Tidy Husband

Eligible for the seniors discount and the Happy Meal deal at the same time.

  1. Singing a Song

    All Day Long

    The day started with singing.

    Photo by Artem Bryzgalov on Unsplash B

    By mid-day the singing continued.

    She put herself to sleep - you guessed it - singing.

    I guess when you’re six-years-old with just a few days until the big day of the year, you sing. A lot.

    She sang to her slime as she played with it and split it up evenly on plates. I’m not sure what the plates were for exactly - but they had pink slime on them and getting sung to.

    She sung in the car on the way to swimming lessons and sung on the way home too.

    The song? For the most part was the secondary part and not important at all.

    There was a time when she was doing some sort of challenge with the music from Zootopia 2 vs Zootopia, the original - but for the most part the singing just went hand in hand with the playing.

    The only time she was not singing was at the dinner table, but she sung before and after too. It’s hard to sing and eat.

    The tunes from the K-Pop Demon Hunters seem to be very popular but may times today the lyrics were sung on the fly - which are the best kind - just sing a song - any song.

    She sang in the bathtub, she sang downstairs in the family room while BW and I tidied up tonight. She sang in the living room on a blanket setup for a tea party.

    There was a lot of singing today.

    And when I left her room tonight she was of course - singing.

    I managed to get this post typed out in one sitting so she even sung herself to sleep tonight

    Today she sang a song and made it last all day long.

    And that’s a good day here.

    Keep Singing,

    TH and Co.

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  2. Last Minute Christmas Shopping

    We had to go eventually.

    With the amount of holiday illness in our home lately, we were a little behind when it came to our Christmas shopping. So today - of all days - the child and I went looking for a gift/stocking stuffers for BW.

    Photo by Anastasiia Chepinska on Unsplash

    First, stop: McDonald’s. We needed to have energy before we went, and of course there’s the toy. The current promotion is with Disney and they have 70 toys from which to choose. Her happy meal came with two toys so this means we only have to go 35 more times 1 to get the complete set. For more than one reason, that’s not going to happen for us.

    Next Stop: Off to the strip mall, because nothing says I love you like some crap from the Dollar Store.

    I want to note that of all the stores we visited today, it was the Dollar store that was the busiest. We popped into the craft store, and it was a ghost town and even Target was not super packed, which is odd. Maybe it’s the economy, or maybe people just shop online but for the last Saturday afternoon before Christmas there were a lot of empty parking spots for this time of year.

    Shopping with the child is the biggest time suck ever because she wanted to look at every item at every store. I like to shop, so I get it - but it’s hard to shop with children. I knew that already but this was the reminder that if you actually want to be able to browse - go alone - because she wants an audience all the time of all the neat things she finds.

    This is unlike back in the day when you could leave your child in the toy dept and come and find them later, while you actually shopped. Now you’re expected to have them hang around with you all the time so you can you know: Parent in real time.

    Oh, the shopping - We did actually end up finding a few trinkets to toss in some stockings and we were back on the road home where we already have enough crap as it is.

    It was a good day for her and she needed to get out of the house and with both BW and I sick there’s been a fair bit of screen time lately. It was about time she went outside, even if it was just to the mall.

    I think I can say that we are now as ready as we are ever going to be for Christmas 2025.

    Bring it on Santa. We’re ready.

    TH and Co.

    1. this assumes you don’t get any duplicates, either. ↩

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  3. Going to Bed at the Dawn of AI

    It’s here already, we just don’t know how weird it will get.

    She went to bed relatively easy tonight. She asked if we can “look at pictures” when she’s in the bed.

    Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

    “Looking at Pictures”, means we fire up the Google Photos app and check out the photos it suggests from the archives. A look back in time to one year ago today, etc. It will surface up some old photos and it’s fun to go back and see them and share them with her again.

    But we’ve added a new habit or distraction to the bedtime routine: Playing with AI.

    To date, we haven’t had any real use for AI except for maybe using a chatbot to get the car serviced without having to make a phone call.

    The only use we really have to date for it is for AI to re-mix the photo get an AI result. It’s a fun way to get her to wind down and after a few photos she’s bored and I take my phone and sneak out

    What we’ve found with this new activity is the AI will either get it so wrong it’s not funny, or, as in the case with tonight’s example: pretty spot on - or better than expected, at least.

    Photo we uploaded:

    This was just a quick snap of her with her headphones on watching YouTube and trying to keep her clean in her outfit for five minutes before we left for Thanksgiving dinner.

    This is what AI thought this picture should look like:

    That’s a pretty dramatic difference and it looks great.

    Almost

    I say almost because I find that like the AI-written stuff, there’s something and I can’t figure out what exactly - that I’m looking at a interpretation of a photo of the child. I wish I could tell you what, but it looks like she’s a bit younger in the AI photo than in real life, and those hands look a little too pudgy for almost 7 years old.

    Anyway, this is not a post about AI or and it’s pros vs cons - other than to share that this is what we’re using all that electricity and powerful servers and the millions of dollars that have been poured into the AI boom so far:

    To get a six-year-old to go to bed.

    The technology may change, but the song remains the same:

    It’s called “Go To Bed”.

    Keeping it Real, 1

    TH and Co.

    1. This post was written without intelligence of any kind, and under the influence of multiple doses of DayQuil. Results may be unexpected. ↩

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  4. Writing While Sick

    All I wanted for Christmas is more Tylenol.

    This is going to be a really short one today as I have come down with a cold. Nothing serious, but OMG my head.

    So tonight to fulfill my requirement of writing here every day I will leave you with a photo of the dog, because that’s all I’ve got.

    Keep Healthy,

    TH and Co.

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  5. 7 Days to Behave

    I’m not sure we’re going to make it.

    As per usual, bedtime was a struggle.

    Photo by Daniel o’dowd on Unsplash. | I wish she would count these.

    It was the usual - wanting a snack or a story or one more huggie or any other excuse to stay up or have dear old Dad tuck her in one more time.

    But we’re excited here you guys - It’s a week to go and she still believes in Santa Claus for what could be the very last year because my bet is her BFF at the time will spill the beans next year so we’re enjoying all the Christmas we can this year, because this is probably it and before we know it she’ll be doing her own taxes.

    Tonight after dinner she came bounding down the stairs with the Amazon ~~Wish Book~~ Holiday Kids Gift Book and both BW looked at each other and thought: OH GOD NO.

    We have spent hours if you total the time spent flipping through this book with her and here’s the thing: for the most part she needs nothing, - or she’s already got it and doesn’t know it yet.

    We do have a few things that will not ever get bought for various reasons:

    1. A karaoke machine. Because why would anybody voluntarily want to amplify the child’s singing? NO sane adult that lives here, that’s who.

    1. Barbie Anything. This is BW’s hill to die on mosty, but I agree - they don’t make girls like this in real life so why do we need to promote this as normal when it’s far from it? It’s only normal with for the Mar-a-Lago crowd and that’s not a look anybody wants to have on purpose.
    2. American Girl Anything. This is mostly because Dad’s a cheapskate and these things are ridiculously overpriced for what they are. I would rather buy the child a Rolex then this 1

    With that stuff out of the way there’s not much left. The catalog is just a page each of brands anyway so if you filter out the action figures and Melissa and Doug stuff there’s not much left that’s not a piece e of junk - or a squishmallow which we have enough of.

    She pointed out a 12 pack of mini squishmallows and I told the child no - the dog would eat all those toys in no time. It would be easier and cheaper to buy the dog a dozen donuts - so those are out.

    We are all shopped out.

    This leaves us with 7 more sleeps to behave for Dad. Tonight I told her she had to go to bed because this the start of the week of “Yes, Dad”, where children all over the world listen to their parents for the entire week straight before Christmas without any back talk, or “just five more minutes”, or whatever other excuse comes out of their tiny little mouths.

    I’m not sure if she believed me, but that’s all I want for Christmas this year: A smooth bedtime routine for a week.

    Talk about a Christmas Miracle.2

    Counting the days,

    TH and Co.

    1. Another example of being ridiculously priced, unless of course you’re of the Mar-A-Lago crowd, again. ↩

    2. batteries not included. ↩

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