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Puts a new spin on playing with the dollhouse!

Josh bought a French coffee press yesterday with some of his birthday money. He made coffee this morning and added some vanilla ice cream. This is the conversation we had:

“Look at that. I heated it up [ice cream] and it’s frothy.”

“Umm…it’s good.”

“Yeah. I’m quite the barista now.”

“Oh. Is this for me? I didn’t realize you made me a cup too. Thanks!”

“I can’t wait to get old and do nothing but this every day, and take a walk and have a bowel movement.”

“…”

We’ve been dogsitting a 10-year-old Lab/Golden Retriever this weekend named Rafter. From what Elise told me, Maly was sitting at the office window for the better part of Friday afternoon, waiting for Rocio to drop Rafter off. I got home from work around 7 p.m. and was quickly and excitedly greeted by the dog. He’s been nothing short of a good ol’ dog since he’s been with us. He reminds me of the days as a boy growing up with dogs around.

This morning we all took him for a walk to Starbuck’s. Everyone took the trek well, despite the cold weather. There was plenty of sniffing and peeing along the way, and the dog stopped to pee every once in a while, too. I think he takes well to our house as well. I find the humor in him walking through the kitchen and, with his tail wagging, knocking the drawings off of the refrigerator. Maly has come to terms with Rafter’s going home tomorrow. After she went to bed tonight, he followed me around the house — from the kitchen to the living room. Back to the kitchen and then to the office. When I’d park at my desk in the office, Rafter would park at the doorway, quietly waiting to follow me wherever I might go next.

He’s been a good companion to have around the house, even if it’s just for the weekend. I’m thinking come Monday, Maly’s going to ask, “Daddy, when can we have a doggy like Rafter?”

“Whenever you learn to sell live felines on eBay, Sugar.”

Maly ran outside to the backyard yesterday afternoon. I went outside to see what she was doing. I caught her with a hand trowel digging in the dirt where we buried our dead fish last Oct.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Trying to dig up Willie. I want to see him.”
“Maly, don’t dig Willie up. He’s not alive anymore.”
“And he has skeleton bones now?”
“Yes. That’s correct. He’s a skeleton now.”
“Why is he a skeleton?” Of course I did what every loving intelligent parent would do. I sat Maly down, handed her my computer and told her to google the word decomposition.
“Mommy, do we die too?”
“Yes, Sweetie.”
“Where do we go after we die?” Gulp…and there’s one of the questions you know your child will one day ask, but for some reason that day just seems to come so soon. I sat her down next to me on the top step of the deck. I told her about heaven (which she’s already heard us talk about) and getting to be with God. I told her that being in heaven would mean being happy all of the time. I also told her she’d get to be with Mary and Jesus. She seemed satiated by my explanation. We sat on the deck for a while and watched the wind blowing through the trees.

Lat night while I was preparing dinner, Maly turned to Josh and said, “Daddy, when we die we go to heaven and we get to be with Mary.”
Then she turned to me and said, “Mommy, do we see in heaven?”
“Yes, Maly. I think we do see in heaven.”
Long pause
“Mommy?”
“Yes?”
“Let’s have a conversation here.”

Umm…I thought that’s what we were doing. Kids say the darndest things.

“Would YOU want to move back to Iowa?”

“Maybe under certain circumstances.”

“Like global warming?”

“Like if you died.”

“…”

One of the personal highlights of this Christmas for yours truly was receiving a rock tumbler from my in-laws. Yes, I’m excited about a rock tumbler. I’m excited because it means a new tradition for Maly and me. Elise’s maternal grandfather spent years and years collecting and polishing rocks. And hundreds of these polished rocks live in a large bowl at the Boeckman house. I wish I could have had the opportunity to meet Grandpa Thurston and hear some of the stories of where some of those rocks were found. Maly loves to play with those rocks when we visit Boppa and Gran. She likes to look at all of them and pick out the ones that she finds prettiest. So, over the past year or so, when we find a cool rock, we pick it up and keep it. And we put them in the porcelain turtle that Maly painted for me in Cabo for Father’s Day.

So I finally got a rock tumbler. On Saturday evening, Maly and I went for a walk around the block. We “borrowed” a couple rocks from a neighbor’s xeriscaped yard to add to our collection. I told Maly that once this set is polished, we’d have to return the rocks to the owners. I’m hoping they’ll let us keep a couple because we picked out a couple really cool purple rocks.

I’m hoping this will mean a new tradition for Maly and me, where we can go on deliberate or accidental rock hunts and be able to remember where we found our jewels years later.

Last night we took the rocks we’ve collected, plus half the bag of “sample rocks” that came with the tumbler, and started our first batch of rocks to polish. The whole process takes about a month, the current, first round lasting 4 days with coarse grit and water. The tumbler is working loudly in the garage as I type this. This afternoon we (neighbors included) unanimously decided that the tumbler is a little too loud, so I built an insulated box to muffle the racket.

I’m looking forward to the finished product, plus lots of rocks hunts in the future, and hopefully a huge collection of polished jewels and memories.

Generally I get Maly ready for bed every night. We’ll eat dinner, play for a while, take a bath, put on pajamas and read a book before it’s time to go to bed. A few weeks ago, after I read a book to Maly, she asked me to tell her a story. Usually midway through the book we’re reading, I go into retired mode. When she asked me to tell her a story, the request caught me a little off guard. She loves animals, so I thought I’d tell her a story about my childhood pets.

I told her about Beau and Tinker. When I was a young boy, we had a little beagle named Tinker, and a yellow lab named Beau. Those were my childhood companions – the dogs that every little boy should have growing up. We played all kinds of games together. They were my soldiers in my army. They were the monsters when I needed a foe. They were my travel companions when I needed to explore. They were my guardians when I needed help in the real world.

I don’t remember what all I told Maly about my companions, but I know I told her about how their lives ended. Tinker was shot on the side of the road and we had to have the vet put her down. Beau, who was an old yeller in every since of the word, was attacked by coyotes and his last proverbial leg wasn’t strong enough to hold him up and longer. Beau was the one that caught copperheads and rattlesnakes. He was the one who crushed armadillos in his jaws. He was the one who was always by my side.

Maly knows that her dad had two dogs as a boy. Beau and Tinker.

On another recent nightly bedtime ritual, asked Maly what she wanted to ask Santa to bring her for Christmas. She leaned up in her bed, carefully held up three fingers and said, “three kitten toys! Oh, and a doggy toy. Like Copper from Fox & Hound.” Well, Santa and I had actually been texting each other earlier that evening and he told me that Maly had too many kitten toys already, but the dog toy might not be a bad idea.

I picked up a little stuffed beagle toy from the local toy store a couple evenings later. I thought about getting her a stuffed Copper, but decided against it. I know the Disney empire is hurting and all, but I wanted to give her something that I picked out; something of a reflection of me and my childhood.

Fast forward to Christmas morning. I have learned two things this year: 1) When the child reaches the age of 3.5 years old, she gets the concept of Christmas morning gifts and 2) the child excitedly screaming, “I GOT A PUPPY DOG!!!” from the side of your bed on Christmas morning is one of the sweetest sounds I think I’ve heard since I heard my wife say, “I do.”

Over the past four days, Maly has had that little stuffed beagle closely in-tow. For the first couple days, she called her dog Tinker. Just yesterday, I was informed that the dog’s new name in Beau. Either way, I’m glad she likes it. I’ll be curious as to what the dog’s name is when I get home this evening.

I think I just might put a bug in her ear about getting a real dog. Someday.

About a month ago John posted a link to an interesting video on the growing rate of national unemployment from January 2007 to October 2009:

Then there was a conversation on Facebook:

And then we went into production, all within the same day:

I just put Maly down for bed. I don’t know if it’s the time of year, my subconscious is telling me to cherish these moments right now, the fact that we had a a great day together, or PMS.

The weekend started out on somewhat of a low note. I got up extra early on Friday and booked it to work. I was the first person in the office and I was ready to get everything done and get out by noon so I could do some Christmas shopping. Well, that never happened. I’d expected this to be a slow week at the office and it’s been anything but. I got home around 6 p.m. that evening and had to keep working until 11 p.m., after having dinner and casual conversation with the Zombie Eater.

On Saturday I’d planned on getting things done around the house, like finishing the Christmas lights, cleaning the cars, putting stuff on craigslist — just getting things done. Instead I went with the girls to run errands and have lunch. We went to the post office, Home Depot, Bed, Bath, Bird Feeders, Bark Mulch, Tire, Lube & Beyond, the toy store, Lowe’s, and probably a few other places. That pretty much took up the better part of the afternoon and evening. I put Maly to bed and then we watched “Terminator XXIVO5 – Rebuttal of the Automated Teller Machine”, you know, the one where it’s man versus machine, things blow up, Guns ‘n’ Roses playing in the background, grrrrr, motorcycle, “I’ll be back” and the fate of the world is yet to be determined. Awesome movie.

This morning Elise and Maly went to church. I stayed home and worked on Christmas lights. After the girls got home, Elise informed me that she needed to clean the house because the housekeeper is coming tomorrow. To clean the house.

So I talked Maly into going on a walk. We walked our usual walk to the mailbox, which is a few blocks away, but this time, we just kept walking. We went exploring in the woods south of Slaughter. We threw rocks into the “Turkey Bowl” rain reservoir/ad-hoc skate park and we discussed the dangers of snakes that hide under rocks and logs. At one point, Maly said, “Daddy, will you hold my hand?” I obliged and asked why. She told me she was a little scared.

We walked around for 20 minutes more and came across a concrete wall. Maly walked up on the wall and fell a good three feet, flat on her face. She fought back the urge to cry, picked herself up and brushed herself off. After that, I knew she was probably tired, so we started heading back toward the house. We came across a huge branch that had fallen out of a big oak tree. We stopped and had a riveting conversation about ball moss. Then we started our trek back to the house. About half-way there, Maly told me she was tired, so I gave her a piggy back ride all the way back home.

Once we got home, I washed the cars and Elise and Maly went back to church for a story reading. By the time they got back, both cars were cleaned and the Christmas lights on the house were done. Elise went back to cleaning the house, so Maly and I went for a couple rides on the PlasmaCars, and then for another walk, this time just to the mailboxes to get yesterday’s mail.

Whenever Maly and I go on walks, I test her on her house number, street address, city, state and her mom and dad’s names. Tonight we talked about how stranger equals danger. She even asked, “So Daddy, are strangerous dangerous?”

Tonight before bed I told Maly that I was only going to go into the office a few days this week. I then went on to tell her that Daddy was going to the movies with friends tomorrow night. She excitedly asked if she could go with us. I told her that this movie was about aliens. I had to tiptoe around explaining what aliens were just before putting my baby to bed.

I couldn’t have asked for a better day today, even if I had the all the power in the world to plan it myself.

Thanksgiving has again come and gone. This year my mom came up to spend the day with us. I got caught up with work late on Wednesday afternoon (office closed at 2, I don’t think I left until around 6). I came home and mom and Elise ran out to do some shopping. Maly excitedly told me she wanted to ride PlasmaCars, to which I had to oblige. Twenty minutes into our ride, I got a call from a client in L.A. so I had to go back to work (from home, of course). Maly is such a good girl when Elise or I am on the phone. Maly was quick to point out after I got off the phone, “Daddy, you’re not done with work? We’re supposed to ride PlasmaCars!”

Elise and mom came home a few hours later and we had a great roast that Elise had been slow-cookin’ in the crock pot all day. Then mom and I made desserts for the Thanksgiving dinner the next day. Mom made a custard pie, I made a pumpkin cheesecake.

On Turkey day we had a great meal over at the Heisterman’s with all the fixins. It was great to spend time over a meal with neighbors we like to consider family.

7 p.m. came quick and mom, Elise, Maly and I darted across the street so we (me) could watch the UT vs. A&M game. What a game that was. The Aggie’s put up a good fight and made for one of the most exciting games that I’ve watched this season.

Friday morning Elise, Maly and I loaded up and headed out for our annual trip to Okeene, Oklahoma for the Boeckman family Thanksgiving. Maly did fantastic in the car. It wasn’t until it started getting dark when she started getting antsy and wanted to know, “are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet?!?!”

We pulled up to the farmhouse right at 6 p.m., just in time for fried catfish. We visited with family for a few hours before Elise and I headed back to the swanky Okeene Motel while Maly stayed back and had a sleepover with Boppa and Gran.

Elise and I got up on Saturday morning and headed back to the farmhouse. We snacked (dumb idea before a Boeckman Thanksgiving feast), Maly played on the swing and I took some shots of the Boeckman farm. Then it was time to EAT! Turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed taters, green bean casserole… you know, the whole nine. Then we watched a pretty uneventful OU vs. OSU game, and a similarly uneventful Florida vs. FSU game, and then a nail biter of a Mizzou vs. Kansas game. Then some sort of tile game with numbers, I don’t remember the name of said game, but I pretty much sucked at it, so after I won a game, I declared my self Grand Champion of Awesome Tile Game and quickly retired.

On Sunday morning, we headed back to the farmhouse (Maly in-tow this time, she wanted to stay with us at the hotel on Saturday night) for breakfast, and then we hit the road back to Texas. The leg back to Texas is always the long one – everyone’s heading home on Sunday and the traffic in the Ft. Worth area is always congested. We made our way west of I-35, through the towns of Burleson, Joshua (yes!), Cleburne and Hico until we finally got into familiar territory, and then finally home!

Alas, another long, roady Thanksgiving weekend. Always good to spend time with family!

Elise and I bought our current house six years ago. John & Christine moved out of their rental house and into their first house in Austin around the same time. During our mutual moves, I got John’s L-shaped desk on permanent loan until he needed it back. He was helping me out by furnishing our home office. I was helping him out by providing free storage until he needed the desk and accompanying cabinets. Last week, John needed his office furniture back. So that was our excuse to go out and get new office furniture. Getting new office furniture meant that we had to paint the office again. Painting the office meant that we had to move most everything out of the office. Moving everything meant that I found a bunch of stuff to get rid of.

I couldn’t tell you the last time I sold something on eBay. I don’t think I’ll ever sell anything on eBay again. eBay’s a pain in the ass. Listing a single item takes too long in that you have to fill out so many forms, then you have to pay a listing fee, final value fee (at least I did the last time I sold something) and then you have to deal with potential buyer questions and, worst of all, shipping. When you factor in all of the above, it’s not worth the time to sell a single item every once in a while on eBay.

If I have something that I need to sell these days, I’ll approach my immediate personal network first (friends, neighbors, etc.) If I don’t get a quick response, I’ll take 5 minutes and snap a few good photos and write a good, honest description of the item I’m selling and post it on craigslist. Austin has a fantastic craiglist community and I’ve had a great overall experience both buying and selling there.

When we were cleaning out the office, I found a couple old hard drives and a wireless router that I’d been hoarding for years. I decided to take photos of them with my phone and sell them. Here are the items I listed:

$15 Seagate 120GB ATA hard drive
$15 Maxtor 160GB SATA hard drive
$10 Netgear 802.11g wireless router

And then the craigslist community turned into one that nearly rivals eBay’s. I’ve had people email me who want me to take detailed photos of one of the hard drives. One gentleman emailed me and asked for my home phone number so we could run a series of tests on the wireless router. I had to bite my lip and not respond immediately. I took Elise’s advice and politely wrote the gentleman back and stated: “you have my money back guarantee that the router works.

The moral of the story: spend your spare time reading the “Best of craigslist” and just horde your junk. You’ll be happier that way.

I haven’t written on the website in a really long time — two months, in fact. I have a really good reason for having not written, and when I figure out what that reason is, I’ll write about it and post it here.

Writing has always been very therapeutic for me, and it’s a way for me maintain my sense of wit and humor in a world that’s otherwise told me that my abs are flabby and and I need to refinance the house. I’m not one for New Years resolutions, or any form or resolution, but my thoughts are to just start writing again. Life happens and, before you know it, it starts slipping away from us all, undocumented. I have a terrible memory, so I used to write about our lives’ happenings here. It’s always fun to browse the Janicek.com archives to see what we were doing on this date 5 (or however many) years ago. In fact, this time 6 years ago, we were shopping for the house that we still live in. And 7 years ago, we bought Elise’s Jeep (that is now my daily commuter). And 8 years ago around this time I lost my first job out of college at the tail-end of the dot-com fallout.

I updated Janicek.com’s theme this evening. For a few years I tried to make money by serving ads here on the site. You’ll be impressed with the fact that over those years, I amassed enough advertising revenue to buy a starter pack of ab-intensifying topical cream from a late night infomercial. I think it looks so much better without all of the ads (I’m still talking about my stomach muscles here). I can’t seem to figure out how to get the monthly archives to properly display over there to the right of your screen, but I’m sure I’ll be able to figure that out soon enough. In the meantime, you can always watch my 2002 episode of “Cribs”, which was shot when we were recently married and still poor from our days as a dot-com ex-employee and a beer cart girl.

So lots of cool things have happened in years past, none of which are referenced above. My hopes and aspirations are to focus more on important topics, like raising an almost-four-year-old daughter, duck herding, and the other truly important things in life.

This morning, while Elise was still sleeping and I was in the shower, Maly came into our bathroom and asked, “Daddy, can I play with your phone?”, which was connected to my laptop on the coffee table.

“No.” I gave no explanation, just a “no”.

I got out of the shower, dried off and walked into the living room to find Maly playing with “her” iPod Touch. “Her” iPod is usually not charged. She’d gone into Elise’s purse, retrieved the iPod, walked over to my computer, unhooked my phone and plugged in “her” iPod to charge while she played her little Disney princess game on it. I knew this was going to be a fun and interesting conversation.

“Hey! I thought I said you couldn’t play with my phone.”

“It’s not your phone, Daddy. It’s MY iPod.”

And she was absolutely right. I should have done a better job as a parent and explained why I’d said no earlier.

They say 3- and 4-year-olds are “liars and lawyers”. This ride gets more exciting every day!

Seven years ago I worked in the marketing department at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, TX. Every eight or ten weeks I would donate blood right there at the hospital. I became a regular blood donor. One day during a routing donation, my friend and blood donor coordinator, Mindi, asked me if I wanted to join the National Marrow Donor Program. I was interested in learning more, so she informed me that they could take an additional vile of blood for testing, and keep this information in a national registry. If a patient anywhere in the U.S. was in need of bone marrow and his or her type matched mine, I would be notified to be tested to see if I was a match.

Fast forward to February of 2008. I got the call. I was a potential match for a 43-year-old man who suffers from Myelodysplastic Syndrome. Without thought or hesitation, I signed up. Test me, poke me, prod me. Do whatever. I want to help.

On February 12, 2008, I sent in my health history questionnaire to the Scott & White Center for Cancer Prevention & Care.

On March 19, 2008, I went to the The Blood and Tissue Center of Central Texas to have 6 viles of blood drawn and to test my antigens.

On June 18, 2008, after having been told that I had a 1/200 chance of being a match, I found out that I was that match.

On June 25, 2008, I drove to San Antonio for my physical exam for Peripheral Blood Stem Cell donation.

A month later, I began my series of five Neupogen injections to put my bone marrow into overdrive in time for the donation. I thought my bones were going to explode because of the pressure that had built up within them.

I went on a pain management strike. I knew that what he was having to cope with was exponentially more difficult than what I was having to cope with.

On July 24, 2008, I did everything that I could to help.

Today at 4:57 p.m., I received a call from Olga, my marrow donor coordinator. She told me that as of the last report that was received on August 19th, “the patient has been doing great and is in remission.”

The patient is doing great and is in remission. Hearing that brought tears to my eyes and it does again as I type this now. I was blessed with this opportunity to help another human and I absolutely cannot put into words how thankful I am to have had this chance to help.

Please, become a marrow donor.

First day of school last year:

First day of school this year:

Charmin, you hear that?! Your customers need SOFT toilet paper. Call me if you need a new spokesperson.

(Click image to play video)

This year for Maly’s 3rd birthday we bought her a dollhouse. She LOVES her dollhouse. Every day she asks her mom or me if we want to play with her dollhouse with her. It’s not that we don’t want to, it’s that we’re 30-somethings and we have bigger and better things to do. So we think, and we lie and rationalize with ourselves into thinking we’ve too many other important things to do. I always reach deep into my heart and remember those few days where there was total silence in the house, and how those days will be all too often in the not-to-distant future. If I’m in the worst of moods or have so much on my mind at the moment that the last thing that I have time to do is play with my daughter, I remind myself that there is nothing more important than being there for my family.

So, to genuinely play with my daughter and a dollhouse, I have to harness the child within and be sensitive to the fact that I have a girly-girl of a daughter who really wants to play with her dolls as dolls, not ninjas, soldiers or cyborgs from the future. I have resolved to the fact that I can play and engage in the masculine form. Maly has grown accustom and always hands me my “doll”, Mike I’m Married.

When we bought the dollhouse, it came with a few things like a table, chairs, high chairs for the kids, a swing, picnic table, grill and a slide. It also included a nuclear family; a clean-cut daddy, a loving mom, and two adorable twins, a boy and a girl. If I was going to have to play with dollhouse, it was quickly known that I would play the part of the dad. And I would barbecue with the included grill. I would use that grill a lot.

My character’s name was quickly christened “Mike”. After a few minutes of playing with Maly and her dollhouse the first time, I noticed Mike had a little wedding ring painted on his left hand. As play continued and we introduced a few Barbie dolls and other toys, Mike would introduce himself to whomever Maly was playing with as “Hi, I’m Mike, I’m married.” Which soon just became Mike’s name, Mike I’m Married. He still goes by just Mike in short form. In order to maintain Mike’s utmost manliness, I quickly created a short theme song (think Budweiser jingle/rock ‘n’ roll anthem sung in a raspy rocker voice):

“Mike I’m Married, I married Erica!
Mike I’m Married, I love America!”

So Mike I’m Married and his family have a pretty standard life. They also have quite an extended family and friends. Without going into much greater detail, here is an introduction to Mike’s family and friends:

(Click photo to enlarge)

Starting at the top:
Lolly & Toony: They’re a couple mermaids that come by to play. They usually stay up on the top floor. They’re good people.
The Lemon Monster: He swings by and steals things and hides them. He has a high-pitched, sing-songy voice. He often frustrates Maly. I use him to help Maly understand that there are often people in society that will be frustrating and do wrong things. I try to teach her how to understand, cope and rationalize with these frustrating people.
Charlie and Emi Elizabeth: They’re a couple teenage girls that just kind of hang out, listen to music on their headphones by the lamp upstairs and play with the animals. They’re good folk as well and keep things tidy around the house and yard.
Tricky: It (haven’t determined sex yet) is the family canine. It barks a lot. Maly likes to play the part of Tricky quite often. Tricky has a litter of pups. The pups’ names change frequently.
Chip: Chip to me is just a worthless sack of shit. I don’t tell this to Maly, but dammit, Chip needs to get his lazy ass up and get a job. Or mow the yard. Something. Anything. He pretty much takes up the entire second floor of the house and doesn’t do a damn thing. He’s ALWAYS sleeping. That boy just ain’t right.
Barbara: She’s a Barbie from the old school. She wears a dress that Elise’s grandma made for her. She’s pretty conservative, likes to cook, dance and brush her hair. She’s an honest and humble homemaker. She’s extended family, I’m still not sure of origin.
Mary Ann: I sing or whistle Alice Cooper’s “Mary Ann” every time she makes an entrance. Elegant, beautiful, debonair, classy, LOVES to dance and garner compliments. She is a girly-girl. She is the daughter of Barbara. She was the present that Elise and I bought for Maly after she successfully pooped in the potty.
Erica: Mike I’m Married’s wife. Mike loves her to death, even though she has really bad hair. She’s a stay-at-home wife and keeps up the house and kids.
Ted: Mike and Erica’s son. He likes to swing and eat Slim Jims.
Lilly: Mike and Erica’s daughter. She kind of clingy and whiny. She likes to eat pizza and ride on the slide.
Mike I’m Married: The man of the estate. Mike drives downtown on his propane grill to his job in an office where he does a lot of emailing and is stressed a lot. He loves his family more than anything… Even Chip. And the dog.

UPDATE: I showed Maly the diagram of her family today and she was excited to see that everyone was documented. She even included a little commentary about Chip.

I’m sitting at the bar in my brother-in-law, Ron and sister, Lisa’s backyard, enjoying my final evening in gorgeous La Jolla. I love the climate in southern California, but it will take some serious convincing to ever get Elise to move out here. The week has blow by so quickly (what vacation doesn’t?!), but we’ve had a total blast, as we always do whenever we come out here to spend time with family.

The primary reason for coming to California was for Ron and Lisa’s wedding; and I’ll get to that soon. I want to try to recap everything we’ve done since we’ve been here, otherwise we’ll get back home tomorrow, get back into the hustle and bustle and this trip will quickly become yet another fading memory.

I worked most of the day last Tuesday. My mom drove into Austin around 4 p.m. and we were quickly shuttled off to the airport by our friend and neighbor Matt. Before heading to sunny Cali, we had to indulge in Salt Lick Barbecue at ABIA. Hopped on our plane and 3 hours later we were standing curbside at SDIA, waiting for my bro-in-law, Craig to pick us up. Twenty minute drive out to the house in Poway where took a load off and visited with Terri and Craig.

Wednesday morning, first thing we did was hop in the 88-degree pool and take a few runs on the slide (which is a great way to start a Wednesday morning!) We lounged around, swam, lounged, swam, and later cruised around the neighborhood in the Jeep golf cart. We fed the neighborhood horse some carrots. I left Poway around 11 a.m. and headed to the northern outskirts of San Diego to take clients out to lunch. We had a great lunch at Karl Strauss Brewing Company. After lunch we all headed back to their office for some brainstorming and Q&A. Always great to put faces to names when meeting clients in person. I left my client’s office around 3 p.m. and headed back to Poway. On the way, I happened upon an AT&T store, so I ducked in and upgraded to an iPhone 3GS. I got back to Poway in time to go swimming with the kids again. Craig and I smoked chicken breasts and grilled squash for dinner.

Thursday came early and was a busy day. We all loaded up and drove out to Pacific Beach for the wedding rehearsal at the ZLAC Rowing Club. After the rehearsal, Adam and I played football by the bay and happened upon a couple rays. After a couple hours, we headed over to World Famous on Pacific Beach for dinner. I wasn’t there for dinner, more there to wait on Ron to pick me up for the bachelor party.

After being at World Famous for an hour or so, Ron picked me up along with his best man, Jeff and Ron’s sister’s boyfriend, Dan. We drove a short while to Ron’s friend, Dave’s house for dinner, drinks and debauchery. Dave’s house, in a word: Amazing. Here’s a panoramic of the view from the rooftop.

Craig and I retired early from the bachelor party and headed back to Poway to call it a night.

On Friday, Craig and Terri had a few errands to run. The better part of the day was spent by us all setting up the house for the rehearsal dinner. Of course there were a few breaks to go swimming a couple times. Around 4 p.m., the guests started showing up. We had a great catered taco dinner complete with lemon, white chocolate and chocolate cakes. Later in the evening, I pulled my sister into the house and gave her my wedding gift to her. Earlier that week I had pulled out my dad’s old jewelry, which I’d inherited after he died. He had a simple gold band that looked like a wedding ring. He didn’t get a ring when he and my mom were married, so I assumed it was his wedding ring from his first marriage, which was to Elaine, my sisters’ mom. I asked my mom is she knew anything about the ring. She wasn’t sure if it was his wedding ring from his marriage to Elaine. So I put the ring on my right hand and wore it until this past Friday. During the rehearsal dinner, I pulled Elaine aside and asked her if she thought the ring was my dad’s from their marriage. She said she thought it was, keeping in mind this ring is probably 50-years-old.

So I told Lisa that I wanted her to have the ring. I took it off of my finger and put it into her hand. The look on her face was priceless. Lots of tears were shed and we hugged. I know she appreciated the gift and I’m really glad that I was able to give it to her.

The rest of the evening was spent breaking down tables and cleaning up after the party.

Saturday was the big wedding. The wedding was beautiful. My sisters looked gorgeous. Ron was very dapper. Gavin (Ron’s grandson) and Maly were adorable. The ceremony and reception went off without a hitch. Fun was had by all and I’m glad to have a new brother in the family and glad that Maly was able to be the gorgeous little flower girl.

Sunday was a day of rest and relaxation. The rehearsal and wedding were over and we just needed some time to hang out and do nothing. Grant and I worked on a new sailboat, we all swam and hung out in the hot tub, watched the boys race PlasmaCars down the big hill in front of the house (video coming soon), and ran a PlasmaCar down the waterslide (again, video coming soon).

On Monday we went to the Birch Aquarium where we met our Austinite friends Bradley, Susanna, Zachary, Grace and Caleb as well as Ron and Lisa. We saw lionfish, starfish, urchins and lobsters in a tidepool, jellyfish, more jellyfish, even more jellyfish, lots of indigenous aquatic life, a living shark embryo, sharks and stingrays, gorgeous sea dragons, potbelly seahorses, scorpion fish among other cool stuff.

We left the aquarium and had a great lunch with Ron and Lisa at the Cass Street Grill and Bakery. Then we were off to Ron and Lisa’s house in La Jolla. We made quick detour to catch my nephew Jason at two-a-day football practice at La Jolla High. He’s a freshman defensive lineman that I know will make me proud.

Shortly after getting to Ron and Lisa’s place, Lisa got a phone call to find that she got a job as a kindergarten/1st grade teacher, which was HUGE news. There was much rejoicing… two days prior, Lisa got married and then to find out she got a job that she’d been dying to get… doesn’t get much better than that! We were (and still are) so proud of and happy for her.

That night we celebrated by ordering a pizza from a local joint; the name escapes me but, holy crap, was that the best pizza ever!

Soon Tuesday was among us. We woke up early and started scurrying about the house. I was quick to find out that a few websites that I host were hacked, so I started “working”. Lisa had woken up at 3 a.m. and went to work getting her classroom at school setup. Mom & Elise started packing and helped clean the house. Ron had to go to work for an hour or so just to touch base and check in. It was a pretty stressful morning.

Ron came home and before we knew it, we were rushing out the door to head to the airport. We said our sweet goodbyes. The girls gave hugs and kisses to Ron and thanked him for the hospitality. I shook his hand, gave him a big hug and again welcomed him to the family. It was a sad farewell. I was last to enter the airport. Before I stepped foot inside, I turned west and took a deep breath in to collect the nice, dry, breezy and cool air of southern California before joining in the chaos.

The vacation came to an end. The whirlwind dissipated. Three hours later, traveling east by air, which always makes the weary traveler that much more weary, we found ourselves back in Austin. Humid, hot, sweaty, burnt grass abound.

Now we’re home, somewhat avoiding the imminent back-to-the-routine and silently reminiscing on the fair weather and the comfort of being with family and enjoying times with minimal worries.

I love southern California, probably more than my native Texas. I find comfort in knowing that we have family there who have told us on every previous visit that we’re welcome anytime. And I’ll gladly take ‘em up on it.

Photos of Ron & Lisa’s wedding can be seen here.

This past weekend my sisters and nephews were in town as they boys were finishing up their three weeks at Camp Longhorn. When my San Diego family is in Texas for any amount of time greater than 45 minutes, they must indulge in a Whataburger. Having heard just the word Whataburger over the course of the weekend, and not having patronized a local Whataburger restaurant in a couple years, we decided to go to Whataburger for dinner last night.

Whataburger hamburgers are great; fast food Texas-style burgers with an emphasis on mustard and onions. I opted for the double meat, double cheese bacon jalapeno burger, and just ask my gastro-intestinal system how good THAT was. My cholesterol will whole-heartedly concur.

The best part of dinner wasn’t the food, it was the drive home. Since we were out, indulging in unhealthy fast food, we let Maly have lemonade. Normally she only imbibes in either milk or water for all meals so lemonade was a definite treat.

This is really one of those “you just had to be there” moments. As we were driving home, Maly decided that she wanted to open her Whataburger cup so she could get some ice. We can only speculate as we weren’t actively watching her in her car seat, but we heard the plastic lid pop off the cup and the sound of large chunks of ice clunking against each other, then a split second of silence, and then the sound of ice hitting the car’s ceiling, window, seat and center console. We both knew the cup was empty of most liquid, so the sound of ice being flung about the car was somewhat laughable. But the best part was Maly, in a short, determined and frustrated sputter exclaim, “SHOOT! BIG MESS!”

We think she said “shoot!”

I had a terribly frustrating day at work today. I couldn’t get caught up to save my life. I came home to mow the shin-high grass in 100+ degree weather and now I have so many mosquito bites that I look like a leper. I got angry and yelled at the Zombie Eater for throwing fist fulls of dirt into the pool. I stormed into the house, grabbed my phone to check my email. There, glowing in my inbox, was a signed contract from a sales call I went on in L.A. back in May.

That made the rough day at work today seem not-so-bad. Now I’ve to make up for the sour attitude that I had with Maly this evening.

I came home from work this evening to total silence. Total silence. Well, not TOTAL silence – total is a relative word here. Maly is away at Grandma’s for a couple days and Elise is at her MOMS group until 9:30 tonight.

I put my bag down and opened the mail at the kitchen counter. I heard an odd and faint whirring sound. As I walked toward the entertainment center, the sound became less faint. The sound was the hard drive spinning inside the TiVo as it recorded a TV show. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that sound before. It’s not a broken TiVo hard drive sound – more of a working TiVo hard drive spinning sound that I’ve never had the opportunity to hear.

I walked back to the kitchen to finish opening the mail. Still silence. The sound of me opening an envelope was almost deafening. Opening and closing the refrigerator door produced a thunderous reverberation throughout the kitchen. Because I could hear them, my footsteps seemed to be coming from someone else’s feet.

I stood at the kitchen counter and just looked blankly out onto the living room and out the windows to the backyard and thought, “this house will be like this one day.”

Fifteen years flashed before my eyes. I left the nest and moved to Austin to attend college 15 years ago. The 15 years that flashed before my eyes were not my own; they were my daughter’s. And each year, as it flashed, paused long enough for me to catch a brief gaze. The plays, recitals, games, classes, sleep-overs, slumber parties, trips, study groups, dances, dates.

And 15 years will have gone by like that, just like the previous 15 years have. At that point she will be 18-years-old. And I will be 35 because of cryogenics and human growth hormone. She will ready to leave the nest. Ready to pass through the ivory towers of the university or embark on whatever life journey so bewilders her. We will have done the absolute best that we can in that short amount of time to prepare and help her to be the best woman that she can possibly be.

One-sixth of our daughter’s life at home has already passed. I sit in a silent house hearing only the clatter of my keyboard and the squeak of my chair tonight. It’s nights like this that allow me to think about what’s really important in my life.

What’s important is now.

The next time she runs to me and asks, “Daddy! Want to play wiff my dollhouse wiff me?!?!”, there will be nothing more important.

I haven’t posted anything on Janicek.com since May 27th. Wow. Truth be told, I’ve been hanging out on Facebook. If you don’t know what Facebook is, your head’s been under a rock – right along side my wife’s!

By the time I get home from work, play with Maly, have dinner, work, bathe Maly, brush her teeth, brush her hair, work, give her new headbanging lessons, read to her, put her to bed, talk to Elise, work, it’s too late to recount my recently discovered high cholesterol count or a herd of ducks I might have seen on the way into work this morning.

So I post snippets here and there on Facebook, and I’ve been trying to get Elise to do the same. She won’t have it. There’s even a Facebook group, trying to urge Elise to join Facebook. I’ll bet if I became a Catholic, Elise wouldn’t have a leg to stand on in this Facebook joining battle.

But this battle hasn’t gone to that extreme. Yet. Elise raises a good point in that Facebook would be a total timesuck for her. And it would. If you know my wife, she’s not that great at managing her time. And I only write that because I had to step away from the keyboard to ask her if it was okay to write that.

I know more about what Elise’s friends from Iowa are doing than she does. Case-in-point, because of Facebook, I know that people in Iowa are experiencing their “summer” this week. Next week they’ll all be knee-deep in snow again.

In recent months I’ve come home to Elise with some exciting news:

“Jeff and Heather are having a boy!!!”

“That’s soooo two-day-old news”

“Facebook?”

“Yep. And I’ve already seen the ultrasound photos.”

“…”

“And I got an autographed copy! All done in “Facebook!”"

We actually got into an argument as we were going to bed one night recently. I strongly urged my loving wife to adopt social media now, because in 5 years, when our daughter can send a MMS message via the Sonytendosoft Wii GPS Advanced720® Retina Sensor™ to her all-reaching, satellite-fed TwitBookr 2.0 account for all the world to read, except her mom, I’ll probably be standing before the open pantry, iPhoneMicro 9GTz Turbo in hand, downloading an application to determine if I’ve had enough soluble fiber for the day.

For dinner tonight we had leftover ribs, pinto beans and potato salad that I made on Sunday. Maly was kicking around the beans with her fork and she pushed aside a little piece of bacon…

“I don’t want to eat that.”

“That’s the best part! That’s bacon!”

“Why is there bacon in the beans?”

“Because it adds flavor and texture.”

“Hmmm.”

Elise chimed in:

“Maly, do you know what “texture” is?

“Yeah!”

“What is “texture”"?

“Mise en place!!!”

Totally wrong answer, but still worthy of an immediate high-five from yours truly for her making the culinary association.