The kids are on a plane headed to North Carolina, so I am kidless in the valley for 10 or so days.  We did get one more trip to the pool in yesterday.... Lucy could chase dive sticks all day.  I grill vegetables on the BBQ last night... That is the best way to make them, they taste so good!  The fire and blackout on the West Side made Stench's day hell yesterday... It only takes one event to screw up all of L.A. traffic, two and you're really screwed.  I'm going to go for a walk today before the podcast.... I want to check out my hoods latest public art piece, "The Gateway".  Bad day at the beach.  Florida can change their state slogan to Where Children Roam Freely.  Honoring a cheater.  Countdown to baby.  Skinny dipping record.  I'm with her.  But it's so good!  This years new words.

Summer is the best time of the year... get out there and enjoy the heat!

Rock On, Jack

Or at least I hope so... Let's hope that now that MJ has been put to rest that the news can put the story to rest.  The kids and I hit the pool today, Lucy is swimming very well... And she's a dive stick pro.  Bing just want to lay in the shade with Baby... Although, Baby wanted to work on her tan (and yes, Baby is a girl according to Bing).  We had lunch at the kids favorite local restaurant, Pit Fire Pizza... They love it there, they pick it over Denny's!?!?  I've been eating like a pig... When the kids are gone for the next 2 weeks it's back onto my diet/workout program.  I think we're going to have the Imbiber on the CRN Show tonight.  Just because they're not reporting it doesn't mean swine flu is gone!  What caused the Monorail crash?  Way to go Lance.  This always happens to me.   Miley is sad and single.  Has anyone seen my pants?  I sent my Sis some.  Do you still have a landline? 

Hugs for everyone.

Rock On, Jack

The kids are leaving for vacation in the middle of this week, so I'm trying to spend as much time with them as possible... Thus, I didn't get a blog posted today.  Things should be back to normal by Thursday!  Hope you had a great 4th!

Rock On, Jack

No blog today, it was a crazy busy day, but all will return to normal Monday!  Have a GREAT, SAFE 4th! 

Rock On, Jack

Remember I mentioned that I dropped my TV when I moved... Well, it no longer emits sound, I knew that it working was too good to be true.  It doesn't really bother me too much, but the kids are a tad upset... Max and Ruby just doesn't have the same appeal without sound.  There's one of those upscale cupcake places near here, so the kids and I tried it yesterday... To be totally honest they weren't that great, the ones at the market bakery are just as good and a third the price.  Tomorrow there will be Michael Jackson chaos when they drive his body to Santa Barbara... Stay off the 101!  Are you ready for the fourth?  I don't know what I'm doing yet, but I know I need some BBQ and to see things explode!  Lucy and Bing are getting themselves dressed for the pool... I know Lucy can do it, but I'm interested to see if Bing ends up wearing his swim diaper over or under his swim suit!?!?  The MJ will details are coming out.  Let the pig live.  15th time is the charm.  No one said pot smokers are smart.  Are you're kids ready for a gay sock!?!?  4 y.o. gets a tat!  Kind of creepy.  Get off my lawn.  He was well-done.  Hey, Stench is from 'Bama.

If things always made sense life would be kind of boring.

Rock On, Jack

We recorded the podcast early (although I had bad technical problems today!  Sorry!!!)  and then the kids and I went to the pool.  They are crazy for the water, I just wish they were better swimmers, I think we are going to enroll them in lessons... That way I'll be able to relax a little more when we're there.  Hopefully you guys get a chance to have some fun on the up coming 4th of July weekend... Or at least get to watch stuff blow up!  Is that a squirrel in your shirt.  Good news for bad swimmers.  I love when bears break in.  Hey, it only took 63 years to get it back.  Something for you to do on Friday.  The latest ugly dog contest winner.  I no longer like the Russians.  Wall-E hits  a car.

Pay attention... Some times it means the most to people.

Rock On, Jack

I can't believe that the 4th of July is next weekend... It feels like Summer just started.  It was nice to finally have some heat, but the kids weren't here, so I didn't make it to the pool until the got here at 5p yesterday.  I went to Angela Channel and Ethan's company picnic on Saturday and as you can see for the video I posted yesterday their performance was unique... They won first place.  I thought it was cool that the company they work for, Line 6, still had their company picnic, they had to downsize it, but they still did it.  Saw The Hangover on Friday... I know its been out for a while, but it was really funny, I highly recommend it. Billy Mays passed away this weekend... He's the Oxy-Clean, TV Infomercial guy.  Jackson's Mom has filed for custody of the kids.  Having connection problems, and the kids are hungry, blog at you later!

Life is short... So get out and enjoy it.

Rock On, Jack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M-3BWICvX0

Angela Channel, Ethan and 6 of their Co-Works won first place at the Line 6 company picnic with this performance this weekend. That's Ethan as Kermit.

This has been an eventful 7 or so days, from train crashes to ed McMahon. Farrah to Jackson, much has happened.  I'm not going to lie, I felt more of a loss from Ed and Farrah than I did from Michael, but I know many of you have been greatly effected, so keep your chin up and talk to friends and family, grief is a powerful thing.  The kids and I avoided the media frenzy at the pool yesterday, Bing is quite the jumper, he launches himself into the pool like he has springs for legs and Lucy would spend all day retrieving dive sticks if I would let her.  Today my complex is having a Dippin' Dots party by the pool, so they're amped for that. Big plans for the weekend?  It's supposed to be a hot one!  Mermaid molester.  Forget mints, have a cup of coffee.  Looking for MJ's Doctor.  Want a job at Victoria's Berka?  Run-away groom.  Free Pinkberry today.  It's an early Thanksgiving.

Remember the good times.

Rock On, Jack

Have you ever thought about who you were yesterday?  For 9 people on a DC train it was simply alive, for the South Carolina governor it was a respected politician, for me it was married.  Sure in all reality my marriage has been over for over a year, but yesterday I was still technically married.

Today I met my Ex-Wife at the court house at 8am, we were number 10 on the list of failed relationships, she was cold so I gave her my jacket to wear.  We sat on that cold, hard bench, one of the many that line each side of floor six of the L.A. Superior Court House, she had a stack of papers and I had my black leather brief case...  I remember being so excited to get it, It had that leather smell and just looked like something an adult carried with important documents, research reports and crucial statements in it.  I hate that brief case now, for the past year it has been stuffed with papers summarizing my life, dissecting my marriage and rating my abilities as a husband and father.  I would have to wake at dawn shower, shave, put on a tie and drape it's strap over my shoulder.  I watched it travel down a short conveyor belt, through an x-ray machine a dozen or more times and then again feel it pull on my shoulder as I rode the escalators up to the six floor.  Sometimes it floated at hip level between me and a lawyer, or me and my Mom, or me and my Sister, Sometimes we were alone in that long hall, today it was the four inch barrier between me and my Ex-Wife. 

At 8:30am they open the court room and you enter and check in.  I mentioned we were number 10, that doesn't really mean anything, the order is determined by so many factors...  And the fact that we were no longer represented by attorneys meant we would get no special treatment.  We sat there, side by side watching other crumbled marriages... married for 26 years and now he's trying to hide their assets, filed in 2004 but reconnected had a child in 2006 and now two restraining orders later are still in the process, I want child support while we try and figure out if he's really the father, I want to take my daughter back to Houston but Dad has her at his house that was just raided for drugs.... Stories sad, tragic - and real.  We sat there quietly and watched, voyeurs to emotional destruction and family collapse...  And then the judge said something that caught me totally off guard - number 10.

We walked up to the table that sits in front of the judge, this time so different than every other time, no fighting, no lawyers, no friends and family sitting behind... Just the woman six years ago or so that I asked to marry me, wearing my jacket, standing in front of a sign that read "petitioner" and Me, wearing a pink tie and slacks that are three sizes too big (I couldn't find any in my apartment that actually fit, a casualty of my recent move I guess) in front of my "respondent" sign.  It went very quickly, she did most the speaking (why should divorce be different than marriage) and within about ten minutes we were divorced. 

It just happened a few hours ago, and it's weird I don't remember it as a participant, but more as a viewer.  I can can see us standing there from the gallery, the judge sitting on the bench just beyond between us.  Telling us that by end of business today it would be official. 

As I've already explained, I see no reason to celebrate... In fact it breaks my heart.  This is not the way it was supposed to work.  We sat at Starbucks for about a half a hour afterward and just kind of reflected on what had just happened and then we walked together to the parking lot, well she was in the parking lot, I took the subway, we said goodbye...  We both knew this was a very different goodbye, she teared up a little, I held it together. 

The escalator ride down to the subway is pretty long, that briefcase was hanging on my shoulder, I felt strange...  I can't explain, but like I said my marriage has been over for a long time, but it was now real.  There was a train arriving as I reached the platform, I got right in and took a window seat, the briefcase sitting at my feet...  I stared out that window at the black wall of the tunnel we passed through until it reached it's final stop, North Hollywood.  I walked up to my little one bedroom apartment and sat on my bed for a while, I'm not sure for how long? 

I couldn't stay in here any longer, not alone, so I went down to our gym.  There were three other people working out.  I sat on an exercise cycle and just started pedaling, I didn't set the time or choose a program, I just wanted to begin my journey to nowhere.  I started to cry, did the others in the gym notice?  I'm sure. Did they say anything? No.  And all I could think is f**k you, you don't know who I was yesterday.