Light Bloggin'

I haven't been blogging as much lately or commenting for a myriad of reasons. Mostly, last week daycare was closed, so I took a semi-working vacation to watch the Little One. Semi-working in that I worked 6 hours on Monday while my mother-in-law watched her, taking her in on Tuesday and Thursday for a few hours and coming in after hours on Thursday. All-in-all it mostly felt like a week off from work and I got to spend quality time with my Little One in daddy/daughter mode as Mrs. B. worked a full week (she was recently promoted so time off was out of the question.).

Monday when I finally picked her up we spent some additional time with Grandma as I love my in-laws company and the Little One wasn't ready to leave. Then we went out for hot dogs at a cool place by the river. I swear that little kid would eat hot dogs every single day if she could.
Perhaps there's some competitive eating in her future. Did you notice how many records I posted below are held by a woman? Nothing like a chick that can really throw down the chow.

Tuesday we came into the office for a bit and then we went to Lake Compounce Amusement Park. I haven't been there since I was a kid and its grown tremendously. Now advertised as a family amusement park it lives up to it well. Not all that expensive and kids of 40", her height, can go on most but the hairiest of rides as long as they're with a parent. Plus, free soda everywhere! She loved it and we got totally soaked at the end after the log flume ride and rapid river rides. We both vowed to take Mrs. B. there real soon. Its cool to have a kid that has no fears of rides or exciting things like that because both Mrs. B and I love that stuff. I could do without too much spinning though. Urp!!!

Wednesday, the fourth, after I golfed in the morning at a beautiful new course in state, we all went to a party at some friend's newly purchased house. It has a pool, a trampoline, volleyball. firepits, outdoor card table, etc. Pretty cool but again it was chilly out so we didn't swim and soon it was raining so we mostly hung out inside. Good time in any event.

Thursday, I again came into the office with her for a bit. However, some of the things I needed to get done were offset by a scheduling change so I had more time and we decided to head for the beach. It was not the warmest of days but the sun was out. After a Wal*Mart trip for suits, sunscreen, a towel and a toy truck we were off. My unpreparedness was because we originally had no plans for the beach and I didn't want to go home because that would been an hour out of our way. Her bathing suits are getting too small anyway and the new Nemo one is a hit!

Creepy thing at the beach, however. It was nearly deserted as it was cool and the sun wasn't staying out. However, a 60-ish guy came down the path with a cooler and chair and sat not too far away from us for about 10 minutes. Then he grabbed his stuff and went down the beach 500 yards or so. I thought maybe he didn't want a kid near him. Possibly. But! He set the cooler up on one side and the chair, now covered in a towel, on the other and he lay down between them. Best case scenario he was shielding himself from the wind which wasn't that heavy or maybe nude sunbathing? Worse case......ugh! I don't want to think about it. A couple young ladies did stop and were talking to him at one point. Looked weird. He hitched his pants a lot when I finally got up too. Creepy.

Anyway, we had fun and afterwards stopped for some seafood for dinner. I'm not sure why seafood is more predominant at the Connecticut coast than inland but I'm pretty sure none of the menu items are harvested locally. The first few bites were good, but it was all fried and that stuff makes me feel blech very shortly. Little One had an ice cream sandwich for dinner.

Either I'm a cool dad (her words) or a crappy one (ice cream for dinner?) but I figure its her vacation too so I allowed it. She ate a bit of fried calamari too. "Hey, I like this!"

After I worked a bit on Thursday night I came home to find Mrs. B's car wouldn't start. Since it wasn't the battery I told her I would take care of getting it towed in for service on Friday and she could take my car to work. It didn't start when I tried it first thing Friday either. However, Triple A shows up for the tow and, of course, it started up like there was never a problem. I'm like, "what the fuck?" Unbelievable. Anyway, he left and I drove it down to be checked anyway and the Little One and I walked the mile home. They couldn't find anything wrong, of course, but cleaned the battery terminal. Somehow, I just KNOW that isn't it.

Anyway, I spent the rest of the day installing a new outside door to my backyard as the Little One "helped". Then when storms moved in we went inside for kid movies which meant I read. That night was poker night and I was done in an hour. Crap! Lost big time on Ace/King. Oh well.

Saturday, we all went to one of those "catch-all" birthday parties for like 5 of Mrs. B's relatives that have summer birthdays. It was nice if not terribly eventful.

I played 27 with some buddies on Sunday.

Relatively uneventful vacation but nice to just kind of wing it without formal plans.

We're planning a bash of our own this Saturday since we usually have a summer party. Hopefully, I'll get some blogging material from that.