Ummm....

So anyway, like I was saying....

Today I feel pretty good. I mean, usually I feel pretty good but today it's a little something extra. Not sure what it is. Been exercising a bit more - but no, that's not it. It's raining outside right now so it's not the weather. And the Mungus family is dead broke so not that either. Work is stressing me. Not that. In fact, I can't think of a single good thing going on today. But I'm still feeling good. What the fuck?

I was eating breakfast this morning, checking out a few sites and writing back to DJD thanking him for a little recognition (never took the time to figure out those HTML link tricks, so click on his link on the left to see what I'm talking about. C'mon, it's not that tough - lazy). It was early - like 5:30am - and my youngest son snuck up and tugged on my shirt.

"Whatcha doing up little dude?" I asked.

"Nuffin'" was his reply.

I said "It's pretty early. You should go back to sleep."

"Not tired."

So as I was about to get myself some cereal anyway, I took out his bowl and poured him some too. There we were, before the sun was up, munching Cocoa Puffs at the table. He was chomping away, all smiles, his little legs swinging from the edge of his chair. Years away from hitting the floor. When we were done, he took his bowl and dropped it in the sink - little man that he is. I turned on some cartoons, got him some juice and sat down with him for a few minutes and put on my shoes.

Checking the clock, I knew it was time to go. He gave me a big hug as I headed for the door. He didn't whine or cry as I kinda expected, he just hung out with his juice all happy watching some toons.

Missus Mungus called me around lunch time and said when she got up, my son couldn't wait to tell her how he and Daddy had breakfast together. She said he was so happy all day. So was I little dude, so was I.

OK, Really Back This Time...

I've been on a bit of a hiatus trying to get the old life back on track and such. And so far, so good. Over the next few days I'll update on a few things going on. Today I'll start on the most important ones involving the Mungus family.

First, Missus Mungus is now seven months pregnant. This being kid #3 the old muscles are stretched a bit more than the previous times - so she's big as a house already and ornery as a rattlesnake. Two more months to go (we're due in July) and the really hot weather has yet to hit. We may be introducing air conditioning into the Mungus house for the first time as a result. Time will tell. But all in all, she's in good health as is the kid (another boy by the way - that makes three boys. My Three Sons. I should name him Chip or Robbie).

Been piling up all the old nursery room stuff. The crib is missing a few pieces. When I went on the manufacturers website to order replacement parts I discovered the crib has been recalled for safety concerns. Once I was done freaking out about that I read a little further. Turns out the safety issue only happens if you put the crib together wrong. This poor company has to shell out millions to recall items, manufacture and mail out idiot proof parts and tarnish their reputation because their customers can't follow the instructions? Remind me never to own my own business - it sucks out there.

Besides that, Missus Mungus has been saving us a fortune by buying "lightly used" baby clothes from Ebay, etc. We have no second thoughts about this plan. We have reared two sons in warm weather now and can testify to the fact that most first year baby outfits are worn once or twice before being outgrown. So these are basically new clothes.

Update on the oldest son: remember a few months back I had written about his teacher's concerns with his attention in class? We had decided back then to have him evaluated in April. This has now happened and we are awaiting the diagnosis. We go back in two weeks.

The week before the appointment, we had a parent/teacher conference. She has very much changed her tune since the initial concern (somewhat to our relief). He is still disruptive to the class - gets up out of his seat a lot, hums to himself, makes shooting and spaceship sounds, etc. But when asked to explain what the class has been taught, he knows it. He has absorbed it. He is ahead of the rest of the class. He will move ahead to the next grade and may be considered "advanced." That being said, he is affecting the other kids. So this is where the evaluation comes in. I think we are going to dodge the medication bullet, but whether the school will be open to some new learning techniques will be interesting to say the least. I'll give an update once we have the appointment.

Plenty more to write about. Be back soon.

Just a Quick Howdoyado...

Been promising an extended post for a while now. Works been crazy the past few weeks, but it's finally starting to come together and slow down for me. No time for a full update, but here's a few things going on or that have been on my mind:

• Missus Mungus IS EXPECTING OUR THIRD KID!!! We're due in July. Kinda sucks as we probably won't do a whole hell of a lot this summer as she'll either be big as a house or recovering... But we are completely psyched. Took us months of trying (even had to get medical intervention - but that's another story), but we did it!!
• They laid off 27 people at my job this week. "The economy sucks and it won't get better for at least 9 months" is the basic message we are getting from senior management. They are confident we can remain profitable for that stretch of time without additional layoffs. I have very good job security at the moment but it's scary out there. Feel free to tell your own stories in the comments section.
• Speaking of work, I'm getting a big promotion next week!!! Salary position (I've been hourly my entire working life), my own front office and a direct impact on the daily and long-term runnings of the business. Tons of pressure considering the economy. If I can't keep things running smoothly, I'm fucked. 'Course if things go good, I'll be a hero. Another crazy few months ahead.
• The kids are stir crazy from being cooped up in this house all winter. Frankly, they're driving us crazy. The energy they should be expelling running around the neighborhood is instead used up throwing their toys and jumping on the furniture. They are goofy kids and are great at making their own fun. But after 12 hours with them, Missus Mungus and I are ready to choke them and each other. I make light, but this is a pretty serious issue. We haven't figured out how to keep them occupied, let them have fun but still be respectful and keep the house together. And with Missus Mungus in pregnant "nesting" mode, chaos and clutter don't fly.

That's about all that's going on. And I guess really that's a lot.

And Now We Are LIVE

I've spent the last year at my job working on setting up an inventory management system called JD Edwards Enterprise One. For the past six weeks, I've worked on nothing else. This past Monday, January 26th 2009, the system went "live."

We had some balls starting this thing up... did a complete shut down of the previous system - Live without a net. It's been a crazy couple of weeks, this week especially. Haven't really seen the family much. But now this week is over, the system is up and running and I'm taking the weekend off.

Holy fuck, I'm tired.

I'll post again after some sleep and some much needed family time.

I'm Back. Now Let's Get To It...

Merry blah blah and Happy New blah. Too late for all that...

No time for a holiday recap, and frankly, you'd get better at a million other blogs. I do have a good story to tell about Xmas day (and following weekend) at the Mungus house, but I'll save it for the next post. I've got an issue and it ain't gonna wait.

I've got two sons. The younger is 3 years old. He's in pre-pre-school (next year pre-school, following year Kindergarten) and is a joy and a love. I've written of him before. Never have I seen a creature so trusting and unconditionally giving of himself. So innocent and full of joy. He's got this awesome devious side as well, which eases my concerns that the world will chew him up. He'll be fine. I am already sure.

My older son is at the ripe old age of 6 and in his fourth year of school (two years of pre-school, etc...). Last year was his first in our local public elementary school and our first to receive reports of concern from his teachers. "He is having trouble paying attention in class" and is sometimes "disruptive." Uh-oh. They started using the buzzwords every parent of a son (or any kid, I suppose) dreads. We met with the Kindergarten teacher last year and she assured us that although she had her "concerns," in all likelihood he would "grow into" the structure of school. But she did warn us that if he was behaving similarly in First grade, it would become a serious issue. "The expectations are raised at every grade change, and behavior evaluations become more stringent" she said.

So here we are in First grade. Hell, the year's 2/3 over... and THE NOTE has been sent home from the teacher: Little Mungus jr. "has had to be spoken to on several occasions over the past few days to calm down and focus on the activities of the class." Oh shit. They're diagnosing him.

Missus Mungus spent yesterday afternoon discussing this issue with a few other Moms outside waiting for the kids to come out. She spoke to five Moms. Three of them have put there kids on medication after "concerns" from the school. She was shocked as am I.

So what the fuck? First thought is: it's all that acid I ate in the early nineties coming back to haunt me. Now my kid is broken. The I look at these round peg in a round hole Moms and think, "there's no way she ever did acid or any other hard drug ever." No basis in fact that one, but I'm pretty sure it ain't that.

So is it something environmental? Town water supply tainted? Maybe it's like mold in the school or some shit? Because I refuse to believe that an entire generation has now evolved out of normalcy and must be drugged to assimilate and function.

Barring environmental causes, here's what I believe has happened: kids haven't evolved, teaching styles have. Back in the good old days of the forties and fifties, teachers were allowed some minor corporal punishment. Kids were scared of their teachers and didn't act out as a result. Thanks to the hippy dippy sixties, everyone said "hey man, relax. They're just kids. You can't go hitting kids... School should be a place where they find out who they are, man. They need to find their inner spirit and set it free..." Then the law suits started, school freaked out and now we're at a place where they are afraid to discipline at all. Geez, they're so afraid of getting sued for "emotional trauma" they don't even declare winners and losers during kids sports anymore. "Everyone wins because we all had FUN!!!" Shit.

My kid is a good kid. He listens (for the most part) at home and we can generally get him to do all the stuff we need him to do. And yes, sometimes he's a little scared of us. Not because we hit. We don't. But he knows when we say fucking do something, you better do it or there will be consequences (usually we just take away a favorite toy or some other deprivation of fun for a span of time).

The school is scared to discipline so they are drugging all the kids.

Let me end by making an admission: as a result of the note, my wife and I called our doctor. He has arranged for our son to be "evaluated." The facility that evaluates kids is so backlogged with requests that we were unable to get an appointment until mid April. It's a fucking epidemic.

In our minds, we dream that this evaluation will prove our son to be labeled "normal," like the last minute DNA evidence that shows up minutes before they pull the switch on the electric chair. Then we will have this document to prove to all the future teachers that yes, we have heard your concerns and our team of experts has assured us that it is your problem Mr. Education System, not ours.

My son's "keep off of drugs free" card has yet to arrive. Let's see if I have the balls to give you an update in a few months when the verdict comes.

FM vs. Reality will resume it's regularly scheduled programming after the end of the 2008 X-Entertainment Advent-ure is over. Please stand by...

I guess we'll see...

I was the first one to vote in my town. I was standing out there at 5:10am - an hour before the polls open. I was there before the volunteers showed up to set up the folding tables and stuff. Sounds extreme, but in reality I'm usually at work by 5am. I got to sleep in for this.

At 6am, when the polls opened there were over 300 people behind me. It was pretty intense. People were having political discussions and debating the referendum questions and shit. Crazy.

I was discouraged from the start. I am a conservative for various reasons and live in an extremely liberal area. In effect my vote doesn't count every year. But I vote religiously every year, local or national. So I voted and my vote didn't count. Obama will be President.

You know, I don't have anything against Obama. He seems like a nice enough guy and will probably do an OK job. It'll do wonders for our international PR at the least. And really, things can't get much worse.

So good luck, Mr. Obama. I didn't vote for you but I welcome you as my new President. Congratulations.