This is how I spent my Saturday afternoon while everyone else went bowling. My mom had asked me to do something with her and I didn’t want to break that commitment, but when I got home I knew that I had some serious work to do. In this picture is 20 shirts, that’s at least 4 weeks worth of shirts that had not been ironed. It’s one of my greatest flaws and one of my least favorite activities. You would think that a big hot-shot attorney would be able to afford to have his shirts ironed, but that seems crazy. Paying someone to do something you can do yourself. Don’t get me wrong, there’s lots of things I can’t do (i.e. fix anything in my house), but the things I can do, it seems silly to pay someone to do them.
By the way, I really appreciate my Mom, she has decided to frame my diplomas, after almost 10 years of them sitting in the closet. I would never have done this, for whatever reason, nevertheless, I thank her.
I have yet to receive any pictures from anyone and (foot tapping) I’m upset. I’ve got lots of room in my inbox so I’m not real sure why everyone is waiting. I hope everyone participated, and if you didn’t then I’ll try to catch you next year, or the next.
I don’t know if anyone reads the comments, but I want to give a big shout-out and congratulations to Duk who has decided to run for a judicial position in Missouri at the tender age of 30-ish. I’ve told him that he should blog, the kids love it (just ask TJ) and it would be a great way to document your journey. He’s still considering it. As an aside, I would be willing to do whatever is necessary to get the blog looking like it should and something that you’re happy with (i.e. red, white and blue everywhere, lots of Duk logos, etc.). You can send pictures and transcripts of public speeches, all things will be posted in a very professional manner (I might even spellcheck it). I also promise not to overuse the parentheses as I have done in this paragraph.
Seek The Substantial 
I have thought quite a bit about your opinion that we really shouldn’t pay someone else to do what we can do ourselves, specifically as you referred to ironing your shirts. I disagree, for the most part.
Certainly, you are man who is conscious of his consumption and spending. You are, admirably, best characterized as thrifty, which is not to say you are cheap. Rather, it offends you to spend money, unnecessarily, on the frivolous and/or trivial. Hear me out. For you, the thought of paying someone to iron your shirts is absurd. For me, I find that spending the money, about 3$ per shirt, for dry cleaning and ironing is a good idea. Looking at it pragmatically, it is all about the productivity. 20 shirts to wash and iron would take me approximately 4-5 hours. If I am able to use that time to work, I can bill my time out at $150 per hour, making $600 to $750. I pay a cleaing service, to do their job, and it costs me $60. Even assuming that I would not take time away from work to do this job, it is still makes sense to send it to the cleaners. During the average week, I get home at b/w 7 and 7:30, and I go to bed b/w 10 and 10:30 (sure its pathetic), giving me approximately 3 hours to complete the mundane chores, eat and relax. Setting asided 15 minutes to change out of the business cloths, 30-45 to fix dinner, 15-20 to eat dinner, leaves me about 1.5 hours to do chores and relax. At least 2 nights a week, I do house chores, and the other 3 are for relaxation. I haven’t even taken into account the time needed to communciated with my family, my wife, my dog, my friends. These things are all necessary, and cannot be done by someone else, Thankfully, my ironing, oil changes, lawn treatment, etc. are provided by local businesses, who appreciate my patronage. You may be saying, I should multi-task, and iron while I cook or whatever. Most of the time I am doing something else. Reading mail, sorting bills, returning phone calls,etc. I am sure I could more wisely manage my time, and as I get older, I seem to be better with this issue, but why would I manage my time to do something that is more efficiently, not to mention just better, than I could do myself?
In the future, as I am able, I will continue to delegate and assign to others activities I believe are a drain on my productivity. This is my path to contentment. While I respect your choice to undertake these tasks, I do not agree that it is more efficient for you to do these chores than for you pay someone else to do them. The time you spent ironing with Sarah, could have been spent having a less distracted conversation, or even, doing something with her she enjoys. Now, I am sure she was just happy to have you there (we all want our Roni time), but could not have the quaility of that time been better?
Also, yes. I believe that I would like a blog, you know for the kids. I am gathering photos and preparing home page information and bio for this. Oh, did you volunteer?
Duk, you make valid points and logic tells me I should listen to you. I won’t commit to this theory of yours quite yet.
I am very serious about getting you started with your blog. Let me know what you want and I’ll make it happen. I figure I can’t vote for you and I’m really not good at many things, nevertheless, I can blog my rear off. I promise to make something you’ll really like and I want to take some of the pressure of running in an election off of you.