Friday Night With Otis

There is a scarecrow in the garden. No tomatoes. No zucchini. No eggplant. No basil. Not even any pumpkins. Just a scarecrow. But there aren't any crows either so it must be doing its job well.

Computer crashes suck. I went through one about two weeks ago. I did not lose much as most everything I have is backed-up, but I am still re-setting passwords and don't have any email addresses. I guess if something is important enough, someone can send me a message.

The life of an iguana is not thrilling.

We don't have an iguana or any reptiles any more. We have four hermit crabs and a tropical fish tank. And that's all of our pets for now. I still miss my dogs but I can honestly focus more now on raising a family.

But we'll be getting a puppy soon.

Witch cookies are not necessarily made from witch parts or even by witches. And they don't taste like witches either. However, the same cannot be said for ghost cookies.

I'm not addicted to Facebook. Or, better yet, "Hello, my name is Otis and I am a Facebookaholic." I do enjoy the games and interacting with people, even on the anti-personal, computer-based level. Hey sometimes it gets tough when most of ones time is spent with a one, three and four-year-old. A little interaction with adults - even over the internet - helps a lot.

Now I'm going to pause so I can harvest pineapples on Farmville.

I'm back. I found a lost turtle on my farm. I hope someone adopts it.

The baseball season is winding up - a little too late. The football season is going okay for both my favorite real teams and fantasy teams. Halloween season is getting to be fun. Christmas season should not start until after Thanksgiving.

Hey Mr. Spaceman won't you please take me along, I won't do anything wrong.

Happy Birthday Weird Al Yankovic. Guess his age and see the answer below.

Okay, I want a turtle for my farm. I do have a bunch of peach trees. "Moving to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches." (Yeah, that's the song playing right now for me.) "Millions of peaches, peaches for me."

Peach trees won't fit in the garden.



Oh yeah, I almost forgot - 50. Weird Al is 50.

Life is Short

Stop worrying about politics. Stop worrying about socialism. Stop worrying about fascism. Stop worrying about the fall of capitalism. Stop worrying about the 4% of the population that want to live off of government checks. Stop worrying about the 4% of the population that want live off of their great-great-great-great-grandfathers wealth. Stop worrying about overpaid wide receivers. Stop worrying about overpaid CEO's. Stop worrying about underpaid teachers. Stop worrying about underpaid garbage collectors. Stop worrying. Stop worrying. Stop worrying. And live.

Live.

Live every day with happiness.

(and throw in a shot of rum for good measure.)

Otis, Otis, Otis

I'm in no condition to write anything. So this is just babble. I miss my dogs. I love my kids. I don't know if I'm the boxer or the bag. But, life couldn't be better. I don't understand how Aquaman can 'breathe' under water and on land. It should be one or the other. I would like to hold my little hand, how we will run. The baseball season is shorter than the football season but no one should play hockey in June. Is the NBA still around? There are many tomatoes in the garden to be picked. The sunflowers have bloomed. Cucumbers aren't quite right. And no one likes zucchini. (That wasn't capitalized - are you paying attention?) Tomorrow I'm going to do many things. Tomorrow I'm going to grow. Tomorrow I'm going to spend the day in the garden.

Tonight, I'm going to bed.

Friday Night with Otis

A few hours ago I had the option of watching golf, baseball or football. And while that decision may appear to be difficult, it was just the end of the second round of the PGA Championship, the Reds versus the Nationals and a pre-season game for the Bengals. So, none of the options were worth fighting for. Of course fighting wouldn't have mattered - we ended up watching the Wonder Pets - "Linny, Tuck and Ming Ming too!"

"This is serious!"

In the last two days I have become addicted to Mafia Wars on Facebook. It's easy to do because everyting deals with accomplishments. I don't get to accomplish many things these days. Sure, Mo can count to 30 in Spanish, Hank can name the starting lineup for the Brewers (he likes Milwaukee) and the Big O, well, likes to eat. But those feats are not really mine to claim. That's just kids growing. I'll be happy to raise enough cash to buy three tommy guns and an armored sedan so I can knock off a few people. THAT's accomplishing something!

"Save the Walrus. SAVE THE WALRUS!"

Next year I am not planting Zuchini in the garden. If you read the last post you know that we now have a vegetable garden. And that I whacked the Zuchini last weekend. Well, as expected, it is growing back even more fervently than before. And that's not really the problem. My biggest problem is that kids just don't like Zuchini. Buttered - no. Garlic salt - no. Deep fried - no. Kids don't like it. I'm tempted to introduce Zuchini Pop-Tarts, but I'm sure they won't like those either.

I have no idea why I capitalized the word 'Zuchini' in that last paragraph.

That's enough about the kids. I mean, I just had an entire paragraph in my head about how the kids don't want to go outside anymore, and not just because it's too hot, it's just that they are bored with the outside things. But that's enough! No more kid's shit! I have more in my life than just kids. I have hermit crabs and fish and a dog. And a couple of fantasy teams. And Mafia Wars...

Oh, crackers.....I need help.

('crackers' is our new word for 'damn' ever since Mo started using the 'D' word)

SHIT, it still comes back to the kids!!!!!!

"SAVE THE DADDY. THIS IS SERIOUS!"

Sunday Mow

You can often tell how good it is going to be to mow the lawn by the first song that plays on your ipod. Last week it was Sound of Silence - not good. Today started with Baba O'Riley - much better.

Second song got even better - Coconuts by Widespread Panic. "You can break them open and they smell like ladies lying in the sun."

So if I mowed this morning it means we did not go to church, or in our case, Steak N' Shake. But it's okay, we went to Red Robin last night so it counts for Sunday mass.

Not much reason for not keeping up this Garden. I have, however, spent some time on Facebook. It's been pretty cool catching up with old friends. It's interesting to see what everyone is doing with their lives. If you haven't joined Facebook, I suggest you do. I need more friends!

I have spent quite a bit of time in our actual garden. Yesterday I whacked two Zucchini plants. They've been growing like crazy and we now have more squash than we know what to do with. I also put in some poles for the beans, peas and tomatoes. The peppers and eggplant are doing well and we have a watermelon about the size of a chicken egg.

So, at least that garden is growing.

Mom's Day

The concept of Mother's Day is a bit different in our household. Here, the typical chores that most mother's are relieved of on this special day are done by me, the dad. I know Father's Day is right around the corner and that's why I'm creating this post. It will serve as a reminder for me. You see, Chick has been gone most of the morning, 'running errands.' To be sure there were some things she had to take care of. She had to replace a recently deceased hermit crab. And exchange tickets to today's baseball game that we cannot attend thanks to a couple of ear infections. But I couldn't help but notice that she took her new Kindle with her along with a couple of gift cards to Kohl's. Meanwhile I've done two loads of laundry, unloaded the dishwasher, changed a couple of diapers and am now preparing lunch.

Ah, yes, Mother's Day - just one more day in the life of a stay-at-home dad.

Singing in the Rain

It is difficult to find inspiration in the rain. Unless you are sad, and I'm not. So the rain is a pretty good excuse for not posting anything the last few days. As for the last few months, well, I just don't know. It's not really the three kids that keep me busy. It's the two dogs, the fish tank, the tree frog, the laundry, the cleaning, the cooking, the drinking. Seriously, if all it took to be a good stay-at-home parent was sitting around playing with kids then everyone would be doing it. And they'd all be great at it. For me, I'm doing all right and so are the kids and the wife and the pets. The only thing that has suffered is this garden.

I don't usually get to watch TV during the day. But Mo and Hank are taking a nice, long, rainy-day nap. So I just gave the Big O a bottle and watched a little bit of Forrest Gump. Yeah, I've seen it a million times but it's still good. Funny and thought provoking. Supposedly the book is better but I don't mind the movie. It's usually true that books are better and rarely will an exception be found. One of my favorite books, The Hotel New Hampshire, was made into a horrible movie. It starred Rob Lowe, Jodi Foster and Beau Bridges but it was still awful. Read the book.

Of course that is also something I have not done much of - read. I started Fool by Christopher Moore a month ago and have not gotten very far. I can sneek a few pages during gymnastics or dance class but otherwise don't have much time. So apparently it has not just been my writing that has taken a backseat to life.

But that's okay. Life is still good. Great really. And now that there are dandelions growing in the front yard maybe this garden will grow a little bit too.