Like gansters. This one little boy with another group was informing his friends that one of their other compatriots had his ball cap on backwards–a sign of “gangster. That’s bad. Gangster’s KILL people. That’s not nice!”

How does this little boy know what gangsters even are? And gansters do not have the market cornered on hat-wearing. I tend to wear my ball cap backwards sometimes. Doesn’t mean I’m “gangsta;” just means I don’t want the bill hanging over my eyes.

My wife and I were wondering where our daughters come up with some of the things they do and say. I’m starting to wonder if they’re learning it from other kids that they observe. It’s an interesting study in young child sociology and interactivity.

On a much more positive note, as girl 1 and I were leaving girl 2’s school, we saw two stray dogs that were milling about the grounds. One looked like a beagle, the other looked like an Irish setter. Both were really well behaved and friendly. I would have put them in the car and taken them home if I thought I was at all interested in obtaining a kennel license (which, I just remembered, is not offered by our city anymore, thankfully). These poor things looked so hungry and lost. I felt bad for them. Girl 1 was so excited to pet them and see them. She’s such a sweetheart. Both of our girls are. They present their unique challenges to weef and me as parents, but they are who they are. I don’t want to change their personalities; I would like it if girl 2 had maybe less energy or less ADHD … she tends to get super, super hyper. Running around, won’t listen, can’t sit still in time out … it’s amazing how much energy this little girl has. Both of them are high-energy, but girl 2 doesn’t seem to have a handle on hers, while girl 1 tends to exhibit more restraint. Maybe time will help curb girl 2’s boundless energy, but who knows.

It’s been a long while since I’ve written. I swear I had a goal of 200 posts this year! I’m still working on it.

Again on a much more positive note, my frissonic blog is starting to garner some attention. I actually have a band out of Cincinatti following me on twitter. That’s pretty cool! I have the top spot on Google’s search for “frissonic,” which is nice. But the big news is that I might get a press pass to the Muse/Silversun Pickups concert in April. Sweet merciful crap, that’d rule. Interviews with both bands, pics, signed CDs … I can’t wait. I would only ask for sigs on one CD from each band. Coming in with a stack a mile high would seem ridiculous.

Anyway, there’s a ton more going on with us, but for now, I just don’t feel like rehashing it all here. It’s extremely personal and down-right disheartening, but for the most part, our lives are good. If nothing else, we’ve had our faith reaffirmed in the strength of family and friends. Not that we doubted that strength before, but it’s always nice to have it re-established and brought to the forefront. Weef and I have THE BEST families around. Period.

Personally, I think he’s just trying to get in as many gratuitous butt shots as he can before someone calls him on it.

1. Fixing up our house. A LOT. I know we’ve said this in the past, but this time, we really mean it. There are lots of little things that need to be done–like re-painting a lot of areas, patching some little dings here and there, getting those painted … not to mention the overhaul of the basement that we’d like to accomplish. I’m a huge proponent of getting rid of ALL the paneling in the basement and possibly re-mudding and sanding the whole family room and kitchenette area. No paneling. Period. Much sanding and painting.
2. New vacation location. Yah, we’ll probably go to Yellowstone because, let’s face it … we’re addicts, plain and simple. There’s a certain magic about Yellowstone that is inescapable, and we don’t want to miss out on that. It’s like a second home to us. However, we also want to branch out this year and see new places. To that end, Lori and I have talked about taking a trip up or down the Pacific Coast Highway and stopping every so often for beach breaks and hotel rest. I think it’ll be awesome and can’t wait. The other thing we discussed was just going to San Diego with the girls. The zoo and Sea World alone would take up a week … no to mention the beaches and other attractions. It’d be great to just get away down there for a week or so.
3. We plan on giving birth this calendar year. By “we,” I mean weef, of course, but I will be there 100% in support. I don’t know how this one will work out … the last 10 years haven’t been kind or gentle in that department, but who knows. Maybe we’ll “force the issue.”
4. For the 4th or 5th year in a row, I have once again sworn off pop. I guess we’ll just see how that one goes. Sure, I now have the biggest mug in history, but … like I said, we’ll see how it goes. I won’t lie: I like my Coke Zero. It’s exactly like regular Coke, but with no calories. Perfect! Maybe. I guess we’ll see how the “no pop” goal goes.
5. I plan on dropping 60-70 pounds. This will be accomplished by smaller and less frequent portions of ANYthing. Weef has discussed possibly picking up a pass to a local gym. I guess so, but then there’s the whole thing about getting there. We bought a membership once to the local rec center. That was the last time we went. How silly. They do have a nice pool, and that’s a really good way to melt fat and tone. Again, we’ll see.
6. I want to post here at least 200 times this year. That’s my goal. 200 times. 199 to go!
7. As many of you may know, I maintain a music blog at http://frissonic.net. I want to make that a very active site. My goal is to post there 200 times as well, but I also want to market it a lot more. Basically, it’s like I said–a music blog. Concert reviews, CD reviews, thoughts about music in general … and I HIGHLY encourage comments! You don’t have to agree with me; just be respectful of my and everyone else’s opinions. Everyone’s musical interests vary. Even mine and weef’s differ. Sometimes a lot, sometimes not as much. Anyway, I plan on posting there a lot as well.

I think that pretty much covers it, other than the “I want to be a better person” goal. Blah blah blah. Sure I do. How I go about that is my own personal business though. That’s not for general public consumption.

Anyway, happy 2010!

On the agenda is some play time and food shopping. We have to Brooklyn in a few hours, then we’ll get Shariden later. Hot chocolate and donuts this afternoon! Actually, Lori and I have already had some, but we can always have more.

The pic was taken from our front porch. Lovely, eh?

Then there’s “broken arm chick.” She’s rather stand-offish. “How can I help you …?” Like she doesn’t really mean it, but she knows she has a job to do, so she just does it. She’s been like this since I’ve been going down there. She slams the microwave door shut, bangs her bagel cutting knife around, sulks and pouts over who knows what … she’s generally grumpy and harump-y.

Somehow, though … it works for her. Maybe I’m just being uber-kind today and I’m just accepting of everyone as they are today, but for some reason, her pissy-ness didn’t bother me today. I thought, “Hmm. Something must be going on in her life that’s making her like this. Or maybe this is her personality after years of bad relationships. Maybe she got let go from her 6-figure job because of the economy and this is what she’s doing to survive.” Obviously, I can’t just say, “Hey. You have this constant ‘grah’ vibe. What’s the matter with you?” Cuz, really … how nice would that be?