literally.
wow. time is flying by. literally. wait, no... figuratively i guess.
i'm not good with words.
here's the recipe in pictures:
a little swimming with the baby girl..
a couple days of water sports..
(mixed with some rock and roll, apparently..)
and lots of cheese..
once settled, add in some camping, a trip to
michigan (with a night at a ska show.. skanktacular!), a couple poker games, tattoos, and an album (almost finished). serve warm. like 90 degrees warm. it's hot out there!
looking ahead: cubs vs.
barry bonds, the
decemberists at
millenium park (!), more camping, and a poker main event. plus: can a teacher go the entire summer without cutting his hair?
.....
the riddle of the hour:take me out and scratch my head,i once was black, but now i'm red.what am i?.....
Third Paint Job
last night i painted a coat of primer on the bathroom walls, with the door closed. the smell was slightly strong. marc was pacing between the bathroom and baby room, saying "It smells really strong. i mean i can smell it all the way in the living room* do you think the smell will wake the baby? look, i think he's waking up. he's moving. it smells really strong. look, i think he's waking up. he's moving."
here's a riddle: if a baby moves and no one is hovering around to see it, does the baby sleep through a bit of smelly paint?
*living room is two feet from the bathroom
and it's on.
so i'm back... round two for summer of george, baby...
i've been off for a week, officially, and my apologies for not posting yet. although i'm not sure who reads this besides myself and marc. does john even? or annie? not sure who's going to post this summer.
anyways, great week so far. golf, poker, running camp, cubs brawl... things are starting off nicely. already a little busy this summer... got a daughter now, who happens to be the cutest of the cute. but i'm dealing with a disc issue in my back. hm. kinda feel like an old man-- a kid and a back problem. funny emoticon here.
got a poker table for father's day. awesome. first father's day also saw the family go gamble on horses, where i feel i made a very dad-esque move in bypassing traffic with some inside, back entrance knowledge. it's just what dad's do, i guess. wasn't as lucky as marc and others at the track though. shoulda bet my money on the bobtail nag. somebody bet on the bay.
then i put in a new mailbox today.. another dad move there. but alas... i also got to relax and get some music stuff done. here was my view in the basement all afternoon:
and a screen shot of the work in progress...
i think my new thing this summer may be to make stuff interesting... how about a reason to read..? besides wanting to know the intimate details of my summer, of course. what about a riddle? riddles are fun, right? here goes...
....
a black dog stands in the middle of an intersecton of two black cross streets.
the dog is licking his rump, as most dogs do when they're bored.
none of the street lights are working due to a power failure. probably a small, broken down town like bourbonnais.
a car with two broken headlights drives straight towards the dog. again, probably bourbonnais, so the headlight thing makes sense.
BUT NO WORRIES: the driver veers off in time to avoid hitting the poor doggie.
so what's the question...? how could the driver have seen the dog in time?
.....
alright... more soon. for now, i'm dog tired. ha! but that's not a clue. sorry, losers.
Lake Shore Sunday Driving
The wife and I have been ultra busy with projects around the house. Earlier last week we put up a gazebo on the back patio. Also, we planned on cleaning out and organizing the garage on Saturday, but totally got to it on Friday afternoon while our little man slept inside. After a trip to Brookfield Zoo on Saturday, we had time to relax on Sunday. Originally, we were going to take a walk, but the landfill in Hillside was stinking up the area, so we decided to take Cam into the city for a Sunday drive on Lake Shore.
It was beautiful, and while he fussed in and out of sleep, we still had time to enjoy the views and the old memories that returned when we turned towards Logan Square. We hooked up with Jenn and Keith and took him to El Cid II on Milwaukee and Diversey for Coronas, limes, and burritos. It's funny to remember that the last time we were there, Scott and Libbi were telling us that they were pregnant, and here we were, roughly one year later, posing our baby with beer bottles in front of him.
I love this picture, btw. He just woke up from a nap and was ready for some lunch of his own. Also, he peed on me while we were there. I can't believe how totally okay I am with that.
An Old School Blog*
My wife and I were given a gift certificate for Pizza Hut a few months back at a baby shower for us hosted by my co-workers. We've tried one other time to use it, but things didn't work out. Apparently Pizza Hut and Pizza Hut Express are two completely and totally seperate entities. One gift card for one does not guarantee food from the other. I drove away from the Pizza Hut Express drive-thru with one of their large Fruit Punch drinks in my drink holder, and spent a few moments in their parking lot pondering whether or not I should return it, seeing as how I failed to pay for the merchandise. I did. I walked in the front door and handed it to some lady at the counter who tried to tell me to keep it. I shook her off saying, "No thanks. I didn't pay for it, and I don't need to be reminded of that when I drink. I don't want to feel guilty."
So, fast forward to today, and I find myself in Melrose Park at an actual Pizza Hut picking up an order I was able to place online.** The clerk who checked me out was younger and female. I'm guessing she was maybe nineteen or twenty. Definitely old enough to be out of high school, though not old enough to get into a bar. She seemed somewhat out of it. She grabbed my order just fine, but distractedly thanked me for my business without giving me my 2 liter of Pepsi. Either way, the transaction went down more or less without a hitch.
As I was putting the food in the car, though, I heard an argument taking place behind me. There was my clerk, being yelled at by the much older, much larger female manager of the store. The clerk kept saying "I'm sorry" and "Please listen" over and over again, while the manager kept shouting statements like "No! You get your baby and you get out!" and "You don't care about anyone but yourself!" and "I'm not dealing with this shit anymore!" again and again. In fact, the manager, after she got back in her car, nearly hit me as she pulled out in a blind rage, screaming at the clerk who was still holding onto the car.
It was surreal, and it reminded me to be mindful of how quick I judge people. I have a tendency to do that. I see someone forget part of my order at a restaurant, for example, and I think "What an idiot! How hard can it be to remember to give me my Pepsi?" I'm the idiot. I should realize, at some point, that I'm just like the clerk in a lot of ways. If something is frustrating or bothering me, I can't help but internalize it and struggle with it and let it frustrate me.
I think about the last few weeks or school, for example, and I remember how short I was with some of my juniors because they were not reading
The Great Gatsby. Now, part of my frustration was my own doing - I like Gatsby, and therefore I expect my enthusiasim to spill over to my kids. It just didn't happen. The other part, though, is where I have to watch out. I don't know what's going on in a lot of my students' home lives. They could have unstable families, unstable living conditions, and be dealing with the general drama and day-to-day madness that is being a teenager. So why should I be so impatient with them over a book that they may or may not be reading?***
The strangest thing about the whole confrontation to me is this: I was driving down North Ave. in Melrose Park at 7pm on a Friday night in the "middle" of summer and, as a result of watching a Pizza Hut manager and a Pizza Hut clerk get into an argument about living conditions, I was thinking about my students. Something is wrong with me. Could I possibly miss them already?
Oh. One other thing. I was pulled over five minutes after that because my wife has not put her license plate on the front of her car. Second time in three weeks that has happened. No ticket, though, just like last time. I'm a lucky guy.
*********************************** My posts may be a bit sparse on pictures both today and in the future. We have a kid now, and he gets all of the face time with the camera, as he should. No one really wants to see my ugly mug anyways.
** Ooh... how fancy and modern today's world is! Online poker. Online grocery shopping. And now ... *drumroll please* ... online pizza delivery. That is assuming, of course, that you live close enough to a Pizza Hut, which we don't. So, I guess it's more like online carryout pizza.
*** They totally were not reading it, btw. I wish I was able to post some of their journal responses. Yikes.
The Summer of Dads?
In last year's Summer of George season finale, I forgot to give you the cliffhanger... my wife was pregnant! Now, ten months later, the show is happy to welcome - amongst other new friends - our little buddy,
Campbell. There we are at the moment of my triumphant return home from my last day of school. There's nothing better than having a happy little family greet me as I walk through the door.
Also, there's nothing better than starting the summer off with a Cubs game. Ironically enough, summer started off the same way last year, minus the kids, of course. I tried very hard to push some runs across with my lucky Cubs headband, but alas, they ended up losing 9-4.
If it wasn't for the beer at the ballpark, I don't know why anyone would go. True to form, the Cubbies loaded the bases with only one away in the ninth and the tying run on deck, only to have Cliff Floyd and Derek Lee strike out in craptacular fashion.
I tried to give the little girl in front of me a high five, but, upon turning around to look at what I was doing, she thought I was making some sort of gesture that she should repeat. So, she quickly turned around and gave the Nazi salute to the visiting team as they came up to bat. "No, no," I quickly muttered. "High five!"
That was close.
and so it is.
well, with my summer officially over, this will be my last summer of george post as well. i think it was a great idea to chronicle the past 3 months. nice work, marc. i say we do it again next year. right here on the same website. so what if the url says "2k6"... bookmark this shiz and let's keep it going.
lots happened this summer of george. i think i put in some of my best musical work thus far. i can't wait for people to hear the songs we created. the samples on the lois lane webpage are nice, but it'll be cool to put it all on a full length. and to play in front of people. soon enough, i guess.
besides making music, i played poker, golfed, saw the cubs suck it up, grew a beard, shaved my beard, played more poker, went to 4 weddings, traveled the midwest, did a triathlon, played some more poker, slept in, tore marc up in pop-a-shot basketball, and found out i am going to be a dad. awesome times.
i found this shot from a while ago... here's to next summer...
