Dad's The Word!: An Important Dinner Date

Each one of our kids was challenged with improving in one or more categories on their report card this past year. As reward they were able to pick out something special to have or do for their hard work. Jake picked out an “instant” comic book collection and Luke wanted a hermit crab, but Makenzie picked out something very special: A date night with her dad.

I am happy to state that all three kids made the requested improvements on their report cards and it was our pleasure to deliver the rewards. I was excited to follow through on all the rewards, but I was especially excited to make good on Makenzie’s. What a great opportunity to have special time with my most precious little girl.

On the evening of our date, I picked her up after work with some flowers. She was dressed cute as a button and ready to go. Makenzie chose the most posh fine dining establishment in all of Boston's MetroWest: Chez TGI Friday's.

Makenzie chose an excellent vintage Raspberry Slushie to complement her exquisite Mac N’ Cheese main course. We talked about all the current events gripping the world today: SpongeBob, crayons, Minecraft, etc. We followed up the cuisine with a brownie and ice cream.

After dinner we chose Toys'R'Us to walk off our meal before the conclusion of our date. And of course, I could not resist treating her to a toy before bringing her back home.  Of all things, she chose this Princess Merida Bow and Arrow Set.

It was one of the best dates I have ever had, and I don’t think I could have been more pleased that she chose time with me as her reward. I just hope she still likes me this much when I won't let her have another date until she's 30!

Click here to read more words from this Dad!

Finally a Free Online Resource for Learning to Speak Chinese in Cantonese

I have always wanted to learn additional languages. From school, I can make out enough Spanish as to know what a conversation is about, but not enough to converse.

My wife is Cantonese and I have always wanted to learn how to speak it, not only for myself, but for my kids. I feel very strongly that they should grow up speaking the language from that part of their heritage. Since they were infants, they have called me “Baba”, which means “Daddy” in Chinese. Over the years I have managed to pick up an additional word here and there, but not more than a small handful.

Recently I came across LearningChineseEZ.com and I was intrigued. It is so hard to find free or low cost language learning material so I was very excited. It is also extremely difficult to find learning materials that teach the Cantonese dialect rather than Mandarin.

(Click any image to enlarge)

Although I cannot speak Cantonese yet, I am having a great deal of fun trying out my newly learned words and phrases on my wife. She is getting quite a kick out of my attempts to pronounce some common phrases in her native language (how silly I must sound!).

So far I am thoroughly impressed with LearningChineseEZ.  It is easy to both use and understand. I love that it is lightweight and simple, exactly what I need to get my new language skill started.  The free section of the site is filled with enough common phrases and vocabulary to keep you busy for quite awhile, but you can gain access to learn 10 times more Cantonese for a one-time fee of $10, which includes access to the Mandarin material as well.

I can see myself teaching my kids to speak Cantonese in the very near future!


I received free unlimited access to LearningChineseEZ.com in exchange for an honest website review.

Dad's the Word: SpongeBob and Me

My kids leave the TV on all the time. It is a multiple times per day occurrence to walk into an empty room and need to turn off the TV.


My Story:

Yesterday the kids were all upstairs playing and using their computers while I was on the couch in the living room lying down. Karen walks down the stairs and see’s the TV “still” on and tuned into SpongeBob from when the kids were watching it. Karen walks over and turns it off muttering, “They need to turn the TV off . . . ”.

Why is this story so special? Well . . . the kids DID turn off the TV before they went upstairs . . . I was watching SpongeBob! I didn’t say a thing.  I just sat there not wanting to admit it and let the kids take the blame. It’s about time they took one for the team . . .

Don’t tell Karen!

New 3G2S Series: Dad's the Word!

Many of you have enjoyed stories about my husband in my For Better or For Worse series since June of 2009.  You have heard me mention time and time again about my husband's special sense of humor, which I love even though I give him a hard time about it.  Aside from an occasional Silly Monkey Story, my husband, who writes product reviews for 3G2S, really has not written any personal posts.

Well, my husband surprised me today with a story he wanted to share with our readers.  I think a personal post from him is long overdue.  I really want to encourage him to write more of these posts, so I decided to give him his own series called "Dad's the Word!".  Look for the first post coming soon.