Annual Update

Yes he still wants to be a circus clown when he grows up. Other boy is almost three months old, JP is in his second year of preschool. Mumma's new business is gaining traction and I have switched jobs to a more community focused bank and my job is also much closer to home.

Merry Christmas to all.

Merry Christmas to all but I have to tell you it's a lot more merry, and exhausting, when one has a three-year old. We had a super hero Christmas, super hero sheets, toys, adventures, and trailers to upcoming movies. Jackie P is definitely down for Thor next summer, let the record reflect that the first word which my son can spell and "read" on sight is THOR.

Exhausting again, but the most fun I have had for the holidays in a long time. We adopted a child for Christmas buying them a slate of toys and we rolled over the Kiva money to new budding entrepreneurs. We went crazy on the boy and spent very modestly on ourselves. My parents got my a gift card to Wal-mart and I was delighted to get about 20 MP3 that I could update my music collections and download to my computer.

Family Friday

So not a lot of posts lately but I have four days left of school so I keep thinking in theory I will have more free time then. In a "circle of life" sort of way the boy also started preschool last week. He seems to be doing quite well with it, I got him playing some pre-school games in early August to ease the trepidation and that seemed to help a little. On the down side he seems to have developed a completely random stuttering problem in the last two weeks and my wife and I can't completely decide if it's an act or some sort of bizarre developmental snag, bear in mind he spoke perfectly clearly two weeks ago?

We have also developed our first legitimate mutual interest, sorry Little Einsteins, it was always an act for me. The boy and I both really get a kick out of comic books, so last night we read digital comic books online for a couple of hours. He's really starting to turn into quite an entertaining little boy.

Family Friday

So no major news for our first Family Friday. The boy was very good both yesterday and today. Yesterday we went to the park for awhile and then we went fishing for about an hour. Jackie was very cooperative, he helped carry a few lures and helped me look for fish. Today we had to do some serious power shopping between 6 and 7:30 pm and again the boy was a very good sport. When we finished, as a reward for good behavior, I took the boy to Big Lots and let him pick out a few super hero friends to play with.

He got a real kick out of his little men completely ignoring the pre-existing collection of 700 little men in order to spend quality time showing his new friends around. All in all a nice week. Renee and I also had some nice chats about different future plans which we are considering.

In him I see myself

So the point of Thousand word Thursday is to post a title, a picture, and a link or credit as needed without further explanation. As this is the first Thursday I thought a brief explanation was in order. Some pictures may be of historical significance, I am also partial to National Geographic and their images, and some days like today I may just choose a family photo.

Most people think that the boy looks a lot more like Renee than me which is, of course, true but I love this particular photo because he could be my twin when I was little and we lived on Guam for a while.

Muskrat Fever

So the Muskrats have improved to 10-9 overall and sit in third place in the Eastern Division of the NECBL. They may be the most bipolar sports team that I have ever seen running their home record to 9-1 after last night's win, while they sit on a 1-8 road record. The boy and I missed last night's game. After his second inning meltdown on Thursday I frankly wasn't up to that much fun this weekend, so I gave our tickets for Saturday's game to my parents and the boy and I may try to go tonight.

Really I love baseball but the hard part is the games start at seven and my almost three year old is usually starting to get sleepy by eight. We are often lucky to get four or five innings in before we have to leave. I had a friend suggest bringing a stroller. Then I can let him run around like a madman but then put him to bed at the game.

Unrelated to baseball, I caught a little 11" lake trout (to little to keep legally) right downtown at rotary park this morning. I have enjoyed going to the little creek (again catching eight fish in two trips) but it's almost too easy there. It's a nice place to take the boy for some excitement, but the fish are pretty small so I wanted something with a little higher degree of difficulty. Apparently there are quite a few trout and salmon right downtown, but boy are they finicky. The have no interest in rubber lures. Just like the last trout I caught the magic lure was last night's schnitzel from the William Tell Inn. Maybe I'll be the first fisherman sponsored by a Swiss restaurant?

Woe to the last day of vacation.

I had a very relaxing and happy father's day. The boy and I went fishing together it might have been the first time that I caught a fish with him there so he was pretty excited (four little rock bass). We watched a few movies together and then caught the beginning of the Muskrats game (I really wish that they had 6 pm starts instead of 7 pm but what can you do). Some day I'll get to watch an entire game.

We have been trying unsuccessfully to coordinate that Muskrat for Jackie's birthday but the GM hasn't gotten back to me yet. I am really starting to consider back-up plan options. It's hard because it's for my son's birthday but my general rule of thumb is I shouldn't have to beg you to buy your product. We broached the subject in March and have mentioned it by email and in person a few times since and we haven't gotten a real response.

I almost forgot, as an aside, today is my last day on vacation. I love my job, but man do I love vacation. : (

Busy Day

Yesterday was one adventure after the next. Now that I have a few more lures and a little more experience I figured I would go back to Opeechee Point and see if I had any more luck there. I tried three different lures in three different spots and I had not a single bite. I have been having the most luck at the train trestle by Hebert Foundry but the fish are on the smaller size.

Later in the morning we took the boy for his second haircut. At his first haircut, during which he was a little squeamish, we promised that if he cooperated he could get a color streak at his next haircut. So today he was a pretty good boy, we got him a nice short summer haircut, and he has nice green highlights running across his bangs.

In the early afternoon the boy and I went fishing together and he was surprisingly engaged. He wanted to use his own pole. He casted and reeled himself, and he wanted to fuss about lure selection (The boy prefers either a naked hook, or a hook with a Pepperidge Farms Goldfish on it). Neither of us caught a thing so I guess I can't be to critical of his tackle selection.

Then to cap our night we went to the Muskrats game, the boy made it until the seventh inning, after which the boy and the fifth place Muskrats melted down. After we left, the Muskrats handed back their hard fought 3-2 lead allowing 3 in the 8th and 2 more in the ninth. It was almost painful to read the box score this morning. After retiring the first batter apparently the Muskrats followed up with a dropped third strike allowing the runner to go to first, back-to-back walks, a fielder's choice (out number 2), and an error on the third baseman who had just come in as a defensive substitution. Fortunately, the team is only about a quarter of the way through the season with a lot of time yet to turn it around.

The One That Got Away

We have several events today including a Happy Birthday Party for Grammy Bayes and a vet appointment for Mr. Elvis. Renee is baking a cake for the party so a busy time all around in the Mitchell House. I still managed to be up at 4:30 and on the shore by 5 am.

I was able to get in just about two hours of fishing as I promised Renee I would be home by 7 am. I tried out both of my new lures and got nothing with the Strike King Rage Tail Chunk. I only gave it about a half hour and the site today was kind of lousy, I went to the River Street side of the water downtown across from the Laconia Spa (lots of weeds, few fish). Then I switched to my new Berkley Gulp Minnows and got a huge hit (huge for me anyway). With the minnow you sort of reel it along in the water and it looks like a little fish swimming, additionally Berkley puts some sort of treatment on it that makes the look feel and smell a little like a fish. It's a lot like using live bait without all of the squirming and flopping around. So anyway, I had a big largemouth bass on the hook and I fought him in but when I got the line in I was actually on top of a retaining wall several feet above the water so I had to reel the fish up about 6-8' through the air before I could get him in hand. Sure enough, my advertised 8 lb test line snapped under the spasmodic 3 lb weight of our friend Mr. Bass. As an aside, I met a teenager who hooked a decent size fish and wanted to weigh it with my scale. His was about 3 lb as well which illustrated to me the my earlier weight estimates were way off. My earlier fish were probably 1 lb at best. The one that got away today was probably 12-15 inches and a solid 3 lbs. Easily the biggest fish I have seen so far. What I will probably do in the next day or two is take my minnows back to the train trestle.

Unrelated to fishing, on yesterday's shopping adventure Jackson said the funniest thing ever. He was appreciative of a couple of early birthday presents and he thanked us for each. Then the gold medal line, "Mummy, Daddy, thank you for rescuing my heart from the dungeon." Apparently, the Toy Story friends bring great joy to a young child's heart.

Friends for Life

So it should come as no surprise that my wife and I love the boy. I was stalling on a paper I don't really feel like writing and I got to fidgeting around with the Windows Movie Maker. After a few minutes I said to myself, you know if you pick a short enough song it wouldn't be all that tough to make a little home movie of favorite photos. Then of course one wants smooth transitions. And if you're going to put forth the effort you kind of want the pictures to seem like they line up with the song, you know like they were done by a professional. Once you have effectively written off a night of homework you might as well make some cutesy titles and credits to round out the little project. I have to admit it was fun, it reminds my of the teary scene in Christmas Vacation where Chevy Chase is locked in the attic watching the old eight millimeter films. Anyway three hours later...

Take Me Fishing

So the boy had mentioned a few times that he wanted to go fishing. God knows where he got the idea. Suffice to say my wife and I are definitely more gatherers than hunters. But when we went to get worms at the local bait shop for my wife's garden, we stopped to look at the water and the boy asked again. Now look at this face and imagine him asking, "Daddy, can you take me fishing?"

So I did what any couch potato would do, we turned around and marched back into the bait shop and bought a Spider-man fishing pole ($15) and picked up a guide so I could start studying. Yesterday we went back to buy a tackle box ($18), a license ($35), and a bag of cookies ($1, the boy wanted cookies). So know we are $69 into this venture, I have studied seasons, limits, maps, and weather reports for a week, and essentially I still know not a damned thing about how to fish.

This morning we were up and at 'em by 6:30 and we went to a local park/beach. It was windy, which probably should have been common sense to me if you look at the landscape behind the boy, and the temperature was cool. Surprisingly, the boy made it through two juice boxes, one lost lure and bobber, and an hour of fishing and had this smile on his face when we were done. We probably have no future as bass fishermen, but we had fun and no one was harmed but the rubber lures. I'm hooked.

So Happy Mother's Day to all! Well at least to everyone who happens to be a mother. The boy and I got Mumma some gnomes and worms for a present. Why, you might ask, would I buy the love of my life worms for Mother's Day? Because that's what she asked for, of course...garden gnomes and worms. (Love You)

I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I know enough that when someone specifically asks for a present (even worms) you are better off getting them what they want rather than winging it.

As a completely unrelated aside you will find reposted via Madame Lamb my new favorite song in the entire universe. Why the significance? Again as I learned from Madame Lamb the song, by an Italian songwriter, is supposed to sound like English, without you know, actually being English.

Subversive Parenting

So naturally my wife and I want the boy to be happy. Sincerely, I could wish and hope and pray for him to enter any number of careers or avoid any number of choices but really all we want is for him to be happy. That being said, is it so wrong to try and maybe steer him towards the things that we enjoy? I mean really if he hates it fine, he can always watch the Little Einsteins until he's 30.

So anyway, my subversive plot is to have the boy enjoy baseball. After all my wife cooks with him all the time. We have taken him to a couple of his little buddy's baseball games and today my wife and I got him a little T and T-ball bat. He had fun with it for about five minutes, but really he doesn't spend much more than five minutes with most of his toys. and I didn't force it on him, he picked up the bat and swung it a few times, and I am wise enough that when he got bored we moved on. Later he had a great time with his cousin "Miggy." They should spend more time together they both seemed to have a great time. The only downside is it is closing in on 9:30 and the boy is still talking to himself in his room. Oh well.

Quarter of Six

So for the record, this is "the boy." One of the nice things about getting up at quarter of six is that the boy generally does not get up at quarter of six. Don't get me wrong, my wife and I love the boy dearly but as anyone with small children can attest, you should get a little peace and quiet when you can.

Quarter of six is a time when I can catch up on a little homework, check my sports scores, or even do this. Today I have about fifteen minutes or so before I have to start getting ready for work. I have accepted a position within my bank about a half hour north of where I live. Now I cover really the central third of the state so having both a promotion and a clearly defined home will be nice. The only minor downside is I will cut in to my "quarter of six" time as I will have to typically leave the house by 7:15 or so. I really am looking forward to being a manager of my own location so with that goes some minor inconveniences. My philosophy is, if I have to work for 30 more years I may as well make an effort to climb the corporate ladder.