Author Archives: Randy Peterman

Counted.

I went and voted this morning. Growing up I was told by my parents that I had relatives that didn’t vote because they didn’t think that it mattered. That was hard for me to grasp. While I knew that certainly I wasn’t a dictator, I also knew that I had been given power to change the way things happened in this country, my state, my county and my city.

If you haven’t voted, and for some reason are sitting on the fence, please consider printing out a provisional ballot, going over the ballot (this could take a while depending on where you live), and getting to the polls. Sure, you and I may have voted differently on various things, but we’re exercising a right. And the thing about rights that every citizen must understand: each right is a responsibility, if you’re not responsible with your right – they may take it away. Then your vote won’t be counted because it won’t exist.

Floaties

Flickr Photo

Floaties

Originally uploaded by RandyPeterman.

When you think that maybe you got an extra large amount of grounds at the bottom of your cup it can be quite a surprise to discover that you actually have letters put in as a gift by your one year old. I wonder if I can get Starbucks to create an alphabeccino.

The Kissing Ice Cream Shop

Abby and I went on a little daddy-daughter-donut-date this morning. As we passed a shopping center Abby announced, “There’s a kissing ice cream shop!”

To which I asked, “Why is it a kissing ice cream shop?”

Her reply was that the logo was some red lips. Which logo you might ask?

This one:

Dairy Queen

Never saw the lips before. Now I’ll probably never see the words 🙂

My Fiend Flicka

No, I didn’t misspell ‘Friend’ in the title. The book ‘My Friend Flicka’ has been made into a movie. I read that book as a ‘tween and recall that on a very bad day for me I was reading it. I had some sort of argument with my mom and crawled into the secret room in their house (at the time, they no longer live there) and read the book and cried off and on during the day. Sure, that’s not too manly but I had enough hormones surging through me on that day that I’m pretty sure that I would have qualified as a lab rat.

Anyway, I got to the end of the book and was all weepy and then my dad came home from work and searched me out. He was a bit upset that I had given my mom a hard time. I probably through one of the biggest tantrums of my post-kid life that day and I’m pretty sure my dad was ready to send me to Siberia. I can’t remember much about the book, I just remember being a completely goofy jerkwad to my parents.

Thanks Mom and Dad for not finishing me off that day when I probably deserved it 🙂

I’m Gonna Start a Beef Collection!

Or that’s what I heard. Instead on Abby’s educational television show the hippo said it was going to start a ‘leaf’ collection. Which is quite different from beef. Except that maybe its a carbon based molecular structure. The upside of starting a beef collection is that you could really wow people with your exotic cow types. “This is a filet mignon from a Guernsey – you don’t see those in a lot of places. I don’t have very much pork in my collection because its not bovine but because of the filet…” [editors note: you won’t find Guernsey filet mignon for good reason, they’re dairy cows].

Daylight Shavings Time

Say, this weekend will be a time to fall back on your clocks and sleep in [somewhere between Saturday and Sunday in the nether-regions of time]. Unless you have kids. Or a dog. Or are an insomniac. Or your neighbor is a real jerkwad and revs their Hemi engine really loud outside of your house, or within a block of your house for that matter. You could get up and take the time to get ready for the day – but I’m skeptical any readers of this blog besides my dad actually does this.

So, however your Carpe Diem philosephy works out – remember that you have to do it at a different time.

Happy First Birthday, Evie!

Evie turns one today. Today at work we have a release going out and it has some new flashy features. I get a wee nervous on days like this – but not as nervous as I was last year when Jessica went into labor. However, late in the evening Evie came out, Jessica survived and our family of three jumped to four in what seemed like only 36 months [due to chaos and busyness].

Happy Birthday, Evie, we love you!

Strawberry Short-Circuit

So yesterday we went to a mall that is opening not too far from our house (15-20 minutes I guess) where they had advertised as having a “live” Strawberry Shortcake show.  When we arrived, along with about 600 of our closest friends (we actully knew one family there, which was amazing by itself) they started the show with a live ‘MC’ who was going to lead the Strawberry Shortcake ‘show’ along with a CD of Strawberry Shortcake and her diabetes inducing cohorts.  Except that the CD had a scratch on it (or the player was severely busted).  So the MC guy would say, “Hey, everybody!  Are you ready to meet Strawberry Shortcake!?”  The audience would go wild and then the Strawberry Shortcake music would start to play in that CD skipping fashion, “Doo-doo-d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d”.  Then it came time for Strawberry to say something.  And by say something at a live action show they mean a CD plays a pre-recorded Strawberry Shortcake bit.  What they really should have had happen was get someone next to the mixer board to just say the silly parts.  It was ten minutes or so of completely silliness.  But in the end the kids were happy because they got to meet/hug/wipe snot on Strawberry Shortcake.

On the up side only 6 kids got speparated from their parents and had to be taken by ‘officials’ to the D.A.R.E. truck that costs more than most Aurora Police make in a year.  Another up side was that I got slightly sunburned from having to walk from the outskirts of the packed parking lots into the place where they were doing the show.  I guess its good preparation for when I have to go Christmas shopping.