Blazing Heat (It does change People)

Living in the bay area there are several luxuries that we take for granted? Some of these luxuries we will probably never even realize or acknowledge consciously as a luxury. We just wake up every morning and there they are so we begin to expect them as normal God given rights. The area is beautiful, careers are plentiful (they used to be), the ocean is close by, the mountains are not far away and the weather is amazingly neutral almost the entire year. For 12 months every year the weather stays consistently in the 60′s to 80′s and outdoor activity abounds almost every weekend.

Owning a house in the mountains gives me an even greater opportunity in that I can frequently spend time at the lake in the summer and in the winter spend most weekends snowboarding. This past weekend was no exception. I drove up to the house expecting to have a fun filled weekend in the sun. The sun. OMG, the sun was out in full force. It beat down on us keeping even the nighttime temperatures in the high eighties and the daytime………….. It was hitting 110 plus degrees. I saw my mild mannered girlfriend actually transform into, well…… she reads this blog so I have to be a little careful.

My kids spent most of the weekend at each other’s throats. The bickering and fighting was non-stop. Everyone seemed on edge. We voted both days to skip the lake and instead opted for the movies one day, shopping at Wal-Mart some (air conditioning) and for the rest of the time devoting whatever energy we could muster on finding shade and keeping as cool as possible. 110 degrees, are you fricking kidding me. I don’t remember the last time I was so miserably hot. My dog, which is a black lab and rivals “Marley” for her untendered exuberance and constant energy, was subdued. I have never seen that dog laying down so much but she was lethargic and moved from her water dish to laying on the deck and nothing else.

Maybe that was Beckhams issue as he snapped attempting to hurdle the on field barriers and take on fans in an all out brawl. He had to be held back by security to keep him from jumping into the stands. Maybe it was just a little too hot and he snapped. In the past I would have condemned such activity but after this weekend I can almost understand it. Heat makes people crazy. Maybe the problem in Honduras has nothing more instigating it other than the fact it is to close to the equator and God only knows how hot it is right now. Why don’t we try shipping them a bunch of air conditioners and see if that doesn’t ease tensions? It would probably take less than a week and everything would work out with all of the coup leaders hugging the past regime.

Is it just me or does anyone really care who judges the American Idol wanna-a-be stars. Simon is really the only one who counts and that is mainly because he is so damn mean (honest) and slams contestants right and left. Isn’t that part of the appeal of the show to humiliate some people publicly for our entertainment? My guess is they must keep the light shined on Simon raising the temperature in his seat so he turns into an ass. On the few occasions where he is nice the air conditioning must have been set at too high a level.

I am leaving this morning and as much as I love the mountains can’t wait to get back to the moderate temperatures of the bay area. God it is hot. It is 3:30 AM and I think I see my skin melting a little this morning.

Peeing in Bed

Being exhausted from my tumultuous bike ride I retired rather early on Saturday evening. We did go out to dinner at a nice Afghanistan restaurant in Burlingame. I was surprised at how packed it was but apparently Afghan is the new trend circulating the food industry as well as British and American Tabloids. Maybe bringing the food here was part of the overall war strategy as we mount further offensives into the country with our British partners in order to crush those damn Taliban. Nothing like do a little cave hopping with hand grenades.

Dinner was ok and we decided to go see a movie but “Hangover” was sold out so we stop off for some ice-cream and headed home. I managed to stay awake until about 8:30 then with an aching body I creped slowly to bed and curled up into a quivering muscle twitching ball and fell asleep. 62 mile bike rides do that to old men I guess. The dogs ventured into our bedroom with me so I pulled Bean in bed and Delilah curled up on her soft cotton pillow top covers lying to the side. I think dogs must sense when you are not 100%. They really are man’s best friend.

Around 3 AM I woke up having slept my allotted time lamenting my body’s time clock that doesn’t allow me to ever sleep more than 6 hours straight. God, I pine for the days when I could sleep without interruption for 12 plus hours. I think they call that they teenage years. I imagine only the Catholics have enough guilt built up to lie in bed for any longer. Those damn Catholics are constantly feeling burdened by something other than killing off the son of God I imagine. That alone is a fairly large burden to shoulder. As I fought off the urge to grab my computer and write I really made an honest effort to head back to slumber land and get the much needed rest my body needed. It had been put through the ringer yesterday and I so much wanted to sleep in.

I must have succeeded because it was with aggravation when I heard Bean crying and attempting to inch his way up to the top of our bed. He oftentimes tries to crawl under the covers with us since he gets a little cold at night. We have drawn the line there not wanting to encourage that much contact with the little guy. Holy Shit, we let him sleep in bed isn’t that enough. After reprimanding him a few times for crying and putting him back down to the bottom of the bed it was with sudden panic and fear when I heard the familiar forced spraying sound that is only depicted by somebody who has been backed up for a while shooting forth their bodily fluids.

I knew that I wasn’t peeing. We are just not into that type of sexual activity, not that there is anything wrong with that. Jesus what am I saying, that is screwed up people. My girlfriend doesn’t make that noise so I leaped out of bed turned on the light and grabbed Bean as he was unloading his urine at the foot of the bed. Holy shit, that dog is lucky he is cute or he would be dead by now. I ran him outside and quickly stripped off the quilts and comforters before any permanent damage could be done, thankfully observing that it had not soaked through to the mattress. I guess he had gone to bed early with me and I had in my tired state not let him out for his nightly pee session before crawling to bed. Yet again another debacle instigated by my biking adventure from the day before.

I guess I now know what Sunday morning will bring us as we head to the laundry mat and wash all of our bedding. Bean has lost his sleeping privileges for quite a while at this point. I can tolerate a lot of things but peeing in bed is not one of them. I am not Catholic and never have been. Those Catholics probably don’t know any better one way or the other about urination protocol being so wrapped up in guilty remorse. Just for good measure I said a couple of Hail Mary’s and after writing this will be heading back to sleep.

Nobody probably believes this many things can happen to one person but I guess I am either blessed or cursed with a life of adventure. Just depends on your religion with how you view things. I don’t have to say it for you to get it this time do I? At least I am not Natalie Portman and have dogs thinking they can pee right on me. Is she Catholic?

Our First Dinner Party

How many things can go wrong at a dinner party and everyone still have a good time? While I don’t think we really tested the limit, our dinner last evening was a comedy of errors that moved us to laughter on more than one occasion. I guess it is good that we as a couple don’t hold out for perfection but instead prefer the casual easy going deal with the situation at hand with a smile attitude or we might have been in trouble. We decided to have our neighbors over last night for dinner and although we didn’t have a set plan in place we had huge quantities of food that we could prepare so we began formulating ideas late morning.

My daughter’s friend who always accompanies us to the mountains decided to make dessert and she looked up a recipe on the internet finally deciding on homemade chocolate pudding that we would serve with some cut up fruit. It sounds good doesn’t it? Well as luck would have it my girlfriend attempted to place the finished product in the refrigerator which went fine until she opened the door a couple of hours later and realized the bowl was not properly balanced. It fell crashing to the floor, splattering brown frothy pudding in every crevice imaginable throughout the shelves, doors, and bottles. I mean everywhere.

I just happened to be coming upstairs and was greeted with the words, “We should really think about moving some of the bear from the shelves. We don’t have enough room in here” It took me a minute to take in the scene but as I saw a small brown substance slowly dripping from my girlfriend’s hair and the splotches of brown liquid comingling with the freckles across her face I realized what had happened. I tried not to laugh unsure of the mood or reactions but instead consoled her saying that it would be fine and we could just eat the cut up fruit. Admittedly as I walked back downstairs to the grill I had to chuckle as the scene was comical and little did I know would continue throughout the night.

With the ribs sizzling over the open fire and the corn on the cob warming on the second shelve people began to arrive and as is normal began critiquing my grilling process. Isn’t it funny how everyone can grill better than everyone else? Our world is filled with millions of men who are the master of their grills and nobody else can possibly compare. It is fun to banter back and forth about right wrong or indifferent. It is all fun and games until somebody loses an eye. As I started rearranging the food I rolled up all the corn into some aluminum foil and discovered for possibly the 1000th time that food is hot when placed over an open fire. As I pulled back my hand most of the corn rolled down from the grill to the deck below where my black lab pleasing accepted it licking and biting each piece as it bounced past her.

I have never seen a dog eat an entire cob whole before but I guess we will see how the next couple of days go. She swallowed one quicker than I could grab it from her salivating mouth never stopping to breathe. God that dog can eat anything. So now with dessert gone and the corn having become a causality we decided we had better start eating quickly before we lost anything else and that is when the explosion came from the kitchen. I am not really sure what happened since I was down chasing corn cobs across the deck but suffice it to say we now had baked beans all over the stove and kitchen area. My girlfriend’s hair was becoming a representation of our dinner menu. If she figured out how to rub barbecue sauce in there we would have a complete meal.

The good news is we had plenty to eat, the night was beautiful and everyone took the activities with a smile. The goal of any gathering should be having fun and we accomplished that in spades. If you can’t laugh at your own fiascos then what can you laugh at. I am sure today we will be cleaning baked beans out of the cabinets and chocolate pudding out of god knows what but well that is what you have kids for. If I had it to do over again I wouldn’t change a single thing. It might not have been the best organized gathering but it ranked as one of the funniest nights I have had in a long time.

I can’t wait to do it again.

Missing your Dog

I have a very big black lab named Delilah. I am sure I have spoken about her before as her insanity permeates our household like termites eating through the layers of your homes foundation. Every time she enters a room she commands the attention of everyone around her if not with her overly exuberant front paw lunges then with her Samaria tail that lashes back and forth like a perpetual whip being wielded by Zeus himself. As I have said on many occasions the definition of insanity has to be accompanied by the picture of a lab.

The one thing you fail in recognizing by her outward appearance is the love that she exudes from every single pore of her body. The reason she is so crazy stems from her inability to contain the emotional outpouring of happiness every time she sees you walk through the door. It is amazing how her entire life revolves around the fleeting pats on the head and the periodic playful snuggles she might garner as I race through my busy days. It was mostly for her that I got Mr. Bean a few months ago and it is with sadness that I now have gone 24 hours and he is no longer around.

Mr. Bean is the little Chihuahua that we rescued from the Humane Shelter and he immediately fell right into place in our home taking command of the activities and demanding a status that far outweighed his miniature size. He was or hopefully still is the dominate of my two dogs and even though my lab might be able to eat him without even stopping long enough to chew she followed his lead as he herded her into place in most every activity. It had grown quite comical to see Mr. Bean snatch the ball from Delilah’s grasp and her chasing him across the lawn as he attempted to avoid her by darting back and forth zig zagging around the trees. She could easily catch him if she had wanted but seemed to enjoy the game of keep away that they so often played.

Hopefully he will show up today and life will return to normal. The kids will be devastated but admittedly my girlfriend and I are distraught as well. I think it shows you how delicate the dynamics of the home really are. It should make us all appreciate what we have and how fleeting life really is. I realize that many people don’t equate the loss of a dog with any monumental emotional ties but I happen to believe once you welcome a dog into your home he/she becomes in integral part of your family and as such his/her role is as important to the emotional stability of all concerned as much as anything else.

Hopefully today will lead to happy news and we will find the little guy and the loss will be short lived.

Wish me luck and as always I am sure I will let everyone know the outcome.

Spanking your Child

Who out there is a parent? Haven’t you ever wanted to haul back and butt smack your little vixen of a child? Well ok maybe not in a violent way or……. I for one have never spanked my child. Not once, but that wasn’t really the original question. In answer to the original question I will admit to wanting to spank them on several occasions. Hell, sometimes I wanted to line all three up in a row and spank them simultaneously. In the end I showed restraint and refrained from corporal punishment. Now the question of the hour. Is it wrong to spank your child? I sit on the fence with this one. Some people are dead set against any physical discipline and some people are all about the beatings. You so often hear a nice smack on the arse is good for the little varmints.

My opinion is more personal. I have a temper and with me I always worried about spanking in anger and what that might mean. I admittedly refrain from the activity more for my own mental health than for any other reason. It is like a drug addict in a way. If I don’t ever tempt myself with the activity then I will never fall down the path and there are no worries. I would rather error on the side of caution than the other way. So what about the rest of you physical activists?

I bring this up because our favorite dysfunctional family The Gosselins had Kate recently caught in the act of butt whipping her little girl. As with most things in the oddity of this bizarre made for TV soap opera called a family, the episode made the headlines in an unflattering way. At one point you would think that Kate was tying her kids up and torching them with a whip that came full blown with spikes on the end as it was presented by In Touch magazine. I don’t think she actually performed any Satanic rituals on the child she just smacked her on the butt with her hand to get the kid to shut the hell up. Right? Wrong? I don’t know. I try not to judge anyone for the most part. NOT

I think overall Kate and her philandering husband should both be locked up for putting the kids into this glass house and parading them around for public viewing but in the end the public should share responsibility as they watch this stuff right. I have to be a little careful slamming the audience as somebody I care about watches the show and I don’t want to get into trouble. Again, I can’t judge. I like watching True Blood, Big Love and Two and a Half Men. All three of those shows are about some messed up troubled people right.

So back to the point. Kate. Should she have spanked her daughter? Is it ok to spank kids in general? If you control yourself and use spanking as a tool is that a legitimate form of corrective action? What are your thoughts? I again remain on the fence with the topic in general but for me personally I will refrain from beating the kids and take out all my frustrations on my dogs. Uh Oh. Before I am lynched I have been told that I cannot even do that anymore. Apparently I can no longer even spank my dog on the butt when he pees on the carpet.

Well in the end hitting is bad so let’s all just love one another and be happy. I know I am happy. Are you? If you answer no then what the hell. Go out and hit the biggest man you can find at your local bar and see how that goes. Should be an interesting experience if nothing else. After you get thrown out on your arse you can flip on the tube and watch the new TV reality sitcom entitled “Kate Gosselin the new Bachelorette but holy shit she has a lot of kids so nobody wants to date her”.

OK, I made up that last line.

Serial Cat killings? Really?

It appears that Tyler Hayes Weinman an 18 year old high school senior graduate is allegedly a serial cat killer. I am going to say this as I do all the time so wait for it…….. He is a quiet boy, who is well behaved, well spoken and everyone who knows him is shocked. Why is it always the quiet well behaved ones that are so freaky. It almost makes me want to ensure that whatever house I buy next is on the loudest noisiest street possible.

Apparently there have been dozens of cats missing and several have shown up skinned, mutilated and dead in the neighborhood surrounding Tyler’s home. While you can’t ever condemn somebody before his/her fair trial if guilty it would be a scary concept for what he might do next. I mean how long will they put him away for killing a few cats. A couple of years maybe. My guess is that if he has progressed far enough down this road it is only a matter of time before he moves on to, well…….. other types of victims. Whoa I don’t want to live in his neighborhood as he gets older.

Interestingly enough the police arrested him on prom night while he was attending a party. He apparently missed the dance and if he is not found guilty I am sure the police opened themselves up for a great lawsuit. How is it that our protectors seem to do so many odd things in their pursuit of nabbing the bad guy. Did the detective in charge suddenly say hey let’s make sure that we grab him tonight so he looks his best. Arresting him in his tuxedo just seems like an act of foolishness on their part. Couldn’t they have waited a few hours and picked him up after he was drunk and held him on underage drinking. We all know what 18 year olds do on prom night right.

I remember my prom night and let’s just say when my girlfriend’s brother knocked on our hotel room door at 4 AM in the morning telling me her parents were pissed I was scared shitless. I would have confessed to anything at that point as I was freaking out beyond my teenage ability to maintain composure.

I currently have two dogs and a cat (the cat is a new addition) and I would miss them if they were taken from me. I know I am a little sappy but I do love those damn little creatures. I can’t imagine somebody skinning them, butchering them and then leaving them in my front lawn. That is some messed up stuff. Hopefully he is Catholic so he can just say a few hail marrys and move on with his life. I would make sure I tested the wine before next communion though if he was in attendance. No telling what the crackers would be made of.

Sneaking Around

The fun thing about being an adult is when you are in a relationship there is no sneaking around (Unless you are going behind your spouse’s back I guess). Throughout adolescence you spend so much time hiding from your parents, insecurity about your friends or just playing the field. As an adult that doesn’t occur right? Not. Interestingly enough if you have kids it is like coming around full circle where you are now sneaking around again. Not wanting/ready for your kids to find out about your relationship is a funny dynamic.

I guess as kids we don’t want our parents too involved until we are ready to present our relationship and as a single parent we don’t want our kids involved until we are ready to present our relationship. We spend an inordinate amount of time keeping people uninvolved. I realize there are always dynamics to consider. Are the kids ready, is it the appropriate time, will the relationship last etc. etc. You never want to needlessly involve kids introducing them to just anyone who happens to grace your existence.

I tend to be a pretty open person in general. I guess that is why I blog. My life is in writing for everyone to see (except my ex-wife, please do not tell her about this website). But as George from Seinfeld said don’t let your relationship self merge with your friendship self or when the worlds collide the explosion will be devastating for all involved. Guess I will just have to continue to be patient. My kids will get there and soon enough the worlds will become one and then life will be an interesting mesh of personalities. Seeing as I have three daughters, two dogs, now a cat my world is full of personality already.

Just wait until daughter number four comes along (not expecting by the way just throwing that out there for fun). One never knows for sure do we? OK, again mom stop freaking out, just kidding.

Does anyone know what is the earliest age you can marry off a kid?

Relationship High

Is it odd to cradle the phone after talking to your girlfriend? Is it crazy to get excited to hear her voice when she calls knowing she is sitting at home wearing your t-shirt? OK, not wearing your t-shirt as she is too much of a girly girl to actually wear men’s clothing. Do you feel a wonderful churning in the pit of your stomach when she talks about making you dinner, rubbing your head or throwing you on the bed and making love to you until you pass out? Have you gone over the edge when all you can think about is picking out baby names for a child in the future as you dreamily anticipate living your life with that one special person?

If your answer is no to any all or some of the above then what happened? I know that every relationship goes through the highs and the lows but why do we have so many lows? Are we perpetually living a life where presentation is so much more than reality? Can happiness be found in the fake smile that you have plastered on your face or are you tired of lying to yourself? Wouldn’t it be nice to find joy instead of pretending to be happy where you are? Do we need to be lost for a while in order to find what we may not even know we so desperately need?

I listen to my new found (old friends) chat on face book and the endless remarks of “I love you” oh no “I love you too” no no ” I love you so much more” and so on and so on and while I tease them about this disgusting habit of frothy mumblings isn’t it a place that we would all like to find ourselves. Their conversations exude an innocence and natural love that has left behind the normal standards from which society so easily judges. They no longer care about standard accepted principles but have instead decided to show their emotional connection any way that seems right to them.

Let’s for simplistic sake call them Bib and Angeli. I would like to toast the two of them. For paving the way to the well known path that all of us in life find ourselves on if only for a fleeting moment. The path might be a little scary and it might be a plethora of vulnerability but the two of them seem so at home. The rest of the world might cringe in viewing their display but they care about nothing but each other.

Hats off to them. Put the blinders on and let’s enjoy the romance and power of falling in love. I can’t for the life of me remember the names of people I have known for years sometimes but I can easily call up the image of the one woman who has engulfed my life with happiness.

As you are sitting at work can you bring up the image of your boyfriend/girlfriend/wife/husband? If you can how does it make you feel? One can only hope it generates the same feelings that Bib and Angeli so easily exhibit.

It is amazing.

My two Dogs (Where should they sleep)

I have two dogs. I have probably written about them before but one is a black lab about two years old and one is a Chihuahua that is also about two years old. The black lab I have had since she was a puppy and she reminds me very much of Marley in the recent movies and book which I have seen and read. My dog is insane. She once, when left alone in my house literally ate two Comcast remotes, two WII remotes, magazines, two chunks out of my wool rug and anything in the trash that wasn’t eaten was strewn about the house in a mad fit. She is certifiable but loves me unconditional and the constant beating of her tail while lethal is a literal depiction of her happiness.

My Chihuahua I got just a couple of weeks ago. He is a mix and we rescued him from the Humane Shelter. I wanted a dog to keep Delilah company during the day and I just couldn’t handle another large dog. I love Delilah and all but please God help me if I had another one like her. Our new little one is named Mr. Bean and I will most likely talk about the two of them many times to come. Now for the question. Let’s say I have somebody over and she is spending the night. Can I allow Mr. Bean to still sleep on the bed?

Delilah sleeps on her bed next to my bed. She is relatively non intrusive if you can overlook the occasional gaseous outburst and the snoring. Yes, my dog snores extremely loudly but it just adds to her charm right? Mr. Bean has been sleeping on my bed and he is fantastic but he does like to snuggle rather closely and has been known to curl up on your face. He loves feeling like he is a little human.

Is it wrong to keep the dogs feeling at home just because somebody has happened to sleep over? I need some help with this one so please give me some responses. I have finally received my first comment the other day and I need to keep up the trend.

Thanks