Oh Michael

It feels like forever since I posted, Ive been so busy, summer is usually a busy time in munchkin land.

But how can i go without mentioning Michael Jackson. Is it me?

before I get into my thoughts, I just want to put out that this man was so freaking talented. In fact, his whole family is so talented if you ask me.

I also understand why so many people are devastated over the lose of this great performer. Did any even come close to the talent this guy had? I cant even think of anyone.

I was never a big Michael fan. It just wasn't my kind of music. But that doesn't mean I didn't appreciate this guys talent.

So here goes.

I didn't watch any of the memorial stuff, just the stuff I saw on the news.

There was a reason for this. Though he was acquitted of child molestation, he did admit to sleeping with kids in his bed.

If my child came home from a sleepover and said that he slept in his friends fathers bed with him, I would GO OFF!!

I cant say that Michael is a pedophile, but he comes pretty close.

I don't even care how talented this guy, this guy slept with children that wasn't his own.

I guess its just driving me up the wall to see people who appear to have forgotten this 'little issue' of Michael's.

This guy slept with other parents children! I do feel for the family, I feel for his kids, but this man SLEPT WITH OTHER PARENTS CHILDREN.

OK, I guess I can move on. I said it.

Farrah, my beautiful Farrah. Farrah, though not as talented as Michael, was much more braver. A woman who made a living off of her beauty, but yet, she put her self on camera for the world to see the ugly side of cancer. Most people who were known for the beauty would run and hide from the world so no one saw, but not Farrah.

I don't know. Brave and strong or super talented?...which would you choose for yourself?

time, it isnt all what it's cracked up to be

wow, it feel like forever since i posted here. There is a reason for my disappearance, but Ill save it for another day. Sorry I haven't been dropping though and visiting all of you. I am sure I have allot to catch up on.

This post is again, for Mitch's birthday. I know his birthday was a while ago, but there is one issue that just keeps lingering on, and that is time.

Not in the sense of some deepful thought, or some new awareness, but more about a damn CLOCK.

Let me explain.

Mitch has always wanted a grandfather clock. I could never afford him one, but this year i was set out to buy him one. Now before you go and think we have money, we don't.

They actually make clocks that look like grandfather clocks, but they are technically not grandfather clocks.

I thought to myself, well, its either this or he can die without ever owning a grandfather clock.

about four months ago, we were in Mills store. Its a store that has allot of those unfinished furniture in it. You know these stores.

well, we came across these grandfather clocks. They were gorgeous and his eyes lite up. But we left the store without the clock.

Well, come birthday time, I decided this was the gift for him. Like a fool, i waited till the last minute to buy it. I mean, who buys grandfather clocks?

So I zoomed on over and went into the store.

There it was, only two grandfather clocks on display. I asked them if this is all they had left and if they had any in stock. I hate buying floor models.

the guy said "nope, this is the only two that's left"

So i grabbed the cart and i got the guy to help me lift it.

Jokingly, I said, "does it work"

he said "no"

I laughed, thinking he was joking. But he did have this serious face to him.

so I said
"really?"

He said "yea"

Then i said
"well, were you going to let me buy this, drag it all the way home, then let me find out it was broken?"

he then said
"they aren't broken, they wern't made to work, their kinda like a model of one"

OK, is it me?

why bother?

who would buy a clock just to have a clock (this wasn't cheap either btw) that didn't tell time? What would be the point.

Plus, allot of clocks now are battery run. Why not throw one of those in, at least it tells time, maybe not have all the chimes and tick tock stuff, but at least it tells you how late you are for work.

But then this got me in a panic, as i didn't have a present, and I really wanted to give him a clock.

So driving home, i saw Home Goods. I went in there with the slightest chance they sell grandfather clocks.

Well, what do you know...

there it was, on full display.

I ran to the cashier and she said its the only one left.

I asked if it was 'real'.

she looked at me funny as if that was some kind of odd question.

I then proceeded to tell her the story (like she really cared) and she said, "I think it works"

But it did have the bells and the whole thing.

So a guy in the back came out to help me load up. the problem was, it had no 'winding key'. But you know what, I have about three of them at home from other clocks so I'm sure we will be alright.

Plus, if they didn't work, i can take little munchkins healies key to see if that might work.

to make a long story short...or a short story long, the munchkins and I gave it to him.

He was so happy.

But that is not the end of the story. Guess what keys didn't fit the clock? NOt even munchkins healy key worked. Onto our next dilemma.

have you ever tried to find out where they sell winding keys? Not as easy as you might think.

I finally found a clock guy (weird little man...tick tock tick tock) and he asked me all these question. I really had no idea what he was talking about. You see, I'm not one for sitting alone surrounded by clocks with 4 inch thick glasses on, carefully getting clocks to work listening to tick tock all day. He didn't appreciate my humor. (I'm kidding, i never said that, thought it yes, but never said it.)

So I went home to get this sucker up and running, cant wait to hear the tick tock and the big 12 chimes go off. We actually all gathered around the clock, eager to hear the chimes and the sound of tick tock.

uh, the key I got wasn't the right one either.

So I dropped everything and it became my mission to get this clock working, besides, what else did I have to do on a Saturday, my day off, then go three towns over looking for a freaking clock key.

YEAAAAAA I finally did get the right key.

At this point, the munchkins kinda gave up on the clock. I understand, how many more times can one be disappointed.

But wait, it didn't stop there. You see, the damn thing didn't work. Sure, the clock was going, and it was ticking, but that's only when you took the pendulum off. If you put the pendulum on, I guess its just to heavy or something.

but if you didn't have it on, then the clock would go pretty quick. So 10min in real life, was like 2 hours in grandfather clocks time.

But we sure did get some fun chime sounds.

It eventually slowed down, though it wouldn't keep the right time, the chimes would go off every 30 minutes, that's not our time, that's grandfather clocks time.

So we kinda left it alone for a while, with the pendulum tucked safely behind the clock.

Mitch however had a different plan. He now had become obsessed with the clock himself. He really wanted that fixed.

Then, late in the evening, as I was reading Little munchkin his goose bumps bedtime story (don't ask), I hear the quiet sound of Mitch.

"uh, John, don't get mad"

that grandfather clock has ticked his last tocked.

Thinking back, maybe I should of stuck with the clock from the Mills Store. At least it was a nicer looking one, and who needs a clock to tell time anyway?

Oh crap, where did I put that damn receipt? uggggghhhhh.

Why do you blog?

am I the only that gets asked that question? why do you blog?

I realize that the younger bloggers out there, technology is something that you kinda grew up with and the questions might not be asked in your generation. But being in the 'older class' it is nothing we grew up on. Don't get me wrong, we did have to take 'typing class' to learn to type. You remember those, those keys that would kill your pinkie finger because they were so hard to press down. But it did have some cool 'font'...that right, you heard me, 'font', as in not plural. There was no choice of a font to pick.

But there we were, with placing our fingers over the A, S, D, F, J, K, L, semi-colon before we would even begin to type a letter.

Once we all had our grubby little fingers on the keys, out came the sentence on the board...

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

In case you don't know what this means, the sentence is a pangram, which basically is a sentence that contains all the letters in the english alphabet. Neat huh? go ahead you youngins, go see for yourself.

Mrs. Gordon, the teacher, would be at the head of the class and say "OK, begin" and she would actually time us. we were not aloud to look at the keyboard at all, or else...or else, not sure what that means, but no one dared to look at the keyboard..lol

There we were, Over and over again until it was drilled in us.

But even before that, it was a letter at a time. you would start with F. F F F F F F F F F F F F F F You get the idea.

There were two reasons for this, one was too learn that the index finger was the actually finger you would use to type the letter F. The fun really began when we were introduced to G...you used the same finger...oh what joy...FG FG FG FG FG FG...

The other reason why they kept you typing the same letter over and over again, was to make that finger strong. Hitting those keys on that keyboard was not for whimps I tell you.

Obviously, years have past and most people do not use typewriters that much. But they did bring back the old font though. Which I love.

What was I asking again? oh yea, blogging, why do we do it.

Well, here is why I do it.

I never had an interest in computers. Never grew up with them, never needed them. As they became more and more popular, I had to learn for my job and then we broke down and bought one.

This is the sound we would hear...


Back then I did allot of multi-tasking. I would start to download a file, and then when that started, I would go in the laundry room and start folding the clothes from the dryer, and then I would put them away and throw in another wash, then walk to the fridge, grab myself a snack, put a pot of coffee on then walk back to the computer to see if it finished downloading that word document.

So you see, computers back then were used more for work related stuff then enjoyment because you would have to wait, which seems like hours, to get on the computer.

Now, its so fast, it is fun.

oh, sorry, blogging blogging...why do I do it? (There i go again, off into worlds unknown. can you imagine living with me? at least you only have choose to read this stuff, my partner has to hear it...God bless him)

blogging. OK, keep focused.

I actually didn't get the whole blogging thing. To me, it just meant keeping a journal/ diary, and to be quite honest, I started about 10 of them, and the most i have in one is about two days worth. Good intentions, but atlas, I fall to 'why bother' and then just move on.

So blogging and me, just didn't seem like a good fit. My life would end with no record of it, and if you really look at, who would care anyway. Its not like I'm important or something.

When my partner and I adopted kids, my oldest munchkin was having a hard time (see special needs section) and like any parent, I went to research what was happening and what it all means.

I came across these 'forums'. Ever here of these? Every place a 'forum' now. They even have them for blogger. You would put in a question and others would answer you.

I ended up joining allot of 'adoption forums' and 'special needs' forums to get some help and ideas for the munchkins.

I LOVED them. Forums were just plan cool.

But if you read from my other blog, I ended up getting banned or shunned from them due to different views on certain subjects. I was no expert on raising kids, but I did know my kids, and I wasn't from the belief that children needed to be parented the same way. No cookie cutter kids and no cookie cutter parenting.

But I loved these forums, I got to know people just by communicating on the computer. I like allot of them, couldn't stomack a few of them, but all in all, you do get to know these people.

None of my friends (the kind you can actually touch) quite understood this. The odd thing is, I actually don't understand it myself. I mean when you think about it, how can you actually care about someone that you never met and only talked to on the computer. Kinda weird when you think about it. I never felt that way from the operator, and God knows I talked to her an awful lot and thats a real voice. (Mitch can you tell you about that, that's a whole other paragraph and not related to this post, but then what is related to this post anyway?)

After many years, guess what I had? You guessed it, a journal. All those forum posts added up. You see, when stuff was going on with big munchkin, i would go to my forum friends and get support and ideas. The forum saves all of them.

As more shunning happened to me..lol. I found myself posting less and less. I then kept to more 'fun posts' and not get sucked in the 'controversial' posts. But then it wasn't fun anymore...snicker snicker.

eventually it just got tiring.

I then ended up joining myspace. How cool was I? But after I played with my layout and made it just right, then I wasnt exactly sure what to do with it. I had some friends and we would leave these stupid pictures on each others page, but that kinda got boring so I used the 'blog' section to write some stupid stuff down. (I got allot of stupid stuff to say, including this whole post, but whatever, I have nothing else to do at work)

As time went on, I started to wonder what a real blog would like. So I got one. After I had it, I swore that I would post everyday....well, that lasted about two days.....I found myself with nothing to write yet again.

The munchkins were doing pretty good, the family wasn't in crisis, and well, what else do you write about?

SO then I had an idea, and that was to get the information from the forums I joied (not the banned ones, wasnt allowed on those..lol) but I copied all of my posts and put them in my blog. It took me forever, but I was determined to get it all down there.

I was obsessed. Now I had a blog with all my old stuff on it with the kids, so I have a record of everything. A real life blog with all my stuff in it.

I kept the blog on private, because after all, it was for me.

After that was done, now what? I didnt know what to do.

So I started a new blog called 'gay dads in munchkin land'...not sure if anyone remembers my first layout, it was kinda like a wizard of Oz theme. Lame I know, not that Dennis the Menance is any better, but i like it.

But then I found myself starting to use the blog. It was like my own little escape and what was good about a blog vs the forum, If the comment was nasty, i could 'delete' it. Those forums, you couldn't delete anyone else's posts and had to live with those evil words.

Plus, with a blog, the only one who was censoring me was me....I didn't have to worry if i said the word 'shit'....OMG! I said it....sorry folks, it was a slip of the finger...(they don't make keyboards like they use to I tell you)

But one thing about this blogging thing. You can get into other peoples heads, see how they live, how they think. Its not all 'drama and crisis' as in forums, there are breaks. It doesn't consume you like forums do.

So why do I blog? I really have no idea. I'm still trying to figure it out. But my typing skills have gotten so much better. Mrs. Gordon would be so proud.

Get out of here!

As most know, we here in munchkin land, decided to have a surprise birthday party for my partner.

The house was clean. Thank you all for the support on that one. The guests came one by one, and the party got rocking. (I'm such a nerd, 'rocking', who says that anymore)

But there is one thing that spoils everything. No, not the munchkins, well, not this time anyway, it’s those darn mosquitoes.

The weird thing is, you don't even know where they come from. One minute you’re sitting around having great conversations with old friends and then the next minute you start to notice your guests waving their hands and swatting themselves. Not a pretty site.

I bought this canopy for the party to block the sunlight, and as the sun slowly went down, those pesky bugs started to come out, more and more.
I looked up at the canopy and at one point and you can see hundreds of them flying at the top of the canopy. It was like they decided to have their own party, on my expense.

Our backyard is a wooded area, so you can imagine how many mosquitoes came to visit us last night.

So I brought out those tiki candles that are suppose to keep the mosquitoes away, but they were useless. I also used the torches, but nothing seemed to work.
One by one, the guests would slowly leave. The mosquitoes always win.

I get so pist, because we have a nice backyard to entertain guests, but I got to tell you, who would want to come over and spend any time with you outside with those mosquitoes just ruining everything.
It got to the point, we actually had to move everyone in.
I can tell it's going to be one of those years, where we get infested with these things.

Of course having kids, gives even more stress with the West Nile Virus on the rise again. The munchkins love exploring in the woods and playing in the backyard building forts. I just can’t keep my munchkins in all summer? Not only for health reasons, but for my own mental health, I am barely holding onto what bit I have left. For sure I’d lose it if they were to be in all summer.

As a family, we love spending time in our backyard. We have one of those swings that we sit in and I cuddle with my munchkins as we watch the sun go down. We have the best talks that way. But with these pesky bugs, it ruins it.

Two years ago we had bats. We loved our bats, they ate the mosquitoes, but then all of a sudden they were gone, never to return. But the mosquitoes didn’t go anywhere. Hmmmm Maybe they ate the bats.

I came across these mosquito traps , It is the lead insect trap on the market. It's also the first carbon dioxide-based biting insect trap and it’s for anyone to use.

I am determined to enjoy my backyard this summer. I read some of the testimonials, and it seems like this is what we were looking for.

It’s either us or the mosquitoes and I am determined to win.

it's condemned

Well, not literally, but pretty darn close.

I have been so busy lately, trying to find summer camps for the munchkins, never alone appropriate schools for them. Lets not even discuss working full time.

Well, its also My partners birthday. So what I decided to do like a good partner, is to throw a birthday party for him.

What in the world was I thinking? Can I be any more burnt out as it is.

So Ive been doing the whole invite thing, inviting family and friends, and I haven't even started cleaning yet. It's Saturday by the way.

So I looked at the house this morning and thought if the Dept Of Public Safety came in here, they just might condemn the place. Are those the ones that condemned places? whatever.

I know what your all thinking, 'those darn munchkins, sure know how to make a mess', (I know you were thinking that, but I'm sure you would of guess them if I asked) but its not just them. My partner is also a pack rat. Well, maybe not so much of a pack rat, but more of, "ill set up my office here on the table" and be damned if any one touches it. He has papers everywhere.

I need a whole day just to clean the house without the munchkins and Mitch near the house at all.

I'm actually running out of closet space to hide things. Not sure how I'm gonna pull this off.

It wouldn't be so bad if it was a little messy, but I'm talking condemned messy.

I guess I should get off this computer and start cleaning. Oh the dread. I won't even talk about the bathrooms. Lets just say Thank God we have our own.

vinyl shutters

I need a break

Well, lucky us, Little Munchkin won the raffle for bringing home a crayfish. As much as I grew to love Larry, I really was kinda hoping that munchkin didn't win. Well, he he did. Lucky us.

So out comes the little 5 gallon tank and munchkin sets it up with a hiding place (they like that) and a bunch of rocks that he found and washed them one by one for this crayfish's new home.

I then told Munchkin that there was allot of rocks in the tank and there wasn't any room for the guy to swim, but munchkin was convinced that this was the best set up for his new pet. So I didn't argue.

However, there was one part that was missing from this ordeal, and that was the cover.

Now if memory serves me, Larry, who by the way grew really big (theres a video of Larry somewhere on this blog) was really pretty active. So I had my concerns about not having a cover.

So Munchkin puts the new cray fish by his bed and goes sleepy sleep.

The morning comes and guess who is missing? you got it.

We searched everywhere and couldn't find the darn cray fish.

I called late for work, and proceeded to tear apart munchkins room. Not so much to save the cray fish, (I was pretty sure the little guy would be dead) but because of the smell that a dead corpse would give off.

Cray fish love to hide in dark places, so I knew it was going to be hard to find this guy.

I found him, there he was, in the closet, in the corner, ALIVE!

I quickly picked the 'thing' up, uck, and threw him back in the water, where he happily floated to the bottom.

Off to work I went.

When I got home, well, Munchkin had told me that the crayfish had passed. He was quite upset about it, then within the same breath, he asks...

"can I get lizard now?"

With that said, I need a vacation from munchkin land.

Emerald Island Resort

just stand still

if you ever want to teach your child to be patient, to not move, to just be still and quiet.....I have the answer.....

Untitled from John Sloane on Vimeo.

even if its only for a short time.