched her father to hang with her friends; 30 seconds of dad, 10 minutes of friends, repeat.
Whenever I post about family, I think back to March 24, 2006 which is when I finally started paying more attention to KristyK’s January 24th wish to see more discussion on blended families.
I know of a few blended families that I read online [Cathy and her husband, Poetical, Educating Hercules]. But,even though these are blended families, I don’t read a lot about the ‘step’ part. [Source, KristyK, there are no rules for this]
Sarah, my older daughter, missed out on doing the father/daughter dance. At the age she would have been doing these dances, her biological father had left, and she, her two brothers, along with her mother were living in the grandparent’s house. I am sorry that Sarah missed that opportunity and I hope that she and I have dances in our future! You may note that we don’t use the word step in this family. It might be different if biodad came around more than 2 days a year. The older children had their choice to call me Doug, dad, that guy, or whatever. They also are free to call me step-dad. Those choose dad in both cases and I couldn’t be honored more! I don’t use step in referring to my sons or daughter because we are so close that at times I forget there was a sperm donor involved.
Tommy is doing a project in his Ecology class and needs to collect different opinions on a variety of topics. The first is regarding the water dispute between Tennessee and Georgia. Could you head over to Tommy’s blog and give him your thoughts in the comments of his post Water Dispute? Thank you!
