Action Shots #2

Sunscreen
+
Dirtpile
=

Pete's cousin Owen

Uncovery #1

Scrubs is one of our favorite shows, and we spit out our ice cream when this scene happened.



So, when you were in middle school, were you pulling these moves at the dance, surrounded by a circle of onlookers, or were you trying them in front of the bathroom mirror? You know it's one or the other.

Routine

I'd like to expand upon a previous post. When I was posting about how routine makes me happy and enriches my life, I was looking for a snappy quote, and all I found were quotes like the following:

"The less routine the more life."
Amos Bronson Alcott

"I began to realize how simple life could be if one had a regular routine to follow with fixed hours, a fixed salary, and very little original thinking to do."
Roald Dahl

"As long as habit and routine dictate the pattern of living, new dimensions of the soul will not emerge."
Henry Van Dyke

I know that these are probably distinguished men. Especially old Roald. "Danny the Champion of the World" made me wish I was named Danny throughout my childhood.

But I totally disagree with what they're saying. Routine is the system for controlling the necessary repetitiveness of life. You control the repetition and mold it into a pleasurable routine, and, at the same time, controlling it makes it more efficient, enabling more unstructured time, which is also important. The opposite of routine is not 100% free time, it's chaos and disorganization, which is not enriching or creatively inspiring to me at all. I'd wager that any seriously productive artist or thinker cherishes and guards his routine.

"Some men like a dull life-they like the routine of eating breakfast, going to work, coming home, petting the dog, watching TV, kissing the kids, and going to bed. Stay clear of it-it's often catching."
Hedy Lamarr

Exactly!

Action Shots #1

Pete had a beach party at his preschool last week for the last day of the year. The thing I like about this picture is the pile of crocs in the background.



Buncha trendy, smelly-foot kids.

administrative

I just realized that the reason there haven't been any comments in the past month is that I was supposed to be approving them all. I approved them all and reset it so that they automatically publish. Sorry about that. I wasn't ignoring all of you.

A Question To Tell You #1

Whether it is a demand, a recollection, or an actual question, Pete will preface the sentence with:

"Excuse me, I have a question to tell you..."

The new system

I'm a guy that gets attached to routine and small traditions. Whenever I discover something I really like, my first reaction is to think, "We need to go to this charming breakfast spot every week" or "I should pick up a copy of this magazine every time I travel." Most of the time, it's not practical, and I laugh at myself about it, but the instinct behind it is well-meant.

I'm worried that if I don't make a point of repeating them, I'll forget about the small things that bring happiness, and I'm a big believer that small happiness is more important than big happiness. There is even scientific evidence that backs me up,and the principle holds true with unhappiness as well. A trick knee hurts more than a broken heart, in the long view.

This is all a roundabout way of saying that I think this website needs some routine. And some gimic titles too.

So here's the new setup:

Monday - Uncoveries - Links to interesting online uncoveries (nobody really "discovers" anything online, right?)
Tuesday - Action Shots - photos, probably of my kids.
Wednesday - A Question to Tell You - anecdotes, probably about my kids.
Thursday - Action Shots - photos are popular, (and easy), so we'll do them twice a week.
Friday - Titles will vary, topics will vary. Basically, it'll be about whatever is going on. Could be rants, could be haiku, could be links to Mike's blog.

The revolution comes tomorrow. Where will you be?

(Heather has an activist friend who worried that when the revolution came, she'd be at The Gap.)

I know, I know

One of the things that annoys me most on blogs is when the author apologizes for being lame. Blogs can be very whiny and self-righteous at the same time, and this is the epitome. If you're going to be lame, don't make it worse by apologizing. In fact, if you think what you're writing is lame, then don't write it. Unless you don't really think it's lame at all, but you're afraid of criticism and want to set a stage where, in case the consensus is that it's lame, you can say that you said it first. Like that's any kind of an excuse at all.

On that note, and with a dose of hypocrisy, I'd like to apologize for being lame lately on the website. I haven't had much to say. Rather, I have had plenty to say, but not the discipline to say it right.

So, I'd like to plead for the patience of any readers that remain after this content drought. I'm going to be rolling out something new in the next few days. It's super exciting.

You can't stand the suspense.

For the road, I'll leave with some interesting information about the origin of the word "boondocks". Heather and I both connect it in our brains with swampy southern locations, but it turns out that we're off-base. Link.

Motherluvin

We had a great Mothers' day weekend. Some notes:

1. On Saturday night, we went to see Sesame Street Live at the Denver Coliseum (Claim to fame: it's right next door to the dogfood/glue factory). The ceiling of the coliseum was dotted by a graveyard of elmo-head balloons. It was a decent production, and had a good message, part of which involved cookie monster learning to "eat his colors" in order to get a well-rounded diet (pretty clever way to get kids to recognize the value of nutritional diversity and poke holes in the "wonderbread is nutritious" mythology). During this section, some giant vegetables came on stage and danced around, and Pete leaned over to me and said "Those are probably just costumes". Pete and his cousin enjoyed the show, but I wasn't sure if the educational value had soaked in until last night, at dinner, Pete announced "I'm a crazy cookie monster, and I'm eating my colors!"

2. Yesterday and today, I've been really feeling Mothers' Day. I'm so lucky to have such great moms in my life. I spent all of yesterday going in and out of misty-eyed choked up joy, watching Heather with our kids. She's amazing. I'm very impressed by skillful mothering, and I appreciate it more now that I'm a parent. When I was a kid, I didn't think about how much giving my mom did. I know now that kids are constantly asking (verbally or not) for a parent's physical and emotional energy, and it's not easy to give as much as my mom did (and does). As experts always do, good mothers (like my mom, Heather, and her mom) make it look easy.

I'm continually reminded that quality of mothering, good or bad, echoes through a person's whole life, and usually following generations. In 25 or 30 years, Nora's husband (please allow me to make a couple of assumptions here) will sit down and be speechlessly thankful that his kids have a strong, independent, nurturing mother, and then he'll think about Nora's mother, and Nora's grandmothers, and how beautiful it is that good bedtime story skills and protective playground instincts can be passed down just as much as nose shapes and hair color.

Mary went to school one day,

I'm totally addicted to this Youtube thing. Apparently, so addicted that I don't see any need to contribute anything creative to this blog.

Anyway, if you listen closely, you can hear Pete's cover of Mary Had a Little Lamb.