Friday, January 1, 2010 by Dana.

Happy New Year! I’m awake at 7am on 1/1/2010 to make predictions.

1. My 1st nap of 2010 will occur today (1/1/2010).
2. My dogs will boycott making resolutions to behave better.
3. My car will get stolen forcing me to get a newer one that doesn’t need shocks, breaks, or general maintenance.  Wait… no… I sense that is just wishful thinking on my part.
4. I will put away Holiday decorations with a vow to get better ones for outside next year.  I will end up putting up the same crappy decorations after Thanksgiving, except 2 more strands of lights will quit working.
5. Based on straight party line voting, we will get a national health care system. Due to all the compromises, it will be so watered-down and confusing, that people will complain about it well into 2011. Republicans will still do nothing to reverse the damages caused by 8 years of the Bush administration.
6. My discontent for suburbia will make me search for a rural home with no neighbors within 300 yards. The kids will beg us to not move to the middle of nowhere, so I will still be blogging about Disturbia into 2011.
7. My middle child will hit a growth spurt around his 13th birthday in March and will be as tall as me by 2011.

Ok… Now for some real predictions

1. The Tempe woman that showed up in Miami without her 8-month old that was last seen in San Antonio will confess to killing her child after her boy is discovered in her abandoned vehicle.
2. A major earthquake will create a giant sinkhole in Mexico south of Yuma, AZ.  It will create a beautiful spring-filled lake that turns Yuma, AZ into a major tourist town.
3. Android-based phones will outnumber iPhones. Apple products will revert to a minor cult status for a few years until they wow us again with a new system using a holographic projection display and thought recognition for system input.

Posted in Crime, Desert, Technology, Holidays, kids, Suburbia, Pets, Neighbors, Disturbed | Print | No Comments »

Thursday, December 17, 2009 by Dana.

Both Karen and I grew up in rural areas where we had many chores to do. For Karen, growing on a working dairy and tobacco farm, the work was very extensive. Neither of us received a regular allowance for our efforts We were just expected to do our part.

As we raise our own 3 boys, we do not give them an allowance either. They certainly have less work to do living in Suburbia, but we do not give them any specific amount for doing the work around the house that they should be doing.

Our thinking is that we pay for our kids to be in various club sports, get various lessons, and give them money to attend social events.  If they want to earn any additional money, they can pet sit for neighbors or get a job (when they are old enough). Is this wrong? Should we be rewarding their hard work for a monetary sum?

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Friday, November 27, 2009 by Dana.

Like any normal set of siblings, they fight.  We have 3 boys, ages 9, 12 & 15.  Sometimes they get into heated arguments, and maybe a punch or 2 is thrown.  But the fights seldom last long.  When it comes to fighting with “friends”, those fights are usually short and mostly just shoving and verbal assaults.So when you see a news article like this one in AZ Central, you have to wonder what parental meltdown is going on here for things to escalate out of control.  We all need to teach kids how to have a thicker skin and stick to spreading bad rumors instead of stabbing the person that just kicked your ass in Guitar Hero.  Oh… and keep the alcohol and sharp objects away from your teen!

Posted in Weapons, Crime, Alcohol, parents, Suburbia, kids, Disturbed | Print | No Comments »

Thursday, November 26, 2009 by Dana.

What did our Thanksgiving Day include:

1. Wife gets up early to go get groceries for Thanksgiving Dinner.
2. Husband and 15 yr old son help put groceries away.
3. Husband & Wife argue over trivial water drips in the kitchen… was the final straw in the “get of my kitchen” bad mood act this morning.
4. Wife storms out of house to walk dogs to cool off.
5. Husband makes amends by chopping up parsley and celery.
6. Upon Wife’s return, Husband and 15 yr old son take 1 hour walk with dog to let wife cool off more.
7. Watching football.
8. 9 yr old son and 12 yr old son fighting over who gets to do what while setting the table.
9. Continued fighting over who stands where while setting the table.
10. 9 yr old makes drinks menus (Making drink menus) and refuses to let anyone read them until all sit.  Everyone gets their own drink instead.
11. Husband intervenes to make 9 yr old and 12 yr old sit in a timeout on the steps.
12. 15 yr old plays on the computer
13. 12 yr old plays guitar
14. 9 yr old plays on Xbox.
15. More watching of Football
16. Wife asks Husband if he is watching football still (it’s not even 1pm yet).
17. Husband helps wife prepare late lunch (when we eat our Turkey Meal)
18. 12 yr old makes mistake of having nothing to do in front of Wife, gets enlisted into making mashed potatoes
19. Husband watches more football. Then argues over going out at the last minute to get a pumpkin pie.
20. Husband goes to get pie.
21. Wife has feast ready… Wife removing delicious bird from oven
22. Family eats… 1 fight over who gets to talk to 12 yr old about his shopping plans.
23. 9 yr old starts fight over who get the wishbone.  Husband decides to not carve it out until of the bird until everyone forgets about it.
24. More football watching… Husband falls asleep on the couch.
25. Husband wakes up to 9 yr old screaming about fairness of game where the 12 yr old and his friend always win.
26. 9 yr old continues on tantrum for a little longer until Wife resolves it.
27. Wife gets off Facebook to sit next to Husband on the couch. Asks if football is over yet (during 4th quarter of game 2 of 3).
28. Wife asks Husband if he wants to go shopping (for nothing in particular)
29. More football watching
30. 9 yr old runs into house claiming someone hijacked the neighbors truck (neighbors are out of town).
31. Wife calls out of town neighbors to see if they were expecting someone to use their truck. Leaves message.
32. 9 yr old runs back in. Claims people are taking stuff out of the neighbors house.
33. Wife runs outside.
34. Husband keeps blogging… oops. I better get out there. brb
35. Husband receives call from neighbor with potentially hijacked truck. All good… truck is being borrowed by friends, and it turns out that the only things took from inside were cooking oil and serving dishes.
36. Wife and Husband window shop on-line after Husband realizes he doesn’t get the NFL network to watch game 3 of the day.
37. Wife takes remote control to watch chick movie on HBO.
38. Husband finishes blog post.

Posted in Holidays, parents, kids, Suburbia, Disturbed | Print | No Comments »

Thursday, September 10, 2009 by Dana.

Why is this news?  Because AZ Republic (azcentral.com) doesn’t really doesn’t print much else… anyway… this article about the schools (where my kids go) now have SmartBoards.  This is a technology available 10 years ago, and deployed to many businesses 6-8 years ago.  I guess they finally dropped the price tag down to a reasonable level.

Now teachers can electronically scribble on the PowerPoint slides they made in 1998 and never updated.  Isn’t the state of education in America great? *eye roll*

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Monday, August 31, 2009 by Dana.

So I noticed this article in the AZ Republic about the “not so wild” burros in a tourist area getting fat from being overfed the same crap that the tourist eat.  I do think it is a good idea to be concerned about these animals; however, let’s get 10243298423 times more concerned about our obese society.  There are far too many fat kids who turn into fat adults that need our help.  Let’s put a tax on fast food and find a way to load fresh fruit into vending machines. 

Posted in Diet, kids, Disturbed | Print | No Comments »

Thursday, August 27, 2009 by Dana.

Through some various furniture moves that you don’t really want to read about, we ended up with several dining room chairs to dispose… and our 9 year old as commandeered them.  He has them setup in an open area of the Great Room, covered in numerous old bed sheets to form a make shift tent/fort.  For 2 days now, he has been playing in it, having moved a variety of toys and games into it to play with his friends that come over.

I remember building tent forts the same way as a kid, and it is fun to watch him do the same.  Did you build them?  What was your technique?

Posted in kids, Suburbia | Print | No Comments »

Friday, August 14, 2009 by Dana.

After breakfast with the boys on my Friday off, I drove 2 of them to school on my Harley (not at the same time of course).  They love arriving in style of course.  I think they would prefer that I pull up on the sidewalk in front of everyone, but I followed the rules and parked it in an open visitor spot to let them off.

Then I took the bike out for a photoshoot with the hottest, sexiest blonde! She wore stiletto platform heals, a mini skirt, and a corsette!  It was awesome!

…and I got a pic of me on the bike too!

Posted in kids, Disturbed, Weekend | Print | No Comments »

Sunday, July 19, 2009 by Dana.

OK… The City of Phoenix has switched to a 6-day schedule for the pools.  They are closed on Fridays, which apparently is the slowest day.  OK, so we can accept that, but it is 115 degrees out!  Now the city has decided to shutdown the pools during the last week of July (over 1 month early).  http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2009/07/19/20090719phxpoolclosures0719.html

It is 115 degrees, dammit!  If you put up more than 30 sq feet of shaded canopy, maybe you could fill the damn place and generate some revenue!  What are your thoughts?

Posted in kids, Suburbia, Disturbed | Print | No Comments »

Thursday, June 18, 2009 by Dana.

After a night at a KOA campground in Odessa, they hit the road at about 8am local time.  The plan is to get to Little Rock, AK on Day 2 (10 hrs).

Update 8 - From Shade - Barn! We’re in Midland, TX. We just passed some [windmills].Tired puppies.Sorry, but there’s nothing around me [to photograph].

Update 9 - From Shade - It’s pretty cool over here [near Abilene].

Update 10 - From Shade - We’re half way there.  We’re in Dallas.That’s Dallas for ya. Mom isn’t [having fun]. She made a wrong turn. Again.

Read the rest of this entry »

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