Howefitz Blog

The other day, my wife and I were discussing something that has now been lost in the folds of my addled brain. She asked a question that I also can not recall at the moment, but I remember my answer. I had said, “Well, yes and no.”

The reason I remember my answer is due to Calli, my four-year-old-tomorrow. Her eyes shot up, looked deep in to mine and said, “Not ‘yes-and-no’. Just yes. It’s always just yes.”

Since her birth, there has been no shortage of wonderful lessons she has given me, but this one gave me some serious thoughts.

I’m getting ready to pick Kat up from the airport after her Australian adventure. I must say, I’ve enjoyed her texts, but I’m ready to really hear the stories.

In messages of 160 characters or less, I’ve learned that she repelled off of cliffs at the Blue Mountains, toured the Sidney Opera House and Parliament, visited aquariums and zoos, held a Koala, swam under a waterfall, and ate kangaroo, crocodile, and (live!!) green ants.

But I can’t wait to hear the stories. She hung out with aborigines and stayed with a family that’s as in to Asian culture as she is.

G’Day, Mates! This Fatherhood Friday, I wanted to give you the update on Kat’s Australian adventures!

We’ve been communicating through text and the leader has been emailing us, so unfortunately, there are no pictures yet. They are in and out of phone service, and don’t have access to email very often, but here’s what I know so far:

They have repelled off of the Blue Mountains, swam at the Olympic Park, toured the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Aquarium, visited the Opal Museum, took a cruise of Sydney Harbor, visited the Parliament House, swam at Edith Falls, visited Aborigines, and Kat wrestled a sheep.

Phone booth, glasses, last of his kind... OMG! The Doctor is Superman!

It truly is amazing how a silly T.V. show can get you to thinking about life.

I am currently in mourning. I’m mourning the loss of a fictional character. What makes this behavior on my part even worse, is that said fictional character has the ability to ‘regenerate’, causing him to live, albeit in varying forms, possibly forever.

Yesterday, I lost the Doctor.

It wasn’t a surprise. I knew it was the end. The rest of the world has already mourned and moved on. They’re enjoying Matt Smith, I’ve seen the tweets.

After much deliberation, it has been decided that Joanne Owens (@hangglided on twitter) is the winner of my Sweet As Sugar Milk contest. She’ll be receiving her copy of Sugar Milk in the mail soon, I’m shipping it today! Congrats, and thank you so much Joanne!

With that, I am pleased to announce that through the generosity of my blog readers, friends, family, and a few impromptu garage sales (not to mention most of my tax return), Kat’s trip to Australia with People to People is now reality! She flies out on the 16th for 17 days in the Land Down Under. I can’t believe that it’s that soon! Incidentally, on the graphic above, I found a font on Artweaver called ‘Australian Sunrise’. What else would I use? Here’s a glance at Kat’s itinerary while she’s down there:

Good morning and Happy Fatherhood Friday to everyone! I am very excited to have my good friend, Ron Mattocks, author of the wildly popular fatherhood memoir, Sugar Milk, here for a guest post. Ron’s alias is also Clark Kent of Clark Kent’s Lunchbox, and since you never tug on Superman’s cape, I am going to quickly step aside and let him explain why he’s here:

An Idiot’s Guide To Australia

I don’t think a day goes by that I am not amazed at the stories my three year old, Calli, likes to tell. This is how storytime generally goes in my house:

Calli: Daddy, can’t you tell me a story? (This is how she asks for everything now. ‘Daddy, can’t you…’ As if she’s tired of asking.)

Me: What kind of story?

Calli: I don’t know…

Me: OK. So. Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Calli.

Calli: Was she a Princess?

Me: Yes, she was a beautiful Princess!

It’s Fatherhood Friday once again, and I’ll get right down to business. I would like to take this heightened traffic opportunity to once again ask for your help.

We just recently found out that Kat needs to finish raising the money for her People to People delegation to Australia by May 14th! If you are able, please make a donation of any comfortable amount by clicking on the Chip-In button to the right of this page. Kat and my wife are working on hand drawn thank you cards that will be sent to you from Australia, time allowing, or when she gets home. If you’ve already donated, you’re already on our mailing list!

I remember my first backpacking trip in the Rocky Mountains. I can’t tell you exactly how old I was, but I was a young teen. What I do remember is that it was a new moon when we set up camp near the summit. I had never seen so many stars! I remember looking up and feeling like the Universe was at my fingertips. It also made me feel so very tiny. Who was I compared to THIS? What difference could I possibly make? I quickly realized that yes, the Universe is very large. But so was this mountain, and I had just conquered it, right? I was a part of this wondrous creation, and whatever The Plan was for my being here, I had faith that I would fulfill that destiny.

With my new three on, three off schedule at work, it gets hard to sit down and pound something out for certain days. Since I’m in the middle of the three on cycle, I’m furiously typing this just before leaving for work. I just had to give an update on Kat’s trip to Australia with People to People.