journal features

the evening shift

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2009.02.05

We've developed a routine for dealing with the complexities of getting Ken fed, bathed and into bed. It goes like this:

~18:00 I stop whatever I'm doing and come out to the living room to take care of Kenny while Mari makes dinner. Typically, I play with him, read to him, show him some nature videos, and generally spend "quality time". Mari makes "quality dinner". Without fail. I don't know how.

~18:40 We eat. I'll have set up the high chair with its spray mat, and I'll have filled the bathtub with hot water.

19:00 I tell Kenny, "Five minutes. Washing our hair in five minutes." and go hop in the shower.

19:10 Mari brings Kenny to me, and I bathe him.

19:45 Mari puts Kenny to bed. I do the dishes and get back to work.

rand()m quote

If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it. A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

—Roald Dahl