My 2 Cents

A wife wanting to see her husband’s reaction asked him

“Honey, If I die will you remarry?”

The Husband replied, “Well dear, the children DO need a mother so yes, I would.”

The wife asked “And would she live in my house?”

To which her hubby replied “Well dear, it’s paid for and in good condition so it would only make sense?”

And the wife asked “And would she sleep in my bed!?”

And the husband replied in a matter of fact manner, “Well the bed is brand new and in good condition, it would be a waste not to use it”

The wife now a little upset asked the husband “I bet you’d even let her use my golf clubs!”

To which the husband replied, “Well of course not dear, She’s left handed.”

Hope you had a laugh
Eric

Technorati Tags: Humor, Golf jokes, marriage

This sunday as the family and I were sitting around the house trying to decide what to do I suggested we visit the Customs House Museum located in DownTown Clarksville. On Sundays they are open from 12:00 to 5:00 pm and best of all it’s free!

We were treated to a wonder sculpture exhibit called Time Made Real which features carvings and sculpture by Tim Lewis.

If you have time either on a sunday or throughout the week I highly recommend you check this out.

Customs House Museum takes your young ones into account as well. Nearly the entire downstairs section is devoted to fun exhibits which can help your children learn principles of physics while having a ball.

If you’re a model train enthusiast Customs House Museum has a fantastic setup downstairs and on Sundays from 1:00 to 4:00 the Volunteer Engineers run it. It’s quite the setup.

Customs House Museum is located in Downtown Clarksville Tennessee on the coner of Commerce and South 2nd streets

You can learn more about the Customs House Museum in Downtown Clarksville by visiting them at http://www.customshousemuseum.org/index.htm

Thanks
Eric

Last week my wife and I took our kids to see Kung Fu Panda, (It’s no Wall-E but it was alright) at the theater at the mall. While we were entering another parent (And I use that term loosely) was entering with his two little girls. We were the first two groups in the theater and I was paying attention to getting my kids situated for the movie.

Now before I proceed let me state that I believe the older of the two little girls was no older than seven or eight, not old enough to care for herself and certainly not old enough to care for a younger sibling.

Now back to the story after getting my kids seated and ready with their popcorn and drinks I looked up and noticed the two little girls wandering around the theater, their “Parent” was nowhere to be seen. I figured he wen’t to the restroom, Not great but hey, if you’ve got to go. It wasn’t long before these two little girls made their way to the top row where I was and sat down next to my wife’s seat. Still no parent. My wife got back and the previews started and finished, still no parent. I leaned over and asked the older girl, “Excuse me, is your Dad coming back?” The response I got nearly floored me. “Yes, as soon as he finishes watching Hancock”

This sorry excuse for a parent leaves his two little girls in a crowded theater with one other adult who he doesn’t know at all and goes to another movie for nearly 2 hours? How irresponsible can you be?

Personally I probably land on the over protective side, I try to give my kids some freedom and room to grow but in the end I guard them like gold. It baffles me how this guy could just dump them and go like this. I would have asked him (And a whole lot more) but I knew from trying to speak to him on the way in that he didn’t understand english.

I bring up this story now because only this morning our local newspaper reports this Horror Story of a pitiful excuse for a human being who left her 3 month old baby to perish in a hot car while she went into the bar for a drink, then in the comments of that someone actually says “, and if you are just going quickly, roll the windows down or turn on the air,”

Wake Up Parents! Your children are the greatest gift you will ever be given and the greatest responsiblity you will ever be given. Everything else in life comes second to them, I don’t care if you don’t get to see the movie you want, you don’t get to have a beer, you don’t get to see your friends or even if you don’t get to eat. Your children come first. Your first responsibility before work, friends, or anything else is to protect them. This is the first rule of parenting and I sincerely believe that once you really understand that, the rest of it kinds of works it’s way in.

I just don’t understand people sometimes.

Eric

While attending a Toastmasters training this weekend I struck up a conversation with the woman next to me. She mentioned she was from Knoxville and I mentioned that while traveling through Knoxville my son had become absolutely fascinated with the word Knoxville. It is now his favorite city even though he’s never seen any part of it other than what you can see from the Interstate.

I was kind of taken aback although not offended when she asked me if it was a case where I had my son for the summer. Perhaps it’s because I didn’t mention the rest of the family (The story centered on my son) but it struck me as a bold statement about society that she immediately assumed that I was divorced and was picking up my son for visitation.

What struck me even more was that this has actually happened enough that I wasn’t surprised (Although I’m still taken aback each time) by it. It’s amazing how many people automatically assume that younger people (I’m 31 so I wouldn’t quite say young, but younger fits) are divorced.

Worst of all is that I can understand it. I know more people in my age group that are divorced that there are that are still in their first marriage.

Now I’m not saying that if it just doesn’t work and they’ve tried everything an unhappy couple should stay together, I’ve just got two points.

1. YOUNG people, use a condom, use birth control whatever you need to. Don’t think that having a baby is the key to a long and happy marriage.

2. Set a plan and don’t let anything push you from it. I’ll probably take a lot of flak for this but just because you have a baby doesn’t mean you should rush into marriage. I saw several other couples doing this at the same time as my wife and I (Then girlfriend) were having a child. We decided that from a marriage stand point we’d stick to our original plan and we’re the only one of those couples still together and happy.

Slow down and enjoy life while you’re young. There’s plenty of time for kids and marriage later. I’d like nothing more than for this trend of “It’s safer to assume divorce” to reverse itself soon.

Thanks
Eric

Last week while on vacation my son and a 6,2″ 349 pound professional wrestler jointly taught me a lesson about how important persepective is in life.

You see we were attending a professional wrestling event at a street fair in North Plainfield, NJ while I was on vacation. The wrestlers were great and really interacting with the crowd.

As I watched my son climbing the railing to get face to face with the afore mentinoned 6′2″ 349 pound professional wrestler I thought to myself, Boy, he really considers himself to be the toughest 5 year old on the block, and then as they went face to face I heard him say to this guy “My dad could beat you!” and I thought to myself, “Oh Boy, from his persepctive I’m the toughest guy in the room” It was actually quite touching as I looked up at this guy thinking “Jesus, he’d squash me like a bug”. But then I changed my own perspective as I looked at this guy thinking “6′2″ 349 pound, he may be way bigger than me, but at that size there’s no way he can beat me…. To the corner. I can definitely outrun this guy.”

And that’s when it hit me, life is all about perspective. You can find a positive outcome to any problem if you just look at it from the right angle.

On a related note, if you’re in the Jersey area and a wrestling fan you should definitely check out Awesome Wrestling, NWS Wrestling or the IWF. These guys put on a great show for a reasonable price, Sometimes you can even catch them for free.

Thanks
Eric

Well it’s 2 days until vacation and I can’t wait. We’ll be driving from Tennessee to Pennsylvania where we’ll meet up with some family members then on Saturday we’ll hit Dorney Park http://www.dorneypark.com/. After that we’ll continue on to New Jersey where we’ll be attending my Nephew’s graduation and spending a week just generally relaxing and having fun.

One thing I can’t wait to see is the Telectroscope http://www.tiscali.co.uk/telectroscope/. It’s basically a giant telescope (Sort of) constructed with Hi-Def cameras, big screens and the internet which allows you to basically experience peering through a telescope all the way to London. We plan to visit the New York end on Sunday so if you’re in London stop by, maybe we’ll see each other. Look for the long haired guy with sandals and glasses (Yeah that narrows it down.)

Well I’ll be posting updates during vacation so please feel free to come back by and leave some comments.

Eric