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The Seattle Times Review was spot on. I found it hard to understand at times because of the acoustics at the Paramount, but not enough that I’m going to write them (the Paramount, not the Conchords) nasty emails about it. Bret and Jemaine were off the charts hilarious.

I have to complain about the audience. Part of the Conchord humor calls for moments of silence as they look at each other and respond in a quasi impromptu fashion. Some audience members took advantage of this to yell out disruptions, to which at one point Bret commented, “This is getting out of hand.” Jemaine tried to shush people, without luck, several times. But they played off the audience and kept it light and fun. One highlight of the night can be even attributed to one of the fans I have just complained about who bellowed out “Freebird” during one such silence. Without missing a beat, Bret started strumming, Jemaine joined, and they went on for several minutes singing the classic Lynyrd Skynyrd concert favorite. To use a Chris Farleyism, “It was awesome!”

After the concert, we went to the cheesecake factory and tried to remember all the best moments. I wish I would have taken notes. The kids seem to remember things tons better than Sandi and I and they had some great word for word quotes that I’d forgotten. The show was a perfect mix of old and new…and even the old pieces were tweaked in new ways. The show was excellent and gets ten thumbs up (from five of us).

Flight of the Conchords is a duo from New Zealand that claim to be “New Zealand’s fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo accapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo.” Ironically, their have achieved success by claiming they are a relatively unsuccessful band trumped even by their own tribute band. Not only are they top notch funny guys, they are excellent musicians with both music and humor which could stand on it’s own.

People seem to either love them or hate them. Which group are you in?

Here are some of my other favorites, some have a few swear words and adult themes, but nothing over a PG-13 rating. They are taken from either their live performances or clips from their HBO series (which is currently in season 2):

Think about It

Albi the Racist Dragon

The Humans are Dead

If You’re Into It

Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros

Business Time

NOTE:
As for the title of this entry (Jemaine is Sexy, Naked Elephants), during one of the shattered silences Jemaine told the audience if they wanted to get a message to them yelling it out during the show wasn’t the best way…It would be better to pass a note forward. Then he said, “better yet, write it on a blog with the words ‘Jemaine is sexy,’ then when I google that I’ll find it.” Bret then added that for him add the words ‘naked elephants,’ would get his attention since that is what he often googles.

Wow, looks at those smiles! 

Our first few days will be in Kruger National Park general campsites (Punda Maria, Mopani, and Satara). As part of our stay, I have scheduled night drives and, hopefully, a bush braai (this reservation has been tricky). Then we have two nights in the Gomo Gomo private game reserve where I hope to get some excellent shots of Leopards, my favorite animal, from the open land rovers.

After five days of a relaxed African bush experience, we’ll leave modern conveniences and join four others and follow two professional trackers on a 3 day, 50 mile hike through lion country on the Sweni wilderness trail. I expect this will be an amazing experience and plan on capturing plenty of photo and video footage of the process. Others on this trek have been charged by Lions, threatened by elephants, and encountered snakes, bugs, heat, and exhaustion. Sounds awesome!

After roughing it, we’ll spend one last night in the Kruger Park at Lower Sabie and then head out early the next morning for Johannesburg. We’ll stop in the Blyde River Canyon; Curti wants a picture hanging off the rock I did back when I was 19, but that ain’t gonna happen. We’ll go through Nelspruit (one of my favorite South African towns) and then finish up our last three nights in a Johannesburg Bed and Breakfast.

Before heading home, we’ll tour Soweto, visit a Cheetah Reserve, see a Lion Park where you can play with young cubs, and explore the Cradle of Mankind and the Sterkfontein Caves where some of the oldest humanoid remains have been found (over 2 million years old). We’ll also  hit a few of the African flea markets and maybe take a tour down a gold mine in Gold Reef City. If there was more time, I would have loved to spend two days in Bela Bela (previously Warmbaths).

I hope to post updates with pictures, but if I’m unable you can expect plenty of pictures and details shortly after my return in early November. I’ll get Curtis to post some of his own thoughts/ideas too.

I loved summer as a kid; I dread it as a parent. At least the out of school part. Not because I don’t want the kids to have fun and get a break from school, it’s because they get so freakin’ bored and I feel responsible. I don’t remember being bored as a kid. Was I? It seems like my kids are constantly bored and I’m trying to figure out what I’m doing wrong as a parent.

I grew up in a small town surrounded by friends. There was hill after hill of Utah wilderness to explore right out of my front door. My kids live in the middle of suburbia and spend most of their time stuck indoors because of the rain and houses that fill the horizon in every direction. In addition, I don’t know many of my neighbors…there aren’t five kids of assorted ages in almost every house in the neighborhood. As a kid, I played constantly…basketball, football, rode bikes in the hills, had dirt clod wars, hunted with bb guns, and even some Dungeons and Dragons. Sometimes we’d even pack up supplies and as many as ten kids (ages 6-13) would hike several miles out of town, make a fire, cook dinner, and sleep under the stars. Just us kids.

The unknown is scary and I’m surrounded by it. I don’t know some of my kids friends. And although I know their closest ones, I don’t know most of their parents. I worry when my kids are with people I don’t know well or roam the streets like I used to roam the wilderness. My kids don’t have the foundation of religion that I did, which was pretty much the core of my life until my mid-twenties. Is it possible to raise good kids without religion? Well, my mother and father-in-law raised an incredible daughter, so I know it’s possible. And right now I have awesome children, ask anyone. But all of this is unknown to me. I’m not on familiar turf at all.

Even Ivins, Utah, where I grew up, isn’t the same anymore. Moving back there wouldn’t help. Back then, everyone knew everyone. Literally. I was thinking the other day how I’m tied to all the kids I grew up with, even the ones that didn’t like me. We all have a common bond, growing up in that small town. It’s something that can’t be explained. But what will my kids have? Will they remember a long drawn out boring childhood? Where I have fond memories will their minds be filled with sludge and misery?

The kids just spent 4 nights with me out of town on a business trip. They had a computer, movies, board games, a swimming pool, a mall across the street (but no money), books, cell phones, and TV…and they were bored out of their minds. It’s the same story at home. They get so bored. Maybe I would have been bored too as a kid with electronic entertainment everywhere I turned. Maybe it has trained them to need a constant blitzing of flashing lights that never really satisfies. I loved the computer we finally got when I was in High School, an Atari 800XL (after years of begging and pleading). But I had a lot more to go with it.

Raising families in the city isn’t anything new, it’s just new to me. I need to do a better job of it. I don’t want my kids to be bored, but maybe the game consoles, computers, TV’s, stereos, movies, and MP3 players I bought them to help remove boredom, have made it worse. Maybe they have an inner need to explore the wilderness that no amount of Halo can replace. I wish they could. I wish they had friends in every direction, like I did. Maybe I need to stop worrying about it and let them negotiate their own boredom.

Aubree wants to get into piano lessons, Curti into guitar and Mikayla has a soccer camp coming up…those are good things. My parents may come up for a week, their Aunt Misty is moving up…so there is hope for the summer. I think the core issue is that raising my kids in a completely different environment that I knew is really scary. But I love them, we spend time together and they are good kids. We really are doing fine. Now if we can just somehow slide through these last few years clean, it’ll be okay. When I hear about the troubles some have with teenagers and I look at my own…I know I’m blessed. Maybe I’m forgetting my own rough times. Now that I think about it, most of the fun times I remember were younger years, before fourteen. Although I don’t remember being bored, I know I was depressed a lot from 15-17…maybe it’s the almost the same thing. And I turned okay, for the most part. I’m sure my own troubles at that age make it extra scary to watch them go through these years. Teenage years are tough, so many changes and adjustments. Even so, I hate to see them so bored!

Mikayla responded in her professional adult voice, “Excuse me, but may I enjoy one of your circular yummies?”

We played the game of life and the kids ate circular yummies all night. Aubree got her Ph.D. right off the bat and eventually won the game with over $5,000,000 in her bank account, mansions, cars…the whole nine yards. But she regretted not having kids. She was pretty bummed because she had been trying for her last six or seven turns to get kids and just kept missing the spaces she needed. In the end, she ran out of time and said she would trade her 5 million for children if she could. Poor girl.

Mikayla bypassed college and popped out three kids right off the bat. She was in major debt and living in a trailer for a while and I wondered where I had gone wrong as a parent. She even had to move in with her sister for a while although Aubs said she couldn’t bring her bum husband along. Mikayla sacrificed, went back to school, got her degree, and paid off her loans. Even the marriage therapy seemed to be helping and things were looking good until she took her meager savings and bought a million dollar mansion. The lowpoint for her came when Aubs gave her a playful nudge and knocked her backwards off the bed. She vanished from the bed and thudded to the floor and had tears both from laughing and from hurting hurt her armpit. We never figured out how she managed an armpit injury.

Curtis jumped immediately into fashion modeling and made a quick $500,000 and traveled the world on his fame and fortune. He came home with a cute little foreign girl and three kids. We don’t know the whole story, but they seemed happy and get along well with the family. I know there is a story behind it though but he didn’t want to seem to talk about it. Maybe someday…

I had no idea the game of Life took so long. We got to bed a lot later than I had planned. The version of the game we played was really fun; it comes with a little electronic device and you all have a credit card that you swipe when it’s your turn. It tracks all your money, bills, family expenses, happiness. Tinkering with a little electronic gadget every turn and managing your life is perfect for a crew of kids that grew up on The Sims, Giga Pets, and gaming consoles.

For three years now we have spent Memorial weekend camping at the San Juan County park on the San Juan Island. These islands are a short ferry ride out of Anacortes, WA and are excellent for whale watching. The first two years, several pods of whales swam right past the beach 2-3 times each day. I started to think that it was normal and expected the same thing this year but it didn’t happen. Luckily I had booked us a whale watching trip (we had never done this before) and on our 3 hour boat ride we saw plenty of Orcas and I was able to get pictures that were much better than I had in previous years.

If you want to camp on the islands, you have to make reservations early. Every year I call the day the reservation line opens (usually around St. Patrick’s day). This year I had 2 phones on redial and I sat for an hour and a half dialing constantly before I finally got through (and the camp was already half filled for Memorial Weekend). I know one of these years I won’t end up so lucky and the family will be disappointed.

Our trip usually starts early Saturday morning. The wait for the ferry can be long, so we leave at the crack of dawn and catch an early one. The kids have become quite skilled at sleeping in the tight back seat. In the past year alone we have logged over 150 hours of driving together on our trips to Utah, Minnesota, and other smaller trips. We have our moments, all crunched in a tiny space for so long, but the driving is one of the most memorable parts of the trip. In addition to an occasional fight, we laugh, tell stories, they watch movies (while I listen to them), and we listen to audio books. Once on the ferry, the kids usually wake up and we’ll play games or harass the other passengers. One year I had the kids go on a scavenger hunt collecting names. They had to go around asking other people their names and cross them off their list in order to win the ultimate prize (candy). They had fun and the other people on the ferry seemed to get a kick out of it too.

All of the kids are a huge help when we arrive to the campsite. Everyone pitches in to get the tent and canopy set up, arrange chairs, and organize the food. It’s not like the old days when in addition to setting up the camp was the job of tending three little kids wanting to play and run around. I miss those cute little kids, their silly jokes, and the endless questions but camping with teenagers does have its benefits. Less work for me, jokes that are really funny, some good football and Frisbee, and even deep conversation around the campfire…intermingled with plenty of silliness from everyone, of course.

This year was especially fun, although I tend to think that every year. I really had a fun time with Sandi and the kids. I consider myself a lucky father to have three teenagers that are a lot of fun to hang out with. Don’t get me wrong, we have our moments, but there are tons more good times that hard ones. And this year our camp was packed full of great memories.

After the work is done, it’s time to have fun. One good thing about the islands is that even though we have left rain in Seattle, we arrive to sunshine. This year I was extra worried that our trip might be spent in the tent playing games (and I was determined to have fun if it came to that), but it didn’t. There was plenty of sun and even a few sunburns (although I didn’t have the patience to give Curti a racoon eyes tan as you can see in the picture below).

When it’s time to come home, the kids are just as much help packing up the tents, rolling up sleeping bags, and cleaning up the campsite. I have to be honest, there is usually a small amount of complaining but I can understand why…nobody wants to leave. But even though they’d rather stay, everyone helps out and we head out early Monday morning to make sure we don’t have to wait six hours for a ferry. We’ve made the mistake of leaving camp at 11 thinking we’d catch the 2:00 only to find out we were even lucky to get on an evening ferry. So we leave camp by 8:00 am and are able to catch the 11:15 ferry out of Friday Harbor.

The ferry ride home isn’t filled with the energy and enthusiasm as our trip out. This year Sandi and Curti managed to stay awake, but the girls and I crashed for the entire ride. When we got home everyone helped unload the car and put everything away before taking showers and cleaning up. Then Aubree volunteered to make us all a nice dinner, which was fabulous (Italian sausage soup). Aubree scored another point when she picked out a movie for us, Bella, which was a really touching show.

We had a blast. I’m grateful to have such fun kids and a sweet wife. I know it sounds too good to be true for a family camping trip, but what can I say. All the credit goes to my wonderful kids and wife. The only drawback now is that we don’t have another family vacation scheduled. I have individual trips with each kid for the next couple of years and I’m not sure when we’ll all make it back to Minnesota and Utah. At least we’ll do a few camping/backpacking trips over the summer to help fill the gaps.

If you want any information on how to plan a trip to the San Juan Islands, feel free to message me with any questions!

I’ve been there and it’s no fun to be bullied. I used to try and make friends with my bullies…sometimes it even worked. One of my worst bullies in 4th grade ended up being one of my good friends through High School. In 9th grade (I was still short and an easy target), I gave a kid that used to push me around a Snickers bar. He went from bullying me to protecting me. We never talked and weren’t really friends, but if he was walking by and somebody was bothering me he’d put an instant stop to it. I felt like I had a personal bodyguard, it was great! But it didn’t always work. Once while trying to befriend one, he took a quick swing and hit me in the jaw. There was a lot of blood and my face was swollen for weeks. Twice I got hit in the face and never fought back. I go back and forth as to which is better. Sometimes I’m glad I didn’t, other times I wish I would have…

So I can’t blame Curtis. The other day on the way home the harassment was upped a notch and the other kid said he was going to beat Curtis up when they got off the bus. Curtis said he tried to hurry home but the kid came after him and threw down his backpack. There were other boys around egging them on, which made it worse, so when the kid came in close Curtis hit him in the face. The kid jumped on him and they were wrestling on the ground when the kid’s mom came and put a stop to it all.

If you know Curtis, you know how absurd this story is. He’s a good kid; polite, considerate, and not at all a violent person or a trouble maker. He’s still short (like I was) and smart (again, like I was…I mean ‘am’…haha) and so can be an apparent easy target when somebody wants to pick a fight. But he’s got the heart of a tiger and, like me, will do whatever it takes once backed into a corner.

Initially, because Curtis threw the first punch and the other boy’s mom broke up the fight, Curtis is the one that got in trouble. But after hearing both sides of the story and the added fury of another set of parents, the principal said there are no grounds to press charges. It’s interesting though. School bullying is a huge problem and I find it strange that someone who finally stands up to it is the one to get in trouble. But I know there are two sides to every story and I don’t have the complete picture. I know it’s easy for parents to get trapped in denial and turn a blind eye to issues with their children. I think I’m being objective here…but I guess that’s the trap.

From how I understand the situation, I can’t blame Curtis for what he did. I don’t think he did anything wrong. A part of me is even proud that he stood up for himself. At the same time, I don’t agree with violence as a solution. I suppose the bottom line is that he’s my son and no matter what he does I’d be right there in his corner to support and help. I’m going to love and stand behind him regardless. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have to accept responsibility. Whatever the punishment the school may levy on this he will have to face. But at least he won’t have to face it alone…I’ll be there with him. That’s one thing I hope I’ve been able to burn into my kids minds. They can count on me to be there when they have problems. Not to bail them out, but to love and support them through their difficult times. There are good lessons for Curtis on all of this and I want to both protect him and let life teach him. It can be tricky to know where to draw the line.

Roads wind through the park, connecting the small village-like areas where you can eat lunch, rent a rondavel, and get out of your car (it’s against the rules to even open your car door outside the gates, for obvious reasons). These camps keep you safe from, among other things, the “Big 5″ (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, and buffalo). All visitors must be in one of these camps or out of the park by sundown, or face serious fines.

There are drawbacks to driving your own car through the African wild, as compared to an open land rover on a private game reserve (which I have also done). Being restricted to roads means you can’t get as close to the action and you don’t have a personal guide with a radio streaming the location of wandering creatures. But for me, being able to drive my own car, at my own pace, never knowing what I will find around the next corner dwarfs those benefits.

I’ve seen a mother cheetah with her cubs devouring an impala. I saw a leopard carry a warthog up a tree. I stared a lion in the eyes that had walked up next to my car and put it’s face right up to my window. I sat in the veranda of my rondavel looking down into the valley as a heard of elephants crossed the river below. Crocodiles, snakes, monkeys, babboons, hippos, giraffe, zebra…thousands and thousands of animals. Is it any wonder that it’s my favorite place in the world?

So you can probably understand when I tell you I got a bit teary eyed when I pressed submit on two tickets to Johannesburg, departing October 18, 2008. My son and I are going to spend two weeks exploring and photographing the African bush. We have excellent gear, my skills are much improved, and we both share a passion for the outdoors, wildlife, and photography. It is going to be incredible.

The highlight of the trip with Curtis will be a wilderness trek; 4 days, 3 nights out  in the middle of Kruger (not inside the safe camp areas) with six others, a cook, and two trackers armed with guns powerful enough to drop a charging elephant. We’ll hike 50 miles through lion country, sleep in meager open aired huts, and listen to the lions and hyenas as we fall asleep. It’s comforting to know nobody has ever been killed on one of these trips, but I have heard stories of charging lions and elephants. I sure hope we see lions while on foot, what a thrill!

It’s still eight months away, but come November you can bet you’ll see some great blogs and pictures telling about our experience. I added a new gallery to my photography section containing pictures from my 1993 trip. They are scanned from slides and a bit grainy, but you can still get an idea of how exciting it was.

1. That I’d get divorced

I never imagined this one. As a child, there was no divorce in my family…extended family included (and my parents come from huge families). Later as a teenager there were two, but percentage-wise, it’s a tiny proportion. It’s just something that wasn’t considered. Families stayed together. Parents worked on things and stuck it out. It was hard to know which to rate first, this one or number two (below), but I decided this one has shaken up my world than anything else. I still often feel disoriented, like I failed in other peoples eyes, and sometimes like I’m standing out in the middle of a desert with no idea where I am and where to go. Up until the moment Kim said the words "I want a divorce and I’ve already seen an attorney," I didn’t expect it. There were clues, I knew things weren’t going good, but I never expected she wanted to actually end it. It sucked. The next three months were the worst of my life, but then ushered me into some of the best. Looking back it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Believe me, I never imagined I’d say those words.

2. That I’d stop going to church

I grew up thinking that one day I might actually be one of the leaders of my church (the Mormons). I was pretty arrogant. But I loved the church, I loved studying the scriptures, and most of the time it was the center of my life. Why I left and the story behind it is too long to tell here, in fact that I have started writing it and someday might share it. It’s not one of sin or bitterness. I was living the commandments and I still have high opinions of the leaders and teachings taught by the Mormons. I think the Mormon church is a wonderful way to help people keep focused on what is important. But I had some questions and eventually took a step away, then another, and then realized that I needed to embrace my true beliefs and philosophy. By my mid twenties I left completely.

I was not being true to myself. I am agnostic. I’m going to live the best life I can, I strive to be congruent and honest, and if there is a god out there I figure he will direct me as to where I should go. The hardest part about all of this is that it left me in a real miserable place. I believed that this life has meaning and the afterlife offers a wonderful place where we live forever with our loved ones. Now I have no clue. My meaning comes from just living, and in this world sometimes that is depressing. Okay, for me a lot of times it’s depressing. This is the lone and dreary world.

Like the divorce threw me off kilter, leaving the church pulled the foundation of my life from under my feet. It’s really hard to renegotiate something so central to my existence. Not only the funk it plays in my mind, but I lost some good friends and the respect of people that I admire and care about. I can understand why, in some of their minds they figure I must have left the church because I was sinning and lost the spirit of God. I’m a disappointment to them and most will never be able to understand my situation. That makes me sad because I really love and care about these people but I had to follow what felt right to me. I’ve had a couple friends that this hasn’t seemed to phase, they love and accept me exactly how I am. Just typing that brings tears to my eyes. It took my family some time but I think now for the most part they too respect and accept my choices. It’s made my life harder but at least I’m being more honest with myself and true to who I say I am.

3. That my kids would save my life

Before my divorce, I loved my kids and enjoyed playing with them. But I was always busy; my mind was on work, computer games, or problems with Kim. After the divorce, they became my life. They were the ones that were there for me. After the divorce Kim went back to school, started a business, and got in a band. She’s working on her dreams and very busy, doing what she needs to for herself, which is cool. So although it is a 50/50 custody on paper, the kids spent most of their time with me, which is a blessing for me. Right when the divorce happened my sister moved her family back to Utah. I had been very close to them and I suddenly felt completely alone.

My friends helped, but my pain was deep. It was my kids that pulled me through…playing cards with me after work, working together on homework, watching movies, and often all crowding into the same bed and laughing and joking as we fell asleep. We lived in a tiny little two bedroom duplex. The girls shared one room and Curti and I shared the other. I had to have a cyst removed and was bedridden for two weeks and they took care of me. They fed me, changed my bedpan, and gave me medicine…one of them stayed home with me every day. Although that place began with some of the most painful sad memories of my life, it ended wonderful. I love the time we lived there together. It brought us closer, then we met Sandi and launched a new life. Now they are teenagers and sometimes it’s hard to see them going off and gaining independence, but we are all still very close. I’m married to the sweetest woman in the world and we all still have fun together, talk often, and have a good time. Just take a look at my photoshows from years past and you’ll know what I mean.

4. That I’d be an average Joe

I always thought I’d be rich and famous one day. Maybe an author, maybe a high leader in the church. I feel corny for admitting that, I was pretty arrogant. But I always thought it would happen. I make a good living but I’m not rich, although I feel that in the scope of people in the world I have way more than my fair share. We live a good life and have nice things. I’m less famous than the local mailman but with each year I care less and less. I’d still love to get my novel published and I still have hopes that someday it might happen, but now that dream seems pretty far fetched. But I don’t stop trying…I’m still writing and submitting.

5. That I’d still be wondering what I should do with my life

I always thought that eventually I’d get to a point where I’d know what I wanted to be and I’d do it. That most of my life would be spent in a job that I really loved and where I excelled. Instead, I’ve shuffled from job to job never really feeling content. I’m lucky to have skills and experience that make it easy for me to move around. My real love is writing and photography but I discovered that after I had a Masters degree in Accounting. At least I make enough money to buy equipment that will let me pursue those passions.

"Here, you can have it, I’ll make me another one."

Not only did I take his food, but I knew then and there I wouldn’t have done the same for him. But I was too hungry to feel guilty.

Twenty years later and I still can’t say I’m that selfless. I really like baked potatoes. And as my kids will tell you, I rarely even share my soda with them. So in those areas I may not do so well, but I there are some others where I think I earn my title of "father."

I have three teenagers and they each have their own computer. Tonight after work (working on a computer all day) I came home and sat down on my computer to take it easy and do some writing.

Curtis: "Dad, how can I set up my own WOW server?"

That sounds like a good project for Curtis. He’ll have to set up a MySQL database server, populate it with info, configure the mangos client. So I gave him some basic directions. Back to my writing…

Aubree: "Dad, the neighbors are controlling the TV again!"

A good project for Aubree. I gave her the manual for the Dishnetwork and showed her the page with the instructions to reprogram the remote to a new channel. She’ll learn something, have to follow technical directions…it’ll be good for her. Back to my writing…

Sandi: "Honey, I can’t transfer Oprah to the Archos."

Sandi commutes three hours a day to work and is able to watch some of her TV shows on the bus. Sometimes the electronic devices don’t cooperate. I took the Archos and reinstalled the software and gave it back to her. I can’t just give the manual to Sandi on this one. Gotta do it myself. I got it working. Back to my writing…

Aubree: "Dad, I can’t do this!"

I heard a book fly across the room and hit the door. "Aubree, don’t throw stuff!" It’s not an easy process and she doesn’t have the technical interest I do, so I did it for her. Now back to my writing.

Curtis: "Dad, what do I need to download?"

Aubree: "Dad, the Internet is down."

Dad: "Just a minute Curtis, I’ll look at the Internet."

I started looking at the router, firewall, and the Yoggie, a new device we have in place that is supposed to protect us from viruses, malware, spyware, and other bad things.

Curtis: "Dad, the Internet is down."

Aubree: "Dad, the Internet is still down."

Dad: "I know! I’m working on it" (said with a bit of impatience).

After messing around with Yoggie, the Internet is back up. Back to my writing…

Curtis: "Dad, this isn’t working."

Aubree: "Dad, is the Internet back up?"

Dad: "Yes, Aubree. Just a sec Curti, I’ll come take a look."

I know someday I’m going to miss all these interruptions. The kids will be grown and gone and I’ll be sitting alone in a quiet house writing…and a part of me will be sad. I just have to remember that. I love these guys and enjoy having them around. I wish I could just be more patient with them. The sequel to my novel will have to wait a few more years, which is fine. I’m not getting any bites on my first one anyways. Even while trying to write this blog I had no less than ten more interruptions. One was from our cat, Elphie. Nothing says I have to be patient with the cat does it? I wasn’t, I pushed her right away. At least she doesn’t ask for a swig of my pop or my baked potato.