A few weeks ago Jolene asked if I knew how to get to a location.  I pulled out this electronic thingamabob, typed in the address, and pulled up the location.  Out came step by step directions to my requested location.  You know what?  I actually followed them and too my surprise I actually arrived at the correct location.  Who knew men could read directions?

My daughter is around me nearly every waking second.  Our conversations are just like any other 5 year old conversation would be.  Why is that hot?  Why does the tree grow that way?  Why is there a ball in our backyard?  My personal favorite, why do you shut the door when you go to the bathroom?  Being a Stay-at-Home Dad can be very lonely even with little feet walking around and asking the dreaded why questions.  My daily routine consists of feeding, playing, feeding, playing, feeding, playing and sleep.  My only real social environment is my daughter.  When my wife is around Johanna wants to consume every second she can with her.  My socialization with my wife begins after Johanna goes to bed.  Since she works the night shift, her sleep schedule is off kilter which results in her being tired all the time.  There are many other SAHD with a lifestyle similar to mine.

Years ago evolution created some miraculous innate ability for women to be able to cook.  Men for centuries lacked that ability and were relegated to hunting for meat.  Only until recently did a genetic mutation occur that triggered the ability for men to read directions from a cookbook.  See what I did there?  That’s a joke.  Dads can indeed cook.  We are very good at it too especially when given the chance.

I don’t know how many times I see people talk about their babies and how smart they are.  Proud mommies and daddies will say that their child knows the abc’s by two.  Or they started crawling at 4 months, started walking at 9 months, or started signing at 6 months.  Countless posts are littered through Facebook to exemplify how great their child is doing.  They leave no mention on what areas their child is lacking.  It’s all in an effort to say, “my child is smarter than yours.”

In 2002 I had my first experience with a Mac.  I wasn’t too thrilled, but I eventually got used to it.  While in college, everything we used in the Art Department was on a Mac.  I eventually bought my first MacBook Pro in 2005.  It was a 17″ that is no longer made.  After years of improvement they became the go to computer for anyone working in the photography business.  So once again I went all in with the new MacBook Pro.

As a child I lived on a ranch.  At least it was called a ranch.  My grandparents took care of the ranch for our landlord.  The land covered hundreds of acres.  The many roads that interweaved were covered with thousands of plants that had to be maintained by hand.  There were 104 rose bushes.  I know because I counted them every week as each would be individually watered.  Coyotes flourished on the ranch.  They were always in search of water, so a drip system did not work.  They would shred the water lines.  Each week it was my chore to help my grandparents water these plants.  I did not enjoy it for one second. For that reason I would have never thought I would have liked homegrown blackberries and raspberries.

“Are we there yet” and “how much farther” tends to start well within 10 minutes of leaving home. On a long drive like today that can get old quickly. Lake Arrowhead is about an hour drive from us. The drive up the mountain is right on the cliff. So those who are afraid of height, do not look out the car, well unless you are driving. We have some friends that live up in Lake Arrowhead.  So we decided to go and visit them.  Today’s weather was fairly cool, which was very pleasant for this late in Spring.

We went to Hortencias Mexican Grill for lunch. They have two restaurants in the area. We had intended to go to Hortencias at the Cliffhanger, however our google maps took us the wrong direction. By the time I realized it we just decided to eat at their original restaurant. The Cliffhanger location has great views of the valley for anyone unfamiliar with the area. Their food is great too.

My daughters favorite meal from Taco Bell is a Nacho Supreme without tomatoes.  She doesn’t take after me, because I personally love tomatoes.  At least all the tomatoes growing in my back yard go to me.  The past few years we’ve been eating fast food more and more often.  Too often really.

The day my wife and I got married we were given some advice.  A friend nef mine put my hand on top of my wife’s hand.  He said, “take a good look.”  That was the last time I was going to have the upper hand. After 10 years of marriage I learned that was complete garbage.  What I’ve experienced is the wife isn’t always right and she doesn’t always have the upper hand.

For the past 5 months we’ve been contemplating unique baby boy names.  Jolene and I cannot agree on any name.  Choosing Johanna was fairly easy.  We had a dozen or so backup names that we also agreed on.  We even have a dozen or so animal names we want to name our future pets.  A unique baby boy name, no so much luck.

We do have a list, but we have yet to agree on names.  Many on the list are an affiliation of our heritage from Scotland, Ireland, England and many more.  However, many of the ones we somewhat like have a negative connotation to someone we know.  Some may not sound all the best to either Jolene or myself.  Johanna has a few favorites as well.  Since a lot of these names are very unique, we are not sure how many people will pronounce them in public, or if some will be made fun of.  Below we are putting our list so far.  Help us choose a name from the list below, or give us any ideas you may have to help us out.  You could also help us out by helping us eliminate names by similar sounding relationships.