Open your ears jackass!!

So the title is from a vintage Jerky Boys bit, but not totally unrelated. I was reading Dan's blog last night and was killed by the entry titled "INTERESTING IDEA FROM ONE OF MY EDUCATION BOOKS". For years I have been saying "perception is reality", and not once has Dan commented on how eye opening the thought was. I was like "What the hell!!" So I talked to Dan on IM today to see how it was that the reading was interesting, yet my theory was not. I was, at first, annoyed. Was it because of my lack of a college education? Was it my less extensive vocabulary? Do I somehow come across unintelligent and thereby making it unnecessary to hear what I have to say? I mean people listen to me, but do they hear what I am trying to say? He said something along the lines of "You make it sound so absolute." Huh. I get that. I have this thing where I have to break things down to their simplest form. Black and white. It is what made me a good efficiency analyst (in a previous life), but not as good at getting my point across on things like theories on behavior I guess. I guess that the thought process behind things like this need to be explained for it to be taken in and processed. I know that I do come across jerky sometimes, maybe it is because I am so to the quick to get to the point. I wonder how I can change so that I am heard when I have a point to make. Thinking to do, more on this later.......

The Day

Today, like most days, I got up around 7am. My wife is awesome and finishes getting ready while taking care of and plays with Tyler while I enjoy a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal. The day was off to the usual start. About 9:30 Tyler was napping and so were the dogs, all was good. Until the damn CMP work crew started yelling through their megaphones, AGAIN! This annoys the dogs into a barking frenzy, which wakes Tyler up too early from his morning nap. Not a good thing. So hours of playing on the floor, as a tired Tyler requires more attention than a well rested Ty (which when rested is already A LOT of attention). Don't get me wrong, I do love giving him the attention, it just cuts down on any projects that I might need to get done. So it was 13:00 before I knew it. Tyler was preoccupied with the wonders of his yo yo and the dogs were again napping. NICE!! Time for me to get some lunch. I already boiled some eggs for a nice egg salad sandwich. I went into the kitchen and started assembling a beauty sandwich. BOOM! No not an explosion, nothing happened really, not that I could find anyway. I can only deduce that Tyler realized that I was no longer sitting beside him and decided that he needed to scream like someone was crushing his tiny 7 month old fingers in a vice. So I came back for a rescue mission, leaving my partially constructed luncheon masterpiece on the counter. In all of the mayhem I didn't notice the dogs had gotten up from their naps. After a minute Tyler came back to this world from the realm of hate and discontent, and allowed me to put him down to re-discover the miracle that is his yo yo. I went into the kitchen, starved now having seen the beginning of what was surely a delicious lunch, only to discover that the girls had been kind enough to test my sandwich for quality. OH NEAT! "WHAT THE HELL DOGS!!" I guess yelling like that was not the thing to do as it startled Tyler and made him cry all over again. Well to make a quick end to what is becoming a long story, I ate my new sandwich, Tyler is napping and the dogs have gone to hell (not really, I told them to go to hell when I let them outside but judging on how well they are listening today, they won't go). Some days are better than others. But as a whole I'd say that being a stay at home dad is like fishing, even the worst day is better than the best day at work.

Mini-golf and fun

So I have to let you all know about how the fundraising went.... Pretty good. The mini-golf you ask? Ahhh, well as far as I can tell I came in 6th place with a mini-score of 125 over 54 holes. That is 9 under par, in case you were wondering. But more important than my bedazzling putting skillz is the fact that the event raised over 10,000 dollars for cancer research. So go Dan and Luke for taking part in this event with me, and I need to shout out to Chute's Bakery in N.Windham for a generous donation.

The action shot is just after making my second consecutive hole in one. That's right fools..... TWO in a row......... ahhhhh, maybe I get a bit competitive, but this time it was all for a good cause.

And this lovely bunch is... well, as you can see, the cool kids.

What happened to these people?

Art and the remodel

Rae and I are planning the remodel of our second floor. We are going with a bamboo floor and have the colors picked out for the walls. The only (for now) full bath is getting a new tub and sink / vanity. But more importantly, we are looking to bring some art into our home. I have been searching the net for something that is affordable. I just don't understand the point of pricing a painting at 1,100 bucks, unless you have proven that you can get 1,100 bucks for a painting. Who pays over a grand for a painting of a dog that looks like a 4 year old painted a dog with their finger paints? I am definitely going to support an artist that is also a realist, or paint something myself. I know that I can't paint a dog that looks like a dog, but I can definitely paint a dog that resembles a dog in some "artistic" sense.
I want to apologize to Dan and any other artist if this offends them in any way, but I also want it on the record that I haven't received an apology for being insulted by the absurd prices of some of the art that I have been looking at.

Stupidity and Punishment

So I'll be commenting on the absurdity in our lovely southern states. So the whole racial mess is a festering blister of stupidity. I won't be commenting on the events, just the resulting puss filled boil on society's backside. The worst part of the whole disaster is that these are the things that the children of the intellectual third world (ie the south) have to see and learn from. To make things worse is the fact that these kids are the future DAs and Superintendents of Schools and Police officers of these towns, which just sets up another more horrific mess in the future. I think the best punishment for these halfwits would be to limit the number of children they can produce, thereby limiting the number of morons my son Tyler will have to watch on TV when he is 30. I think everyone involved should be ashamed........ just to have been involved.

Just a glimpse..

It's 14:16. It's 74 degrees out, the sun is shining, and there is just enough of a breeze to make the leaves sound off. The girls ( 2 weimaraners) are making the slightly too tall lawn look like a very comfortable place to nap. Tyler is chilling in his pack 'n play giving a set of teething keys a thorough workout. The laundry is in and the dishes are done. The BBQ is fired-up. I've got some chicken and a few sausages on and cooking for toppings to the pizzas that are for dinner tonight. And here I am sitting in my rocking chair on the porch of my house taking it all in.

It's good to be me.

Well, it came and went.

It's the 12th now and I am really surprised. I would have thought the media would have made a much bigger deal about the 11th. I thought for sure the regular programming would have been halted for a 24 hour replay of the news from 09-11-01. I really thought I would be watching the towers fall 5000 more times and hear the stories of bravery from that day, but no. I am surprised the day came and went without incident. I guess Brittney's comeback performance was bigger news that I had originally given it credit for , as the Today Show had a half hour piece on that, but not too much on the day that will live along side August 6th 1945, December 7th 1941, and June 3rd 1989 on the list of worst days ever.

Sorry It's been Busy

I know I have been slacking on the posting front, but I have been busy being a Dad. I just wanted to post a quickie about the upcoming fund raiser that Dan, Luke, and I are doing. We have signed up to participate in a mini-golf put-a-thon to benefit the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through the Jimmy Fund. We (and by we I mean Luke) have collected $150.00 in pledges to date. If you can donate let me know and I will gladly bring your money to the 54 hole put-a-thon as a donation for these great causes. I will be asking you in person if I see you, so get your wallets / purses / man purses out and ready to donate. If you are far away and would like to donate, email me and I will get back to you as to who to make the check out to and where to send it. Thanks in advance for your generosity.