In America there are two classes of travel – first class, and with children

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying. ~Friedrich Nietzsche

Yes, our big trip is upon us. This is rare for us, partly because of the expense, but more because travelling with our clan is never, ever easy.

The kids don’t adjust to sleeping in a strange place very well. The dad (that would be me) doesn’t handle stress very well. The mom has to keep all of us focused and do all the packing, planning, and a million other things so that we can pull it off.

Our niece is getting married, and we’ll get to see some family that we see every few years (if that often). Assuming we can properly make it past airport security and no weather delays, by tomorrow night we’ll be in Virginia. Which I’m sure is lovely, but the report I’m looking at says it is colder than a witch’s tit right now. But that’s ok, we’re staying at a nice place with an indoor pool. Yes, we are nuts and are hoping to swim in January.

And that’s the wonderful thing about family travel: it provides you with experiences that will remain locked forever in the scar tissue of your mind. ~Dave Barry

We will be packing video games for the kids, but probably not a laptop (don’t need the extra worry, see a couple paragraphs up). I may look and see if there’s a Business Center or whatnot and check online, but probably not. (makes note: bring a camera)

I’m sure there will be stories, hopefully of the mundane kind about how we can walk through airports and the rental car people gave us a free upgrade to a Ferrari that seats five (that’s my son’s hope, at least).

See you soon!

sub dude

I wrote about three drafts last night, but nothing worth hitting ‘publish.’

You’ve probably heard about the crash yesterday, yes, that’s just a couple miles from our house. Our kids are concerned, mostly my daughter, for the crew of the helicopter. She also wanted to be assured that we were not flying a helicopter to the wedding. We did not know any of the personnel involved, but it is hearbreaking nonetheless.

Once again, I’m considering what changes I need to make in my life. Nothing, again, to put here, at least not at this point. On the plus side I did the stoopid stability ball exercises again last night, this time without children assisting / laughing, and it went OK. No, I’m not any more stable, and it takes weeks to build muscle, but I think the stretching and activity does me some good each time. I’m more aware of different muscles in my torso / back, and now when I do the exercises it isn’t a nail biter to go down stairs (which is good). I still pull down the blinds so nobody can see me doing the “Ball Cobra” move (if I weren’t infertile, I swear we’d have little stability balls on the way, if you get the picture).

Seen any good movies lately? If you were on twitter last night, you know I watched “Zombie Strippers,” and it had me so involved that I was on twitter, too. 94 minutes long, and probably could have been done in 9.

From the movie: Zombie Jenna Jameson, talking to customer at strip club: “You’re cute. I could just eat you up.”

You’ll never guess what happens next. Yeah.

I watch them so you don’t have to, peoples.

consider the source

I’m at the top of the results if you search Yahoo! for “thesis about depression.” Which is kinda scary if you think about it.

On the one hand, I apparently write way too much about depression.

On the other hand, the interwebs apparently think I know more than I do.

Folks, I make this shit up as I go. I’m no more an expert on depression than I am on ice cream or beer.

MMmmmm, beer.

Er, where was I? Oh yeah. We cleaned our garage this weekend! So exciting. You can see actual floor in many areas of the garage now, and a huge pile o’ crap was placed at the curb to be hauled away by vultures. It feels good.

And, speaking of vultures, I find Facebook to be fascinating. I’m finding and/or being found by people I haven’t really thought about in years, decades even. Yes, am old. It’s interesting to see where everyone is now. One thing I’m seeing: apparently divorce is rather common “out there,” but we are about to celebrate our 22nd anniversary. Go figure.