Oh, 20 Questions Tuesday, where would I be without you. Today’s topic is all about the single parenting whilst Wifey is in Nova Scotia. I would wax eloquent more about this but we are only on day 3 or 7 and I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I have thought that I should write a post this Friday and Saturday as well so you can see my Little Man forced descent into madness, but then I thought about how much effort that would take and how much effort I have to give. Those levels didn’t match.
Anyway, thanks this week go to Nancy at Blog Pourri, Bomber of no known affiliated blog, Allrileyedup from the redundantly named All Rileyed Up, and Themikestand at Speak into the Mike.
On to the questions:
1. How many real chores will you aspire to do? How many will get done?
Hmmm, I will aspire to do quite many, but most likely I will only be able to get the living room/dining room picked up and keep the dishes in relatively good order, but I am not making any promises here.
2. Take out? What’s the fave?
I love Chinese take out, but there is such a high probability of peanut cross contamination with Chinese food that we tend to stay away from it. The closest thing to take out that we will most likely have this week will be Wendy’s Chili acquired from the drive-through.
3. Boredom busters….before and after Little Man goes to bed.
He is always up for a good showing of The Upside Down Show from the DVR. I also randomly tackle Little Man and wrestle with him on the floor. That tends to end the boredom pretty quickly. As for after he goes to bed, there are the post Little Man chores that need to be done and I have popped in some of the Star Wars DVD’s to pass the time late at night.
4. How much time will you REALLY waste on the computer?
Define “waste.”
5. Will you cut his finger nails and toe nails? Is that your job?
This is typically Wifey’s job. I honestly am in awe of her ability to trim the keratin. If he has some egregiously long/snaggly nails I will attempt to trim them.
6. Typical bachelor day for the two of you…both the ‘fun fun fun on the go really cool kind’ and also the lazy-arse in jammies all day kind
I more like the lazy arse days, but Little Man likes to go to at least one fun place.
7. What kinds of crafts will you do? Will you show us pics?
He might want to paint some, but that is about as crafty as I will get with him. Sadly there will be no pics.
8. What will be the popular dinner of choice this week - McD's, Burger King, orange rice? What else is on the dinner menu now that you don't have the prying, judgy eyes of Wifey in the kitchen every night?
My bet is that Burger King wins out over McDonald’s. So far we have made pizza and orange rice. Tonight is a Taco night and Wednesday is to be a “left-over” night. On Friday or Saturday there is a good chance of California Pizza Kitchen.
9. Give an estimate in percentages - how much do you think Little Man's TV watching will increase during Wifey's absence?
10% but he has not been that interested in the TV as of late. It has been really nice.
10. If Mary Poppins were to descend upon your household this week to provide full-time assistance, which task would you be most grateful for her assistance with? *I'm not sure that's grammatically correct, but you get my drift...
The bath or taking him to the rail road crossing. That is a chore and a half.
11. Do you and Wifey have any little traditions/send offs you do for each other before one of you departs for a trip without the other?
No we don’t but I think we will need to since her vocation seems to be sending her to 3, 4, and 5 day events elsewheres.
12. How many times a day will you talk to Wifey? Will Little Man speak to her over the phone while she's gone?
Probably around 2 times a day. I wish it were more often. I always forget how often I talk with her during the day. If Little Man is willing to talk with her, he will, but sometimes he is not about the phone. Last night he asked her if she was still on the plane and then told her that he helped make some orange rice.
13. What is the origin of the phrase 'when the cat's away the mice can play'?
It is code. Serfs couldn’t talk about how lazy they were going to be when the Lord of the estate was away, so they talked about cat’s and mice because Lords were idiots and did not understand metaphor. In short what I meant to type was, “I don’t know.”
14. Who has a harder time with Wifey being gone, you or Little Man?
I tend to miss Wifey more than Little Man misses her, mainly because she is an adult and I need adult interaction. Little Man is not an adult and his conversations are difficult to parse sometimes and usually about trains.
15. Who is more easy going with the movie options for Little Man (ie, are you letting him watch movies Wifey would other wise un-allow?)
Not really. He is not that into movies right now. 30 minutes seems to be about his TV attention span, and even then that is pushing it.
16. Your life compared to Mr. Mom. Similarities? Differences?
Both Michael Keaton I went to Kent State, so we have that going for us. I am holding down a job outside the house, so there is a difference. I am also not wrangling 3 kids. My hair line seems to be about the same as Michael Keaton’s though…
17. Will Wifey come to a home that is cleaner than/dirtier than/the same as when she left it?
I hope it will be just about the same, but there is a good chance it will be worse.
18. How have you rearranged your work schedule to adjust to your new Daddy on Duty status? (read: Have you made up excuses so that you can leave the office at 2:30 every afternoon?)
I am getting in late and leaving early, or what I like to call the “PhD schedule.”
19. What will be the first thing that Little Man wants to tell his mother about when she returns? And what are the chances you'll have to bribe him so that he doesn't tell her something terribly incriminating about you?
It will most likely be about the last train he saw at the local train track crossing gate. The worst thing that I do while Wifey is gone is feed Little Man’s root beer habit.
20. How many train movies will you watch on YouTube before the week is out? 10-50, 51-100, or over 100?
So far I have not had to watch any. I have, however, seen 5 trains at the Weber Road crossing gate. 3 were waiting by the tracks in a car and 2 were by dragging Little Man from our house in his new wagon.
Bonus Question 21: Name one thing you would have liked to do if you and Little Man had the chance to tag along with Wifey on the trip.
Hung out with themikestand, duh! Little Man would have loved to see the container operations going on with the port facilities. I imagine we would have to pry him away from watching trains with a crowbar.
To recap:
Little Man is testing boundaries this time around
Wow, is he testing them
A bunch
I have tons of work I need to get done that I am avoiding
I am also sleeping like crap
I need to buy some faux Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheese for the taco extravaganza we are enjoying tonight
My work desk needs cleaned pretty badly
So does my computer desk at home
Hey, wait so does the bed-room
And the kitchen…
There seems to be a trend going on here
I imagine that tomorrow’s post will be even more of a descent into madness
Much like Brando in Apocalypse Now
Except I don’t have a private army or the rank of Colonel
Noggin and Nick Jr are flipping morons for not renewing (read the news post from June 1, 2007) The Upside Down Show
Anyway, thanks this week go to Nancy at Blog Pourri, Bomber of no known affiliated blog, Allrileyedup from the redundantly named All Rileyed Up, and Themikestand at Speak into the Mike.
On to the questions:
1. How many real chores will you aspire to do? How many will get done?
Hmmm, I will aspire to do quite many, but most likely I will only be able to get the living room/dining room picked up and keep the dishes in relatively good order, but I am not making any promises here.
2. Take out? What’s the fave?
I love Chinese take out, but there is such a high probability of peanut cross contamination with Chinese food that we tend to stay away from it. The closest thing to take out that we will most likely have this week will be Wendy’s Chili acquired from the drive-through.
3. Boredom busters….before and after Little Man goes to bed.
He is always up for a good showing of The Upside Down Show from the DVR. I also randomly tackle Little Man and wrestle with him on the floor. That tends to end the boredom pretty quickly. As for after he goes to bed, there are the post Little Man chores that need to be done and I have popped in some of the Star Wars DVD’s to pass the time late at night.
4. How much time will you REALLY waste on the computer?
Define “waste.”
5. Will you cut his finger nails and toe nails? Is that your job?
This is typically Wifey’s job. I honestly am in awe of her ability to trim the keratin. If he has some egregiously long/snaggly nails I will attempt to trim them.
6. Typical bachelor day for the two of you…both the ‘fun fun fun on the go really cool kind’ and also the lazy-arse in jammies all day kind
I more like the lazy arse days, but Little Man likes to go to at least one fun place.
7. What kinds of crafts will you do? Will you show us pics?
He might want to paint some, but that is about as crafty as I will get with him. Sadly there will be no pics.
8. What will be the popular dinner of choice this week - McD's, Burger King, orange rice? What else is on the dinner menu now that you don't have the prying, judgy eyes of Wifey in the kitchen every night?
My bet is that Burger King wins out over McDonald’s. So far we have made pizza and orange rice. Tonight is a Taco night and Wednesday is to be a “left-over” night. On Friday or Saturday there is a good chance of California Pizza Kitchen.
9. Give an estimate in percentages - how much do you think Little Man's TV watching will increase during Wifey's absence?
10% but he has not been that interested in the TV as of late. It has been really nice.
10. If Mary Poppins were to descend upon your household this week to provide full-time assistance, which task would you be most grateful for her assistance with? *I'm not sure that's grammatically correct, but you get my drift...
The bath or taking him to the rail road crossing. That is a chore and a half.
11. Do you and Wifey have any little traditions/send offs you do for each other before one of you departs for a trip without the other?
No we don’t but I think we will need to since her vocation seems to be sending her to 3, 4, and 5 day events elsewheres.
12. How many times a day will you talk to Wifey? Will Little Man speak to her over the phone while she's gone?
Probably around 2 times a day. I wish it were more often. I always forget how often I talk with her during the day. If Little Man is willing to talk with her, he will, but sometimes he is not about the phone. Last night he asked her if she was still on the plane and then told her that he helped make some orange rice.
13. What is the origin of the phrase 'when the cat's away the mice can play'?
It is code. Serfs couldn’t talk about how lazy they were going to be when the Lord of the estate was away, so they talked about cat’s and mice because Lords were idiots and did not understand metaphor. In short what I meant to type was, “I don’t know.”
14. Who has a harder time with Wifey being gone, you or Little Man?
I tend to miss Wifey more than Little Man misses her, mainly because she is an adult and I need adult interaction. Little Man is not an adult and his conversations are difficult to parse sometimes and usually about trains.
15. Who is more easy going with the movie options for Little Man (ie, are you letting him watch movies Wifey would other wise un-allow?)
Not really. He is not that into movies right now. 30 minutes seems to be about his TV attention span, and even then that is pushing it.
16. Your life compared to Mr. Mom. Similarities? Differences?
Both Michael Keaton I went to Kent State, so we have that going for us. I am holding down a job outside the house, so there is a difference. I am also not wrangling 3 kids. My hair line seems to be about the same as Michael Keaton’s though…
17. Will Wifey come to a home that is cleaner than/dirtier than/the same as when she left it?
I hope it will be just about the same, but there is a good chance it will be worse.
18. How have you rearranged your work schedule to adjust to your new Daddy on Duty status? (read: Have you made up excuses so that you can leave the office at 2:30 every afternoon?)
I am getting in late and leaving early, or what I like to call the “PhD schedule.”
19. What will be the first thing that Little Man wants to tell his mother about when she returns? And what are the chances you'll have to bribe him so that he doesn't tell her something terribly incriminating about you?
It will most likely be about the last train he saw at the local train track crossing gate. The worst thing that I do while Wifey is gone is feed Little Man’s root beer habit.
20. How many train movies will you watch on YouTube before the week is out? 10-50, 51-100, or over 100?
So far I have not had to watch any. I have, however, seen 5 trains at the Weber Road crossing gate. 3 were waiting by the tracks in a car and 2 were by dragging Little Man from our house in his new wagon.
Bonus Question 21: Name one thing you would have liked to do if you and Little Man had the chance to tag along with Wifey on the trip.
Hung out with themikestand, duh! Little Man would have loved to see the container operations going on with the port facilities. I imagine we would have to pry him away from watching trains with a crowbar.
To recap:
Little Man is testing boundaries this time around
Wow, is he testing them
A bunch
I have tons of work I need to get done that I am avoiding
I am also sleeping like crap
I need to buy some faux Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheese for the taco extravaganza we are enjoying tonight
My work desk needs cleaned pretty badly
So does my computer desk at home
Hey, wait so does the bed-room
And the kitchen…
There seems to be a trend going on here
I imagine that tomorrow’s post will be even more of a descent into madness
Much like Brando in Apocalypse Now
Except I don’t have a private army or the rank of Colonel
Noggin and Nick Jr are flipping morons for not renewing (read the news post from June 1, 2007) The Upside Down Show