hey, look at what i can do

3. everythings better in 3s. especially my daughter's age

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:29:00 +0000

that's right. calli turned 3 this past friday and we celebrated on saturday. i know, and i'm sorry. i should have invited all of you but we could barely fit the 44 friends, family, toddlers & strangers that arrived sans rsvp. anyway, the "green" party (and i don't mean that in the nader sense of the word) went off brilliantly.

lots of gifts---check.
lots of cake---check.
lots of green---check.
lots of overstayed welcomes---check.

nonetheless, calli loved everything and everyone.

now that she's actually "getting things" we are enjoying these times as parents that much more. we are so looking forward to all future celebratory holidays... christmas, easter & mlk's b-day.

enjoy the pics.

this is quite tragic i know, but who's counting? oh yeah... me.

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 05:25:00 +0000

it seems as though i've been reduced to nothing more than a once a month(ish) blogger with nothing of substance beyond an apology for not having anything of substance or any time to write. we all know that's a load of shit and i'm become that person who turns on the computer to check email then quickly escaping back to the couch so as not to miss any of the current episode of "i love money" or "no reservations" or whatever reality crap-show that has me hooked at the moment. when really, i should quit acting like a little bitch and go back to the reason i started this thing in the first place. my daughter. if nothing else, she deserves it! i mean, for christ's sake, she is now potty trained, going to dance class and speaking so clearly that she has become the child that anyone with an almost 3 year old would be jealous of. but how would you know any of that? it's not like i'm catching any of this on film to show the world. like any good father would. fuck, i don't even know if flickr would still recognize my login and password if i tried. so this will be my attempt to use the balls i have and step up to the plate and get this going again. at least till i hit post #100. hell, it's only 7 away. so i say to myself-- why not? and i answer-- because i'm fucking tired. tired from working two jobs, semi-raising a kid and trying to open a restaurant. it's quite tragic i know, but who's counting? oh yeah... me.

# 100... here i come!

ummm... let's see... what have i've been up to? (this one's for pg)

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 14:21:00 +0000

it's been a bit frustrating lately. i've been putting in quite a few hours and with the lack of results it has yielded, i kind of feel like this is all i've been doing...

yeah well...

thanks be to pg for the swift kick in the ass he sent my way letting me know, that i do still have a blog. albeit a very sad and dust laden blog, i do in fact have one.

so i leave you with yet another empty promise of more posts filled with incredible insights that will change life as you know it. i'm sure many of you will be holding your breath-on the edge of your seat-while wiping the beads of sweat from your brow as you wait for my next words of wisdom.

until then...

an attempt to save cyberface...

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:07:00 +0000

excuse the cloud. that's not smoke from your motherboard but rather the dust from my blog. anyway, i just wanted to check in with my readership of 6 and let you few know that i'm not dead or pissed off or whatever rumors are floating around about me and my lack of a blog. without my ass in a cubicle chair for 8hrs a day i have found that keeping up with anything "interwebs" other than life sustaining emails have proven practically impossible. but what kind of excuse is that right?

really though, i quit my day job to pursue a passion and i have to say it's moving along quite nicely. i have had to put my head down and just move forward while a serious busta rhymes' playmix pushes me along. i wish i could give more insight but for now all i can divulge is that jp's kicking out some killer logos and we hired the most amazing chef. i have high hopes of creating a blog to accompany this endeavor but don't hold your breath.

i just don't want the parent blog world to think i haven't been thinking about you guys or that i don't have a daughter any longer or any such nonsense. because i do and she is so 2.5 and crazy and i'm still reading you guys on the regular.

brian, i agree! apparently brian's family and ours share similar taste in eating establishments.

pg is still gettin' it done. nice work brother.

and come on, if you can get an f. scott reference in a post about your half naked boys in a sandbox you totally deserve props!

seriously, they take some of the best vacations. except THEY STILL OWE US A VISIT HERE IN AUSTIN. but really, who's keeping track?

need i say anything at about this guy and his ability to capture humor and emotion? by the way x, i think you might make a scary woman in the looks department.

and that's just to mention a few.

oh well.

life is like a box of... um... well... wet soggy potato chips. somehow the disturbing texture and off putting taste eventually becomes a craving if you eat enough of them enough days in a row.

19 june 2008

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:21:00 +0000

it's official, my ol'lady is now of proper age to wear that title with dignity. today she turns 31!

happy birthday honey!

i love you and i baked a cake!

thank you to all

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:46:00 +0000

this year's march for babies was a huge success and we had a great time. i want to take a moment to thank all the people who walked with us and to those who contributed. if you get a moment head over to my flickr page and check out the set from the walk.

great weekends=tolerable mondays

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Mon, 19 May 2008 15:09:00 +0000

for those of you who have experienced a texas summer you know how unbearable they can be. with that said, this weekend was one of the few that made you never want to go back in doors. so we did as much as we could out of doors.

saturday we hung out with fellow parent blogger and interwebs phenom jonathon morgan, his special lady friend and completely adorable daughter little e. the girls played with a new water toy calli just got and were very cute while the adults indulged in a bit of afternoon refreshment. not a bad way to spend a satruday.

on sunday, after taking calli to one of her favorite parks, we headed over to my sister's house to see the new deck she and her better half put in. the backyard looks great with the new deck and all the new landscaping they did. i was so impressed i fired up the grill and threw on some fajitas and whipped up a batch of killer mexican martinis. another successful day out of doors in central texas.

we know the non-100-degree-days are few and far between so we made sure we didn't let these couple pass us by. it made heading into monday not such a bad thing this week.

quality time in the backyard

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:42:00 +0000

we planted a small garden of watermelon and pumpkin in our backyard and now calli & i have a routine of watering the two. my favorite part of the day.

i'm sad to say...

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:42:00 +0000

...but my daughter has been diagnosed with an unfortunate syndrome that mostly affects the female gender. but unfortunately i think this may have been a genetically acquired disease. from. me. damnit.

sfs -- shoe fetish syndrome

sigh. sigh. sigh.

every morning when i'm getting her dressed all i hear is "conberse. conberse."

don't get me wrong, she has compiled quite the shoe arsenal which includes multiple pairs of vans several pairs of sketchers, sandals, etc... but the chuck t's rule her world.

i recently visited a palm reader and she kept repeating --jimmy and manolo and christian and choo and blahnik and louboutin -- i kept resisting and then i noticed this...

c'est la vie...

why is he only in his undies? & why do they sag so much?

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:34:00 +0000

another shift in life has given me free reign to run around the house wearing only saggy undies with holes in the seams, (because i'm a cheap ass and only want to spend money here) screaming like an 8 year old girl.

i have decided to go against my better judgement and quit my day job, go back to waiting tables full time(something i swore i'd never do again) and follow my passion. more on that at a later date .

the important thing here is that in 24 hours i'll rid myself of any daytime obligations and be able to spend as much time with calli as i please. if nothing else pans out from this decision, this extra time with my daughter makes it all worth while. the more time i spend with her the better my life seems to be. so i feel it's in my best interest to increase that time in every way possible.

so i bid the day job world farewell with a swift kick in the ass and a kiss on the cheek.

...and then there were tears

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:47:00 +0000

as much as i would like to say that title was for dramatic effect, sadly, it wasn't.

sunday marked another milestone in the life of one young callia frances.

she moved, without fuss or fight, from her crib to a new "big girl" bed. after throwing everything she could find into the bed, she promptly settled in much to our amazement. we were certain the process would take at least a week packed with raised voices, tears and many time outs but we were completely wrong. she loves it and tries to climb in it every chance she gets.

it really magnified the fact that our "baby" girl was quickly growing into a "little" girl. i felt sad to the point of tears while overwhelming proud at the same time. such mixed emotions constantly tear my heart out, rip it apart, then put it back in my chest with a severe ache. i guess it's good that it's a muscle because with each rip it repairs itself and rebuilds even bigger and strong than before.

i've said it in the past and it still makes me want to kick my own ass but the tired cliche is so right-- they grow up way too fast. if you don't stop to recognize and enjoy the now, it'll pass you in the blink of an eye. it's so incredibly difficult but i love the way she makes me set aside what i think is life to see what life really is.

you've got to be kidding me

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:22:00 +0000

it seems as though the days of calli running around in the buff may be over. she now knows how to put her pants back on! all by herself!

oh wait a minute...

that's only after she has removed her diaper-gotten poop everywhere-and then put her pj shorts back on but with both legs through one leg hole so it looks like a skirt!

i suppose this was her way of showing me that i should have gotten up to get her the first time i heard her cry out. by the time i made it to her, (at 7:15am) her bed looked like the aftermath of some major ww2 battle where the only invented form of artillery was crap.

it covered her. from knees to elbows to hands to feet and everything in between. and poor winnie the pooh. it looked as though he was blind sided. there's no way that little guy stood a chance.

so we went right to the tub with the kid and right to the washer with everything in a 3mile radius of her bed.

quite the wake up call and more evidence that she, indeed, still takes her clothes off.

i just wonder if she was trying to hide the whole thing by attempting to put her shorts back on.

and to think that some day she'll be a teen. i don't know that i have the strength for that.

and the father of the year award goes to...

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:17:00 +0000

holy shit! me!

i can't believe this.

i want to thank you all.

the hollywood foreign press--

my lovely wife--

my daughter...

speaking of my daughter, i could not have even been considered for this award without her.

what's that? of course i'll explain.

the other day i was getting ready for work and calli was in the bathroom with me. you see, she loves going into the water closet and pulling out all my heavy reading material (because that's where magazines are kept right? at least in our house. for obvious reasons.) and flinging them about the bathroom. that day she started this new game of going in and shutting the door. then i would call out--

"where's calli?"

and she'd pop out with an ear to ear grin.

--keep in mind i'm in the shower at this point--

i watch her head in for another round except this time the door handle attempts to turn but doesn't open. so i call again and still the same. fuck... she's locked herself in there. and of course i'm in the middle of the cleaning process, soap everywhere, water closet door handle furiously shaking, damn. i did what i could to get out quickly and went to the door. sure enough it was locked. i knocked on the door and she replied--

"who is it?"

"honey, it's daddy. try to turn the lock."

as if she knew what the hell i was talking about. at this point, i envision her reaching into the toilet and drinking from her hand. because that the kind of thing that kid would probably do.

we go back and forth for a couple of minutes and get nowhere. then i think to myself try a key dumbass. of course my keys were downstairs, not that i have a key to these doors but i was willing to try anything.

"calli... i'll be right back don't touch anything."

and again the handle jiggles. i can tell she's getting frustrated. after getting my keys i try to get one in and as expected they don't fit but luckily it only took a simple turn and the door came unlocked. she busted out smiling and laughing while i stood there in a towel, dripping wet, half soaped up, panting.

i'm thinking we may need to add another room onto the house just to display all my parenting awards.

i freaking love this job.

what's the deal with toddlers and taking off clothes?

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:48:00 +0000

easter dinner:

honey ham--check
potato salad--check
green beans--check
family--check
naked toddler--check

--wait a minute... what the cadbury cream egg is going on here?--

i shake my head and just ask why. i don't get it but for some reason calli has hit this "nakie-nakie" stage that i'd love for her to grow out of sooner than later.

she finished her dinner and wanted to go play. we had just sat down to eat so i was happy to get her own her way so we could enjoy a nice meal among adults. after pulling her out of the chair she promptly asked me to remove her clothes. i obliged not giving one thought to where this could possibiliy go. about four minutes later she came sauntering back to the table in nothing but calli. of course the group erupted in laughter only encouraging the behavior which made it that much harder to get her still so i could get something on her. when i finally pinned her down she flipped out.

--how in the hell could i expect her to live with clothes on? here, let me claw your eyes out.--

flip out.

of course she got over it in no time but really, i don't understand why she's loves having her clothes off. and frankly, from a dad standpoint, i don't like it one bit.

throwin' up the dooce

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:59:00 +0000

if this doesn't get you rollin' on the floor, you deserve to be miserable.

a daughter after her own dad's heart

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 02:22:00 +0000

i saw this photo my ol'lady snapped while i was at work and an extremely strong sense of pride washed over my tired body. only a dad could find such joy in a moment like this one.

if ya gotta itch... scratch that shit.

you get it girl. daddy loves you!

apperently my o'lady was on a roll with the camera and caught this wonderful shot of calli.

i know it's hard to believe these two pics are of the same little girl but i guess one of these is a fair representation of her mother and the other her father. you decide which is which.

3285ish days (13 march 1999 --- 13 march 2008)

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:54:00 +0000

my adorable wife,

our life together started many years ago and what i knew at the tender age of 14 could not have been truer. i wanted nothing more than to know who you were. i have come to find that learning who you are has told me more about the person i have become; a pleasurable, unexpected outcome. in an attempt to explain how you have helped me grow and shown me life i stumble. a situation foreign to me. you know me as never being at a loss for words but expressing exactly how a person like you makes a person like me feel comes harder than i would like. none-the-less, let me try.

when i look at our daughter, the entire world makes sense. i'm not sure that i'll ever know the exact question asked to me but i do know for certain that she is the answer. i look at her, and i get it. a strong sense of completeness. a feeling only you could have helped me achieve. for that i owe you everything. the constant state of awe that little girl puts me in makes life worth living, and again without you that would have never happend. outside of you and i maintaining our relationship, she stands as our greatest accomplishment to date. my proudest moment.

peaks and valleys seem to be the theme for many relationships and ours is certainly not immune to this. however, with that said, i think the tops of our peaks supremely tower over the depths of our deepest valleys. even though we may run across low times we always bounce back and grow immeasurably from them. it's a continuous learning process and we know the importance of not trying to figure everything out at once and laughing along the way.

i recently had a conversation with a guy at work and he wanted to know the opposite of home. i told him in a word it would be lost or discomfort. after i thought about that i realized that's how i feel about you.

for me...

... you're home.

happy 9th anniversary

your loving husband

a pirate, a pirate, a pirate says...

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 15:57:00 +0000

i knew the day couldn't be too far off where calli's random comments about the casual passer-by would begin to cause me humiliation and possibly force me to defend myself physically. well... those days are here.

austin's known for great family activities and recently the park downtown hosted it's annual kite festival. lots of fun, lots of people, lots of kites and apparently... pirates.

oh yeah, it doesn't take much where-with-all to see where this ones headed.

as we made our way back to the car this nice gentleman with an unfortunate need for an eyepatch passed us and calli, without hesitation blurted--

"a pirate! a pirate!"

holy shit run!

she's really been into pirates lately. no thanks to those fucking backyardigins. her obsession is generally pretty cute. the whole singing and crouching down to belt out a great arrrrgh. but this time not so much. thank god that poor guy didn't hear her declaration. we did all we could to stifle our laughter till we separated ourselves, but damn that was so funny.

dude is a total db (douche bag for those of you not in the know)

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 03:45:00 +0000

obviously i'm a dick and have no clue about etiquette.

when someone gives you props & mad love one should show gratification for the gesture.

so here i am showing my face, which happens to look exactly like my ass, and sending mucho thanks to my boy roth over at rfa.

this guy totally rocks & quite possibily the nicest blogger on the interwebz. give him a look-see & share the love.

roth... dude... thanks!

the funniest thing. ever.

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:37:00 +0000

we've all heard of "jesus juice". freakin' hilarious. leave it to someone like ol' mj to get branded with that one. go figure.

so, thanks to this wonderful addition to the english lexicon i have been able to piss my wife off by referring to her glass of wine as "mommy juice". for some reason she doesn't think this is as funny as i do. she's afraid it'll come out at the wrong time and she'll look like some kind of lush.

uh... honey... if the stemless bordeaux glass fits...

anyway, to get to the meat (no pun intended. you'll see what i mean later) of this story, calli ended up in our bed the other night. as you can see from the photo above, mama and daddy partook in a weeee bit too much of mama's "mommy juice" and didn't get around to ahem... uh... um... cleaning up their mess. once calli began her morning hoot and holler around our room in an effort to roust us out of bed she took notice of our night stand. she slowly crept toward one haphazardly discarded condom wrapper, picked it up and exclaimed-- "daddy medicine!"

and there you have it...

sugar and spice and everything nice

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:54:00 +0000

ok, so every parent experiences those moments. you know what i'm talking about. where your kid is either saying or doing something they shouldn't but all you can do is laugh. --i.e. picking nose and eating treasures found while in public or dropping the "f-bomb" at christmas dinner for the first time.-- you turn your head and try not to let them catch you because it just encourages the behavior but it never works and they continue because your response makes them laugh and then you laugh and then...

insert our precious, well behaved and oh so polite daughter.

calli has recently studied, dissected and perfected the way in which we spit when we brush our teeth. apparently it's a very dramatic moment and has drawn enough of her attention for her to remember and reenact it. the only problem is that she doesn't keep this in the bathroom. nor does she restrict it to the normal teeth brushing times of the day or night.

she likes to walk around the house and in a moment of complete randomness, stop, bend over slightly, clear her throat with steam engine force and then actually spit. i'm talking backwoods-overall wearing-hillbilly hawking. i have to commend her on her conviction to the moment because she doesn't even budge when the loog lands right atop her foot. she simply giggles and goes right back to her conversation with whatever version of potato head she has created.

it so funny we can't control ourselves.

to watch her stop without any prompting or cause or reason and deliver such a display, makes me wonder where her little mind is.

late night loneliness

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 08:09:00 +0000

my ol'lady and daughter went out of town last minute. it's just after 2am and i'm only now walking through the door. i worked tonight and then went to see james hand at the continental club. real singer/songwriters are impossible to find these days. he's a rare find and worth every tired moment i spent watching him.

i miss my daughter and wife. sleep is hard without them under my roof. i just want to be certain they're safe.

without my arms around each of them...

...i sleep restless.

i can hardly contain myself

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:50:00 +0000

starting next week i go part time at my day job. this means calli will also go part time at day care. which means more time with her during the day.

woohoo!

i miss all the time we spent together when i stayed home with her the first year. nothing could make me happier than finding more time to bond with my daughter. she means everything to me and spending more free time with her makes my life that much better.

the traveling gnome has been replaced

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:22:00 +0000

the ol'lady and i were kickin' around flickr the other day looking at entries for the word sophisticated and ran across this. pretty hilarious.

if you'll eat dog food, i'll give it to you

noreply@blogger.com (struglas) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:11:00 +0000

you always hear the stories of kids being finicky eaters--

"oh, you know little mikey. he'll only eat peas if they're 76.5 degrees-on the elmo plate-at the old wooden table in nana's front room-while watching thomas the tank engine-every other sunday-of odd months. isn't that cute?"

--and your own parents can typically dredge up some moment in your toddler life where you gave them hell when it came to eating. but still, in spite of all this, i never thought it could be as difficult as it is. right now. with my daughter. who refuses to eat anything.

ok, correction, she'll lick ketchup off just about any food item. she won't actually consume any part of the food item but she’ll definitely get every bit of the ketchup. I figure, hey, tomatoes are considered both a fruit and a vegetable so she's good. right?

everything i read or hear says it's just a phase. it'll pass. but when your in the moment it sucks ass and all i want her to do is eat something without some major exchange of tears and yells and emotions from all parties involved.

is that too much to ask?

apparently so.