Fuzzy Lines?

We had dinner this weekend with our friends Bryan and Charlene and their boys.  We go WAY back and I'm really glad that our youngin's get along so well.  Anyway, that's a lot of set-up for something that has little to do with their family...

At dinner Bryan again questioned one of my hard and fast rules about photography and my daughter.  Specifically - why is it that I refuse to take pictures (or have pictures taken of) Abby in the bath tub but yet I posted THIS picture of Abby in nothing more than a diaper and a candy heart-shaped box. 

First, let me explain my reasoning for the no-tub-pictures rule, and preface it by saying that I do not have a problem if other people take pictures of their children in the tub.  That's your decision and I'm genuinely not judging, but we have made a decision that we are comfortable with for our child.  Anny and I, mostly I, just don't see the purpose of the bath tub picture. 

• I have absolutely no intention of showing a naked picture to any future suitor.  (Isn't that why folks take them?)
  
• I don't have a desire to post a full on naked picture of her on the web.
• Bath time is a time when we play and really begin the winding down part of our evening, and camera time is often not.

I admit that I do see beauty in the human body, but maybe I have just fallen too much into the trap of assuming that it's only for show if the person is "of age," whatever that age is.  There is a picture or two from Abby's first bath, and to me every one after that is just a part of our routine.  I don't put up pictures of me putting her shoes on...

Last week's picture: I think that the picture that I posted last week was much more covering than a lot of others, and I guess that is the reason I have no problem with it.  All of the things that I think should be covered were covered. I guess that I also saw last week's picture as more art than Abby - I had been planning and plotting it for weeks, but it didn't happen until a bonus day off in February. 

So, to me the difference is that one is everyday and commonplace, and a bit more exposure than I care for.  The other was designed and set up and done purely for the sake of the picture, and had all of my daughters' diaper area covered.  (How is that for rationalization?)

Do you take pictures of your child(ren) in the tub?  Do you post them online?  Is there a reason you do or do not?

Reality?

I could handle Reality TV when shows like Survivor came around - some day I might need the knowledge about how to kill a wild boar or make my own shelter.  I'm even okay with the shows that revolve around singing, like American Idol, or around fashion, like Top Model, because they give unknowns a way to get into the industry without having to have connections by skirting the traditional system.

I can understand while people enjoy watching trainwreck shows, too.  It's great comedy to see women fawn over Brett Michaels and Flava Flav.  Stupid and often gross (did you hear about when one girl pooped her pants right before Flav gave out his clocks?) but sometimes it is good to have just pure escapism shows.

Let me be clear, I don't necessarily watch these shows, but I can understand why they're on.  (I did watch one season of Survivor, the summer that Anny was working 24/7 at camp and I was home in the evenings.)

I do enjoy watching things like Little People, Big World because of the real life stories and struggles.  I know that when my daughter is 12 she will be dealing with some of the same things that their daughter is.  We enjoy SuperNanny because it makes us feel like no matter how bad we are at parenting, there are worse people out there.  It's actually helped us to talk through some issues that we have had while parenting thus far, too.

Somewhere along the way, though, things have gone horribly awry.

Two shows will be premiering in the coming weeks that I just can not see why they are being given air time:

JOCKEYS is on Animal Planet.  It will follow the lives of... Horse Jockeys.  I literally could not care less.

and

Heli-Loggers is on The Learning Channel.  This will follow the guys, all guys, are the ones that go in with huge chainsaws attached to a helocopter that they use to cut down trees.  Not exactly what I'm looking for in entertainment.

So, Discovery Channel partners, I'll stick to watching your new shows on your new network - Planet Green.  At least they have Bill Nye and Emeril!  You know, folks looking to help out the environment, not continue to do useless things...

Wordless Wednesday

Here is my Valentine!

More Wordless Wednesday HERE.

Six Word Love Story

From the Washington Post, for Valentine's Day.  Some of theirs are much sweeter than mine.  I'll post mine here and see when Anny gets around to reading it.  :o)

Here's mine:
Oblivious, Empathy, Best Friends, Never Happier.

-or-

Through thick and thin, only you.

What would your six word love story be?

Three Years of This Stuff?

You Betcha!  I'm surprised myself that I have kept to something that long.

As of today I've been blogging for three years.  It's kind of sweet to think that I began blogging on Valentines Day, until you read my first post.  About my grandfather and porn.  The next post was a declaration that I was going to lose weight.  Yeah, that did not really happen, but maybe this is the year?!  Doubt it, but it would be nice. 

I have blogged about silly things and serious things.  I've been open about my health, partly in an effort to document for myself and my family, but also as a way to connect with others out there that share in my struggles.  I tried not to, but I have blogged about politics and work, too. I really had fun looking at pictures from the 30 years that I've been around, too!

When I look back and see that I've only written 310 posts in three years (or about one every three days) and there are people that write 310 in a year it makes me think that I'm lazy.  But in reality, I need to add all of my posts on Abby's Blog, on the PC(USA) Blog and I should probably count my Flickr page.  I'm not lazy, I'm actually pretty much all over the web.  Yikes! 

I have met some really great people through blogging.  Some of them I just know through the web, some I have met in real life, and some live so close that it's a shame that I haven't met up with them.  Some day, maybe.   I have had some interesting conversations all over the place, and even started some trouble from time to time. 

So, three years into it I'm still feeling good about my little space on the web.  I wish that I had more traffic, and I guess I would if I wrote about more than just my boring little life.  I'm having fun, meeting people, and have found my voice a bit more in the world. 

Taxes are Done!

It's tax time here in the US.  Anny and I finished up our taxes last night and filed electronically.  (which means that I finished our taxes while Anny got Abby into bed.)  I think it's the fastest we've ever submitted, mostly because I'm afraid of forgetting to do it later on!  I don't think that I have ever waited until April 10th or later, but I've sure waited until the 1st before... 

One year, when we lived in Manassas, we took our taxes to one of those use-us-in-the-K-Mart joints and ended up forking out $95 and sitting there for two hours or more while some guy who only does taxes as a hobby hunted and pecked into his trusty computer.  When he left to use the telephone I took a glance at his computer screen only to see that he was

We're getting a sizable return this year, again.  I guess when you fork out more than $15k each for childcare and mortgage interest the Feds look on you with some favor.  (Though the childcare credit was only $600, which is a mere fraction of our output.)

We have gotten big refunds for the last few years, really, and that works for me.  Anny has begun to ask me if we should change our witholding on our paychecks to have the money more consistently through the year or if we should continue to get the big refund at the end of the year.  Really, she just brought it up and we haven't had time to discuss since then. 

I know that there are two theories on taxation:
1 - Take a lot from my paycheck and I get a big refund in the spring
-or-
2 - Take less from my paycheck, leaving me more on a monthly basis, in exchange for a smaller refund, or even payment, in the spring.

I think that the reason I am okay with Uncle Sam having more of my money during the year is that I can do a little splurging once a year.  I also figure that if my money is in "the system" it's being used for things much more important than me - the money is what is used to fund the programs and such that the govermnent is providing.


So - what do you do with your taxes?  Are you in the keep-my-money or the take-my-money kind of planner?  Why?  (Have you always done it and just never changed, or do you have new reasoning for me to know?)

Wordless Wednesday - My Girls

More participants at www.wordlesswednesday.com 

I Give Up

I think that I'm officially going to give up pretending that I am a drinker.  I've never really been a huge fan of beer, and I hate wine.   I do enjoy some of the harder stuff, but I think that my body is sending me clear signals that I should stop ignoring.

As is usual for me, it goes back to my kidneys.

A few years back I actually had a fairly significant procedure on a Thursday before St Patrick's Day weekend - and the day itself was on Friday.  That means you can start drinking on Friday and go straight through for a couple of days!  I asked if I could have a drink or two and he said something along the lines of "sure" which I took to mean "let's get drunk!"  I can not speak publicly of that evening, but I will say that Guinness was good that night and I should have kept the sticker.  (That was actually the last St Patrick's Day before Anny and I were attached at the hip, soas to not get Abby asking questions later.)

I can only think of two times that I have ever gone out with the sole intention of coming home drunk, and one of those was iffy on intent. 

Iced drink have caused me pain, literally, since I got sick.  On the first or second sip of a drink I will get pains down the sides of my back, sort of like a brain freeze but going the other way.  This is sometimes true of really cold Slurpees, but always a result if there is alcohol in the frozen drink.  Not a good feeling, but I determined long ago that it was okay to have the pain if I got to enjoy a Dirty Girl Scout!

I ask myself all the time - typically just after a trip to the liquor store instead of before - why I keep trying to pretend that I'm a drinker, but I just can't figure out the answer.  I've never felt like one of those people that has to "fit in" with the crowd.  I'm actually the lame guy who has never done drugs or been much for partying if it meant that I could not drive home.  I do enjoy the sweet stuff, but have only found a couple of beers that I like, so it's not like I enjoy the taste.

So, with that in mind, I am officially giving up drinking.  It won't really make too much of a difference in my day-to-day life, but if I state it publicly then I'm much less likely to go back and try again later. 

Another Check on the List!

I've been forbidden from making a "Things To Do Before I Die" list.  As I've said before, we don't really talk about mortality in my household unless we absolutely have to.  But if there was a list, I would have checked off another box last night.

One of my aunts works for an organization that is shopping for a new bank right now, and one of those banks gave her four tickets to their Sky Box for the Capitals vs Kings game!  There was only one extra once the rest of my family got wind, but since I did the full time dad things for two days and a night, Anny thought it was a good reward.  (Really I would have gone anyway, but this is my justification.)  I met up with my Aunt Pam and my brother and his wife before the game and we got a little lost on the way up, but the whole experience was awesome.

It was fully catered with everything from salad to wings, sausages to soft-taco wraps.  We were a little disapointed by the lack of desert, and we weren't the only ones, but at this point I'm sitting in a free seat and eating free food.  I was certainly not complaining!  They even had beer and hard stuff.  That's another post for this weekend as I think I'm done pretending that I can drink. 

The atmosphere at Verizon Center sure is different than it was two years ago, and that's a good thing.  We got really good seats for a game last spring that we took Abby to and it was crazy then, too.  Our best friend's son could not stand how loud it was, but that was mostly the sound system more than the crowd.  Now it's both. 

The Caps lost, but the last period was incredible. 

All in all - awesome experience that I can't even fully describe.  If anyone has extra box seats in the future, don't hesitate to call me!