Date Night

My wife and I went out on a date last night. An honest to goodness date. We arranged a baby sitter for the kids, and then I knocked on the front door, and told my wife, when she answered, that I was there to pick her up. It's a funny little ritual we have, and we start all of our dates that way. It makes us feel like we're in high school again.

Which is the point of date night. We do it to break the routine of grown-up life. It doesn't matter where we go. Sometimes we go out to dinner, sometimes we go mini-golfing, last night, we went bowling. Occassionally, despite our low-brow tastes, we get ambitious and go out to a fancy restaraunt. We've even gone to plays and musicals; Rent and Les Mis were date nights for us.

What's important for us, is to do something that we don't normally do in the routine grind of our lives, and to do it together. We want to make sure that we can keep ourself feeling young and fresh about each other.

So, last night, we went bowling. To put it in perspective, I am probably the world's worst bowler. I once bowled a 12, and I was stone cold sober at the time. My wife's not so bad; she's pretty reliable about rolling a 120, which means I've never beaten her in all the years we've known each other. Between you, me, and the Staten Island Ferry, I think that's why she keeps playing the game.

Last night was fun, though. We got to wear silly shoes, and through heavy balls down a slick wooden lane at a bunch of 10-pins, and drink a few brews while were doing it. What could be better than that? We had some laughs, which is what we were after.

That's what makes the pick-up ritual so important. We'd both had lousy days at work, but we'd planned date night well in advance. We knew it was happening. When I knocked on my own front door, and told my own wife that I was there to pick her up for her date, it helped us to get outside the pattern of the day, and start something new. I have psychologist friends who've told me that we're tapping into a vital principle of relationship building when we do that.

I'm not a psychologist, so I don't know about that. What I do know, is that we never talk work or kids on a date night, and always start date night with the same little ritual. And that among our circle of friends, we're one of only three couples that's never been divorced.

Scavenger Hunting at the Grocery Store

So I took my daughter, the four year old, to the grocery store yesterday. I was getting ready to head walk over (it's right across the street), and she was begging to come with me. So, I let her come. And did not reget it.

To start with, she was on her good behavior. She listened to me, she did what I asked her to, she helped to push the shopping cart, and she even helped to find groceries.

That last was part of a scavenger hunt. As Dad, I held the list and navigated us through the store. As the scavenging hunter, she looked on the shelves for the items I told her we needed next. It actually was a workable system.

Some things were easy. Noodles, for example, were very easy for her to find. She loves them, and recognized them right away. She even knew which shapes I should buy.

Oatmeal was a little harder. She knows the Quaker Oats container, but it was buried in the cereal aisle. She had to look down the shelves on both sides, twice, before she found it. She wanted the really huge size, but we only needed the smaller one.

She couldn't find grated cheese. I have to admit; that one was the "trick question." It was at the cheese counter, and was grated fresh for each customer. I held her up, so she could see what the cheese counter lady was doing. They both liked that.

We went through the whole store that way, and she managed to find about two thirds of the items on our list. I was pretty impressed with her. Normally, she's not so well behaved at the grocery store, but this time, with something important to do, in a fun way, everything worked out just fine.

Heck, even I had fun.

I Got a New Digital Watch

I got a new watch. It's digital, it's Sony, and it has more features than I will ever need in my lifetime.
There's an alarm, of course, and stopwatch and timer features, but also a multiple time zone feature which will allow me to set the watch, in advance, for up to 10 cities. There's a calculator option, as well as a calendar.
And now I'm sitting her at my desk, it's getting late at night, and I'm trying to figure all of these features out, without using the instruction book. This is an uphill battle, to say the least.
But for the moment, it's entertaining. And it's keeping my mind off the serious issues in life. And no, I really don't want to talk about those. I know that some people use their blogs to talk about all of the "big issues" that are happening in their lives, but that't not me. I use this blog talk about fun stuff.
And right now, that means my new watch.
I just made it beep, twice, very loudly. Not much else happened, though. Trying the other button, the screen flashed the world "error" at me.
Setting the time, which I did earlier today, was easy. Setting the multiple time zones was also pretty simple. Getting the watch to cycle through the times, so I can see my local time again, after checking on DC, London, Rome, Jerusalem, New Dehli, Tokyo, Honolulu, and Los Angeles is not so easy. The watch doesn't want to stop scrolling.
I'm thinking that if I can't this working pretty soon, I'll either break down and open the instruction book, or I'll open the back of the watch and pull out the battery.
I don't really want to do that, though, because I'll lose the current settings, and invalidate the warranty for 500 meter water resistance.
Ah, decisions, decisions....

I Went Out on a Date

Karaoke night. What else is there to say?

Yup. Like the title says, I had a date recently. With my wife. It was a lot of fun. We arranged a baby sitter, and then we went out to a little bar and grill not far from where we live, where they have Rolling Rock for a dollar, and the best chicken fingers in town. And karaoke.

We didn't know about that last. We found out that it was karaoke night when we got there. After a brief consultation, we decided not to sign up. This had more to do with my wife's perception that I cannot carry a tune, and my perception that she cannot carry a tune (honestly, I am not sure that either of can, but we both think we can), than it did with any sense that karaoke isn't fun.

Because it is fun. It's a lot more fun to sit and watch, though. Especially when there's dollar beers to be had. So we just found a table in a relatively dark corner, sat back with our chicken fingers, barbeque sauce, honey mustard sauce, and Rolling Rocks, and watched the show.
And what a show it was. If we thought that we can't carry tunes, we soon got a lesson in poor singing. Now, maybe it's not nice to have fun like this at other people's expense, but these people were volunteering for it. First, they were drunk enough to act stupid unselfconciously, and second, they were belting out 80s and 90s hits like they thought they were stars.
I think I know how the judges on American Idol must feel, when they get those contestants who are bursting with enthusiasm, but have no skill at all. It's scary.

It was also a blast to watch. Especially because we knew most of the songs, and were mostly sober, so we could just sit back and sing along quietly with each other, while all around us, drunks were making fools of themselves. A sociologist could have written a paper on it...
Eventually, it was time to go home, and so we did. But we'd gotten out together, and had a good laugh, and that's what really counts, of course.

We Won Wow

It's time to head back to the softball diamond.

Well, the perfect record's gone. Our half-assed softball team actually won a game.

We didn't mean to; after a summer of straight defeats, we'd sort of come to a conclusion that it'd be sort of fun, in a really perverse way, to finish the season (it ends the last weekend of this month) with that "perfect record." The catch: we couldn't throw a game. We were hell-bent on finishing the season with no wins, but our pride prevented us from losing on purpose. Every game had to be honestly played.

Well, that came back to us, and we won't have that perfect record.

Last weekend, we won. Admittedly, we only beat the team with the league's second worst record, so that now we are tied for the bottom spot, but we did win a game. And it wasn't even a close call that could have gone either way. It was a blowout that called in the fifth on the mercy rule. Going to bat, at the bottom the fifith, we were ahead 23 to 1. Our opponent hadn't even had a hit since the third inning.

Some of the guys on the team were genuinely upset. I guess they felt there's a sort of cachet to finishing 0 and 17, but the rest of us just shrugged that off and let the losers buy us some beers. It actually felt pretty good.

Summer Festivals - Festivals rock.

It's summertime, and all over the place, towns are having, planning, starting, or cleaning up from, their summer festivals. You know what I mean; those outdoor art fairs, and carnivals, dance festivals, and what have you that it seems every town in America puts on in the summer.

'Til recently, I lived in suburban Detroit, and had the good fortune to get to choose from some really good festivals, all just a short drive away:

There was the great Ann Arbor Art Fair, the smaller Royal Oak Art Fair, an even smaller (but still fun) West Bloomfield Art Fair, and for the last several years, the fun Arts, Beats, and Eats in Pontiac.

There are others, but those are the ones I usually went to. Of them all, I think that Arts, Beats, and Eats was my favorite. You can probably tell from the name, but it wasn't just an art fair. Restaurants from all over the Detroit area had booths there, and there were scores of musical performances as well. Last year, I stayed up late to see Verve Pipe. They're good, but I think that they were better back before they got big. One of the best shows I ever saw was Verve Pipe at a cheesy little meat-market of a dance club in Kalamazoo, back in 1993, I think. That rocked.

There was plenty of good stuff in the art booths, too. I found some really cool earthenware goblets, with food-safe glazing, and bought six, just to have set of wine cups. They're nice; heavy clay with plenty of heft.

And I'm starting to go on and on. I wanted to talk about summer festivals in general, not this one in particular. Anyway, I'll talk more about this later.

Ciao!

This is Something I Have Wanted for a Long Time

Don't tell anyone this, but I have a deep, dark secret.

I wasn't always such a cool guy. In my youth, I was even a geek.

Yup, it's true. And my inner geek is still with me. A few days ago, it got out.

You see, while I was web surfing, I found this page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~pot/infocom/

This web page is geek heaven. It's all the great text adventure games by Infocom in flash format. I'm sure you remember the text adventures; you were given scenarios, written out (hence the name, text adventure), and you told the game what you wanted to do. I used to love these games, Zork, Planetfall, and the rest, when I was a kid. And now I have just found them again, for free...

It's been at least 20 years since I've played the, of course, so I didn't really remember the walk-throughs. That was no problem, though... A short Google search later, and I found the solutions to all of the games on that site. The solution pages also had links to maps, and other information about the original Infocom releases of these games.

I'm not sure that Infocom (or at least, it's game division) exists anymore. These games are all from the 1980s (a few are from the early '90s), and of the pages I found with other game-info, the most recent was last updated in 2000.

So try out these games; they're a blast. Some of the puzzles are pretty simple, and others will keep you up at night. And you'll notice that I didn't include any link to the "cheats!"

Painting the Rooms

Even the worst household chores are better when you do them with your kids.

Last weekend, we painted my daughter's room pink. There are three things you need to know about this, to truly understand how this impacted me.

First, I hate house painting. I just really hate it. It's the one chore that I absolutely cannot stand. My wife actually likes painting rooms, and she truly enjoys planning out the colors, and has fun with the whole process. For me, though, it's the only chore that will always be just another chore.

Second, my little daughter looked up at me, with her big brown eyes, and asked, "Please, can you paint my room pink, Daddy?"

Finally, my daughter's four. And she's a really big girl, now. And because she's four and really big, she insisted on helping.

Put all this together, and it means that I spent last Sunday afternoon moving furniture, spreading dropcloths, pulling pictures and posters off the wall, and, after all that, washing two gallons of pink matte finish off a four year old. Oddly enough, the room looked pretty good at the end. You can't even tell which parts I painted, and which parts she painted.

That part, her help, actually turned out better than I expected. For a hyper little kid, she listened very well, paid attention to what she was doing, and kept at it, putting a coat of pink on the lower half of one wall, for almost 20 minutes before she got bored. I guess even a four year old can get the nose to the grindstone if it's a grindstone they like. I'll have to remember that particular lesson in parenting.

We didn't even get any paint on the floor. So even though I don't like house painting, it was still a pretty good Sunday.

There's a National Ice Cream Day?

I love ice cream. Really, I do. Every now and then, I'll swing by 31-Flavors and pick up a pint of my absolute favorite, World Class Chocolate. It's a little bit of heaven down here on Earth.

So, when the opportunity presented itself (in other words, when she got old enough to appreciate it), I took my older daughter with me on a special, super-secret, late-night (8:30, but it was past her bedtime) ice cream run. We even had Mom's approval, because she'd eaten a good dinner, and taken a good bath. The kid had, not the Mom.

I gotta say, parenthood delivers a new lesson every day. I was really impressed with my 4yr old's behavior at B&R. I was afraid she would demand extra ice cream, or want a flavor they didn't have, or just throw a tantrum, but she didn't. She tasted 5 different flavors before setting on bubble gum (it's vile, but it's also pink!), and then ... she insisted on a cone.

I should have seen that coming. After all, I had a cone (with World Class Chocolate, of course).

I got her the cone, and we sat down. She looked confused. I showed her how to lick the ice cream around the edges, to avoid a mess, and five or six napkins later, she'd caught on. It was very cute; I was sorry I didn't have my camera with me.

And there we were, out past bedtime, eating ice cream, and she told me all about her day at the summer day camp.

"Daddy, I colored a beautiful flower, near a rainbow, and then I wrote "Mommy" on it. And then I played dress up with another girl, and then we all went and played in the water."

I hope that we can make this father/daughter night a regular thing, because it sure was a lot more fun than playing poker or baseball with the guys.

Of course, I don't think I'll tell anyone that!

Playing for Peanuts - Another Softball Game

Yup, me and the guys played another softball game.... And had another loss to our "perfect record." It's a good thing that we're really just there for the fun of it, or this would get very frustrating very quickly.

The last game was rather amusing, though. Our shortstop hurt his wrist, but didn't want to leave the game, because we didn't have an extra guy to take his place, and the catcher lost his glasses, but couldn't leave either, for the same reason. So we had a shortstop who couldn't throw, and a catcher who couldn't see. It felt like we were Charlie Brown's baseball team out there....

It did lead to some amusing antics, though. Our shortstop managed to make three tag-outs, and as Yogi Bera (was it Yogi; I don't remember) once said of a particularly inept catcher, "You gotta have one, or you'll have a lot of passed balls." At least there weren't too many passed balls. Although the catcher did tag out the ump at the plate, because the other team's shirts were a similar red design.... Erik (he's the guy who's work is sponsoring this team, remember?) wanted to go crawl under a car in the parking lot, after that one.... Poor guy is managing us.

We had a practice two days after that debacle, and Wade brought us new T-shirts. They are emblazoned with the name, The Peanuts, on them. Very apropos, I think....

Softball Night

I think I've mentioned that the guys and I stopped our regular card night; Erik had told us that his department at work was putting together a softball team for a city league, and needed some extra guys to fill up the roster. We all jumped at it, and now we play ball every Sunday and Tuesday. I'll be honest. We suck; haven't won a game yet.

That's not important though. We have a good time, and even though we have a perfect record (haha), we're not getting blown away. Game scores are usually something like 7 to 5, or 9 to 8, and we usually only have two or three gross errors in a game. I'm not so sure about the guys from Erik's work, but me and the other non-work guys aren't there to win, anyway. We're just having a good time.

We've got the minimum number of players on the team, nine guys out of eleven permitted. Our roster has 1st, 2nd, and 3rd base, shortstop, pitcher, catcher, and three outfielders. League rules permit a fourth outfielder and a DH, but we just couldn't get the players. Fortunately, everyone's able to commit to the games, so we haven't had a forfeit yet.

There is one other team in this league (20 teams, total, I think) that also has only nine players, and they have had to forfeit a game when a guy couldn't make it. I heard that after the loss was recorded, they put their shortstop in a shallow left position, and played the game anyway, just for kicks. It's that kind of league.

I Have Discovered Online Video Games

I've always loved video arcades. Maybe I've mentioned that already, I don't know because I don't feel like reading back through this blog right now... Anyway, I love video games. Back in college, I could blow whole rolls of quarters at the arcade, usually on pinball, or a monster game called "Rampage." It's been a while since I really played my heart out at an arcade....

And it will probably get to be a longer while, because I have discovered the amazing world of free online video games. Wow. The choices are limitless. Again, wow.

In the last week, I've found game sites with versions of Missile Command, Pac Man, and even Space Invaders. I felt transported back to my youth, but without having to beg for change. My wife muttered something about "colossal wastes of time," and said that the yardwork had better get done, but fortunately, it was raining....

...And I got to lock myself in the study and play games.

So what are the pros and cons of online video games? Well, the biggest advantage is that you can find practically any game you want, for free. All you need is a good computer, a high-speed internet connection, and a flash player, and you're good to go. Most of you probably know that already.

Make friends with Google. It'll help you find the games you're looking for.

There are drawbacks, though. Going to the video arcade used to be a social thing, but internet games are a solitary endeavor, so once the novelty wears off, there's not much incentive to stay online...

It was fun while it lasted, though!

A Day at the Zoo

Well, a half a day at the zoo, because my daughter is only four, and didn't quite make it to lunch.

We had a good morning, though. We started at the aviary and butterfly garden, which were close to the main entrance. My big girl loves butterflies, and, as I thought she would, she loved the butterfly garden. Her eyes lit up when we went in and she saw what was there: dozens of colorful butterflies, flitting around bright tropical flowers.

I had to tell her not to chase them, or to try to catch them. She's only 4, and rather exuberant at times. Still, once she managed to slow down, she was very well behaved. I took her to watch a particularly large butterfly eating from a flower, and explained how it drinks nectar. She leaned over to watch, and was careful not to get too close.

And when a butterfly landed on her, she stood very still until a docent waved it off.

The aviary was less exciting, actually. Most of the birds stayed up high, in the dome, and were hard to see. A small duck did walk right across her feet, though.

Later, we went to the penguin house. She loves penguins almost as much as she loves butterflies, and pressed herself up to the glass to watch them swim. I think one penguin was watching her, in return.

After the penguins, we saw the seals. She loved them, especially when they went into the water and started spinning over and over. We had a special treat: it was feeding time, and we got to watch them go after the fish. Some of the seals were content to eat in the water, but one of them flopped out of the pool and started chasing the zookeeper who had the bucket of fish. My daughter liked that one the best.

When we got home, she took a nap. She doesn't do that too often, so I guess all the fun wore her out. She's a good kid.

The Second Poker Night - Poker night, revisted

We did it again. Us guys got together for another poker night. Well, euchre night, anyway, since we didn't want Wade to win again, and there were only four of us this time, but you get the idea.

Anyway, the card game didn't go to well; no one really wanted to play. So we put Rambo on the DVD and turned on Wade's flat screen LCD TV. I tell you, that guy's got too much money. Maybe I'll get a sex change, marry him, and divorce him, just to finish paying off my house...

Well, not really.

Anyway, about halfway through the movie, we got bored with it, so we went out to the yard, beers in hand, and got some baseballs and gloves out of the shed. Honestly, I don't remember the last time I played pickle. I just feel glad that I still remember how to field and throw. So while we're out there in the backyard, tossing the ball around, Erik says that some guys from his work are looking to put together a softball team and enter the city league, and did we want to join, 'cause there weren't enough players in his department.

It didn't take long for us all to agree. I had a voice mail from him this morning, that the first practice game is next Sunday, and the first regular game is next Tuesday night, at the Civic Center. Apparently, there's only 9 guys on the team, so no one is allowed to miss a game.

And for the next few months, we'll have baseball night instead of poker night.

Fixing the Yard

I spent last weekend in the front yard, cleaning it up for the spring and summer.

I'll be blunt: this is not my usual definition of fun. It's definitely not something I'd have chosen to do on my own. But... my wife wanted the yard cleaned, and she wanted a tea-garden on the side of the house, and a landscaper just wasn't in the budget.

So I was out there, raking leaves and twigs, bagging them, and mowing the lawn. And then the fun began: I got to play with the pick-ax.

There was an old flower bed on the side of the house that my wife wanted to have cleared, so that she could plant a tea garden. While she went to Home Depot (or whereever; it might have been English Gardens, it doesn't really matter) to buy topsoil, mulch, and plants, I had the priviledge of wreaking destruction on the overgrown weeds that had taken over this old bed.

Not only did it turn out to be sort of fun, but I got a good workout and a bit of a tan, too. By the time my wife got home, I had the bed cleared, and the old border-stones set back in place. We worked together to put in the topsoil and spread the mulch, and then we got the various herbs (18 plants! what kind of tea does she want?) out of the car and into the ground. By evening, we were watering the new tea garden.

Married couple spring project number X, completed!

We Went on that Picnic

A few posts ago, I said that I liked picnics. I even started out with my wife on a picnic. It was time to go on one again, and last weekend was too beautiful, so we took advantage of it.
I packed the portable grill, a cooler full of hot dogs and Cokes, and some fishing gear into the back of our snazzy little Focus hatchback, packed the kids into their car seats, and the lovely wife and I took off for the nearest State Park at 10:30 on a Sunday morning.
Our timing was perfect. It was early in the day and early in the season, so it wasn't crowded. We spread out our blanket under big oak tree, not far from the little pond with the fishing pier, and fired up the grill while we watched our daughters, 4 and 2, run around in a sand pit.
When the grill was ready, and the little one was napping, we showed our older daughter how to cook a dog on a skewer over the flames. I even had a chance to sneak a kiss or two with my wife, and remind her that our first date was exactly 9 years ago. She smiled, and said she knew.
After lunch, I took my 4 year old to that little fishing pond, helped her set up a rod, and cast for some fish. She wasn't scared when we caught a koi, but she wouldn't touch it, either. She said it was "Eew." When I threw the fish back, she said he was swimming home.
Good intuition on her part, because it was time for us to head home, too. It was a great day, though. And a lot of fun.

The Art of the Couch Potato

I don't know if this is fun, but my brother has raised the act of watching TV to an art form. He's got a couch that is exactly 6 inches longer than he is tall, and I know for a fact that he consulted a seamstress to have custom made cushions. He's got TiVo, so he'll never miss his favorite shows. He's got an arrangement with Sam, down at the corner store, so he'll never run out of his favorite chips, either. It's scary, the amount of effort he has put into watching TV.

He recently got a dog, a big, friendly Rottwieler, and he taught it to facilitate his television habit.

The dog can fetch the remote control. My brother keeps a roll of paper towels under the cushions of the couch, for slobber control.

The dog can also open the fridge, and get a beer. He can only manage the long neck bottles right now, but my brother is working with him on picking up cans. He (my brother) keeps a bottle opener and a tube of non-water hand cleanser in the end table drawer, to reasons of sanitation during beer drinking.

The dog can even close the door on the fridge, after safely delivering a beer.

My brother has told me that if he could teach the dog to go and actually buy the beer, than everything would be perfect. I wondered, but not out loud, if this had anything to do with his divorce?

She Taught Me How To Dance

I was watching my daughter yesterday. She was dancing, which is nothing unusual for her.

Dancing is a very special thing for her, and she does it a lot. For her, a dance involves a lot of wide, sweeping arm movements, a gentle sway back and forth, and turning in a circle. If the music speeds up, she'll run around in a big circle. My wife jokes that whatever she does, she does in three steps: talk about it, sing about it, do an interpretive dance.

You might have guessed already, but the kid is just 4. Right now, dancing is her life. I think it helps to calm her down, and make sense of the world. Or maybe she just thinks it's fun. Sometimes, she'll dance with a wild abandon that any mosher would envy, and other times it looks like she's following well-defined steps.

Now, for my part, I have never been much of dancer. I haven't got a good sense of rhythm, and I am very self-conscious aboug how I look on a dance floor. I think I can use some lessons from my daughter.

For her, dancing is pure freedom of movement. Watching her, I can see that her dance is highly formal, but also highly free-form. It's relaxation, translated into movement.

Or maybe I am analyzing this too much. After all, she is only 4.

I hope she never loses this dance.

Driving at Night

I used to go driving.
Doesn't sound special, but it's something I would do, years ago, from the time I got my license at 17 until I was about 24. I would go out at night, mostly in the spring or summer, and get in the car, and go. To this day, I am not completely certain why I did it.
I do know that I got a feeling of deep calm when I was on the freeway late at night, with no other traffic, and just the dashboard lights on my face. My old car had good suspension; I felt like I was floating down the road.

Sometimes, I would set the cruise control and let my mind drift, keeping just enough focus to follow the curves. If it was a cold night, I would turn on the vent, but usually I'd just crack the window. Sometimes, especially in spring or fall, there was a night-mist on the road. Those were the times I liked the driving best.

I can't do that anymore; I'm grown up; responsible. A husband and a father. But there are nights, when the baby gets colicky and can't sleep, that I do the only thing that helps: I get her in the car seat, and I drive out onto the freeway. It only takes 20 minutes, but it works every time.

I don't know if any of this is fun, but in my introspective moods it does help to bring back that sense of peace. It's getting late now, and the baby is crying. I have to find my keys.

Poker Night

Last week, a friend of mine called me up, and said that he was starting a poker night. Just a guys' thing, every Thursday night when his wife was went out with her friends. I told him I didn't play poker. I remember his answer:
"So what? Neither does Jeff, but he'll be here. The point is, the Rolling Rock, the Rocky movies, and 3 hours to talk about sex and sports."
Who could resist that? I showed up on Thursday night, at 7, with a six pack of Rolling Rock long-necks, and an unopened deck of cards.
Now, I was expecting a fun evening. I got a bit of a surprise. There were 5 of us there, and we've all known each other since college. Four of us are married, three to our original wives. One is on wife number 3. One is a bachelor. He said after watching Wade's divorces, he didn't think he could afford to give houses to women he doesn't like.
Wade was the poker man, and the whole thing had been his idea to begin with. He dealt the game, and walked us neophytes through it. After two hours and four beers, I didn't really remember the rules, and anyway, we'd run out of matchsticks. Wade had them all. I guess being a neophyte doesn't help on poker night.
All in all, it was a good night. It brought back memories of college dorm bull sessions, and gave us all a chance to pretend that we were 20 again. It was definitely fun enough that we'll make it a regular thing. After all, what can be better than escaping from the daily grind once a week?

Kids Allways Know How to Have Fun

I was watching my kids playing together, and it occurred to me that here are two people who always know how to have fun. They don't need a TV.
The older one is almost 4; she's in charge. The younger is almost 2; she doesn't want to follow. It makes for an interesting dynamic, but there's no fighting, and remarkably little crying. I've even seen them share. Well, I've seen my older daughter share.
Their two favorite games seem to be kitchen and dress up. The kitchen can be set up anywhere; the older one spreads out a cloth (that's the oven/stove/counter), and the younger one puts anything on it (blocks, necklaces, foam letters- it's all food). Then they'll invariably bake a cake. And want the parents to taste it. It's always delicious.
Dress up is even more fun to watch. They have a two piece black dress that was their aunt's dance costume when she was about 6, and now it's a princess dress. The older one likes to pin the big matching bow to her hair. Once they're dressed up, with the elder in the dress and the younger in the jacket, they start accessorizing.
They have a small box of costume jewelery, and they take turns pulling out plastic beaded necklaces and bracelets. By the end of their playtime, I have a hard time finding them under it all. But it sure is fun to try.

Spring is Here

It's springtime, finally. I saw the first robin the other day. I think I'll have to set up a picnic soon.
Picnics are always fun. My first date with my wife was a picnic. We took a basket of sandwiches, a bottle of wine, and a blanket, and went out to my old college campus on a weekend afternoon, and sat out by a little lake. We watched the birds and the clouds, and the wind in the trees, and by the time we'd finished the first sandwich, I knew I was going to marry her.
We don't live out that way anymore, but there's a park not far from here, with a pond and some good shade trees, and we still have that old rough blanket...
It's getting time to call the babysitter and go out for a weekend afternoon, to have a picnic and watch the birds and the clouds. Maybe it's escapist, maybe it's overly nostalgic; I don't know or care. But a picnic with my wife, to celebrate the start of spring: that's fun.
When the weather warms up a bit more, I think I'll take the kids out to that park. There's a small fishing pier on the pond, even though I don't think there are any fish in there, but it's the perfect place to teach a 4 year old how to fish. There's no risk of actually catching anything.

What Do I Do For Fun?

Ok. So I've started talking about fun. But before I start exploring the depths of fun, what do I do for fun?

Well, that depends, on a lot of things. If you'd asked me in college, you'd've gotten some answers that I don't think I can put in a family-friendly blog, but those aren't the sort of answers you'll get from me today.

I like baseball games. Going to them, spending an afternoon at the ballpark, especially in August, when the hot dogs have been boiling for 4 months. Don't try to get me to watch the games on TV; it's just not the same.

I like taking my baby for a walk. She's just started walking, so once we hit the sidewalk, I put her down and let her go. She's incredible to watch, as she pokes into everything she sees, and tried to chase dogs. Usually, she gets tired after about 15 minutes, but it's 15 minutes of solid fun.

I like the music of Bruce Springsteen, especially when I'm driving very fast with the windows down and the stereo up. Those things just seem to go together, and to equal fun.

I also like pina coladas, and getting caught in the rain. But let's not go there today, shall we?

So let's start exploring fun. Why do we want fun? What does it mean to say, "Let's go have some fun?" And were is the best fun packaged and sold?

Greetings for the First Time

And...

We're on. Live. Blogging.

Welcome.

I'm not sure how you got to this blog, but I'm glad to have you here. It's nice to cybersee you.

I've never written a blog before, and I don't know the rules, so bear with me. I thought I'd write about things I know- just a choose a topic- and see what happens. The topic here will be "Fun."

I just thought of that. Clever, huh?

Seriously, though, let's talk about fun. What makes things fun? Why do some of us call it fun, and others call it boring with a capital "B?" What, exactly, do we call fun, and how does it change? I'm a historian by trade, and this how I think...

I want to make this blog public, and open to comments. As I explore the subject of fun, feel free to chime in, and add your own $.02. You can even tell me where the 'cent' symbol is on a keyboard. Learning that would be a little geeky, and it would appeal to my love of trivia. Is that fun?

You get the idea- I want to talk about fun things in a fun way- explore the history of fun- determine the idiosyncrasies of fun- and most of all, have fun doing it.

So I'll be back later, with a post on something I have found fun. I'll talk to you then.