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I don’t need a haircut but I’d sure enjoy my visit!

A blogger has a mindset. It’s akin to Cathy’s t-shirt design. A blogger sees something, even mundane, raises an eyebrow, and declares, "I’ve got to blog that!" I have 268 drafts of things that I hafta blog which I started and never completed. Seems like a year a ago I was in West Town Mall and saw an advertisement announcing a new barber shop that was coming to Knoxville. I immediately declared, "I have to blog that!" but for the life of me, I cannot find a post in my archives.

Gentlemen’s Top Cuts is doing for hair what Hooter’s did for food. They have combined lovely ladies with something men need…haircuts. Actually it looks to be a little bit of a bastard child of Hooter’s and a day spa. I’ll reserve my happy ending jokes for a year or so because I bet they’ll be under scrutiny (Knoxville..lighten up!).

As seen in the Andy Griffin show, the barber shop has always been a sanctuary for men. I grew up using barber shops (and getting lousy haircuts) but I use a stylist now. A little off the top pleaseAs a child, I always thought it funny to walk into a barber shop and see a man pickup a magazine and sit down in the chair. Then from behind the chair the first thing the barber would do is hand the gentleman the current issue of Playboy which was then concealed by Popular Mechanics or whatever magazine he had picked up. Of course, not all men were as discreet. And this was not unique to small town Cary, North Carolina. I witnessed similar behaviors in New Orleans as well. I always wondered why we didn’t just have topless women cutting the hair. Now that would be a haircut!

So I failed to post upon the first announcement. Then Gentlemen’s Top Cuts announced they are almost ready to open and even have a blog yet I still fail to post about it. Say Uncle does announce it and gets rewarded! I took it as a lesson in not procrastinating and thought, "what a lucky guy!" but since I was on a deadline I still did not post. When Katie asked, "would women let their husbands go and would men want to go" I was going to respond with a hell yes but couldn’t find my round tuit. As it turns out, many of the bloggers who posted about Gentlemen’s Top Cuts are being rewarded this weekend including the famed Katie Allison Granju who initially seemed appalled by the business. (Similarly, many mommy bloggers are being rewarded.) One day I’ll catch onto how this blogging thing works.

To those in Knoxville who are going to condemn this brilliant business idea, don’t. This is not a house of ill repute (but I bet the poor girls get some heavily solicitations). This is not a strip club. This is a barber shop with pretty women. And they’ll be wearing more clothing than the girls on the beach this summer and be revealing less than the teenagers in West Town Mall. Ladies, wouldn’t you enjoy a Chippendales beauty parlor? Be honest!

Oh, will I use their services? I’ll probably check it out but I’ve used the same stylist for a decade and I am a pretty loyal customer. It takes either screwing up customer service really bad or some serious enticement for me to move away from the places I do business.

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Morning Ritual Broken

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.

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I have meeting clothes

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]

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He & Me

Multimedia messageI 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.