May 29
Things I’ve been pondering today…. 1. Why does a certain national retailer position the cart wipes so that you access them after getting a cart? Usually, the cart wipes are positioned before the shopping carts. National retailers tend to do a lot of research on store layout and product placement so I have to believe there’s a reason for this “cart, then cart wipe” format, but I can’t figure out what it is. It seems more logical to grab a cart wipe then a cart instead of a cart then a cart wipe. 2. I read this brain teaser on a Patch website. While sitting at your desk in front of your computer, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles. Now, while doing this, draw the number ‘6’ in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction.  I have been trying this trick all day in the hopes that I could finally stop my foot from changing direction. Hell, I was even doing this while I sat on the BART train. The various people who happened to sit down next to me during my train ride must have concluded that I was lunatic because each one eventually moved to different seats. 3. Why does Spotify keep breaking my Dash when I’m using my iPad? Each time someone I follow posts a Spotify item, my Dash freezes for 10 to 15 seconds as I scroll past their Spotify post. I do not understand why my iPad is doing this, but it’s beginning to really bug me.

Things I’ve been pondering today….

1. Why does a certain national retailer position the cart wipes so that you access them after getting a cart? Usually, the cart wipes are positioned before the shopping carts. National retailers tend to do a lot of research on store layout and product placement so I have to believe there’s a reason for this “cart, then cart wipe” format, but I can’t figure out what it is. It seems more logical to grab a cart wipe then a cart instead of a cart then a cart wipe.

2. I read this brain teaser on a Patch website.

While sitting at your desk in front of your computer, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.

Now, while doing this, draw the number ‘6’ in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction. 

I have been trying this trick all day in the hopes that I could finally stop my foot from changing direction. Hell, I was even doing this while I sat on the BART train. The various people who happened to sit down next to me during my train ride must have concluded that I was lunatic because each one eventually moved to different seats.

3. Why does Spotify keep breaking my Dash when I’m using my iPad? Each time someone I follow posts a Spotify item, my Dash freezes for 10 to 15 seconds as I scroll past their Spotify post. I do not understand why my iPad is doing this, but it’s beginning to really bug me.

Shortlink
May 28
thedaddycomplex: For electradaddy because he loves musicals. The real Grease Lightning from the end of Grease. At the Petersen Automotive Museum with Wyatt. Besides seeing every musical that I possibly can, I’ve been known to play piano in the orchestra for several high school & local community theater productions. (Don’t read too much into this. I’m talking low-budget, no-talent community theater. Not hard to land an orchestra gig in those situations.) After playing in the orchestra during my freshman & sophomore years of high school, I casually mentioned to the music teacher that for my junior year I was thinking of trying out for a part in the musical rather than playing in the orchestra again. She gave me some good advice - “You’re a terrific piano player. And, with a face like yours, the orchestra pit is really the perfect place for ya.” Ouch!  But…if I come back in a second life…I’m going to be the Teen Angel in Grease. Beauty School Dropout has to be one of my all-time favorite songs. It’s just screaming to be belted out by a “bitchy queen”. 

thedaddycomplex:

For electradaddy because he loves musicals. The real Grease Lightning from the end of Grease.

At the Petersen Automotive Museum with Wyatt.

Besides seeing every musical that I possibly can, I’ve been known to play piano in the orchestra for several high school & local community theater productions. (Don’t read too much into this. I’m talking low-budget, no-talent community theater. Not hard to land an orchestra gig in those situations.)

After playing in the orchestra during my freshman & sophomore years of high school, I casually mentioned to the music teacher that for my junior year I was thinking of trying out for a part in the musical rather than playing in the orchestra again. She gave me some good advice - “You’re a terrific piano player. And, with a face like yours, the orchestra pit is really the perfect place for ya.” Ouch! 

But…if I come back in a second life…I’m going to be the Teen Angel in Grease. Beauty School Dropout has to be one of my all-time favorite songs. It’s just screaming to be belted out by a “bitchy queen”. 

Source: thedaddycomplex

Shortlink

The vast majority of the day was spent at the park. Playing, playing, and playing some more. We only left the park to drive into San Francisco for lunch and a dessert. 

Lunch in Japantown at a Chinese restaurant owned by Koreans.

Dessert: Benkyodo was closed for the holiday. No mochi for me. I cried.

After shedding tears because there will be no mochi today, we headed back to the park but stopped by the house so we could get our other car. Having both cars with us allowed me to leave the park a little early so that I could go home and cook dinner. 

When DynaPapa and the twins arrived home, I discovered that we’d be making another run back to the park. Why? Only one of the twins came home with their shoes. How in the world DynaPapa failed to notice that one of the twins was barefoot is beyond me. Thankfully, the shoes were next to the sandbox exactly where OlderTwin had left them. 

So, three trips to the park for us today. I’m TIE-RED!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable day. 

Shortlink
May 27

Somebody’s got an awesome Daddy who hand cranked strawberry ice cream today. Said Daddy also found some purple, blue, and pink ice cream cones, much to the delight of two little boys.

Shortlink

I’ve seen a lot of posts about the song, “Here’s My Number, So Call Me Maybe”. Face it. It’s a song for young people and depicts a situation that only the young can do. Why? Because this is what happens when you’re old older like me.


Me: Here’s my number, so call me maybe. Wait. Sh*t. What’s my number? I don’t remember. It’s not like I ever call myself. Hang on. Let me look at my phone. Gawd. How do I get this iPhone to tell me my own number?

Cute Guy: I’ll be going now. 

When you get older, you can’t remember things like your cell phone number. This is why people my age (and older) need those pill containers that have a slot for each day of the week. Jesus. Without it, we can’t even remember if we took our medicine that day or not. And, you think I can instantly recall my cell phone number, especially if there’s a cute guy standing in front of me? Please….

I finally wrote mine in Sharpie on the back of my phone. 

Shortlink
I’m a fan of teaching kids consequences that result from their behavior and decisions. Yesterday I offered to take the twins to see DisneyNature’s film, Chimpanzee. YoungerTwin grumbled that he liked snakes, not chimpanzees, and didn’t want to see the movie. 99.9% of his statement could be attributed to the fact that he was looking at toy snakes and had just been told that I wasn’t buying any toy snakes.  After 20 minutes, YoungerTwin decided that seeing the movie might be fun after all. So, the twins and I walked to the theater. We arrived about 5 minutes before the movie’s start time only to discover it was “SOLD OUT”. Seizing the moment, I explained to YoungerTwin that had he not spent 15 or 20 minutes being angry about my refusal to buy a toy snake, then we probably would have arrived in time to see the movie.  This morning he asked if we could try again to see the movie. He assured that he would be in a good mood and that chimpanzees were, in fact, his favorite animal - not snakes. Perhaps, he’s finally associating consequences with behavior. Now if I can just teach him that not lifting the toilet seat results in being eaten by a big, scary monster then life would be perfect .

I’m a fan of teaching kids consequences that result from their behavior and decisions. Yesterday I offered to take the twins to see DisneyNature’s film, Chimpanzee. YoungerTwin grumbled that he liked snakes, not chimpanzees, and didn’t want to see the movie. 99.9% of his statement could be attributed to the fact that he was looking at toy snakes and had just been told that I wasn’t buying any toy snakes. 

After 20 minutes, YoungerTwin decided that seeing the movie might be fun after all. So, the twins and I walked to the theater. We arrived about 5 minutes before the movie’s start time only to discover it was “SOLD OUT”. Seizing the moment, I explained to YoungerTwin that had he not spent 15 or 20 minutes being angry about my refusal to buy a toy snake, then we probably would have arrived in time to see the movie. 

This morning he asked if we could try again to see the movie. He assured that he would be in a good mood and that chimpanzees were, in fact, his favorite animal - not snakes. Perhaps, he’s finally associating consequences with behavior. Now if I can just teach him that not lifting the toilet seat results in being eaten by a big, scary monster then life would be perfect .

Shortlink
May 26
Somebody recently asked me what was the dumbest twin item that I ever bought. I’m sorry but I must pause for a moment and tell a quick side story before answering her question. When I first meet a Tumblr I usually find something about them that helps me to quickly remember them so I’ll recognize their blog on my Dash. It could be their avatar, a funny URL, or an adjective that describes their website design. With this Tumblr, she stuck in my head because she was pregnant with twins and I incorrectly remembered her URL, thinking it was “pickyvagina”. When I looked at her URL more closely, I realized my mistake but still got it wrong, thinking it was “piggyvagina”. It wasn’t until I’d been following her blog for about a month that I realized I was wrong again and finally got her URL correct. If she’s reading this I hope to goodness she’s not offended at my error. When I meet Tumblrs in person, I sometimes have trouble reverting from their URL or blog title to their real name. I’m just so thankful that should I ever meet her in person, I will no longer be tempted to shout across a crowded room, “Hey, PickyVagina, over here. It’s me, ElectraDaddy.” (Back to her question.) Hands down, the dumbest thing I bought was the crib in the photo. When I saw it, I thought it would serve the purpose of providing a place to sleep in our room (they had regular cribs in the nursery but needed something when sleeping with us) and not take up too much space. Win-win. However, immediately after ordering it, several things occurred to me. Despite the safety mechanisms, you just know the twin with the top crib is eventually, somehow, going to roll right out and onto the floor. And, how do you explain that to the ER doc without sounding like a total parental failure?  The twin on the bottom is essentially living in a cave. Man-cave and womb jokes aside, I thought having my newborn sleep in a cave was sure to earn me a cameo in “Mommie Dearest, The Musical”. Like any good gay dad, I love me some musicals, but, really, I’m much more Dolly Levi than I am Joan Crawford. Did I really want a crib that looked like the puppy cages at my local animal shelter? Thankfully, fate intervened and saved me because there was a shipping problem and by the time it got resolved the crib was out of stock. Whew. The twins and I seriously dodged a parental failure bullet on that one. 

Somebody recently asked me what was the dumbest twin item that I ever bought.

I’m sorry but I must pause for a moment and tell a quick side story before answering her question. When I first meet a Tumblr I usually find something about them that helps me to quickly remember them so I’ll recognize their blog on my Dash. It could be their avatar, a funny URL, or an adjective that describes their website design. With this Tumblr, she stuck in my head because she was pregnant with twins and I incorrectly remembered her URL, thinking it was “pickyvagina”. When I looked at her URL more closely, I realized my mistake but still got it wrong, thinking it was “piggyvagina”. It wasn’t until I’d been following her blog for about a month that I realized I was wrong again and finally got her URL correct. If she’s reading this I hope to goodness she’s not offended at my error. When I meet Tumblrs in person, I sometimes have trouble reverting from their URL or blog title to their real name. I’m just so thankful that should I ever meet her in person, I will no longer be tempted to shout across a crowded room, “Hey, PickyVagina, over here. It’s me, ElectraDaddy.”

(Back to her question.)

Hands down, the dumbest thing I bought was the crib in the photo. When I saw it, I thought it would serve the purpose of providing a place to sleep in our room (they had regular cribs in the nursery but needed something when sleeping with us) and not take up too much space. Win-win. However, immediately after ordering it, several things occurred to me.

  1. Despite the safety mechanisms, you just know the twin with the top crib is eventually, somehow, going to roll right out and onto the floor. And, how do you explain that to the ER doc without sounding like a total parental failure? 
  2. The twin on the bottom is essentially living in a cave. Man-cave and womb jokes aside, I thought having my newborn sleep in a cave was sure to earn me a cameo in “Mommie Dearest, The Musical”. Like any good gay dad, I love me some musicals, but, really, I’m much more Dolly Levi than I am Joan Crawford.
  3. Did I really want a crib that looked like the puppy cages at my local animal shelter?

Thankfully, fate intervened and saved me because there was a shipping problem and by the time it got resolved the crib was out of stock. Whew. The twins and I seriously dodged a parental failure bullet on that one. 

Shortlink
May 25

What in the world possessed me to buy kid socks that had different colored stripes, heels, and toes? This meant I had to match socks after washing them. What a waste of time. Plus, when they lost a sock, which my boys do at least once a week, the mate was totally useless. 

Thankfully, their feet finally grew enough to justify the purchase of new socks. This time I bought 30 pairs of all white socks. No more matching! So, much time saved. Seriously. Each of my kids often goes through 2 pairs of socks a day. (They got some serious foot- stank going on when they come home from preschool. So before we go out in the late afternoon they put on a pair of clean socks.) This means I’m washing 28 pairs of socks a week. No longer having to match socks should save hours!

Shortlink
May 24

Ok. I totally stole that title from a post on Slog*, the blogsite for The Stranger. The post discusses an MSNBC article , “America’s hatred of fat hurts obesity fight”. 

I read the MSNBC article and was horrified by the following paragraph.

The stigmatization of obesity begins in preschool: Children as young as 3 tell scientists studying the phenomenon that overweight people are mean, stupid, ugly and have few friends. It intensifies in adulthood, when substantial numbers of Americans say obese people are self-indulgent, lazy and unable to control their appetites. And it translates into poorer job prospects for the obese compared with their slim peers.

Preschool. It begins in preschool. Ok. I’m going to go lock myself inside my panic room now. Kidding. But, I will certainly be more vigilant to any signs that my children may have been exposed to such nonsensical and hateful views. 

This is one of the many reasons swimsuitsforbagel is an important topic. 

*Please note. I have included a link to the Slog post, but be forewarned. In usual Slog fashion, the comments are filled with many trollish statements about overweight people. While I enjoy some of the posts on Slog, I’ve learned over time which posts will be a comment cesspool and which ones won’t. Tread into that comment cesspool at your own risk.

Shortlink
Swimsuitsforbagel - I opted to go with this picture, although it’s an old one. It was originally taken by a newspaper photographer and published in my local paper. I found it relevant to this situation because after it appeared in the newspaper several of my fifth grade classmates circled my picture, wrote “fatty” above it, and hung about 30 copies throughout the school campus. As one can imagine, I was humiliated. The principal, dean, and Episcopal priest responsible for the elementary school told me that I needed to have a better sense of humor and to pray for my classmates. Yes, you read that correctly. The three of them looked me in the eye and said, “I. Needed. A. Better. Sense. Of. Humor. And. To. Pray. For. My. Classmates.” Meanwhile, the students responsible for this “joke” weren’t punished in any way. Proving that “everything is copy”, I can now discuss this event at parties, be the hero of the story, and make people laugh. But, when it happened, I was 10 years old and I thought I might die. While I certainly don’t blame my subsequent anorexia on this incident (it was about other more complicated factors), it’s interesting to note that during my anorexic days I taped this picture to my scale and kept another copy in my wallet.  I’ve been fat. (Although I think the word du jour at the time was “husky”. Do they even still sell “husky” pants for boys? Eeek. I hated - and still do - that word.) I’ve been thin. I’ve been average. But, I’ve always just been me. And, although it took me far too long to figure this out, I LIKE ME. I’ve decided that FAT should stand for F*ck Anonymous Trolls.

Swimsuitsforbagel -

I opted to go with this picture, although it’s an old one. It was originally taken by a newspaper photographer and published in my local paper.

I found it relevant to this situation because after it appeared in the newspaper several of my fifth grade classmates circled my picture, wrote “fatty” above it, and hung about 30 copies throughout the school campus. As one can imagine, I was humiliated. The principal, dean, and Episcopal priest responsible for the elementary school told me that I needed to have a better sense of humor and to pray for my classmates. Yes, you read that correctly. The three of them looked me in the eye and said, “I. Needed. A. Better. Sense. Of. Humor. And. To. Pray. For. My. Classmates.” Meanwhile, the students responsible for this “joke” weren’t punished in any way. Proving that “everything is copy”, I can now discuss this event at parties, be the hero of the story, and make people laugh. But, when it happened, I was 10 years old and I thought I might die.

While I certainly don’t blame my subsequent anorexia on this incident (it was about other more complicated factors), it’s interesting to note that during my anorexic days I taped this picture to my scale and kept another copy in my wallet. 

I’ve been fat. (Although I think the word du jour at the time was “husky”. Do they even still sell “husky” pants for boys? Eeek. I hated - and still do - that word.) I’ve been thin. I’ve been average. But, I’ve always just been me. And, although it took me far too long to figure this out, I LIKE ME.

I’ve decided that FAT should stand for F*ck Anonymous Trolls.

Shortlink

Stuff I Like

Ask me anything