Jimmy’s Poor Parenting Skills on Display – Thanksgiving Past

Me Knows Better Than to Say This… but I will.  Well obviously the Parent of the Year Award will not go to Jimmy.  I think it stems from past violations around Thanksgiving time ten years ago.  At the time, my daughter was having a hard time sitting still at grandma’s place waiting for the main meal.  Since she was only four years old it was quite understandable and the cousins had gotten her pretty wound up throughout the day.  She needed a nap in the worst way but would not sit still for fear of missing anything.

In order to move the process along, Jimmy decided it was best to have her sit on his lap and watch a little TV.  The only problem was that Grandma received only three useable TV stations (which brought back memories of my childhood).  Of the three, one had football – this was no interest to my daughter – although I would have gone for that, but I was still in the running for Parent of the Year.  The second one was fuzzy and needed a person to hold one end of the antenna while using the opposite hand to point toward town.  (I would have used this option, but my hands were full and it too brought back too many good memories of my childhood when it was my job to double as the signal boost ground operator).  The third and best choice (like I had any other) was to watch the family friendly cartoon - The Simpsons. 

Now I know that the Simpsons is not the best choice for a four year old, but given the constraints and the objective to keep her occupied until she fell asleep, it seemed like the best option.  Everything was going well and I figured what few age inappropriate jokes they had, would go over her head… until my wife showed up to help.  Her first comment was, “You aren’t letting her watch that show are you?”

Rather than explain the options, I responded that this episode of the Simpsons was really tame and I pointed at my daughter’s head and mouthed the words, “This is way above her head.  Don’t worry.”

Unfortunately I did not know this episode.  It was the one where Mr. Burns had a girl friend and she was trapped in burning building.  In an instant, Mr. Burns developed super human strength, rushed into the building to save her and somehow carried her out against all odds.  The reporter on the scene asked him while he was still holding her like a bride across the threshold, “How were you able to perform this miracle when you are barely able to walk?” 

Mr. Burns replied, “Well, you know what the strongest muscle in the human body is… it’s the heart.”

Homer happens to be standing by and responded, “That’s funny, I always thought it was the wiener.” 

Immediately my wife gave me the I-told-you-so-stare, walked over to the TV and slapped it off.  

Jimmy’s Excuse For Not Writing

Me Knows Better Than to Say This… but I will.  My apologies to my three loyal readers (yes, we had a 50% increase in followers within the last month from two to now three), but work has been getting in the way of blogging.  I know that really is not much of an excuse.  But since work pays better than blogging, it is my fiduciary responsibility to maintain some sort of a standard of living and support my family.  Since blogging pays almost as much as my gambling winnings (if not a bit more), I need to concentrate on what brings home the bacon. 

Some may have thought that I was on probation after a few of excerpts regarding wardrobe issues, but no… not this time… It was merely a requirement to concentrate on work during a pretty hectic schedule.

However, the work has had plenty of side benefits.  I have a bunch of new material to share and I had a chance to visit many interesting countries.  At the time of my last blog, I was starting a round-the-world trip going from Scotland to Germany to Poland to India to China and finally Korea before coming home… then back on the plane a couple of weeks later for two weeks in Europe in France, Germany, Poland, Scotland and No. Ireland.  Luckily I am able to sleep pretty well on planes as I normally get a good 21-24 minutes total when adding up the 3 minute bursts… so I am ready to go all the time.

Well… I am back and well fed and those new scanners really penetrate through all the extra body weight I am carrying while eating all the time.

Below are a number of random photos of a couple of sites.  I will get back to the blog shortly. 

No visit to Scotland would be complete without a visit to the Royal Links... the birthplace of golf.  I tried to enter the ballot for a chance to play, but no luck this time.

Here is a look out over the putting area... It is my understanding that the caddies make most of their money by betting with the visiting players and I can see why.

While driving through the Scottish country side,  we spotted a castle that we had to visit.... no idea of the name, but still pretty awesome.

Off to Osnabruck, Germany... beautiful town square with the church here.

I will write later about my trip to India, but here are a few vendors selling spices on the street.  I would have stopped, but they don't take Visa.

Paris - light show at the Eiffel Tower.  Much bigger than I suspected.  Met some Americans I will blog about later.  

Spent a little time visiting Jim Morrison's grave in Paris.  

Then off to Versailles.  Beautiful setting outside for Paris.  Interesting history, but too bad for that unfortunate incident with King Louis and Marie Antoinette losing some body parts.  Not sure how the French do it... everywhere I went, I expected to pay for a ticket, but no one would take any money even though the signs clearly said 18 Euros.  Now I see why they have a fiscal issue, they try to make everything free... but I'm  not complaining.  I guess they thought I was storming the gates of Versailles to get a piece of history.

They had an exhibition with a Japanese artist showing a bunch of his work throughout the palace.  It didn't seem to fit, but I had to get my picture take in front of this one... not sure which subject is odder looking standing in front of the palace...(My three followers are not allowed to comment).

















Then inside were these statues... just out of place in this historic building in my opinion.















Here is one from No. Ireland.  We took a drive along the northern coast and saw spectacular vistas.  This is well worth the drive and needed more time than I could give it.


 Later I will post a few of the best photos to the slide show.


Good to be back home.