Dad's House

Dating & Parenting
by a Single Dad


Crashing a Parents Party on Halloween

Posted on November 2nd, 2009 | 17 comments

My teen son decided to trick-or-treat this Halloween with a new group of friends. He’s in eighth grade and they’re in seventh, and I didn’t know any of these kids. When I dropped my son off, I made sure to go up to the house and meet the parents.
What do you know, there was a [...]

My Dad Invented Google

Posted on October 23rd, 2009 | 15 comments

I showed up at a local Laser Tag place to pick up my son from a youth group outing. He was paling around with some boys a year younger than him. No one I knew. But they were excited to see me.
They came over to me, bowing, proclaiming: We’re not worthy!
“Did you invent Google?” one [...]

The Police and My Teen Daughter

Posted on October 16th, 2009 | 20 comments

It’s the police!
That, a text message sent by my teen daughter, not twenty minutes after she left for astronomy class. WTF!?

Had she gotten into an accident? Was she pulled over for a driving offense? Did she get another parking ticket?

What’s going on? I texted back.
Silence.
I shifted into worried-dad overdrive. I figured I could drive to [...]

Hotel Housekeeping – at 9am!

Posted on October 5th, 2009 | 23 comments

My kids and I were in Albuquerque this past weekend, attending the Balloon Festival. Yes, it was fun. (I’ll post pics and stories as soon as my daughter uploads photos from her camera.)
We were awake at 5am Saturday morning for the festival (which is 4am to our California bodies), and stayed up late Saturday night, [...]

Parking Ticket at Astronomy Class

Posted on October 2nd, 2009 | 10 comments

Our local junior college has an astronomy class with a reputation for being very good. The school has a decent-sized telescope, and the instructor co-wrote the textbook they use. He’s not quite Carl Sagan (“billions and billions of stars in the universe…”), but might be close. People of all ages flock to his class.
With my [...]

Spinach for Breakfast

Posted on September 3rd, 2009 | 20 comments

My thirteen-year-old son woke up tired the other morning. Really tired, like it took an army of elephants to drag him out of bed. He could barely hold himself up over his Cheerios and Ovaltine hot cocoa.
“I’m really tired,” he said. (As if I hadn’t clued in to that fact.)
“Did you get enough sleep?” I [...]

Funny Surf Shop Story

Posted on July 29th, 2009 | 23 comments

My kids and I enjoy body surfing and boogie boarding at a favorite central California coast beach. Only problem, the water is usually too cold to stay in for long. My kids get around this by wearing shorty wetsuits (springsuits) that cover their bodies, thighs, and upper arms.
Great for them, but I wear boardshorts.
Annoyed that [...]