Psychic or Moron?

I consider myself a dog person, but the family is way less selective when it comes to pets. About six months ago, the kids were asking for a new pet. My response was that no more pets can come into the house until one dies or leaves. That next week, the gecko died (our fourth, another story for another time). Just last week, the kids were asking for a kitten. Again, I said no unitl another pet passes or leaves. A few days later, the goldfish died. Now I ask you, the reader, am I psychic or just a moron?

Compliments

We often hear compliments in our daily lives, sometimes not often enough. There are a few compliments I can recall that I will remember for the rest of my life. One such compliment came from the boy when he was about 5 years old. He was rather fond of Spaghetti -O's at that time. After eating one dinner I had prepared, he said, "Dad, you're such a good cook, you should work for Chef Boyardee." I bet not even Emeril has been praised so highly.

Another wedding

We attended another wedding recently. Again the wife made me dress up and I was over dressed again. At least I didn't have to wear a tie this time. Two funny things happened there. The first was a new wedding tradition never before seen by this writer. The bride and groom sat back to back on the dance floor and were wrapped in toilet paper. Then they broke free. The person with the most paper apparently rules the roost. I would personally draw other conclusions from this, but since this is a family friendly forum, I will keep them to myself.

Secondly, both of my children were dancing fools, but that's not the funny part. The wife was dancing with the boy. When the song ended, a young girl asked him to dance. He said "No" but his mother said "Yes he will" and shoved him into her waiting arms. To his credit he actually finished the song and treated her with kindness. It reminds me of how the wife and I met. Sorry, I'm geting misty.

Mood Rings

As a parent, I now understand that all parents make mistakes when turning carnivorous antisocial pygmies into well adjusted adults. Looking back at my childhood, my mother made a serious mistake one day. She gave three color-blind children mood rings. For those of you too young to remember mood rings, they were supposed to change color based on your mood. Very popular in the 70's, much like polyester and disco. Imagine three young boys running through the house asking the same question every 30 seconds - "Mom, what color is it now?" We didn' have hose rings for long before they disappeared.

The WInd Beneath My Wings

As a musician, there are few greater thrills than struggling with a song and finally getting it right. I had this experience recently, jamming on the Munster's theme song. When I came back upstairs, here is the exchange that occurred:
Me "Did you hear me jamming that song? Wasn't it cool?"
Wife, distracted, "I don't even remmber what the h*ll that sounds like."
Me, dejected, smile fading quicker than Billy Ray Cyrus' career
Wife "I mean, yea. It sounded great!. Just like the original."
Me "You are the wind benath my wings."

Love is a many-splendored thing.

Important Toast

A birthday tradition in our household is to serve breakfast in bed to the birhday person. In reality, this only works for the wife and the boy, as the girl and I are up too early. One year, the kids an I were making breakfast for the wife's brithday. Each of us had our assigned tasks - I was making the eggs, the boy was making bacon and the girl was preparing toast.

For some reason, the girl felt that making toast was not very important. She marched upstairs and woke up her mother and asked, "Mom, is toast important?" The wife had no idea what this was supposed to mean. Could this be one of the existentialist moments, like comtemplating your navel? The wife answered, "Yes." and all was well with the world. The girl returned and made the best darn toast ever.