Some days working from home is alright

Working from home can be a challenge at times. From things like oatmeal on your laptop, your desk used as a holder for laundry, the 3 year-old yelling that she needs her behind wiped, to having a foxy wife around all the time who makes you want to stop working and make-out, it can be hard to get work accomplished at times.

As I type my bride has abandoned me to have her hair and nails done. Or she might be taking too kids to the pediatrician and running some other errors, I’m not sure.

Anyway while she is out the young boys (ages 2, 7, and 9) are playing outback. The older two are ‘watching’ the 2 year-old for me. I decided to check on them because that is the kind of responsible dad I am, and because I hadn’t seen them in a few hours and it had gotten awfully quiet. They have made some bow and arrows and are wearing various sports equipment and having some kind of mini-war. Shh don’t tell the wife. She worries.

It’s always funny until someone loses an eye or a spleen

Be back in a few days

Off to West Virginia to camp with the 3 middle boys, plus some friends and their boys. Camping as in staying in a house in the woods. I don't do tents.

Happy St Nick Day everyone.

Good Thing They Aren't Brass Monkeys

For some bright reason the younger boys, Dominic (7) Robert (8) and Joey (10), decided they wanted to sleep in a tent in the backyard one night over the Thanksgiving Day weekend.

And for some reason my bride decided an adult needed to sleep out there. We do live in the 'wilds' of the Washington DC suburbs. So I guess she was worried about a rabbit nibbling their toes or a squirrel stealing their nuts. And of course there is the goatman you lives in the wood on the outskirts of our town, but I'm pretty sure he's a vegan. So, you guessed it, she slept out there. Yeah you thought I was going to sleep out there?! Sam didn't even bother to ask. My idea of roughing it is tap instead of bottled water. Rob Don't Camp!

It doesn't get real cold here but it did go down to 30 that night. So the boys must have put on just about every piece of clothing they owned. Joey had on 4 pairs of socks and 5 shirts. Plus he but on 3 pair of underwear, 2 pairs of pants and 2 pair of shorts...he must really be trying to protect something. Dominic out did them all. The next morning he counted his socks as he took them off; 10 on one foot and 11 on the other. Little momma, who is always cold, was all bundled up and snuggled up with the boys on the nice cold and hard ground. Barbara (12) joined them around midnight after wathcing a movie.

They did run a power cord to the tent and setup and radio and a light...why they didn't bring out an electric heater is beyond me. But I give them credit, they stayed out there the entire night.

Me? I slept in our nice king-sized bed. The one with the flannel sheets, electric blanket and down comforter...I was actually sweating.

At Least He Knows What Dirty Is

After Mass yesterday I told Dominic to go change into some play clothes and hang up his church clothes since they weren't dirty.

Dominic - 'well my shirt's dirty'

me - 'you only wore it for an hour it's not dirty'

Dominic - 'I used the shirt sleeves to wipe my boogies on during church'

Happy Birthday Little Puppet

Dominic (#8) is 7 today! Is by far our goofiest most amusing child to be around.

For example. He gave himself the nickname Little Puppet when he was 4 years old. He picked it up from a movie called The Pacifier. He would walk around the house saying 'my friends call me Little Puppet'. We couldn't figure out where he got it from at first.

He's also famous for falling asleep anywhere and everywhere. We have tons of
pictures of him asleep. Asleep at the dinner table, on the stairs, in the hallway, on the toilet, during church (well everyone does that).

It All depends on Your Definition of Gross

"Dad, Robert choked me"

"Why did Robert choke you Dominic"?

"He said I did something gross.

"What did you do Dominic"?

"It wasn't that gross. I just licked my toes"

"Go back up to bed Dominic and tell Robert not to choke you. Oh and don't lick your toes anymore".

Today's Workouts

4 mile with Joey, Robert and Dominic following along on their bikes.

62.5 miles running for the week, which is a new high for me.

It was the Lifebuoy

Joey (10) at bed time "Mom, Dad, Dominic (6) called me a stinky butt-head crack and stuck part of my blanket up his nose."

Dad "Send him down here"

Dominic comes down not looking contrite at all.

Dad using his angry voice "You are never to call people names like that, not even politicians. Well OK, maybe politicians. Now open up."

Dad putting liquid dish soap in his mouth. Oh boy that was a lot.

Dad "Now go to bed, turn out the lights and right to sleep...and no blowing bubbles with all that soap I put in your mouth."

Who says parenting isn't fun?

Just Keep Swimming

Dominic(6) and Robert(8) had a swim meet Tuesday night. They are the only kids of mine doing swim team this year. I'm not sure how they did because I was taking pictures of them.

This was Dominic's first ever swim meet. He swam the 25 meter freestyle. I think he was 3rd or 4th out of 6.

This is Robert's 2nd year on the team. Last year he swam Free and Back. When he got to the pool last night the coach told him he was also swimming Fly and Breast. I didn't even know he could do those strokes. Apparently he learned them at practice last week. He was 1st in Breast, 2nd in Back and I'm not sure what he did in Free and Fly. Probably around 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Here are a few pictures

Dominic chilling and getting some advice from his big brother. Or maybe they are checking out the girls race


Getting ready for that big push off the side of the pool


Getting some serious air. Is this a race of Belly Flop contest? We will be working on his starts.


Holy Cow! I made it to the other side of the pool.


The real reason he swims. I usually only buy them snow cones for a win...but since it was his first race, I decided to be nice. I know, I'm getting soft in my old age.


The Old Pro checking out the competition


Look mom, I'm flying


Take the picture already dad. We have partying to do.

Today's Workouts

3 miles running with Joey, Robert and Dominic following on their bikes.

1,000 meters swimming.

Today's Workouts

38 Mile cycling in the early AM with friends.

3.5 mile run in the afternoon with Dominic following along on his bike.

A Boy a Turtle and Some Soup

Dominic with a turtle he found.


And no we didn't make soup out of it, it was too small, we let it go a few hours after finding it.

Dad Can We Start a Punk Rock Band?

The pictures were taken halfway thru having their heads buzzed. Alas they won't be starting a Punk band and becoming famous and making their dad rich.

It's probably for the best. They would burnout after a few years, get tattooed and pierced-up, start getting arrested, have horrible pictures of them show up on the Internet, go to rehab, go through a few celebrity wives each, write a book about their terrible childhood and how their parents - Gasp! - spanked them when they were little, do the rounds on Springer and Montel with all the other freaks of the week and live in a trailer park in Kentucky for the rest of their lives...But a dad can dream can't he? I just hope they don’t become hairdressers.

One Fish Two Fish

Red Fish Blue Fish

Alex (18), Robert (8), Dominic (6) and I went on a fishing trip with my dad and his wife on Sunday.

This was on a chartered boat out on the Chesapeake Bay. My dad takes me and a few of the kids a few times each summer on these trips.

The kids and I left the house around 6am and picked up my dad and his wife and were at the dock by 7.

This is not your father’s fishing trip. You aren’t going out in a little john boat with a cooler of Schaefer beer and some soggy sandwiches from a gas station (not that there is anything wrong with that).

This is on a nicely restored 50 year-old ‘bay boat’. The boat is around 45 feet long and has a galley, bedroom and a head. So no peeing over the side of the boat (ok that’s a negative – but everything else is a plus).

Captain Tillman and his first mate, besides being great fishermen, are also great cooks. When you show up at the dock breakfast is ready. A table for six is set on the deck of the boat and the food is waiting for you. We aren’t talking a box of donuts and cold cereal here. Today's breakfast was eggs, sausage, bacon, scrapple, biscuits, fresh fruit, juice and coffee.

We eat breakfast while the Captain heads the boat out into whatever spot in the Bay he thinks the fish might be hanging out in. We normally fish for Rock Fish (striped bass) and sometimes Blue Fish.

After fishing for a few hours the first mate bakes some chocolate chip cookies and puts out some other snacks.

Lunch is served around noon and today it was: crab cakes, roasted chicken, roasted potatoes, corn on the cob and salad.

The fishing was so–so today. Each of the kids caught one fish. We were able to keep two and threw one back since it was too small.
But the weather was incredible (note the savage tan on me). It was sunny with a nice breeze and got up to a high of 85 today.

Dominic and Robert were surprisingly well behaved. I guess they took the threat of being thrown overboard seriously.

So we will be having fresh fish on the grill tonight.

Das Boat

Morning Chow

How Alex spent a good part of the day

Dominic with his fish

Robert and his fish

Alex woke up long enough to catch the biggest fish of the day

Going under the 2 spans of the Bay Bridge

A cargo ship waiting to go up the Bay to Baltimore and un-load. I hope it's carrying running shoes

The hardy fishermen

Where Oh Where Has My Little Dominic Gone...

Be very glad you can’t hear me singing.

Every night before we go to bed around 10pm, Sam likes to go up stairs and check on the kids. I’m not exactly sure why. They were fine earlier when we (read she) put them to bed. Maybe to make sure their blankets haven’t been kicked off (I figure if they get cold they will pull them back on), maybe to see how cute and peaceful they are when they are sleeping (it’s about the only time they are), maybe to make sure they haven’t tried to tunnel out again, maybe to make sure they aren’t having séance and casting spells on their parents or to make sure they aren’t having a kegger and Porky’s marathon (and haven’t invited us) anyway she does it every night. Must be a mom thing. Is that it? Is it a mom thing? Or a nice person thing? Neither of which I am.

Anyway the other night Sam was pretty tired but I knew she wouldn’t go to sleep until she had checked on them. So I said I’d go do it. I know, I know, I spoil her too much. We have 2 bedrooms on the first floor, ours and the babies. There are 5 bedrooms upstairs. I checked on the 3 middle boys room first (ages 6, 8 and 10). And low and behold, Dominic (6) isn’t in his bed. For some reason his brothers (actually almost every kid) were awake. So I asked them where he was. “I don’t know. We haven’t seen him in a long time”. Thanks guys, that’s a big help. So I check all the other bedrooms…no Dominic. Hmm he did come in from the after dinner walk Sam took him on, didn’t he? Go back downstairs and tell Sam I can’t find him. She says to look under his bed since he falls to sleep in strange places at times. Like at the dinner table or on the stairs or during the Pastor’s sermon…wait I do that too…never mind.

So I trudge back up stairs and no Dominic under his bed. Ok know I’m starting to get a little worried and I get the teens to help me look for him. We finally find him, asleep and under Elizabeth’s (13) bed. He is all the way under there. Why? I don’t know. Why is the sky blue? Caleb grabs his phone and takes a picture but it’s too dark to post it here.

I debate whether to drag him out and carry him to his bed and risk waking him (plus it’s a pain) or just leave him and go to sleep and risk him waking up in the middle of the night and wonder where in the heck he is. I opt for the former cause I’m a great dad. So I slide him out and carry him to his bed and I even tuck him in. I told you I was a great dad.

The next morning I quizzed about sleeping under there. Apparently his older sisters were listening to stories on CD and he wanted to listen too. He knew they would have chased him out and sent him to bed. So he snuck in the room and hid under the bed to listen and fell asleep while there. So nothing nefarious was going on. Just another day of family life. At least it’s never boring around here.