"It was torn-nin apart."

"It was torn-nin apart."

Words by J-Boy just now. He and E have migrated to the rug in my office to play Legos. E told me that...

          "Someone threw the spaceship you made me in the Wego box!"

That's when J-Boy informed me of the sad news that the infamous warship I created for E was, ultimately, "torn-nin" apart. This was especially interesting to hear since this ship was an off-shoot of an even larger, more grandiose supercool ship I had made for E a week earlier, that upon some apparent electrical malfunction with the ship's navigational systems, it took a havoc-wreaking nosedive into the playroom floor yesterday. Pieces. Everywhere. Carnage. Unimaginable.

I think I learned something. Don't assume a ship built today, won't be a heap in a Lego scrapyard tonight. But, no matter the cause of the break apart, the kiddos will undeniably ask me to rebuild the ship as if my name was Boeing.

And I'll do it - or usually a new variation of it since I make them off the top of my head - only to then see it rise like a phoenix from the ashes...and back down again in a blaze of plastic brick glory.

Oh! The life of a Lego construction worker...

it's a school day!

Wow, okay, so...getting 5 kiddos off to school is, um, something. Especially when needing to cart them across not just towns, but counties, to get them there before the tardy bell rings.

At about the crack of the dawn of Man, A wrangled up the 5 oldest, combed hair, got them feed and out the door like a seasoned pro - with only a little bit o' lag here and there by a teenager who shall remain anonymous. I know enough to know that's par for the course.

I think I got whiplash or something, seeing this whole episode take place. At least a neck sprain watching this Cirque de Soleil act in my own house before sun-up, of which the cast is now...

...en route to their respective schools. But not in a clown car or riding on elephants. Nope. They're in the Expedition. All but E and J-Boy, who are Xbox'ing it upstairs with some version of a Star Wars game and two plush Superman toys I found in a spare microwave in one of the upstairs hall closets. The new Fortress of Solitude?

Up, up and away!

consolidation is key

I can't believe it's been since Monday that I wrote a post for this blog! It seems like such a long stretch of silence for me on this thing. I guess, to be fair, nothing insanely adventurous has gone down unless you count a few networking meetings and a couple "might-be's" in the job category. Been a slow couple of 24-hr slots.

However, today we scooped up E and J-Boy early and toured a potential new place to rest our heads after we leave our current leased habitat. The boys really seemed to like it, as did A and I. Smaller - much smaller - but more concise, and therefore, according to me, more organized.

So we are in the process of consolidating, organizing and CraigListing. I have had a lot of success with Craig and his list over the years...well, until of late, where now my Jeep Wrangler collects dust on their shelf. Sell, you Jeep! Sell! Okay, I'm better now and moving on to...

...finishing up this here post so I can (finally) put up the Christmas tree and help A with the organization of our lives and material surroundings. But, she has to leave in a few to pick up the other kiddos, and that means...LEGO PATROL for me and the boys.

J-Boy just bought himself a Star Wars set with $6 he found (?) in the couch at his other house. Hey, score one for him, right? Possession, they say...9/10. His money. His Legos.

Superman's opposite is Bizarro

Seated at IHOP with A and her grandma this morning, I looked to my left and was shocked to see...a mother condoning - if not insisting upon - her young son's coffee consumption. Coffee. What? This kid was maybe 12. Maybe. Perhaps a somewhat heftier version of 12, but 12 nonetheless. And the mom was instructing him on the correct way to add half & half into the mix.

However, it wasn't the young kid drinking the old beverage that ultimately threw me off, but rather my being so quick to throw a flag at this supposed breach in player conduct. How is letting your kid sip on caffeine-ridden coffee and different than, say, letting them sip on caffeine-ridden coke? Skip to the end: no difference.

So why have I equated the idea of kids drinking coffee to a trip into bizarro-world? An alternate realm where everything is backwards and horses ride people and blue is really green. It always seemed so strange to me. Maybe because neither my mom, nor my dad, nor my brother, nor any of my friends growing up ever touched the stuff. Maybe in other bizarro-world houses just outside my zone, coffee flowed like water. People loved it. Kids bathed in it. Coffee cakes replaced the rubber ducky. I don't know...

But apparently since a record didn't skip and the whole restaurant didn't stop in its tracks at the notion of this child sipping on a grandpa drink, I must be the one outta the loop. I must be the one who needs more worldly knowledge. Get out of my bubble and put my feet in the grass. Bizarro as that feels...

Happy New Year!

Whoa. Forgot to formally yell - um, type out - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Woo-hoo for 2011! Gonna be a great year. Not sure I can say the same for all doom n' gloom 2012 though. Because as you know...the Mayans and soothsayers and palm readers and Cracker Jack prize openers and fortune cookie makers and horoscope maker-uppers...they say "it's the end!" And it may be...but there's only one person who we should look to declare that. And He's not just a person. He's pretty much the Saviour of our life and entire known universe. But...enough about that, more about...

This. Our very cool and casual NYE plans that A and I shared with my bro and sis-n-law at their house last night. It was chill and relaxing. Wii was played. Quite a bit. Golf. I'm not really that good apparently. The driving and chipping I got. The putting? I need some work.

The girls painted a huge 3' x 4' masterpiece that took them the better part of last night, and some of this morning. It is pretty awesome. And I believe the success of it has created a new NYE tradition. The year-end paint-a-palooza! (That's not what they're calling it. I have no idea where that came from.)

We had a great time away from the craziness of downtown and the way people tend to become...um, not themselves...when fueled by the holiday spirit. Or spirits. Ha, get it? Anyhoo...

Yea. Fun times. Had by us. Hope everyone had a great time doing whatever it is they did.

search for adventure!

Okay, so I added a Google search engine thing on the right. You see it? At the top of the column. Right there. Yea. That's it. And I got the idea from M.

It's pretty much brilliant. I never really thought about it before, but with 130+ posts, some people may want to hyperspace jump to a certain one, instead of flipping through them all like stacks of forgotten vinyl records at a music shop. Or VHS tapes at a...wait, can you even buy a VHS tape anymore? What about cassettes? Doesn't matter. Moving on...

Search on, adventurers!

okay, 2010 and I are friends again

So, a day to reflect back...I guess I may have been a little too hard on 2010 yesterday. While it did sucker punch me a few times on its last day in the sun, the majority of the year was grand, and several life-altering milestones occurred during its 365-day run. Such as...

Meeting the kiddos. Getting engaged to A. Starting this blog. Beginning my (hopefully) successful writing career as a novelist. I pretty much became an adult - at 32! - this past year. And, truth be told, and as A suggested, and as I had written in a previous post, those trifling last events of 2010 were tests from above. And sadly, letting them get under my skin and allowing them to shift the course of my day, they were tests that I failed.

But, wait. By acknowledging that I failed, is that really a pass? Circular logic. I know.

So 2010 and I are cool again. And I just met this new year, 2011. I hope its nice. To all of us. God bless it and all those walking through it.