Howefitz Blog

Yesterday was my fifth wedding anniversary. I used the day to pamper my wife, but I also reflected on how my life is today, and how I got here. But first, I need to go back to before I met my beautiful wife…

I’ve never been shy about sharing the fact that I favor the funnybooks. I guess of any vice one could have, reading comics isn’t all that bad. When I was small, my parents would bring home whatever they saw at the grocery store newsstand (Yeah, newsstands still had comics then!) that they thought I would like. These mainly consisted of comic book versions of my favorite cartoons: Looney Tunes, Popeye, Tom and Jerry, Donald Duck, essentially, kids’ stuff…

Yeah, it's the kids that stress me out. Riiiight...

Have you ever had one of those conversations that aren’t really about what you’re talking about? The true meaning is conveyed through innuendo and subconscious body language, etc. Sometimes we just blurt out a phrase that’s not the truth at all.

This morning, when the teenager woke me because she missed the bus, ‘You kids are KILLING me!’ was what popped out of my mouth.

We’ve all laugh at the sitcoms and comedies that depict a frazzled parent. As I add kids to my own family, that stuff gets even funnier.

Haley Joel Osment in the wonderful 'Pay it Forward' film, demonstrating how this whole thing works...

An amazing thing happened to me yesterday. Calli, Tristin, and I were hanging out while my wife had to go to the doctor for a post-pregnancy checkup.

We wound up going to WalMart and Calli was being absolutely amazing. I’ve never seen such a sweet, well-behaved little girl! So I decided I’d treat her to a $5-$6 toy. Nothing too extravagant, but something to thank her for being so good.

Batman makes a pretty good tiger, don't ya think?

We had a great time last night, and thank goodness for the extra hour’s sleep! (Not that I got to bed at a decent hour, mind you, Calli was too wound up for that…)

Before I regale you with our tales of Ghoulish adventure, however, I need to give you a little background…

For a few weeks now, the Justice League have been living in our house. Calli has decided that she is the Flash, Mommy is Hawkgirl, Kat is Wonder Woman, Tristin is Batman, and I am Superman. She addresses us accordingly, making for some great lines when taken out of context:

For anyone who is interested, here is what I finally settled on for the soundtrack to our Halloween tour of the valley. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

1. ‘This Is Halloween’ from Nightmare Before Christmas

2. Overture from Phantom of the Opera

3. “Tubular Bells’ by Mike Oldfield

4. ‘Ghostbusters’ by Ray Parker Jr.

5. ‘X-Files Theme’ by Blue Man Group (from X-Files: I Want to Believe, really the only redeeming thing about the film is this track…)

6. ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson (What kind of Halloween playlist would this be without it?)

The following post is part of a much larger project called Blog Action Day. Every year, bloggers unite to discuss a single cause. This year’s topic is Global Climate Change. I hope that you enjoy my humble offering, and that you’ll click the graphic on the left to learn more and read other great posts.

This past Earth Day, I blogged about how I felt that having kids was just about the worst thing you can do to be ‘sustainable’ or ‘green’. I still feel that there are a lot of things about the way we currently live that makes it increasingly hard to stay green when kids are a part of your life.

Okay, so I just can’t go completely wordless this week. These pictures were taken yesterday by my lovely and talented wife as we hung out in Glenwood Springs, CO. We spent a lazy Tuesday going to the last farmers market of the season and basically just hanging out. We wound up buying Calli a $2 ring that happened to be green in a gem shop. That was the best $2 I ever spent. Calli immediately donned the ring and walked down the street calling out ‘Green Lantern‘s light!’ and striking the most amazing hero poses! So a touch of editing with Gimp 2 (Photoshop‘s free cousin), and voila! Instant tiny mighty super hero!

FatherHood Friday is here again, and I’ve been so busy that I had a hard time coming up with a topic for today. So why not write about how busy I am?! I have good news and bad news. I always like to start with the bad and then cheer up. The bad news is, I’ve been working crazy long hours lately for no additional pay. Really? How much sense does that make? The good news is, starting Sept. 26, I go on a three-day-on, three-day-off schedule. (Applause.) In an effort to get the store ready for such a structure, naturally, there’s some amount of preparation involved. So, in the days and weeks leading up to this change, there have been some crazy long days, which in turn lead to the wife saying things like, ‘You’re son’s not going to know you.’ To which I reply, ‘Hang in there, it’ll all be better soon…’ And it should be. I’ve been working hard to make this change positive for work and my home. But will sacrificing the here and now be worth it?

I was at the farmer's market in Glenwood Springs, CO when the moment of peace happened. I was going to capture the bustling market, but come on, look at this face!

Well, here it is: my submission for the Worlwide Moment of Peace. I really did intend to get a shot of the farmer’s market. I felt that showing local farmers, bakers, and artisans would definitely encapsule the notion of world peace.

But then I started taking shots of my daughter, and all that fell to the wayside. What better way to represent world peace than by presenting the next generation?

photo courtesy of worldwidemoment.org

I recently discovered a wonderful event for peace that is simple to participate in. This event is known as the Worlwide Moment. This will be a simultaneous moment where people all over the world will stop and take a moment to reflect on peace, and take a photo of it.

To see photos from last year, be sure to visit the worldwide moment gallery.

The moment this year is at 9:09pm, 09/09/09, in Japan’s time zone. For me in the mountain time zone in the U.S., that’s 6:09pm, 09/08/09. To find your time zone, see this link.