Father's Day 2016

We celebrated Father's Day twice this year - once last week when my poor mom brain got my dates mixed up, and of course today.  Last week Sophie picked out some ninja turtle cereal at the store to share with him for breakfast (it tasted as gross as it looked) and we had the biggest clearance steak I could find for dinner. For dessert we had his favorite mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Before church today on real Father's Day

I couldn't ask for a better husband and father than Dave. He always puts family first and is a natural with kids. Wherever we go he attracts a group of kids who want to play with him. He does the dishes every night, and lately has been cooking the dinner too! I've also always appreciated how he supports me in my work. He has been staying home at least once a week (sometimes more) since Sophie was born and she absolutely loves her day with daddy. One time we asked her why she loved daddy and she said it was because he was "so sweaty" - such sweet sentiments :) We sure love Dave and all he does for our little family!

Diaper Change is More Fun with Daddy

Daddy-daughter bonding time - music by the sound machine, lyrics by Dave

SPICY!

First, Little Caesar's pizza is a lot better than it used to be. It's still on the lower end of the pizza food chain, but it's Hot! and Ready! and only $5! Since it's so cheap it has become my go-to place for food on those nights I just don't feel like cooking... which leads us to this story:

Dave loves to cover his pizza with parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper. I had started eating while Dave was still "decorating" his pizza, when I suddenly heard a "WHOA!"

He had confused the "sprinkle" side of the lid with the "pour" side, and dumped a huge mound of pepper on his pizza. The pile on his pizza was probably a quarter of what had been in the jar. I was trying so hard not to laugh while chewing, but a small amount of drool may have escaped.

He managed to scrape a good portion off, but it was still one of the spiciest pizzas he's ever had :)

Exhibit A

Title: Dave does laundry while Mel is at work

Critical Eavulation: Clothes were clean, dry, and less wrinkled than if they had been left balled up in the dryer. Folding is overrated anyway, right? I guess I'll give him a pass.

 

I spy...

Tonight Dave told me "I put away your sunglasses."

It took some searching, but I eventually found them :)

 

Those who work the front desk shouldn't play with knives...

I bought my brother a knife off eBay for his birthday. Because the mail going to our house can be a bit slow (the landlord tends to let it accumulate before handing it off to us), I had the knife shipped to the office instead. The package arrived today, and I brought it with me back to my desk. Wanting to examine the quality of my purchase, I decided to flip the blade open real quick to check things out.

Knives and I don't really get along. The last knife I "played" with was similar to this one. It was my dad's knife and the release button was pretty hard to push. When I finally applied enough pressure the blade flipped open and sliced a hole in my mom's new tablecloth... oops.

This time I tried to be more careful. The knife opened fine - no blood, no gouging of office supplies. But then I ran into a problem. I couldn't get the knife to close. I tried pushing buttons, flipping the safety cover, jiggling things, pressing on it real hard - nothing worked.

This is when I realized that it probably wasn't a good idea to brandish a 9" knife in the reception area of a corporate office. Employees are walking by all the time, guests come to check in with me, and there is a security camera right above my desk. I began looking around for a place to hide something long and sharp incase I needed to stash the knife quickly.

Not knowing what to do, I sent Dave an email to tell him I had a PROBLEM. He called me back and in hushed tones tried to walk me through things over the phone:

"Ok. From what I've seen there are pretty much two different ways to close a knife." I'm listening.
"Is there a release on the end of the handle?" Nope.
"Is there something inside the cavity where the blade comes out?" Not that I can see.
"Are you sure? Sometimes there is a lever you push so the knife can collapse." I see something, but I already tried pushing on it and nothing happened.
"Try sliding it to the side." Oh! It worked! You're a genius!

Thank goodness for husbands. I am now a wiser woman, and I still have 10 fingers :)

Not cribbage

We love games. Board games, card games, long games, quick games, kid games, strategy games, etc... We have an entire shelf in our house devoted to games, so the question "what do you want to play tonight?" could be difficult to answer.

Not for Dave! Rather than run through all the choices to select a game he's in the mood for, Dave has found that it's easier to thrust the options aside and alwasy choose the same one - cribbage.

(You know those boards with little pegs that look like a race track? That's cribbage)

I love cribbage too. I grew up playing this game with my family - my grandparents taught me how to play and when I met Dave I taught him. If I had to choose only one game to play for the rest of my life this wouldn't be a bad option, but since there are so many other choices...

Knowing Dave, however, this probably just a clever way of making me choose the game. Some nights I agree to one more race around the track, but for the most part I have learned to ask, "Which not cribbage game do you want to play tonight?"

So far it seems to be working.

Funny Guy

Do you see what I see? I guess it's good he wasn't a geography major...

Glacier Bay, Alaska 2008

Olivine Pools, Hawaii 2009