Stop. Breathe. Think.

One of the things I try to do each month is to take one day off from work on a day the wife and daughter are at school. This allows me to write slightly longer blog posts, while also allowing me to catch up on the newspaper and a TV show or two, a bit of "roger time" that just doesn't usually happen during the week.

I had planned one of my days for Monday, November 30. I had a couple posts, including a movie review, I wanted to work on for the next two days.

Unfortunately, the wife decided the daughter was sick. Her temperature was up slightly, but I wasn't convinced of her illness. In any case, I stayed home with her, because i have far more sick days available (140+) than my wife does.

I must admit that I was disappointed and frustrated. If she were home sick in bed, it'd be one thing. But this was a very active "sick" child, who wanted to play various games and wanted me to watch her TV shows with her.

As it turned out, I ended up watching an episode of Blue's Clues - neither my favorite or my most loathed of her programs, seeing an episode called Blue is Frustrated. Boy, could I relate! (So can this woman.)

The message when you're frustrated is to, well, it's in the title. So I don't post the movie review until the following Sunday - so what? The world didn't end.

So, in answer to the question posed by Salon, Is my kids making me not smart?", the answer has to be "no".

And when I'm too busy, or feeling lousy, both of which are true this week, sometimes one just has to post pictures of cute kittens. I'll just have to deal with that.

ROG