My Summer Wishlist

Since child number two is on the way late this fall, time will become more of a scarce commodity than it is now with a two year old flying around the house with a washable marker in one hand and a pretzel in the other.

Back in early 2005 prior to my son's birth, I made a wish list of things I wanted to do before I became a parent. You know, basic activities like reading 10 books or install an attic ladder or wire the upstairs bedrooms with cable. I actually did all of those. Scary thought isn't it?

This summer, my list is not as outrageous as my first one back in '05 but as with most of my projects, the list is a tall order considering my lack of disposable hours in the day. Here we go:

1. Finish installing the basketball hoop in the driveway.

Even my wife wants this done yesterday. Its been an ongoing event since early May. The quikrete is in the garage. I think this is going to suck.

2. Reinforce the poles on the deck.

Sounds like an engineer is needed here. Nope. Just time to cut a bunch of 4X4 wedges and screw them into the deck. Where is Bob Vila? Does he still have that Saturday morning show?

3. Transfer all of the video I took of my son over the last two years onto my hard drive, edit it and make a DVD.

Um. If my past history of procrastination is any indication, this won't come anywhere close to happening. Okay, maybe dumping the video on the computer is a more realistic goal as long as my two year old doesn't sneak into the computer room and hit the reset button on the computer tower.

4. Finish reading three books. A baseball statistic book, a book on the origins of the Vietnam War by the late David Halberstam and a book on the origins of language.

...Sounds like a evening full of fun, I know. Don't laugh. This is more time consuming than it seems on the surface for three reasons. One, I'm not the fastest reader. Two, these books aren't considered "quick reads". Three, now that I am working a early morning shift, I might have 15 minutes before bed to hammer out a few pages. At this rate, these books will collect more dust in the den than on my nightstand.

5. Watch these movies.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Transformers
The Bourne Ultimatum
Oceans 13
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Live Free or Die Hard
Evan Almighty
Fantastic Four
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Shrek the Third

A few of these came out a few years ago. I realize that. Anyway, look for a synopsis as I finish each of these.


On a semi-unrelated note, the first still photo of the new Indiana Jones movie is out. It tells us absolutely nothing.