Daddy Day

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I promised Jenny that on one day each month, I would watch the boys all day so she could sleep, relax, shop, play, or do anything else she wanted to do. It’s kinda like the old Southwest program called “Walk-A-Mile” in which pilots would throw bags on the ramp and accountants would sit with dispatchers to learn more about what other jobs entail. Friday is the first day.

I’ve watched both boys for a few hours at a time, and it wasn’t easy. I’ve never had them all day before. I told Brenden we were having Guy Day. I haven’t decided what to do exactly. The forecast calls for rain in the morning, so we’ll definitely play at home some. If the rain stops by lunchtime, we might go to Mickey D’s for lunch before naptime. Jenny plans to sleep in, do some shopping, get a mani/pedi/facial, enjoy some coffee or tea alone at Buon Giorno, and whatever else she desires. Although I know she works hard every day, I’m sure Friday will be an eye-opening experience!

Random Reviews

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ALDI

ALDI is a European-style grocery store, the Ryanair of supermarkets. It offers a very low level of service in exchange for prices that are lower than Wal-Mart’s in some cases. They are popping up all over the DFW area. Lured by the advertised promise of $0.99 strawberries, we piled into the minivan and checked it out.

The Good: Yes, the prices are very, very low. They sell a really good German riesling for about $6. They force you to return your shopping cart to its proper place by requiring a 25c deposit.
The Bad: The selection is poor, with few choices and mostly brands you’ve never heard of. You have to bag your own groceries after paying for them. ALDI doesn’t take credit cards. It’s hard to find what you’re looking for.
Overall: Meh. We might go on occasion to get a few super-cheap items if Jenny finds any good sales, but we’ll continue to do our regular grocery shopping at Super Target.

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY…

I hadn’t seen When Harry Met Sally all the way through until now. It raises some interesting issues, so I recommend seeing it.

First, can a man and a woman be just friends? What if the guy finds the girl attractive? What if the girl finds the guy attractive? Would that preclude a casual friendship? What about a deeper friendship? This question particularly interests me because I’m generally more comfortable around girls than guys. I feel like I can be myself more easily around them. As a happily married man who wants to remain happily married, this tendency presents a bit of a problem. I have several friends who are women, some married, others single. Yes, I find some of them attractive. So I make an effort to keep these friendships very transparent, to keep my wife aware of any interaction I have with them, and to avoid being alone with them. Although Jenny isn’t a jealous wife, I want to make sure she never has any reason to wonder.

Second, the whole faking-it thing. Since my family reads this and I embarrass them enough already with this site, I just have one thing to say: Ladies, don’t fake it. You both lose.

Third, why is it so hard to communicate directly? One thing I liked about Harry is that he could be very direct when he wanted to be, such as during their road trip to New York. Unfortunately, he spent much of the movie choosing to speak obtusely because he was afraid of having a real relationship. It wasted time for both Harry and Sally. Sure, it did allow them to grow up and build a solid friendship, which is the best foundation for a dating relationship and a marriage, but in typical rom-com style, it led to unnecessary drama. I respect directness. Don’t make me guess what you’re really thinking and feeling.

The Good: Interesting dialogue, good performances, fun lines, and The Scene is priceless.

The Bad: It’s still a somewhat formulaic romantic comedy, if you can call that a negative.

Overall: Thumbs up!

THE HURT LOCKER

The Hurt Locker was the lowest-grossing Best Picture winner in history, so I never heard much about it until Oscar time. Intrigued by the awards, and a sucker for a good war movie, I watched it with my bros last week.

The Good: Great acting, an interesting premise (following a bomb squad around Iraq), good music, stuff blows up
The Bad: Shaky, grainy camera work, little character development, no clear direction for the story
Overall: Pretty good, but not even close to best picture (Inglourious Basterds got robbed).

Latest House Projects

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Over the last few weeks, I’ve kept myself busy and mostly out of trouble by working on the house. When we lived in a brand-new house in Keller, the idea of remodeling a home sounded like waaaaaaay too much work, risk, and expense. Now that we live in a 1980s home that still has many original features, limited remodeling suddenly sounds like fun. Yes, it’s expensive, but I’m doing much of the labor myself or with help from the family to save money, and I’ve learned a lot in the process. I feel empowered now.

Here are a few of the projects we’ve done recently:

Front Door
Ugly, boring color to bold red. Bonus: cute toddler in window.

Master Showerhead
Old, clogged, white plastic head to modern brushed nickel head

Old:

New:

Boys’ Bathroom Showerhead
Old, brass head to modern brushed nickel head

Guest Bath Light
Nice light fixture (just not our style) to brushed nickel (thanks to the Matthews for finding this fixture for cheap at the Habitat store)

Dining Room Light

SUPER BRIGHT light fixture (think operating room lighting) to soothing, less bright fixture in…you guessed it, brushed nickel

Old:

New:

A New Host

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AndyBox.com has moved. During my break from work, I “migrated” the site from my old hosting company to DreamHost.com, a quirky and popular company in California. The migration process did not go smoothly, which is part of the reason you might have seen some weird things on here over the last few days. I have enough web experience to maintain the site and modify it in some ways, but the migration required some steps and knowledge that were well outside my comfort zone.

At one point last night I feared I had lost the site forever and would have to start over. AndyBox.com might seem like just another blog from the outside, but I’ve been running this site since 2001, and I truly pour my soul into it. It’s partly an online journal of my life and partly a way to think through many different questions and topics, some general and some personal. I post stuff on here that I would never tell you directly. Why? Because I love writing and hate talking. Writing frees me to say what I really want to say. Talking forces me to operate without thinking about and refining what I say, making me self-conscious and tight. Reading my blog is one of the best and only ways to really know what makes me tick, because otherwise I probably won’t tell you. The idea of losing all my past posts made for an extremely stressful and unhappy night.

However, after much tinkering, reading, and praying, I finally got the site running again at its new home. We’re still working on a few issues with our email, but everything with the site seems normal. If you notice any problems, PLEASE notify me either via comment or my contact page.

A New Ride

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We are back to being a two-car family with the addition of a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT.

I really like this minivan. Yes, it’s a minivan, and some people who don’t have kids like to make fun of them. But for a family with two or more kids, I think a minivan is the most useful vehicle one could get. That’s why they’re so popular! We’ll use the van to haul the kids around and the Fit to commute to work and school.

The Caravan, which Brenden tentatively named “Larry” after the Veggie Tales cucumber (I don’t know), seats seven. The boys ride in the second row bucket seats, and we’ll normally keep the third row down flat to provide a huge amount of cargo room for strollers, diaper bags, and the other stuff we need to haul around. It drives well, is in really good shape, and is a nice blue-green color that we haven’t seen on many vehicles. Its stereo has more bass than the Fit’s, so I was pumping some Snoop on the way home from the dealer. (I should have rolled the windows down and leaned the seat back)

We got it from Huggins Mitsubishi and actually had a really pleasant experience – low pressure, fair pricing, and a good sales guy named Tim Kellar. We had Christian Brothers Automotive inspect it prior to purchase, and they couldn’t find a thing wrong with it. We’re very happy!

Jumping Ship

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UPDATE: Well, it turns out that it takes a few days to transfer a domain (the web address of a site) from one host to another, so for now I’m still on the old host. I had to do SOMETHING to the site, so I switched back to the old layout. To me it seems a little simpler and cleaner, and I like the Alaska picture at the top. What do you think? Vote in the new poll at the right.

I also moved the Comments link to the end of each post instead of the top, figuring that position made more sense.

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Since I started AndyBox.com back in 2001, I have paid a company called HostMySite.com to, well, host my site. Another company called Hosting.com bought it a year or two ago. In ways I won’t bore you with, Hosting.com has displeased me and must be punished. I plan to move the site to another hosting company Saturday night after we get back from Babe’s and put the boys to bed.

Why do you care? Because I’m not sure it’s going to work.

Actually, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to move the site, but I don’t know how long it will take or what problems I’ll encounter. If you try to visit on Saturday night or Sunday and the site isn’t available, now you’ll know what happened. Check back later.

And pray.