Kids in the kitchen

Best way to bond with kids is get them into the kitchen with you. Let them help with the non-lethal parts of the process and you'll not only have some quality time, but be teaching them some life skills as well.

As they get older they can wield the knife and use the stove and microwave with supervision. Children need to be acquainted with the dangers in the kitchen as well as the pure joy of creating a dish. This is the time to pass on the family recipes and relate experiences you had cooking with your folks, if indeed you did. Family is important as is relating family experiences including food, family history, and relations.

Next time you get ready to bake or cook, let junior do the measuring, stirring, and help with the prep. Don't pass up this time to enjoy each other while showing them the ropes.

Husky Philosophy

There's a time to run, a time, to eat, and time to play, and a time to take a moment and warm the couch.

Unoffical Spring

Still waiting for the official start o' Spring, but the cactus league baseball has fired up the past week, a good sign we're getting close. The days are getting longer, the huskies are shedding their winter coats, and my neighbor's vine has begun its annual journey over the wall and into my yard. Thought I killed it once, but it is a devil bush and keeps coming back, sort of a vine of the undead or something.

Need to do some major yard work, look into getting the dead spa hauled off and fill some craters left by Yukon. Kind of hate to fill them because I think of the old boy every time I look at them and Austrella likes to lie in them. I think she misses Yukon as well. Thor is great, but he's no Yukon.

Anyway, time for new beginnings and all that happy horse-shit, romance in the air, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The only thing missing is getting out in a boat with my brother and doing some fishing. More like practice casting with beer, but we make a valiant effort. I do have memories of rowing in silly little circles in the middle of the lake trying to navigate our way back to the dock and nearly capsizing the boat, swinging an oar in the air attempting to get a lure out of a tree. Seemed like a really good idea at the time. Beyond the shenanigans, fishing is a nice way to connect with the world around us. There are no words to describe the delight in being out on a Wisconsin lake, the trees growing right down to the banks, the birds and wild life playing in the rushes, the crisp air, and just a beautiful kind of day to be out fishing with your brother. If that ain't nice, I don't know what is.

Communism

Communism looks good on paper, you make x amount of shit and you get the shit you need in return. Eventually one reaches "Shit-topia" where every schmuck has what they need and the gov't disappears. Any system that gets rid of government sounds pretty good. Unfortunately communism doesn't work.

There are people in the world with "A" type personalities (guess what the A stands for). Hitler, Bush, the Kennedy's, and Stalin are prime examples of A personalities, or people who think all the shit should belong to them and whatever scraps are left over can be doled out to the proles. Stalin, though sporting a fine mustache, made Hitler look like a pansy when it came to being grabby and killing innocent people (he never took criticism very well) and he is responsible for corrupting communism and overcrowding in the gulag.

Bottom line is communism, while a great idea, won't work because too many people in the world are shit-grubbers and won't play well with others, or are NASCAR stupid and don't get the concept .