Posts

Showing posts from February, 2008

Running with it

Wife is turning 40 this year, and she has a lofty goal -- to run a marathon in the fall. She's discovering how much she likes running, and she's determined, so much that her immediate goal is to run a half-marathon in April. I'm impressed, and I hope some of her determination rubs off on me. Not that I'm going to run a marathon soon -- four years of cross country in high school has jaded me running more than a 10K -- but I'd like to start running again, it kick-starts my metabolism more than anything else. She also has started a blog to chronicle year 40, and you can read it at www.lfg-findingforty.blogspot.com . I hope this helps me too, I've been bad about updating this blog. At least spring is almost here.

Four out of five dentists

I didn't actually witness the following incident, but it's so amusing I must share it anyway. We went to the dentist today, with Wife, Eldest and myself getting checkups. I waited in the car with Littlest, who had fallen asleep on the drive, while Wife and Littlest had their teeth checked. They finished as Littlest awoke, just in time for my checkup and Eldest to get a promised Happy Meal. I got into the dentist's office, and the assistant was laughing at something Eldest had done while the dentist was looking in his mouth. What did Eldest do? When the dentist wasn't looking, Eldest put a piece of candy in his mouth. Yes, while he was getting his teeth checked, he ate something sugary. I'm not sure if Eldest is just fuzzy on the dental concept or was defiant by eating candy while in the dentist's chair. Either way, the assistant said she'd never forget his need for candy at that one moment.

A nice meal

We took the boys out to Friday's for dinner today. We hadn't been out to a sit-down restaurant in three months, and we wanted to celebrate a little the fact we closed on refinancing our house today. Plus, neither of us felt like cooking. This might have been the most calm, most enjoyable meal we've had at a restaurant in a long time. Any trip to a restaurant with a 4-year-old and 1-year-old is going to be an adventure, but this was a good adventure. Both boys ate their food and didn't get crabby. Wife and I got to enjoy our meals instead of eating as fast as possible to avert a future meltdown by one or both children. Eldest didn't even freak out when the waiter mistakenly brought him chicken fingers instead of macaroni and cheese. He just ate his mandarin oranges (the side dish) and waited. His only real glitch was dropping his fork on the floor, then wanting to use the same fork. But he didn't even get that upset about that. We don't eat out often and aren

A little random nostalgia

In our home office sits a Cowboys garbage can. You would think this was Wife's garbage can, as she is the big Cowboys fan, but it's actually mine, which I won in 1980 at Pals. And 28 years later, I still own it. First, Pals was like a Baptist, lite version of Cub Scouts, without the actual camping trips (at least in our Pals). Every Friday night for a few years I went to Pals, not realizing I was Catholic and it was a kids group for a different religion. The adults who ran the group must have known there were Catholic kids coming, I doubt they were trying to convert us. We still got the Jesus message proselytized, but it was more of a Jesus message than an evangelical message. It was fun, but once I figured out the Protestant/Catholic difference, I was a little embarrassed and didn't go to Pioneers (the next step up) the next year. Anyway, I won the Cowboys garbage can at Pals, and used it as a garbage can for my room. Then I took it to college with me. Then I took it into