My little boy turnes 2 today!

This here is Joey. He turns 2 years old today. Jennifer swears that it took a lot longer for Jackson to turn 2 than it did for Joseph, but I sometimes think the whole five years of us having kids has flown by. Though sometimes I think it feels exactly like five years.

Modest Mouse has a lyric: The years go fast, but the days go so slow.

Joseph is so very different than his brother in a lot of ways, but almost exactly the same in others. Joe is friggin' fearless for one thing. He'll jump off of things, run right up to wild animals, eat anything we put in front of him, and I think Jennifer just signed him up for bungee-jumping. He's a lot more rough and tumble. more active, and really really funny. He cracks everybody up including himself.

He also likes to hit things with other things. Anything you hand him, he will take and hit something with it. He talks non-stop. He is stone-cold crazy.

The past two years in the Powers house have seen a lot of fun, a lot of moving, a lot of hardship, and a lot of awesomeness. Through it all, Joseph has remained a smart, funny, happy little kid, and I'm totally glad he's around.

Happy Birthday, buddy.

I love you.

-Dad.

Busy Bees

Best. Doctor Who. Ever.

A friend of mine from Europe once told me that over there, nobody every says that they are busy. "Busy" to them implies that one does not have control of the situation. If you have everything in order, you shouldn't be busy. So if you say you are busy, they will respond with "that's too bad,". Americans love being busy. If we had everything right where we wanted them, we'd have to sit down and relax, and then you're just lazy. I don't know what it is about Americans that they think they can't stop. Our ambition seems to be what defines us(to ourselves anyway), not what we actually accomplish. Even in retirement, everybody had goals and planes and they want to re-do the bathroom or see Alaska or whatever. We have to DVR our TV because we're off doing something more important, and when we eventually do sit down to watch, we zap the commercials.

•••

Keeping the European definition of "busy" in mind, I have to say we are very busy. We went to Denver, we had house guests here from Austin last weekend, my dad will be here tonight, we have a Christmas party in the OKC to attend on Saturday, and that leaves just one weekend left before Christmas. This on top of everything else we do every day.

I'm actually looking forward to Christmas this year, so I can just sit there for a while as the kids play with their new toys, and just stare off into the distance.

•••

The Valentinos were here from Austin over the weekend. They are awesome. Probably my favorite people. I did name my second kid after Joe Valentino, after all. I love it when they come because I don't feel like I need to talk up Tulsa or spend the whole time running around trying to show off the town. Really they just want to sit and visit and eat good food and watch the kids run around, and I love them for that. Good people.

•••

If you want to get me a gift, I kind of want an old-school Ramones T-shirt. Black. XL

-JP

The trip went well

Phillip K Dick. You should read his stuff if you haven't already. All of it.

1) So the trip to Denver went really well. We all had a really good time. The boys did amazing during the 12 hour drive. Thanks in large part to Pixar. The main meal was delicious as always. I saw some great friends.
There will pics soon. I loved how I could walk or tram it where ever I needed to go. I miss that aspect of a bigger city.

2) I haven't owned a cat in over a year, and yet I keep finding hair on my clothes.

3) I have a cold. I hope to stave it off with a constant barrage of Advil, coffee and whiskey.

4) I took a week off, and returned to a rather intimidating hulu cue. I'll muddle through, I guess.

5) I'll go ahead and say it: The Pixies have lost it.

-JP