Almighty Dad | A stay at home dad blog

   
Poetry, for me, isn’t something I go out of my way to read.  It’s enigmatic where I prefer bluntness – prose.  I don’t like to guess at the meaning of phrases.  My favorite author is Ernest Hemingway whose writing is famously direct.  However, my resistance to it notwithstanding, poetry is something with which we should all spend time.  It helps open our minds in the same way looking at a Monet blurs our preconceived notions of how we think the world looks.  It’s like the medicine you[…]

  
Math doesn’t have to be daily lessons of worksheets, word problems, and scratch paper.  Math can be fun.  Yes, I know that sounds like a third grade teacher desperately trying to convince her students that they aren’t in a math class.  The truth is though that Greg Tang has written a series of children’s books that can double as bedtime reading and math lessons.  He has successfully illustrated how kids can recognize patterns in everyday objects.  Kids, for their part, think they are just counting grapes[…]

This photo shows the Saxon math student workbook (first half of grade 2) stacked on top of the teacher’s guide for the whole year compared to both the student textbook and workbook for Singapore math 2A.  You can see, in visual format, just how different they are.  
    
I have finally found a math curriculum my boys like.  After a few hiccup starts and fails, we have become loyal Singapore Math devotees – a full 2 years late.  I should have started the system from the very beginning,[…]

  
My boys are 7 and 6, and that means we are years removed from having to worry about diapers.  However, I remember the cost and hassle of buying and running out of them.  Most parents use disposable diapers because they’re hassle free; we used them for that reason too.  I never even considered going the cloth rout because, as a non-hippie, the environmental impact wasn’t foremost in my mind.  When the issue was brought to my attention (rudely), I just said “Psssht. Bite me,” because nobody[…]

A friend of mine sent me an iPod Touch for my birthday last week.  Do you know what I’ve done with it so far?  I added a song to it (yes, just one – and it’s a Dolly Parton song at that), used it to time 55 minutes on a spatchcocked chicken (spatchcock is indeed a real word), put two games on it (Ski Ball and Angry Birds), and I also checked my e-mail once a few days ago when I was too lazy to get out[…]

 
Coffee isn’t really my thing.  I drink one cup per day at the most and sometimes just 2 or 3 per week.  I’m the wrong guy to ask when it comes to the subtle textures and aromas of coffee.  I do however know what good coffee tastes like and what bad coffee tastes like.  Most coffee for me lies right in between, in the area where it just doesn’t make a difference.  Starbucks VIA is in that spot.  It’s coffee and it doesn’t taste horrible.  End of[…]

  
I bought myself a Kindle a while ago and it’s been a fantastic, if not completely necessary, investment for me.  “Why?” you ask?  Well, simply put, because I’m not the sort of person who cares for having books lying around that I never look at again after they’re read.  Furthermore, I do a lot of reading, and having all my books in one place feels convenient.  Is the Kindle necessary?  No, not even close.  It’s a tech gadget for bibliophiles.  Fanboys have their iPhones and iPads[…]

  
I don’t do book reviews.  I read books.  I either like them or I don’t and I don’t have the energy to over analyze them.  Writing is art and if you think about it too much the magic disappears.  I read a book last week called The Road by, Cormac McCarthy.  The book was fantastic; I couldn’t put it down until I figuratively swallowed it, entirely.  I’ll be honest, Sugar Milk, by my friend Ron Mattocks, isn’t as good as The Road.  But that’s an unfair[…]

This story has a happy ending.  Read the update at the bottom for the conclusion. 

  
The recall was one thing.  I could deal with that because Toyota behaved professionally.  However, this week has been a different story as the service department at my Toyota dealership has decided to show themselves for the stereotype they’ve always been known for.  A bunch of gouging, rude, monopolistic professional con artists.  I paid 49,000 dollars for this car, cash – which I’m very likely never to do again and[…]

   
I took my 2008 Toyota Highlander Hybrid in to the dealership today after receiving notice, by mail, that my vehicle is now included among the other models subjected to the sticky gas pedal issue.  I’ve never had a single problem with the car, and my initial response was to just ignore the letter.  But, the letter did say it was important so I said to myself, “Fine, I’ll suck it up and do it.”  I called them on Wednesday and they got me in for the fix this morning[…]