As I mentioned a couple days ago, my two-and-a-half year old son and I are bachelors until my wife returns from two weeks of traveling for work. Well, I decided to start my son right in teaching him how to be a real man. We went to Sears and bought ourselves one of their top 6.5 Horsepower self-propelled lawn mowers. This lawn mower can mulch, rear-bag, or thow from the side discharge the grass 20 feet into the neighbors yard!

Karen has actually been on my case to get a new lawn mower so she’ll be happy we made the purchase due to the fact it is self-propelled. My previous 10-year old push lawn mower was the cheapest lawn mower I could buy at Target. Ironically, that first lawn mower was also the most expensive lawn more I could afford at the time!

To make a long story short, the lawn mower ran like a charm. The mower was so easy to push that even my two-and-half year old son was able to join in on the fun. There was about a 20 foot swath of lawn that he pretty much cut with little assistance by me. I of course was right there next to him making sure he didn’t stray the mower (or himself) in any wrong direction. With safety fully on my mind, eventually we moved him to a lawn mower his own size.

His little bubble mower may not cut the grass so well, but it sure can cut a mean down anything that stands in it’s way on the sidewalk. When the grass was done, we both headed down the side walk with his mower to showoff what a father-son team can accomplish. I only hope the bubbles coming from his bubble mower meets California laws on clean-air emmisions! I have a hard time believing the both of us would have been happy if we bought one of those electric lawn mowers we’ve seen at Amazon. I think my son’s bubble mower has more horse power!

Karen, my wife, has left me and my two-and-a-half year old son. Are you surprised? Well, before the rumors start-up and Karen’s good reputation goes south…she’s coming back in two weeks. Karen had to do some traveling for work and didn’t have too much of a choice in the matter. Thanks to the cell phone world we live in she has been able to call us each day. All this is require of me is putting Logan on the speaker phone so he is able to brief is Momma on each day’s activities.

Logan and I are spending the time without a woman in the house to make it a man’s world. You can be assured this manly point of view we have adopted for our home will also be noticed here at Like that Idea. For the next two weeks you can expect to see the ideas that only a Dad and son can dream up to be presented here. For now, though Logan and I will have to go. You see, we have been busy doing yard work. We have had a gorgeous weekend here in Sioux Falls, SD and the days have been full of activity that it it finally time for us to rest. Logan is already out on the deck and ready for me to bring out the six pack of fruit juice I promised. By the time we’re done with our drinking, it should become one very wild Sunday evening here at our little bachelor pad.

Oh, and one last thing. Please make sure nobody mentions to Karen about the dirty dishes in the sink. We don’t consider it so much of a guy thing to leave dirty dishes in the sink. No, not at all. Instead, we equate the dirty dishes in the sink as our little science project! Ha, at least Logan and I find humor in that. Ok, everyone have a good work week!

Here at Like that Idea we have spent quite a bit of time talking about Web content management systems, with one of our favorites being Drupal. You may have wondered who actually uses these open source applications and how good could something you download for free really be? Dries Buytaert, the project leader for Drupal, pointed out on is blog that:

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is using Drupal for their Academy of Program / Project and Engineering Leadership website (APPEL). Sweet!

Some well known (and not so well known ) Drupal sites also includes: American Idol’s Blog, Mac Geekery, Nashville News, Ringo Starr, Anthropology.net, Fish Fever, and Empire Investor. Ok, to be fair, Empire Investor is a site we did for a client…but if the site’s owner is happy with Drupal why wouldn’t you be happy with the CMS? If you want more examples of Drupal sites, check out DrupalSites.net and Drupal Showcase.

We remember a time when bad children were just that, bad children. Here in the United States where we tend to take things to the extreme. Children are no longer considered misbehaving but considered guilty, by some school officials, of criminal behavior. Time is too short for us to truly comment about these “zero tolerance” policies except to say that they seem more like an excuse for those in charge to do “zero thinking”.

Regardless, we are glad to see there is some justice in the world. The following is an excerpt from an AP story posted at CBS News:

The family of a third-grader who was handcuffed and jailed after misbehaving at school will receive $221,000 from the city and its insurer to settle a lawsuit.

Jerry Trujillo, then 8, was sent the school counselor’s office after he hit another child with a basketball in August 2004, his mother said. The juvenile citation for disorderly conduct said Jerry then “got out of control and refused to go back to class.”

After police were summoned, Jerry was booked into the city jail, dressed in an orange jumpsuit and placed in a holding cell while adult inmates in a nearby cell taunted him, according to the lawsuit.

Every Holloween our Zoo?invites children to dress up for Holloween?in?their annual Zoo Boo.? Our then?two year-old son was dressed?as his favorite character, Boots from Dora the Explorer. However, a large number of children were wearing constumes that I didn’t recognize.? With bulging fake muscles and the letter “i” on the front of the costume I pretty much figured the kids were dressed as?super heroes, but I?could not identify the show.? You see my experience?with children shows?was?for the under two-year old crowd and I was just glad that my son didn’t dress up as a teletubbie!? Finally,?another?parent?was able to help me out and say that the?kids were dressed like the?Heroes from?The Incredibles.

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?Well in the world of toddlers, six months can make a difference!? For our?family?”movie night” last Friday we purchased the Incredibles on DVD (in widescreen may I add).? The?kid?held interest through the whole movie, the humor kept Dad tuned in, and the?near G-Rated cartoon violence kept Mom at peace.? All and all, it was an incredible Friday night!

Let me first say, I love Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Secondly, let me also say that by the time we hit the month of April, I and most others in this city, are just too darn tired of cold weather. We are ready for the warmer months that come with spring and summer. We are ready for the flowers to bloom, the brown lawns to turn green, the children to play outside, and the nice bicycle rides on the finest bicycle trails this city has to offer. So no matter how much you tell me that it’s a chance of a lifetime…I am not heading to the North Pole so I can freeze my toes off a little longer. Crazy people…

About 50 runners are scheduled to compete in this year’s North Pole Marathon, covering 26.195 miles in circles on a large piece of floating ice near the top of the world.

The runners have paid $10,000 each to enter the race.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Dr. Vir Nanda of Apple Valley, Calif., told the Los Angeles Times.

Excerpt from article posted at WPMI.com.