DadJack.com Blog

Today was the last day of P.E. for the school year.  I have been volunteering as a P.E. assistant for the past year and it’s been fun.  There is something about interacting with your kids at school that gives you a different perspective.  You see them with their teachers, coaches and friends… you see them as people, albeit little people, but people none the less.  Sometimes you can get lost in schedules, discipline, homework and the million other things that are involved with raising kids and lose track that they are actually little individuals forming their own ideas and personalities.  When I see Lucy joking with her friends and trying to impress the coach I see a little lady and it’s kind of cool to see.

I hope I have the opportunity to volunteer again, I was very lucky to have the schedule at my past job that afforded me the time to spend at school, I can only hope that my future endeavours will allow the same luxury.

I have agreed to coach Lucy’s summer basketball team… Now if I only knew anything about basketball.  The good news is I have a few weeks to learn and they are 6/7 year olds so they aren’t expected to be Kobe.

Lucy’s newest interest is Yo-Yo’s.  Grandma has been teaching her tricks… which she has actually picked up pretty quick.

I’m looking forward to Farrell’s in Mission Viejo on June 22nd… The pod events are always fun.

Stench and I are still unemployed… I’ll let you know if that changes.

Don’t forget, Father’s Day is a week and a half away… Get Dad a nice tie and feed him some BBQ.

Rock On, Jack

I have always enjoyed making my opinion known… On the radio, on the podcast and on the occasional survey.  I participate in one of those online survey companies which offer rewards for filling out surveys (I’ve been with the same one for about 5 years and it’s actually a pretty good deal… I’d give you the link, but they’re currently not taking new members).  The surveys always start the same way… How old are you, where do you live and relationship status.

The options are usually: Married, Widowed, Divorced and Single.  I have been clicking “Divorced”, but I am also “Single?”  Is there a mourning period where you click divorced and then get to transition to single?  And if so whats the time line?  I changed my status on Facebook to single long ago at the urging of friends, but seemed kind of like denial to me.  Although, there has to be a point where you consider yourself simply single right?  Although, I did come up with a plan to break the cycle… I need to get into a serious relationship and then break-up, then I’m technically single and not divorced because the divorce was not my last official relationship – But that really seems a lot of work, so I’ll stick with checking “divorced” for now.

Lucy has her “Spring Sing” today… Which is always fun, well if you can actually get into the auditorium.  We live in So. Cal. I’m not sure why they don’t do these things outside so everyone can see?

We announced on the Pod this week that we will be recording live in Orange County later this month.  Stench and I will be at Farrell’s in Mission Viejo on Wednesday June 22nd from 6-8pm.  I will once again participate in the ice cream eating contest (You can go head to head with me, it’s only $20 and proceeds benefit Children’s Hospital of Orange County) and experiencing the pain that is an extreme ice cream headache.

The job search continues… it has been very discouraging, I have applied at so many places and have had no response.  I need to find something quick!

Rock on, Jack

I competed in an ice cream eating contest… I did not win!

All this Farrell’s talk… Well today is finally the day.  Stench and I will be there tonight recording the podcast live and eating ice cream… What more could you ask for?  Alina is a confirmed guest tonight… She’s driving with Stench, so I know she’ll be there.

One betta down… I walked into the kids room yesterday and Bing’s betta was sleeping on the bottom of it’s tank.  I tried to wake him, but he was sleeping so soundly, so I shook his bowl a little harder!  I realized something was wrong, so I started CPR and hooked to wires to a 9 volt battery to act as a defibrillator… But I couldn’t bring him back, after 3 hours of trying to bring him back I called the time of death and made the very difficult flush.  Knowing the sensitive nature of this event, I did what any responsible adult would do… returned to the pet shop and purchased a look-a-like betta.  As of this morning, betta 2.0 seems to be doing fine.

Speaking of passing, I was arranging the disposal of the “Busty Old Car” yesterday… Why is it that everything revolving cars is a pain in the ass (even driving them most of the time in this town)?  It looks like the ’93 Altima will meet it’s final resting place later today.  R.I.P. Busty Old Car.

Stench and I had technical difficulties on yesterday’s pod…  Sorry, considering we’ve recorded over 800 1-hour episodes it’s bound to happen every once in a while.

I had to go to the Do It Center yesterday to get some keys made… There’s something about a hardware store that makes you want to build and/or remodel stuff!  Luckily, I realize I have no construction skills (Other than carrying bags of rock… That’s what I did when I worked with the construction company.  I did get to drive a truck, the kids thought that was cool) and only purchased my keys and not the skill saw that looked so cool.

I really feel like Ron’s Show (The show I produce) is gaining momentum.  Ron is such a great guy, I really want this show to blow up (I mean that in a good way… I guess blow up could mean go away too!).

It looks like they may have worked on each other!  Way to go Jimmy!  AZ might be anti-immigrant, but their nun’s are pro-choice.  I know people are mean… But don’t kill puppies!!!!  It’s a tough job.  You have to be quite when having sex with a homeless woman!

Rock On, Jack

Yesterday was the longest day of the year and summer has officially started… The only bummer of my new apartment is no swimming pool.  The kids swimming was getting very strong with all the pool time we got last summer.  My favorite part of this season are the warm nights… there’s nothing like sitting out on a patio on a warm summer night (Unless you live somewhere with a lot of bugs… then you need that bug zapping light thing!)

The new car is amazing… But I have to re-train myself, I keep rolling down the window and opening the door from the outside (That’s how you had to get out of the “Busty Old Car”)  Speaking of the B.O.C., I found a way to hopefully subside some of Lucy’s sadness over getting rid of it… I pried off the emblems and printed out some photos of us with the car and made a shadowbox with them (I’ll have to take a pic and post it, it turned out pretty good) and hung it in the kids room….  Kind of like a shrine to that beat up piece of metal.

I haven’t had a chance to watch much of the summer programming yet… I’ve caught the show with Jillian from Biggest Loser (Didn’t like it) and Last Comic Standing (Like it), but that’s about it so far.  Has anyone seen the new Betty White sit-com?  Any good?

Right now kids shirts are on sale at Threadless … $9 bucks, got Lucy a shark shirt and Bing a cat shirt (They didn’t have any featuring bowling balls or golf balls).  While I’m plugging sites, Gilt has some cool kids stuff on sale too… They always have cool kids stuff, the adult stuff can be kind of pricey, and Groupon is perfect for Non-Diet Stench today with a great BBQ deal.

Farrell’s tomorrow!  Can’t wait to have a sundae… You cannot go to Farrell’s and not have a sundae!!!

I know he’s my kid, so I am a little biased… But I keep rewatching the Bing golfing video, no matter what that kid does he makes me laugh.  When I was a Michael’s getting my shadowbox I picked up some art supplies for Lucy, she is a very talented artist and is now into sketching … If she ever becomes a famous artist I will have the complete early years archive, I have hundreds of drawing and painting shoved everywhere.

I’ve always been super paranoid of this!  I can’t believe I missed this.  Beware of what you say to Rolling Stone… It may get you a quick trip to the President’s office.  What? L.A. didn’t make the list?  Has anyone seen this clown?   A 75M fixer upper.  Yeah, so? At least he’s clean.

Rock On, Jack

This Wednesday Stench and I are live podcasting from Farrell’s in Santa Clarita!!! (7-9p)  It’s always great to get out… and ice cream and mini-golf just make it that much better.

We had a great Father’s Day, miniature  golf and lunch out… Lucy got two hole in ones (OK, so did Ethan, but he’s bigger so it doesn’t seem as amazing) and Bing putted like a pro.  We went to B.J.’s afterward and had a chocolate Pizookie with chocolate ice cream… It was so good!

We didn’t get a chance to work on Lucy’s cycling… The training wheels are off and we’re trying to learn how to cruise on two wheels.  Now that Lucy is trying to learn without training wheels, Bing wants to too… The thing about that kid is I think not only could he do it, but that he’d learn in about 2 minutes.  When Bing sets his mind on something he does it… and he does it quick.

I didn’t see Toy Story 3 this weekend, but the kids did and they loved it… well sort of, I guess there is a part with a trash can that scared Bing?!?!  Reviews have been really good, so I may have to drag the kids to see it again.

No more “Busty Old Car”, I finally got a new car this weekend… One that has all the modern features, like a radio and windows that go both up and down!  It’s really nice, but Lucy flipped out because shes going to miss the old car… remember, the kids never drove in that car and Lucy thought it was gross, but now she’s going to miss it.  I’m going to take something off it for her, so she has a memento of the Nissan Altima with 162,000 miles on it with 2 windows that won’t roll down and 1 that won’t go up, no heat or air, no radio, busted in right fender, brake lights that sometimes work and a bunch of other stuff I won’t miss.

Have a great Monday!  Hope to see many of you on Wednesday!

Rock On, Jack

It’s Father’s Day weekend… which us Dad’s always get screwed on.  Kids get out of school before the day, so we don’t get any of those cool, made at school craft things.  Mom’s get those great keepsakes made of toilet paper rolls or clay, but not for Dad… We like handprints pressed into clay too!  Anyway, I’m just excited to see the kids and get to hang out.

One of our Bettas looks sick… We’ve only had them 5 days!  The good news is it’s Bing’s… He will be none the wiser if I replace it with a new fish.

Toy Story 3 is out today and it looks pretty good… Although, I still haven’t seen Shrek, all this moving and unpacking has got in the way of our movie time.

I was at The CRN yesterday… It’s always great to get to hang with all the people there, it really is a family environment.

The new apartment is so much better than the old one.  The neighbors are nice and respectful, it’s bigger, the fire alarm doesn’t randomly go off all the time, my place doesn’t constantly smell like smoke… I could go on with this for pages!  Now I just need to get my security deposit back… They’re trying to screw me and charge me for all kinds of stuff.  Thanks to one of the pod people I was able to find all the relevant civil codes and I should be able to legally tell them to screw off and give me my money back!

Stench has been a little worked up on the pod lately… Could be that stuff he’s been taking, I think the doctor may need to check him out again.

I have already mentioned it a million times, so all I’ll say is see you at Farrell’s Santa Clarita Wednesday!!!!

Have a great weekend!  Be nice to your Dad!

Rock On, Jack

I lived in it’s shadow most my life and I never even knew it’s name.  That huge hill that separates Burbank from Hollywood, one side rests The Hollywood sign, the other Forest Lawn.  You can see it from almost anywhere in Burbank, and I remember it always being in the background of my life.

Today I walked to the laundry room of my building, which is on the opposite side of the building from my apartment… There it was visible between two buildings.  We live some places for short times and others for much longer, but it is amazing how quickly everything becomes normal, how you don’t notice those things that are all around you.

As I approached that staircase, an obstructed Mount Lee in my gaze I decided to try and not take things for granted… Especially those everyday things that just start to blend into your life.

Lucy had her spring singing concert this afternoon, she did great… She’s actually bummed that the school year is coming to end, she told me she’ll miss her teacher.

Did you watch the presidents address from the oval office?  There were no surprises… oil is leaking, it may leak for a long time, BP will pay and the government will help those affected.

Some weeks are easier than others, I’ve been pretty tired this week… Most likely because I missed my nap today.  I keep waiting to get used to this waking up at last call thing.

I’m very excited for our Farrell’s podcast on the 23rd… we haven’t been out in a long time and it’s always a blast.

Rock On, Jack

I am so sorry, I haven’t posted in a long time (Sorry, Brian)!  Between the new job and moving I have been swamped.  As I slowly get things unpacked life is returning to normal.  Moving is stressful, no matter how far you move or how much stuff you have.  The good news is life is getting less stressful… I am working (Although there has been some drama), I have some place to live (And the kids and I like it, it is so nice to have more room!) and the Pod is rolling on.  The next thing I have to deal with is my car issue… I just learned yesterday that because of the “Busty Old Car” (That’s what the kids call the old Altima) being hit in the CRN parking lot it was deemed “totaled”, so we can’t just re-register it… So I need to find a cheap, reliable car.  But other than that life is rolling along.

June 24th will be the one year anniversary of being officially divorced (I remember because Michael Jackson died the next day… maybe the grief of my marriage failing was just too much for him.)  It’s really been over 2 years since it all fell apart, it’s weird to think back, I don’t really remember what it was like to be married… Well, that’s not true, I remember the details, I can’t remember what it felt like (If that makes any sense).  I think we kind of just form to our situation and that becomes your reality.  I remember that I liked being married.  I know it was a lot of work.  But my reality is being by myself, seeing the kids on the weekend and trying to find some stability in my life.  I am so sick of uncertainty.  We have all, not just me, been living with so much up in the air for the past years… Will we have jobs? Will things get better? Will we be able to afford our homes or ever be able to buy one?  It wears you down.  I have simple wants, job security with a steady paycheck I can count on and to know things will get better… Things don’t have to be amazing, just slowly get better, so that we can see some hope.

Lucy won a “good deeds” award yesterday… We had no advance notice she was going to receive the award, I would have gone!  It made me very proud… You want your kids to be smart, but if all she does is be kind and helpful, caring and compassionate, I’m OK with that.  Being intelligent doesn’t seem nearly as hard as being compassionate.

Jordan van der Sloot confessed to the murder of a young woman in Peru… I can’t imagine the pain that her parents have gone through, and the pain Natalee Holloway’s parents have endured for the past 5 years.  I don’t think was ever any doubt in anyone’s mind that he had killed Natalee, but I really thought he was a drunk kid who did something stupid and then covered it up, looks like I was wrong, he’s a cold blooded killer.

I know I keep telling you, but I’m really looking forward to it!  Stench and I will be at Farrell’s in Valencia on June 23rd, 7-9pm recording the podcast live.  I really love getting to hang with you all … and ice cream is a bonus!!!!  It’s really a fun place, it’s in a place called Mountasia which has mini-golf, go-carts and a bunch of other stuff that has a “-” between two fun words!

I think Gary was murdered!  A good way to start a marriage?  I see Bing’s future!  They were not meant to marry!  (A lot of marriage talk today!!!)  Just legalize it.  Talk about an old lady!!!

Rock On, Jack

For you East Coast Single Parents:

My name is Michael Raptis and I am a New York Based Casting Director. I am working on a documentary style show that is going to profile some of the hardest working moms and dads in America. We would love to feature a single mom or dad with more than one child (the more children and the younger the better).Only looking for families from the East Coast. I can be reached at the number below if you would like to discuss the show in greater detail. Hope to hear from you soon.

Michael Raptis
Casting Director
Michael_raptis@yahoo.com
917.981.1972

Wouldn’t it be great if every decision had just two choices, one good and one bad… Then life would be easy.  But it turns out life isn’t easy and doing the right thing doesn’t always mean it’s the best thing.  I bring this up because Lucy told me that she misses me and wants me to drop her off at school again over the weekend.  Due to my new work schedule I cannot drop her off at school and the kids don’t come over mid-week anymore.  I explained that I had to work (which is very, very true) and that I would see her on the weekend… But it doesn’t make it less painful to know that your kids miss you and they’re sad.  If I had any other option I would have done it so that we could afford to live and I could still see them more often, but that is not the way things have currently worked out…  I tried to make it clear, and I hope they understand, that I’d much rather be hanging out with them.

Speaking of hard decisions, I’m trying to figure out how I can still work at CRN… I really love everyone there and have so much fun, but there are so many hours in a day and I seem to use them up pretty quick.

I was let down by the Lost finale.  It didn’t explain many to the situations they created throughout the series.  It was a very emotional, visually appealing episode, but I just felt it was kind of a cop out… They took the easy way out and left so many things unfinished.  What did you think?

I move next weekend, so I’m on super packing mode this week.  I actually got a bunch done today.  It’s always kind of weird to look at your life all packed up and sitting in boxes.

The kids and I went to a chili cook-off at my sister’s work this weekend.  The company she works for, Line 6 , is pretty cool… through good and bad economic times they always throw events for their employees… So many other companies have cut these out, Line 6 has done sized them a bit, but they still do them, I think that says something about them.

The show I’m working on, The Insana Quotient is coming together… We’ve worked out most of the technical bugs, now we can focus on the show more.

Don’t forget, we’ll (Stench and I) be out at Farrell’s in Santa Clarita June 23rd from 7-9pm… Ice cream and Podcast, what more could you want?

Rock On, Jack