My Two Dads

I snapped out of the funk I was in last night. My guess is everyone is thankful it only lasted one day.

My dad texted me this morning. I've got to say that I'm really enjoying waking up every morning and finding a message from him. I'm not sure he reads Charlie or not, but regardless it really gets my day started off on a good note to know he's somewhere out there in the ether wondering how Adam's basketball game went or if we got much rain overnight as he makes his way down the hospital halls at 4 A.M.

He wasn't around for a very long time for various reasons not all of which are his fault. We only get to see him once a year which means that Adam has only seen him six times and Alex twice, but we do talk every couple of days. There was a long stretch there where it felt like I was looking out for myself in terms of the kind of support that only a dad can provide. The Angry Man (passed away on Feb 9th a lifetime ago) tried his best but he just didn't have it in him.

I'm not really explaining it too well but in a weird way I am the kind of dad I am because of who they were. I'm not the Angry Man, I'm not my father, I'm a mix of both. I'm too much of one and too much of the other at times, but lets not go there.

Tonight's Chips Off The Ole Blockhead:
# Tonight's was Mandy's 1st full night of class. Halfway through and I was missing her like crazy!
# Giving the sermon tomorrow night and I gotta say that I'm just not in to it this time like I should be. Too much stress right now, can't blog about that yet though.

Something's Stuck In The Filter.

I'm too blunt for my own good. Some people would say I'm just a jerk, but really it's a compulsion to spit out the first thing that comes out of my mouth. Combine that with an obsessive side to my personality and the result is that there are some things that I just can't let go of. I think that is why I'm so good at working in Accounts Receivable. Everyday I am faced with invoices that aren't being paid, mistakes that have been made throughout the company, statistics that need to be better. All of these situations typically put me at odds with customers and at times fellow employee's.

You've heard of the saying the buck stops here. In my case the saying couldn't be more true in that if something goes wrong with an order or the customer doesn't pay what they owe, I've got to go digging for what went wrong in hopes it gets correct and doesn't happen again. My obsessive side refuses to allow me to let go of the problem until I'm satisfied as to what went wrong, my inability to filter my thoughts often means I ask the questions that others think but never say. This often leads to confrontations which afterward triggers my compulsive side again leaving me replaying conversations days, weeks, sometimes years later.

Tonight I'm chewing on something and can't let it go.

Tonight's Chips Off The Ole Blockhead:
# The Golden Globes were last night. I hate television/movie awards shows. Who are these people that enjoy sitting around watching Clooney & Co. pat themselves on the back all night. At least with music awards you get unique performances that you can't see anywhere else.

The First Closing

As a Deacon in the Church of Christ it is my honor to pull together enough members required to put on a proper service. This could mean anywhere from 5-13 people depending on which service we are talking. I've been doing it for about a year so while it can be hectic gathering that many people in less than 10 minutes, I'm fairly good at it and I enjoy it. Part of the process means I occasionally ask those willing to serve to step out of their comfort zone and lead a prayer or read scripture. As a sign that I too am willing to make those same steps, I try to at least put myself in that same uncomfortable position once a month.

For the first time ever I lead closing prayer this morning. Here's what it sounded like:

Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you today in remembrance of the sacrifice you made of your son on that cross at Calvary. Dear Lord we come to you as a family. A family that shares in the ups and downs of life. A family that can't help but to smile as we look around the room and see all the others that have decided to join us in such great fellowship today. A family that offers this prayer today for those that are unable to attend or are no longer with us. We are family that worships together. A family that hurts together....some spiritually some physically...some have been mentioned...some have not. Lord we ask that you lift them up, ease their sorrows, and if need be open their hearts to the wonders that only you can provide. May we all come together to share in your glory once again at the appointed time. Amen

Afterward Adam who just seconds before refused to stand still, ran up to me to show me what he was doing as I was in front of the congregation. As I rolled my eyes and said there's no telling, he stood perfectly straight, bowed his head, and closed his eyes....some prayers are instantly answered.

Tonight's Chips Off The Ole Blockhead:
# I will once again attempt to get up and start exercising in the morning. My co-workers may be getting tired of hearing me yawn so much in the morning, so I thought I'd try to get up 30 mins earlier and get the blood flowing better.
# Tonight we watched Mr. Poppers Penguins. Great family movie, although I thought the ending would have been better had he turned The Tavern On The Green into a penguin sanctuary like that duck hotel in Nashville.
# I also saw the movie Faster with the Rock. For some reason I can't shake wondering what happened to that guy once he killed all those that were responsible for his brother's death. Once you get your revenge what do you do with the rest of your life?

Taking A Break From All Your Worries Sure Helps A Lot

I can't write about everything that goes on in life on Charlie as much as I'd like to. Charlie is definitely the place I go turn to, when I need to work something out internally. Still though while I may work the outline out in my head, some posts are never meant to be written. Yesterday was the perfect day. It was a real chance for us to be a family and put aside some of the pressures that have been dogging us lately. Adam had his first basketball game, then I took him to his first college basketball game to show him what could be (I think he really got it). Last night Mandy and Adam went out, that left me to play with Alex by myself for a while.

It's days like yesterday that are truly gifts from God.

The Fabulous Chuckie Cheese Hotel And Casino!!

You won't hear me say this too often and I won't say it too loudly, but deep down despite all my crying, moaning, groaning, and complaining, there is a part of me that likes Chuckie Cheese. I hate the noise, the kids are out of control, there's chaos everywhere (chaos is my arch nemesis), and the pizza tastes like it was made my Chef Boyardee.

Like a cat being forced to take a bath, I am occasionally left with no choice but to coalesce. I have to say However technically Chuckie Cheeses isn't a casino! It's a place where a kid can be a kid!! A place where Dad can spend $50 plugging in tokens which just happen to be worth 25 cents into slot machines that are shaped like wild animals and spit out tickets you can use to buy stuff with. Now I don't need a giant ruler, a heard of miniature buffalo, or a spider ring on every finger, but I do like the feeling of hitting a lucky streak on Bart Simpson's Jackpot-A-Palooza and walking away with $15 in my pocket...I mean giving Adam 60 tickets that are worth 3 Tootsie Rolls.

Tonight's Chips Off The Ole Blockhead:
#Working 3 minutes from home is normally a good thing. Unless you have bad day. A nice 30 minute drive home sure would help ease some tension before I walked into the door and started the next part of the day
#The weekend is packed! Basketball games, two parties, a ton of stuff to do around the house, and a copy of Mr Popper's Penguins to watch! Oh and I gotta get back to playing Tiger Woods 2011 and Zelda!

Charmed To Sleep

Fell asleep fast last night and completely forgot to post. It happened so fast I forget to feed Buttons and didn't get some cleaning done that on my list before bed. Some nights it happens like that. I blame it on my last minute decision to have a bowl of Lucky Charms at 9:30. All that sugar so late at night is never a good thing.

Yama Yama Pajama Drama

Alex has a special order in which he likes to wear his pajamas. If you attempt to put them on out of order, be prepared for some kicking and screaming followed by flailing, whaling, and whining. Then a half hour of him trying to pull his clothes off.

Alex's Pajama Line-Up
1) Tickle Me Elmo Pajamas
2) Regular Elmo Pajamas
3) Tigger Pajamas
4) Spiderman Pajamas
5) Super Cute Pajamas
6) Monkey Onesie
7) Construction Crew Onesie

This order must be followed or like I said nobody is going to be getting any sleep any time soon.

Tonight's Chips Off The Ole Blockhead:
#I know tonight was kinda short, but hey I've got 354 posts left to write this year
#I'm thinking about my New Year's Resolutions and so far the whole stop biting my nails thing is just not happening.

Mr. Short Term Memory Strikes Again!

Every night I go to bed making myself the promise that I will get Adam up at 6:50. 10 minutes may not seem like that significant amount of time considering all the minutes in a 24 hour day. Yet those 10 minutes haunt me till around lunch time. See by letting him sleep those precious 10 extra minutes, I'm setting him up to put on his clothes 10 minutes later, brush his teeth 10 minutes later, grab his school stuff 10 minutes later.

That extra 10 minutes of sleep inevitably means he's at school at 7:40 instead of 7:30, I'm at the office at 7:55 instead of 7:45, and my morning report is sent out at 8:20 instead of 8:10....honestly it goes on like that until noon when I'm able to reset after lunch.

Now this isn't a post about how obsessive compulsive I am (not to say that's not fodder for a different day), my point is that every night I go to bed and without fail forget that children do not care if you are late. Don't waste your breath teaching them how to tell time. They don't care. You can scream, stomp, push, pull, beg, bribe, and bargain...not going to do you any good.

There's always a crayon to look at, a toy to try and sneak in their pocket, a sandwich that doesn't smell right, a seatbelt that doesn't fit like it did yesterday, a zipper that won't zip, a potty break that must be taken, a kitty cat that must be petted, a shoelace that must be tied, another kiss goodbye that must be given to brother, another game of Guess What that must be played, a rock that must be thrown, a stick that must be touched, a button that won't button, a waffle that must be eaten...they think it's funny and they do it on purpose. Silently chuckling to themselves on their way into school.

I'm the insane one though because every morning I creep into his room at 6:50 and I look at that precious angel fast asleep in his Spiderman pajamas and I think to myself "What's 10 more minutes of sleep going to hurt."

Tonight's Chips Off The Ole Blockhead:
#I'm addicted to my K-Cup machine. I want it every night now. Trying not to hit my stock pile to hard, but nothing is better after a long day than a hot chocolate, chai latte, or lemon black tea.
#Love to Mandy who started school tonight.

Queue Today's Post!

We take our movies pretty seriously in this house, or rather we take out Netflix queue pretty seriously. Earlier in the year when they had the big spike in price we put our account on hold and switched to Red Box. The idea of Red Box is pretty simple. It's a vending machine with movies instead of candy. They are on every corner and for the most part they always have something you wanna see. Plus they routinely send out free movie offers.

Red Box is great idea however there is one major flaw that had us switching back to Netflix and that's winter. I can tolerate the occasional line and not always being able to get the movie I want. One cold morning standing in front of a machine with temps down in the 20's being knocked over by 25 mph wind gusts though and it's sooooo long Red Box. You just can't beat walking out to your mailbox every couple of days for a new flick.

As I said, we take our Queue very seriously. On Tuesdays I always make sure to add the new releases. A few times a month I will delete movies that are coming on Starz or HBO and DVR them instead. I check the Target add every week looking for what has come out on DVD then pop over to Netflix and add them to my list.

The list in itself is a thing of beauty. Every type of movie is included in order to make sure each member of the family is covered. Cartoons, documentaries, action, romance, suspense...depending on the mood and what's going on during the week, the perfect movie is there ready to be added to the top. Oh and just in case it's not available, there's always the backup and backup backup movie that is ready to be shipped.

Tonight's Chips Off The Ole Blockhead:
#Mandy starts Real estate school tomorrow night so wish her luck if you see her!!
#Still no word on Saturday nights excitement. Maybe they caught the guy, but I'll still be looking for a royal blue mustang with white horses on the side the next time I'm in town
#I understand that tonight's post makes me sound completely insane and I'm okay with that
#Not only did the BAM's win the National Championship they were the 1st to have a shutout in BCS history. I've been talking trash for a week. Gonna have to drink a bunch of shutup juice tomorrow
#The season of change is underway. More on that later....

Like Water For Blockheads

We are not ones to ever stop much during the week. Between keeping the house clean, homework, baths, basketball, church, working late, and the occasional night out; the week is often exhausting to say the least. Still though once that bell goes off @ 5:00 Friday it's an all out race to see what all we can cram into two days and some change. Friday was dinner, some cartoons with the kids, and a few hours relaxing before pass out. Saturday was up early hitting the yard sales looking for stuff to sell on Ebay, then breakfast, then a good portion of the day spent putting up Christmas so as not to be one of those rednecks that keep them up (and turned on) until July.

By noon Adam was wondering if it was already Sunday. Later we hit the steak house, Target, the mall where we almost got mugged (see last nights post), finally we crashed watching SNL. Sunday Church, Pizza, Coupon clipping, cleaning house, meeting @ church, church service, Jacks, and then at 9:00 we got around to putting in the movie Water For Elephants (Pretty good. Nice old movie feel to it).

We've done all of this and should be in bed now @ 11:00, yet we just can't let go of the weekend. It's always like this on Sunday nights. Just 30 more minutes, just one more show, maybe a late night snack. It's the same way every Sunday. We just hold on to the weekend as long as we possibly can.

Tonight's Chips Off The Ole Blockhead:
#I did call the police today and tried to talk to an actual person about the mugger from last night, but still only got a message. There was nothing in the paper or local news today, so I'm thinking the guy wasn't caught. Maybe they will call back tomorrow.
#Alex is now refusing to where anything but Elmo and Spiderman pajamas. He has 2 of 1 and only 1 of the other. That means every 3 nights somebody has to do his laundry.

Silence Is Golden

When you have two kids alone time becomes a pretty tricky situation to make happen. By alone time I mean just time to talk about work, what the other person is going through, tell a joke. Before the boys came along Mandy and I had almost 10 years of alone time. We would read 4-5 books a month, there was not a movie we hadn't seen, and the only noise was the sound of me snoring during my Saturday afternoon catnap. Now I'm lucky to read 2 books a year, the only movies I get to watch involve animals doing Kung-Fu, and silence is an alarm that somebody is doing something they are not supposed to in the other room (coloring on the walls, using Mommy's makeup, trying to sneak food).

Maybe we took it for granted before the boys. I can't remember what it was like coming home to an empty house cooking dinner for two. Being at home alone and not having to worry about the toy room being a mess.

Not that we don't get to be alone now, when it happens though it's like a gift from God. It might be five minutes sitting on the couch together before the boys wake up, a few moments in the kitchen cooking dinner together, a quick glance and a smile from across the room that seems to make everyone in the crowd disappear. It comes in short spurts and if you aren't careful it will pass you by. I wonder if that's what happens in the early stages of divorce.....people let a moment slip by....then another...then another....soon they forget what they're missing.

Tonight's Chips Off The Ole Blockhead:
#I think we soooo almost totally got attacked tonight at the mall. Dude in a blue mustang got out walked up to the van, turned around, and walked back to the car. He kept getting in and out of the car. I sent Mandy and the boys inside, while I went back out pretending to have left something. He cranked the mustang, drove to the next row of parking places, and just sat there. I stopped by the customer service desk and apparently the guy had been out there for hours! I said they should call the cops, the cops showed up, and apparently the guy tried to speed out. The cops rammed him, but he got away.....no idea what happened next. Maybe it will be in the new tomorrow.

Bombs Away!!

It's Friday night so this is going to be a short one. Not much going on other than I'm sounding like the Angry Man tonight. Not in the extreme way, more like griping about toilet paper usage. Adam can't help himself but make these giant balls of paper and then wonders why the toilet breaks every time he takes the Browns to the Superbowl. I'm trying to convince him that you can't shove a dodge ball through a keyhole if you know what I mean. A couple squares at a time and everything will be fine.

He's still not getting it though so what ends up is me sounding like my stepfather banging around the house grumbling about "that boy" and how hard headed he is. "That boy is using too much paper!" "No wonder we have plumbing problems, that boy is flushing a whole role at a time. Tube and all!!" What can I say other than it's just another night at the Blockhead house.

Tonight's Chips Off The Ole Blockhead:
#I'm really getting sick of these BAM's!!! War Eagle and Geaux LSU! They actually cancelled Adam's 1st basketball game and it started 3 hours before kick-off. Heaven forbid one those tree killers misses 5 minutes. Instead let's just cancel every extracurricular activity in the state I suppose.

Multiple Questions and Answers

The planets aligned themselves this afternoon and I managed to have an hour where I could take Adam out for ice-cream just the two of us. I remember my dad taking me out for food some afternoons before Broccoli came along.

Today I was talking to Father of Five about statistics and keeping track of who is visiting. I used to pay pretty close attention to every little incoming link and spec on the map. Wondering just who in Moscow had stumbled across my little corner of the web. For a time there I spent quite a few weeks and months wondering how to attract the most attention. I even managed to get a mention on CBS's news site for a post I had done about a Mattel toy recall. As some of you may know for the longest I was even a Blogger For Hire, grinding out post after post on every thing from American Idol (I once interviewed a runner up) to Japanese high end golf clubs. I can write a post about anything in a matter of minutes all I need are a couple facts at the most and at times a picture would give me all the info I needed to craft a 500 word blog. As I said I did this for several years. Writing as many as 15-20 posts a week. I stopped all blogging on April 27th last year. The words ran out. For a few years there I was posting 100-135 times a year for Charlie. Last year I wrote 6. By this coming Sunday I will have doubled that total in the first week of the month.

These two things, exposure and money, would be the B & C options to the multiple choice question "Why did you start blogging?". Both would be incorrect. I got into blogging because I was scared to death about being a father. Now is not the time to dig up old bones, but needless to say that is one part of my life that was lacking. So I found Daddy bloggers across the web and I started following. Soon after I started doing it myself. Blogging is a way to relieve frustrations, to twist the valve and depressurize. Most importantly long after I'm gone, my kids will know exactly who I am. They will know their father's every thought, crazy screw up, rude habit, favorite event. The story of their birth and their birthdays. I've got them all saved to a file and as of today they number over 404.

The answer to the question is E) Both A-For my kids and D-For myself.

Tonight's Chips Off The Ole Blockhead:
#Do you say Egyptians like Egypt-shins or Egypt-she-ins? For some reason I think the Bangles mangled the word in the name of creative license.
#Last night I may have come off as a jerk when I talked about the horror of a 15 minute conversation about birds. I should have at least made an effort to fictionalize a portion so as not to offend anyone. Maybe I should get one of those Law & Order statements to popup whenever someone clicks over. "What you are about to read is partly fictional. Any relation to actual events is coincidental."
# Jersey Shore started tonight and I did not DVR it. I always feel like a dieter who just polished off a large pizza with everything on it afterward. People ask what I did the previous night and I simply can't bring myself to say I spent an hour watching monkeys throw poop at each other.

The Thought Patterns Of The North American Father

The only downside to Adam throwing that big hissy fit last night during what was supposed to be basketball practice was that we may have gotten our point across (at least for the moment). We are the parents. You don't do what we say, you don't get your way. The second he got in the car this afternoon he said "Can we try again Dad?" The word basketball was never mentioned. To me this says he'd been thinking about it all day just like his mom and I had.

I'm still tinkering with the format but I like the whole random thoughts thing I've been doing the last couple of nights. I fully expect larger posts to come from those, but if not I think they are nice little windows into what's going on in my mind during the day.

The boys are fighting. I don't mean at this particular moment...I mean yes they are fighting as I type this....I mean in it in a broader sense as in THERE HAS BEEN A CHANGE IN THE RELATIONSHIP! Don't get me wrong they love each other to death, but a certain level of annoyance has crept into what was a perfect state of brotherly love. Alex has no idea what the word MINE! is but he likes saying it and always gets a response from Adam. Adam knows what it means, but refuses to understand the connection between saying something and knowing what is being said. At least 20 times a day we hear "MINE!!" "IT'S NOT YOURS ALEX!!".

It's been a long day....time for TONIGHT'S BLOCKHEAD BITS....kinda lame? REASONS I'M A BLOCKHEAD!! I'll have to settle on something soon.

#I find it weird when people tell me they read the obituaries everyday in the local paper. I mean if I hear Frank James passed away (apologies to the James family for any confusion your husband is not dead) I go to my local paper and check it out. There are those that scout out the obits like I would the sports page looking for who's been traded to another team. I live with one of these people and honestly I just don't understand the need to take a daily roll call of the dead.

#I have discovered that I apparently have lost the ability to tactfully remove myself from a conversation. I don't know when I lost this valuable skill, but twice today I was forced to listen to 15 minutes of blah blah blah blah. I just stood there glued to the floor saying things like "Tell me about it" "I bet man!" "Wow that's rough". All the while my brain is screaming at the other parts of my body as if I suddenly became paralyzed. I promise you all I said was "This is some weather huh?" and I got a 20 minute lecture on the migration patterns of the North American Starling.

#Contrary to what my kids think I do like having conversations with their mother, however apparently they are dead level set on making sure this only happens between the hours of Midnight and 6:30 A.M

The Best Laid Plans

Since I'm in day 3 of 365 days of posting, some of this stuff is going to be completely random.

I started back to work today and as much as I talked yesterday about missing it to a certain extent, I did figure one thing out i.e. my back problems are magnified by my chair at work. Not to say the chair is directly responsible for my left arm going numb the moment I sit down, but it had almost gone away and now it's back to it's pre-holiday condition.

As a parent work brings about all kinds of issues. The first one to smack me in the face this morning was the list of things I wish I had done with the boys during the holiday season. Of course there is never enough time to do all that we want, but that doesn't stop me from daydreaming of all that cool times that could be had if given another day off.

There are going to be days when you can make up for lost time the moment you walk in the door...then there are those days when no matter what you've got planed the child is just not going to cooperate. Today's dream was taking Adam to the church gym to get in a little extra basketball practice before his 1st game next Monday. It was to be a father son moment made in heaven. Just a family hanging out shooting some baskets. In reality he started throwing a fit almost immediately, would only listen for 3 seconds at a time, and finally after 10 minutes he threw himself on the ground consequently bumping his head on the floor, and started screaming he had been pushed. Practice cancelled. Daydream crushed.

To rub salt into the wound he did all of this within earshot of the ladies exercise class who were nice enough to promise not to call the authorities all the while chuckling between sit-ups. Needless to say somebody is going to bed early tonight(probably 4 somebodies)

Tonight's random thoughts

• My dashboard says I've been posting for 6 years! How in the world do I know if I'm repeating my title's or not?



• I've always thought that my mother was born on Feb 29th during a leap year. That we only celebrate her birthday on the 28th so she won't have to wait another 4 years for a free dinner at the Chinese Buffet. I was recently informed that this was apparently something I made up out of thin air and while she was born in a leap year she was not born on leap day. I'm 36 and I'm just now finding this out.

Counting The Days Till November 2012

My favorite part of the holidays it all the time off we get. Typically Mandy and I are off for the better part of 13 days. This year I had a couple 4 day weekends back to back while Mandy got the whole week off. I would have joined her, but vacation days are like gold bars and I've already used 2 of my allowed 15 days. The remaining 13 are supposed to last me until November!

Today Mandy was back at work so it was just me & the boys. We spent the 1st half gathering all the miscellaneous pieces of the Batman Imaginext universe we have collected over the years. All together we have The Batcave, The Joker's Playhouse, Green Lantern Corps, almost all the villains, 4 different planes, trains, and automobiles, and about $200 invested. It's ridiculous the amount of toys these kids have. One of our projects this year is to organize and reduce the clutter in this house. A major portion of that will be in the form of toys that have fallen by the wayside.

It was weird being off work today. I think it's a good sign you like your job when after being off for a large period of time, you start to feel pulled back towards it. Not that I won't feel the opposite way in a month, but for now part of me is ready to get back to all my numbers and statistics.

I learned today that my kids have tape worms. They've done nothing but eat all day long! At first I thought I was just giving them junk food so I decided to only offer sandwiches and real food....it didn't stop them. They just kept eating turkey sandwich after turkey sandwich. Then it again it may have just felt like a lot because I was drunk on college football all afternoon (3 SEC bowl games on at the same time! I changed channels so much my remote almost overheated)

I leave you with a few things I can't shake off: Why does soup not accept it's soup and quit trying to be other foods (Taco Soup?) How much must you love someone in order to pretend 3o years have never happened in order to spare them the pain of remembering? At what point am I going to start the "losing weight" portion of my New Year's resolutions.

I resolve to

I did some quick fact checking and it appears the whole idea of making resolutions at New Year's comes from the early Christians who typically spent this time of year looking back and making promises on how to change what they considered to be transgressions made in the past. I've been thinking a lot about the past/future recently. Where am I at both spiritually and physically. Where I want to be in my career come 2013. Is my family going to be any larger come this time next year?

My main problem with resolutions is the same as everyone else's. Here today and gone tomorrow. This year I'm going to resolve to make my resolutions stick by making more broad statements and not trying to limit myself to specific time frames. So here it goes...

1. I resolve to go to the dentist more than I did last year


2. I resolve to try harder to not bite my nails


3. I resolve to lose weight


4. I resolve to watch less TV, read more, and play outside more with the boys


5. I resolve to be a better husband


6. I resolve to pray more and not just close my eyes while wondering what's for lunch, dinner, breakfast, etc....


7. I resolve to save money and be in a better financial position come the end of 2012


8. I resolve to be a better Christian


9. I resolve to help others more.

So far so good. Nothing that has to be accomplished today or tomorrow. I'm simply promising to try harder to do better. To be better in 2012 than I was in 2013. I do have one more though and it may be a tough one. It's something I think I need. Something that has been missing in my life lately. I resolve to blog everyday for the next 365 days. More on why later....So I guess all that is left to say is Happy New Year to all and for now good night!

All I Want For Christmas Is A Playlist

Adam is getting an iPod Shuffle this year so I spent tonight going through my library of 500 songs trying to find the perfect playlist for his 5 yr old ears. Not the easiest thing to do, but once you I cut out all the DMB (too dark), the Cold Play (to deep), Jay Z(too explicit), and Linkin Park (too angry) I was able to pick out a good group of 30+ songs that should be the perfect fit.

Of course iPods were not even science fiction when I was kid and my parents sure never spent the night debating what songs they should record on a cassette. I had a tape player that I tied to the handle bars of my bike. It was so heavy I spent most of the time driving clockwise. I was so cool struggling to stay on my knock off BMX not able to turn left as I bobbed my head to Banana Rama's Cool Summer. The chics knew they didn't stand a chance and made sure to keep their distance.

Most of these Adam listens with me in the car and are his favorites (Silversun Pickups, Cage The Elephant, Train). Others are just my way of trying to teach him the joys of different types of music (Gym Class Heroes, Michael Jackson, Jason Aldean, Adele, DJ Jazzy Jeff)

Anyway without further embarrassment I present Adam's playlist in no particular order:

1. Rolling In The Deep- Adele


2. Swing Swing-All American Rejects


3. Spiderman- The Ramones


4. Nothin On You- BoB


5. Rockabilly Lullaby- The Backyardigans


6. Go Go Go- The Backyardigans


7. Love Done Gone- Billy Currington


8. I Gotta Feeling- Black Eyed Peas


9. Back Against The Wall- Cage The Elephant


10. Show Me What I'm Looking For -Carolina Liar


11. You Break It, We Fix It- Handy Manny


12. Mr. Jones- Counting Crows


13. Summertime- DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince


14. Somewhere Only We Know-Glee


15. Anyway You Want It-Glee


16. Safety Dance-Glee


17. Stereo Hearts-Gym Class Heroes


18. Cupids Chokehold-Gym Class Heroes


19. Scooby Doo Where Are You- Scooby Doo


20. MMMBop- Hanson


21. The Truth-Jason Aldean


22. Sweetness- Jimmy Eat World


23. Moves Like Jagger- Maroon 5


24. Say Hey- Michael Franti


25. PYT- Michael Jackson


26. Remember The Time- Michael Jackson


27. Secrets- One Republic


28. Gitcheed Gitchee Goo- Phineas & Ferb


29. Substitution- Silversun Pickups


30. Hot Dog!- Mickey Mouse


31. That's Not My Name- The Ting Tings


32. Hey Soul Sister-Train


33. Get To Me-Train


34. If It's Love- Train


35. If You're Wondering- Weezer

Captain Crazy

In my old age I fear I'm turning into a crabby grouchy....crazy person. The noise in the house always seems to be a about 50 decibels too high. I'm magnetically drawn to the recliner the moment I walk in the door. It's as if I blackout at times and wake up sitting in the chair with no idea why I sat down or how I got there.

The wake up call came this past week when I had a what I'm going to call a "Get Off My Lawn" moment. Adam's favorite toy for the past 2 months has been his Captain America shield/frisbee. Honestly all pretenses aside, it's my favorite toy. Just the site of it makes me want to run outside and slice up some Hydra baddies while searching for the Red Skull. We came home last week to find the little boy next door was playing with one exactly like ours...his...mine. Immediately I began the interrogation. When did you play with yours last? Where did you leave it? Is that one yours? Can you find yours...ours...mine. It was nowhere to be found so I publicly vowed to go buy him another. Then I secretly vowed to steal Adam's...our...my favorite toy back the moment I saw it laying around.

I searched the yard daily, scanned my neighbors porch as I passed, plotted how I would get it back. Monday afternoon on our return home to the annual July 4th reunion at Granny's we learned that it had slipped behind Adam's bed and was found by Gigi. Clearly there's something to be said for making a bed. Something I don't do much. I should be sleeping better now that Adam's...our....my Captain America shield/frisbee is back, but I can't get over that I was two steps from stealing from a 5 yr old.

There's a reason I'm a blockhead.

These Days And Weeks

I’m trying to be different. I haven’t been the best father in the past. Too many of the wrong things have been taking up my time and I’ve wasted precious moments trying to make a buck. I suppose we all lose focus at times. I feel the need to change somebody’s life or at the very least make it better for a moment or two.

For the past year I’ve been writing five posts a week on various websites for an okay amount of money. Suddenly one day I turned around and I felt trapped by what used to be a part-time job that I enjoyed. The words quit coming as easy and ultimately the money that was earned wasn’t worth the time that was being take from my family. For the first time in I don’t know when I read a story to Adam before bed last week.

Over the past few weeks I’ve promised myself that I wouldn’t waste this new found freedom. Tonight we played video games for the first time in two months and had as much fun had we gone to Chucky Cheese. You don’t need a million dollars to make your kids happy, just some free time that you can devote strictly to them.

Adam is never quiet and Alex is learning more and more words every day. It’s funny I literally have one I wish would talk less and another I’m trying to teach to talk more. Somehow I’ve become a T-Ball coach. Not that I have any clue what I’m doing. Most of the time I get so caught up in goofing off with the kids on 1st base that I forget to tell them to run.

There are changes coming. I can feel it. It’s not the tornados that did it. Although April 27 definitely changed the world as we know it in Alabama. There was something about volunteering those three days that made what I had been feeling lately tangible. For the first time I could touch, taste, see, and smell what it was that had been missing. I really enjoy helping people and want to do more to help.

I miss Charlie….see you soon.