I'm 35 now...

...so why is my face is breaking out like I'm 15? Is this my body's way of having a pre-mid-life crisis without me?

The Man-Bag: Good Enough for Chewbacca, Good Enough for Me

Wookie Fashion Statement

I maintain that the modern man has too many items to simply be carried in their pockets.  Keys, cell phone, wallet, sunglasses, MP3 player, headphones, ID badge, etc. could theoretically be carried in cargo pants or a tek-jacket, but who wants to look like they are going on a hunt in Borneo, when they are just trying to get to the store for milk? Belt clips don't help, either.  Unless you are a Contractor, Police Officer, or Batman, you should never have anything clipped to your belt - with the exception of, perhaps, a small cell phone with business dress, if absolutely necessary

When men carried traditional briefcases to and from work, finding a place for these items was natural.  But with the exception of a small population, most men don't carry briefcases anymore.  I, for one, loathe the briefcase as it is only really acceptable for the office and, even then, is pretty stuffy.  I carried one during my first year of practice and found it, ironically, impractical. 

It's a SuperRad Birthday

For my birthday this morning, Q gave me the gift of letting me sleep in... until 5a.m.

Maybe next year I'll even sleep until 7..? Dare to dream!

Catch of the Day

The SuperRad Fam went up to Lady Rad's parents for Thanksgiving this weekend. In addition to a snow-covered forest and coma-inducing levels of food, Team SuperRad got to experience another holiday cliche - sharing a bed with a toddler.

Because we had only one pack-n-play available, we decided that the Mu was old enough to be able to sleep on an inflatable mattress next to our bed while Q took the pack-n-play. This idea was short-lived when Mu informed us that his new digs were "spooky." He crawled into bed with us and the next thing I knew, he and Lady Rad somehow managed to take up about 90% of the bed.

Game Closet: Hive

Portable, Durable, Kid-proof

Since making my 2010 resolution to play more traditional tabletop games, Lady Rad and I have rekindled a hobby that has been dormant since the time I insisted the Backgammon set that she inherited from her grandmother was haunted.

I mean, how is it possible for me to lose every single time? Haunted game board, that's how.

So in my desire to find other, non-cursed, two-player games, I discovered this delightful game from 2001 that carries the "Mensa Select" seal of approval.

Pump it Up

This IS what she was talking about, right?

I relish my role as the provider for the SuperRad family.  Most of the time when I think about my role, I think of the normal things - going to work to support Lady Rad as a S@HM to our kids, making enough money to pay our mortgage, mowing the lawn, covering a leaky roof with a tarp in a torrential downpour, etc.

But here was one I never really imagined: Lady Rad's breast-pump finally called it quits this morning; sleep-training Q and addressing Mu's tantrums left her no time to pack the kids up to get another one.  I had our car this evening and so, in the continuing deluge, drove out to Target at closing time and am now the proud owner of a new Lansinoh double-barreled shotgun.

The Importance of Barber-ism

Most of my childhood haircuts involved my mother taking me to a place called Bo Ricks (does that place even exist anymore?). It was your typical chop shop for cheap haircuts ($6, I remember - that was the big selling point), and a woman would always cut my hair.  It was fine, it served its purpose, and my mom got another errand off of her checklist.

But there was a magic time when my dad took me to his barber - a guy named Franco.  Franco's shop was in the same city as my dad's office, so I only got to go see Franco when I went I went to work with my dad on a weekday.  I only recall going to Franco's once, and I don't remember the haircut he gave me, but I remembered the joy that I felt being in a place inhabited only by men with my dad - it was a right of passage.

ProTip: Emergency Chocolate

One of the things I've learned about Lady Rad, and women in general, over the years is the emotional catharsis that chocolate brings.  For whatever reason: biochemical, sociological, or metaphysical, chocolate is celebrated by Lady Rad in good times and bad.

The irony of this is, of course, Lady Rad's desire to maintain a hot bod, and therefore her insistence that chocolate should not be readily available in the house.  But when she has gone through a full day of balancing S@HM responsibilities - balancing two children who either desire to cling to her or spit up on her at all times of the day while preparing dinner and doing laundry - at the end of the day, chocolate is as imperative as a scalding hot bath.

Which is why I've started to have Emergency Chocolates on hand for whenever the occasion calls.  Nothing fancy, just a variety of fun-sized candy bars stashed secretly in our home - the whereabouts known only to me.  Whenever Lady Rad has that "Calgon, take me away" look on her face after the kids are asleep, I slip into the kitchen, find my secret stash, and produce a cocoa-based offering to the goddess of hearth and home.

She Sleeps!!!

It happened, it finally happened! One day shy of 12 weeks old and Q slept through the entire night without waking - from 6pm until 5:50am.

I owe this incredible event not just to the Bible of baby books which has become highly prized in the SuperRad family, 'Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child' (which turns sleep training into a magic trick if you follow the directions), but to Lady Rad's careful adherence to the book's advice to watch the sleep patterns of the child and "catch the sleep wave" when it hits.  It hit last night at about 5:00pm, and Lady Rad was on like Robotron - in the middle of preparing Family Dinner, she handed the cooking reigns over to me (thankfully, it was just the pasta that I had to take over the finish line - no one can boil pasta like I can), got Q into her bath, and settled into 2 marathon nursing sessions which got our little girl to Sleepytime after about an hour, and with almost no fuss.

Can this mean that Lady Rad and my nights will start to become our own again? I'm not holding my breath any time soon.  But little by little, Q has been sleeping longer and longer.  Hope in the SuperRad home runs high.

Now we just have to figure out how to transition her out of our bedroom and into her shared room with Mu, without the wheels coming off of Mu's great sleep.  Yet I have no doubt in Lady Rad's abilities, or the provisions of Someone Else.

Game Closet: Smallworld

($49.99; 2-5 players; Ages 10+; daysofwonder.com)

(five stars)

Resolving this year to branch out and play more traditional tabletop games has lead me to so many delights that could never be captured by a videogame.  With all of the advances in texture modeling, 3D animation, motion capture, storytelling, etc., some types of games are just meant to be played on a flat surface... and I don't mean a plasma.

"Smallworld" from Days of Wonder is one of those types of games.

Somewhere, an Orthodontist just got its wings.

Artists' Interpretation of Photo

Lady Rad just sent me a picture of our little Q having her first thumb-suck.

The SuperRad home happens to be a pro-thumb-suck family.  Q's brother, Mu, was a thumb-sucker from the womb.  Nothing seems to pacify him quite like Captain Thumbsby, as it has become known; its always available, never misplaced, and looks darn adorable.  If The Captain can provide the same calming effect on Q, that's well-worth the cost of braces in my opinion.

I stil can't believe that Q turns 3 months this week. It's hard for me to even wrap my head around the fact that 90 days has passed since her cannonball-like entrance into this world.  For the uninitiated, Lady Rad was checked into the hospital at 5:00a.m., began pushing at 5:55a.m., and Q was here by 6.  Now she's cooing, holding her head up with little support, laughing, and - thankfully - having an audience with The Captain.

Time flies.

Who is SuperRad Dad?

'SuperRadDad' is a place where hopes and dreams come alive...

Or its a place where one guy, who works day in, day out to support his beautiful wife (hereinafter, Lady Rad) to be a Stay-at-Home Mom (hereinafter, S@HM) to their two amazing children - "Mu" and "Q," blogs about life, fatherhood, work, play, and the challenge of being a modern dad with classic sensibilities.

Every journey begins with the first step; I guess this is mine.  Come watch me trip.

-SRD