A letter to my second son on the day after his first birthday.

Joseph,
Holy crap you are one year old already. What a year it has been. When I first met you, your mom was having a scheduled C-section. I was a little less worried and strung out than before, but only a little bit. Your C-section went a lot more smooth that your brother's did. The weird thing is that even though you two look very different to me now, when they pulled you out and handed you to me, I got a weird look on my face, like that dog looking into the gramophone tube in the old RCA ads because you looked EXACTLY like your brother did when he came out. The first words you heard me say were to the doctor: "Hey, didn't we already had this baby?"
Then we spent a few days in the hospital, which also went smoother due to the absence of a really bitchy nurse, and the fact that at that time you were so like your brother that we knew what was in store. Jen was a much more confident mother because she wasn't new to it any more, and during the last few years, the "mom" part of her personality has come front and center, and isn't likely to go anywhere. We spent our time in the hospital watching movies on the laptop rather than endlessly worrying that we were going to make horrible parents. At Your mom, being the tough girl that she is, wanted to go home long before they let us.
In this last year, you have made it very clear that those early similarities were to end very quickly. You are more daring that your brother, more hands on, and oh, so much louder. You sleep better. Not great, but nothing like Jackson's first year. You became very mobile very quickly. In short, you became your own person so fast that the constant comparisons to your brother that we all initially made soon became moot. You have a different fire in your eyes, and I can tell that you will be the devious one. You will also be the funny one. Children will get in trouble around you due to your actions, but you will be safely to the side, watching.
Because you came out looking just like your brother, we assumed you'd look a lot like him, and you do, but you also have green eyes and curly reddish hair. Where did that come from?

I love that you try to bulldoze all of your brother's belongings in that Joezilla way you have, and how patient Jackson is with you, saying: "He's just little, and still learning," when he sees that his train set in now in pieces on the floor.
I love that every time I pick you up, you go straight for my glasses, and usually succeed, which is why my glasses are hopelessly disfigured and scratched up now.
I love that look you get when you are trying not to laugh. Like you could hide anything from me.
I love that you crawl so fast, and with such determination that you sometimes run right into the wall.
I love how you always want to get into boxes, drawers, and buckets. And then just sit there.
I love that you look so much like your mom.

You are a good boy, Joseph, and I love you. Happy birthday.

-Dad.

Christmas is coming.

And there is nothing you can do about it.
We, like everybody else in the free world, are taking it easy this holiday season. No trips, few gifts, and only taking the time off that work will take away if we don't.
Jackson is getting an expansion for his train set, and a few odds and ends, but nothing outrageous. Joseph would be happy with a ball of tinfoil, so we got him a ball of tinfoil. Kidding.
He's getting some lovely age-appropriate stuff. We promised to make a bigger deal about his birthday than Christmas, but it's hard with all the lights and whatnot.
Speaking of: Holy shit, Joseph is almost a year old! Time really flies. He's an awesome kid, so very like his brother in appearance, but unlike him in personality. Joseph is way more loud, and tends to destroy more than he creates. He is happy way more than he is sad. He is also huge. He can fit into 12 month stuff, and freely swaps clothes with his cousin Zane, who is 17 mo. He is in the 98th percentile for height, but 50th for weight, so he is not fat at all. He's just awesome:
My mom will be coming here for Christmas. She wanted us to go down there since we stayed here for Thanksgiving, but we chose not to do that, and here is why: Jennifer and Myself are both latch-key kids, meaning that holidays were more about travelling from this house to that in bad weather than anything else. As we got older and started dating, it just got worse, because then you had to go to all of those houses too. So I put my foot down. I did so much travelling throughout mu life for all of my relatives that now it is there turn. My kids will open their presents in their own house Christmas morning. If you want to be there, that's great. We'll work out Thanksgiving, but Christmas is ours.
So there.

-JP

A dead cat and The Christmas Train

So for those of you who didn't know, Audrey the cat died. She had stomach cancer. She is sorely missed.
Now that we have that out of the way, on to The Christmas Train.
The Christmas Train sounds like a great idea in theory. Some movie company made a wild west town outside of Pryor, OK some time in the '80s. When shooting was done, a church bought the land and turned it into a western themed summer camp. During the holiday season, they decorate the place with lights and all that and turn it into a Victorian/Cowboy Christmas theme park, complete with a vintage train that actually still runs on steam. Fair enough. The kids should like it.
One of the things they keep talking about in all of the Literature is the true meaning of Christmas, and how one might learn of such during the train ride. In my mind, the "true meaning of Christmas" conjors up all sorts of imagery that mostly involves Charlie Brown and his sad little tree. This was not the case.
All seemed well and good after the hour and a half car ride. Grace and Zane were there to keep us company. Everything was quaint and charming. The main problem we had was that the tix we had, (which aren't for the train itself, only for entry into the complex) were for 6:00 and the boys hadn't eaten yet. We thought about eating first, but Jackson was so gung-ho about riding the train that his exuberance superseded hunger. The night was terribly cold, and we spent a long time getting everybody bundled up. We make it into the complex, and it is very cute. We see the boarding area for the train, having to first check the strollers. The line moved slowly and the kids were getting cranky. Finally we board the train. It's a snug fit. Everybody is wearing extra clothes due to the cold. Jackson is as excited as can be for the train ride. The conductor even yelled "ALL ABOARD!!" like he was in it to win it. The train gets rolling. There is steam and a whistle and everything seems perfect.
A few minutes into the ride, as we were riding through a tunnel decorated with hanging Styrofoam planets and stars and a lovely space mural, a gigantic, loud, booming, Darth Vader voice comes over the PA system....
"IN THE BEGINNING, GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH!!!"
Almost every kid on the train lost their shit. The crying was loud, but not as loud as the magic voice. The rest of the twenty minute train ride, we chugged past painted murals of the story of Jesus, and in a few thematically important areas actors portrayed the events live. Joseph and Zane were calmed my hand-feeding them kix cereal, but Jackson just sort of stared out the window. Until I hear him say: "Daddy, what are they doing?", and I look out the window to see a bunch of guys dressed as Romans nailing a guy to a cross in a pretty graphic way. Um... our kids are all 3 or under. We don't really need blood and scary voices and violence with our theme parks, thank you. We got back to the station and they lead us all into a theater where they wanted us to watch a movie. After a collective "fuck that", we left and went to get some food. Jack played on their playground while the girls want to get the strollers, and on to some really expensive and extremely mediocre food. As the boys' blood sugar raised, attitudes were improved. We had as semi-lovely a meal as we could in a cafeteria setting. Then Disaster #2 struck. As we were getting read to venture back out into toon town, Jackson got so excited at the prospect of seeing Santa, he peed himself. Boys will be boys, but we did not have an extra outfit on hand as we usually do. So much for sitting in Santa's lap. Time to go home. All I could find in the car to put Jackson in, were a pair of his brother's pajama pants, which looked like bicycle shorts once I got them on him, and a pair of my socks. Lookin' sharp, Mr. Powers. Joseph cried the whole way home, and Grace had to feed him raisins and jingle her keys for over an hour.
So....the verdict: If it had been warmer, and if we had eaten beforehand, the old west town would have been pretty cool for the kiddos. There were pony rides and a merry-go-round and and arcade and Santa, so they would have enjoyed that. The Propaganda Train, however, we would not do again. I'm all for the Story of Jesus and all that, but for goodness sake, ease the kids into Romans and nails and raising from the dead Zombie style. That shit can wait until they don't believe in Santa anymore. Which I also thought was odd. They make a big deal about the true meaning of Christmas, but then want you to spend $15.00 on a picture of your kid with Santa. Hmmm....

-JP

Fighting kids, a job gained and then given back, a sick cat, and another death.

Where oh where to begin?
Okay. About a month and a half ago, Jennifer was offered a job managing a foundation started by the church we attend which is also where Jackson used to go to school. They couldn't pay much, but it was only part-time and the boys could be looked after on-site and for half price. Sounded awesome, and in a lot of way it really was. Jennifer wouldn't have a massive gap in her resume, we would get some extra cash, and the boys would be going to a pretty decent school. This is not exactly how it turned out.
The job part was fine, except that the retired pastor who ran it, and is getting on in years a little, turned out to be a bit of a Flibbertygibbet. A good man, and an excellent pastor, but a bit unorganized and scatterbrained. Jennifer is very left-brained. Disorganization in something she's being paid to maintain makes her want to beat up bags of cats. This, however can be dealt with.
What happened in the school turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. First off, Joseph has been sick every single day since he started going to school. First a cold then a crazy eye infection that looked like that disease coal miners get, then another cold, and a chronic cough that he still has.
Second off, Jackson started acting out. A lot. It started slowly, with a little more defiance than usual, but escalated into hitting and fits which is so not like him, and regression in his potty-training. I won't get into that. During all of this, he started saying some weird things about his class, like how he doesn't like being choked*, and saying that he didn't want to go there anymore. When Jennifer looked into this, it turned out that Jackson was being terrorized by another little boy in his class. This other kid's mom was getting a divorce from the kid's step-father (he's only three, and already has a step-father) who was pretty abusive, if you take that time he punched her in the parking lot as ant indication. So that kid was taking it out on Jackson I guess. They talked to the mom about the whole thing, and she was completely unaware of the situation, and was very upset about it, and agreed to go to some family counseling. Which is all fine and good on one hand. It's not really that kid's fault his parents are messed-up, and he'll probably settle down after the divorce and all that. On the other hand, fuck that kid. He's beating up Jackson, and that can't happen. So we gave it a couple weeks. On Tuesday, Jackson and the other kid got into a fight over a match-box car. When the teacher finally got there, Jackson was choking the other kid, who had just bit Jackson on the chin pretty good. That was kind of the last draw. We decided that this would be their last week there.
When Jennifer went in to quit her job, she explained that the good was not outweighing the bad any longer, and that she would be happy to work from home until they found a replacement, and suggested that she could work from home permanently if they would go for that. Well the good news is that the board members were all for it, saying that there was nothing preventing this, but the pastor was decidedly against it, saying he wanted someone on site as much as possible. So we will see how that shakes out. Hopefully the board will get there way and Jennifer can work from home, which seems likely because it will be a very difficult position to fill. Cross your fingers. Next week, everybody is home, so things should settle down.
On to the sick cat. I realize that this will may cast me in a bad light, but because of the boys, pet ownership has become less practical. Having two rambunctious boys, a cat and two small. obnoxious dogs was becoming way too much. Over the summer, My aunt's cat Lady, whom she'd had for years and years died. She was wanting a new cat, but didn't want a kitten, and wanted a cat that could get along with her son's two dogs. My cat Audrey fit the bill pretty good. So after a little discussion and a but of a cry, I gave her my cat. About a week ago, I get a call that Audrey wasn't eating and had dropped to 7lbs from her usual 12. My aunt has had numerous trips to the vet, and after an ultrasound, there seems to be a blockage of some sort in her small intestine. The pulled out a chunk to send to the lab so they can see if it is a virus, and infection or cancer or what. Those results will be here in a few days. I feel really bad about it. I gave my aunt a sick cat, and she just went through loosing a cat and now she may have to do it again. And she's paying all of the vet costs. And I miss my cat. I had her for almost 9 years. Bummer!
Now for the really freaky story. Remember the little girl Jenn used to nanny for? The one who's mom worked at the massage parlor? That little girl died last week. She was just about to turn 2. On Friday, Jennifer saw an odd message on the girl's sister's mySpace saying "RIP my baby sister" and a pic of the girl. Jennifer and I started investigating, and we found a death notice in the paper from the Sunday before. Jennifer called around to no avail, but ended up going to the funeral, which happened to be that day**. Once there, more questions were raised than answered. The "official"story Jenn got from the mom is that while at their current nanny's place, the girl started coughing up blood. They got her to the hospital where they thought she had a tear in her esophagus. When they operated, the girl had some kind of heart failure and died.
Everyone thinks this is bullshit. There were all these bruises and scratches all over her face that the mom said were from the tubes they put in, which is bunk. I guess the story has changed a few times. I had one of our reporters call the medical examiner, and they said that they had to do a more involved autopsy because they couldn't figure it out. That report takes a few months. The cops were equally confused. The whole thing was sketchy and weird.
It sucks because we really liked that girl, and Jackson still asks about her. We still find some of her toys around from time to time. She was messed up, but curious about everything and very sweet. And this whole thing could have probably been avoided by removing the kid from the circumstances. The mom had already had two kids taken away from her. Just before Jenn stopped watching the girl, she and the girl's weekend nanny were concerned enough about the girl that they called DHS. DHS said that nothing life-threatening had happened to the girl yet and unfortunately, there is no law against being a shitty mother.
There sure as hell should be.


-JP




*Yeah, WTF?
*8Ask Jenn to fill you in on the Funeral. It was a spectacle in itself.

Color me excited!

woo hoo!!

This is about how I feel...

Silly onion...


Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Some thoughts on the election.

First off, congrats to Obama and Biden. You guys deserve it.

Finally people are engaged in the political process again. People are excited about performing their civic duty again. Gone, or at least lessened are the days of apathy. The feelings of why bother, my vote won't count, or politics has nothing to do with my day to day life.

Finally people other than aging baby boomers and values voters showed up at the polls.

It is very telling that when John McCain mentioned Omaba's name during his concession speech, the crowd booed, but when Obama mentioned McCain's name during his victory speech, the crowd cheered. It tells me that closed-minded arrogance has run it's course, and the American people are ready for real solutions that go beyond finger pointing.

I fear for Obama's safety and for that of his family. All the good ones get killed.

I can't wait to hear the political back-pedaling from the pendants.

It's a good day. Were it not overcast, I'm sure the sun would be a little brighter today.

I am sad that the State I live in is always way behind the curve.

More as I think of them.

The perfect quote about how I feel:

The always awesome Jeffrey Rowland puts it thus:



"It's almost over, I swear. Four years ago I would've been totally okay with John McCain, but things are different now. He's irresponsible. And don't think just because all the polls say Obama is definitely gonna win that you don't need to vote. If you failed to register, shame on you. And I'm not saying there's a possiblity we might not end up regretting Obama. But that's a lot better than the 100% certainty I have of regretting Vice President Palin. "



That about sums it up. I am sorry for not posting more often lateley, but between obsessively following the election, work, my newfound obsession with Lost*, and kids, it hasn't been on the top of my radar. Here is some cuteness to make up for it:







We had Joseph baptized last weekend, or was that the weekend before? Anyway. I had a heap of family in, and we all had a great time. Other than Jackson being a rambunchious 3-year-old, everything went off with out a hitch.



Last weekend we celebrated Papa Norm's birthday, with massive amounts of red meat and cake. He's all American, you know. We also went to the Boo-ha-ha thing on Peoria. Crowded, but fun, I guess. Zane and Jack started getting speepy/hungry/grumpy early on, so we skipped the parade in lew of naps in the car. Last night was Hallow-zoo-een, tonight is the fall festival at the church**, and then begging for treats Friday night. Then back to normal, whatever that is.

So, um... that's it.

-Powers out.








*I'm late to the game, I know, but a buddy lent me season 1, and Jen and I have spent all week staying up way too late watching episodes.
**As well as Obama's infomercial. Everyone should watch.

A-ha the literal version

Keep watching.

Once again...

Sarah Silverman graces my blog.

enjoy.



The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

This is why he will win

A Second of Drama on the Senate Floor

"It was Senator Barack Obama who crossed the aisle."

Day out with Thomas

So last Friday we took Jackson to see the real live Thomas the Tank Engine. This thing looked so much like the real one that for once, a capitalist marketing ploy to sell you toys and t-shirts was totally worth it. Thomas has been the one thing that has kept Jackson's attention for more than a few days. He's been totally into all things Thomas for well over a year now, which in kid terms is forever. It's almost half of his life. And considering all the loud, brash idiotic crap that kids are into these days(I'm looking at YOU, Spongebob!), a show made up entirely of some guy's train set, with narration by The Late George Carlin is okay in my book.

My dad happened to be in Oklahoma for the Gene Autry Festival* which is near Ardmore, so he drove up to OKC to hang out with us and Thomas. It was held at the Oklahoma Railway Museum, so we were able to look at trains and things while waiting for our trip on Thomas.

Everybody really had a great time.

In other news:

Heroes doesn't seem to suck this season, so that's awesome.

Um... I think that's it.

-JP

*Don't get me started. My dad has this weird fascination with '50s Coyboy culture.

Ramblin'

Well, I've been meaning to post about a great number of things, like the current state of the election, and our trip to Wichita over the weekend, and gushing on my new phone, but every time I sit down to write, I either get distracted or nothing comes out.
So I'm just going to ramble a bit about Internet TV.
I've been a little slow at work lately. Well, not really "slow", but I seem to get everything I need to get done by about noon or so. I guess "fantastically efficient" would be a better phrase. To help pass the time, I re-enrolled in college to get what amounts to an associates degree in web design. The cool thing there is that I can take about 98% of the classes over Internet.* But even that I'm fantastically efficient at. I've been filling the reaming time watching TV shows I can't watch at night because I actually play with my kids. I watched the entire run of The Sarah Connor Chronicles. If you think in your head that the third movie never existed (as I'm sure Claire Danes is), and that plot holes are just a part of science-fiction/time travel movies anyway(How in god's name did Marty McFly's parents not know that their son looks amazingly like the guy that got the together?!?! AND has the same name!), then the show is actually pretty good. They beef up the conspiracy aspect to account for mountains of terminators suddenly running around Los Angeles, which is okay. They need things to do other than just run away from the Terminator of the week. Not even Brian Austin Green could ruin it, and they balance that out by putting Garbage's own Shirley Manson in it (Whom, BTW, I still have a crush on no matter how mediocre her music has become).
So as long as I don't have to keep track of it (ie.: it stays on hulu), I'll keep watching.
I also downloaded all three seasons of The Venture Brothers, which is the best animated show on the air right now. I've seen most of the eps before, but not all in a row. Awesome stuff.
I tried to watch the new Knight Rider. I watched the pilot, and didn't think it was that bad. Mostly because I loved the original when I was 7. I thought maybe the show would have some potential. It does not. Not even Val Kilmer as the voice of the car saves it. Don't bother.
Other bright spots: It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and maybe Life on Mars. The original British version was phenomenal, and I am weary of the American version, due to a leaked pilot I saw a few months back. They have since re-tooled the show with better actors and a tweaked plot, so we'll see.

That's all I got.

-JP

Shoes

Odds and ends....

Okay. First off, if anybody believes that a monkey suit with somebody's lunch dumped on it is a real-life bigfoot, you are no longer my friend. Also, since when is bigfoot in Gerogia? He's strictly a north-west dude. Or if it were "found" in the other Georgia that suddenly everyone cares about, I'd tell you that Yetis are strictly north-east Asia dudes.

A note on Sweded films:

I know I am way behind the curve here. Most of them suck. They have no heart. Even the Star Wars one that Internet is raving about is kinda sucky. The main exception being the one for the bike scene in Tron:

Also, and I love this one just because everybody has been doing re-makes, and these guys broke that rule, but the Spoof of Boston Dynamics Big Dog is just plain awesome. Watch at least a little of the original before you watch this:

In Other News:

This has been the most temperate August ever. Today's high is only 80°!! This makes up for the one two years ago when it was over 110° for 3 weeks straight and the foundation of our house cracked and I almost moved to the Yukon.

-JP

Jackson loves the ladies.

That is the electronic Truck Jackson got from his Papa B for his birthday. He had it 5 seconds before it was full of girls. He's going to break some hearts, that one is.
So other that it being the hottest day of the year, Jackson's birthday party was awesome. He had a great turn out, and everybody seemed to dig that it was in a park(the kids, anyway). The kids played and ate cup-cakes(which completely melted) and played with his new toys, and then were whisked off before they passed out. The whole thing was maybe 2½ hours. Having a kids party at 10:30 in the morning is awesome. Everybody is energetic, they eat everything you bring, and the crash out when it's done. No more afternoon parties for us anymore.


In other news, if anybody in the Tulsa area wants to house a foriegn exchange student, please contact my wife. She has been tasked with finding homes for 20 kids 15-18 from arounnd the world for between 4 and 12 weeks by August 14, when they may land in Tulsa and have no where to go. She cound really use your help.


Also, my other kid is a vampire.




Powers out.

Cute kids and Summer Movies

Man, my wife makes cute kids.
Thanks to the mighty Bucaroo for the pic.


it is now one of my favs of all time.


Laura took thins pic while here last month. We had a grand time.


My other kid, who had a birthday last week, gets his birthday party this week. It's going to be in a park at 10:30am because who doesn't like cake before noon. If you want to go, email me. We have had a mild summer* by Oklahoma standards this year. July is almost over, and we have yet to hit 100°, thanks to Al Gore. Need I remind you of the summer of '06 when we had 34 days over 100°? I thought not.


That being said, it is supposed to get to a hundred on Saturday, the day of the Party. Hopefully, we'll be out of there by noon or 1:00. Jackson is excited for the Party, and actually has no idea that his birthday was last week because we didn't tell him. I don't think his just turned 3 brain could have wrapped itself around the concept of birthday now, party later. My brain can barely deal. Let's just let him open a present now, I would say. You aren't getting it, Jenn would say. It's because I'm slow.


In other News:


Finally saw the Batman movie last night. It met my very high expectations and exceeded them. That's all I'm going to say, because I sure you can't shop for toilet paper without seeing a Welshman in a batsuit on the package**.


I am extremely excited for the Watchmen movie. I know Alan Moore didn't want it filmed, but let's face it, Moore is kind of a dick.


I'll tell you what I'm not excited about is The Spirit movie. It appears that Frank Miller has taken a beloved, wonderfully campy and groundbreaking strip from the '40s and is using it to further is juvenile, chauvinistic, über macho agenda. Don't get me wrong, I love a lot of what Frank has done. It just seems like as time went on, his male characters got less and less sympathetic, in direct proportion to his female characters wearing less and less clothing. But let's face it, Miller is kind of a dick. And can we please make a comic book movie without Sam Jackson in it for once?



Powers out.

*Way to jinx it, Powers!
**Wipe out crime!

Tomorrow my first born will turn 3!

Holy shit, time flies!

Jackson is turning into an incredibly smart little boy. I can tell because he has quickly become bored to death with just about everything, especially his parents. He needs constant stimulation, and luckily for us, he can't really stand the TV. Too slow. He'll watch for about 7-8 minutes before he's off and running. The only things that can hold his attention, other than constant movement, are sleep and building the tracks for his trains. Neither of which he does very often.

One thing he does love is soccer. He gets to run around for an hour kicking things. Right up his alley.

This year his personality has really come into the forefront. He is sweet and hyper and funny and has even begun to make up jokes. Jokes, people. He also likes to trick you, and he likes to hide and jump out to scare you. He picks out his own clothes, and like his dad, prefers t-shirts with comic book characters on them.
He has also developed broken record syndrome. He'll ask the same question over and over until you give a different answer and then he'll say "No, Daddy, its (first answer)!" and start all over again.

He also at that age where we spend equal amounts of time thinking either, "I can't believe how smart you are!" and "I can't believe what a little shit you're being!" Which I'm sure sounds harsh to anybody who doesn't have kids, but incredibly accurate to anybody who does. And keep in mind I said thinking, not saying.

All in all, he is an awesome kid, and I love him a lot. I chalk it all up the the wonderful parenting that my lovely bride offers, as I do not know dick. I have seen the importance of being around, unlike the constant stream of "father figures" that wandered in and out of my childhood. And I am trying real hard to not be the dad that comes home, scolds the kids for what ever they got in trouble for that day, cracks a beer and settles into the barca-lounger to watch sports, because you may as not be there at that point.

The second kid is awesome too, by the way. He seems so much easier than Jackson was. I know that a lot of it is that we have been through it before, but this kid has a completely different personality.

For one thing, Joseph sleeps. Jackson never slept more than 45 minutes at a time until he was over a year old. He still doesn't sleep well, and getting him in bed is still a constant battle.

Joseph is just happy and giggly and bright eyed and perfect. It looks as though he's going to have wavy red hair, too. Which is awesome as long as nobody calls him "ginger balls" later in life.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACKSON!

A Big-ass long weekend.

Three day weekend!
Friday I tried to take Jackson to see WALL-E. What I saw of it was phenomenal. Unfortunately, Jackson being almost three and all, couldn't deal with it. We cooked out at our place with the whole family and then tried to go see an air show/fireworks display at the Jenks airport that we read about in the paper I work for that didn't actually exist. Nobody seems to know where the reporter got his info, including the security guard that turned us away at the gate. So we went to a park for a while and waited for the Jenks show to start. It was pretty good, but the little ones(We had Grace and little Zane in tow) once again couldn't deal, so once again we left early. Those of you out there that don't have kids don't realize the full severity of this, but parents are constantly late for things and have to leave early. It's just part of the package.
Saturday, I took Jackson in the morning to see the actual event at the airport, which was a 50th anniversary thing with a bunch of vintage aircraft on display. Some of which you could go in and look around. Jackson had a gfeat time, given the extreme heat.
It was then on to little Zane's 1st birthday party. Zane is an awesome little kid who belongs to Jennifer's sister. He dove into his little cake like crazy. He also got a shit-ton of presents. Everybody had a really good time. During clean-up, I broke a dish. That in itself wouldn't be bad, but I put the broken bits of glass into a trash bag, and while taking out that trash bag, I somehow stabbed myself in the leg. I'm going to guess that the glass bit went about a half and inch to an inch into my calf. There was a bunch of blood that didn't feel like stopping for like an hour. yummy.
Jackson stayed the night at the grandparent's place. Mostly because he fell asleep on the couch about 7:00, and we just left him there to sleep it off.
Sunday we did chores, ate leftovers and hung out at the Mall.
Fun, relaxing and painful.

How was yours?

-

Some clarifications.

I guess I was mistaken on a few points in my last post.
The Hotel Scarlett is staying in is an Extended Stay hotel, so they do have a fridge and a sink and what not. That was my bad. It still doesn't explain very much.
Also, we thought the cousins were going to be here much later in the summer than they were.
Hence, we thought Grace might possibly be here, and it would have been awesome if she were, but we weren't counting on it by any means. Sorry, Grace.


None of this means anything, as the cousins are now gone. They decided that staying in the Ronald McDonald house with their mom would be more fun than hanging out with us.
So be it.


Scarlett is still back east with her mom, and will be until at least another week. So things are a lot calmer now. All sudden-like.


I think we are going to sit tight on the whole Scarlett thing. Only because we do think her mom isn't actively trying to neglect her child, she just doesn't really know how to be a parent. We're hoping she slowly figures it out. Maybe we can help her with that.

-JP

A nice week-end and some crazy drama.

So we had a lovely weekend. Joe and Laura were and still are and always have been the coolest of people and the dearest of friends. We had fun times. Ate a boat load of food, and drank some beers. We actually did not make it to Momentum Tulsa because of all the food and beers we consumed Saturday night. In fact, except for a walking tour of Tulsa Saturday afternoon after stuffing ourselves at the Blue Dome Diner, we pretty much stuck close to home. Friday night we ordered pizza and made margaritas, and Sunday we just grabbed some Brunch before they headed back to Austin. Though afterwards, Jen and I took the boys to a birthday party for a two-years-old girl. Kellon is the daughter of a work buddy, and we had fun at the party. There was a pool and a pinãta and strawberry cake.


Joe and Laura did accompany us to Jackson's first soccer practice. He's two, so it wasn't really a practice so much as a bunch of little kids running around in circles. He had a blast. His one greatest love in life is running, so this may just be the sport for him. He also loves trains and puzzles, just so you know come birthday time.*


On to the drama. Remember the "massage therapist" who's kid Jenn watches during the day?
Well she and her roommate had a falling out while on a trip to Vegas or some shit. The roommate, who is also the receptionist at the Parlor, kicked them out. Now they are living in an extended stay hotel in the totally awesome part of town. She only recently got a car, but still doesn't have a valid license because of warrants out on her in like 4 states. So Jenn has to drive to the complete opposite side of town and hang out around a seedy hotel to pick up and drop off the kid now. This was not the Original deal. Originally, Jenn picked up Scarlett from a much closer and safer location, and They picked her up. The mom isn't really paying anything extra for gas, either. In addition to having to drive longer, Jen also keeps the kid longer. The OD (original deal) was to pick up Scarlett around 2pm, sometimes noon, and they would come get her around 9:30. Oh, no. It's more like 9am to 11pm now.
So let's talk about living in a hotel with a toddler for a sec, shall we? First, there is no kitchen. This means no fridge. Scarlett seems to subsist completely on food from the McDonalds across from the hotel. Last week, Jen picked her up at 9:45am. Scarlett had just woken up( which means she must have been up all night), and hadn't been changed(she was in the same diaper we sent her home in) or fed. Her mom handed Jenn $5.00, and suggested she get her some chicken nuggets on our way out. classy. 2) No sink. This means her bottles never get clean, and we have to wash spoiled milk out of them ourselves. yum. 3) While there are laundry facilities on site, The mom does not use them. The place is filled with dirty laundry, and after Jenn had gone through a bunch of winter clothing that didn't fit any more, she devised a plan. She bought a bunch of clothes Scarlett's size at a garage sale for like five bucks(after she told the nice soccer mom why she was buying a bunch of girl clothes when she obviously had two boys, the lady gave Jenn everything she had in that size for free), and she changes her when she gets her, then changes her back right before she takes her back. So sad that she has to do that. 3) No yard/place to play outside. A yard in not necessary to raise a kid, but it sure does help. The hotel has no amenities, not that Scarlett's mom would use them if it did. That kid barely sees sunshine unless she's with us. Jen has gathered that Scarlett just wanders around the hotel room while her mom watches TV and talks on the phone. She certainly doesn't do anything like feed her, that's for sure. Whenever Jenn gets her she's filthy.


There is more. A lot more. Ask Jenn about that.


So what is to be done? Scarlett had a different babysitter on the weekends up until recently(she was with us for up to 12 hours most weekdays, and with these other people on the weekends).
The other Babysitter works at the health department, and called to ask a few questions of DHS.
They said that when they get a call, they usually take the kid for a period of two weeks while they do an investigation. And int this situation, unless they found drugs or drug paraphernalia on site, she's not actually doing anything illegal. There is no law against being a shitty mother, just an abusive one, and nothing here technically qualifies as abuse. Jen is going to sit tight for the moment. We both feel like Scarlett's time with Jenn is the healthiest time she spends with anyone. If we put her into the system, there is no guarantee that they would put her somewhere decent. At least this way, we know she's taken care of. And we get paid as well.


However, new variables have arisen. Jackson has two cousins that live in Grove. Their mother just had a new baby(a story unto itself that could rival this one). Jenn suggested a few months ago that when the baby comes, the older kids could come to Tulsa, stay with their grand parents at night, and stay with Jenn during the day. This was also suggested at a time when we all thought Jennifer's sister would be living in Tulsa by this point. Well, the cousin's mom and the baby had some complications, and the baby was born early, and they were both life-flighted to St.Francis Hospital in Tulsa a few days ago. Depending on the health of mother and child, we may have the cousins for the entire summer. Also because of various reasons, Jenn's sister isn't here yet.


Scarlett and her mother are currently on a trip back east to see family. When they get back, it may shake out that Jen would be responsible up to five kids all by herself every day. That's way too much for her, especially since Joseph is still nursing. Jen's parents were going to pay her for keeping the cousins, and I think she feels like if that money is good enough, she'll let Scarlett go.
Personally, I'm hoping they just stay out east and start mooching off family there.


Suggestions? Comments? What do you guys think?



-JP

I think they should have started at the other end.

Been a while, eh? But I start almost every post these days with some form of that.

So what I'm really excited about is that my friends Joey and Laura are coming here for the weekend! This is extra cool, because I have a lot of friends that I'd like to see, but with the kids and all it's a little hard to pace everybody up and take off, even for a weekend. So when friends come to me, I think that's extra cool.*

I'm not sure what all we are going to do, but it will be fun regardless. I do have some press comps for Momentum Tulsa tomorrow night, so we may do that. I don't think I have seen Joey since he and I went to Denver last April. Far too long in my opinion. Joey is also who we named our second son after. He rocks.

Also Jackson starts soccer this weekend. That's exciting. That boy loves to run, and soccer just might be the sport for him. At this age, it is more like magnet ball, where they all just clump up where the ball is and kick at it until it squirts out, and then they all converge on it again, but what are you gonna do?

Looks like we're going to need a new roof, thanks to all the severe weather we've been having.

Other than that, not much going on.

-JP


*Take the hint, people I'd really like to see.

Memes LOL

Count the memes!

All hail! All Weekend

So we sat through two separate and intense hail storms over the weekend, both about 11:00 am, both fierce. As you ca see above, the bulk of the hail was about the size of a quarter. It looked like it had snowed, and we had a drift in front of our door about 4 inches deep.

More pics here.

-JP

A lot of time...

Has passed since my last entry. At least for me. What have I been doing?
Well, last week-end, Jen's family had their Family Reunion. It was small this year, as the younger generations tend to not go very often. It usually a pain in the ass is why. This year was no exception, but I had a lot of fun despite myself. The Reunion is usually held at beautiful Lake Murray, near Ardmore, OK. The reason is because half of us live in Oklahoma, and the rest in Texas, so we just meet in the middle. Lake Murray is very beautiful. There is camping, a Marina, and a Resort on site. It was one of Roosevelt's public works projects during the New Deal. It has not been updated since, and the maintenance has been lackluster. It is what I fondly refer to as "Jank City." We asked them on the phone if they had a couple of cribs they could throw in our room, which they did, and tried to charge us $10 a night for, which would have been $60. I let them know as nicely as possible that that was a crock of shit, and they waved the fee. This was a good thing, because both cribs were of the old fold-up variety from the '50s and didn't have any of their hardware attached any longer, and would completely collapse once more than a half a pound of pressure was applied. The first time it happened, all I did was put a pillow in it. Classy.
The wonderful thing is that children don't care about shit like that, and there were a lot of kids in attendance. Jackson's time was monopolized by his cousin Jaezie, who at almost 4 years old, is like a swarm of bees. It is as though she was raised by wolves. He sister Lenzie is awesome. At 9, she's smart and witty and wise beyond her years, which makes Jaezie that much harder to figure out. Jackson seemed to start to have a good time as soon as we implemented the "Hands to Yourself" rule, which made everybody happy.
Anyway, the weekend was filled with swimming and Grilled food and Smores and running around and tired kids and fits and evil breakfast buffets* and was actually quite relaxing even though Jen and I really didn't sleep much.


The best part was our trip to Arbuckle Farms. This is a place where old (and I do mean OLD) zoo and circus animals go to live out their days eating food out of wax cups held out of car windows by timid housewives and scared children. What a magical place! It was more fun than I thought it would be, and a lot less pathetic. The animals were friendly and only the ostriches were dicks, but in my experience, most birds are dicks. Since we rarely went over 10mph the whole time, we let Jackson sit in the front seat, so he could see everything. He had a BLAST.
Flickr set here.

The rest of the weekend was anti-climactic, to tell you the truth. We left Monday morning, but next time I'm leaving Sunday night, and sleep in my own bed.

Tuesday and Wednesday, we kept Gavin, the son of our dear friends Brandon and Gretchen, as his usual babysitter had a death in the family. They are about 6 months apart in age, and entertained each other better than any adult ever could. Wednesday night, Scarlett stayed the night so her mom could go clubbing, to mixed results. She's a sweet kid but has some problems. Mainly due to having little or no supervision most of the time. She kept us up all night screaming because apparently sleep is where the clowns eat you. That was fun. Jen had her up and dressed and out the door as soon as the call came, at 7:00am.

So that's about it. That's what I've been doing.

Go away now.

-JP





*
"Is the oatmeal instant, or do you make it?"
(blank expression)
"It's instant but we make it."

In which I tell you about my week-end.

So it is all sudden-like summertime here in the south west. We hit 91 degrees a little while ago.
The good news is that we didn't get the hot until after the weekend. The weekend barely cracked 80, and was awesome because of it.
Friday Jackson had been asking Jen all day to go to the play area in the mall. He loves that place. I think it smells like feet. While in the area of town dedicated entirely to commerce, we decided to get me clothes. I was going to wait until I lost a little more weight (26 lbs so far!), but the fat clothes weren't cutting it, and I seem to have hit a wall in my weight loss for some reason. It may be that since Joey goes down at 9:00 now, I wasn't able to use the exercise machine while I watch the Daily Show like I was before. More on that later. So we got me some clothes that would be good for work, but also light enough for summertime. Rock. We also went on a fruitless search for a Sit and Stand stroller which allows two kids in one contraption. Everyone was out, which was a bummer.*
We were going to watch The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford when we got the boys to sleep, but when we realized it was 2 hrs, 40 min long, we decided against it.
Saturday was a big day. I put together a crib we procured for Joey, as he is out-growing the bassinet. This has the added advantage of being in his room rather than ours, so I get to exercise during the Daily show again. We then split up for a while, Jen taking Joey to do some grocery shopping, and I took Jackson to the bank. His piggy bank was over flowing and he got to put it into the big machine, and he thought that was awesome. All the cash went into his savings account, except for a few bucks for him to pick out a toy with. All he wanted was a hot wheels car, so he got a little bag of candy as well. You know what that is? That's bonding, mofo.
After naps and what-not, we started gearing up for the post-mother's-day-barbecue. Jen's sister came down from the City with her little boy, and Cousin Ryan came down from Stilly accompanied by his new girlfriend. Prior to the meal, Jen's mom found us the stroller we wanted at a place that sells baby stuff that we totally forgot about. yay! We ate a bunch of meat and pasta salad then decided to go to Mayfest. We had a grand time eat Mayfest, except that the Lemonade guy we went to first was a total dick. We wandered around, watched Larkin for a while and went home. All the kids fell asleep fast. I think a lot of the adults did as well.
Sunday Jen made an awesome brunch. Pappa B and Nana came over,and we all visited and played with the kids. We spent the after noon lounging around Jen's parent's house, and I fell asleep watching Temple of Doom on the sci-fi channel. We made a pizza, and Jackson almost fell asleep at the table, as he had no nap and had just gotten out of the hot tub all relaxed.
We went home, and I mowed the lawn while Jen got the kids in bed. We then watched The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford , which was really good, if a bit long. A stellar cast in that one.
Then sleep. Well, a little sleep. Jackson has been waking up a lot lately. I don't know what that's about.

-Powers out.






*I am so old.

A shopping spree, houshold projects, and a death.

Okay, so been a while. I had to play a lot of catch-up at work after the Denver trip. In the meantime, spring finally showed up, the Avs got their asses handed to them by the Redwings, The new season of Doctor Who started, and a new Portishead album came out. One of these things is very good.
So this week-end, we took Jackson on a shopping spree. He shot up a few inches over the last two months, and everything he owned magically didn't fit any more. So we went to the Mall, and to Target, and made him try on a bunch of stuff, when he just wanted to look at the toys. It took all day, but I think we have sufficiently clothed him for the remainder of the summer. He got a Hunk and and Iron man shirt, so that's cool. I'm glad I'm allowed to pick things out every so often. ( I bought him his first comic book while in Denver, a Spider-Man one-off meant for a younger age group. I read it three times on the plane ride home.)
We also attended a graduation party for our friend Craig. It took him 6 years and three schools, but he finally did it. He got a degree in History, which he will now use to be a Carpenter. Go, Craig!
Sunday, we did a whole mess of projects around the house that have been building up since we moved in. We painted the living room, replaced the sink sprayer which was leaking, fixed the bedroom toilet, which had broken in the dead of night about two weeks ago, causing it to refill loudly, and take forever when it did. I also put up some shelves in the living room, which still need to be stained, and I fixed the two holes on our fence that we obtained during the last big storm. It is actually, technically our neighbor's fence. I would have just waited for him to fix it, but he's in a rental, so he doesn't give a shit. But since the dog from two houses down was getting into our yard through various holes in fences and picking fights with our dogs, I decided to just hop the fence and repair the holes with whatever that guy had lying around.
Also on Sunday, my ex-step dad David died. For those of you who know me well, you know that he was the reason I moved out when I was 15, and the source of most of my bad self-esteem and neurotic behaviour. I am having a hard time trying to figure out how I feel about that. He had been sick for quite some time. A fact that I was unaware of until my mom told me while I was in Denver. And now he's dead. I don't know if I really needed to talk to him about anything, or if going to the funeral will bring me any kind of closure. I'm pretty sure I made my peace with all that a long time ago. What I do know is that there is some sort of emotion there, I just can't lock it down. For good or ill, and even though I haven't had any contact with him for 17 years, he had a strong impact on my life. The funeral is on Friday, and I don't know if I'll go yet.
Okay, Debbie Downer. Lay off.

Everybody have a good week!

-JP

D-Town Goodies.

Well, that was fun.

We are back from Denver, and we had a really nice time. We got to see the family, and we got to show off the newbie. It was stressful at times, but fun over all. What family visit isn't?

We started off Thursday night with a massive pile of luggage and two car seats that needed to come with us. The boys behaved very well on the airplane, and Jackson was very excited. He's still talking about it. Joey just fell asleep. Jen and I are a good match, sometimes in ways that I never imagined. Case in point: Neither of us get sick to the point of throwing up on airplanes or boats, but we both get mildly nauseated. For some reason known only to airplane people, if you are travelling with an infant, you have to sit on the right side of the plane. So the way the tickets shook out on out teeny tiny little plane, Jen was in the window seat on the right side, then there was a big fat guy next to her, then the isle, then Jackson and I were on the other side. The Dude in the isle seat was eating this massive sandwich that he brought from home. He kept adding packet after packet of mayo and mustard the whole time he was eating it, and it was making our collective nausea that much worse. Blegh. We were happy to get off.

Friday, we just bummed around town visiting various people, mainly to show off the kids. We had some lunch at Angelo's after hanging out at Pablo's most of the morning. We did get to meet Jeremy's new girlfriend, who is awesome, and he should hang onto that one. :) Then we had to go back to the house in the sky, as Jackson calls it, for a nap. Travelling with children is very very different than being on your own. Basically, you have the morning to get anything done. Children wake up at ungodly hours in the morning, but they need a nap in the afternoon. So our little schedule usually requires everything to stop around 1:00 so we can get Jackson fed and down for a nap, which lasts at least an hour and a half, giving us just enough time before we have to start dinner to not get anything done.

We went to the White Fence Farm for Dinner with Jackson's pseudo-cousin Emily and her family. They make farm food there, meaning that if anything is remotely healthy, they either deep-fry it, or add mayonnaise, nipping that shit right in the bud. Yummy. The kids got to feed sheep and get that "farm experience" That we could get 50 feet from our house. It did have a playground out front, though. So they basically ignored the food and played. Friday night we went to Sputnik, and had a lot of fun. We left fairly early because we were both tired, so it you didn't show up, there is your out next time I see you.

Saturday we collected my dad and his wife, and went to the Children's Museum. Holy cow, did Jackson have a fun time there! If you didn't know, one of Jackson's great loves in life is trains. Making complicated track systems, then making the trains go along them are some of the most fun he has, as it feeds his OCD* the equivalent of comfort food. He just zones out on it for hours. Well, The Children's Museum has a whole room dedicated to this purpose. He had such a good time, that when we tried to show him other parts of the facility, he would duck out when we weren't looking, and run back to the train room. We had a lovely lunch, and some naps. We shopped a bit on the 16th Street Mall.

Saturday night, Tim took me and Aaron Taylor to the Hockey game. I can't even say how cool this was. I'll try in increasing levels of coolness: Hockey - Avs on TV - Avs in playoffs on tv- Avs in person - Avs in playoffs in person - Avs in playoffs in person in club level box - Avs in playoffs in person in fully catered club level box - Avs in playoffs in person in fully catered, including booze, club level box - Avs in playoffs in person in fully catered including booze club level box with a TV showing the Avs game!!!! They won. They advanced to the second round. I won. Everybody won. Except Jen, who had to stay at home with my Mon and not eat a real dinner because my mom's on some diet. Jen didn't win. Sorry, sweetie.
Sunday, Tim and I took Jackson over to Millennium park and to the kiddie Park on Speer. Jen went and had a lovely breakfast with Turner.

Sunday afternoon, we hung out with my Dad, who has a train set in his basement. Yay for Jackson. We then went to a Pizza place off Leetsdale for dinner, where there was a train set. Yay for Jackson, who refused to eat in lew of there being a train set there.

Monday we basically packed and went home. The trip home was a bit more of an ordeal. After the crew was delayed on an earlier flight, we sat on the tarmac for a while while they looked at a mechanical problem, which didn't go away. We had to de-plane(just as Jackson fell asleep), wait an hour, and get on another plane. We got home 2 hours late. oh well. at least we are home.

A good trip, but I wish I had more free time to hang with friends. Whenever we bring the boys, I feel obligated to let the grandparents spend as much time as possible with them, and I don't yet feel comfortable leaving the boys with them without one of us there too. As they get older, that will ease a bit. I hope.

So, yeah. Pics here.



Enjoy.



-JP



*Jackson does not actually have OCD.

Kibbles 'n' bits

1)The entire Oklahoma Powers Klan will be in Denver this weekend. Those of you who live there and want to see me should give me a call. You know who you are. Since we will have bits kiddies and time is short, a lot of our time will be spent with family, since the Oregon Powers will be in town as well(I have a hankering to make "Powers Family Reunion" T-shirts). We all usually hang out at the coffeeshop more than is healthy when we visit, so chances are about 70-30 that one of us will be there at any given moment. Jen and I plan to "whoop it up" at least one night. I think Friday. I don't know when. Depends on the wee folk. Maybe Sputnik? Anybody have a better idea?


2) This made me laugh out loud at work: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/77275


3) As some of you know(or more accurately, will think: oh, yeah...), Jen quit her job with the Cancer People in order to take care of the wee folk. She could do this because we have a cheap mortgage and virtually zero debt. We still just about break even. So in order to have some extra scratch and maybe help fund our kid's college careers, Jen was looking for a party-timey, makey-money type of thing. She has plans to make and sell some children's products, maybe do some bookkeeping for her mom-the-CPA, you know. Things where one can make money without actually having a job. So then a post came along on Craig's List for someone wanting a baby-sitter/nanny for the late afternoons and evenings, times when daycares don't often operate. Jen looked into it, and after a few emails and a visit, it looked pretty good. She'd be getting paid (a lot) to do what we do anyway: Play with kids in the afternoon, feed them and get them ready for bed. The little girl is a total sweetheart named Scarlet, and is 15 months old, right between Jack and Joey. Pretty perfect, right?

Well... What is weird about it, is what we have come to find out about the mom. She just moved here from California, with basically just the kid and the clothes on her back to get away from some sort of abusive relationship. She's working as a massage therapist and is roommates with the receptionist. They seem to have known each other for a long time and seem to be sharing the child-rearing responsibilities. Okay. Sure.


Turns out that it is the kind of massage parlor that has theme rooms and throws around words like "discreet". When describing the staff, all of whom are pictured on their website in the masseuse version of Hooter's gear, they say things like: "An brunette beauty with a winning smile who can take you to new levels of blissful relaxation". Yep.


And the mom pays us in cash. Nightly. So there's that. Think what you will.


4) There is no fourth thing.



-JP

Drama on a Saturday, or: My wife is a hero....

Because she saved a little girl's life last night.

Jackson went to his grand parent's house tonight, so we were free to pal around a bit. We went to the natural food market, stopped to get some coffee, and then were heading to a big box store to get some paint for the living room. As we were driving along, we spotted a 5 year old little girl running barefoot in the middle of the street, with a bunch of traffic backed up behind her.

"Is that a little girl?!" she asks.

"I think so," I say.


Before I could even get the car stopped, she was out the door. I stopped the car in such a way that I was blocking both lanes, and started to call 911 on my cell phone. Luckily, a few people on the other end of this started doing the same, and a few more people had their cells out as well. Jenn managed to get the girl stopped and sitting down between her legs, and she had a death grip around the little girl's waist. There was obviously something, I don't want to say wrong with the little girl, but you know what I mean.

I was still on hold with the cops. Actually, after being transferred to the police, the phone was still ringing. Jen had one of the other people who stopped to help get a big white teddy bear that Jackson swiped from his grandmother's office a few weeks ago out of our car. They gave it to the girl and that seemed to be calming her down a bit. About this time, in a weird twist of fate, a lady came up saying she knew the girl, because she taught at the local elementary school, and the girl's brother was in her class. Turns out the girl's name is Willow and she is autistic, and a runner. Teacher Lady calls home, and has her husband look up the parents phone number in the school directory.


I finally get hold of the cops, and give them the run down. I tell them we're between Yale and Sheridan on 101st, but that's not good enough. I have to get out, leaving Joseph in the car which is parked across the only two lanes of traffic. The lady finally gets hold of the parents. Then we wait. In the middle of the road. With an autistic kid with a giant teddy bear in Jennifer's lap, and me trying to direct traffic on one side of the road, and teacher lady on the other. With asshole drivers speeding by and honking and giving us dirty looks, which was freaking out Jen and the little autistic girl who wouldn't budge from her spot. The fact that she was even letting Jen touch her, let alone have a death grip on her, was a freaking miracle according to the teacher lady. Jen tried to calm her down as best she could. She would struggle to get up from time to time, but Jen just talked to her, and sang songs (which the girl didn't like very much, and lightly hit Jen on the head to make her stop) and rocked her, and let her play with the bear. We waited for what seemed like 20 minutes. And guess what? The parents showed up before the cops did. In fact, the cops didn't show up at all.

The mom shows up and explains that they were all eating dinner, and Willow was calmly playing with some dolls on the patio, right outside, where they could all see her from the dinner table. She was there one second, gone the next. Usually she goes out the gate into the neighborhood, but this time she scaled an 8 foot privacy fence, on the other side of which was 101st Street. They noticed pretty quick, but were coming their neighborhood, not outside it. We all have hugs and thank yous and what not, and I call 911 back to tell them not to bother, but can't get through, so I hang up. Some EMTs in an ambulance showed up right as we were leaving, and get the low-down from the mom. We go on our way, full of adrenaline.

Over the next hour, as we wander the isles of the big box store, The police department calls my cell three times. Twice to get directions to where the problem was, and the other to see if I had an emergency.

"I did," I tell this last one, "almost two hours ago."

"Yeah, were really busy tonight," she says.

Good thing I wasn't bleeding.
I can't tell you people how proud I am of Jennifer. She ran out into Saturday night traffic to help this poor little girl without batting an eyelash, while I stayed in the car, on the fucking phone. She's so good with children, and was the absolute perfect person to happen to be driving by, because she knew exactly what to do, or figured it out pretty damn quick. The second best person to happen to be driving by would have to be a teacher at the girl's school. How freaking awesome was that? But still. Jen did a fantastic job and I truly believe she saved that little girl's life.

I totally married the right person.

-JP

Fold-ins, Dions and Women of Ill repute.

Okay, this is about the coolest thing I've seen in a long while. I keep going back to it.

Every even slightly nerdy boy in America went through a phase where Mad Magazine was about the coolest thing ever. I actually started reading Groo: The Wanderer specifically because Sergio Aragones did the little doodles in the margins. I think he still does, actually.

This is Jackson with a Dinosaur. Over Easter, he kept making his Nana take picture of him holding each of the .99¢ Dinos that he got in his bucket.

This is Joey throwin' gang signs

His flow be fresh.

Oh, yeah. So they finally put a lock on the gate they put up to block the bridge I used to use to go over the train tracks to get from the parking lot to work. You get all that? Too bad. The bridge has been unsound for car traffic for about ten years, and is now unsuitable for foot traffic as well. Instead of repairing it or knocking it down, they just blocked it off. All that doesn't matter. What matters is that my route to work is now two blocks and 7 minutes longer. Actually, that doesn't even matter for this story either. What matters is that when walking to work now, I go over a new bridge. This morning, just before I got to the base of the bridge, about a block away from the parking lot, a car pulls up. A woman gets out and the car speeds off. No bid deal, she's just getting dropped off, even though it's a really weird place to be dropped off because it's not really near anything. Why didn't they just go ahead and go over the bridge and drop her off on the other side. But then she doesn't go over the bridge. She goes under the bridge, where there is only a small space before the fenced-off train tracks start. And I thought to myself: Ha Ha! Crack Whore!

That is all.

-JP

Family weekends...

... are generally more hassle than reward, thought the reward part usually makes up for it. If that makes any sense. This weekend, we're taking 5 kids under 10 to see Sesame Street Live.
Being a parent is weird in that, as I would never in a million freakin' years have any desire to see Sesame Street Live, I do have a huge desire to watch Jackson see Sesame Street Live. Him getting a kick out of it will make it totally worth it, and I now have a massive amount of respect and understanding for my step-mother who took me and a friend to see Weird Al back in 1985 when I was 10.
There are 5 kids because cousins who live in Grove are coming in for it, and since Jen's mom, a CPA, is neck-deep in tax returns, she had to give up her ticket, and we are taking the child of a family friend. So my two kids, two cousins, and a family friend. Everybody got that? The cousins being in town means we pretty much spend the whole weekend at the In-laws, wrangling various children and preparing meals.
We may all go to the Air and Space Museum on Sunday as well. I hope that isn't too much stimuli for one weekend. Or too little.
Wish me luck.

In other news:

One of my favorite comic artists, James Jean, has done some work for Prada. Now that's big time.

Another Fav, Adrian Tomine, who hit the big time with Illustrations for The New Yorker and Weezer, has a comic up on NPR's site to coincide with their story about Long Duk Dong's cultural impact. The fact that a story about Long Duk Dong's cultural impact even exists makes me love NPR that much more.

I think because of Veronica Mars, Heroes and Fanboys, Kristen Bell has now replaced Sarah Michelle Geller as geekdom's favorite hottie. Because of this. And this. Nerds are going ape-shit.

South Park Studios has launched. Every episode of South Park. Free. No shit. My favorite is Mecha-Strisand, because of Robert Smith.

I think that's all I have.


-JP

In which I show you another baby pic

Joey has decided that he enjoys waiving his hands in the air. Waving them like he just doesn't care. He also has this crooked smile that just kills me.


Bow down to the cuteness*--->


Um... I don't have much going on right now. Just humming along.
No new geek news, nothing too exciting happening at work...
Jackson is gearing up to go see Sesame Street Live in a few weeks with his cousins.
He's getting crazy good at jigsaw puzzles.


So, um... yeah.


-JP




* You are not worthy.

Holy Crap!

Lost military rocket crashes into Tulsa apartment building




Watch the skies, people!




-JP

Another weird dream

This is really weird. I never remember my dreams, but this is the third in a week or so that I have vivid recall of. It also features famous people.

In my dream, I was chosen to participate in a new reality show hosted by Steve Carrel, called Celerity Scavenger Hunt. Each participant is teamed up with a celebrity and then they go on a scavenger hunt , hence the title. Each week, someone would get voted off. It's like The amazing race meets Dancing with the Stars. And just like DWTS, the celebrities are decidedly D-list. I was pared with Kari Byron, the hottie from Mythbusters. Steve Carrell does the whole Intro, and off we go. Kari and I have to look for a envelope hidden in a park somewhere. We figure out that it is in Central Park, NY, which is near where we already were. So we went and got the envelope, but were instructed not to open it. The first part of the contest was to take 12 hours, and we did it in like 20 minutes. So we went and got a coffee. Then in real life, I knocked over the cup of water sitting on the night stand, waking me up and spilling water everywhere that I then had to go clean up.

Like I said: Weird. And I'm just the kind of nerd who has a dream about Kari Byron that is completely non-sexual. That's even weirder.

In Other news:

Jackson is adjusting well to being at home. In fact, I think he's a lot more relaxed. The teachers at his school kept telling us little stories here and there about how quiet he was. We were always a little mystified by that, because he's a little blabbermouth at home. We fugue he was weirded out about something. He also was kind of solitary at school. He's either just watch, or play by himself, which is fine. I'm still like that, but since he's been home, it seems like his vocabulary has doubled, and his sentences are more complex. Could be that we were just not paying attention, but still. This week he went to story time at the library and participated just fine. Who knows?

Joseph is rockin' along. He's looking around real good and smiles when he sees me. That'll melt your heart a little.


Other than that, not much going on.

-JP




Side note about Kari Byron: She's a pretty cool artist.

I'm a Nerd.

But I never really realized how much until the other day.

I was watching the Made-for TV, backdoor Pilot for Knight Rider. This should have been enough, I know. The only reason I wanted to watch it, is because originally Will Arnett was going to be the voice of the car. They replaced him with Val Kilmer, which seemed an odd choice, and it made me curious about the whole show, so I downloaded it completely legally, of course. Just so you know, the movie sucked egg rolls. It was basically a two-hour car commercial. Lame.

But I digress.

Here is why I'm a Nerd: The main dude driving KITT, was supposed to be The Hoff's illegitimate son. The Dude looks a lot like The Hoff, and even wore a maroon t-shirt and leather jacket, much like The Hoff did back in the day. Now, in the original series, Michael Knight was actually officer Michael Arthur Long, a cop who was betrayed and nearly killed do to some kind of industrial espionage. He was saved by the Knight foundation and given facial reconstruction and a new name for some reason. Then he went out with his kick-ass car and kicked some ass. My point is that the kid shouldn't look anything like The Hoff, but like Officer Long.


Soon after I realized this, I realized that for some reason Knight Rider trivia is in my brain instead of actual useful information and I wanted to kill myself. When I told Jen about it, she inquired as to why I can't remember the most mundane things like taking out the trash, but I remember God-Damn officer Michael Arthur Long.
Why can't history tests and things like that stay in me head instead?



I feel shame.



-JP

Star Wars by Saul Bass and McSpaced

Do you guys know who Saul Bass is? He Invented the opening title sequence as we know it.
I borrow* from him all the time.
Click here.
Or here.

Then watch this:



Awesome work, random YouTube guy!

In other news:

They are making an American version of Spaced, one of my all time favorite British sit-coms. As far as American remakes of British shows go, I have mixed feelings. While most of the reality based ones like What not to Wear and Antiques Roadshow seem to do quite well (Just look at American Idol or Trading Spaces), Most of the imported sitcoms do not. There are notable exceptions, like The Office, All in the Family and Sanford and Son, but for every Three's Company, we seem to get six or seven Couplings or the horrible Red Dwarf remakes.
I think the reason is not so much that Americans don't get British humor, it's just that they can't translate it very well when you have studio executives pulling the strings. It seems the less they mess with the premise the better, as with The Office. This has a lot to do with the creative team as well. If the makers "get it" and have respect for the source material, then the outcome can be really good. This is not the case for Spaced. The creative team attached is led by McG (McSpaced?) of Charlies Angels: Full Throttle fame(WTF!?!?) Simon Pegg has made his feelings very well known, and is not happy about it. His main problem is that while they do intend on giving them a small payment, meant basically to shut them up, they are in no way otherwise connected to the project, other that having their names mentioned in the press releases and marketing materials. Even there, they oddly omit the series co-creator Jessica Hynes, probably because she isn't as famous in America as Pegg is. Weather or not the remake is any good, Pegg says wh would have at least liked a phone call. Bastards.
Let's hope they don't fuck up the remake of Life on Mars, either. This one I really don't get, because the original would do just fine on Network TV with no changes at all. It is a fantastic show.


That is all

-JP






*read: Steal

In Traffic...

So this morning I got cut off rather forcefully during my commute. So forcefully, if fact, that I had to swerve a bit onto the shoulder, coming dangerously close to the ditch. I had Jackson in the car with me. Jackson's reaction was: "Woah, Daddy!"

The guy who almost hit me was driving a Hummer. He was on the phone, not paying attention to what he was doing. He was severely overweight. He had a "W: STILL The President" sticker affixed to the back of his gas-guzzling monstrosity. He was arrogant and Rude, and I thought to myself: You are everything that is wrong with this country.

-JP

Okay, so...

I had a dream last night where near the end, I had to punch out Walter Mathau.

That is all.

Look how cute my kid is!

I mean, seriously.

More here.

-JP

What I will be saying next year...

If I haven't jinxed just now, is that 2008 was a pretty rockin year. I have high hopes for the coming presidential election, though I had high hopes for the last two, and was severely disappointed. "They won't vote for Bush," I thought. "They're smart people.
D'oh!
Well, this time people will get it right. At least I will. They are already turning.

So in addition to having two boys running around, an awesome wife, Settling into a great job, and being debt-free(as in no student loans, credit cards or car payments*), I will be very well entertained this year.
I thought Cloverfield was awesome. I know a lot of people did not, but I did. You all know of my love for Godzilla, and this was the first decent giant monster movie out of the states in a long time. Maybe ever. That kicked off what might be the geekiest year ever for movies. The sad fact that Star Trek has been moved from December to May of next year is the only blemmish on the year of the Nerd. This is our time.

Iron Man gives me little tingly feelings in my nether regions. This looks to be one of the best and most faithful comic adaptation since the first Spiderman. (the obvious exception being Persepolis**) Robert Downy Jr. seems to embody Tony Stark completely and with much gusto.

The Dark Knight will be equally cool, and as Heath Ledger's swan song, I hope his talent shows through, and lets everybody know that he truely was one fearless motherfucker.

And then there is the new Indiana Jones movie. Looks like the bad guys are no longer the Nazis, but The U.S. Army and maybe the Roswell aliens. Giggidy.

More Comic Book/Super Hero/Nerd Movies:
The Incredible Hulk: Ed Norton should do a bit better. The last one looked like it was made out of silly putty.
Speed Racer Why does Christina Ricci still get to play teenagers? She almost 30. Oh, right. She's a cutie.
Hancock Even though Will Smith is slipping down the Scientology slope, I will give him the benifit of the doubt on this one.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army Yay!
X-Files 2 Wait, what?
The Clone Wars Hopefully this won't be a crapfest. The animation looks cool, but that means squat.
Wanted This movie has veered really far away from the comic, but for some reason looks cool anyway. Others:
Choke We finally get another movie based on a novel by Chuck Papahniuk, of Fight Club fame. This one looks just as weird.

It looks like George Romero is borrowing a page from Cloverfield with Diary of the Dead. I love Zombie movies, and Romero is the King.
Be Kind Rewind I am getting to be a big fan of Mos Def.
Semi Pro If you don't know about this movie then you have been living in a fisherman's boot.
10,000 B.C. This just looks so wonderfully innaccurate and weird. Wooly Mammoths in Egypt? Do tell.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Run, Fat Boy, Run
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
And those are just the ones I really wanna see, and have the patience to post links to. We also get: Get Smart, Mongol, In Bruges, Death Race 3000, Quantum of Solace, The remake of the Day the Earth Stood Still, Harry Potter, and the second Narnia movie.

Pony up yer sawbuck! We're going to the movies.


*You have no idea how little stress there is when you have no payments other than the house. :)

** Go read this book RIGHT NOW, then see the movie.

In which I update my loyal fans...

First off, let's get the baby pic out of the way--->

Aaawwww!

The boys are doing fine, and Jen is doing awesome. Good things all around.

I don't know if you guys are following any of this Anonymous vs. Scientology stuff that's been going on, but I have because I am totally fascinated by it. For one thing, the Tom Cruise Video is friggin' hilarious, and I truly believe that these idiots deserve to be put out of business. It is after all, a cultish scam based entirely on a dare. Last weekend, across the world, a bunch of protests were held at the behest of a group of internet nerds calling themselves Anonymous. That's fine and all, good for them. Won't do a bit of good, but A for effort. What I don't get is that the protestors took to wearing masks, probably because of Scientology's habit of photographing, identifying, and suing the pants off of anybody who doesn't like them. Okay. I get that. But what you don't realize is that putting on masks, gathering in large nimbers and acting like weirdos makes you look like a cult. That being said, I think this picture is oddly arousing.

So I guess there is an election coming up? I think I eard that somewhere. I think I have finally decided who I want to back. Although I am firmly in the "ANYBODY else!" camp, and think either democrat would do a good job, I really like Obama, and here's why:

“When I am this party's nominee, my opponent will not be able to say that I voted for the war in Iraq; or that I gave George Bush the benefit of the doubt on Iran; or that I supported Bush-Cheney policies of not talking to leaders that we don't like. And he will not be able to say that I wavered on something as fundamental as whether or not it is ok for America to torture — because it is never ok… I will end the war in Iraq… I will close Guantanamo. I will restore habeas corpus. I will finish the fight against Al Qaeda. And I will lead the world to combat the common threats of the 21st century: nuclear weapons and terrorism; climate change and poverty; genocide and disease. And I will send once more a message to those yearning faces beyond our shores that says, "You matter to us. Your future is our future. And our moment is now.”

Or as Patrick Neilson Hayden puts it*:

"I’m for Obama knowing perfectly well that, as Bill Clinton suggested, it’s a “roll of the dice”. A roll of the dice for Democrats, for progressives, for those of us who’ve fought so hard against the right-wing frames that Obama sometimes (sometimes craftily, sometimes naively) deploys. Because I think a Hillary Clinton candidacy will be another game of inches, yielding—at best—another four or eight years of knifework in the dark. Because I think an Obama candidacy might actually shake up the whole gameboard, energize good people, create room and space for real change.
Because he seems to know something extraordinarily important, something so frequently missing from progressive politics in this country, in this time: how to hearten people. Because when I watch him speak, I see fearful people becoming brave."

Can't beat that. I hope.

That is all.

-JP

*WAY better than I ever could.