This is the one I recorded on my phone.

Ugh…I guess I was holding my phone the wrong way.

This is the one where I drive to Southern California.

This weekend I’m taking a bus load of angsty teens to Southern California…more particularly to Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park.

I got roped into the deal since I’m one of the few salaried employees that can drive the club bus.  And it’s super difficult and super expensive to work out the payment of hourly employees for a weekend trip.

We leave late Friday night.  Arrive Saturday morning.  Depart Sunday morning.

Should be easy, right?  Oh and to save cash on lodging, we’ll be sleeping on the floors of a club in the area that was nice enough to give us weekend access.

I only wish I had time to meet up with some of my California friends when I was out there.

This is the one with the drumming gorilla.

At work, a6-year-old told me that he had written a joke and wanted to share it.

“Why did the woman cross the road?” he asked.

“I don’t know,”  I said.  “Why did the woman cross the road?”

“Because she had to poop,” he said through his laughter.

Kids.

Fortunately, some of our members do actually have more refined senses of humor.  For instance, today a member shared this video with me from YouTube.  You’re going to thank me.

This is the one where “no” means “no.”

As you know, I’m now an official crazy dog person.  We’ve got 2 adolecsent pups.  And we keep asking ourselves, “What the hell were we thinking?”

The 2 dogs get along, for the most part.  They are still working out some of the who-will-be-the-dominant-dog drama.  But Olive is large and in charge.

As I’m writing this, Bazil is in getting his balls removed.  So hopefully he’ll give up on trying to hump Olive.  She was getting a little pissed that he kept mounting her yesterday.

And we’ve done some reading, we’ve realized that we aren’t supposed to give a bunch of attention to the submissive dog (in our case Bazil) after Olive has give him an old-fashioned butt-kicking.  We’re supposed to reinforce the pack order and give Olive a treat or pet her.  Our natural instinct was to console Bazil.

And walking 2 dogs is an entirely different story!

This is the one where I host a gameshow.

Today is the first day of Summer Camp!  Hooray for getting off work before 6pm.  And hooray for getting some quality time to do some really meaningful activities with the kids.

During our after school program our time to work with the children is really limited because (a) they don’t get to our club until 3 on most days and (b) our club closes at 7pm during the school year and (c) parents come and pick their kids up whenever they get off work.

So I’m excited.

Summer is more work.  From the moment I arrive until the moment I leave I’m with children…but it’s fun.

The activity I’m running today is a gameshow and I have this elaborate presentation prepared.  I’m going to be projecting the .ppt onto a big screen.  Here’s one slide:

And I stand in the center there where it looks like a spot light is on me, and I hold a microphone that isn’t connected to anything.

On Wednesday I have to dress like a cartoon character for the weekly dress-up day.  Any suggestions?

This is the one where I introduce you to Bazil.

We are crazy.  Absolutely nutso.  

Today Mr. D and I went and met a really cute Pug/Chihuahua (a Chug?!).  The owner was overwhelmed with dealing with a dog and a baby…so we decided that Olive would love a playmate.

We named him Bazil.

He’s a couple of months younger than Olive.  They’ve been chasing and playing with one another since we’ve been home.

The only worries we have about Bazil are that he’s still got his little balls (we’re going to get him fixed on Tuesday) and he keeps trying to mount Olive; and we worry that he doesn’t know how to tell us when he has to go potty.

I hope we don’t turn into crazy dog people.  When were leaving the ASPCA today, I told Daniel that 2 dogs is enough for us.  And he said, “Yeah…until we get a bigger house, 2 dogs will do.”

Honestly, 2 dogs will always be enough.

This is the one where I give up booze.

I didn’t just jump into this decision.  In fact, I’ve been thinking about doing this since the end of March.  Since my birthday.  Since that horrible weekend when I drank too much and don’t remember falling in the middle of a street, and ended up staying in bed for the following 2 days recuperating.

Since that birthday weekend I’ve had night of drinking.  We had a game night, and I drank a margarita or two.  But I have no desire to booze to the point of intoxication.  No desire.

In fact, I kind of have this strange desire to be the kind of guy that doesn’t drink.  Not the snobby I-don’t-approve-of-your-drinking kind of guy that won’t hang out with drinkers.  But rather a I-respect-your-choice-to-drink-but-I’m-going-to-just-have-a-diet-soda-and-have-just-as-much-fun-as-you kind of guy.

You dig?

This is the one where my kids like my shoes.

I wore an old pair of Converse to work today, and a five-year-old named Cameron came up to me and said, “Hey Mike, I like your Converts.”

I smiled and thanked him.

This is the one with my 12 of 12.

On the 12th day of each month a bunch of bloggers take 12 photos of their day. Here are mine for May, 2009.

If you’d like to see the collection of everyone’s photos, go to Chad’s page.

Mr. D is in Flagstaff for the week, and he sent me a text to remind me to take photos for the day.

My little lunch box that I put my insulin in.  How do you guys keep your insulin cool?

I woke up high…again.  I think I need to up my basal intake.

Checking my Twitter. Unhealthy obsession.

“Please walk me,” she begs.

Why am I always wearing this shirt on the 12th?

New diabetic supplies make it feel like Christmas.

Bathroom reading material…you should be glad I took a picture of the magazine, and not anything else.

I voted for 2 of these guys.  Guess which.

More needles.

Going for another walk.

Ouch.  Testing blood before bed.

This is the one where you should ask and you should tell.

Today is “Take Action Tuesday” organized by the organization Knights Out.  I orginally heard about Knights Out on the Rachel Maddow show when Lt. Dan Choi came on and said that he was taught to be open and honest – and the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy goes against what he learned at Westpoint.

And today, the Knights Out are asking you to call the White House switchboard (202-456-1111) and let them know what you think about D.A.D.T.  A sample script is here:

I’m calling to tell the president not to fire Lieutenant Dan Choi – and to keep his promise to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
I am a [something about you: Iraq vet, gay/straight West Point/Annapolis/AFA grad, concerned citizen, brother/sister/father/mother/son/daughter/friend of a soldier/sailor/airman/marine…etc.]
We need all the combat officers, and Arabic linguists, and for that matter, every capable servicemember we can get – to keep our military strong. No more studies; we need President Obama to tell Congress to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law NOW.

If possible, call today, Tuesday.  They want to flood the switchboard.