or I could have called this, “Why Jason is driving me to drink.” Actually, I wanted to write an entry about Jason and drinking last week, and today I feel compelled to write about the futility of spanking.
Which is a good thing, if you’re at all progressively minded in this area. Still, sometimes I am just grateful that I am just spanking instead of what I feel like doing: throwing him off the second floor balconey via a plate glass window. Luckily we have no plate glass windows here … and on and on I go.
Still Jason has always had this figured out. The first time he was ever spanked or perhaps just smacked or perhaps it was an angry love tap for all I know, he turned around and said, “Do it again, do it harder.” And today was no exception. He asked me to do it 1 million times, and I said “OK” and got to 50 before I gave up. Luckily I didn’t really want to do it, and we were able to get on with his piano lesson and he promised that he will try to play middle C with the correct finger from now on (just kidding).
You know, I don’t really believe in spanking. Why threaten your kids with physical punishment where there are so many other mean things to threaten them with which don’t leave any marks. There’s the “stand in the corner for 10 minutes without moving” or “you will not get an ice cream after dinner” or the most effective one we have ever had: “You may not go out to play with your friends for 10 minutes.” Imagine if things got really ugly and we told them, “No playing in the neighborhood tonight!”
Today, for example, Sue and I went out to see our first movie since arriving in London. We saw An Inconvenient Truth and it was better than I expected and I had high expectations. It was only £17 for a matinee for the two of us! Easily manipulated by clever directors, luckily I was able to wipe away the tears before anybody noticed. When we got home, the kids were looking out the window, three of their friends were sitting on the brick wall in front of the house, and it turns out the kids and their friends were all waiting until we got home so they could come out to play. Mind-boggling is the only way to put it.
Speaking of mind-boggling, I just saw that movie today and last night I picked up the following book from a great GREAT book store in London called Foyles (I think). My tax guy from the US was visiting last week and he went to the store to get gift certificates for the kids, and we all went down there yesterday to check it out. Fantastic. Thanks Neil!
Oh, so the book: The Bottomless Well: The twilight of fuel, the virtue of waste, and why we will never run out of energy. I picked it up without reading any reviews at amazon because it seemed rather interesting. I’ll let you know if it doesn’t suck, and if you already know that it sucks, drop me a comment to let me know.
Lately things have been a little dramatic for me. I finally decided to get my hair cut so I went to a really cheap place in Swiss Cottage. I got a nice lady from Turkey to cut my hair and I told her what usually goes wrong when people cut my hair. She made a valiant effort but when I got home Sue said: “That is a really bad hair cut.” She didn’t just say it once, either, more like every time I walked by her. Reminded me of the time I got my hair cut back in the old Sun days and when I showed up back at the office, Lisa said, “What the hell happened to you?!” What had happened to me was simple: I got into an argument about politics with my hair cutter, and when I told him I didn’t think it was a good idea to let all the poor people just die, he said, “OK - you’re done, your hair cut is done.” I was so shocked I gave him a big tip and ran out of there as quickly as I could. I … I have said it before … but I really wish I were kidding.
So today I went to a local place and told them that I got a bad hair cut and can they please fix it? This time I got a very nice woman from France. I told her that something went wrong and I asked her to evaluate my haircut and tell me what she thought had happened and how she might fix it. (If only I did job interviews this well!) She hit the nails on their heads and I hired her on the spot! (Of course, I was already in her chair and frankly I think everyone was enjoying the story and the analysis by then …) We talked about the pros and cons of getting it cut super short (the bangs already were super short and there wasn’t a lot of room for adjustments) and in the end we decided just to fix the rest and not take it all down to a buzz. Still, I think that’s in my future, just once.
Anyway, I have pictures but they don’t do it justice. The before picture doesn’t look that bad and the after picture doesn’t look all that different - but trust me on this one … When we were done I said, “I look like George Clooney from the hair up!”
So what happens when you drop a knife on the kitchen floor and just hear a single thud? Dad runs upstairs to get the camera!
These are supposed to be hard wood floors but that is a butter knife!!!!!!!!!!! This explains all the marks all over the floor. It’s a shame. This house was redone nicely inside, but they went with cheap stuff (probably quite expensive, but cheap quality).
I think Sue is working on an entry with lots of nice pictures so do be sure to read that one, will you?