Good, Honest, Open-Lines of Communication are IMPORTANT to maintaining a happy marriage

But before we get into all that, let me just say that wife.imp and I
went to a Who concert last night!




1) The concert was just over 31/2 hours long and was waaaaay toooo short!!
2) Best F&@*-ing concert I have ever attended! (Tony, although I have not been, this would include Lionel Richie)
3)It is a saaad, saaad thing to witness 40-55+ year-old-men sneaking hits off of their weed. It is even sadder that they knew we were in a section full of teen and (lord help us but why bring these imps to a WHO concert) pre-teen boys and the druggies still lit up...I believe the phrase 'would you like to smoke those out the other end of your body?' was in play...

But after watching those effing old men from England jump and rock non-stop (and make fun of the 'lame' antics of bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers) I am in awe...and will be back on the treadmill later today!


Now, Sunday underlined, at least for us here at the Playground, why we need to communicate more effectively (yes guys, this is marriage-speak for 'men need to listen AND understand what we hear, dammit!)

Background to Sunday: wife.imp had a friend over for the weekend. Friend.imp was in town for a week of training then heading back to the Philippines. So every free moment they were off and shopping. Sunday was a day of shopping and brunch (I was there for the brunch!)

After eating wife.imp and Fr.imp were off to the Victoria Secrets and I and the imps were off to admire the 40' tall christmas tree with the 5' tall painted, styrofoam presents that were lined around the base of the tree. Very pretty. Wife.Imp knew that it would hold my attention for less than 30 seconds. So as she was walking away she shouted instructions:

w.imp: You know where we are going to be. Victoria Secrets blah blah blah!
me: Yeah yeah! Go on! We'll find you.
w.imp: You know where the store is? blah blah blah...
me: (waving and nodding) go on! We'll be fine.

Facing the main entrance to the main building of this complex, the Victoria Secrets store is directly inside the right hand door. I was wondering just how hard will it be to find someone in a store the size of a shoe box?

(keep in mind that, with the imps in tow, traveling from point A (tree) to point B (store) takes about 3-5 minutes. The restrooms and car from point A takes almost 10 minutes)

To be honest I did not know that Easton Town Center (http://www.eastontowncenter.com/index.cfm) had more than one Victoria Secrets store.

So, after admiring the tree, we headed off for the store. No wife.imp or fr.imp. HMMMM, did they go out the other door and are waiting for us at the tree???

saleslady.imp: Can I help you? (ie...you look lost and here you are dragging your two little ones through our store. How prescious! I bet you are here to buy something naughty for your wife and brought the imps along to make us pity you in a nice way!)
me: ummm, yes. I'm looking for my wife and her friend. They are filipina and about so tall and...
sl.imp: well - pause - I don't think I'll be able to help you.
me: thought not...

So out the door to the public restrooms then back to the tree (passing by the store just in case...nope, still not there).

So back at the tree the imps played Hide-and-Seek. Both getting scared because the tree was soo damn large they were not finding each other. Back to the store. Still no wife or friend. and then No girl.imp. It seems I was not moving fast enough and she decided to run around the store on her own.

me: ok, boy.imp. You really need to hold my hand because I am not going to lose you like mommy or g.imp. Excuse me (nice, friendly) saleslady.imp, I seem to have misplaced my daughter...

After retrieving girl.imp we went back outside to warm up. I do not know what it is about sales clerks and the holidays but they do seem to be more cranky this time of year...

Back to the tree. No wife.imp. I was feeling pretty tired by now and b.imp was more or less acting like an anchor at the end of my arm. So I decided that we missed connections and the safest place to wait would be back in the family van. 5 minutes after arriving at the van g.imp announces she needs to go potty. I now felt like the anchor dragging at the end of b.imp's hand...

Back inside the main building:

imps: Mommy!!!!

So friends, the moral to this story? If I had listened to wife.imp, you would not have had to slog through this long post!

Should we go out in public?

Before I digress into the main thrust of tonight's blog, let me just state that both imps have made it decidedly difficult for us to enjoy a dinner out. As a matter of fact, we are those parents who have imps that want/try to run wild in restaurants...

Our apologies.

Now on to tonight's post!

Girl.Imp had her school's Christmas pageant. Yes, our little, Catholic, school girl was a penguin in a choir for the school's play on how Penguins Rescued Santa and saved Christmas!

(yes...yes...lighten up dennis...)

Before we get to the stage let's take a quick trip to the after dinner conversation Boy.Imp had with, well you'll see:

boy.imp: Pecker! peck. peck. Pecker!

wife.imp was rushing to eat and discussing her day, thus probably missed this activity on b.imp's part.

me: (pecker? wtf, b.imp?)

b.imp: Pecker! Pecker! peck. peck. Pecker!

me: ummm...(it was right here that I saw b.imp was playing with two of the bird ornaments from the Christmas tree. Yes, this was truly an 'aha!' moment!)


Back to the Play:
The 1st grade, penguin choir starts into its recital and can anyone guess whose little imp stood in the center of the podium and Yawned her way through two of three songs?

Or perhaps which imp was chatting with others around her and (as we discovered later) initiated tickle fights during the songs?

Or, can anyone guess, which darling, little imp simply had to indulge herself in the heavy-metal, head-banging motion during a pause in the singing?

Yes our imp was front and center All.Night.Long!


and do not think that sitting in the audience was a treat. B.imp, when he wasn't busy hopping on and off of our laps also preferred other seats:

wife.imp: (whispering in my ear) Ouch! He's sitting on my boobies!!
(b.imp was standing on her lap leaning back into her...um...chestal region and kind of bouncing up and down to the music...)
me: teeheehee!

However, while it appears (to wife.imp's great dismay) g.imp has inherited daddy's--ahem--'rhythm', she really can carry a tune. Plus, not once was she caught picking her nose or nibbling on her fingernails during the concert!