I Promise Not to Have Sex--Not

Perhaps you've heard of virginity pledges. This is where kids and young adults (well, ok, fundamentalist kids and young adults) promise not to have sex until they get married. Funny story--they don't work. The best part is that four out of five conveniently denied/forgot that they had made such a pledge. I wonder what would make them do that?

The real issue here is the "magic bullet" approach to getting kids to avoid behaviors that may have bad consequences (e.g., sex, drinking, drugs, and tobacco) just doesn't work. Just like DARE is a scam. These programs make adults (and/or law enforcement) feel like they are doing something, when in fact they are trying to alleviate their guilt for their ineffective parenting skills. Raising healthy kids takes a lifetime, not exacting an empty promise or having Officer Donut lecture them.

So, instead of having your kids make a New Year's resolution to not (fill in the blank), talk to them. A lot.

Have a great and safe New Year's.

Kid Stuff

Earlier in the week, we decided that we would get the HB some sort of clubhouse for him and his buddies to hangout in. I'm reasonably handy, so i figured if we got some sort of kit we could get it up in a couple of hours. There's a place off of the freeway near here that advertises such shit, so we went to their website to check stuff out. Gheezuhs-fucking christ is that stuff expensive! $3k is just way too much to spend. Then we check out the prices of just buying some wood and doing it ourselves, and that was still a lot of money and had clusterfuck written all over it.

Plan B involved looking for some sort of fancy tent like structure. Camping tents that were tall enough had too big of a footprint, so that was a no-go. So, we found a canopy that fit the bill. We figured we could buy some extra sheets or something to give them more privacy. So, we set the thing about pretty quick yesterday afternoon and it seemed to work fine. It came with HUGE stakes that we didnt' really want to put through our weed guard, so we went without since we live in a place with very little extreme weather. Of course, last night, just as we're starting to have sex ('natch) the wind kicks up and starts blowing the bastard all over the place. I'm going to go buy some small stakes today.

We went to the NZS's football game last night. It was homecoming and the HB seemed to enjoy the whole spectacle, which was kind of surprising. However, the MOST surprising thing was the the homecoming king was the DRUM MAJOR. A band geek as homecoming king? Times have definitely changed since I went to HS.

Oh, and the kitchen remodel guy's coming today. This'll be fun (NOT).

Are We Destined for Opposite Lives of Our Childhood?

As I mentioned in a earlier post, I had a chance to brew on Saturday. Turned out to be a fun evening eventhough the rest of Joe's family flaked out on us. We brewed, bbq-d (it's been really warm here, so I grilled some chicken and veggies) and soaked in the jacuzzi. I LOVE the smell of freshly made beer in the kitchen. I have been made aware that the pleasantness of this aroma appears to be gender specific.

While hanging in the tub, we talked about places we'd want to go that we haven't been. He work for a giganto technology company, so he has recently been on trips to South America, Asia and Europe. My biz travel isn't nearly that exotic. However, between that and vacation travel, I've pretty much been to every city in the US that I want to go to (which isn't to say that there aren't some places that I want to go back to). The flip side is that there are plenty of Big Nature places I'd like to see (e.g., Yellowstone, Arches, etc.).

Joe was totally down on the nature vacation. A big reason for this was when he was a kid he would go on church camping excursions which would almost always be low budget trips to national parks led by a hyper protective guide. Not a lot of fond memories.

My parents are both from a big city in east coast, so ALL of our family trips were back there (with one exception). It was OK since I really like my cousins, but it didn't really expand my horizons. So now my wife and I take the HB to as many places as possible (Yosemite, Sequoia, NYC, San Francisco, etc.).

It's all good. I figured out many years ago that my parents were trying to live the east coast live style in LA--it's what they grew up with. One of the only good things to come out of the 6 years the wife and I lived in Boston was that we lived there like tourists. We made a mental note to bring that kind of openness to living here when we came back. And I'm sure that the HB will go with his family on completely different family trips. Note: If you are taking the kids and/or visiting family you are on a trip. Only if you leave the kids at home and don't see family are you on a vacation. If you're parenting you are not on vacation.