Thanksgiving - the aftermath

Turkey Sacrifice by flikr user gusset (used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Great title, is it not?

So, I have been very far away from reading and writing blogs lately.  Sorry about that.  Busy with trying to get work finished before our Thanksgiving famication to Wisconsin.  Yep just made that word famication up.  No, it is not a vacation.  Since I spend all my time trying to relax but never getting to because I have to drive to or from some family members house every day.  I don't know why I bother flying home, I spent a total of 10 hours in cars driving to different family members' homes for a 6 day visit.

When I first got married I thought it was nice that my in-laws lived an hour from my parents.  Thank you world for clearing that misconception up.

Actually other than the usual holiday family insanity, it was a great trip.  I spent a lot of time with friends I haven't seen in a long time and got to catch up.  I also got to party like the rock star that I am.  Let me explain.

So, Thanksgiving Day I had our celebration with my in-laws at my mother-in-laws house.  My last visit with her was a disaster.  I thought I did, but I never really went into it on here like I had planned.  The quick and dirty of it is that she blew up at me about something that was not my doing (actually her daughter, my wife's fault) then proceeded to basically say she doesn't like me, never has.  In my ever mature nature, I let her know the same thing right back with a few fuck yous thrown in for good measure.  It basically ended with me conceding that I need to be more thankful to her and her conceding nothing.  Win some, lose some.  Oh well.

So, I was more than a little nervous about this visit. It went fine (from my point of view anyway).

I don't know... it's funny. Photo by flikr user wisze (used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

After Thanksgiving Day, we drove up to my parents to celebrate my birthday.  Which was a blast!  My brother and his wife and kids came over.  The kids sang happy birthday to me, we had cake, a good time was had by all.  My parents watched the kids in the evening while Beautiful Wife and I went out for a few beers with my brother and my best friend.  The four of us met out at an Irish pub where a good friend of mine was singing and playing guitar.  We drank and were merry til 3 am... Yes, I partied like a rock star till 3 am.  3.A.M

I haven't seen 3 AM without a sick kid in 5 years. I was hurting on Saturday.  Especially when Turkey Day round 2 started at 10 am with family showing up. Ouch.

After a turkey lunch I had dinner plans.  One of my best friends from college married a girl this summer from my neck of the woods, so BW and I got to get together for dinner.  It was great seeing a great old friend.  And I got out of the house sans kidlets 2 nights in a row.  That also hasn't happened in over 4 years.  It was great.

The next morning we did Christmas for the kids with my family since they won't see them on Christmas.  We do Thanksgiving instead of Christmas these days because it is just easier.

So, for you folks keeping track at home.  Those 4 days consisted of: Thanksgiving, Birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas.

Can I just skip holidays/celebrations for a few months...  Please?

Haiku Monday - Ode to DST

Ode to DST
Daylight Savings Time
Darkness envelopes my evenings
Who needs light at 6? 

EDIT:  I spelled Haiku wrong in the title... I guess that is about as good of a ringing endorsement for the topic as any.  WOW, I need an editor.

Punk Rock Fathers - the other F word & Punk Rock Friday

A possibly really great documentary is coming out called The Other F-word:

Shamelessly stolen from their Facebook page.

It is an exploration of how men, who grew up saying fuck off to authority, are now fathers and have to deal with raising a child.  How they rectify fatherhood with their so-called punk rock beliefs.  It looks at some pretty big names in the punk rock world with interviews, from the road and home, and examines all of their different attitudes, parenting styles, and beliefs on parenting.

From their website:

"The Other F Word is a raucous, eye-opening, sad and unexpectedly wise look at veteran punk rockers as they adapt to the challenges of fatherhood. To be sure, watching foul- mouthed, colorfully inked musicians attempt to fit themselves into Ward Cleaver's smoking jacket provides for some consistently hilarious situational comedy, but the film's deeper delving into a whole generation of artists clumsily making amends for their own absentee parents could strike a resonant note with anyone (punk or not) who's stumbled headfirst into family life."

- Andrew Barker, Variety

Wow, seems right up my alley!  Being the punk rock father and scientist that I am.  I am very excited to try and see this.  I will likely have to wait a very long time as they are only screening in NYC and LA right now.  And to that I say Fuck You Hollywood.  One would think that a movie about punk rock might try and be a little more DIY with distribution.  But, alas, it is still done by non-punk people.  At least the production was done independent and that means no big movie studio trying to make it Hollywood.

So for Punk Rock Friday, I present songs by two of the father's featured in the film.

The first (actually two) is by Bad Religion, whose singer Greg Graffin is featured in the film. Graffin was originally from my home state (Wisconsin) and spent part of his youth there.  He has two kids and has been the front man for Bad Religion since 1979 (He's old!).

Here are two version of Sorrow by Bad Religion:

Live in 2009


Acoustic


Next up is Duane Peters, legendary punk rocker and professional skater.  Peters 20 year-old son Chess (Chelsea) Peters was killed in a car accident on July 6, 2007.  A horrible, unthinkable thing to have happen.  Duane put out a whole record of songs for his son.  We are not going to go that route, because it makes me a little misty eyed.  There is real grief in that record and it hits home for me for some reason.



So I present to you (one of) my favorite US Bombs song,  Jaks
 

The Painful Truth of xkcd

Nothing like a geek comic make me feel old:

The Potty Training Blues

Photo by Flickr user AmberStocel (CC  BY-ND 2.0)

Poop is all over the house these days... not much has really changed since I wrote back in July about a potty misadventure.

Well at least that is the way it feels to me.  Sweet Little Hellion is two and a half now.  She has been potty training steadily these past 2 months.  Overall it is going okay.  At school she is a rock star.  At home, it is very hit or miss.  The at home part is largely parenting fail.  With Little Berserker Spawn (4 year old boy) potty training was pretty on point.  He was first born and his sister was still an infant.  I like infants.  They make funny faces, they snuggle and they don't talk back, hit, bite, scream, or whine.  At least not as much as a 2 year old does...

Our lives are just too insane and we cannot give SLH all the attention for potty training she needs.  She is also so very easy going, that things like a giant turd sandwich in her Dora undies don't bother her much...

It has been bringing me increasing frustration these past 2 weeks.  There is nothing I find worse then poop-filled underwear.  I don't mind diapers or poopy diapers.  Not a big deal to me at all.  But having to clean out underwear... disgusting.  And SLH knows that it frustrates me.  She feels bad about it.  Which makes me feel awful for being such a selfish jackhole.

So as a first step in trying to get her along the road to diaper-less bliss, we are trying to get her to just tell us she has poopy pants.  And when she tells me, I force a smile and lay on the praise for telling me.  She asks me if I am happy in her little angelic voice, "Daddy happy?"  And I respond that I am happy she told me and that next time let's use the potty!

That is right, I have to tell my two and a half year old daughter that I am happy about her poopy underwear...

Oh yeah, potty training is all stickers, smiles, bunnies and bears.  Photo credit: flicker user byte

Going along with the whole poop motif I have going on... what can I say - I am pure C-L-A-S-S!  SLH has this horrible timing issue of her bowels.  She poops every morning 2 minutes before we need to leave the house for daycare and work...  E V E R Y  M O R N I N G...  It doesn't matter when I try to leave.  It doesn't matter what day of the week.  I could try and trick her and leave for work an hour earlier... she would have the brown stinkies...

Did I mention I am the sole adult responsible for the morning (mis)adventures of getting to daycare?  BW leaves before us because she works much further away.  The kids go to daycare just down the block from my office, so I am the head honcho for mornings.  YEAH FOR ME ON MORNING TURD DUTY!