Post partum depression is not exclusively a new mother's problem; I suffer from it every two weeks. I put John on a bus to head back to his mother's. We had a great week together. Lots of time just hanging out together and simply living in the same space.

I did, however have to parental at one point this week. By accident I had found he was searching for nude celebrity sites on the net. A few years ago I had caught him trying to get into the Playboy website so the rule was if he was caught again there would be limits placed on his internet use. Since, as far as I could tell, he was only searching and hadn't actually gone to one of the sites he was cut off from the PC for two days. Usually when he's caught he cries; this time he knew he was busted and took it like a man.

He amazes me more and more each day. His sense of humor is being honed and he's growing into quite a person. I revel in each day just watching the changes. I often wonder what will happen when he is on his own; how will I deal with even more separation from him?

Speaking of changes, my congressional friend is staying in the House of Representatives so it seems my political coat tail grabbing is on hold for a while more. Jim Langevin announced over the weekend his intention to stay and build seniority in the House as opposed to taking a shot at a senate race this year. If he had, I had every intention of trying to get back on his staff and moving to DC. It would have meant a drastic change to things with John but would have out my life back on track to where it was before moving to Florida.

Being this close to my son, however, does make up the difference.

Whoo! What a weekend we had! Yes, I know this is delayed but with John here for the weekend we've been a little busy. OK, so we're sitting on our butts a lot watching movies or playing gamecube, but you get the idea.

We started off with a Vulkon weekend in Orlando. There were the usual band of suspects. Given my usual routine for these weekends has included consumption of copious amounts of alcohol, having my son there was an interesting addition.

Vulkon was it usual self. Brent Spiner was the main guest and although tempted, the only times I made it onto the main programming room was when I was looking for friends. I did my best to balance the time I had to spend with friend and on Fleet matters with the fact that most of a Vulkon bores my son into a coma. Or at least to retreating to the hotel room. It was when the drinking started things took on a different slant.

I had grown up in a house where there was drinking. In the corner on our dining room was a liquor cabinet. I have gone from living in a bottle when I first got to college to being dry for seven years to enjoying the hell out of drinking. I was anxious about having my son around. Actually, I was more nervous about hearing grief from the Ex over it. I did balance my drinking with spending time with him during the evenings festivities. At one point he became extremely bored by himself in the hotel room and came down to check out the dance. This was an educational experience to say the least.

For a change I was the more sober of the bunch and it was an education for myself as well. No one was way out of control or anything; simply all having a good time. I don't know enough about my ex's life and her friends, but I do know enough to say to my son, "I guess you could definitely say Dad's friends are lots different than your mother's." His eyes widened and he shook his head vigorously. He called the evening "interesting" when I asked him the next morning.

Since coming home we have been to the movies and rented a few video games. Nothing too strenuous or out of the ordinary for two lazy guys on vacation. Tomorrow, though, I do plan to hit a miniature golf place nearby he's had his eyes on for a while.

His older brother is in a pile of trouble. Jimmy visited with his brother last President's Day weekend. With him being 17 years old I thought nothing of him sitting up until 2 or 3 AM watching television. That was, until I got this month's satellite TV bill. He had racked up $50 worth of adult pay per view. I was livid. Luckily, DirecTV could see that I had never even used regular pay per view and that this was an unusual spike in its use. They wrote off the $50. I will not let him know that, of course, and make him pony up the money. I'll give it to his mother for something he needs but will put him through the torture of facing both me and his mother on this one.

The sound you are hearing is my parents laughing in vengeful retribution from the other side!

I haven't been blogging with any substance because I've been so busy in the last week. I'm working as much overtime as I can to make up for taking next week off entirely to spend with John on his school vacation. I'm at the office some nights until 7PM which leaves me precious little time to do what I have to around the house and get a decent amount of sleep before staring another 10 hours work day.

Last weekend was the annual Region 2 Summit. This year was in Tampa. While there were some organizational problems it was a fun weekend. I was able to finally talk someone else in my chapter to attend and she loved it. It is basically an excuse for us to get together and have fun. We do have some organizational meetings and an awards banquet but getting together with friends is the reason.

The hotel has a pirate ship in the middle of their kiddie wading pool. Even though this is Florida since the pool wasn't heated the water in it had chilled to that of a mountain stream. As I sat there looking at the water I remembered that I had been swimming in a mountain stream before, so I decided to take a plunge. The "pirate ship" had water cannons and a slide. I bounded up and slid right down into water which made that stream in Israel seem like bath water. I screamed like a little girl as my testicles retreated to somewhere around my throat for warmth. Not to miss out on the fun Mandi, our Fleet Admiral, and my pal Bruce ran for their suits. Hotel security handled it very nicely as she whispered, "You do know this is the kiddie pool, right?"

Saturday night was topped off my the usual drunken debauchery hosted by my friend Max and his crew from Tampa. It's always a sign of how drunk I'll get by whether or not my son is in attendance. Since he wasn't there.........

I am really looking forward to our week together. Since I'm still limping my van through its final days he'll be taking Greyhound to get up here. With luck I'll be buying something while he's here. I got a raise at work which it retroactive to September so I should have enough to get into something decent.

Some media notes. "24" has become a faint reminder of what it used to be. This season's story line continues to stretch things too far. With all of the moles who end up working there; if CTU were in charge of Homeland Security Bin Laden would be strolling down Pennsylvania Avenue. However, I still do watch every week. It's poorly written, but it's produced well. There are moments when they keep the suspense, however ridiculous, as tight as a watch spring. Thanks to TiVo I can zip through it in 35 minutes. I still manage to have to hit the bathroom somewhere during an episode and Jack Bauer seems to go all day without so much as looking into one!

I went to see "Robots" yesterday and it is everything "The Incredibles" wasn't. I laughed outloud like I expect to at one of these. There are jokes for the adults and a great fart joke scene for the kids. Meaningful story and magnificent CGI renderings which looked photo realistic.

The Star Wars trailer came out this week and looks fantastic. It seems to match the scripts I have read online and if this gets acted as well as it reads this should make up for the first two movies. While I don't hate them as much as some fans do, they are not quite the same as the original trilogy. There has been a spark missing form them which ran through all three of the originals. I am as excited about this one as I was then Episode One first opened.

I don't know if I'm amused by or pissed of at the rumored series ender for Enterprise. For the whole story check this out. You probably know I think Rick Berman is an asshole and is the reason Trek has seen a demise so I'm leaning towards being pissed off. It's as if he's saying, "Hey, all you geeks got so ticked off I screwed with your precious TV show well,, guess what......I never existed! Nyaaa-nyaaa!" Don't bite the hand that feeds ya!

Reason Number 5,324,954,345,234 why Ron Moore is THE MAN and Rick Berman is the Ani-Christ:

From Ron's blog this week.....

A question from a fan:

"If we go too far with this are you prepared to deliver Captain Kirk's 'Get A Life' speech?"

His answer:

I should be so lucky as to watch you guys get to that point.

Glory days well they'll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days

This past Saturday I got together with two of my oldest and best friends. It was the first time in a long time that Dave, Howard and myself were able to be in the same place at the same time. Howard was in Orlando with his son for school vacation; with both Dave and myself being a short car ride away we jumped at the opportunity.

I was fantastic. It was as if not a single day had passed since we were together last. While there are some friends who I do nothing but rehashing "old times" the three of us still have a strong active friendship and things in our lives while intermingle and keep us together.

First thing we did was recreate a moment from the past. Below are two images 19 years apart. The first was taken at a Halloween Party in 1986. We took the current version on the porch at the Orlando House of Blues. Amazing what the years will do. This photo recreation was my little project. Leave it to me to not be in just the right position. Of course, that gives us the excuse to get together again when Howard returns to Florida!!!




True to our unbelievable luck. The Ryans and I arrived before Howard. He had said he was going to get reservations through Disney. As I watched the line to the door getting longer and longer, I decided to double check. The cute blonde at the door looked through her list saying there was no Cronson, McAuliffe or Farkle. She looked up at me, smiled and said, "Well, when your friend gets her just come up and see me." Sure enough, when Ho arrived we walked up, she recognized me and led us to our table when other were being told of a 45 minute wait.

She wanted me!

Dinner was great. We talked over the old days. Where we are now. Starfleet. Old friends. Family. Kids. Howard got his biggest laugh of the evening as I had to pull out my bifocals to read the menu. "The good old Captain Kirk eyeglass trick, eh?" Funny guy!

Afterwards we walked through Downtown Disney. It was great but way too short. Plans are on the list for getting together with both sets of children at Disney the next time he comes down.

If you've read my blog with any regularity, you know how tight I try to hold on to friends. It's gratifying when I have friends like Dave and Howard I can call at a moment's notice or get together any time or any place and you'd never know a day had passed between us. The hair may be thinner. (Howard's has always been grey, so I won't go there!) The waists bay be wider. But the smiles in both photos are true. You're looking at the faces of loving friendship.