Frenzied Daddy

This guy has been arrested for telling his kid ( his eleven year old kid, the same age as the DQ ) to walk home and leaving him at the neighborhood McDonalds (the distance was “a few blocks” ).

Apparently they argued about something, he told his son to walk home, and drove home. Then he cooled off and went back and got him. They apologized to each other and he was “spoken sternly to” by a police officer. Now he’s arrested for child abandonment with intent to return and endangerment !

You can read that article for more details.

I’m pretty sure my dad had me walk home at least once, from a family friend’s house. It wasn’t far, and I’d walked it before, but he circled around and picked me up later. Probably the same situation; frustrated, he did what we-as-parents try to do these days and removed himself from the situation, didn’t beat the kid, tried to “make the punishment fit the crime.” I didn’t take it personally, as I recall, I just took my lumps, as it were, and walked home. He caught up to me a few blocks later.

I don’t know what this guy should have done, other than not leaving the kid at the McDonalds. What do you think?

I don’t remember the last time I said anything positive about George Bush. Do you? But it occurred to me this morning that he’s an inspiration to us all.

I have a hard time handling self-doubt. “Duhh”, you know I can hear you from here. And I’ve been described as a solid “90 percenter.” I have a hard time finishing projects because “what if I’m wrong?”

Well, let-me-tell-you. George Bush doesn’t worry about being wrong. And if he can damn the torpedoes and set steam to full ahead, then so can I.

Hallmark is putting out “gay marriage cards.” Too cool! I really like the one mentioned in the article “two hearts, one promise.” Apparently ( and who knew? ), they started offering “coming out” cards last year. Now there’s an interesting idea; friends of mine who hid in closets for most of their lives, and now I can buy them a freakin card at the Hallmark Store!

Of course, the American Family Association doesn’t like this idea. They say this is a greed-based decision, not a decision to honor people who announce their love. In fact, they’ve got a form on their website to send hate mail to Hallmark. You can see this piece of work for yourself.

Well, that’s interesting! You can insert your own subject lines, you can edit your letter … why this could be used to send congratulatory emails to Hallmark! What a nice feature they’ve given us. Of course, if you don’t want to use their form ( it’s possible that they would retain your email address and send you family-based missives… but you don’t need to use your real email address, do you? ) … so you can email Donald J Hall of Hallmark directly! ( email address provided by this same form ).

Sitting here in the dim morning light, the clouds have come in, and the temperature has dropped to near bearable levels. I’m upstairs keeping the elderly dogs company and a flash of light illuminates the room. It’s followed shortly by a brief ka-boom and the roll and crash of cymbal-like thunder. My first thought was “mmm, nice; the thunder that I hoped for last night.” My second thought was “whoa, what if it’s not thunder? What if it was an explosion?” The flash, then rolling thunder, for all I know it’d be the same theatrics. I sit quietly waiting, and then there’s more lightning followed by more thunder.

Somehow, even after the thunder cannoning in the sky and a brief sissure of heavy raindrops, the kids are still asleep. I’m enjoying this quiet time before they wake.

The TT (don’t I think I should update those photos?) somehow got free rein on a package of O-R-E-OH!s … She wound up with her face covered in oreogoo. I was brushing my teeth when I saw her run by, so I grabbed a facecloth, got it nice and wet, and chased her down from one end of the house to the other ( some houses are well-suited for playing chase, and the kids can run around in circles all day. Ours isn’t. ) I held her down and scrubbed her face. Finally, she broke free, giggling, and shouted “Missed a spot!” and ran off!

Of course I had to chase her and try again. Six or seven times.

But it could give you heart damage.

“After one can it seemed to turn the young individual into one with more of the type of profile you would expect to see with someone with cardiovascular disease. People who already have existing cardiovascular disease may want to talk to their physician before they drink Red Bull in future,” the scientist said.

Crumb. What is this world coming to when one of my favorite “mana potions” encourages me to kick the bucket? I mean, the heart racing, heart pounding palpitations, I understand, but blood stickiness and possible clots? Eeew.

Last weekend, the TT came into the house, crying. She tried to to “pet the fuzzy bee.” She was more upset that the bee wouldn’t let her pet it than she was hurt that it stung her. Now she tells me to be careful of them.

Tonight, while I’m working in the bedroom, she came to me, asked me to get down one of her dresses, because, very seriously, she was invited to a party and she needs the dress to dance in. Please can she have a dress to dance? She was very serious about all of this.

I love my kids

It’s 08/08/08, and the Olympics are starting. I’m still unsure how I, personally, feel about the Olympics being in China. On the one hand, I hate their politics and their human wrongs. On the other; well, the Olympics are supposed to be unifying the world in the field of sports even through wars and other strife. The Olympics are supposed to transcend our “normal” lives to some other plane.

But, of course, politics and war come back to play again, as it appears that Russia is invading Georgia using the Olympics as a distraction. Sources: here and here.

Lastly, welcome to Nola Schader, who is entering the world today. Happy Birthday, Kid!

Of course I keep the squirtguns in the refridgerator. Doesn’t everyone?

The TT got a pair of big tank-type pump action squirtguns for her birthday. Now, I had a squirtgun, the kind you pump full of air and then you can hold the trigger down and hose the recipient. These are bigger, but you can only shoot one “pump” at a time. They hold a lot more water, too.

It’s fun to run through the yard squirting and being squirted. We put them on her list because the little pistols we had gotten were too hard to shoot; the triggers wouldn’t pull back for little ( three year old, at the time ) fingers. She loves them.

She also got a “big girl bike”- the DQ’s old kiddie bike with training wheels. She loves that too. She’ll want to ride her bike up to 9:00 PM and then when she gets up in the morning. Just try keeping her off. She wears her helmet every time ( got a new one of those too ). As she gets faster and faster, I have to run faster and faster to keep up. Those training wheels are never coming off. :p

I told her the other night that I couldn’t run behind her (hey, I was worn out) and she’d have to stay closer to home. I said I was “old and feeble.” She disagreed. She believes that “Ten is old and feeble.” I guess I’m not ten yet; but her sister shouted “HEY!”