(this is) durkin.org

I guess this time you really can call it a come back (or, at least, you will be able to in the event this doesn’t just stop next week).  It’s been a weird couple of years – filled with some of the best and worst times in our lives, and bunches of stuff that I meant to post about but never got around to doing, too.

And so here I am… taking up virtual space again.  Hello.

 made by xianjessen, originally uploaded by boyshapedbox.

One evening, as I sat hunched over my laptop working on slides for a meeting, Reilly asked me what I was doing. “Working,” I replied, and showed him the screen.

He studied the presentation for a few minutes, then looked at me and said – “You’re drawing pictures?”

Essentially, yes. Daddy spends hours and hours drawing pictures on his computer.

So now, I stumbled upon the Song Chart Meme / Pool and am thrilled that there is finally a use for my professional skills! These things (most of them, anyway) are freakin hilarious. Please enjoy.

ORIGINAL, originally uploaded by boyshapedbox.

A couple of weeks ago, I watched the LSU/Alabama game, and Reilly watched part of it with me.  We are not fans of either team, and he knows that, so I think he was a little confused as to why we were watching it in the first place.  Add to it that we are Auburn fans (Auburn Tigers, LSU Tigers, ??) and the confusion mounted.

Reilly: Daddy – we don’t like the Elephants, right?
Me: Right.  But we do want them to win this game.
R: Who are they playing?
M: LSU.  (pause as I think through the Tigers, Tigers problem)  They are also called the Tigers, but they are not the Auburn Tigers.
R: (…thinking…)  So, we don’t want the LSU¹ to win?
M: Right.
R: But we do want the Elephants to win?
M: Today we do, yes. 

He sat and looked at me for a while as he processed this situation.  It seemed like minutes passed.

R: Then I will say War Eagle Elephants!  Because we don’t say “Roll Tide,” right, Daddy?
M: Right!

He spent most of the first half shouting “War Eagle Elephants” at the television.  Priceless. 

1. Ever since then, he refers to LSU as “the LSU,” which cracks me up. [↩]

File this under crazy things you don’t expect to hear from your agent – we were robbed at one of our open houses.

He called the Wednesday after the house was held open on Sunday to say that he had received an email from another agent stating that there were reports of people pretending to look at houses while they were actually going after medication.  And, he said, that one woman who was so interested only left a six digit phone number and no last name, and she did ask if she could use the restroom before she left, and she was in there for what seemed like a long time…

Sure enough – the medicines that MR had left over from her whirlwind day `o surgeries were all gone.  The bottles were still there, but not so much the contents.

I checked the rest of the house, and nothing else appeared to be missing – no jewelry or electronics or anything like that.

I can’t decide if I am angrier that (1) we were robbed or that (2) the person our agent thought was most likely to purchase is apparently not really interested in the house.

The other day, while leaving the men’s room at work¹ , the CIO of my company wondered aloud how automatic flushers are powered.  It seems, he continued, that running electrical circuits in such close proximity with the water (and in so many toilets) could be dangerous.  I replied that I had never really thought about it, but that his observation did make sense.

Great – so now I was curious, too.  So as not to abuse corporate internet-use policy, I did a search at home and discovered the secret – battery power.

I called him today, to tell him about it, and he laughed and laughed and laughed.  He was, I think, genuinely amused that I had not only looked up specifics and facts and figures, but also that I actually called him to tell him.

1. OK, OK, it wasn’t actually “while leaving,” it was while inside; but I really don’t like talking in the men’s room, especially at work.  It just doesn’t seem right. [↩]

After four years (last month!), we are ready to move on; with three boys and a home-based business we just need more space. It’s a 4 bedroom, 2 bath rancher in the walking district¹ in Homewood; a great house, priced to move!

So tell everyone you know.

In other news, our house has a website, too.

1. From our house, you can easily walk to two shopping districts, two parks, the neighborhood pool and gym and the library. [↩]

A timely link, at least for me, from Lifehacker today – Cover Your Butt at Work.

“Sometimes trouble has a way of finding even the best employee. Workplace miscommunication and conflict can add stress to every day and make your life miserable.”

I don’t completely agree with the “cure-all” metality of the article, but I have to say that this habit¹ has come in very handy for me on a number of occassions.

1. I call it a “habit,” but for my purposes and in practice it is actually much less compulsive than either it sounds or the article suggests. [↩]

We aren’t getting much sleep, either. The funny thing is, Haines sleeps for a long time at night – we put him to bed between 10 and 11 each night and he usually sleeps until between 4 and 6 in the morning¹. There is just so much to be done right now – cleaning, bottle washing, milk management², work, painting, bottle washing, etc., and I honestly don’t know where the time goes. We get to sleep between midnight at 1 usually, and have lately been getting up at least once with one of the boys, then up when Haines does.

We are obsessed with Scrubs. Seriously. During the last couple of months of MR’s pregnancy, I discovered that Scrubs is on three times every night starting at 10:30 PM Central. And we watch pretty much all of them. Every night. And lately get PO’ed about the Cubs games on WGN (which is the channel that carries back-to-back Scrubs episodes every night), because then we only get to watch one show a night.  Which is clearly not enough.

1. Which might not sound like “sleeping through the night” until you compare it to the alternative: getting up every two hours to feed a newborn. [↩]
2. Have I mentioned the ridiculous amounts of milk? [↩]

I noticed today, more so than other days, the crowds gathered in the lobbies of buildings downtown, all watching news coverage of memorials and observances; reminiscent of the days immediately following the attacks when we would go to work and do nothing but stand in break rooms or troll online for news – waiting for something to happen, holding our breath at what that might be.

Its been said that September 11 was this generation’s Pearl Harbor, our Depression, and perhaps that is true. I know that I cannot, will not ever forget that day.

I was calling my wife when I heard the news. I pray for the victims, and for all of us. I think this is going to be with us for a long time.