I have been asked by Kim and Jason to take part in their Adultitis Escape Plan, a 40-day plan to become more childlike (not childish)
and to reduce stress and prevent dullness, depression and [insert
another word beginning with 'd' here]. Of course I’m gonna do it.

Dreary-ness, that begins with ‘D’.

---

The thirty-sixth task: Accessorize your wardrobe today with a touch of childhood.

My normal work attire consists of a t-shirt (or normal shirt) and pants. Not exactly standard business attire, and the exact type of clothes I wore as a kid. The clothes I wear are pretty much straight from my childhood as it is, so I wasn’t sure what I would do for this task.

Until I visited my parent’s house.

I found a handbag my mum had made, and saw that if I put it on my head, it looked like a cross between a chef’s hat, one of those russian hats, and a beefeater hat. Cool.

I marched around their house for a bit while wearing it, and managed to get everyone there to laugh out loud. Espescially Mat. He fell over laughing.

Kids can wear anything they want and as long as they feel like it’s cool, it’s cool.

I’m cool.

RodeoClown: probably wouldn’t wear this outside.

I have been asked by Kim and Jason to take part in their Adultitis Escape Plan, a 40-day plan to become more childlike (not childish)
and to reduce stress and prevent dullness, depression and [insert
another word beginning with 'd' here]. Of course I’m gonna do it.

Dreary-ness, that begins with ‘D’.

---

The thirty-fifth task: Do something to make the day of a child.

This task was pretty easy to complete. I make Mat’s day just by turning up. He waits for me at the front door when I’m due to get home and I can hear him from a few houses away shouting “Daddy!”. He’ll jump into my arms and proceed to tell me all about how he hurt his finger in the door (we get it Matty, it happened months ago and you are fine)!

Having someone love you this much and showing it in this way is more than I can explain. It’s completely different from the romantic crud thrust upon us around St Valentine’s day, different from the love of a spouse, different from the sex all around us, it is pure and comes from an absolute dependence upon someone else. There’s nothing like it in the world. It’s brought me to tears more than once.

RodeoClown: can’t wait to get home tonight.

I have been asked by Kim and Jason to take part in their Adultitis Escape Plan, a 40-day plan to become more childlike (not childish)
and to reduce stress and prevent dullness, depression and [insert
another word beginning with 'd' here]. Of course I’m gonna do it.

Dreary-ness, that begins with ‘D’.

---

The thirty-fourth task: Think about some of the things you liked to do as a child. Pick one and do it.

I’ve always loved the idea of superheroes, people with superhuman abilities fighting crime and all that sort of thing. The idea of being able to do things that mere mortals could not is an idea that I constantly think about. Which abilities would be the best fit for me, and what would my weaknesses be.

Telekinesis sounds pretty cool, but laser eyes and adamantium claws are also extremely awesome.

So, as you can probably guess, as a child I loved watching superhero cartoons, primarily X-men, which was just so well done. I can see flaws in it now that I’m older, but the fact they killed off (supposedly) one of the main characters, who was even in the opening credits, sealed the deal with me. This wasn’t a cartoon like the others I’ve seen. Also, they got the voices so perfectly right that even seeing live actors play the roles still sounds wrong in my head. Wolverine espescially, that guy just didn’t put a word wrong, bub.

The comics are cool too. I think my favourite (having only read the synopsis) story is this one in Ultimate X-Men (they started afresh without all the baggage from the hundreds of other comics). A child has recently manifested his mutant ability, the ability to kill all living things that come near to him. Wolverine finds him alone in a cave and talks to him, his mutant healing factor keeping him alive near this deadly kid. Ah, just reading that overview makes me feel tingly, it is so well written, and such a sad story. I nearly cried just reading it.

Anyway, after thinking about how cool those comics and cartoons were when I was a kid (an now), I watched a few episodes of X-men:Evolution, the latest cartoon incarnation of these superheroes. Not quite as great as the old cartoons, the new intro music isn’t anywhere near as memorable and the voices don’t quite fit, but still very well done, with some great stories.

RodeoClown: can kill you with his mind.

I have been asked by Kim and Jason to take part in their Adultitis Escape Plan, a 40-day plan to become more childlike (not childish)
and to reduce stress and prevent dullness, depression and [insert
another word beginning with 'd' here]. Of course I’m gonna do it.

Dreary-ness, that begins with ‘D’.

---

The thirty-third task: For no reason at all treat yourself to something out of the ordinary.

Jen met me at Penrith station, and we didn’t have the boy with us, so for no real reason at all I decided we needed to get something nice to drink. Like milkshakes.

Jen got a plain old chocolate milkshake, while I got a Peppermint-Choc-QuakeShake(tm), which is pretty much just a peppermint chocolate bar crushed up and dropped into a green, peppermint flavoured thickshake.

Tasty and filling

RodeoClown: hadn’t tried this before.

I have been asked by Kim and Jason to take part in their Adultitis Escape Plan, a 40-day plan to become more childlike (not childish)
and to reduce stress and prevent dullness, depression and [insert
another word beginning with 'd' here]. Of course I’m gonna do it.

Dreary-ness, that begins with ‘D’.

---

The thirty-second task: Do something that will get you to laugh out-loud (one that puts you in danger of peeing your pants a little bit).

On the train on the way home, I had a small boy (maybe 6) and his mother sit opposite me in a  4-seater.

The young boy was getting a bit bored, as I was doing a crossword and his mum was just sitting there. She didn’t look much older than me.

Anyway, I put my crossword away and just sat there pulling subtle faces at him. He decided that it was appropriate to do the ‘underarm fart’ trick. Repeatedly.

My response was probably the best (for him) and the worst (for his mum, trying to remain serious on a packed train) – I tried not to laugh. Of course this resulted in me cracking up and laughing long and loud along with him.

I thought about joining in myself, but I have never learnt the art of the underarm fart .

RodeoClown: is not convinced that flatulence is a virtue.

I have been asked by Kim and Jason to take part in their Adultitis Escape Plan, a 40-day plan to become more childlike (not childish)
and to reduce stress and prevent dullness, depression and [insert
another word beginning with 'd' here]. Of course I’m gonna do it.

Dreary-ness, that begins with ‘D’.

---

The thirty-first task: Find a place to sit quietly for ten minutes. Listen for at least one sound
that you would not have normally noticed.

I sat at my computer in my little office space at home and just listened.

I can hear the dishwasher engine, and the occasional quiet ‘clink’ as things get moved around in it.
Whoa – I just heard a series of loud bangs… bang. bang-bang. bang-bang-bang-bang. Gun? Fireworks? Gone now, but it was definitely unexpected.
I can hear the fan in the bathroom whirring as it sucks the moisture out of the air in there (there’s a fair bit as I slipped getting in the bath and created my own little tsunami…).
I can hear my computer occasionally spin up the hard drive as it writes something, and then spin back down when it is done (this is very quick).
I can hear the occasional gumnut drop onto the roof (which is tin, so it’s very loud).
I can hear cars on the highway, and another going past our house.
I can hear the clock just outside the door ticking (very quietly).
I can hear a truck braking as it comes down the hill on the highway. And another.
I can hear a freight train pushing as hard as it can to go up the hill. It’s drowning out pretty much everything else. It has a low noise of the engine, but also a loud squealing of the wheels. Actually, it could be coming down the hill.
I can hear the toilet cistern open up and start refilling (we have a small leak that I need to try and fix again).
I can hear the water in the dishwasher swishing around.
I can hear some small insect outside.

RodeoClown: quiet.

I have been asked by Kim and Jason to take part in their Adultitis Escape Plan, a 40-day plan to become more childlike (not childish)
and to reduce stress and prevent dullness, depression and [insert
another word beginning with 'd' here]. Of course I’m gonna do it.

Dreary-ness, that begins with ‘D’.

---

The thirtieth task: Figure out a way to bring some fun into a dreaded task today.

Friday is my work at home day, and I was trying to fix a particularly annoying bug that has been sitting on my to-do list for the last six months. I had to keep restarting a server and then changing things to test it worked correctly and didn’t break anything worse than it was to start with. Not particularly fun. And the fact I had managed to put it off for six months is a good indication that I wasn’t looking forward to it too much.

I noticed a book sitting on the bookshelf to my left -  a book of logic puzzles. The type with a bunch of clues and a grid you use to determine who did what, where and when kind of thing. My mother-in-law found it at her place lying around and gave it to me the other day. Thanks Carol! So while I was waiting for restarts and tests to run, I solved a few of these puzzles. Not super exiting, but it made me feel a whole lot better.

RodeoClown: logician-magician.

I have been asked by Kim and Jason to take part in their Adultitis Escape Plan, a 40-day plan to become more childlike (not childish)
and to reduce stress and prevent dullness, depression and [insert
another word beginning with 'd' here]. Of course I’m gonna do it.

Dreary-ness, that begins with ‘D’.

---

The twenty-eighth task: Ask an expert something you are curious about in his/her field.

Jen and I went to see Dr Parry, our obstetrician.
She’s an expert in the whole field of baby delivery type stuff.

We asked her about breech deliveries vs. caesarean sections.

Found out a whole bunch of stuff on that topic. If the baby has it’s head up when it is due to be born, it is considered to be in the breech position. They should be facing the other direction (for best results).

Some doctors won’t deliver babies in the breech position, rather, they’ll just perform a c-section and take the baby out directly, as this way the baby won’t get ‘stuck’ on the way out. Dr Parry said she would let Jen try a breech delivery if she wanted as she’s had a baby before and so we her body can handle it.

Hopefully baby #2 will turn over shortly and we won’t have to do either of these options, but it is good to know what happens in both of them so we can make an informed decision if we need to.

RodeoClown: is praying that this baby will turn over soon. Please pray too.