March 21, 1992

The weekend's top-grossing movie

JoAnna's day is pretty much booked, but we find a little time for a family breakfast outing at Perkins.  We drive there in separate vehicles as JoAnna will need to make an earlier-than-the-rest-of-us departure.  Having already scarfed down a peanut-butter-and-jelly English muffin a couple of hours earlier, I bypass the major chow and order potato pancakes.  Used to be, back in the seventies, this was the only thing I ordered off Perkins' menu.

Snow falls throughout the day.  By the early afternoon at least four inches accumulates.  JoAnna hesitates about going out, but I encourage her to keep to her schedule of doing doors.  She goes out for a couple of hours.  By the time she returns, there is 6 or 7 snow on the ground.

JoAnna makes Swedish meatballs for supper and then shovels the sidewalk and driveway.  I'm the one who should be outside getting exercise, but I continue to burn off calories in my dreams.

Saturday, December 7, 1991

JoAnna begins her campaigning today, but not before she attends a meeting with her speech therapists' group in Milwaukee.  The boys and I drive her to the AT&T parking ramp, where we left the van last night due to JoAnna's unwillingness to drive while blissfully drunk, and then we go to Perkins for breakfast.  I order two Li'l Cowpokes, and Eddie eats more of his than Andy.

John Dickert stops by the house at about the same time that JoAnna returns.  After they review the lit drop routes, JoAnna begins her door-to-door trek to get signatures on her nomination papers.

November 9, 1991

Barb is up surprisingly early.  The reason is obvious.  She's made an appointment to have her hair done.  The rest of us to out to Perkins for breakfast.  Eddie is an absolute angel.  He chows down on pancakes and sits in his high chair looking cute.

Later in the morning JoAnna has a meeting with Dick Wagner, and Barb spends about an hour in front of the bathroom mirror redoing her hair.  Why does she have this obsession with her appearance?  She never goes anywhere.  Besides herself, who is she trying to look good for?

I do the laundry, clean out and reorganize the bathroom closet (once that room is free), and transport the rotting pumpkins on the front stoop to the compost pile in the back yard.

We have company for supper:  Larry and Martha and Michael, Chris and Diane.   We play the 60s version of Trivial Pursuit and call it an evening shortly after 9.  Not that many years ago, I'd just be warning up to a night of sheepshead, which would probably go to 1 or 2 or sometimes 3 a.m.  There's a one-word explanation for the major lifestyle change:  parenthood.

June 16, 1991

It's a Happy Father's Day.  JoAnna and the boys present me with a gift and cards while I'm still lounging in bed.  We go out to Perkins for breakfast.  Andy gets to be a handful for awhile.  JoAnna and I do some gardening but not until Andy and I some basketball at the park -- "our park", as he refers to it.  We buy some more perennials at Bruce to fill in along the south side of the house.  I take out about a foot-wide length of turf and replace it with cedar bark mulch.  After a shower, I lounge on the hammock, Eddie right next to me in his playpen.  JoAnna cooks steaks with lotsa fixin's for a picnic supper.  After a call to Dad, we all walk to the park.  We tune in the Pirates-Giants game once we get home.  My back is pink and a bit sore by the time I'm ready to fall asleep.

April 20, 1991

We take Barb out for breakfast at Perkins.  Andy's a handful, probably because he's helped himself to a few cookies before we left.  I order the breakfast burrito, forgetting how the first taste of this entree makes my taste buds inoperative.  What is worse than not being able to taste my coffee?  On the way to Cub Foods, we stop at home so I can relieve myself.  The afternoon is lowkey.  The weather is perfect for yard work, but I don't get anything accomplished.  I need to be Daddy.

JoAnna and I spend the evening at Broydrick's new house, a very impressive edifice.

March 30, 1991

A fine family morning. We go to Perkins for breakfast, then Andy and I go to the grocery shop.  I spent most of the afternoon outdoors, or mostly outdoors.  I tidy up the garage while Andy naps and JoAnna and Eddie are out shopping.  Andy joins me and is a big help sweeping debris into a dust pan.  I start edging the driveway, but Andy decides he wants to go to the park.

JoAnna and I enjoy a change of pace, an evening out.  A movie and dinner with Barb and Chuck turns out to be dinner and a movie.  Imperial Garden and Guilty by Suspicion.

February 9, 1991

Waking up early provides me with the opportunity to put a couple of good hours into my notebook reorganization project, once Eddie has been fed, that is.  I load up our newspapers in the van, stop at the library to do the same, then deliver them to the Boy Scout drop-off location at Fish Building Supply.  We all go out for breakfast at Perkins.  Unable to find an open parking space, I almost agree with JoAnna's suggestion to drive to Copper Top, but then I remember it was Andy who made the choice of restaurant earlier in the week. "Why don't you go inside and find out how long the wait will be?"   JoAnna follows through on my request, under protest, mumbling something about letting a child make a decision.

During the early afternoon, Barb cruises the mall, while Mom and Dad and the boys shop for groceries.  Once we return home and put everything away, I wash the car and Barb washes the van.  Andy helps.  It's a quiet, uneventful evening at home.