Posts from — March 2006

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? Originally uploaded by hasfurrychildren.

Dog cell phones

We are in such a rush in the mornings that I eat standing up in the kitchen and finish my breakfast in the car.  Everything is so fast paced at times that I dream of the days of retirement and casual mornings walking the dog and meeting friends at the local diner.

What am I thinking? I love the fast pace and the edginess of society.  Give me more, more, more……

A couple of weeks ago I found the Tricia's Musings blog and fell in love with her design. I was so intriqued, that I asked her who designed it and where she obtained it. I sometimes just visit her site just to stare at the design. Besides her graphic work, she has a great post about the beginning of gardening season, something I love and hate, plus she has some great flower photos on flickr. So please click on her link on the top of the sidebar and send her some "click love."

fringed tulip

Originally uploaded by triciawd.

I don’t know why, but today I am feeling like a proud dad.  Bacchus Jr. (BJ) is recovering well from his surgery and he has received three green faces in a row at his daycare.  If he gets 5 in a row, I promised him another engine to his Geotrax train set so hopefully I will be making a trip to Toys R Us this weekend.

These are wrongly attributed to Bill Gates– The real author is Charles J. Sykes “50 Rules That Kids Won’t Learn in School”

I got this emailed to me and thought it was good so I saved it and sharing with all of you. Presented at Mt. Whitney High School in Visalia, California. Worthwhile reading for anyone. Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! To anyone with kids of any age, or anyone who has ever been a kid, here’s some advice Bill Gates recently dished out at a high school speech about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair-get used to it.

Rule 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule3: You will NOT make $40,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping- they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents’ generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

 

My wife received this from one of her friends and after reading Izzy’s post, hearing another amber alert and re-posting info on the family watchdog website, I thought it important to emphasize Child safety issues again. So please read and take caution.  I don’t know how many times I enter public bathrooms and see children playing with no supervision.

I’m sending this out to keep everyone aware. Sometimes we tend to become complacent and assume children are safe going to the bathroom alone. At Gabrielle’s soccer game today, she had to go to the bathroom, and she is not allowed to go alone. You can call me overprotective, but I just call it being extremely aware. I walked in the bathroom entrance with her and checked the stall before she went in. She was talking to me when suddenly, the middle bathroom door swung open and a man ran out. I couldn’t leave my daughter alone, but I ran to the entrance to see him running towards the parking lot. I was able to get a description and called the police. I am majoring in social work and have learned enough to know that there are many pedophiles looking around for any opportunity to have access to a child. Any place where you see children there will also be people that prey on them. Unfortunately, this is reality, so please be aware and protect your children.

If you don’t have children but know of someone that does please pass this on. I have heard these stories about children going into bathrooms and being hurt, but had never actually ever encountered this particular situation, so it caught me completely off guard.I don’t even want to think about what could have happened if my child or someone else’s child had encountered this man in the bathroom alone.

I needed to share this with you and you can choose to do whatever you want with this information. Just so you know, it was Carpenter Park in Plano and the bathroom was next to baseball field #2 on the opposite side of the soccer fields. I notified her Coach and now I’m notifying you. You may think I’m overreacting but if overreacting means protecting at least one child, then so be it. The men’s bathroom was open and there was no reason he should have been in the women’s, and what made it even more suspicious was the way he ran out of there.   

Thank you for taking the time to read this!         

My wife traded in her SUV for a Mini-Van this weekend…….My co-workers tell me that since I now drive a “loser cruiser” my cool points = 0. 

I went to the dealer kicking and screaming, but soon changed my tune.  She had a Honda Pilot and wanted something more family friendly. I found that the Odyssey did have more room and is longer than the SUV.  It also has more storage compartments and plenty of cup holders.  So I give it two thumbs up…..Plus the sliding side doors are “Daddy Cool.” If I had any complaint, it would be that some of the cup holders are not deep enough, but I can live with that.

If you have been reading my blog you know that I give updates on my son’s behavior in daycare. Today I am happy to announce that Bacchus Jr. (BJ) received (green faces) all week. This is the first time in a long time that he has achieved this goal for 5 weekdays in a row. He has split this achievement over a two week time period, but this is the first time he has done it from Monday to Friday straight. Yeah BJ!!!!

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What a way to start the week….

Sunflower

Originally uploaded by Beechgrove Gardener.