The Launch

Alright!  Just what the world needs - another yahoo writing a blog because he thinks there are people out there who care what he thinks.  Actually I don't think there are many people at all out there who care what I think.  And I know for sure there are several people out there who dislike what I think.  Despite knowing that such people exist and might even read this blog, I've decided to go ahead with it anyway.  And I cannot take credit for the idea. It was actually my wife, Liwanag, who suggested that I give this a try.  At first I resisted the idea, but upon further consideration (and the promise of a trip to Vegas if I keep it up for a year!) I decided to go for it.

Writing for fun is not something I would have ever imagined doing.  Personally, trying to write a 3-page book report in middle school or an essay exam in college was like trying to get a professional athlete to stay off the police blotter in the newspaper.  I think it was in 7th grade that I was supposed to keep a daily journal in my English class, using each line and both sides of the paper.  I conveniently wrote just enough each day so that I had one line of text on the back of each page and then started the next day's entry on a new page.  I don't remember receiving an 'A' for that assignment.

So what is the purpose of this blog and what's with the name??  As for the name, you either get the reference or you don't.  For those of you who do, you're probably saying to yourselves "I never knew Eric was such a big fan of Judy Garland."  And for those of you who have no idea, you're probably thinking "What a dumb name for a blog."  I'm sure some of you who do get the reference think the same thing.  Just to clue in those who don't get it, the name is a play on a line from the movie The Wizard of Oz.

I'm actually not a mega fan of The Wizard of Oz.  It's a great movie, but it wasn't my love for it that led to the blog name.  My original ideas were things like "The Stay-At-Home Dad's Blog", "Two Kids and a Dad" or "The Young and the Restless".  However, upon setting up the blog on Blogger.com I found that stay-at-home dad blogs were a dime a dozen and most of the names were already taken.  For example, I thought about using "homedad" in my URL.  Alas it was already in use, and when I checked it out I was directed to a blog written by a guy named Peter in Sterling, VA.  The name of this guy's blog is "Start of a New Life: Homemaker and Dad".  The first post was made on October 19, 2002, and here it is:

"Monday is the start of a new life. Carolyn will go back to work and I will stay at home with the kids."

I don't think the new life lasted very long.  That's also the last post!  Are you kidding me?!  One and done?!  I guess I shouldn't be too surprised after reading Peter's blog profile:

"I like quiet evenings, walking my dog, LOVE sunsets and sunrises anywhere, motorcycles, fast and exotic cars, picnics in the park, coffee in an outside cafe preferably in Europe somewhere, LOVE walks on the beach, discussions about almost anything, one of my favorite past times in the winter time is sitting in front of the fire place enjoying a glass of port."

He doesn't sound up to the challenge of staying home and taking care of kids (or for that matter being married to a woman - not that there's anything wrong with that).  I, on the other hand, plan to pursue this idea full steam ahead and promise to make at the minimum two posts to this blog.  And once I decide to do something, I stick with it (just like the jiu jitsu lessons I took as a kid - for three weeks).

So instead of a boring stay-at-home dad blog name (since that obviously gets you nowhere), I decided to try to be a little more original.  Legos and diapers are two things that currently occupy about 87% of my free time, so it's a no-brainer there.  In addition to writing about my kids and family life, I plan to mix things up a bit and include other topics such as food, travel, sports, etc.  Therefore to complete the TWOZ quote, I decided to go with beer.  I like beer (in moderation of course - I'm not the type to drink a 12-pack on a Sunday afternoon while watching the Vikings).  I like different kinds of beer - from the pale yellow stuff to the darkest, heaviest sludge.  And there are infinite topics to discuss related to beer, so I'll include a beer-related nugget in each of my posts.

Finally I would like to introduce my family, who had best prepare themselves to have every minute detail of their lives discussed and dissected.  First is my lovely wife of more than 8 years, Liwanag, to whom I gave credit above for the idea of creating this blog.  For simplicity sake and to save me a few keystrokes when typing, she will hereafter be referred to as "the wife" or "my wife".  Please don't interpret that as a sign of disrespect.  At home I often call her "Wife" and she calls me "Husband".  There is also our 5-year old son Cameron, who I will refer to as "the boy".  And finally we have our 21-month old daughter Ana, the filler of diapers, who will be called "the girl" (and yes, I realize that typing "the girl" takes longer than typing "Ana" - buzz off).

Hopefully I still have your attention after getting the formalities out of the way.  I will do my best to make this blog interesting and worth reading.  This post is actually quite long - I should send it to my 7th grade English teacher.

Cheers!