Jim Dalrymple.com

This question was on a survey form that we had to fill out for Nicole’s school. What kind of dumbass question is that?
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I’m home one day from San Francisco’s warmth and sunshine and what happens? We get hammered with a winter storm. Not just any first of the year winter storm, this was a dandy.

Nicole and Michael came out to help shovel the side deck, which helped out a lot. Actually, Nicole did most of the work and seemed to have a good time doing it.

Twiggy had a blast. She has a habit of jumping in front of you when shoveling snow getting a face — and mouth — full of snow every time you try to clear the walk.

I hate snow. I hate winter.

Sometimes no matter what you do, it’s just wrong. That’s what happened to Monique and I on Sunday when friends of ours and their kids came up to the cottage for the day.

Nicole and Michael were lobbying for their friends to stay overnight at the cottage even before we left for vacation. We said that we would think about it and let them know the day they came up.

Dave and Brenda showed up and we sat around talking and had a few drinks. Later in the day we had a few burgers on the grill. The whole time Nicole and Lindsey were hinting about the sleepover.

It didn’t matter to us if the kids stayed or not, but Dave and Brenda couldn’t come back on Monday and pick them up. They decided to just take the kids home and we could arrange for a sleepover some other time at home.

Michael and his friend Andrew were disappointed, but accepted the news. Nicole and Lindsey on the other hand started crying and wailing like two year olds.

It was so bad, it was actually funny at first, but then it got old really quick. They wouldn’t stop and it was one of those stupid crying fits that you knew was planned if the news didn’t go their way.

Monique and I have never allowed ourselves to fall victim to such antics, so Nicole should have known a temper tantrum was not the way to win us over. Instead, acting like that only strengthens our resolve.

To make matters worse for Nicole, she will be punished for her actions. I’m not sure what yet, but I believe that she has to learn that there are consequences for her actions, good or bad.

Well, that news didn’t go over well with her, but I’m her parent, which means I’m not always her friend. That also means that I do what I think is right. If she thinks she can get her way by pulling stunts like this now, she may pull stupid stuff like this again.

Not on my watch!

Don’t take my word for it, just ask my daughter. I found out recently that I am the coolest father in the whole town! That led to me taking Nicole and two of her friends to a concert last night.

Nicole’s favorite band, Hedley, is led by one of the Canadian Idol contestants from last season. A few weeks ago there was a segment on the local news that Hedley was coming to town, so Monique went online and stayed there until she came away with four tickets in the second row.

The plan was this: Monique would take Nicole and her two friends to the concert and I would stay home with Michael. Worked for me.

The plan was fine until this week. Nicole decided this week that I was so cool that she needed me to take her to the show. I felt bad for Monique because Nicole fights with her a lot, but I have to say that it’s been a long time since I’ve been called cool or anything even resembling cool.

So, off I went with three pre-teen girls following behind — okay, actually I was following behind, but I was really out of place. Luckily, I wasn’t the only parent at the concert that was totally out of place.

Nicole had a lot of fun. She managed to get up on stage with the band and danced around for most of the last song. After the concert was over, I stood in line with the girls for over an hour so they could get an autograph and a picture.

It all worked out pretty good. The girls had fun and I’m apparently still cool!

As if Michael’s teeth problems weren’t enough this past week, Nicole went in today to get braces on her teeth. She was actually looking forward to having braces — Monique and I both had them and neither of us looked forward to having them.

The braces were planned for quite a while now, but it just adds to the drama as we prepare to take Michael in for the first of his five root canals on Thursday. I think they’ll take a week or so to complete them.

Nicole didn’t think the braces would hurt, but after only an hour or so she said the bottom teeth are starting to hurt. From experience I told her they will hurt a lot more in the next few days.

Nicole left on an end of the year school trip today. She didn’t go far; there is a camp about an hour away that she went to with about 100 other kids. Damn glad I’m not a chaperone on that trip! Monique drove some of the equipment and bags down for the school, but unfortunately ended up in the hospital on the way home.

Monique’s sickness that I talked about last week hasn’t improved any. On the way home, her eyesight got so blurry, she had trouble seeing the road. I would have gone to get her, but we don’t have a second car and I had no way to get to her.

She called and said she was going to wait at the doctor’s office until she could get in to see someone – not the best way to spend an afternoon, but this has got to be fixed!

The doctor took one look at her eyes and into the hospital she went to see a specialist. Why the hell didn’t that happen before this?!

So, she is now in the hospital and we are waiting to hear back from the doctor. Hopefully it will be good news – we could both sure use some.