summertime

i sip my strong coffee and gaze out my office window. Lost Weekend, the flavor of my brew, not early stages of oldtimers disease. i gaze and ponder, reminiscing the last few weeks. let's see. jen and i started taking MMA classes (ju jitsu, muay thai, vale tudo, kickboxing..a lot of wax on wax off stuff). the idea was to find a fun way to lose weight and find a better shape to be in besides oval. the unintended side effect, jen has become a cagefighter. cocky, sassy, and a little intimidating. in retrospect, walking circles around the park may have been a less confrontational weight management choice. but now that she's had a taste of pummeling a body bag, and felt the rush of making a grown man 'tap out'.. well, running shoes and jazzercise just doesnt stack up. she told me the other day that she no longer sleeps..she waits. (i think she stole that line from chuck norris, but i'm too scared to accuse her.

ok. what else- oh yes. our trip out west. we spent 2 wks in california with jen's family. havent been there in 13 yrs or so. it was fun. but there was no rest or relaxing to be had. we hit disney, sea world, and knotts berry farm within days of each other. we sucked all the fun out of these parks, getting there when they opened and helping turn the lights off when we left. sarah turns out to be the daredevil in the group. she was the first to head for the REAL rides: the Xcelerator, the SideWinder, SpaceMtn, and that crazy deathtrap that takes you way up and then drops you screaming to the ground..cant remember the name of that one--think i mentally blocked that trauma from my memory. sarah ate it up, asking to ride over and over.. i couldnt say no (with me being a tough cagefighting father and all). so we rode over and over and over.. until my head pounded and the greasy burger i'd eaten threatened to make an unscheduled appearance.

happy to announce our cat farm is thriving. the population had dropped to an all time low of 5. but thankfully the neighborhood mother cats banded together and blessed us with 4 new litters. not sure, but i think there are around 25 out there now. the downside: sarah has run out of cute kitten names and has reverted to tags like 'knuckles', 'bob', and '#32'. the other downside: i get not only to feed a wad of starving children, but now i get to buy 20lbs of cat food a week.. the other downside: turns out the mulch around the house doubles as a great potty training area for the frisky felines.. the upside: ...(cricket sounds)...uh.. well, sarah has taught her cat herd to stay out of the street..wait, maybe this is another downside..

overall, it's been an exciting summer. the kids are still wallowing in their fun memories, jen has become a lean, mean kickboxing machine, and i, well i am glad to be back at the office, where everybody knows my name and they're always glad i came...(and they dont want to beat me up, or make me feel like a girl for screaming my head off, or claw my legs looking for food..)