Fathers, Puppies, and Books

The entire family watched the memorial service for Steve Irwin, "The Crocodile Hunter" on TV last night. It was important to my son. Steve Irwin was a personal hero of his. He watched every episode -of every show- the man ever did, and a lot of The Boy's personality was adapted from Steve Irwin. He's an animal lover and a huge advocate for conservation and ecologic protection. He wants to make a career of the Navy but he also wants to integrate it with animal research . . . maybe oceanography/mammal studies. That's because he learned about how important animals are from Steve Irwin. It's a shame what happened to the man and his memorial service was very nice. There was a moment though, when his 8-year-old daughter got up to read a good-bye letter she'd written to her father that damn near broke my heart. I also had a rough moment when his father got up to talk about how important his son was to him . . . I'm sure all you parents out there understand. Rough stuff.

On to happier things . . . another 1,600 words on "First", more editing on "Fish", and "Slayer" is still being shopped to agents. No bites as yet but one can always hope, yes? Had Scouts last night and that went well. I worked with two boys who are gearing up for their Eagle Scout projects and we had two new boys join the Troop. I like the symmetry of that. I did FINALLY remember to bring in the Scoutmaster's birthday cake (only 1-1/2 weeks late!) and the boys devoured it in under three minutes (No, that is NOT an exaggeration, I was timing it!) I'm telling ya, folks: sharks got nothing on teenaged boys when it comes to feeding frenzies! There was a camping trip last weekend (Which The Boy and I couldn't make. We were picking up the puppy.) and I'm sorry we missed it. Turns out the adults stumbled across a remarkable way to keep all the boys neat, clean, showered, combed hair, etc.

We just need to make sure there are Girl Scouts nearby!

Seems the place they went was an open weekend for all Scouts, so there was a large collection of 12-18 year old girls wandering about and all the boys were doing their best to impress. There was even a dance of sorts Sat. night and several of our boys actually found some female companions to groove with! (Am I sounding old again?) I am VERY sorry I missed that! That's fodder for yeaaarrrrrrsssssss of abuse that I missed out on. Ah well, the boys are all knuckleheads, so there will be no shortage of comedic material. Trust me!

The Wife took the puppy to the vets for her first checkup. She's in perfect health, well adjusted, happy, and calm. The staff at the vet's were crooning all over her becasue of how CUTE she is!! (Alright, even my grumpy, old, ass has to admit she's a really pretty dog!) We got some good advice, health tips, and some no-no's to keep in mind for dog rearing. I think Vets may actually be exempt from my "Doctors are Evil" rule. I asked The Boy if maybe he might want to be a Vet but he wants no part of it. He loves what they do but he doesn't like the idea of having to put animals down. He understands the need for it but doesn't want any part of doing it himself. I thought that was a fairly mature response. It's important to know yourself and what you are/are not willing to do. I take such things as a good sign. May be hope for that kid yet!

Tonight -should be- a quiet one about the house and I should make more solid writing progress. The schedule seems to be working for everyone at home, so I'll (hopefully) be sticking with it for quite a while. The weekends off are a good idea. Everybody needs downtime (especially lazy slobs like me!) to just decompress from the crazy of everyday life.

Later!