24 Hours Until Man-mageddon!!

In twenty-four hours, GWE will be on a flight and it will just be me and the boys until Monday afternoon. I assume that we will find ways to get ourselves into trouble and I’ll do my best to document everything that happens. I don’t want to wake up on Monday morning (like in “The Hangover”) with no memory of what happened and having the only clues be the pictures on my phone.The last thing I need are photos of Garrett getting a tattoo of Mr. Rogers giving “the finger,” pictures of a butt-exposing Justin getting thrown out of a strip club, or a “new” mugshot of me and my cellmate “Betty.”

The Similac is chilling…we’ve got some “play dates” planned…and bail (pulled from the 529 College Fund) has been set aside.

Let the weekend begin!!!!!

The Man Cave (Gimme Shelter: The Final Chapter)

This is the shed, circa 2005.

This is the inside of the shed, right before the renovation.

(Update from 9/12/12) – I found out last week that our Man Cave was featured on the blog “Shedworking.” Justin and I are so excited to see that our work has been recognized by one of the premiere shed building/reconstruction sites!!! Very very cool!!

Seven years ago, my wife and I bought a house that we really liked. Along with this beautiful house, came the most decrepit shed you’ve ever seen.  We used it to store gardening tools, pesticides, weed killers, and the dead bodies of whatever animals “croaked” in there. Eventually, we forgot about it. It was just something that we agreed to never acknowledge existed.

This past July, I found myself standing in the yard while staring at the shed. A light went off in my head and I decided that maybe there was something we could do with this thing after all! After doing some online research, I came up with a plan. I recruited my 5 ½ year old son and together we have spent the past 7 weeks destroying, rebuilding, cleaning, sawing, painting, re-painting, spray painting, staining, nailing, lifting, schlepping, digging, planting, and breaking our backs to turn our “Shit Shed” into a “Man Cave.”

Today, our project is complete! Please take a few moments to enjoy our “before” and “after” photos!

On a side note, we have decided to decorate the inside with metal signs and magnets. If you would like to make a “Magnet Contribution” to our project, we’d love to have it! (We’ll even send you a picture of the magnet in its new home!)

 

This is the Man Cave on September 4, 2012.

Man Cave Interior

Man Cave Work Bench

He’s a Complicated Man (and no one Understands him but his Woman.)

Now all I can hear is the theme song to “Shaft” whenever Justin walks into a room. I always knew that he was a bad mother (SHUT YOUR MOUTH!), but this past Friday solidified it for me! Allow me to explain:

I had asked Justin earlier in the week what his friends’ names were because I knew all of his friends at his last school, but he had not shared his new friends’ names with us yet. His response was, “Daddy, I have two girlfriends!”

“Really?” I asked.

“Seriously, daddy. I have three girlfriends.” He said it matter-of-factly. He was not boasting or trying to impress. It was just how it was.

“What are their names? I asked.

“I dunno.” And with that, he went to sleep.

On Friday afternoon, GWE was cleaning out Justin’s backpack when she came across a note from another parent. It seems as though a little girl in Justin’s kindergarten class enjoyed playing with him at school and she had requested that her mother set up a “playdate” for Justin to come over to her house. We immediately ran over to Justin and asked him to tell us who this little girl was. For a few moments, he wasn’t sure. And then, he said – “OH! She’s the one with the three braids in her hair.” (That gave us no insight.) Luckily, I had taken a few pictures of the kids in his class on the first day. I scrolled through the pictures on my phone and asked him to point her out. “Nope, nope, nope, nope….yep, that’s her!”

First of all, Justin has only been in school for 12 days and already the girls are inviting him over to their houses. Secondly, Justin got an orange tag this week – which meant that he was not on his best behavior at some point. Maybe she has a thing for “bad boys” and Justin was just her type. Third, (and most impressive) Justin played it cool. He did not act excited or ask us when the “date” was. He simply went back to playing on my iPad and left the arrangements to GWE. We have been laughing hysterically about this all weekend.

Justin is a wonderful kid. He’s smart, funny, and very friendly. He is a bit of a flirt and has no fear when it comes to talking to anyone. It is not a surprise to me if he is a bit of a “Don Juan.”

I just wasn’t expecting the parade of women in his life to begin in kindergarten!!!!

You Put Your Left Leg In, You Take Your Left Leg Out….

Meet the parents of GenXDaddy!

Here they are trying to put pants on my 10 month old son. As you can see, he is not putting up a fight. He is not kicking his legs, nor is he struggling to get away. He is just “dangling in the air” as my father holds him. Yet – the challenge of putting pants on a baby seems to be too great for two people with graduate degrees, medical degrees, and about 30+ years of experience raising two children.

This might explain why I still try to put my pants on over my head.

Good work, mom and dad! (And, I think his pants are on backwards.)

The Word of the Day: Inappropriate

Some people have been known to sniff glue. Justin misunderstood and decided to “Sniff Blue.” (Relax, it’s just aerosol from the blue spray paint.)

A few weeks ago, Justin announced that he had been thinking about names for our “Man Cave” (grunt…grunt…grunt). The two leading contenders were:

“Girls Don’t Come In Here. Boys Only. Man Cave.”

And the longer:

“Girls Don’t Come in this Shed Because It’s Only for Boys.”

On our way to school this morning, Justin announced that had been thinking of a new name!

“Daddy? I have a new name for the shed.” Justin said.

“What do you want to call it?” I asked, in anticipation of his great mind at work.

“Okay daddy….how about the ‘Man-Boy Cave?’ I was quiet for a moment.

(Oh, great….the last thing I wanted was to have my 5 ½ year old son telling people that we have a place in the backyard that we built called the “Man-Boy Cave.” It either evokes the imagery of Michael Jackson bringing young boys to “Neverland Ranch” or gives the broad impression that something very weird was going on in there. Neither of which are accurate! And, just to clarify, I only told him to ‘put the lotion in the basket’ once after we applied wood sealant to the desk without wearing gloves!)

“Well, Justin….I like that you’re thinking of names, but that one may be a little inappropriate.” I answered cautiously.

“What does ‘inappropriate’ mean?” he asked.

“Inappropriate means that the name isn’t a good representation of what the shed is becoming. It doesn’t fit.”

“What does ‘representation’ mean?” he inquired.

“Well….representation is…” I gave up. “Justin, I love you, but think of another name.”

He sat quietly for a few moments and I could see him thinking.

Finally, he said, “You’re right daddy. ‘Man-Boy Cave’ doesn’t fit because it’s too long. How about just “Man Cave” (grunt…grunt…grunt!)

Relieved, I said, “I think that’s a great name. Good job!”

Whew!