Random stuff....

Sometimes my son is so disappointed in me, and for good reason. Last year he and I were at an unfamiliar house and I went to make him some cereal. I grabbed an unmarked Tupperware type container of a white granular substance which looked like sugar to me. I've seen it stored this way before and it made sense. He started eating his cereal and promptly spit it back out. "SALT! YUCK!" :-( I felt so bad.

This weekend I made some waffles. Last week I made garlic bread. I like a lot of butter on both. Apparently the butter was cross contaminated with garlic...my son walks by me through the kitchen muttering under his breath and shaking his head, "garlic, waffles, syrup...DISGUSTING." He was right, but I ate the waffles anyway.

Several years ago, my son, his mom, and I were in a restaurant. There were fake sharks hanging from the ceiling. Being the not so great father I am, I made a remark that they feed misbehaving children to the sharks. My son pipes up "Those are not real children." I am befuddled by the statement, so I look up to see what he was talking about. Just above us, a great white shark had the South Park kids stuffed it's mouth. Brandon's mom said, "Those are bad kids." And they were both right.

Stuff from Church today:
"The Truth will set you free." Yes, it will. Something I got from the book "Emotional Unavailability" several months ago is that Honesty is not Truth. Neither is Sincerity. If you need to rationalize a decision, especially when it can deeply affect another person, are you sure they are not rational lies or manipulation? I love you, I adore you, I trust you are things that are not said or practiced enough in our society.

Something you should know about me if you are ever inclined to invite me to some sort of trivia event. I know almost nothing about pop culture. Seriously. People in the office start talking about this show, or that person and I am likely to say "What is that? Who is that?" I have no idea. I like movies, but I couldn't tell you who was in them. I may recognize them from some other movie, but that would be it. There are only a few TV shows I watch, but those are on DVD or off of itunes and I never watch them on real tv. The advertising kills me. I don't know anything about any of the people behind the music I like, I wouldn't recognize them if they showed up on my door, and I'm not likely to even know them if they introduced themselves. I may not even recognize the group name if they tacked that on. They would probably need to start singing or playing before I caught on. I remember Jack Johnson telling a story about his wife once. Apparently their toilet was stopped up, he was not home, and she was waiting on a plumber. The door bell rang and she answered the door with "Are you the plumber?" The man at the door said yes, and came in and tried to fix the toilet. The man was Jimmy Buffet and had stopped by to see Jack. I would have been the same way. My friends and my family are my superstars. They are the ones I want to hear each day. They are the ones I want to see and take pictures of. Even the fellow bloggers out there, I look forward to reading what you have to say, sharing in the triumphs and the obstacles you go through. Real people. Real lives.

The weather here has changed, and for the better. My son and I walked out this morning to get bagels and I was electrified. Autumn is coming. The air was crisp, humidity free, and slightly cold. The sky was so blue it dazzled me. My lungs gulped in the air and all I wanted to do was spend the day outside. After Church we did just that. We packed a quick lunch, some wine, snacks, and headed for the beach. Not the tourist area, but a wildlife refuge between Virginia and North Carolina. :-) It was awesome.

We went rock climbing Saturday. That is always a blast. It has to be great for Brandon because dad never says "No, you can't climb that!" Susan and I also got to go out Saturday night to a Meetin party. Even better news is that I now have three babysitters to call when I need one!

Photo montage coming, playing with some other packages....












You can see the effect the erasers had on my son's face in this one.

~Mike