Irony

A cousin of mine who is in her late 50's is getting her leg amputated at 3PM ET today, it got shut in a door when she was like five years-old and has given her serious problems ever since, in a strange way it will make her life easier. The irony is not only that her (and my) Grandmother also had a leg, and eventually both legs amputated, but that her mother after successfully recovering from heart surgery died two years ago on this day in same hospital while in a subsequent surgery for a staff infection which she caught during her recovery time via bed sores.

I personally would not if at all possible go back to that same hospital to have a procedure done on myself, but it's suppose to be a good hospital, North Shore University Hospital in Long Island, so may be I'm being dramatic, but fuck that if some one I care about went into a hospital for one thing and dies from some totally different thing that was not preexisting when they went in, sorry not for me ...

Best Places to Raise Kids 2009 per BusinessWeek
Edison came in first for NJ, with Clifton and Union as the runners up, WHAT? I guess suburban sprawl and landscapes marred by strip malls is considered desirable by BusinessWeek.

My Boys Favorite Things, 2008

Music:
bands
6yr-old
Arctic Monkeys
Adam and the Ants
Mooney Suzuki
Monster Magnet
White Stripes
3yr-old
Arctic Monkeys
Led Zeppelin
"Iron Man" (Black Sabbath, he only knows this one song)
Mooney Suzuki
Adam and the Ants

Foods:
6yr-old
Mac and Cheese
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
Crabby Patty (Bocca Veggie Burger with Jelly and Mayo)
Sweets:
Ice Cream Cake
Cookies
Doughnuts

3yr-old
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
Mac and Cheese
Ham
Sweets:
M&M's
Sweet Tarts
Cup Cakes

Sports:
6yr-old
football
soccer
basketball
3yr-old
football
soccer
hockey
basketball

TV Shows:
6yr-old
Spectacular Spider-man
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Spider-Man Unlimited
Smurfs
3yr-old
Spectacular Spider-Man
Save 'Ums
Curious George
Power Rangers

Superheroes / Villains:
6yr-old
Black Spider-man / Spider-man
Iron Man
Mysterio
Venom
3yr-old
Spider-man
Batman
Superman
Captain Underpants
Jungle Fury Power Ranger

Colors:
6yr-old
blue
green
red
3yr-old
Red
Blue
Green
Purple
Yellow

Toys:
6yr-old
Sega Genesis video games
Spider-Man
Iron Man
3yr-old
Power Rangers
Spider-Man
Sonic the Hedgehog and Frogger video games for Sega Genesis

Movies:
6yr-old
Spider-Man 3
Kung-Fu Panda
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
3yr-old
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
Spider-Man (1)
Beverly Hills Chihuahua

Books:
6yr-old
Captain Underpants
3yr-old
Thomas the Tank Engine
Captain Underpants

Sports Teams:
6yr-old
Indianapolis Colts
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
NY Jets
Rutgers University Scarlet Knights - all sports
NJ Devils
3yr-old
NY Jets
Rutgers University Scarlet Knights - all sports
St. Louis Rams
Dallas Cowboys
Indianapolis Colts

2007

Keep Your Home Healthy
Relative Humidity in the Home, what are the effects and the optimum percentage rates?

Scientists: 1 in 4 mammals faces extinction

Doctors: No hamsters or exotic pets for young kids

Getting old is one thing, lame blog entries are another

I don't mind getting older, not being able to do somethings you use to do, this whole getting fatter and uglier is a whole fucking other thing though, I'm so not cool with that.

We just had most of our main floor painted, had our rugs cleaned, I finally got a new laptop, iMac, and we just had three "Big Boxes" delivered today full of furniture and lots of papers and items that we have gotten along just fine with out the past five months, I'm not sure how we are going to integrate all of that crap back into our lives even though our new house is much bigger than our old one I so don't want this new place to be dominated by clutter like our old townhouse.

I should be back to deeper and more thoughtful blogging once I take care of the aforementioned situations and get familiar with my new laptop which I've had for a week and haven't even opened the the box.

Home is not like home

I had a prep / pep talk with my three year-old about his first day of full-time pre-school tomorrow, it went pretty well, I got him psyched about his lunch box, juice boxes, and the weekly "pizza party" on Wednesdays.

My first grader kept saying home isn't like home any more, and that we never stay home any more. I thought he was talking about the fact that we have a new house, or perhaps complaining about how busy we are with fixing up the new house and running errands to home depot, bed bath and beyond, and the like on the weekends, so I pointed out to him that we spent all of today home and he spent most of the day complaining about not being able to watch TV or play video games. (We let him watch an ungodly amount of Saturday morning cartoons yesterday, so he only got to watch a half an hour of educational TV today at one point when his mother and I were too busy to entertain him, or more exactly be a captive audience for him to entertain.)
So I said yesterday you complained about not being at home because we were shopping for four hours at "boring stores*," and today we're home all day and you're still complaining.

He said, "No Daddy can I explain what I mean, (and kind of rolled his eyes), I'm not talking about that, I mean we're only home for two days together then I go to school for five days, I spend more time at school than at home, it's like school is home and home is vacation for two days."
To which I answered, "You are right, but it's like that for everyone even when you are done with school and then have to go to work it's the same thing." Then I tried to explain about how it takes a really long time to learn all the things you need to know to make an informed decision about which career you want to choose, and some other crap about how important it is to do well in school so you can pick a career that you'll enjoy, but I was really thinking about how our economic system really doesn't have any family values, and how people leave their families and the areas where they were born for jobs that pay five or ten thousand dollars more a year, as if an extra big screen TV and two dens are more important than familial bonds and having roots in geographical place.
But with the way that most towns in America have become Anytown, USA many don't even pay the differences any mind, maybe one's near the mountains, one you need snow tires, and the other is by the water, but there seems to be the same stores every where and people seem to find that comforting rather than frightening.
My three year-old is surprised ever time he sees a McDonald's, I think our town is the only town in the world without one, but he can't comprehend how ever time we drive to a different town there is a McDonald's there. What this has to do with what I'm writing about I'm not sure, I guess spending most of your life bound by school and work, living in an Anytown, USA and driving past the McDonald's to get to the Home Depot are things that aren't questioned by many people, and I'm both proud and saddened by the fact that my six year-old is already clued into such things, things that feel wrong but are so accepted that there is little you can do to change them, except be an artist, numb yourself with drugs, or withhold your labor from the marketplace, marry someone willing to deal with it and become a stay-at-home parent.


* There's nothing worse than being really bored in a boring store and having your kids complaining about how bored they are, because they don't have the capacity to deal with being bored, so telling them, "I know I am bored out of my fucking mind and putzing around looking for shower curtain rods is as painful for you as it is for me," doesn't give them any increased capacity to deal with the situation so basically nothing calms them down because they can't yet commiserate, so they just get more and more antsy and I get more and more agita.

Party for you right to do nothing but PARTY!

"I don't want to do anything until I'm an old grammpy, I just want to party," so said my 6 year-old first grader son over his granola this morning.
I've got no idea where he got those sentiments from ...


--------------------------------


Off they go to School

HANG UP AND PARENT!

Too much cell phone use by adults can lead to problems for kids

Oh Yeah We Finally Moved

We didn't have Internet for a month, went on two week long vacations, one down the shore and one in California, still have many things in boxes and tons of items in storage, weren't able to get some renovations done to the house while we were away on vacation so life still feels in a state of disarray.

Driest Hands in the World : More Hits from the Palm

Dipping into postings that I wrote in my Palm Pilot but never got around to posting on the blog. This one is from this past winter:


Every time someone goes to the bathroom in my house i have to wash my hands, the toddler with his diapers and cleaning him up after using the potty seat, checking the kindergartner to make sure he actually wiped after pooping, and of course myself, add to this that we are all on the same cycle so this all happens within 20 to 30 minutes of each other, that I'm semi-recovered from having a hand washing OCD problem, and that I pretty much hate the feel of lotion on my hands all equal me having the driest hands in the world.

I WON THE MEGA MILLIONS LOTTERY!!! or so i thought for 3 minutes

I went to the dry cleaner with my two boys to pick up my wife's clothes, as we left I saw that the multi-state lotto was up to 105 mil, so I thought it would be fun to have the kids pick three numbers each.
On the rare occasions that I buy lotto tickets I usually loose them, or forget that I even bought one, which was the case with this time until I heard some guy down to the A&P Fresh (daddy why is it called 'fresh' everything in there isn't fresh?) say, hey did you sell the winning ticket, it's from Jersey and no one claimed it yet.
So then I'm like hey, I bought a ticket in Jersey and didn't claim it, that's got to narrow down the odds right, so I rush home pondering grad school vs. starting a record company, nannies vs. me continuing to take care of the kids, how much would I donate to Obama, being able to pay for movers to pack up my whole house for our impending move and all kinds of other more extreme and ridiculous scenarios, so I get home unload the groceries, check online and of course I didn't win.

I'm not so big on the whole dollar and a dream thing, now I really don't feel like packing for the next five days straight, I think I operate better sans hope.

a great moment

I had a great moment with my oldest son the other day. My six year-old and my three year-old were jockeying for position on my lap, the little guy was able to displace his older brother and said, “You’re too big to sit on Daddy’s lap!”
I said, “No, he’s not too big to sit on Daddy’s lap,” and my big guy said, “Yeah, not until I’m ten.”
Then I told him, “Even when you are ten, I don’t care how old you are or how big you are you can sit on my lap, I don’t care if you’re 50 and I’m all old and frail, so long as I have a lap you can sit on it.” Now I really doubt there will be any lap sitting when I’m an octogenarian, but I was trying to make my point strong and clear.
My six year-old was apparently really touched by this he gave a big eyed look, held my face and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
The reason this was so rewarding is that as a loving and communicative parent one is always trying to let their children know how much they truly love them, and nine times out of ten they don’t get it, I mean they do know you love them but deepness of it doesn’t usually dawn on them. So for this silly little incident and unpremeditated comment on my part to actually get through to my son how much I love him was an unexpected joy.

My six year-old is cooler than your kid

He is in art day camp; he takes six classes a day one of which is jazz tap. My wife told me that when you are a kid taking dance, the tap shoes or ballet points or whatever seem magical to you and make you feel like you have an enhanced ability to dance. Armed with this information I drove a half an hour north to the Capizio outlet to get kids tap shoes, and they still were not that cheap, anyway my son took to them right away.
When his mother got home from work I told him to show her what he had learned, plus some of the moves that he had already made up himself, he shyly when through a few steps, when he finished I asked if he wanted to show mommy some of the moves he came up with and he kind of lamely tapped out few steps, which surprised me because he had been stoked about tapping all day.
I was like okay thanks, that was good, do you want to show us anything else and he says yeah check this out and starts tapping out an Arctic Monkeys song, and after the intro he starts full on tapping and singing the song at the same time, it was fucking awesome.

And another thing, I’m a huge Clash fan, some my kids are familiar with them and know a number of their songs. So the other day I picked out a new album by their guitar player’s new band Carbon/Silicon and I’m playing it and my six year-old asks, “Is this the Clash?” and I answer no but really close and explain who the band is and who is in the group, and I think how awesome is that, that he could unprompted recognize the song writing as similar to the Clash’s. The only bad thing is that two of Carbon/Silicon’s best songs have “Fuck” in the chorus …