On a Stick
Well, based on the sucessful outing we had in January (sucessful meaning that LatteGirl did not freak out having a baby-sitter), we decided to try it again. Yes, it is true folks, LatteMan and the little woman are going on their second date night this year! And not only that, within the same quarter of a year.
This time however, I planned things out ahead of time, and we are heading to Bananas Comedy Club. You see, as it turns out, in a piece of rare good luck, one of my favorite comedians, Jeff Dunham will just so happen to be at the club that evening. And for the cynics out there, yes it was pure dumb luck. TheWife and her sister (the baby-sitter) set date, I just looked for something to do on that date, and there it was.
If you have never seen Jeff Dunham, you are really missing out on one funny comedian. You see Jeff is not only a Comedian but a Ventriloquist. His humor is not predictable, nor does he tend to run the same gamut of jokes, like how you will hear the same joke by various comedians, just “tailored” to them. Well, with his “pals” Peanut, Jose Jalepeno, Walter, and others. I have followed and watched him since his appearance on Comic Strip Live which was on Fox back around ‘89 - ‘90. I linked to a small clip over on the picture. It is short, but funny. There are more clips over at the website - onastick.com.
This post wasn’t supposed to be a commercial for Jeff Dunham, but as you may have surmised by now I am quite excited about the whole thing.
Is it just me?
I doubt it, since ratings on NBC for the second straight Olympics slumped, but for some reason, the Olympic games this year gave me no reason to stop and watch.
TheWife watched some, and Tivo’ed other parts of the figure skating, which I haven’t watched since Tonya Harding’s (then) husband tried to take out the competition. In what was probably a bit cruel bit of thinking on my part, and disgust over the attention given to Nancy Kerrigan who for a brief time became America’s sweetheart, was thrilled that after the announcers gushing praise all over her, and proclaiming her the gold medal winner after her routine, cheered when Oksana Baiul pulled off a stellar routine and yanked the gold away for herself. The last time I watched figure skating with any interest before that, the name that drew attention was Dorothy Hamill.
When I was younger, I liked watching Skiing, bobsled and Hockey. But the frequent abysmal showing by the United States turned me off to skiing. Bobsledding (including Luge) has been such a bad event for the U.S. that I never felt let down by the fact that we couldn’t touch a medal, but the interest eventually waned. Hockey of course was of course fun because of the “Cold War” battles when I was younger, the “evil” U.S.S.R. hockey team that was just too good for everyone else, alway hoping for the David and Goliath scenario which was ultimately rewarded with the 1980 “Miracle On Ice” team. Since the switch to allow professional hockey players to play, it of course not only lost the intrigue it had before, but my personal favorite player, Martin Broudeur of the New Jersey Devils plays for Team Canada.
So now the games of Turin have come and gone, and I watched… not a single minute of coverage. Not live, not “Previously Recorded”, not Tivoed. I glanced at the Sunday Paper to look at the medal totals. That was the extent of my Olympic interest this year.
I thought maybe it was just me, but after seeing all the articles on how poorly NBC did with Olympics ratings, maybe it is not me at all.
The great Daycare debate
When LatteGirl started school this fall, it ended the era of her at her original Daycare, which does not offer an “after-care” program. When we started looking into the after-care programs available to us, one thing became crystal clear to us. We were spoiled with the daycare center we had, and nothing else in the area even came close to the quality of the teachers, the quality of the program and the cleanliness of the ’schools’ compared with the original place.
It is only now that I can laugh at how panicked we were when TheWife went back to work. We were distraught with the though of our child spending so much time with others and not enough parent time. We worried about the spread of germs, and whether she would fit it, etc. All the typical worries of a caring parent starting to put their child in a daycare program. We were hypercritical of some things and demanded the best for our daughter. And in reality, we got it. We had (for the most part, there were several little problems, but I am speaking of the program in general), incredible good luck with caring teachers that not only did a great job of taking care of our daughter, but that she liked being around as well. When she was in the “2s Room” (she was already three but had not graduated to the “Pre-K 3s”), one of her teachers left for another teaching job. She was inconsolable for several days, as she cryed over the loss of the teacher. Nothing we could say made it better, until she latched onto the new teacher, whom she wound up liking “even more.”
Then to move onto a program that has several teachers that do not even speak english all that well (which I am sorry, is important when you need to speak to English speaking children… and their parents), is not particularly well kept (it is more an “old” thing… and need of a paint job than anything else, it just LOOKS dirty, it really isn’t, but the faded paint, poor lighting, etc just make it… feel dingy).
This had us so upset, the decision was made that TheWife would switch to part time employment, so that LatteGirl never had to spend more than two days a week there, and then as little time as possible. On the two days a week I pick her up, I rush to get there as early as possible, so she is spending no more than two hours there after school on those days.
But now, after nearly six months I have come to some conclusions, including one that we once again over reacted. She really enjoys the couple of hours she spends there, has several new friends and gets along well with the teachers. I get along as well with most of the teachers, although admittedly I am still a bit frustrated with 1 that speaks with such an awful accent, it takes a minimum of three attempts from her before I can gather enough fragments together to figure out what she is trying to say. What drew me to this startling revelation? Well fortunately for me (and more UNfortunately for her and her daughter), the recent problems that have besieged Miss Zoot and NikkiZ with there daycare have make me put into perspective how good I really have it.
This vaction is so going to suck for my diet
We started planning for a spring getaway weekend for the family. The Wife has already decided on the destination. Drum roll please… Hershey, PA.
What better place to bring a child on Easter weekend than to the U.S. Capital of Chocolate?
Of course I will be in charge of “watching her sugar intake” as we tour the Hershey’s Chocolate World and such as the wife goes to the spa for a Chocolate Wrap or a Whipped Cocoa Bath.
Blogging via AvantBlog
Why? Because I can. Standing here, waiting on my bus home (while it is still light out to boot), and thanks to wireless technology, I can still post. Of course this probably puts me up there on the geek scale, but at least I am not one of those people I used to work with that would be standing at a stall taking care of “business” in one hand while reading or responding to e-mail with the other. I mean seriously, what can be so important that you can’t wait until you’re finished using the facilities ?
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