Poor petite bourgeoisie me, yesterday I had to go to a public Laundromat to wash my laundry,
so inconvenient, I've dreaded doing it all week, I mean god I haven't do laundry out side of my
house in like 6 years!
What a little bitch I can be, this reminds me to take a post from my other blog about what I'm thankful for:
Happy Thanksgiving,
I'm giving thanks for my friends who blog with me
Not having to have a corporate job
Being a part of the petite bourgeoisie while holding social-anarchistic world views
Never having gone to jail
Not living somewhere where I have to worry about my kids getting shot in the crossfire of a drive-by
still having my real teeth
NO MORE BUSH
my chiropractor and massage therapist
Brett Favre
Dungen and other Music I've been into this past year
love, cute furry animals,
and my family
Monday, December 08, 2008
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Unsolicited Advice for a Brand New Mom
The text from an email I recently sent to a friend that just had her first child:
"Quick advice, - start vetting and training some baby sitters sooner than later, be it grand parents or professionals, the sooner you can go out to a show or dinner with (your husband) the quicker normalcy will return.
- at some point when the baby is sleeping you will totally think it looks dead and feel the need to double check if it's breathing, that's normal they sleep very deeply, but still double check anyway.
- if the grand parents (or anyone, me included) give you crazy child rearing advice, don't bother debating with them just be like, "Okay I'll keep that in mind" and do what you think is best, they're just trying to help however misguided or annoying they may be.
- lastly don't be surprised if some people now treat you like the gatekeeper to the baby and not a person, often family is so excited about the baby that they forget to give the mother their props."
"Quick advice, - start vetting and training some baby sitters sooner than later, be it grand parents or professionals, the sooner you can go out to a show or dinner with (your husband) the quicker normalcy will return.
- at some point when the baby is sleeping you will totally think it looks dead and feel the need to double check if it's breathing, that's normal they sleep very deeply, but still double check anyway.
- if the grand parents (or anyone, me included) give you crazy child rearing advice, don't bother debating with them just be like, "Okay I'll keep that in mind" and do what you think is best, they're just trying to help however misguided or annoying they may be.
- lastly don't be surprised if some people now treat you like the gatekeeper to the baby and not a person, often family is so excited about the baby that they forget to give the mother their props."
Monday, December 01, 2008
Semi-Sick / Fully Whining
So 45 minutes ago as I was in my basement curled up in the fetal position remembering that when I woke up this morning feeling like crap my first thought was after I get the kids off to school I'm getting right back in bed. Well the whole family has been fighting off illness exacerbated by spending the Thanksgiving holiday on the road in homes that have pets, so we all have that semi-sick, allergy-sinus congestion, post-nasal-drip don't feel like going back to work / school thing going on, on top of the usual cases of the Mondays.
My 1st grader, the complain-i-est of the family, is no surprise complaining about feeling sick and the fact that he should have the whole month of December off because it's Christmas time. I check and he does not have a temperature but his nose is very runny, so I'm inclined to send him to school. My wife thinks we should send him to school but tell his teacher to keep an eye on him and send him to the nurse if he's sick, but I view that as semi-lame kind of abdicating our parental responsibility, plus I would then have to go back and make another trip to pick him up from school. The tipping point is when I can not find any singles or enough quarters to send in with him to buy lunch at school, that and the litany of maladies he has been persistently professing to me as I rush around trying to get things to together so we can improve on our 65% tardy average.
Fine no school today for you, but you have to spend the whole day in bed, not on the couch watching TV.
A few minutes later he's on the couch singing so his misery index has drastically dropped, though his nose is running pretty badly so I think I made the proper decision.
We take the pre-schooler to pre-school and I realize as I do every Monday that I forgot his nap sheet, so we have to go home to pick one up and come back. My 1st grader is complaining about having to go back and forth and the fact that I won't let him wait for me in the car as I look for this bed sheet. I search around not able to find a clean sheet (which are toddler bed size, so I can not just use one of ours) so I think I have enough time to wash one before his nap time at 1PM. I can not track down the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tote that we transport his sheet back and forth from school in, but I do find another sheet in the to be bleached pile on the floor of the laundry room. I open the washer and it's full of soapy water and wet clothes.
Shit
The washer has been breaking down bit by bit but I thought I had helped my wife get it running again last night, but apparently not and apparently she forgot to check on the clothes before she went to bed. So now what, I fire up the washer again to monitor what's going on deduce that it is not draining the water out during the spin cycle. It also periodically leaks, which it did yesterday so the three piles of sorted clothes that are waiting to be washed today are all damp, so now I have to figure out what to do with four loads of clothes in varying states of wetness, how to get a new washer in here pronto, and where to track down a clean sheet for my son on top of the 15 things on my to do list for Mondays.
I eventually track down a clean sheet for my son, but by this point I am wondering if I ever brought back his sheet from school last week before Thanksgiving, maybe it's still there, I would still be clean, he did not use it for a full week, I am running with that idea however faulty the logic.
As I sit on the commode mumbling the utterances of pissed-off sailor with tourette's my 1st grader walks in with a picture of a smiley face with the caption "bont feL bad" (which of course translates to "don't feel bad"). He says I heard you saying bad stuff and I wanted you to feel better and then gives me a hug. That does make me feel better, unfortunately it is momentary because as I write this I am taking a break from purchasing a new washer online because the store with the best price which I have spent the last 20 minutes reading all of their fine print, the one who lists itself as having "free shipping" will actually cost us $140 to have them bring the over 200 pound washer into our laundry room and that will be ten days from now, the free shipping is curbside.
Man I just wanted to get to bed straight away from dropping off the boys. I guess my state of semi-sickness will continue, especially if I am dumb-ass enough to stay up until 2AM doing whatever non-productive mind numbing b.s. I do after everyone else goes to bed and get four and half hours of sleep tonight.
My 1st grader, the complain-i-est of the family, is no surprise complaining about feeling sick and the fact that he should have the whole month of December off because it's Christmas time. I check and he does not have a temperature but his nose is very runny, so I'm inclined to send him to school. My wife thinks we should send him to school but tell his teacher to keep an eye on him and send him to the nurse if he's sick, but I view that as semi-lame kind of abdicating our parental responsibility, plus I would then have to go back and make another trip to pick him up from school. The tipping point is when I can not find any singles or enough quarters to send in with him to buy lunch at school, that and the litany of maladies he has been persistently professing to me as I rush around trying to get things to together so we can improve on our 65% tardy average.
Fine no school today for you, but you have to spend the whole day in bed, not on the couch watching TV.
A few minutes later he's on the couch singing so his misery index has drastically dropped, though his nose is running pretty badly so I think I made the proper decision.
We take the pre-schooler to pre-school and I realize as I do every Monday that I forgot his nap sheet, so we have to go home to pick one up and come back. My 1st grader is complaining about having to go back and forth and the fact that I won't let him wait for me in the car as I look for this bed sheet. I search around not able to find a clean sheet (which are toddler bed size, so I can not just use one of ours) so I think I have enough time to wash one before his nap time at 1PM. I can not track down the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tote that we transport his sheet back and forth from school in, but I do find another sheet in the to be bleached pile on the floor of the laundry room. I open the washer and it's full of soapy water and wet clothes.
Shit
The washer has been breaking down bit by bit but I thought I had helped my wife get it running again last night, but apparently not and apparently she forgot to check on the clothes before she went to bed. So now what, I fire up the washer again to monitor what's going on deduce that it is not draining the water out during the spin cycle. It also periodically leaks, which it did yesterday so the three piles of sorted clothes that are waiting to be washed today are all damp, so now I have to figure out what to do with four loads of clothes in varying states of wetness, how to get a new washer in here pronto, and where to track down a clean sheet for my son on top of the 15 things on my to do list for Mondays.
I eventually track down a clean sheet for my son, but by this point I am wondering if I ever brought back his sheet from school last week before Thanksgiving, maybe it's still there, I would still be clean, he did not use it for a full week, I am running with that idea however faulty the logic.
As I sit on the commode mumbling the utterances of pissed-off sailor with tourette's my 1st grader walks in with a picture of a smiley face with the caption "bont feL bad" (which of course translates to "don't feel bad"). He says I heard you saying bad stuff and I wanted you to feel better and then gives me a hug. That does make me feel better, unfortunately it is momentary because as I write this I am taking a break from purchasing a new washer online because the store with the best price which I have spent the last 20 minutes reading all of their fine print, the one who lists itself as having "free shipping" will actually cost us $140 to have them bring the over 200 pound washer into our laundry room and that will be ten days from now, the free shipping is curbside.
Man I just wanted to get to bed straight away from dropping off the boys. I guess my state of semi-sickness will continue, especially if I am dumb-ass enough to stay up until 2AM doing whatever non-productive mind numbing b.s. I do after everyone else goes to bed and get four and half hours of sleep tonight.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Gender Bendin' hits from the Palm
This is an old anecdote from the spring:
When my three year-old and I went to pick up my 6 year-old we ran into my six year-old's best friend's mother and a friend of hers who was visiting from out of town. Nothing that notable right, well my little guy asked who was that women with "Jack's" mommy,
Me: "Oh that's her friend from out of town"
Him: "Does Jack have two mommy's"
Me: "No, he has a daddy and a mommy, that's just her friend"
Him: "Jack has two mommies, Jack has two mommies!"
And for a couple of weeks, in and out of the house, "Jack's got two mommy's!"
Another similar public comment from last spring made by my three year-old as we were strolling along in the supermarket:
"Daddy, mommy's got a penis!"
Me: "No she doesn't honey, please keep it down"
"Daddy ... mommy's got a penis!"
Oh great ... now cereal aisle at A&P Fresh thinks I'm married to a tranny or a hermaphrodite.
When my three year-old and I went to pick up my 6 year-old we ran into my six year-old's best friend's mother and a friend of hers who was visiting from out of town. Nothing that notable right, well my little guy asked who was that women with "Jack's" mommy,
Me: "Oh that's her friend from out of town"
Him: "Does Jack have two mommy's"
Me: "No, he has a daddy and a mommy, that's just her friend"
Him: "Jack has two mommies, Jack has two mommies!"
And for a couple of weeks, in and out of the house, "Jack's got two mommy's!"
Another similar public comment from last spring made by my three year-old as we were strolling along in the supermarket:
"Daddy, mommy's got a penis!"
Me: "No she doesn't honey, please keep it down"
"Daddy ... mommy's got a penis!"
Oh great ... now cereal aisle at A&P Fresh thinks I'm married to a tranny or a hermaphrodite.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Strawberry Quick Methamphetamine Warning
I got an email about this Strawberry Quick drug being "handed out to kids in schoolyards," check the above link, it states that there are different colored Meths, but they are no cases of flavored Meth being giving to little kids or any children showing up in the emergency room because of it.
I got an email about this Strawberry Quick drug being "handed out to kids in schoolyards," check the above link, it states that there are different colored Meths, but they are no cases of flavored Meth being giving to little kids or any children showing up in the emergency room because of it.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Just a little funny
I can't remember what we were talking about, but my 3 yr-old said something and I gave him some stupid reply using a silly voice, and he said something to the effect of why are you talking like that, and I said, "Oh ,I'm just being weird," to which he answered,
"No not weird, funny, but just a little funny."
Wow everyone's a critic, now my childish banter is being rated, I wonder if his assessment of my poop jokes set will be a little kinder.
"No not weird, funny, but just a little funny."
Wow everyone's a critic, now my childish banter is being rated, I wonder if his assessment of my poop jokes set will be a little kinder.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
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 ...
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.
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.
Sunday, November 02, 2008
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
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
Monday, October 06, 2008
Keep Your Home Healthy
Relative Humidity in the Home, what are the effects and the optimum percentage rates?
Relative Humidity in the Home, what are the effects and the optimum percentage rates?
Sunday, September 28, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
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.
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
I've got no idea where he got those sentiments from ...
--------------------------------
Off they go to School
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