dad practice

My weekend wasn't all hot weather and gayness. I mixed in some dad practice on labor day. Any time I do some babysitting or hang out with my friends' kids, that's dad practice.

i went to my friend's house to hang out w/ him and his family. He & the wife have a 6 month old baby, 2 yr old toddler. Fed the baby, played with the toddler. Cute levels were at an all-time high but I didn't get pictures. My friend didn't think pictures would have been cute, but I knew he was wrong b/c the Mrs said it was the cutest thing ever. Girls looove babies. Who knew?

Then i went to the family bbq and had dad practice w/ the older kids: 7 year old girl and 9 y/o boy. We had a blast. The girl loved me because I employed the same strategy I use in my adult relationships: call her princess and say yes to everything. Doesn't matter if they're 7 or 27, it works.

9 year-old boys are great because all they want to do is run in circles and talk about ultimate fighting. And basketball. And video games. That's a funny coincidence because that's pretty much all I want to do, too. (not sure what that says about me, but whatever.)

thanks for reading. super cute photo is stand-in for baby pictures.
thx, smithsonian.

get your cat on

it's friday.
enjoy some lolcats.

so cute it kinda makes you sick

We have a readership with a wide range of tastes here at GJAW, so this post is for the ladies. All 2 of you.
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ahhh, love. I don't know much about it but my friend and his fee-yawn-say took some cute engagement photos.

If you know him, or if you are a dork and want to be encouraged by another dork's ability to get a pretty girl to love/marry him, review the full slideshow. The pictures are very cool - a nice departure from the usual b/w shots on the beach.

Animals need love, too

If you hadn't heard, I volunteer at the local animal shelter. Something to do, gets me out of the house, etc, etc.

That handsome devil at left is named Foster, and he is the current champion of reaching through the bars and scratching your nose if you are not paying attention when you read his chart. He's a big, athletic cat, and he's got exceptional reach.

I don't know much about animal care. Just the basics. I know a lot about sweeping, mopping, and doing laundry, which, as it happens, is a big part of volunteering at the local shelter. One drawback to doing the laundry is the unpleasant smell. There's really no way around it. The cats make some mess, but the smelliest animals of all (aside from the baby ducks- who knew?) are the puppies. They weedle everywhere. And weedle stinks like I can't even tell you. Puppies are cute but overrated. Even kittens use the litterbox. Score one for the the cats.

Some other shelter points of interest:
- you get to play with cats, dogs and kittens but they don't wreck shop in your house. puppies, not so much. they're fun for a few seconds but they lose interest. kittens and dogs are a lot more fun. cats are hit or miss. it's their nature.

- unlimited pussy jokes when you're working with the cats. not my taste in humor, but some of my friends think it's hilarious. they also loooooove dick jokes.

- you can go to the shelter when it's closed to the general public and feed the goat (they let him out of his pen and give him the run of the grassy areas on closed days)

- random animals come in for care, like tortoises, a pigeon (why?), guinea pigs, turtles, 3 potbellied pigs (friends w/ the goat), cockatiels, and rabbits. i'm waiting for when they bring a wounded hawk in and they feed him the rabbits. (this is not a popular view around the shelter, but I'm pumped for it)

- I'm a huge hit with the girls at the shelter, and by "girls" i mean "grandmothers". and there are many. if they were only 3 or 4 decades younger...

that's it for now. please have all your pets spayed or neutered. i mean it. and adopt from a shelter. ;)