Thanks to all of you Mamacita for tossing softballs asking some questions in my Interview with Basil’s Blog the questions and my answers are up and posted.

I’m posting this from the San Francisco Airport sitting on my butt that is sore not because I have been sitting here long, but because Mrs. G is always right. Not that I didn’t know this before, but it keeps coming back to haunt me each time she forecasts my future. You see she is my personal secretary. I don’t mean this is a derogatory manner, although we could play that boss secretary thing when I get home honey, but she keeps me on the path. She holds my wallet, and basically makes me stay a little more focused. Thursday night as I was talking about my itinerary, letting her know that I was having to get up extra early to get to the airport, her remark was “Yeah, you are either going to lose your wallet or miss your plane.”

That keeps ringing in my ears as I sit here looking at my wallet.

Yes, I was only 15 minutes early to check in and it seems that Frontier Airlines has decided to give someone else my seat that was to be used to nap before the trip home threw me into the lion’s den I call my children. In my defense, and not to be an excuse, I did call the front desk before I went out to the cocktail party, knowing that I might not be in the best shape to remember to call when I got to the room this morning. Yes, morning. It seems that I forgot that I’m a 42 year old man and I can’t go all day and all night like I used to when I was younger. To the people at the Hyatt in San Jose, I would next time actually like to get that wake up call. I realize that I was speaking English when I made the request, so next time if you don’t understand me, find someone that can.
You were right honey and I was wrong. There I said it. Can I have a nap when I get home?

To all of the Mommies at BlogHer, thanks for making me not lose my wallet. You guys must have called my wife, or did she call you and telll you to keep your eye on me?

Here at the BlogHer conference their is no shortage of Mommy Bloggers. I attended a few of the sessions but the one where I knew bloggers more than others were the Mommy Blogs. When they introduced themselves, it was great to put a face with a blog. I’ve found that I can introduce myself using my blog name. I have used my real name when shaking hands and when it comes around to telling each other what our blogs are, they have the look of realizationcome over them. The mommies are plentiful, but us daddy bloggers are far and few between. I’m getting ready for the afternoon sessions such a business blogging and talking about sex. Guess which one I’m attending?

It started early this morning and I finally made it.  I had a car ride to the airport an airplane ride to San Fran and a long train ride to San Jose, and then a bus ride to the hotel.  I pretty much covered all avenues of travel except maybe skateboard and bicycle.

So on the train ride listening to some AC/DC, I couldn’t help but notice the man sitting next to me had his fly open and let’s just say he was wearing tighty whities.  So how do you tell another man on a bus that he is showing the world his choice of boxers of briefs?  You could do it like I did and not say a word!  He was on the phone and speaking in a language I was not familiar with and it was an aisian dialect, and I’m not sure that telling himhis horse was about to leave the barn would have helped.  When I got off the train and he stood, I motioned towards my crotch and he scowled somewhat, and then realized that I was not trying to pick him up but was only trying to eliminate a bad situation for him since a group of ladies just got on the train for the next stop.  He smiled and fixed his zipper and we had a moment of international language that made me smile a little.

They didn’t teach California geography in my day.  I didn’t realize how far the San Francisco airport is from San Jose.  I though it would be a moderate ride on the BART to get from point A to point B.  Apparently, my intelligence was flawed.  I take a very short BART ride to a train station and then ride the train to San Jose.  Total travel time?  Longer than it will take me to fly from Denver to San Francisco!  Good thing I got that good airfare into SFO huh?

For any of you that are going to BlogHer 06, look for me.  I will be the one with the dunce cap on.  Unless of course I leave it on the train, then I will be the one with Crown Royal in his hand.

Pull out your number 2 pencils and put all of your materials under your seats, we have a little pop math quiz.

Here is the first question:

1.  If you have two chocolate chip cookies and three children.  Who gets to eat the cookies?

2.  It takes 30 minutes to give four children a bath and it is 12:30 p.m. in Denver (MST).  You have to be at a birthday party at 1:30 p.m.  When do you start giving the children their baths.

3.  Your wife has not had her period in 29 days, and she normally is like clockwork but is now at least three days late.  At what point and on what day do you begin to panic?

For those of you that get all three questions correct, I might share a cookie!

In 1984, I had decided to discontinue what was left of my football career, when I couldn’t pick myself up after the last hit.  I had plenty of high speed collisions as a 5-10 (Ha! That’s what the program listed) 185 pound QB and over the 13 years of playing the game, I knew it was time to hang them up or leave a good looking corpse.  So goes the fame and fortune of a dreaming 8 year old.

It was this year that another small QB was making a splash in Division 1 College Football.  The Eagles of Boston College had their “Little General” by the name of Doug Flutie.  Flutie was the Heisman Trophy Winner in 1984, giving the rest of us “Little Generals” a hero to cheer.  Many have seen his “Hail Mary” pass to win the game against Bernie Kosar and the dreaded Miami Hurricanes.  That play could go down in history as the coolest play ever.

After college Doug Flutie was drafted into a new league called the USFL.  The team that drafted him was the New Jersey Generals, a fitting mascot for the little QB.  I can remember watching him play against the Denver Gold wishing I too could have made a couple of plays in the big game.  After leaving the USFL in 1986, he joined the NFL where he was touted as being far too small to play a position such as Quaterback for the likes of the Chicago Bears and the New England Patriots.  This lead to a very rewarding career in the Canadian Football League.  He won the sister game to the NFL’s Superbowl and was named MVP in that game on more than one occasion.  He later came back to be a star in the NFL and ended his career in New England.

I look up to him not only as a star football player, but as a father as well.  Flutie has two children along with his High School sweetheart Laurie. Their children are a daughter Alexa and a son, Doug, Jr.  Many people know that Doug, Jr. was diagnosed at the age of three with a rare form of autism called Childhood Disintegrative Disorder.  Flutie has set up the Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism and has helped raise over 7 million dollars for the cause.

An inspiration to many of us small wannabe types, Flutie is definitely a Genuine Daddy. Now I only have Fantasy Football to fall back on, and those days in college seem like a mere fantasy, or is it a nightmare, I forget!  Must be all those head injuries.  Put me in coach.

It always seems that we are searching for alternatives.  An alternative to our current life.  We look for better jobs, better homes, we want that better car, or better this and that.  The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.  I have been wondering lately about alternatives.  What would I do differently or what would I do better?  Should I get a better house, maybe a better job, or maybe a better remote control for the TV, you know important stuff.

Often we concentrate so hard on the other side of the fence we let our own grass get kind of brown and weedy, and then we strive even more to get to the other side of the fence only to find that beyond that fence is just another fence.  I know what your saying, “Genuine is getting way too deep for a Daddy Blogger.” 

This might be true of course, but I woke last night in the middle of the night realizing that since I worked a 13 hour day,  I was unable to enjoy the company of my children and wife, and I felt horrible.  Not that I don’t mind the quiet and peace that comes from being away from them, because every parent needs a break now and then.  I missed the little things, like finding out what they did yesterday, and what stories that they had to tell.  I missed watching them pick on each other, and I missed the toddler trying to keep up with the older children all the while the baby trying to watch every move of the toddler.

I’m not sure of the alternatives in the other parts of my life, but I am certain that my family is not a negotiable item.  I could choose an alternative lifestyle being away from my family and traveling and making lots of money and supporting my kids and their needs, but I can’t give up the quality time.  I guess I need to start weeding and watering my own lawn and stop looking over the fence for now.  Although it would be nice to have that new car. Oh look, something shiny!

He was a lovely likeable and cuddly little boy.  He always had a gleam in his eye and a precious grin he shared with anyone willing to look his way.  He was very easy going and nothing bothered him much.  He could play by himself for hours while the rest of the world slowly drifted through his existence.  Then came the July 4 holiday and the world changed with the firing of a single rocket.  War had been declared.

Like a switch had been thrown, the terrible twos began with a fervor.  His gleam and grin had been replaced by a scowl and a harsh look.  Now everything that occurs is a mountain instead of a molehill.  He needs constant attention and nurturing.  He must be the center of Mommy and Daddy’s universe and if not he only knows to communicate in a screeching howl that causes Daddy’s fillings to fall out.  He has no concept of sharing and patience is not a virtue when he wants to be fed, changed or entertained.

I have searched for the switch to see if there is a reset button but alas, I think we are in for the long way around to learning just as we were with the first two children.  We have only one more of these terrible twos to withstand, and when we finally get past that hurdle, suddenly puberty begins and I will be wondering what happened to those moments of terrible twos.

According to Genuine Boy, this is called “Pirates of the Care Bears.”   Who am I to argue?