I'm going Dave Barry

Degan here. I was thinking recently that I have no unique talents or interests. The only thing truly unique about me is that I see funny stuff every day.

Observations of a mad man about his world:

My 3-year old loves to pee, whether it be in public places like trees, rocks, etc., or a
public restroom--and he refuses help even when he needs it.
Like all men, I think he finds a tremendous amount of empowerment in having control out of any little portion of the universe.

I saw a guy with a peace sign on his car flip off a guy on the way to work the other day. Classic.

I'm a person that doesn't believe in gun control. I'm also planning on teaching students
at a University some day. A student asked me if I was in favor of gun control on campuses.
I stopped and thought about the fact that our current state allows people to carry guns and
it hasn't hurt us so far. But on the other hand, a gun on campus just doesn't seem very
necessary. Then the student mentioned to me that 1 in 5 people are considered crazy, and many
of them are on college campuses. Considering the incredible stress I am under at times, and the
fact that a student killed his professor last month, I think I'll side with not needing guns
on campuses. On the other hand, it would be pretty cool if professors carried them. Colt 45 baby. Nobody will accuse this Colenel Sanders about having a problem with his medula oblomgota.

Embarrassment seems like a pretty common way for people to try and change the behavior of others. Cool kids make fun of the poor ones, hoping the poor ones will act cooler. Non-smokers make fun of smokers, thinking that will shame them into changing. Skinny people ridicule fat people thinking it will do the same. Same thing happens in politics. After the lastest family holiday when I was the brunt of mockery, I did some introspection and realized that making fun of people really doesn't ever help. It breeds hurt and resentment.

I took my daughters 7 and 9 to a Greek and Roman art exhibit hoping to bring them some culture. They were disgusted by the naked men statues and demanded to know why mom and dad could like such a thing.

My daughter things I make stinky farts. She now calls me Fartchito (Fart-cheetoh).

Black Friday is a yearly event that takes everything men hate about shopping and amplifies it. In a case of reality being stranger than fiction, I agreed to go with my family to the mall, in Los Angeles, on Black Friday, without having fed my 3 children lunch. And then proceeded to try and shop. It took me 30 minutes just to get up the parking ramp to find parking. The day didn't get any better. What were we thinking?

Recent Activities in Phoenix

This last weekend we went on a camping trick with our church. I was REALLY excited about goign all week, because Danielle has pretty much shut me out of camping for the last 11 years. So this was a chance to show her how awesome it could be. Like many things involving the family, it was about as awesome and awful as it could be. The awful part was thinking it was a 2 hour drive and having it be nearly 4 hours, showing up in the dark, not being able to get the tent up by myself, missing all the campfire skits and singing, and being doggedly sick. The awesome part was the scenery, the great company, the traditional campfire food, the kids playing all over the place with so many other kids. Poor Danielle couldn't sleep because it was a new place.










This truck cracked me up. Who is this world puts a wrap on their vehicle to say "I am the best auctioneer in the world, I won!" We ran out of battery on the camera, otherwise we could have grabbed some other interesting pictures in Tucson, like "The cool church"





This place is called Pichaco peak or something like tht. From a distance both directions it looks like a volcano, but not up close.









Last weekend after spending time at the Tempe Play day or whatever it was called, I sat at a Barro's pizza under a mister so I could watch a football game--since our tv doesn't have cable. Poverty is lame.











Lately Danielle has been wanting another minivan. She saw this one at the side of the road and jumped out and took pictures.

Diamondbacks game.

Two weeks ago we went to a Diamondbacks game. The girls got tickets for reading through the local library, our tickets were real cheap. Unfortunately, that was a nightmare day. Stefanie had been nice enough to take us to breakfast at Cracker Barrel in the morning, and McKay was just pure evil. Okay, maybe only 50% evil, but he was in a rotten mood. By the time we went to an evening ball game, he was just awful. I had to chase him all around the top of the stadium. Meanwhile, Gabi talked the ear off of a boy who didn't want to talk to her. We lost the game 9-1. None of the players I remembered being on the team last year were still on the team. Danielle wanted to know if we should eat out afterward...oh man, that would have been like pouring lemon juice in an open wound...we went home, mercifully.

In this last pic, you can see Sebastian from our last neighborhood, who came with his dad.

Diamondbacks Game

The kids got free tickets for reading lots of books at the library over the summer.