Freelancin'

  Recently I've begun writing for a few online publications. Check it out and share along if you feel so inclined! http://www.modernmanjack.com/the-san-diego-gold-hops-rush/

Wood Chips Off the Old Block

  Oh my creative curious sons. Do you recognize those things on the floor? Yes they are lincoln logs. Yes we are getting old, but it's okay...actually it sucks, but whatever. I get all warm and happy watching my boys play peacefully together. It could be because I actually get to drink my coffee when they aren't swinging from the rafters. Whichever is the case i'll take one of these few moments anytime I can get them, it's the easy part of parenting.
  And then I asked Isaac what they were building.
  Isaac: "A fire".
  Me: "Oh shit".

Google Ad-non-sense

  It would be cool to make money off this blog. It's not the intent, but who doesn't like money? So I enabled the ad-sense program and have made a few pennies off most posts. The problem I have with it is some of the ads that get posted are ridiculous. I can't lie, I dig some Popeye's chicken about once a year, but advertising on my blog? Where I rave about feeding my kids organic? I almost quit this blog when the Obama ads made their way on to my posts. I don't want ANY politician stinking up my page. I know there is a way to customize the ads, but at a few blogs a month, and a few pennies pace...I'd rather just bitch about it! 

Post No Bills

On the Board!

  My first time being published! Stoked! I'd like to thank the academy and Modern Man Jack magazine! More to come hopefully!
 http://www.modernmanjack.com/the-tiger-revelation-09142014/

My Letter to Adrian Peterson

  Yo Adrian, When I torched your jersey the other day, after having read about the details of your case, I woke up today glad that I had done it. I want to be clear though that I did it more as a statement against child abuse, than as a personal gesture against you. It was kind of like the ice bucket challenge thing if you know what I mean. What you did to your own four year old son is absolutely unexcuseable regardless of how you came up in east Texas. I go somewhere between firm disciplinarian to pushover daddy with my three sons, depending on how much I think they are understanding me. I can pretty much guarantee though that the only thing your boy obtained from the "whupping" you put on him, was scars.
  I'm too old to be overly disappointed in your actions, i've seen too much to have held you to a higher standard. As I stated in my previous post, I especially detest when anyone tries to tell me how to raise my kids. Also, we both reside in states that border Mexico where, if you watch the news, kids are dying in the desert everyday just trying to get in this country. So we both know there are a lot worse things in life. What i'm trying to say is that it takes a lot for me to go this far but, I just want you to know in case you didn't, that beating your kid doesn't make him tough. It didn't make you tough when your folks did it. You were already tough, it just made him scared. I'm sure it made you scared too. I have no idea what your childhood was like, I just know that once you grow up there are a few things you should live your life by in order to help make the world a little better place. I would consider you a tougher man if you made the effort to protect your children from the abuse you experienced, instead of repeat the cycle.
  When I was growing up in Minnesota in the eighties, I was a huge Walter Payton fan. He was an idol, a beast on the field, tough as nails, never quit on a run. Sound familiar? When you came back from the knee injury and rushed for 2,000, I was so happy for you. You proved me right too, when all my homies where saying you were done, I knew that you had that toughness that Payton had ingrained into my football loving heart as a kid. Now that i'm all grown up though and we all saw what happened to Walter, I just feel bad for him and his family. I read the book and learned what all that abuse on the field was doing to him. The handfuls of pain killers he was swallowing by the hour and the way his body looked toward the end, it's sad and haunting. One day the game will pass you by and your body will have taken too much abuse to allow you to put the pads on and lace em' up. When that time comes and your days aren't spent in the locker room or the practice field, all that will be left is your family. You're gonna need them, the numbers won't mean a thing anymore compared to having a family that's been waiting for you the whole time.
  Moving forward, I'm still first and foremost a Vikings fan. You will probably suit up and play for them again, and when you do i'll still cheer for purple and gold and yell at the tv when Cassel throws another pick. As far as when #28 busts off another thirty yard run and lays a Packers safety on his ass, the only thing i'll really think about is your son. According to your statements, you are a loving father, and knowing young children, i'm sure he will forgive you. I just hope for both of your sakes you can find a better way to make a man out of him. It'll make both of you feel a lot better after the fact. When your playing days are done, the man waiting for you to hang out with his dad, will have that much more love and respect, instead of fear and scars. Peace out "All Day".
                                                                                                                        -Vikes Fan
                                                                                                 

Adrian Peterson and the New "Real Man".

  This has been quite a week for the NFL. We've seen the video of Ray Rice knocking his bride to be out in an Atlantic city elevator after spitting on her a couple of times. I've heard the 911 call by a neighbor of Greg Hardy describing how he was abusing a woman inside his home. I had to go on to read the victims report which basically said to me that this guy is a monster. The thing is though...he's playing this week, and if the video of Rice hadn't been released he would be playing the week after. This leads in to my next point, Roger Goodell the commissioner of football is letting these guys off the hook with light suspensions and in Hardy's case, nothing.
  I'm not stupid, I understand that there is a legal process and huge financial liabilities for a team that suspends a player without due process. But i'm also not an idiot and I know damn well that the moral issue can brush aside all processes and procedures. I've been an NFL fan for a long time and i've seen a lot of crap go down. The world is far from perfect and in today's hyper-instant-info age a damning photo or text of anyone in the limelight can spark a wild fire and witch hunt real quick.
  But then came the news about Adrian Peterson "whupping" his FOUR year old son with a tree branch. This one hurts. If you know me you know i'm the ultimate Vikes fan, and I rock the #28 jersey with purple and gold pride. I also have three sons, whom I love to the depths. I'm not a perfect father, and being a stay at home dad while trying to grow my music career, has put me to the test like no man i've ever met before. It's tough, it's beyond tough, it takes everything out of you most days, just to try and stay sane, let alone be a good parent. I know that life is a case by case thing and i'm not comparing myself to Peterson. I especially detest people who would tell me how to raise my children. But this goes beyond how hard AP grew up in east Texas and I can't let it fly. A four year old child still doesn't "get it", but cutting his nut sack open with tree branch isn't gonna help him get it any quicker. I'm a forgiving person who tries to look at the whole picture of a man before casting a decision on his character. I saw the "alleged" pics of his son's wounds and it makes me sick, it makes me cry. But this following video that i've posted isn't about judging a person, it's my way of taking a stand against child abuse. Further more this is my way of letting any man who would lay an abusive hand on a child know, that to be a good father is a tough thing to achieve sometimes,  but it's your job to try.

Friday's Funnies

  On the way to preschool, Rockstardaddy is doing his thing singin' out loud...
"...I don't know what I been told, in the heat of the sun a man died from cold."-"New Speedway Boogie"...a little bit of Grateful Dead for the ride. Then Evan steps in.
E: Dad don't say that. "Die" is not a good word daddy. Don't sing that song.
  As I readied my apology and explanation, Isaac starts repeating himself in a low horror flick type voice.
I: Die, die, die, die.
Have a good weekend!

Appetite part deux

Okay it's nap time now and the mid-day totals are in. On top of the morning's "snacky" type of feeding...
 1 slice butter/honey toast
 1 bowl of buttery noodles(asked for another)
 1 apple crusher
 1 apple/carrot crusher
 1 dixie cup of milk
 1 cup of water
 1 tired kid
 1 tired, sore neck, emotionally drained dad. This is just one kid. Meanwhile I cooked a pot of brown rice and steamed carrots for Tristan and tried to keep Evan in the manner he's accustomed. If it wasn't for the fact that it's ninety degrees I ...damn Tristan just woke up.

Appetite for Consumption

Okay this is getting ridiculous so i'm going to use this blog to try and track this kid. Isaac woke me up from bed at 6:30am. It's now 10am.
1bowl of o's
1glass of milk
1/2 glass of water
1bowl banana yogurt with honey
1tj's fruit bar
1tj's fruit strip
1bowl of popcorn(because he used the potty)
  He also snacked on his little bro's breakfast and is now requesting eggs and bacon. We're out of bacon, so we'll see where it goes. I'll update later...

Most Mornings

   Most mornings start like this, pictured above. Once all three are awake they are pretty good at entertaining themselves constructively, after breakfast and the early cartoon viewing is over with. The problem i'm experiencing is nothing new, but considering the age and stage of all three, it's almost impossible to prevent the whole house disaster, as the panoramic pics below reveal. I do try, I do I do, to get them to play with something and put it back. It's just that it's still unpredictable at this point. So Isaac, after watching Evan craft these little guys above, decided to pick up a ninja sword and destroy the "city" as he called it. Unfortunately the city he referred to was living room city. He works quickly and effectively, it's impressive, while I sit and watch with Tristan 2.0 on my arm. I know it's just a phase and they''ll get it soon, but man...what a phase!!  

Mid-week Mutterings

  It's only occasionally that we buy bacon these days. It's expensive and we only buy uncured, nitrite/trate free, when it does find it's way into the grocery cart. This week was a bacon week and the twins discovered a true breakfast treasure...waffle, egg, cheese, and bacon sandwich! Halfway through their meal I realized I hadn't given them water yet.
 Me: I almost forgot your water boys.
 Evan: I almost forgot my mind.

Return of the Jedi

   The force flows freely in the universe, and we here at Rockstardaddydaycare let it flow like the Mississippi. I was sketching out this Vader rocking the electric, before I move it to the canvas, this afternoon. Tristan sleeps in our bed still, due to his eczema related sleep issues, and he was napping there at the time. I had the monitor right next to me in case he awoke and tried to get over the guard bumpers. Suddenly he appears from around the corner, I helped him up on the couch with me, he cried for a minute and then fell right back to sleep! So I guess he's getting out of bed okay now...
  The twins went to preschool this morning for the first time with underwear on. The significance of this is, for three and a half years, i've been changing 10-20 diapers a day! That's one sore fu&%ing back. It hasn't even really hit me yet, but the fact that I can stop feeling sorry for myself long enough to bang out some art, it's a sign of things to come.
  I've changed in a few ways since becoming a dad but haven't had the personal energy to let those changes come out. With two out of three boys exiting diapers, not to mention Tristan is walking, not shoving everything in his mouth, and his eczema is showing signs of fading, a renewed sense of self will hopefully be seeing the light of day. Obviously most of my attention will be directed toward my family, but watch out world...this rebel has completed his Jedi training!

The Rebel Alliance

  Time doth fly! Shakespeare probably said that...so true. A little over five years ago while finishing up my first album "Sketches of San Diego", a hodge-podge, multi genre, melting pot, mixed bag of a solo effort, I dreamed up the "Country Rockin' Rebels". It was time to pick a vector for this jack of all genres, musician. I laid the concept on Mike Head(owner/operator Cabeza Records), another jack of all things in the music trade. He was engineering, co-producing, and playing on 'Sketches' at his San Diego studio when I brought in a couple demoed out tunes I had been working on. The next thing you know we were laying down tracks for one album while finishing the mixes on another. Soon after that...well if you read the blog you know the story, I got married and started having kids by the bunches!
  Mike and I continued to grow the concept of the Rebels eventually joining forces with our current line-up of fellow SD country rockers, to form one of the shit hottest bands in the county! We have been gigging like mad around lower so-cal, supporting our new single "Summer Days" for the upcoming second rebel album. In truth we are really just supporting our own music addictions! Here is a still cam video of us rocking out as the Friday house band at "Spike Africa's Seafood". Here we strip it down to four guys and use a rotating line-up where as most shows you can catch us six deep with fiddles and pedal steel guitars! Either way we are rocking this city to it's foundations. All of us rebs live busy lives but stay dedicated to the cause of making you move your feet and doing that hip shake thang! Check us out at www.countryrockinrebels.com for music, merch, and show dates. And above all things...keep it rebel!   

The Human Drought and the New Western Rainmakers...Part 2.

Part 2. The Great Drain.
  
   The Colorado River flows, at least it used too, about fourteen hundred miles long, from way up in the rockies all the way down to the Gulf of California. On it's way down to the gulf it carves it's path through arid desert sand and stone until finally reaching sea level. If you have ever been to the Grand Canyon maybe you can relate when I say I can close my eyes and envision a million years ago when this mighty river was still shaping the land. In just under one hundred years humanity has harnessed this wild bronco of rushing water, and diverted it's flow to make life possible throughout the Southwest. It's a beautiful thing to see how we can all thrive from this one water source without living near it. San Diego alone and it's one million plus population gets seventy percent of its water from the Colorado. Then there's Las Vegas, Phoenix, etc. all in the millions of h2o reliant people, all sticking our straws into the same cup. I repeat this is a beautiful thing as long as we can live in a state of balance with the give and take process of messing with nature. Unfortunately the last decade has revealed that not only are we completely out of balance with nature, but we also have slipped quite a ways into the danger zone where we aren't sure if we have taken it too far.
  I won't post anymore pictures, there are so many and so easy to find online, i'll leave that to you if so desire, but the damage that's been done is plain to see. Lake Mead the nations largest reservoir, located on the southern Nevada and Arizona border, created after the great depression has a now famous white ring all along it's giant stone container, giving us a visual measuring stick of just how desperate the situation has become. It's half empty! It's at it's lowest level since it was created. Throughout California there are twelve major reservoirs. If you add up their average total capacity and figure the difference for what they operate at today, the number winds up at less than forty percent! Folsom is one of them, if you saw the time lapse photo I inserted into the previous post of Folsom lake, the visuals are shocking, the numbers are heart sinking. Recently however we've just learned that the situation is a whole bunch worse than we could've ever imagined.
   A study published a few weeks ago by UC Irvine scientists has dropped the equivalent of a bomb on the community of concerned citizens, scientists, lawmakers, etc. It's the first of its kind, an analysis of data collected from the Grace satellite mission. Since 2004 it's been measuring the land mass via gravitational pull, above and below the ground of certain regions. Scientists were able to confirm the nightmare scenario that the Colorado Basin under ground water supply has disappeared at a rate nearly four times that of the surface water! They estimate that of the fifty-three million acre feet of water that has been sapped during this drought, forty million of it came from underground.
   What does this mean? Well imagine for a moment that you just inherited a couple million dollars from a newly deceased, distant relative. Congratulations! You are now rich and it couldn't have come at a better time because recently life has been tough. You have been without a job for awhile and this cash means a lot. The weird thing though is that your uncle put some conditions on this money. You don't get to know how much there is, you just know it's a lot. You can't go to the bank yourself to withdraw the money, it has to be delivered by a bank rep in suitcases whenever you call them up. It seems a bit strange but who cares, once it's delivered it's good to go! Immediately you start paying people back that you owed, and of course others start calling you up now for a loan. You treat yourself nice and spread it around. At first you count the money in the suitcases but there is so much of it that over time you stop. Then one day while you're sitting at your giant swimming pool sipping a margarita, the delivery guy shows up with a message that over the years you have spent so much that soon the account will be empty. Not only that but because it's so low you aren't earning enough interest to replenish the supply at the rate you spend, and maybe worst of all the government has been slowly taking its cut which is making the balance disappear so fast that a life change may not reverse the flow of your fortune. Of course you panic, you haven't worked in so long that your job prospects are almost nothing and you can't go back to borrowing because like the blues man sings, "No one knows you when you're down and out."
   If you haven't sniffed out the comparison, the rich uncle is nature, the money is water, the bank account is our under ground supply, the government is...well the government, and the delivery guy is the water companies who, despite their great efforts, are just the messengers who are basically not sure how much water is left either. Actually the government isn't just the government though, I was just trying to stay humorous. They represent the exponential decrease of our water supply as we continue along our path. Let me explain.
  If we take the water off the surface and from below the ground we take away nature's ability to replenish it through the process of evaporation, transpiration, precipitation...all across the nation, etc. From there it takes care of itself. If the plants can't drink they can't give off moisture, which won't create rain clouds. The snow pack in the Sierras this year was about twenty percent of what it normally is, clearly demonstrating that this ancient process has been heavily compromised. I want to say again that I don't work for Greenpeace and I'm not trying to get preachy. I don't know where you stand on global warming and I don't care. Our existence isn't a millionth of a fraction of the Earth's existence so it has been hard for me to believe that in a few blinks we have burned enough fuel to dirty up the fish bowl that fast. If we keep it up, sure we will fuck it all up, but in light of this most recent historic finding by the good folks at UC Irvine my mind has arrived at some scary thoughts. Allow me.
  For decades the cities throughout the southwest have exploded in population, throwing the balance of supply and demand for water completely out of whack. I believe this drought has less to do with us living in an unfortunate dry spell or fossil fuel driven global warming. Are they contributing?  Of course they are. One would be a fool to not consider all factors. We are in fact about 40,000 years removed from the last North American ice age. At one time the five great lakes were one giant lake and the grand canyon wasn't yet so grand. Many things are in play here but it is now my overwhelming belief that we have withdrawn so much water from a part of the globe in such a short amount of time that we've taken nature's ability to cycle it back to us. In summation I'm saying that this is a man made drought...to be continued. (Thanks for reading please check out previous posts to view the whole story).
            
   

The Human Drought and the New Western Rainmakers (An Essay on Hope for the Promised Land) Part 1 continued.

Part 1 continued.
  ...If I did I have a care back then I still wouldn't have known, that my arrival to San Diego was coinciding with the beginning of the longest and largest drought in man's recorded history, west of the Rockies. Growing up in Minnesota where, in one year the weather swings anywhere from thirty below zero in February to one hundred above in July with an eighty percent humidity, one can't help but be pretty in tune with the weather. Mother nature dictates a Minnesotans daily life on a whole different level than most other people in the world! The last time I checked, International Falls, MN still holds the USA's record for coldest recorded temperature at about minus seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit! But I was twenty-two years old and I think the first time I even glimpsed the news back then was when September eleventh happened.
   In case this information is new news to anyone reading, allow me to catch you up. The entire southwest, California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico have been in drought conditions since the year 2000. In the last four or five years the drought has intensified and taken on new catastrophic levels unseen by humans in this part of the country. Only now is it really going to hit home as California prepares to get serious and start issuing fines for water wasters. Starting tomorrow, August 1, for the first time in state history, people will be getting dinged up to five hundred buckaroos if their sprinklers get the sidewalk wet. I have done some reading but don't know the full details of how the new rules will be carried out from one city to another, I just know that it's finally here and the realities of what is going on will start to be felt by all. I've been monitoring the whole thing from my desktop for the last couple of years as my life has radically changed from carefree rocker to stay at home dad for three sons. But now I'm getting ahead of myself here...let's jump back to, oh let's say about three years ago.
  Marie and I had just welcomed our twins to the world and we were taking them on their first road trip up to the Sacramento area, where Marie's mom and dad had just purchased a palace of a house in Eldorado Hills. It was our yearly Thanksgiving trip and we had not seen the new place yet. We arrived at night after a brutal twelve hour trip that included a puke fest, leading to an extended clean up at a roadside truck stop. The next morning I drove out for groceries and a quick kid break. The navigation system led me around the back way from where we drove in, up to the top of the hill that looked down on Folsom Lake. I'll never forget when it came into my view. I pulled over and got out to give a gaze. It instantly made me miss Minnesota as I looked upon the giant man made lake. I grew up a fisherman in the land of lakes, walleye country! One day my boys will fish also and seeing what nana and papa were living next to now I was filled with happy thoughts of getting them started as little outdoors men. But now flash forward through three years of rapidly intensifying drought...

 

 

...pictures don't lie. To stand in that same spot today, I feel like the native American with the tear streaming down his cheek while someone drives by on the highway and hucks their trash on to the roadside. It's all been let out into the central valley to alleviate the drought. It's gone, in short and when or if it will ever come back...well that's why I'm writing this.
  I suppose some sort of thesis or mission statement is owed to you, my reader, by now. Before you think I'm trying to get a donation out of you or tear your heart asunder with horrifying images and bleeding heart stories. I'm not working for Greenpeace or asking you to hug a tree and stop flushing your toilet. I'm quite simply condensing the info for you that I've acquired through tracking this drought and imparting a message of hope in what appears to be an increasingly hopeless situation. In short, I'm telling a personal story.
  The fact of my life is that I have three young boys to raise, in a city that has to have it's water delivered. The Colorado river basin and the Sierra Nevada runoff that we Californians depend on is disappearing so fast that my sleepless nights are spent wondering what my sons world will look like in ten years. And when I say ten I'm not exaggerating, we are that close to the edge here. It's not like I get to sleep much these nights anyway, but I admit that the fear and stress I've been feeling when I look at scenes like the above picture, has had a grip on me for too long now. If it were not for the good news that my reading eventually led me to, I don't think I would even be able to write this because then... I would start preaching, and no one wants that. Before I keep droning on about this subject though, I would like to mix it up a bit and drone on about a little geography. It isn't my favorite subject, just to let you know, so i'll try to be funny for both of us...to be continued.

                                                                            

The Human Drought and the New Western Rainmakers (An Essay on Hope for the Promised Land) By Tristan Luhrs

 

Part 1. The Grapes of Restlessness
  "Go west young man."
  "Okay." And so I did. In August of 1999, the last summer of the century, I packed up my hand me down Geo Prism, gave grandpa a big hug and a handshake, and drove off into the sunshine with tears streaming down my cheeks. One electric guitar, two amplifiers, a Tascam four-track recorder, and all the other obvious stuff, not so neatly smashed into a small four cylinder car purchased by my mom seven years earlier. That car had seen a lot of traveling in a short time. Mom, brother, and me had road tripped across half the country, and now it would be my trusty steed up through the rockies, down through the desert, and straight into my manifest destiny.  
  San Diego was the place I would land first and the great state of Minnesota was where I was leaving. For the previous four years I had been living in Minneapolis attending the University of Minnesota for the liberal arts and the hell of it. At the end of my junior year I stood one hundred credits to the good, $20,000 + in debt and once again, on academic probation. Back then that was a lot of greenbacks to be in the hole and the free money had long since run out. I could've toughed out another two winters, doubled my debt, and walked away with the degree but my mind had been long since made up to leave. When the winter gave up it's hold on the land and my wanderlust mind thawed, the idea of leaving exploded like the spring pollen in my eyes. I hadn't been to California since I was nine years old on a family vacation, but now had a friend who would let me couch crash. Knowing that I was due for a sizeable tax return, the conditions for my adventures to begin had a green light to hit the highway. Also contributing to my decision to leave was the fact that I was an artist who wanted to do it all. Acting, music, writing, directing, you name it baby, I was a regular Brando meets Dylan meets Coppola all rolled into one. A true jack of all trades master of none, throwing myself at whatever seemed fun and interesting, so if it isn't already apparent then let's make clear now, yes I planned to head up to L.A.
  I was a big party guy back then so when I arrived to the west coast it was as though I was shaking hands with my wildest dreams come true. San Diego had it all, girls, surfing, affordable year round golf, nightly legend making parties from Mexico to Vegas and up to San Fran. Letting the good times roll was easy and affordable and without six months of winter dragging me down I had a lot of stored up energy! Heading into a new century I had not a care in the world and nothing but time, luck and good looks to spend, and the greatest playground on the planet to do it on. All I needed to fund this wild kid was a steady table waiting gig and a cheap roommate situation. I wanted a lot but could get by on little, expenses like cell phone bills didn't exist for me yet so there was plenty to play with...to be continued.

Midweek Mutterings

Evan exits his bedroom to inform me he doesn't want to take a nap
"You take a nap everyday Evan."
"I want some water."
"Okay." After drinking his water he hands me the cup.
"I was so thirsty because I'm done taking my nap."

Rockstardaddy Reprise

And once again...when it comes to nap time, whatever works!

The most interesting stay at home dad in the world

...When it comes to naps and lunch, whatever works. Stay sane my friends.

There ain't no fakin' when a man needs bacon

  As a parent it is important to conduct the family business and or pace of life like normal when a child gets sick. Even though your heart goes out to them and you get a little sick yourself feeling bad for them, it is good for them to see that everything is going along like always and when they return to action the good old same old will be there waiting.
  That sounds great but if you're like me, and I know I am, the complete fucking opposite happens. As a stay at home dad for three sons, all still in diapers, having just one sick makes my world start spinning in a direction that has me sweating out last nights beer and this mornings coffee, by nine a.m. So when the pediatrician said the word 'pneumonia' yesterday my heart, face and mind melted all at once. My skinny three and a half year old, vaccinated blondie with pneumonia! I was shocked.
  I'm no stranger to holding my kids down while they get a needle and he's a tough little dude, but this was a big one for a big illness so by the time it was over we were both overwhelmed and exhausted for the rest of the day. But of course there is two more that need care and that whole daily grind thing, where exhausted mommy has to go back to work. I played two gigs over the weekend which left me struggling for the extra energy but we proceeded to finish up the day the best we could.
   Where am I going with all of this? Well when kids get sick and nature takes them down and they lose appetite and weight and we lose our minds worrying, it always turns to the issue of getting them to eat and stay hydrated. So when they start showing that one first sign that they are going to be alright, it becomes your shining beacon at the end of the tunnel.
   So this morning after two hours of Isaac screaming ouchie and me sinking into despair, I made myself start my own breakfast when all my attempts to help him had been shunned. Suddenly twenty minutes later, as the scent of sizzling bacon filled the air like the call of the wild, I heard his weakened voice from the living room.
"Dad are you making bacon?"
"Yeah."
"I want some bacon." My heart leapt. An hour later a twenty-nine pound toddler had put down a piece of bacon, one scrambled egg with cheese, peanut butter crackers, milk and organic gummy snacks, and a whole glass of water. Not only was I able to post this, but Evan got to have his sword fight with me as darth vader, and Tristan took a normal nap. We still have days of anti-biotics and rest ahead of us to get him back up and running, but the evidence is once again right there for us all to see what we already knew...bacon makes it all better!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Product Demo Daddy

Mid week mutterings

  Evan was reading from a kids book that had little bible stories. When he started on the page about the golden rule he said,"...and god told everybody to treat people...as fast as you can."

Summer Dayz!

  Deep breath...and exhale. At last I would like to share with you my bands song and video "Summer Days"! It is the single from our upcoming album and we are super excited to unveil this labor of love and act of creation. Everyone involved did so much work to make this happen and now we can bask in it's glory for a moment before getting back to the grindstone. The album shouldn't be too long and the summer gigs are booked, but I'm sure i'll sneak a blog in or two!

Call me the breeze!

  Where's Rockstardaddy been? The question echos in the canyons and across the plains of this America like, "Where the f*&% is Waldo?" Well here I am, for a moment. Caught up in a whirlwind of screaming banshee boys, I mean my kids not the band...and screaming banshee boys, I mean the band not my kids. Call me the breeze, summer is here and the band is booked!

Foundations of Rock

  The times are a changin' again. Up until a month or two ago this footage would not have taken place because I would've gotten frustrated with Evan or Isaac or both attacking the guitar. I know they just want to play but it would get to the point where I was afraid of them snapping the strings in their faces. My poor Electric Marie is in need of an adjustment after twins have dropped it a hundred times a piece! As one can see now though, class is definitely in session! The boys now want to pick up their axes and get to choppin' out some riffs. So stay tuuunnnned!

Letter to the gorgeous queen of my heart

  Happy FIVE year anniversary honey! Oh my pumpkin pie this is a big one! It's so cool that our five year also marks ten years since our first meeting each other at that steakhouse back in aught four. Indubidily and undoubtily the last three years have been the most intense and amazing part, but a busy day doesn't go by that I don't appreciate those first seven that led us to this point of the adventure. And it's all ten years at once that come rushing into my head when I look forward to the next ten and beyond! When I sat down to write this I didn't even have to think or pre-plan for a moment. It's all there and waiting to be expressed. The only difficulty is finding enough time to let it all get out, and picking what gets to come out first. So i'll start at the beginning, because it's still my favorite!
   You were standing at the bar in your sleek black cocktail outfit, I forget who was training you that day, I just remember the five o clock sun coming through the patio glass door and shining on that luscious dark hair. I immediately fell for a pretty face as the saying warns against but as soon as our first conversation began,  I also began to fall harder for the intelligent funny woman that was revealed. I'll never forget the first compliment you gave me, pointing out that I was a hard worker. The fact that you recognized it in an under achieving twenty-eight year old busser got to the soft parts of my heart right away. 
  There were things that were opposite about us from day one and part of what has made us so great together has been discovering that those things appear different on the surface but ultimately came from the same place, passion, and beliefs. You are a country music lovin' gal and I'm a rebel rocker. Then fast forward a couple years and you are able to recognize Hendrix, the Doors, Dylan and more within a few seconds and there I am digging through your piles of cd's discovering the world of music you loved, except for the JLo. You are a financially conscious and aware person, to me money was another damn thing people kept saying I needed more of. When it came down to it, we both wanted financial success and being a team for the last ten years has brought us closer together with a goal in mind to not let money be our master, rather a servant on our journey.
  And then came the day you met Monty and Sandy and were scooped up out of one life and into another. Luck? Coincidence? Nothing of the sort. It was a destiny that you created out of your own vision for yourself. Watching you become, watching you translate and transform the world you put yourself into was, for me was watching a person become a hero before my eyes. I worship sports, the ballet of it all, the brutal struggle to rise above the top level of competition in the world. You are well versed in my addiction to sports, yet my favorite athlete is you babe. Your work ethic, drive and competitive(for the right reasons) nature is the same stuff that put Michael Jordan on the top. Monty and Sandy are truly angels in our lives but the nice living you have earned working your brain and butt off for them has shown me you are an innovator and creator, as well a protecter and defender of those angels. Not to mention how much hot you looked in your business attire. Perhaps I've been washing and drying your dry clean only for all these years just to see you in what you'll buy next!
  I'll skip like a rock on the day I almost drown us at high tide, rushing through a speech I pieced together and then couldn't remember as my sweaty hands unclenched the ring in my pocket. It's a fantastic memory for sure though because you said yes and then a year later, myself, our family, and friends got to see you shine in your wedding dress with the ocean and sun in attendance for our wedding day. All those people we love so much, whose lives we look forward to being more a part of when we can some day, it stands in my mind and smiles whenever I turn and your there. And now, five years past the day, I watch our three amazing sons and I'm flooded like the San Diego horizon at sunset. Pick a day since that day and the tears will start coming. The heartache and disappointment at not getting pregnant, the joy and wondrous fear of getting pregnant with two! The journey of leaving our love cottage on the beach and moving to the nesting place for mama and her two little eggs, and then watching you so driven and determined, happily enduring the process without a complaint, I think I did all the complaining for you. Then we were the four plus cats, another move, and bam! we are a family of five! Life is so wildly amazing and sharing the challenge and beauty of it with you and all of our circle has been the most incredible way to live it!
  I think back to years before we met and a short story pops in my head. It was by Robert James Waller, the guy who wrote "The Bridges of Madison County". The story was entitled "Slow Waltz for Georgia Ann", or at least I think it was. In it sits an older man, a husband, at night in his chair by a living room fireplace burning low. He sits and listens to his wife in the other room molding clay on a potting wheel, and he drifts off on a drifters escape. He thinks of their previous lives and wonders if they ever met centuries before they were born. He worries because he never really gets that sense of dejavu. He thinks that they would've passed each other up because he would've been some traveling gambler and she among the ranks of royalty. The story comes back to me because after I finished it I remember wanting to arrive at that place one day, having a woman, house, dog, fireplace, and a life led together full of joys and pains and memories and laughter. I've found it with you and oh man, I've had so much dejavu since we met it's hair raising! I believe in past and parallel lives and universes. It's not hard, I just close my eyes and picture the person I would be had we never met. There he is, a stand-up dude, just a little less glint of fulfillment in the eyes and laughter in the belly. This is the life we were meant to lead, you gave birth to our sons and my wildest dreams. You've inspired me to create music, you've demanded that I pick myself up every day and make sure at the end of it I'm happy with my effort. You've shown more love for a man than anyone could wish for and I love you to the depths and heights of love. Happy Anniversary Gorgeous Queen of My Heart, my Marie!

 

The Mona Auntie Lisa

  The speed at which the progress happens and how exponentially fast the connections take place truly has my head spinning.  I know every parent thinks theirs is the gifted one, but man, he's only just turned three! I guess it just means we are gonna have to graduate to the canvas sooner! In any case, here you are auntie Lisa, he said it was you in all your etch-a-sketched splendor! He did say he had to add more hair but then noticed Isaac was watching youtube nursery rhymes and that was that.

Rainbow Country

  Bob Marley's song "Rainbow Country" was playing in my car through most of my twenties driving up and down coast highway. I was by myself most of the time. Now days I have my buddies. I'm so relieved that cali finally got some rain after such a drought. It just makes me all nostalgic and stuff.

Midweek Mutterings

After picking the twins up from preschool, strapping them in their seats and handing out snack bags(because they barely eat at school), I asked what they did today.
Dad: Did u guys read books or sing songs?
Evan: Yeah.
Dad: Tell me more.
Evan: There was an old woman who lived...in a snack bag.

Evan's Etchings

  I remember it like yesteryear. I was in the social room at Mema and Grandpa's one spring day in Minnesota with a pencil and my tracing books. I was probably five or six. For some reason the time had come to stop tracing over bugs bunny and instead I drew him free hand on a piece of lined paper. I went and showed Mema when I was done and she almost hit the roof. She couldn't believe I did it so she asked me to do it again in front of her. When mom came to pick us up she handed her the drawings and said something about getting me into art classes right away. That moment will always be there until the lights go out. It was that important, so when Evan showed me the drawing of the snail, at THREE YEARS OLD!! I wasn't faking any surprise, a true 'holy shit!' moment. But thanks to the memory of Mema's reaction I knew exactly how important to the make the memory for this young artist. Thanks to all you Grandma's gettin' it done!

Tuesdays Tip (How to be a rockstardaddy)

  Handle one crisis at a time. Fire by fire, diaper by diaper...just do it real f#@%ing fast.

Midweek Mutterings

  Evan is attached to a book of animal pictures, Isaac too but it's Evans nightly choice for story time. He points and names almost every one of the hundred critters in the book. The other night he identified the porcupine. Marie asked him what does the porcupine do...
  Evan: "He porks people."

Monday Quotables

This weeks quote comes from the mouth of Mr. Nine Months himself... "Mama."

"Electric Grains" Rockstardaddy Kitchen.

  As an admitted sugar junkie for most of my life, I've made the effort, post thirties, to become a more health conscious chef. Not only to benefit myself but obviously for the family too. Oh sure I slip plenty but, slowly the change within occurs.
  Along this journey my learning process has included some scary lessons about the food we consume in America, but more importantly the knowledge quest leads to all sorts of new exciting foods that won't sit in my gut and wreak havoc. Quinoa, one of the ancient staple grains including faro, barley, etc., has found it's place into my kitchen. I'm so happy about this stuff and how healthy it is, I had to rock out about it. This is just a little ditty about slipping Quinoa into the boys meals, so when they start whuppin' my ass on the golf course they'll have Quinoa to thank...and an inherited natural swing!

Country Rockin' Rebels "Indian Wind" at Shakedown

  And here's what happens when dad gets to boogie with the big boys! The second of a two gig night, we gets the lead out! Enjoy and thanks to Joe Stevens at Starlit!

Monday Quotables

From Isaac, while enroute to Ocean Beach park.
"I don't think I want ta go to the ocean park because the ocean is so wet and that would probably get me wet."
 "Isaac are you scared of the water?"
"No I just don't like to get wet at the park."

Monday Quotables

To illustrate the pure 180deg. difference between these fraternal twins, just drop in on any conversation.
Isaac: "Daddy when it's  my birthday in Feb-u-bary, I wanna share my cupcakes with Jax and Micah and Miss Carey and mommy, and..."
Evan: "I want cake."
Me: "Who are you going to share your cake with."
Evan: "Me."

Electric Organic Kitchen Blues

  Well at long last we take our blues to the kitchen. Homemade biscuits it is today with an orange honey gastrique. What is a gastrique? It's a sweet sticky glazey type of sauce, to get technical. It just takes some sugar and vinegar boiled down in a sauce pot with whatever flavor you are going for. Today we are using honey and some fresh oranges and tangerines from my mom's citrus trees. I'm just a free wheelin' home chef so I will not be posting measurements or secret recipes. Mostly because I don't measure much and my recipes are usually a secret to me. I'm just doing this to demonstrate and preach that food made from scratch with fresh healthy, non-GMO! ingredients is the way to go. It's really not that hard, when you use my approach of trying and failing a hundred times first!
  How do I accomplish this mission you might ask? Well if you watch you will notice I'm holding a kid while I'm cooking, can't be that hard right! Also my ingredients are almost all organic, you will see whenever I post these cooking segments, I'm very against filling my kids up with chemicals and genetically altered material. For the biscuits I used some wheat flour, which is almost a biscuit sin, just so I could justify indulging with the boys. Enjoy in good health! And don't worry about the mess!

Monday Quotables

"A penny saved is a penny eaten...in my house." -Rockstardaddy

Walking the Amazon

  After the sun dipped into the Pacific like the ember of a cigarette and exploded in a thousand colors, and the evening clouds turned silvery ash until night swallowed the remains, Marie and I found a moment to collapse. Silence and stillness for however long it would last were embraced fully. All three kids were asleep finally. A survey of the damage began after one of us rallied to the fridge for a couple cold ones.
  One bathtub almost full of puke soaked clothing, bedding, and towels.
  Two infected ears for Tristan to go along with all the other stuff he's been going through
  Three boys taken down by the flu
  Four straight days of dealing with what nature likes to drag us through sometimes
  I was already dreading the next morning since yesterday because I knew Marie would have to go back to work and be the bread winner and I would be trying to manage this natural disaster and maybe try to figure out the bread maker in the process. Brutal. Yet as I sipped on the days reward I felt good, calm, I had reached the point where I knew I could deal. How so?
  After Marie got back from the doc with Tristan's antibiotic, mommy called the ear infection, he immediately fell asleep on me in the glider chair and remained crashed out for two straight hours. My butt and arms were numb, I however was hardly aware as I had been caught in the spell of a documentary called "Walking the Amazon".
  A British guy named Paul Stafford made the entire coast to coast, four thousand plus mile journey of the Amazon river on foot. He began in 2008 and completed the expedition over two years later. Along the way he suffered through enormous struggles against nature from jungle rot, parasites, flesh-eating disease, daily dehydration and starvation. He passed through the Peru drug corridor where most of the worlds coke is produced risking a bullet to the head with every step. After his trek up and down the Andes set him behind schedule he arrived at the Amazon basin at the height of flooding season and slogged through waist high swamp teeming with way too much stuff that could kill you, for my taste! By the time he made it to the Atlantic with one of the guides who joined him along the way he had passed through natures toughest tests. I was beyond inspired, no I won't be doing anything that insane sometime ever, but it gave me that moment of perspective I needed to stay in the ballgame and not let my mind drag me into that area that can drag the day out forever.
  So this blog kind of works out to be a congrats to Mr. Stafford for dreaming and doing the crazy and wild and a thank you for helping me walk my Amazon!