SCREWED!!!

This is exactly what you DON'T want to see right before "Dad's Taxi" has to go pick up the kids and take them to music lessons.

Cow Tipping

There are a lot of things in this world that confuse me. One of those would be the concept of tipping. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against tipping. In fact, I am what you would call a W.O.T. (Way Over Tipper). But the part that confuses me is who decided what services deserve a tip? When did this happen? Was there a vote? I'm clear on why we tip at the restaurant. The waitress takes our order, delivers our meal, responds to special requests and then shares the tip with the people who cook and clean up. But it gets a little hazy after that. When I get my morning coffee, the Starbucks employee pours coffee in a cup and hands it to me. Does that deserve a tip? And if that deserves a tip then why don't we tip the girl at Home Depot who mixes paint to match our baseboards? Why don't we tip when we check out at the grocery store? What about the clerk who helps us try on shoes? Can you see why I'm confused? Lately I've seen people who are trying to transform their profession into a tip-able profession. There will be a jar with a piece of paper taped to it that reads "Tips". When I look in the jar there is a nickel and two pennies. Don't they know that the key to receiving tips is to convince people that it is a common practice. You need some seed money in that jar. Throw in a couple dollars of your own money to get the ball rolling. If you're feeling real frisky, put a $10 bill in there. My all time favorite tip jar is at an ice cream parlor called Maggie Moo's. My kids love Maggie Moo's ice cream and I like it too. Their logo is a very stylish cow named Maggie Moo. My daughter even won the coloring contest when she turned in her portrait of Maggie Moo complete with earrings. Emma thought a stylish cow like Maggie Moo definitely needed earrings. The staff at Maggie Moos is very friendly, which isn't too surprising because everybody that comes in the store is happy. Who isn't happy when they are about to eat ice cream. I would give these teenagers a tip even if they didn't have a tip jar. But the fact that the tip jar in Maggie Moo's reads "Cow Tipping Encouraged" is all the more reason to contribute!

Catch Phrases

Gibson: Rotten Cheese! This math homework is hard!

Emma: Rotten Cheese??? Gibson...you need to work on your catch phrases.

Single Parent Hobby

IT NEVER ENDS!!!

Kids & Lids

I don't know what it is about kids and lids, but they just don't work very well together. I've noticed this most with toothpaste. In my house it takes approximately two days for a tube of toothpaste to become permanently separated from it's lid. So I started buying tubes of toothpaste with the flip lids. The only problem is...kids understand how to open a lid, they just can't quite comprehend how to close the lid. So the tube ends up with an ever increasing glob of hardened toothpaste blocking the opening. But my kids don't care. They just keep squeezing as hard as they can until half the tube explodes in the sink. Then they brush, spit and leave everything there to dry. I've never actually witnessed this phenomenon, but the evidence has lead me to this conclusion. My latest solution is to buy the travel size toothpaste. So far it's working. It's still a mess...but a much smaller, travel size mess.

Good Intentions!

Yesterday was Earth Day and my daughter came home from school with a cabbage plant. She eagerly went out in the backyard and planted her cabbage. It was inspiring to see a child who turns her nose up at the slightest sign of vegetables get so excited about a cabbage plant.

But Emma was not done celebrating Earth Day! She decided she would venture out into the neighborhood and pick up trash. I was very supportive of this idea, so I gave her a trash bag and sent her on her way. She invited some friends to join her and started picking up trash. I few minutes passed and I decided to check up on her progress. When I got outside I noticed that she and her friends were curiously looking at something on the ground. I asked Emma what they were looking at and she announced that they had found a dragon fly. Emma was flapping her arms and telling everyone that she was communicating with the dragon fly. The dragon fly would take off and Emma would follow it flapping her arms and telling everybody that the dragon fly was copying her. And her little friends were happy to play along and let Emma believe that she was communicating with the dragon fly.

I went back inside and about a half hour later Emma came back in the house. I noticed that she was not carrying the bag of trash, so I looked out the window and there it was lying on the ground. I said "Emma...what about picking up trash?" Emma said "Oh yeah...I forgot!" and then she turned to go downstairs and watch T.V. I said "Emma...you can't just leave that bag of trash out there! Go pick it up please." So she went out and got the trash bag leaving it on the counter. I looked in the bag and there was one piece of trash.

But I guess playing with a dragon fly is also a good way to celebrate Earth Day!