I am delighted to announce that the negotiations between the Bloggers Guild of America (BGA) the Alliance of Web Log Producers (AWLP) have been successful and we have reached an agreement which I believe will be mutually beneficial. Both sides have made compromises so that this agreement could be reached as soon as possible, so that I might continue writing this blog for your enjoyment.
Obviously that is all a big fat lie. In truth, I got distracted by World of Warcraft.
So let's see. What's new? Well, there was Christmas. That was pretty cool. We actually only had two Christmas meal obligations this year and they both happened at our house, which was a new thing. We had a Christmas lunch thingie on the Saturday before Christmas with my mom, my brother Adam, his wife Tasha, and their daughter Mia. It went pretty smoothly. The next day we had our usual Christmas dinner with Debbie's family, but this time, due to some animosity amongst the extended family (long story), it was just her immediate family that attended.
And that left us to enjoy Christmas day at our own pace, which was nice. In years past, we've opened the gifts from Santa on Christmas morning, then we've had to get the kids dressed and out the door for some event or another. This year we all got to stay in our pajamas and play with toys all day long.
The kids got lots and lots of stuff. Debbie usually shops all year long and, I'm not sure how, but she manages to keep track of everything that she gets so that all the kids enjoy fair and equal representation come Christmas morning. The end result is that I'm usually just as surprised at the sight of the presents under the tree as the kids are. I'm left looking at the mountain of gifts, scratching my head, thinking Santa? Is it really you?
The big gift from me to Debbie was a mother's necklace. It's got three little gold kid figures, each representing one of our offspring. They each have a corresponding birthstone in the belly of the charm. It wasn't easy to find all of the pieces and they weren't cheap, but she's wanted that necklace for years. And she is a pretty good mom, so she deserved it.
Yours truly got the PS2 version of Guitar Hero III with two guitars, a badass new gaming keyboard, and a wireless router. Now I can browse the internet or play WoW anywhere in the house! I used to be pissed that The Jetsons promised that we'd have flying cars by now and the world didn't deliver, but the ability to play WoW while I'm on the can is even better!
I'm back in school now after a short break. I have no idea how, but I actually pulled a B out of that jackass macroeco-suck-ics class. I can honestly say that the class taught me two things: supply and demand are related (duh), and people should never study economics. Now I'm taking English 101, a history of Europe class, a geogrophy class, and something called Strategies for Academic Success, which is basically an intro to college class that is required by my school.
I met the requirements for a leadership certificate and I should receive the certificate in the spring. I can't wait. I'm gonna hang it on the wall of my office and it will give me license to boss people around. And if they give me any guff, I'll just point to Mr. Leadership Certificate and that'll be the end of it.
Work is just as annoying as usual. Got a new boss, which is pretty cool. She wants to start grooming me for her position, which means, for the time being, I have more responsibilities and more work, but interestingly, no more money. Funny how that works.
And then there's World of Warcraft. At one time I said I'd never pay a monthly fee to play a game, but after hearing Jason rave about it, I decided to take advantage of the free trial ... and he was never heard from again. I figured it up and, if you consider the number of games that I usually buy in a given year, it's more money than if I were just paying the monthly fee for WoW. And with the amount of time that WoW eats up, I don't have time to play other games anyway. Jason is on there with me and Adam is too, so we're able to coordinate on a lot of things in the game. Hell, even Debbie has been playing a bit. I've gone through a few characters, but right now I've got two active characters: a level 47 night elf druid named Nannar, and a level 10 undead priest named Yoreck.
OK, gotta go. All this talk about WoW makes me wanna play.
Today was my 29th birthday. Which means that, in just one short year's time, I will have been breathing oxygen for 30 damn years. That's a long freaking time. Especially since, in high school, I was voted Most Likely to Die From Asphyxiating on Vomit Before the Age of 25*.
Anyway, it was a pretty normal day. Went to work. The kids made me birthday cards, which is always cool. Every year I get new homemade cards from Emily and Xander which serve as a benchmark for their progress as little people. Every year I can see their skills and creativity growing and it feels good. It's funny that my birthdays have become less about me and more about my family, but I guess that's the way it's supposed to be.
I ate O'Charley's for dinner tonight, which was a rarity because Debbie usually makes dinner. I had their pecan/chicken tender salad. If salads could have children, I would want this salad to bear my children. It's badass.
I did get a really cool toy for my birthday. The wife and kids got me a new mountain bike. You can see a pic of it here. That's not a picture of MY bike, but it's the exact same model and color and everything. It's not a competitive bike by any means, and I won't be descending any mountains with it, but I wanted something that wouldn't bankrupt me which could also handle easy to moderate trails without falling apart. I can't wait to try it out, hopefully this weekend.
*That's not really true. I made that whole bit up.
Today is the September equinox, which, for myself and all the other residents of the northern hemisphere, means today is the first day of fall. We're coming out of an exceptionally hot and dry summer here in Northern Kentucky, so that's good news.
I think if I had to choose, I'd pick the fall as my favorite of all the seasons. It has more personality than the others. Plus, it's the season of my birthday. Also, it's home to my favorite holiday: Halloween.
As a way to welcome the fall and to commemorate the summer, Debbie and I took the kids on a short hike this morning to Middle Creek Park, which isn't too far from Boone County Cliffs. It was pretty cool, except for the swarms of mosquitoes (the drought has left lots of standing water where a creek used to be) and an encounter with one pissed off dog that, for some reason, really didn't like the kids. There are at least three distinct trails in the park. We stayed on Trail 1, but we saw signs that pointed to Trail 2 and something called Mud Road. Trail 1, with its wide, level, well-worn paths, was very hospitable. I didn't really see any of Mud Road, but Trail 2 looked like it may be a bit more challenging.
I plan on getting a mountain bike here in the next week or so and I think Middle Creek will be a great place to break the bike (and my legs) in.
Emily and Xander started kindergarten last week. They didn't go to preschool and they've never been to any kind of daycare, so as you might imagine, this is a pretty big deal for Debbie and I. Debbie more so than me. I have to leave them five out of seven days just about every week, but she's hardly been away from them since they've been born. In fact, I think it's fair to say she spent more time away from Emily and Xander their first week of school than she had the entire five years and four months prior.
She handled it pretty well, all things considered. Admittedly, I thought she would be an inconsolable mess on their first day at school, but she surprised me. I was proud of how strong she was, even as we left the two of them in their classrooms. She has Luke to keep her company while they're away, so I'm sure that helps.
We made the decision to split them up into separate classes. We thought this was important for a number of reasons, chief of which was simply that they had never really been apart for extended amounts of time and neither one had ever really been alone in social situations with children of their own age group. We wanted to make sure they're given the opportunity to develop as individuals. Xander needs this more than Emily, I think. When meeting new people, Emily has always been the one to communicate, while Xander is allowed to retreat to a safe distance. We felt that, if they were in the same classroom, Xander's social skills might suffer.
The transition to school went smoothly and they're both doing great. I know it's just their second week, but I think they'll be fine. There's no bellyaching in the morning when it's time to get ready for school. Well, unless you count the usual complaints about uncomfortable clothes, but we've been living with that for years and it certainly has nothing to do with school. They both go out the door with their oversize backpacks and climb up into the school bus without so much as a whimper. And Luke seems to be having no trouble adapting to being the only child in the house for a while every day. He doesn't have to compete for Mom's attention anymore, at least for those few hours while his brother and sister are at school.
You know, before they started school, I was most worried about Emily and Xander being in the care of someone else for several hours every day and this was the thing that I thought would be the most difficult for me to get used to. I was wrong. The strangest thing to me about this transition, and the idea that I may never get used to, is that they are learning things now that we are not teaching them. I guess I just assumed that Debbie and I would always be the ones to shape their minds until they were ready to take over for themselves. But now there's someone else who is given the opportunity several times per week to impart knowledge upon them and to influence their beliefs, priorities, opinions, etc. That, to me, is pretty scary.
I guess I should have expect this, but I didn't. Though it might not be such a bad thing. As long as it helps to make them good people and as long as it doesn't change them so drastically that they become different kids, I'm all for it.
