Sacramento Parent Magazine

Not much going on this past week.  Work was it’s regular drudgery and it was the kids last week of school before spring break.  The days dragged on…baseball practice, dance practice, dishes, laundry, carpool, homework, etc…regular stuff and no amusing story to share. By Friday I became grouchy about my blogger block and that only made it worse.

On Saturday morning we went to the boy’s baseball game which, except for my sunburn, was uneventful. Then yard work filled the afternoon with perspiration and no blog inspiration.  Then my daughter says, “Hey Dad, think it’s warm enough to go in the pool?”  ”Good question, what’s the water temperature, Baby?” I replied. (In the spirit of full disclosure, we have a solar thingy on the roof. With a little effort and warm weather it’s not uncommon to begin the pool season in March.)

The thermometer read 81 degrees and I cried, “POOL TIME!”  We shot inside the house like being fired from a gun, quickly returning in swimsuits and cannon balled into the deep end.  The water wasn’t the upper 80’s temperature that I like, but after a long week, it was perfect for the first dip of the year.  We had a great time splashing about for the next hour or so and the past week became a distant memory.

My wife soon appears with fruity beverages and I say, “Ya know it’s impossible to stay grouchy while in the pool.”  She smiles and says, “Did you find your blog yet?”  (She knows me too well!)

“Yeah, it was in the pool…”

In his book, The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan defines a meme as “a unit of memorable cultural information”.  Here’s a meme I picked up from a friend’s blog; coincidentally, the same friend recently sat next to Michael Pollan at a dinner party.  I look forward to using this meme to interview my children one day soon.  No doubt their answers will be memorable. 

Just an idea for you dads out there - interview your children about their mom and present their answers to mom on Mother’s Day.  I know that such a gift that would melt my heart. Of course, sitting next to Michael Pollan at dinner would make a wonderful gift too - I wonder if he has any plans for Mother’s Day.

1. What is something your mom always says to you?

22. Where is your mom’s favorite place to go?

Last weekend my boy, Sam, and I went to 9am baseball practice on a cloudy cool Sunday morning. As the boy ran for the field, I sat in a spot so that I could see him wherever he was, but I could still make like I was buried in my newspaper.

After warm-ups and infield drills the coach has the boys line up by third base and announces that they are going to do a drill called ‘get on your horse’.  In this drill, a ball is hit up into foul territory behind third base and the boy are to turn around, ‘get on your horse’ and run back to catch the pop-up.

As each a boy takes his spot on the field, the coach bellows, “OK son, what’s the name of your horse?” Replies are “George”, “trigger”, “A-rod”, “Rhino”, etc… Lots of giggling and not many pop-ups caught.

My boy steps up to the spot and the coach yells, “OK son, what’s the name of your horse?” Sam instantly replies, “Pantyhose!”  The whole place falls apart laughing and I don’t know whether to laugh or crawl under the stands.  Then I smile and think, ‘That’s MY boy!’ 

For the rest of the day, whenever it’s Sam’s turn to do anything, batting, fielding, base running,  a coach yells, “OK Pantyhose, you’re at first”, and then later, “Grab a bat, Pantyhose”, etc… How awesome is that!

Those coaches will never forget the day a horse named Pantyhose took the field!

A few months ago when Whole Foods opened in Roseville, I thought to myself, “Oh good!  Now I know where to go for some free trade chocolate.”  I never considered doing my grocery shopping there, simply because I had heard and read how expensive Whole Foods could be. 

But after two recent trips to Whole Foods to do my grocery shopping, I have to disagree with the “Whole Paycheck” nickname some people have given Whole Foods.  I’m sure a person could spend their whole paycheck on many of the specialty items Whole Foods carries, but being the bulk buying, comparison shopping, deal hunting consumer that I am, I found that I was able to shop within my budget.  Our family has made the commitment to rid our diets of genetically engineered, highly processed food and eat more local, organic and well, whole food.  I’m happy to report that Whole Foods fits our bill and our budget.

Not only am I satisfied with the selection and quality of Whole Foods, I’m impressed with their customer service.  They have a special program for kids - kids can sign up for a ”member card”, then each time they go to Whole Foods they can present the card at the customer service counter and receive a snack.  A mom-approved snack - fruit leather, applesauce or granola bar. 

Another incentive I appreciate is the bag credit if you bring your own bags.  For each bag you bring, you receive 5 cents.  You can either apply the credit to your grocery bill, or donate the credit to charity.  In favor of acting local, we donated our bag credit to the Placer County SPCA.

In addition, every Tuesday morning there is a farmer’s market in the parking lot of Whole Foods.  So bring your kids and your cloth bags to Whole Foods in Roseville.  See you there!

I had lunch today with a good friend who is retired now. I don’t see her as much, but she comes back to where we worked about once a month for lunch and we chit-chat about what been going on in our lives (that’s my way of saying we gossip like school girls).

Today she told me that she got the chance to meet the ‘Jimboy’ of Jimboy’s Tacos.  While this brush with greatness seemed insignificant to me, it was very significant to her.  She told me a cute story of how it connected to a time when she would spend part of the summer at Lake Tahoe. While there, her mom would take her to this little roach coach operated this guy named Jim who made this new treat called a taco.  Clearly this was a very happy time in my friend’s life and I was a bit envious of that fun memory.

Anyway, she told me that she recently saw something in the paper about Jimboy’s 70^th wedding anniversary and that she sent him a letter and got to meet him and Mrs. Jimboy.  A delightful time of reminiscing was had by all at a local Jimboy’s restaurant (where else would you expect?).

This happy story got me to thinking about connections with childhood.  All too often we think about negative connotations about being a kid and we don’t spend much time recalling the fond connections of being young and innocent.

My wife and I grew up on the east coast, all of our family is still there and when we go back for a visit we always end up with my mom at this little Italian sub shop.  As soon as we walk inside, my mind rushes back to a place that was less full of ‘stuff’ and more full of ‘life’.

I sometimes wonder what happy connections my kids will have made when they look back on being their childhood.  Will it be the new pajamas they get each Christmas Eve?  Or maybe it’s eating orange chicken on Thursday nights. Or maybe what’s known at our house as the “nine o’clock strip and dip”. (This is a practice that is used on those hottest days in august when its too hot to go in the pool during the day, so  we wait until the sun goes down and we turn off all the outside lights, run to the pool, strip off….(enough said)).  Or just maybe it’s that Wal-Mart in Valencia we always seem to stop at on our way to southern California.  The one when I’ve had it with the kids, and our SUV comes to a screeching halt into the parking lot and I yell “Get in there and pick out a new DVD!” Hoping they will pipe down for the last part of that long drive.

We really should spend more time thinking and sharing the fond connections of childhood.  Just thinking about it has put me in a much better mood!

What things connect you to a fond memory of being a kid?

My son and I have been counting to ten a lot lately.  No, we don’t have anger problems.  We aren’t counting ourselves down from the brink of a temper tantrum.  We are counting chicks.

Ten little baby chicks.  Our new pets.  In just two weeks they have doubled in size and taken up residence in our hearts.  We count them often just to make sure they’re all there. 

We can’t wait to start counting their eggs later this summer, but don’t worry - we won’t count our eggs before they hatch. 

Most days I call my nine year old daughter “Sugar”, “Sweetie”, “Baby”, etc…and most days she loves it and giggles with delight.  It’s a special thing between her and I and I love to hear the sound coming from her.

Today I got my very first e-mail from my mom!  Grandma Jano has stepped into the electronic age…Hurray!  She told me about a the snowstorm that they are having back in New Hampshire and how my 96yr old Nana was doing (my mom and I talk on the phone every week or so, which keeps me in good standing as a good son).

She ended her mail by saying, ‘I love you King-Kong, make sure you behave!’…I giggled with delight…all 250+ Lbs and 42 years of me, like a nine year old schoolgirl. Some things will never change…

When I was in third grade, I had a red Tupperware lunchbox. This was because my mom was a Tupperware lady. I used it for a few weeks, then begged my mom to pack my lunch in brown bags. This was because I wanted to be like everyone else, and no one else had a Tupperware lunchbox.

Tupperware today is not what it used to be when I was a kid; gone are the bright red, yellow and avocado green plastic containers we grew up with. I don’t even know if Tupperware still makes a lunchbox. So I was pretty excited today at the thrift store when I found a yellow lunchbox just like the red lunchbox I had when I was a kid. I’m not sure that my husband will be excited come Monday morning when I pack his lunch in the “new”, old lunchbox. Maybe I should get some brown bags just in case. I wouldn’t want anyone making fun of him.