You know how it would be really cool to have a time machine? Like, you could totally go back before you had kids and hang around the house in your underwear and drink beer or, you know, go to the demolition derby or a bar on a Sunday. Back before your mom lived in your basement. Back before your wife stopped wearing panties in exchange for full-time cotton long-johns.

Guess what? Someone invented that machine and this past weekend, Donna and I went back in time. It was like a magic spell had been cast on as I watched my mom's car disappear around the corner with with the kids crammed into the back seat like lobster in a cage. One of those magic spells that lasts one whole week.

Before the garage door even closed behind them I had my pants off. I NEVER get to spend time without my pants on. What with the house full of girls and my mom. I'm a boxers man and sometimes there's, you know, gapping. But this week, it just doesn't matter. So... in this house, this week, no pants. It's a rule, in fact.

I need a favor. Can you, real quick, go read every post on this site and tell me which ones I need to delete?

Earlier today, I was checking out my server logs and noticed a couple of referrals from Google searches for "ur mom's a nice piece of lettuce". Interesting. Then I noticed the IP address of the visitor. I mean, I recognized the IP address.

It's my home IP address. I knew Donna wasn't at home. A quick glance at my IM buddy list confirmed what I already knew. My oldest daughter, Megan, was online. The Google search was hers.

In episode 2, Mel, The Stay At Aum Mom (http://www.aummom.com) talks with Pete about growing up Mormon, regional dialects and might even mention where her tattoo is. She also reads a post she wrote about answering the door in a towel. Oh, and the theme for "I do, I'd do, Adieu"? Celebrities rumored to be Mormon.

Special thanks to Matt for giving me a hand with some much needed post production audio work. I'm working on a new recording setup for next week. Hopefully, the audio quality will be much improved and I won't need to call him in a panic again.

Did you know that some people still fill out paperwork on, get this, paper?

Today, after finally getting a real, live person on the telephone at my insurance company, I was told they would fax me some forms to fill out and that I could mail them back for my claim to be processed. Umm. Fax? Mail? To give you information I already gave you? For a claim I already filed? More than a week ago?

Seriously?

Internet? Will you be my new bestest friend?

After Friday's post, I expected a whole duffel bag of venomous email and comments telling me that Mormon Jesus was saving a special place in the Telestial Kingdom next to Hitler. But you know what? I didn't get a single one of those.

Though I did get this little totally unrelated gem.

Some of you will be angry at me for what I'm about to tell you. If this makes you angry, let me know so I can come take a crap in your family room and see how you react. If that's no big deal to you, I can come back once or twice a week for six or seven years and leave a present for you in the corner of your kid's room and another under your bed.

This morning, when the dog did her business right in the middle of the front room, it was the last straw. Actually, a couple years ago, right after we moved into the new house and the dog decided to make a habit of welcoming all our new neighbors by biting them on the Achilles tendon. That was the last straw.

Understand something. We love animals. That's why we adopted the dog in the first place. We rescued her from the pound, cleaned her up and welcomed her into our family. But I couldn't exaggerate this, she has been just too much to handle. And admitting that makes me feel like a failure. Like there's more I could have done.

On the inaugural episode, Schmutzie (http://www.schmutzie.com) joins host Pete Dunn for a conversation about Canada, cats and cancer. Schmutzie reads a favorite post about being recognized by her postman. Also, find out which famous Canadians she would marry, have sex with and kill in everyone's favorite game show "I do, I'd do, Adieu".

There's nothing new to report about the missing camera. I guess all there is to do now is hold out hope that someday, someone will see my camera walking down the street in the custody of a deranged self-proclaimed prophet and his crazy wife.

While all the personal electronics drama was going down I did manage to record and edit the premier of Blogger Love On Wednesday. It'll be up in just a few hours and I couldn't be more pleased with how it came out.

Just wait till you hear the guest tell me the name of her hometown. That alone is worth the price of admission. Which, by the way, is free.

You know what I did? I went and called the flippin' cops, that's what. Well, before I called THE cops I called A cop. My cop. Officer Johnson. Which is, coincidentally a pretty good nickname for your penis, if you have a penis and you haven't given it a nickname yet, that is.

Officer Johnson once cheated off a take-home musical theater history test and I always remind him of that whenever I need heads busted. Stop laughing, I kicked ass on that test. I would have cheated off me too.

What OJ told me was that I could file a police report and one of Salt Lake City's finest would register the serial numbers of my stolen camera gear in a database. Then, any time a local pawn shop checks in a new piece of equipment, they have to verify everything against the database. A long shot, for sure but it was worth a try.

Damn, but I was gonna take the sweetest shot of the flag on the front porch with the dusk moon in the sky behind it last night. Into the house I went to grab the camera bag from the sofa table. Not on the sofa table. Up to the bedroom to get the camera bag from the bedside table. I mean, out to the car where I left my camera bag. Err... what? It's not in the car?

Where the hell is my camera? I guess I left it at the office in my hurry to get out to that client meeting I was running late for. That's happened.

So imagine my minor panic when I opened my office door this morning and saw the blank spot next to my desk where I normally set my camera bag. Hmm. So maybe I really did take it home and just didn't look hard enough for it. I thought that until Donna told me she turned the house upside down on her dirty laundry hunt today and she hadn't found it.

I'm interested in you. I'm curious about who you are and what makes you tick. I want to meet each and every of you and nuzzle your internecks. I like the sound of my own voice. I like to start my sentences with I.

Lately, I've become a bit frustrated about a couple of things. I've posted what I think is some pretty damn good content fairly regularly on this site for a couple of years now. But my readership has stayed nearly level since it peaked in the first few weeks since the site launched. Try as I might, I've not been able to extend the reach of my voice.

Fine. If people aren't interested in what I have to say then maybe, like me, they're interested in what you have to say.

It has recently come to my attention that some visitors to this site might have reason to question my gender. Maybe it's the pink mastheads. Or all the ads for purses and swimsuits. It got me thinking. You know how some gay men who are trying to hide their sexuality go out and get themselves a beard?

I'm thinking that I can do the same thing. Except an actual beard. I'm going to grow a Commander Riker so everyone knows, once and for all, just how manly I really am.

Here's the progress so far.

Heather Armstrong didn't ask me to write a guest post while she's on vacation. She didn't offer me Hooters French fries either. I'm sure the writers she actually DID invite to write for her are, you know, actual writers. In fact, I don't even actually know Heather. Unless you count that one time she told me right to my face that she thought I would be old, fat and bald. She obviously had me mistaken for someone else.

But if I did know her and if she had asked me, I would probably write some kind of lame advice about parenting daughters. And it would go something like this.

Growing up I only had brothers. This put me at a significant disadvantage when it came to just about everything important. Unless you count knocking each others' teeth out during Japanese typhoons among important life-skills. So, having no other experience with girls, I was easily deceived by the likes of Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen and Lucy Maud Montgomery. I was tricked into thinking that daughters would be either be one-dimensional people, driven only by social-status and the need to be married to wealthy, handsome, men of status as quickly as humanly possible or precocious scamps on a relentless pantsuit-wearing pursuit to gain a foothold in the mens' club of big publishing. With red hair.

I was going to get really drunk on Friday night. Half the girls were off at end-of-the-school-year parties. The other half go to bed pretty early. Donna was working the late shift at the fabric store. My mother was out with friends doing what they do best. Gossiping with eyes closed while she wags her index finger in tiny, manicured circles.

But when I got home I got a hankering to ...wait... did I just say hankering? That reminds me... I'm trying to write younger. Hankering is not younger. Hankering is the kind of thing uranium prospectors in the red hills of southern Utah in the fifties would say. Like, "I'm hankering for a glass of whiskey and some jerky. I reckon I'll ride my mule into town and sit a spell in the saloon."

The reason I want to young it up is because Thursday night, when I went to Heather Armstrong's book signing, Heather said to me, "Oh, I thought you'd be old... and fat... and bald. From your writing you sound old." Jon stepped in and clarified, "That is to say, your voice is older than you seem. We just thought you'd be an older person."

It should be this one.

It may not seem like a big deal to a lot of you but for me this is nothing short of a miracle. An act of true pharmaceutical intervention.

Back in April, when I first visited my family doctor, I was so quivering and clammy the doc actually suggested we go outside to talk about my anxiety. Because grass is softer than vinyl tile and his liability would be lessened if I fainted there.

Zoloft works. Period. Tom Cruise can shove his zealous rhetoric up his Thetan hole.

You may remember that despite being the freaking awesomest dance partner in the world, I'm actually a really bad and neglectful father. As always, it's a good thing the children managed to eek out some decent skills anyway. Probably stuff they learned from the wild animals that roam the neighborhood and help them with their homework.

The exact moment the snow melted, Beth started begging me to put together a Frankenstein bike from the tattered carcasses of the sad and broken hand-me-down bikes collecting dust in the corner of the garage. As the youngest she usually has to pick at the scraps her older sisters leave for her. This also means that sometimes after all the recitals and lessons and games and errands take up the day, there's only time left for a little malt liquor and then bedtime.

There's been no time to put a bike together yet, let alone teach her to ride it. So what did the little fart go out and do yesterday? She opened up the drawer marked wrenches, pulled out the number fifteen, took the training wheels off one of the bike zombies, strapped on some pads and a helmet, got on that bike and rode it like a pro.

Friday, when I said tomorrow, I meant today.

I'm not going to spoil this with a lot of commentary. I think the video speaks for itself.

I'm the second dad from the left. That's stage right for those of you who've ever treaded the boards. And yes, the first twenty-seven seconds are video of a dark stage... but listen to the ladies scream. Pure gold.