And may God bless you!

Shortly after I woke up this morning he came rushing into my bedroom.

“I’m six today, Dad!” he said. His voice, more than a whisper was filled with electricity. His eyes twinkled with an mischievous, elfish expression.

“Are you going to have fun today?” I asked.

“Oh yes,” he said. He pressed his lips into a devilish smirk and ran off.

Later, my wife pulls me from the chaos of getting ready for Tommy’s birthday lunch. “Have you heard what Tommy is telling everyone?” she asked. “He keeps telling them he is king for the day.”

No sooner does she say this than I hear Tommy’s voice from the other room, “I get to decide. I’m king of the day.” Normally, there would be a din of complaining and arguing. The silent response tells me he’s won his place.

I’m working on a new way to experience the post Thanksgiving, pre-Christmas non-holiday holiday period. I’m not sure what to call it yet, but I know the, uh… experience starts the week after Thanksgiving. Observance is dictated by navigating extremely quirky twists of fate which result in the eventual discarding of money which was originally meant for Christmas gifts.

Last year I actually started before Thanksgiving and dove head first into the experience. It literally came at me out of the dark as a shocking surprise. (For those of you not familiar with my experience read Oh Deer!) That was just the beginning… Two weeks later I found myself swerving to miss a car who’s driver decided to run an extremely red light. The light was so red it would have made Rudolph retire in disgust. But that didn’t stop the driver, who seemed determined to plow right through the cross traffic trying to make its way, white-knuckled, through the poorly plowed intersection. Of course, I swerved to miss – and I almost got clean through except for the curb waiting at the other end of the intersection to reach up to trip me.

Despite the new window and the new left front-end, my poor truck has never been the same. In fact, the kids still talk about the bruise daddy’s truck carries on the left side of the bed where the deer hit it. And they still sometimes ask if the deer is ok…

Although I’m still getting the hang of all this, I believe the festivities started on time this year — thanks to my daughter. Just after Thanksgiving, my wife called me at work to tell me our computer was acting “strange.”

“What do you mean by strange?” I asked, gritting my teeth.

“Well, I try to start it up and it just sits on the same screen.” she says. Her voice is part frustration and part desperation, which tells me it’s not likely a quick fix over the phone kind of thing.

“Just turn it off and I’ll look at it when I get home,” I tell her.

At home, that evening, my casual investigation quickly turns into scattered electronic parts and hours of research on the web. Is it a bad power supply or the motherboard. Nearing midnight, and tired with frustration, I shove everything back together and slump off to bed.

The next morning I somehow manage to gather new determination despite the fitful night’s sleep. Poking and prodding and testing and searching. I think I’ve tried everything, but I finally manage to find the motherboard manufacturer’s page online. I ask for help and they give me one more test to try.

“If that’s not it,” they write, “call us to get a new motherboard.”

“Great,” I mutter to the clutter in front of me. I know the warranty has expired.

Well, the one more test quickly degrades into sure failure. I swap parts around and flip on the switch… ZAP! An arch of electricity sends a fried part zipping past my head. The smell of burnt electronics quickly travels the house to grab my wife’s super-smelling nose.

“What was that?” she asks.

“Oh nothing,” I reply casually. “Just a sure sign our computer is now completely dead.”

Although I doubt it is on many bloggers’ minds (most of you don’t have time for television, do you?) I’ve given some thought to how I’ll survive the current television writer’s strike. Now, I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of television, but I do like good stories. And while I am, for the most part, content to get my entertainment reading or playing video games, there are some shows out there I’m going to miss.

The first casualty on my list was Heroes, which had its season finale Monday despite being only 11 episodes along. (It should have been the mid-season finale, darn it!). Ironically, during one of the Heroes breaks I my first viewing of a scab show ad for the resurrected “American Gladiators.” While I understand the networks’ need to come up with non-scripted programming to fill their line-up, I just can’t see watching that Frankenstein’s monster.

Network Exec: We need some programming ASAP!
Programming Exec: Hehe. When I was in college, we used to get wasted and watch American Gladiators.
Network Exec: Book it!
Programming Exec: What? I was just kidding. That show has been dead 10 years. It’s going to stink worse than my teenage son’s used sock pile.
Network Exec: Put a new brain in it and light it up. Next…

Since, I can’t bring myself to replace the hole in my viewing list with the resurrected “American Gladiators.” Here’s what I’ll be doing the next several, several months:

1. Watching more British programming! (Doctor Who, Robin Hood, Torchwood)
2. Finding more British programming to watch.
3. Tweaking my network so I can download British programming faster.
4. Buying extra hard drives so I’ll have more space to store said programming.
5. Playing video games while I wait for all that British programming to download.
6. Fixing my desktop computer so I can finish the RB makeover.
7. Bugging my wife for an HDDVD or BluRay player
8. Spec-ing out a new server for a MythTV install
9. Trying to convince my wife a PS3 would suffice
10. Oh, and posting on the RB.

I’m sure my wife will let me do one of these things once she realizes the number of foot rubs she’s getting (a direct proportion to the amount of time spent watching TV) has dramatically decreased.

It’s not like a post is needed to draw attention to the obvious changes here. Of course, this is old news if you visit my wife’s blog. (I can’t believe she scooped me on my own site redesign). The paint is mostly dry, but I still have a few things left to do, like the trim – not to mention the clean-up (ugh!).

I’ve had it on my mind for some time to brighten things up, and rethink my approach to writing. So, here’s the result. A sort of re-birth for rblogger…