Making progress

My friend Vern[^] with whom I plan to drink beer tonight ran a joke on his blog the other day. You'll have to scroll down a bit to find it.

Not a great joke nor yet a bad one; it played on the difference in perceptions between President George W Bush and a horses arse. Naturally, the horses arse is seen as the better of the two alternatives. For the record, I'd vote for the horses arse before I'd vote for the current incumbent of the office!

Reminded me of the old Australian joke about a bloke who wants to change his name. The judge asks him what his original name is. 'It's John Winston Howard Shit, your honour'. The judge smiles indulgently and says he quite understands. What do you want to change it to? 'John Shit, your honour' he replies! Replace 'John Winston Howard' with that of any politician in the world and you have the joke in essence.

Armed with Verns joke and an American audience could I wish for more as I sat down to dinner tonight? The first time we've dined as a family in a few weeks? So I ran it by them. My wife, who has voted Republican laughed. Andrew scratched his head a few moments until it dawned and then he laughed.

'Mom.' said Andrew, 'I told you he'd have some new jokes when he got back.' Far be it from me to disillusion the lad and admit I nicked it from Verns blog :-) That's another way of saying I'll take the credit and run!

A little later Andrew smiled to himself as I took him to task over leaving his poker table out in the living room. A little defiance, just enough to establish his place in the household but no truculence that I could detect.

It's really starting to feel like he's glad when I'm around. He said as much last night, just after I'd gotten home and taken him to task for leaving the phone lying on the desk next to his computer. Hangdog look with a faint smile and the agreement that he'd stuffed up again. 'Don't apologise' I said, 'just don't do it again.'.

Morgan said the same thing this afternoon but, to be frank, her saying it doesn't make me feel the same way. There was no accompanying sheepish grin; no sign of contrition; just the feeling that she was saying the words. I may be judging the girl harshly and, if I am, I'll be sorry, but going by history I don't think I'm wrong. *shrug*