It’s roughly 11:30 at night and I’ve just sat down in my home with Nothing else to do for the first time since I got up this morning. I put on these cheery parrot socks and went out to face the day and boy did we face it. After a very full, hectic day at the office, I got to watch Eldest Son play both JV and Varsity soccer games in the rain, but it was worth every damp minute getting to see him do something he loves.

(He also scored two goals, which never hurts.)

I’m tired now though. I’d forgotten how exhausting it can be for parents when the kids get back to school. I’m remembering now, though, which is probably why I can’t recall what whitisisms I had planned to describe the parrots.

Polly’s pooped, and putting it to bed.

I put these tigers in this morning because I thought they’d make a good match for the first day back to school for the kids. You know, “homework and school marms and tigers, oh my!”

Okay, so maybe that’s not how it goes anyway. Regardless, I got more than I bargained for when I realized that these very same daily sock posts have not been auto-posting to Facebook for almost two weeks!

I mean, I’m sure I have family members likely assuming now that I’ve given up on all my sock-colored dreams. And what are the people I went to high school but haven’t spoken to in 25 years going to think?!

Luckily, the tigers on my toes got me the roar and fire and well, this metaphor has just gone completely into a rut. A cheesy, lame-ass rut. But! I did link all the posts to Facebook. So that’s good.

I also wore cool tigers today. I’m putting this one in the W column, lame metaphor or not.

I’m totally not 100% sure what the joke is here, except, of course, that there’s a buck on this pair of socks and he’s not wearing any clothes. I mean, as a member of the deer family, I wouldn’t have expected him to be wearing any couture of any kind, so it seems a little on the nose to me.

That said, if you’re going to kick off a week of animal socks, doing it with a naked buck just seems the obvious way to go. So here we are. I hope you enjoy my naked buck.

As the parents of four, it’s often a challenge for the Puddinette and I to feel like we’re making sure each of the kids gets enough “quality time” with Mom and Dad. In an attempt to address that, every year each of the kids gets a day to pick an activity for just the three us.

That said, its admittedly a little harder to determine what to do with some of the kids than others. The more teen they get, it seems the less attractive time with the parents in public can become. Luckily, bribery bridges a lot of the age/coolness gap.

Thankfully, though, Youngest Son is still young enough to be excited to have some dedicated time with us. His choice this year — as it has been every year — was to visit the Newport Aquarium. Not only does he love the place, he’s been wanting to bid farewell to Mighty Mike, the enormous 800-lb American Alligator who has been on display there for half a decade. Mike is headed to a luxurious retirement in Florida after the summer, so YS felt a proper farewell was a moral imperative.

We thus gave Mike his farewell today, and in doing so, I snuck as many shots of my SpongeBob socks at the aquarium as possible. The best, I think is the one posted above with a group of drowsy penguins, but this one on a glass plate looking down onto one of the aquarium’s famous shark rays is pretty good too.

Youngest Son worked on Snap Circuits this afternoon whilst I looked on from the comfort of Dad’s Recliner. Nine months ago or so, I would have been needed to offer suggestions and guidance as to how the flow of electricity and circuits work in general, but I was quickly rebuffed today when offering any assistance.

And so it begins.

At least, though, I had Captain America socks to match today’s Captain America shirt. Because sometimes the best you can do as a parent is to watch patiently, while also wearing socks that go with your t-shirt. 😉

I had to discontinue the theoretical travels today because when the kids have a thing, you hightail it back from Egypt or Japan or wherever to make the audience. My daughter was in a play tonight — One Night Only — and since it was a musical, these seemed like the perfect match for the day.

Her group did an adorable version of Annie, with the requisitely adorable reditions of “Tomorrow” and “A Hard Knock Life”, so the ivories on my feet represented well. Sure, I might have been enjoying make believe time abroad earlier this week, but that ain’t got nuthin’ on when your daughter’s playing FDR.

Have a great weekend kids, and, uh, try not to set the place on fire!

I promised you Egypt last night, and I wasn’t about to disappoint you all. And with travelling on my mind, I couldn’t possibly controllers contemplate spanning the globe with the Puddinette and a grateful family in tow without including the lands of ancient civilization, and, well, pyramids and mummies.

Will I ever actually see the amazing structures at Giza or experience a culture 10,000 years in the making? Uh… probably not? But these sweet socks are a pretty close second, right?

Right?

It wouldn’t be much of a week of international travel via socks if I didn’t send postcards. So here’s a bunch of location stamps and a postmark or two to mark the occasion.

Tomorrow’s Wednesday, so it must be Egypt. We’ll send you a card; wish you were here!