Caution: Attitude on the loose and it's all over the place

On the iPod: Blues Traveler, Violent Femmes, Whitecross, Kenny G, The Beatles, Blink 182, Oukast, Direct Current, Phil Keaggy, Avril Lavigne,

I took a few days to do a little digging. Not for dirt. Or even for anything organ donor related. I was actually just looking into other web sites for what ever I could find. It's my way to clear my mind and refocus. Some places I visited were photo related. I also hit a few financial sites and of course the requisite new (random) web sites and blogs. I even made it back to the Barnes & Noble a few miles from home. The last time I inquired about JPG Magazine. I was told by the "clerk" said they don't carry the JPG magazine. Well, wouldn't you know it. They had a dozen or so issues on the shelf. They were right where they were two months ago too. I had a cursory look through the mag last night. I wasn't as impressed with this issue as I was the first one I bought. But that's not to say I am disappointed. Some of the images that were chosen just didn't have that GRAB or the pull to say "look at me", "remember me". Perhaps it was the themes chosen for the issue. Of the images submitted online some of those had impact. I should have added them as favorites some of them. Oh well.

.next time.

I didn't carry my camera in to B&N this time. I did look several people square in the eye. Boy does that make people nervous. I really wanted to just start talking to someone. But I was really short on time this trip through town.

I also headed over to Circuit City to pick up a thingy and software to calibrate my monitor. So my crappy pictures won't look too crappy. To be honest. The original settings looked nicer than what the Huey (from Pantone) made the monitor look. I also calibrated my laptop and it's external monitor. Both of them looked better before the calibration than after I used the Huey calibration on them.

To be fair (if it's possible) I have a tendency to add a little yellow to some of my pictures so when my monitor looks like it had a little more yellow than I am used to, it should all balance out. ((I like my monitors on the cool side, more blue and green)).


We went sledding last night for about thirty minutes. It was a pleasant 30 degrees and no wind. I could have stayed out for HOURS, as could the kids. But thy had been nippy/edgy towards each other all day from the moment they got off the bus. I was hoping the cold air and exercise would have slowed them down but it didn't.

My son was skirting the line of being too aggressive towards his sister and I almost stepped in. But
I literally stopped mid step to see how it would pan out. As he ran across the yard with the sleds, she threw snow at him and he dropped both sleds and she picked them up. He stopped being a peckerwood when she had the sleds. HIS sled. A little later there was the requisite jumping on each other as they slid by and that almost brought about a few other brawls. I stayed in the shadows and let it happen. Throughout the short time we were sledding, they never crossed "the line" and I didn't have to step in. I was pretty proud of them.

We headed in, slowly, and got ready for bed. This is probably my favorite time of day. We get to spend one on one time with each other. No TV, no radio no one else. When my daughter turns off her video game and ask ME to come talk, there is nothing else I could want to do. It's more than a chat. It's investing in our relationship. Setting the course when there are stresses of friends, boyfriends, school grades, sex, alcohol and drugs. Then they will know they CAN talk to me with problems.

I am also stressing that they can talk to each other. I challenge them often to work together to solve a problem, complete a task or just come up with a creative idea. It's working. I have heard them reasoning, using logic and just plain having fun with some things together. Dish washing is one. Another is deciding on a place to eat out or how to spend the day. It's what make me love being a parent.

As for sex talk. We have had it. It was one of the most difficult things to think about when they were toddlers. I knew it would come eventually. When it did, the discussions were natural. They have never been squeamish. The kids, not the discussions. But we have always been honest and accurate with each other.

It gives me hope that they will be able to make the right decision when confronted with sex the first time. Drugs and alcohol conversations have not been any easier and no less important. They see people drinking and beer/wine at restaurants and on TV. So it's a different type of conversation. There is an issue with genetics when it comes to alcohol and I make them aware that it could be deadly to them. Not to scare them. But to make them aware that there is a different issue at hand than just a few drinks with friends. It's much, much more.

So far, they have not had to directly deal with death. Only one grandpa has passed away in their cognitive lives. They have had two great, great grandmothers pass away, but they don't have much of a memory of them. Someday, hopefully a ling time away, we will deal with that issue.