This months installment from wifes column!

Well, this last month hasn’t quite been the giant bowl of yucks that it has been in the past. My mom has had to go to a nursing home for the long haul, and that has kind of sucked the joy out of a lot of things for me. Her memory has gone to the point where most days, she thinks I’m her sister, 50 years ago or so, and my oldest son is her brother before he got married and moved away. And the younger grandkids are just cute little kids she has pictures of. She doesn’t really recognize my Dad as her husband, some days either. That’s not easy to see. On the 20th, they’ll have been married for 58 years. That’s pretty impressive, in my opinion. I can’t imagine that much time under one roof with anyone. I like my “me” time!

But the other day, after we’d been to see Grandma, taken Grandpa back home, and were FINALLY (said with all the exasperation that a 4 year old can muster, complete, I’m sure with a GIANT eye roll) on our way back home, Andy announced to me: “When I grow up, I’m going to work at Checkers!” Said with the same enthusiasm that he usually reserves for “I’m going to have cake!” Now, mind you, there’s nothing wrong with working fast food. I’ve done it. It paid my bills for several years. I went to school to manage restaurants, and despite what people think, even fast food with a drive through counts as a restaurant. It’s like a denim jumper compared to a ball gown. They’re both dresses, just not in the same category. But with this child’s wicked imagination, and intelligence, I just feel that maybe we should aspire to something a little “more” than fast food.

I said “Well, honey, I think that maybe you should be like a scientist, or a doctor when you grow up! You are so smart, you could come up with a cure for cancer, so nobody else’s Daddy has to go through cancer like your Dad did.” And he says, “OR! I could be a TEACHER! If a school doesn’t have a teacher, then I can be the teacher, and if the kids want a “A” then I’ll give ‘em a “A”, and if they want a “F” then that’s what they’ll get! It’ll just be an “A” and “F” school! Isn’t THAT a great idea?” You know, the more I think about it, maybe that’s the way schools SHOULD be. So much of life is ”Pass/Fail”, maybe school should prepare you for it. It could be a charter school, maybe. You go through the lessons, and you take a test, and you either get it, or you don’t. Time to start going to school board meetings! I’ll lobby for the pass/fail system! Like Bonnie Rait says in her song; “Let’s Give ‘em Somethin’ to Talk About!” Wouldn’t THAT be an interesting brew-ha-ha!

I have a 4 year old that would love this…given the chance!

Cobbed from Dawns site

The latest from my wife’s monthly newspaper column. Hilarious!

I’ve got a little story for the next time you’re having a bad day. Yes, it’s another story about the joys of raising my 4 year old. This kid is incredible! He can be SO charming, loveable, and fun, and then, there are days like the following:

On Monday, we went to see a family counselor. We basically need to learn how THIS 4 year old works, so that we can find the strategies that are going to work with HIM. We DID learn that there are 4 personality types, and that my husband is one, I’m a different type, and the 4 year old is NOT a combination of US, but his own, unique type. He’s a Lion. Always wanting to be in charge. The counselor said that raising a Lion is VERY difficult, because children are NOT in charge, they CAN’T be in charge of most things, and thus, are almost always in turmoil. Yep, that’s MY kid! So anyway, we’re embarking on this new chapter, hoping that it will lead to more harmony, and less strife in our world. Pray for us.

On Monday evening, I was in the living room, watching some TV, and Andy was playing with his cars on the floor. I told him it was time to brush his teeth. He actually got up and went to the bathroom, (I almost fell over) I heard water running, and then when he was finished, he came out of the bathroom with the orange cup that’s kept in there for mouth rinsing. He was sipping out of it along the way. He says, “I brought you a drink of water, Mom.” I really don’t like drinking water. I know it’s good for me, but ick. But because he was so thoughtful, I took a teeny little sip. My thought at the moment was, “Note to self, make sure that cup gets to the dishwasher tonight”, because it smelled just a bit “funky”. Then, Andy took a big drink from it, and says, “Hmmm. That doesn’t TASTE like toilet water at all, does it Mom?” I grabbed the cup, took it to the kitchen, poured the water into a white bowl, and sure enough, there was the faintest blue tint there! MY CHILD FED ME TOILET WATER! The ONLY thing keeping me from just puking every time I think about it is the fact that there was that one little girl who did a study, and swabbed the toilet water at a fast food restaurant, and also took swabs of the drink dispenser, and the ice dispenser, and the toilet water was actually cleaner than the other areas of the restaurant.

So, there’s my little public service announcement for the month. Whenever things are going tough, you can sit back and say, “At least I didn’t drink toilet water today!” Just about everything else is less icky. Just about.

Hi all!

It looks like I figured out the problem with my site. It was broken for a loooooonnnng time and I just now figured it out. My hosting provider moved to a new server and my WP plug-in Bad Behavior didn’t like that.

I will be posting more now.

Thanks for your patience!

Illustrious jugglers the Raspyni Brothers show off their uncanny balance, agility, coordination and willingness to sacrifice (others). Now, if you’ll just stand completely still…

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In a lively show, “mathemagician” Arthur Benjamin races a team of calculators to figure out 3-digit squares in his head, performs a massive mental calculation, and guesses a few birth days. How does he do it? He’ll be happy to tell you.

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MiniAjax.com

Nice Looking Downloadable Ajax and DHTML code

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Chris is giving away another PC. I hope I can be online in the chatroom when this happens! I’ll take it!

Chris

| Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes

My first post using the free Wordpress blog editor BlogDesk.

BlogDesk test post

Tags: BlogDesk

Blogging should be simple, but it gets complicated and time-consuming if you are serious about it. BlogDesk makes it easy to write, speeds up lavish processes and assists the author with smart features.

Check these out!

These are some great photos taken during the annual San Francisco Bay “Fleet Week”. These are action shots taken during the airshow. The pictures of the Blue Angel flying 20 ft. above the SF Bay water are incredible!

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I wish I could afford it!

A Silicon Valley start-up called Nanosolar shipped its first solar panels — priced at $1 a watt. That’s the price at which solar energy gets cheaper than coal. Curious that this story is not on every front page…

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A co-workers daughter went to the post office the other day to buy some stamps. The clerk asked her if she wanted the stamps with the Baby and mother on them. The postal clerk informed her that she was not allowed to say the names of those on the stamp.

Yes it was the baby Jesus and Mary. This insanity is getting out of hand!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

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This is a University of Indiana Accapella group, really having fun with Christmas songs. Excellent singing too!

This may be what I’m looking for;

If you have an old TV lying around, it may actually be worth something again —like $100 towards a new Sony set to be specific. Besides encouraging consumers to spend ungodly amounts of money on Sony products, the offer is intended as to build on their “Take Back” Recycling program launched this past September.>

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great toolbar

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Ahhhh… December. That time of year when a normally “low maintenance” child becomes a fount of “I want”. I just dread the times when the 4 year old is watching TV, during “kid show time”, as he calls it. Because every stinking commercial is for some extravagant toy, game, or whatever, that shows it to be THE absolute best thing since sliced bread, and I hear, “MOM! I need that! I really, REALLY need that!” Things like, oh, I don’t know… Aqua-dots. Did you hear about them? He has been asking me for Aqua-dots for 4 or 5 months now, and I was seriously going to GET him some for Christmas this year. He’s shown a lot of growth where it comes to putting things away, and not making huge messes, so I thought… gosh… they’re beads and water. How much safer can you get? WELL! Turns out, the receiving tank at the wastewater treatment plant just might be safer than this toy! Apparently, the “non-toxic” adhesive that is used on the beads, ISN’T so non-toxic after all. If a child swallows them, the body reacts with the adhesive, and manufactures that “date rape” drug, BHG, (or whatever the letters are) and your little one becomes unconscious for several hours, during which time, you, as a parent are absolutely freaking out, frantic, because your little cherub has just lost consciousness like a drunk on New Year’s Eve.

So, yeah, I simply dread watching TV this time of year, because there are more and more ads for things that are just plain silly, in my opinion, but to a 4 year old, they’re just the bees’ knees!

The other thing I don’t like about December is the mad rush of people around me trying to get a gazillion things done, and because I choose not to participate, or get sucked into their frenzy, they look at me like I’m some sort of freak. Yes, I do a little shopping. But I do it when I want to do it. Which generally happens to be the last couple of days before Christmas. I work best under pressure, and with a deadline. It’s how I got through high school too. Add to that quality, the fact that I’m an incredible bargain shopper, and I honestly think I save a ton of money by waiting till the last minute. And there’s the fact that most of our family gatherings fall between Christmas and New Year’s, I can save even MORE by utilizing the after Christmas sales for those events. I just simply refuse to get caught in the frenzy. I prefer to focus on the real reason it’s all happening. Our church Christmas Eve program, followed by the Christmas Day service where we sing all those old carols that I don’t even have to look at the worship folder to sing. Now THAT’S what Christmas is all about!

Smart boy! Washin da dishes in the evenin!

Here is our future “Entertainer of the year!”

I cant help but giggle as I watch this. He does this totally at random.