Well, here’s my attempt.  This is going to take some brain strain.

1. Visit Europe.  Anywhere in Europe is fine although I’m particularly interested in England, Ireland, Scotland, Iceland, Czech Republic, Austria and Turkey.
2. Get a six figure income.  Bonus points if it starts with a number higher than one.
3. Live long enough to see my baby girl grow up to be a happy and successful woman and hopefully watch some grandbabies grow up.
4. Make a positive and profound impact on the lives of other people.  My dream job is to be a philanthropist.
5. Go on a road trip from one coast of the United States to the opposite coast.
6. Retire early enough that I might get to enjoy some time off before I die.  By the time I’m 65, the retirement age will probably be 130.
7. Have something published and sold – even if it’s not successful.  A novel, comic or screenplay I suppose.
8. Become passably fluent in a second language.
9. Ride at least five of the  fastest roller-coasters in the world.  Preferably in at least two different countries.
10. Own and operate a bar & grill or a pub of my own design.

Wow.  That was a lot harder than I thought it would be with narrowing it down to only ten entries.  So many things come to mind but with only ten spots its hard to pick the things that would actually mean something to me in a way that was more than just saying, “OK that’s done” and then checking it off a list and never thinking about it again.

I guess my priorities changed.  Having a toddler, yeah Kira is almost 16 months old now, means having a lot less free time.  A lot less freedom too.  If I have free time, I usually just want to relax or play a video game or maybe watch a movie.  There are a hundred and one things I’d like to do but I just don’t have the time or ambition to do them all and sometimes that means I don’t do any of them.  Writing is one of those things.  Drawing is another.  Sculpting, I finally started and will hopefully post some pictures of my first piece (in progress).  Reading, playing, sorting, organizing, learning, designing… all things that don’t happen all that much.

Now I know that there are people out there who go to work full time, go to school, work out and still take care of their kids.  I have the utmost respect for those people.  I have no idea how they do it.  I want to be like that.  I just don’t know how.

I watch things like Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on television and say to myself “I want to do things that impact people like that.”  But I don’t have – or at least make – the time to better myself.  How can I expect to make the lives of others better if I don’t even make my own life better?  I don’t know.

Is this whining?  I’m not sure.  Is this a plea for help?  I have no idea.  Is it me venting and just spinning my wheels in the life I have put myself in?  Yeah, probably.  What do I do about it all?  I don’t know.

I want the easy way out.  I want to win the lottery so I can quit my job and become a philanthropist.  But I don’t even buy lottery tickets but a handful of days out of the year.  I guess that shows how much faith I have in the “easy way”.

It’s easier to be a “dreamer” instead of a “doer”.  I’m guilty of both.  What about you?

Wooo.

Well… that’s done.  Carry on.

I’m glad I don’t remember that process.  They say that is one of the worst pains ever but truthfully how would you know?  Babies can’t tell you how it feels or how it compares to childbirth, root canals or drawn and quartering.  You can’t hook them up to a meter and see the pain on a graph.  I guess it’s like most things… a guess.

Michelle and I took a little time last weekend away from the baby and went to have lunch at Red Lobster and then off to see Zombieland.  If you haven’t seen Zombieland yet then you are truly missing out.  It’s funny, goofy, scary (stupid clown), self-deprecating, a bit gory and full of action.  There’s even a touching moment so there’s something for everyone.  Meaning emotionally touching… not inappropriately touching…  you know what I mean.

I’ve got a bunch of vacation days that need to be taken before the end of the year so I am figuring out how to plan that out.  Everytime I think I have it all sorted something new comes up.  It happened again today.  Urgh.

Oh, I have a Playstation 3 now!  Yay!  Although I really don’t have any games for it.  I got it used on eBay and it did come with Street Fighter 4 (which I really don’t like surprisingly) and Singstar (which is kinda fun but quite limited compared to other music games).  So I don’t count those.  I’m hoping to get the Game of the Year edition of Little Big Planet for Christmas because that just looks fun to me.  Maybe I should download the demo and try it out first but it seems interesting.  Plus God of War 3 will be out eventually although since the main guy involved in the first two is no longer part of the franchise I’m not holding my breath.

I got the old 60GB PS3 which is why I got it on eBay instead of going to the store.  I picked that one specifically because it is the only model that has the hardware emulation for both PS1 andPS2 games built-in.  So of course the first thing I did was play We Love Katamari.  Because I just can’t get enough of rolling stuff into balls.  Don’t ask because I don’t know.

I say they are taking the wrong approach.  We all know that tornadoes do massive amounts of damage in terms of both life and property as well as lost revenues for businesses.  OK so we’ve established that there is expected to be some damage.  Great.  So next time a big tornado touches down why don’t we scramble a few fighter jets and have them shoot to air to surface missles at the base of that big bad F5?  If the concussive blast from that doesn’t disrupt it then maybe they could also fire an aire to air missle and remote detonate it inside the tornado at the same time.  Disrupt it at the ground and in the air.  Those blasts should have enough force behind them to make the tornado falter if not die out.  The changes in heat in the air should also help.

Why hasn’t anyone thought about this before?

I mean seriously, we talk about fighting these natural disasters but we never actually confront them.  We don’t fight them.  We just have tons of people scurry about and guess a lot while spending money that could be better spent on more important ventures.  And worst case, would testing this theory really cost any more than what we are doing now?

If we could spend $100,000 to launch a jet and three missles and save lives, property, livestock, businesses, crops, and a fortune in insurance claims (if the victims were covered) then wouldn’t it be worth it?  And be awesome at the same time?  What pilot wouldn’t be volunteering for that duty?  Talk about your homeland defense.

What do you think?

Interested in joining this elite group of writers?  Send me or Yoshi an e-mail.  If you don’t know our e-mail addresses then you probably aren’t someone we would let in anyway.  Unless you are like some people we know who can’t keep track of contact information to save their lives.  You know who you are.  Comments here will also be considered.  Mostly.

Note: There are no prizes.  If you are only in it for the prizes you will be sorely disappointed.

Michelle has a very busy week this week with editing photos from multiple gigs, friends coming into town and going to see a big concert and who knows what else is on her list.  She’s busy.  So her mom’s doing us a favor by keeping Kira so Michelle can do everything she needs to do and I don’t have to take time off work or get bombarded by stuff when I get home.

Of couse this means that we can do whatever we want without fear of waking Kira up or that she will wake up in the middle of the night.  I stayed up till almost midnight last night playing a game without headphones.  It was awesome.

But I do miss her and it hasn’t even been 24 hours since she left (however it has been over 24 hours since I last saw her).  The way she smiles at me every day when I come home makes everything worthwhile.  *sigh*

Well, better make the best of it.  As I understand it, I believe the lawn has my name on it tonight.  *sigh*

Oh well… there’s always tomorrow I suppose.

That is what we will probably end up doing.  However, that’s not the trip I want to take.

Here’s the trip I would love to be able to take some day… preferably in the fall.  I’d fly to Maine, maybe Bangor since that is where a lot of Stephen King books took place, and rent a nice comfortable car.  Then head north to Quebec and see that just because.  Then head south down through Vermont and New Hampshire to get to Boston and have some Clam Chowder.  That would rock.

We’d head west then and in to Pennsylvania to see a true national landmark: Hershey!  Tour the facilities and ride the rides at the park.  Then drive through Pittsburgh just to mark it off the map on our way to Sandusky, OH to visit Cedar Point where more roller coasters and other various rides would be ridden till I was hoarse from screaming like a little girl.  We would head west again towards Chicago and stay with our friends there for a night.  Off again after breakfast we’d head north through Madison, WI and stop in at the Mall of America near Minneapolis.  I’ve been there but Michelle hasn’t.

We could then head southwest a little towards Sioux Falls and head to the Badlands via Hwy 90.  That place is very cool but I haven’t been there since I was little.  After a few pictures we would continue on 90 to Billings, Montana and then through the skinny part of Idaho and into Spokane, WA.  Since we are that close we would probably spend a night in Seattle and then stop in Olympia to see Yoshi and Meesh.  We could then take Hwy 5 south to Portland and visit Katie and then continue on to California  probably splitting off to 199 at Grants Pass to get to the coastal highway.

All the way to San Francisco to spend a night or two sightseeing and then back on the 101 to go through Los Angeles and then stop in San Diego.  For fun we could go an hour out of our way to cross the border into Tiajuana for a beer and trinkets and then find our way back across to Hwy 8 and take that to Tucson, AZ.  Off again and into Texas we would pass through El Paso and head southeast to San Antonio and then Houston on our way to New Orleans in Louisiana.

We would pass through Gulfport, Mississippi and Mobile, Alabama and travel the length of the Florida pan-handle to get to Jacksonville where we would steer that poor mistreated rental due north.  We could take Hwy 95 to Savannah, GA and then continue on… maybe go to Charleston… maybe not.  It looks kind of out of the way.  Probably just stay on 95 to Raleigh in North Carolina and then off to the coast again.  I’m thinking Virginia Beach.

Then based on the map it looks like there is a bridge that will take you on to this strange island or maybe it’s a peninsula called Delaware.  I’m not even sure that is part of the United States.  May need to have our passports there too.  Hehe.  Then up to Philadelphia as we re-enter Pennsylvania because the alternative is New Jersey and no one needs to see that.

If we had to return the car to Maine where we rented it then I suppose we would travel past New York City and maybe drive through Rhode Island because seriously… how long could that possibly take?  Perhaps stop in somwhere else for some clam chowder to wrap up the trip and back to the rental place and then to the airport.

I wonder how many miles that would be?

Da-da has been getting schooled in the new feeding which is completely different than the old feeding.  Now that Kira eats mostly the same food we do (with the exception of formula) her meals have become somewhat easier since she feeds herself most of the time but harder for Michelle because she has to pre-prepare foods in advance a lot of times.  Of course the threat of allergies to soy and milk are making that interesting but Michelle is doing an excellent job at figuring it all out.

I’m always a little apprehensive when I get to take care of Kira on my own with no help because I spend so little time with her comparatively.  But I don’t dread it at all because I get her all to myself during those times and I really do enjoy it.  There’s no way I could have figured out all the things that need to be done and am thankful that Michelle is there to show me what needs to be done ahead of time.

Kira is closing in on eleven months of age and she’s doing great.  She chatters like crazy and is close to mastering the ability to walk on her own.  She’s up to about seven or eight unassisted steps at this point without holding on to anything.  She also generally carrying a stuffed monkey half her size and stopping to squat down and pick up a pacifier along the way.

Usually when she sees one of the cats she starts saying “kih kih kih” over and over while she watches or reaches for them.  Last night she saw the orange cat come around the corner and said out loud “kih tuh” which amazed me.  We call all the cats ‘kitteh’ because we are like that and we can’t help it.  So her saying “kih tuh” was not just close – it was spot-on.  She’s a smart one.