You ever turn off all the lights in your house, find a dark place to hide and yell to your kids, "I'm Ready!" ?

Its a blast. I spend most of my time trying to make it look like I am hiding some place I am not, then while they are trying to find out if its me under the covers or Bernard or Nod Dragon, I jump out from behind the bathroom door and growl as I tickle a blur of running screaming kids. They laugh and Trevor proclaims: "That was a great hiding place dad! You almost scared me to death!" Then everyone insists that I hide again. We do this for about an hour or until Rachael whips me across the face with a belt or Trevor leaps on my chest, knees first, knocking the wind out of me. They dont mean to hurt me, and it doesnt really, but it ends up being the end of the game since I need a second to catch my breath or put a bandaid on the cut across my face. :-) I still love the game, we end up chasing each other all over the house. The kids run like mad and I get the contort myself into places in the house I would never try otherwise. The best part is when I appear to jump out of no where and scare them. Trevor asks, " Where were you daddy? " I explain to him that I was hanging from the light fixture on the ceiling. He paused and looks at the light fixture, trying to mentally figure out how I am doing that. The great part is that he believes me enough to ask me to show him how I do it. I tell him its a secret and that if I showed him, it wouldnt be a good hiding place anymore.

Its fun playing monster.

Kindergarden Lunch

Every person with a son or daughter should do this at least once. It was quite possibly the neatest thing I have done.

Rachael and I had lunch with Trevor at his school yesterday. We got to follow in line to the lunchroom, pick out our meal (i'm not sure who defines it as nutricious) and sat at our assigned table. Rachael got a real kick out of this. She was 5 for 30 minutes. The table was quiet as I sat down, the other 5 year olds sitting with us were a bit confused that a 30 year old man was sitting with them. I introduced myself as Trevor's dad and they started talking to us. We talked about favorite rides at disney, how funny the french fries were and the right way to wear your french fry container on your head. (That got us a visit from Miss Matthews, that was not proper table manners) We finished up our lunch and headed back to the classroom. Rachael followed in line with Trevor, she was still part of the class.

It was so neat to hang out with Trevor for lunch and see what part of his day is like at school. I know it was probably the same for me, but I have a hard time remember ing details from yesterday let alone 25 years ago. It seemed like so much fun. When they got back to class, they took a 3 minute rest before heading out to recess. Trevor was packing up his bag since I was taking him out early. He met me at the door, but Rachael was gone. I looked into the classroom and there she was, sitting at desk with her head down, resting just like the teacher asked the class to do. She really likes school, I think she is a bit sad that Trevor is going without her. She held his hand on the way back from lunch and joked with him all the way out of school.

Devon is right, I do get caught up too much trying to get them to act more responsible, but they are just kids. Having lunch with them was a great reminder of that. Their lives will get complicated far too fast so I am going to do my best to let them enjoy the carefree years as long as they can. Today was also the first day that Trevor did not cry going into school. I think once he saw how impressed I was with his school and how neat Rachael and I thought it was that he was a "big" kindergartener now, he realized that its ok to have fun at school.

Way to go Trevor. You cant read my blogs, but everyone else can.

STATE OF EMERGENCY!

Warning... There is a possibility that a not so strong storm may become stronger. It will bring wind gusts up to 15 mph! and several inches (2inches) of rain.

The national guard will be on-call to assist should someone get soggy feet walking to the store from their cars.

Avoid all puddles when walking, they could be very deep and sweep you out to the Potomac.

Make sure you have at least two weeks supply of water and food in your house. If we get the several inches of rain expected, you may not want to leave your house for taco bell since the rain my fall in your car when you open the window to order.

Use extreme caution when walking outside, there may be powerlines that have not yet fallen and you might be under one that is ready to fall.

Use sandbags, even if you dont need them. They make your house look prepared.

Tape your kids up in protective foam. If the winds gust over 10 mph ( this is expected ) your child could be knocked over if they accidentally wander out into the raging storm.

If you live near the beach, make sure you take your video camera to the beach to show just how horriffic the breeze and drizzle are. Local news channels will thank you for your "shock and awe" footage.

OMFG...

We live in a nation that loves to cry wolf. In fact, I think the news gets really depressed if people are not dying or property is not destroyed when a storm comes by. I live in the DC suburbs. A state of emergency was declared for VA. Why?

You know what, I am just going to board our townhouse up and only go out for quick runs for food. I have an internet connection, I can work from home. Its just not safe outside anymore. I could get hurt by something.

The FCC should install a "Sensationalization Meter" on all stations. Or better yet, just call it a "Bullshit" meter. Maybe once the broadcasters get real time feedback that the news they are reporting is "Senesationalized Bullshit" they will start focusing on reporting the real story. This may be a shock to some, but they will find out that there just isnt much to a story once you tell it. It doesnt take 5 hours and 30 analysts to tell me that a Category 5 hurricane is going to destroy things and probably kill people if they dont evacuate. How about just telling me when its gonna hit and where I can get some shelter. The rest is common sense. Anderson Cooper standing at the beach holding a pole like an idot to show me the "Power of the Storm" does not help me. I know its strong, I just wish it was stron enough to blow your dumb ass away so I wont have to watch you "Report from the Storm" anymore.

Ok, I'm done. Did I mention I hate mainstream media???

GO LIVE JOURNAL!