What you think does matter

Strange gift for Christmas: #1 Ok, Christmas is over, most people have already gone through the ritual of returning or exchanging the gifts they … umh didn’t like? Couldn’t use? Thought down right hideous? So I decided to share with you a couple of Christmas gifts I thought were kind of strange but did not or could not return. I am going to separate them into two separate blog post because… I need more content? No, because one gift I personally bought and didn’t think nothing of it until I saw the Christmas day pictures of me and my son. Now I have shared you most of you that my son is a military buff. He wants to go to the army, be a marine, fly a airforce jet - everything with him is about shooting, blowing things up and car chases… not sure how that slipped into the military theme but he is a boy. So here I am, a dad looking for a Christmas gift that will give me the biggest bang for my buck. You know - something he will love, enjoy and use for a long time [ I hope ]. By the way, m

My son the new GQ man of the month… He looks good I have to say. This pic would make a great GQ cover… which is funny since he loves to run around the house in only his underwear. But then again isn’t how Marky Mark got into magazines? Posing on magazine covers in only his tighty whities…. What do you think, should I get him a magazine deal? Is he too young? Too short.. lol Aw I’m just joking. I don’t think I could be that kind of parent. Bussing my kid from place to place - I want my kids to be kids. I seem to have a deep seeded fear in having them grow up to fast anyway. My daughter is already 13 and I feel like I am losing her… I do not want my little boy to grow up anytime soon.

Double Taxation: Death tax - inheritance tax I have to ask - are you stupid? Forgive me, maybe it is congress and the pro “tax the Rich” yahoos who believe we’re stupid.? I’ve been hearing several commenter’s on TV say that we should tax the rich more because they deserve to pay more. After all, all those greedy rich people can afford it right. Or the woman who made me laugh because she said that "the rich should be taxed more because they have so much money and are sitting home doing nothing and being unproductive". What? Poor people hanging at home playing their $300 dollar Xbox360 collecting welfare or food stamps are more productive????? Look, I don’t love rich people and like poor people, you have the good and the bad. But my problem with taxes is that the Government who wants to " suck up " to struggling voters by saying their going after the greedy rich people & forget to mention that those tax proposals effect the poor as well as the rich. And using the

We all think that insurance is a waste of money - that is until we need it. A co-worker of mine was telling me how a client of his was getting a large $90,000 dollar check from his home insurance company. Apparently the client was home and decided to start cooking his evening meal, then decided to go outside and check on the kids. He spent a wonderful time playing catch with the kids and then realized that he forgot that he had forgotten about cooking dinner. I guess all that billowing smoke and the flames bursting from his home must have been a clue. Sadly enough his entire home was burned down to the ground, thankfully no one was hurt in the fire. Having a house - the great "American" dream.... no one likes paying for house insurance - that is until you need. I have never really enjoyed anything that has to do with insurance, I simply can not put my head around the idea that we are basically gambling with me having my life turned upside down. My house, every American has on

It's been a while seen my last confession - oops, I mean post. I've sort of been busy working [ trying to make up the money I spent on my camping vacation ]. I have also been playing with the kids and yes - loosing my manhood....... I Have a confession? You know, I would do anything for my kids.... anything! That is just a given, I believe most Parents would, but in my attempt to help my duaghter learn about money, how to earn it, manage it and start her own business - I learned I have a creative and [ dare I say ] feminine side to me .... Lol... Yes, I helped my duaghter start her own Jewelry Business [ look honey I spelled "Jewlery" right ... oops ]. And by doing so found that hey, I have sort of have a flare for this [ wow sounds way to girlie ] - I mean a nack for this. It started with me just helping her build her hobby into a business, then helping her fine tune her skills and then just helping her where ever I could - until I actually started creating pieces an

Children, computer virus and planning MURDER I wrote in my last post about my computer getting infected with a virus, now as I sit here at work with the only computer I have access to for internet – I am thinking of planning [ yes premeditated ] Murder. Normally I have all my files backed up – but hey it was Christmas, then new years – I have been busy so I didn’t back up or make copies of all the holiday pictures, videos and all the work I wasn’t suppose to do during the holidays. But now that my computer has this darn %#@&*+! Virus I can not even seem to save my pictures to cd. The virus lets my computer run a cd but when I go to copy to a clean cd, it says it can’t find it. I know, I copy the files I have to run a virus scan on any copied information before I store it in another computer – but atleast I would have it copied. Really, this bites and I am considering Murder – well at most a severe punishment. I can not believe this, I have even downloaded a new anti virus program i

Children and computer virus – didn’t you listen!?! I am at work during my slow period of the day, writing this blog as a way of venting my frustration. I like most parents have virus protection, parental guide on my computer and warn my kid all the time. I don not let her search the net nilly willy with no supervision – but – yes [ but means forget what I just said…] my wife has other methods. Now I am not saying that my daughter goes online to sites that are inappropriate – but they do not realize that viruses can be found anywhere online. Apparently when I got home my computer was fried – some virus had infected it. How did I now, because my daughter asked me to help her turn off the computer because there was some pop up stopping her ???? How did I know It was infected – because I had several porno links with images on my desk top! When I asked what she [ my daughter ] had done…. “me, nothing, I didn’t do anything..” It took about an twenty minutes for her to confess that she was do

Here I was dragged to the mall, not just any mall but the mall in the next county. Tired, disgusted and broke.... my wife decides to tell me while on our long trip home that we need to make a stop ??? For what? Oh to take some pictures of your son on a tank? what??? tank, pictures, why?? I dressed him up and I have the camera, we might as well. No, not really, [ was what I was thinking....] but my son already started gleefully shouting "yeah dad, I have to...". So stop I did. The strange thing is, my wife’s biggest concern is that my son will join one of the branches of the Armed forces - but she is also the one encouraging him by buying him everything Army or having him visit tanks.... I have to say, though I was tired [ disgusted and broke ] I did enjoy taking the pictures, watching the excitement in my little boys eyes as he got on the tank, looked at all the parts and pretended to be blowing up Canada ??? Here are some pic's below - look at the cute kid, ignore the u

Making Money is not evil - being poor is evil... It’s a quote from a book I just finish reading : Cashflow Quadrant: Rich Dad Poor Dad . It’s an interesting read - I know I’ve read it twice and the reason why I bring up this topic “Making Money” is because of the economy. Really - I look at my kids and I wonder … have I wasted my life. Have I been so busy in the pursuit of my own happiness that I can’t offer more for my children because I thought wanting to make more money was “evil”… or maybe because I was scared or too lazy to try? This kind of book - how to make money or the mentality behind it really makes you think. Yes I know - I’m not trying to make it rich or even become rich over night. But I do have that urge to do more, make a little extra so my kids can have it easy. If anything - learn a couple of money managing or wealth building skills I could teach my kids so they don’t end up like dear old dad - a slave to a job - always wondering if this recession or hard time will de

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen If your an old time fan of Transformers [ the old cartoon TV show ] and you loved the first movie "Transformers" - you better drag yourself down to the local movie theater and watch this thing on a big screen. This was a Father and Son outing. With my son, I normally go to the theater during the matinee hours. In my town, it’s usually just me and five other people in the audience - today the house was packed and man let me tell you this movie was filled with action, explosions, drama and good laughs. Let me tell you I was not embarrassed to laugh out loud. I loved the fact that my son was automatically in a trance thru the whole movie. “Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen “ is a good movie don’t let anyone fool you. It has it all - parents can enjoy it, the kids can enjoy it and if your not a Sci Fi kind of person - transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will make you laugh and will leave you wanting to see more. This was one of the few ti

Vacation for Children ??? Here is a family story: What possessed me to let my kid go on vacation. Why? Really, a vacation for children - I must be crazy!!! Or maybe it's because I miss my little girl that I now think sending her on this New York summer vacation was - is nuts. It's been only one day and my son keeps crying, asking where is his big sister. I know she'll have fun - it's what I want for her. But really - "vacation for children" man how I miss having the whole summer off. I remember reading a post by cityencounters.blogspot.com : on how New Yorks need a reality check with their kids. I thought it was strange for NY city folks to have Wine & dine parties for toddlers - but here I am sending my kid on a summer vacation. really - how hard did she have it this school year.? The funny thing was - when we took her to the airport we were taking pictures like if we were tourist. i mean really - we live here, why are we talking pictures of the airport

Silly Kids - Dad little Girl - Dancing ??? That’s right - what do five girls do when hocked up on candy and they hear music? Dance of course! Silly kids .... This was so funny and so cool. Even my five year old son got into the dance craze. Who would think that Dancing would be fun activities for children. Well - of course it is - I had fun just laughing my guts out as they danced. You have to watch the Silly Kids video below Who would have thought that the Song Rocky made famous - eye of the tiger - would be so funny [ that is, as you watch these girls dance to it ]. The girls had so much fun , I was very glad they did too. Cause soon school would be over in three days and all of them would be off in separate directions. My [ me dad ] little girl is going off to New York for the whole summer. Most of her friends are going away as well - Now I just wont miss my own little girl but all of them. My daughters Friend Kaytlin is like part of the family [ or furniture ] she’s been over to t

Parenting: The Guilt of having two children Every now an then I am reminded by my two children - how I love or favor the other sibling. Like if I could ever love one over the other. My Daughter say: "you give him everything" My 5 yr old son says: "Kiki gets to do everything" Ofcourse they can't seem to understand that it's not favoritism - it's just that their at different ages and stages in their lives. So where Kiki the older child gets privileges my five yr old son doesn't - my 5 yr old gets more attention because he needs more guidance, protection - unlike his older sister I expect more from. But I do feel guilt sometimes. I always wanted three kids - it was just my thing. Ofcourse when I finally had children and found out how much responsibility and work was involved - I was happy to settle with just two. After all I already had one of each [ boy and girl ]. But I always feel like I'm short changing one or the other. When my daughter was bo

Ok, so it's a forgery - I played with two seperate photos to come up with this one. I thought I would surprise my duaghter - the Twilight fan with this. You want to know what her reaction was... "Dad, your so mean" What??? Did I miss something ??? I thought she would love the idea. Especially since it took a lot of work, concentration and much effort to get this as good as it is. It's not like I got Robert Pattinson to pose for the picture - but aka Edward Cullen wasn't available ok... In the end she like the picture...

I would like to thank Maria Mathy for the email she sent - made me luagh out load - oh I mean ...LOL Tough Love vs. Spanking - Good Argument Most people think it improper to spank children, so I have tried other methods to control my kids when they have one of 'those moments.' One that I found effective is for me to just take the child for a car ride and talk. Some say it's the vibration from the car, others say it's the time away from any distractions such as TV, Video Games, Computer, IPod, etc. Either way, my kids usually calm down and stop misbehaving after our car ride together. Eye to eye contact helps a lot too. I've included a photo below of one of my sessions with my son, in case you would like to use the technique. Sincerely, Robert This works with nieces and nephews as well.

Are you smarter than a fifth grader? Apparently I'm not! My daughter has the "are you smarter than a fifth grader" board game and the Ds video game [ no surprise she plays the video game version more than the board game]. But my shame lies in the fact that I'm a full grown adult and though I've only watch a few of the game show episodes [ and like many other Americas - have thought to myself - i could do that easy ] I have yet to win one game of "are you smarter than a fifth grader". That's right not one. What a ditz.... To be honest I feel a bit embarrassed to even admit this. It looks so simple and after all - all the question are suppose to be no harder than 5 th grade level questions. Can you imagine my surprise when I get a second grade question wrong... give me a life line please.... Well, I guess I can always tell my kids... I've forgotten more things than you'll ever know... you think it will help??

Cancer Insurance ? That’s New! I sell life insurance on the side and I have life insurance - I believe it’s important. I love my children and yes even my wife. I want to believe that they will have a future even if [ God forbid ] I were to unexpectedly die. But when my Doctor mentioned getting my prostate checked in a couple of years because I’m reaching that age when men get prostate cancer - I had to take a double take. Life insurance doesn’t cover cancer??? Then I read some stuff on Cancer insurance. I remembered what a friend of mine told me about Aflack and how they provided supplemental insurance and yes even had a policy for “cancer insurance". Funny - before today I never really thought about it. That is about "Cancer insurance " - wow just like my car. Maybe I’m just being overly cautious or just realizing I’m not young and yes I am mortal. But first I plan for my kids future with life insurance - now I’m thinking about things like long term illnesses and cancer

Aw this was so cool - The funny thing is that it's all true and it's everything I hear at my house each and every day .. God children drive you crazy... Thank you, Rick Demeri. for sharing this....

No, I didn't take this video - just found it in one of my computer file folders. I'm not sure what they were thinking or if my wife just wanted to record my son doing a little jig or something.

Parenting: The great Imagination ! There I was watching my son play in the back yard. This boy has way to much energy for me and even a greater imagination [ gets it from me ]. There he was running to and fro with his army helmet on and a drummers stick for his weapon. Pow, Pow, shoot, shot... Spitting as he pretended to be shooting a machine gun. Ofcourse he had his imaginary enemies but most of all - he had his imaginary troops. He’d run to one side of the pool and yell go over there! Then run to another spot and scream "look out here they come!" all the while making his shooting sounds. But what was most interesting was when he some how went to save a friend [ imaginary one ] and was shot by the bad guys [ I don’t know if it’s aliens or nazis - he just calls them bad guys ]. To my surprise he had a wonderful death scene..... Yet, when he noticed my camera the theatrics came to a complete stop. It's getting harder and harder to get this kid on film [ or digital camera