Monday, June 18, 2007

Soccer Dad: Today Was a Good Day




How was everybody's Dia del Papis? Mine started out great. Went out to breakfast without any hassles (Mace is still mastering the straw, above), got some nice shirts from wifey, strolled around the Sunday flea market in SJ with the fam, scored 3 goals and got 2 assists in my Sunday soccer game (but still lost), took our dog for a walk around the high school football field which is populated by a lot of groundhogs which drives our Sheltie bonkers, splashed around the pool with Maceo after he woke up from his nap.

Sounds slam dunk so far, yeah? Well, I invited my folks and my bro and niece over for a BBQ and about a third of the way through cooking a five-pound tri-tip, I ran out of propane. I had to finish it in the oven and it came out waaaay dry. Luckily, wifey made a couple of salads and I had an extra rack of ribs to supplement the wack tri-tip. But still, i was ready to relax with a killer meal and a beer and now I was getting stressed out on how to make the meal right. In the end nobody grumbled, but there were plenty of leftovers.

Going into my second father's day, I thought it might be fun to just goof off the whole time by myself. Disappear: play my soccer game, go record shopping, get some spa treatments, splash out on some new kicks, enjoy the solitude. It didn't turn out that way, but I still had a great Father's Day. That thought and the tri-tip episode could be part of a larger metaphor: when things don't go the way you thought, you just adapt -- a lesson that many new fathers like myself learn every day.

What did y'all do?

SD

9 comments:

SoulSnax said...

dude, is your kid's name actually Maceo? man, that's killer.

thisislarry said...

me = always thinking about food. A trick I learned on tri tip: add about 1/4c olive oil to your marinade, or brush it on before your dry rub. Makes for a tasty, juicy cut of meat, mmm boy.

daddy in a strange land said...

We should do a regular rotating feature, guys--Rice Daddy Recipes--with pictures, of course. :)

Glad your day turned out okay, SD.

La dra. and I actually got to go on a date the day before Father's Day!

InstantYang said...

I have the full skinny on Father's Day from SoulSnax, Henri, Newbie Dad, and DISL—want me to repost, guys? I could only get excerpts of some of your stuff into the SFGate article...

Monster Daddy said...

"We should do a regular rotating feature, guys--Rice Daddy Recipes--with pictures, of course. :)"
Jason, you're really asking for it - cooking is my hobby, LOL!

Wife was tired so I wound up making dinner, serving it and cleaning it up. Hehe

P.S. I made a 10 lb red cooked pork shoulder with watercress. Mmmmm, fatty pork indulgence!

Hey Jeff, sorry I couldn't contribute to your article. Swim team, baseball tryouts, yadda yadda. Hehe, I promise to do better :)

daddy in a strange land said...

Monster Daddy, didn't I suggest that after your post about the fish? I'm serious! Let's do it! We can call it "Rice Daddy Recipes: (nameofdishhere)" and tag each post with "Rice Daddy Recipes" too. You first! :)

InstantYang said...

"Instant Food with Instant Yang"

Oatmeal a la Hudson:
1. open packet
2. add water
3. microwave
4. clean up interior of microwave
5. serve remainder

Soccer Dad said...

I foresee a Rice Daddies Cookbook in our future...

Forward by Ming Tsai.

daddy in a strange land said...

Dude, that'd be AWESOME! Not just recipes, stories to go with each. Yeah! That's our in. Jeff, PL, any contacts with cookbook folks? :)