Category: Family
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Who’s rap-rapping at my door?
…It’s the Three not-so-Little Pigs! I’m on a bit of a fitness kick at the moment, owing to our renewed membership of the area swimming pool and a complete unwillingness to change my diet. I’ve been out jogging a couple of times, and I’m trying to get back into cycling. So when I needed to pick up a prescription from the pharmacy round the corner, I decided I’d cycle.  I took Finn with me, as I thought he’d benefit from some exercise, too. It’s only a mile away, so to make it worthwhile we took a detour on the way back… Read more
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Loitering with intent
Last weekend my integration into polite society took another step forward, as I took Finn on his first Scout camp-out. This, the wife  reasoned, would be something fun for Finn, and would also give me the ‘opportunity’ to socialize with some of the other dads. The wife normally takes Finn to the weekly scout meetings so why it is necessary for me to get involved too, I don’t know. That said, I have met some of them before and some are actually alright (Mr. Tim), so I guess there are worse people to spend time with. Plus, going with Finn… Read more
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All-American Dad
To give my eldest son the opportunity to make a few more friends, my wife signed him up with the local scout pack. Little did I know that it would involve more work for me than him. So far we’ve had to build a bird house and a toolbox (both of which my father-in-law thankfully helped him out with, not I), and there seems to be a constant list of ‘belt loops’ (the new version of ‘achievement patches’) that he’s going for, requiring me to teach him how to repair a puncture on his bike, or whittle a model out… Read more
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Anyone can play guitar
So that was Christmas. The officially-sanctioned extended eating/drinking session is over for another year. I didn’t take a whole deal of time off work (absolutely nothing to do with the in-laws visiting) – only the actual public hoildays themselves, plus Boxing Day (which over here is officially called ‘The Day After Christmas’ – the Americans apparently didn’t know why it was called ‘Boxing Day’ either so just decided to drop the name entirely). Still, it was nice to have a few days off to play with the kids’ new toys. The best present by far was Guitar Hero III –… Read more
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The Bible Was Wrong*
The in-laws are currently visiting, so I thought I may as well take a week’s vacation (first one since we went to Spain in 2005, I think…) and go somewhere interesting. ‘Interesting’ turned out to be Memphis, Tennessee. “Why Memphis??” everyone here in Houston asked. “Why Memphis??” everyone in Memphis asked. I’d like to think that I went there to visit the “Birthplace of Rock N Roll” (TM) and soak up some of that ol’ blues history, but the truth is that, at 600 miles from Houston, Memphis is about as far as I thought I could take the kids… Read more