I titled this edition as a shout out to the old 80’s tv holiday specials that I grew up watching. I recently had lunch with a friend of mine and we were talking about how the tv shows from the 80s made everything look so perfect. Why am I writing about this? What makes this Dudes Day so special? I’ll tell you. We celebrated my wife’s birthday this Sunday. This made Dude day awesome because my son and I had a lady accompanying us on our adventures. I named it this to point out that even though the day ended as a success it was filled with imperfections and was a better day because of it ; in my opinion. Now trust me I could tell you all about the wonderful things we did, which I will, but I want to talk to you about all the things that weren’t all that great.
Brunch
We started the day as normal. My wife is usually at home on sundays when we wake up. Today is different because today we are celebrating her birthday so she will be a part of our Dudes Day adventures. We were going to meet her parents and mine for brunch at Rooster on Grand Ave at 9:30. In general Setting times has always been very problematic for our family. We found it hard to get out the door on time before my son was born but since he is with us it is even more difficult. Chances are if you are reading this you have kids of your own. You know how difficult it is but if you do not have kids I will try to explain. The smallest task ( Going to the bathroom) becomes a game when you have a four year old. Imagine sitting in the bathroom and the door flys open a little hand grabs the end of the toilet paper and runs off down the hall, your partner is in the shower. so what do you do? I start with reasoning, “please bring the tp back or we are not going” his response ” I don’t want to go” I then remind him that after breakfast we will be going to the museum (Magic House). He brings the one end back. I am still left to roll it all back up. If that doesn’t surprise you try this, now Will has said he wants a drink so unbeknownst to us he runs to the kitchen opens the refrigerator and turns the spigot to the water pitcher on and then walks away. So when my wife comes out the pitcher is empty and the entire kitchen and fridge is covered in water. She is left to clean it up he helps of course but these are just little parts of a normal morning. We haven’t even started the dressing procedure and we are already running late. All in all we didn’t end up to bad. Only about 15 minutes late. Parents should be allowed to have a suggested arrival time +|- 20 minutes. So,needless to say everyone else had been seated and picked out what their order was going to be. We have to sit, get Will situated, and read the menu even this is hard to do with a four year old. We got through that eventually and the food was awesome and I ordered a “sunburnt White Russian ” to remind myself that it was Sunday and I just needed to slow things down a bit. The drink was great and I would highly suggest it if anyone goes there. We said our goodbyes and headed to our next stop.
The Museum (Magic House)
My son pretty much refers to everything as a museum. The Magic house is actually a science museum disguised as a funhouse. It has been around since before I was Wills age. It is a very fun place for kids. It isn’t a normal place for our Dude Day events mostly just because of the cost to enter as well as the crowds on the weekend. It cost 11.00 for anyone over 1 one year. My son requested this place today because they have a replica of the beanstalk from’ Jack and the Beanstalk’ he has been infatuated with Jack and his Giant since his first birthday it is by far his favorite story and can listen to any iteration of it over and over. This feature was very crowded and really isn’t all that big to accommodate all the kids that want to play on it so of course the smaller the kid the more problems they will have. Will liked it and that’s all that really matters. We could not take much more than an hour and half of the crowds. Will was tired so we went back to the house for a nap.
The Afternoon and Evening
My wife had a funeral visitation to attend in the afternoon and I wanted to go to Oakville Butcher Block to pick up some stuff to grill for dinner. I got a filet for my wife Pineapple and brown sugar brats for me and some hotdogs for Will. This place has the best brats I’ve ever had. I highly recommend this local business. While eating dinner I realized that we would not be together on my Wife’s actual birthday because of scheduling conflicts, and I forgot to get a cake and candles. I quickly ate and ran to the store to purchase a cake with candles. I got home right as they were finishing dinner. We sang Happy Birthday and all was right in the world.
You know I really wanted to let you in on what an actual day looks like, not the highlights with the assumption being that everything is perfect all the time. We had an awesome day as a family and learned a lot along the way. For example always lock the door while using the bathroom and scoot the water pitcher back or up so that Will can not reach it.
An Imperfect Man 