The Difference Between Mommies and Daddies

Mommies take great joy in buying their daughters jewelry and clothes that go bling.

Daddies take great joy in buying their daughters guns which are bling that goes bang.

Who Can Resist Zombies?

No, really. I first heard about an online course called "Society, Science, Survival: Lessons from AMC's The Walking Dead" on GunDiva's "regular" blog. So, seeing as I have posted on the subject of zombies a few times, I just couldn't pass up a chance to see how silly this is going to be.

I mean, really, four faculty members from University of California Irvine (three women and one man whose specialties are in social science, physics/astronomy, mathemetics and public health) are going to tell us how to survive a zombie apocalypse? Yeah, this ought to be interesting. That's like learning how to survive a shark attack from chum.

I betting that proper weapon selection will not be mentioned in the lecture portion of the class.

Random Cuteness and Other...Things

Y'all haven't had a dose of The Cutest Baby in the World (TM) lately. So, here you go you bunch of M&M addicts. I can hear you saying, "Who, me?" Yeah, I'm looking at you.

Someone was supposed to be taking a nap yesterday. Someone thought she had better ideas on how to use her time. Daddy Hawk heard some...exuberance coming from the wee tyke's room and went to investigate. The door was cracked just enough to put the iPhone camera up for suitable surveillance. She stops cavorting when she figures out she's being watched.

This is not what you want to see crawling across the floor when you are spending the night at someone else's house...on an air mattress...in the middle of the floor where said creature was moseying along. At least it wasn't the biggest one I've seen at this location. The other one was huge and black and crawling up my leg while I was sitting on the toilet at oh-dark-thirty many moons ago. Let me tell you, that'll wake you up faster than strong coffee.

M&M loves to hang off the front of the shopping cart. In less than a week, she will be 22 months old. It's hard to believe.

I bet you didn't think it was possible for a toddler to completely take up a king sized bed. Neither did Mimi.

The cousins sharing a moment together at Cousin Twig's FFA show. Cousin Twig (left) is a senior this year and has plans to go into some field involving animals. Possibly veterinary science. We shall see. The lamb is Teddy Bear. Her current project. Cousin I Do It (right) has her learner's permit now and has expressed a healthy caution for solo driving given her ADD tendencies. This is a healthy attitude I think. Uncle Daddy Hawk and Aunt The Queen will be assisting with the driving instruction.

Welcome

In reviewing the comments today on another post, I noticed that Paladin at The Reluctant Paladin decided to pull up a pew here and listen for a spell. Paladin, welcome. I don't keep coffee around the place, but cookies and bourbon can usually be found in the pantry. I do my best to respond to all comments. To the rest of y'all, Paladin is already listed in the blogroll as I've been following him for a while (though his blog hadn't been downloading to my feed reader for some stupid [user error] reason which has since been fixed). Check him out if you are so inclined. He claims to be the father of the best daughter on the planet. The Cutest Baby in the World (TM) may give his girl a run for her money, but it will be a friendly contest for sure.

A Quick Thought on Parenting

The Queen and I have been chatting here of late about the nature of parenting. It's been a discussion born of our experience fostering and then adopting through the foster care system. The Queen, being the humble soul that she is, remains concerned about how M&M sees her and whether she is being a good mommy to her.

I, being the dutiful husband/father, have assured The Queen on many occasions that she is, in fact, a terrific mother. The only mother M&M has ever truly known.

Then, I had a sudden fit of clarity if you want to call it that.

I told The Queen that being a parent has nothing to do with the blood, but it has everything to do with the love.

M&M sees us as her parents not because of any genetic bond. She sees us as her parents because we genuinely care for her and her well being, we praise her and set boundaries for her, we comfort her and make her feel safe, we hug her and kiss her and call her George.

We also provide for her physical needs, but that has nothing do with how she sees us as parents. She is too young to be materialistic. She has no idea whether the clothes she wears are designer labels or not. She has no idea whether the food we feed her is organic or conventionally raised. The only thing she cares about at this point is that she is with us.

It's just my opinion, but I think the world would be a better place if people put more emphasis on the love and less on the blood and material things.

Notice Anything Different?

Assuming you click through to the blog as opposed to just reading the text in a feed reader, you might be scratching your head saying, "Hey, Daddy Hawk. What the funky music white boy? Where'd the 'Other Preachers and Members of the Choir' and 'Inactive and Deceased Bloggers' sections in the side bar go?

Have no fear, all our friends are still right there on the blog. They have just been moved from the side bar to a page of their very own.

The side bar was starting to get a wee bit congested thanks to the 140+ blogs listed there. So, I decided to get ambitious and create a BLOG ROLL as opposed to merely a blog roll. Not only will this blog roll have links, it will be an annotated blog roll with brief (or less brief as the case may be) descriptions of the bloggers and their content.

It is a work in progress. So, be patient. Everyone's links should be there. If you are so inclined, double check to make sure yours is correct. If it's missing, just give me a shout so I can correct the oversight. If you have anything in particular that you would like your fellow readers/followers to know about you, let me know that as well.

The New Office View

The new office digs lookout to the north over the suburb where I grew up. Though not in this photo, I can actually see my old neighborhood from my office window.

This was taken at 7:47 AM this morning facing north. The relatively few cars heading north made my commute a surprisingly short 38 minutes this morning driveway to parking garage which beat MapQuest's estimate by three or four minutes.

I don't feel sorry for all those poor schlubs heading south either. Not one bit. Mainly because I will be one of those poor schlubs heading south this evening.