So, I started to post on Bri's b-day to bitch about being married to such an old guy (lol), then I wanted to post around the middle of this month when our bosses agreed to shitty restrictions on search and seizure, which are going to ultimately cost this city a fortune in extra training and residual lawsuits.

But I didn't get around to either one of those important subjects.

So, I just want to say Merry Christmas to my flist! Sorry about the b-days I missed and all the important life events I'm completely oblivious to. I think about you guys, and while I'm off next week, I'll try to get around to your LJs and say hey, if I can. My most important goal: lose the extra five pounds I've packed on already this winter. Jesus, it gets harder every year! You'd think running around with three kids would be enough exercise.

Yesterday was our 4th (love) Anniversary! Unbelievable. Someday, when it's finally, absolutely, irrevocably legal, this will become our wedding anniversary.

Happy Thanksgiving to my flist, even those of you who don't celebrate this holiday tomorrow. I'm still thankful to know you. I'm sorry I don't post more often. I'd really like to get back to writing, but I say that all the time, it seems, and I don't do it.

Between kids and marches and wildfires and train accidents (don't get me started about that horrific scene), it seems like life has intervened. But for the most part, all is good. The kids are thriving, and Bri and I just keep on keepin' on.

I miss you all, if you're still reading. Thanks to those of you who haven't given up and gone away.

I almost posted yesterday and asked anyone voting in California to vote No on Proposition 8. But I try never to get political, since I'm usually on the wrong side of 'correct.'

This one hurts, even if I hate admitting it. And it bugs to have the other guys looking at me, probably wondering what I'm thinking. I hate to think that many of them voted for this shit. Bri is understandably devastated, as he campaigned pretty hard, dragging Chad, Katie and Harry to a lot of stuff.

We still have so far to go...

I can't believe yesterday was Katie's third birthday! Where does the time go? All I have to do is look back at this LJ and remember exactly how excited and scared we were when she was born.

And today Chad turns eight! Holy shit. He's a little man now. So frigging smart and so much his own person. He surprises me with the comments he makes. I love watching him when I can see he's watching Henry, making sure the rambunctious little prince doesn't fall over something.

It's our favorite week of the year--4th of July week--and Daddy Jim is on vaca, hanging out with his Honey Do list. After several private emails from some LJ folks (a couple surprising ones), I had to revisit the journal and take a trip down memory lane. It felt okay. I think if I hadn't gotten so obsessive about everything, I might have stayed with it.

Well, as busy as life is, there's always time to sit back for a minute and reflect. You just gotta make the time.

I do miss my writing.

Can't believe I haven't posted in 2008! But I couldn't miss my birthday.

I've almost gotten used to the new schedule. The good part of it is a nice long weekend, and so we'll celebrate my b-day tomorrow or Saturday.

There's so much going on with LAPD these days. It's been so up and down with the whole financial disclosure thing, and now the Code 7 discussion has been delayed again. But I don't want to talk about that shit today. I'll post over the weekend and talk about what it's been like on the job lately, and do an acknowledgment of our most recent loss.

In the meantime, all is well with me and my family, and I hope the same is true for my flist. I'll try to catch up with everyone this weekend!

All the kids are asleep. Chad wanted to stay awake this year, just in case the neighbors did fireworks, but he didn't make it. I just put him in his room.

Today was one of my long days, but at least I don't have to do the midnight patrol! I hate dealing with all the drunks.

Before the year is over, I want to say thank you to my flist for hanging around, thank you to my family for all their support and never-ending love, thank you to the maintainers at my pervy communities who have stayed strong in all the uncertainty here at LJ and a couple of special thank yous to follow.

First of all, thanks Charlie for the extra paid time (a year!) and userpics. I don't think I've ever paid much myself during my nearly three years here at LJ. It's great to have such good friends.

Next, I have to publically thank Linds (AGAIN!) for the great gift she gave us in 2007. Of course I'm talking about our little prince, Henry. I always knew she was a special person and a great friend, but I'm still overwhelmed by this generosity and love.

And finally I want to thank the continually devoted sue_chose_this for her support here at LJ. She's always watching and commenting, she links our website from her own LJ and she even joined my Colin Watch list to help me out there. (And that Braveheart blend for Bri's birthday was a real present to both of us, girl!) I'm not sure what I ever did to deserve it all, but believe me I feel lucky.

Happy New Year to all of you, and even when I don't get here to LJ, I'm thinking of you and wishing you well.

Just wanted to quickly update and make a note that today was Bri's b-day. We celebrated yesterday with a family outing that included church and a movie (can you say Chipmunks, holy shit!), and later we had a nice dinner together while Linds watched the kids (blessed saint Lindsay, as I should call her). Then a fantastic roll in the hay that I won't go into details about (because I've learned my lesson here at LJ).

I think Bri was happy, overall. And what did I get him for his b-day present this year? Well, a new catbox for one thing, lol. Romantic, huh? I got one of those covered jobbers that keeps the litter from going everywhere, and Bri's been wanting one for a while. I thought it was funny, since Buster was last year's present.

What else? A couple new shirts and a pinkish tie. Nothing too exciting, since we're strapped for cash as usual. But I think he liked it.

I meant to write him a story or at least a drabble and dedicate it to him for his birthday, but I didn't get that done. It's just been too damn hectic. Maybe I still will before the end of the year.

So, even tho I'm on vacation, I get my PPL messages here at home. Yesterday the email is entitled, "Membership Alert Re: Code 7 Policy." It says:

On November 27, 2007, the City Council's Executive Employee Relations Committee "EERC" gave direction to the CAO's office to give directions to the Department to eliminate Code 7 for all sworn personnel. Your League will be meeting with the Department to negotiate implementation of this policy. We will keep you apprised of the progress of implementation.

Can't wait to be apprised.

And in the meantime, I think it's gonna take a while to retrain myself on how to log in here. Old habits die hard.

So, yesterday there was a lot of singing going on around our place, especially Christmas music, which Bri loves. And Chad has turned into quite the little singer. He can even improvise on songs, like a would-be Harry Connick, Jr.

I'm not sure when all this happened, but in the past two years, Chad has gone from a relatively shy, uncommunicative kid to an outgoing, un-self-conscious little person. He used to be so OCD in the way he'd play with his toys or deal with his clothes and belongings, I worried about how he'd develop. He was always deathly afraid of offending anyone, especially us... and especially me. He was ultra neat and hated anything that smacked of getting dirty.

Well, he's still cleaner that most of the kids he plays with, but he's not nearly as timid. Sometimes he'll even purposely test me, which is the way it should be with a growing boy.

Anyway, I'm proud of how he's growing up, even though the music thing is annoying. Now I have three would-be singers in the house (when you count Linds)!

So, I gave up over a year ago on changing the name of my journal. All of the decent "Jimbo" names were taken, including the one I wanted, "Just Jimbo." I even had that as the 'title' of my journal: "Just Jimbo, but that was already taken."

By now you've probably noticed that I HAVE changed my name here. It seems like some of my friends were paying closer attention than I was, because yesterday I was gifted with a name change token *and* was sent a note that "just_jimbo" was had been deleted and purged, and I'd better snap it up while I could.

Thanks, MM, for caring! You have every reason to ignore me after all this time and all that drama, and you still hang in and encourage me to keep blogging. I really appreciate it.

I loved the whole 'S.W.A.T.' thing, believe me. And I loved that Brian had fun with it when he created our journals. But I was always a little embarrassed by having Jim Street as my moniker, and now my LJ has the name I wanted.

What a cool present to receive on my anniversary!

It's finally quiet around here, and I felt the urge to write some fanfic. For whatever reason, I seem to come back to it at this time of year. I noticed the same last year, when I was writing Bond and Miami Vice and a little Braveheart.

So, for our third anniversary I thought I'd give Bri one of the pairings he loves, Wallace and The Bruce from Braveheart in a little non-con love called Force Majeure. Sunday is our anniversary, and we're planning a big family day with church and everything. The romantic part will have to come in private.

Man, writing is a lot harder now. I haven't even been blogging much for months, so it does not come natural to me. And to think that for a while I wanted to write a cop novel, lol.

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends. It's one of those holidays that a guy like me can't help loving, because it was really designed for us guys to enjoy, lol. Eating, football and more eating. And even the three fucking hours of parades can't dampen my enthusiasm. In fact, watching Chad and Katie watch parades is getting to be more fun than football, I might as well admit.

A Happy Birthday to my pal Mike capn_arrgh. Hope it's a good one, guy.

I'm lucky to have my family around me and my home intact. Bri and I were watching a show today about a security guy at the World Trade Center who got nearly 2700 of his colleagues out safely, because he anticipated the disaster and kept his head. I joke a lot about Brian being an air-head and a drama queen, but the fact is, when it comes to something important, he has his shit together.

If Bri still blogged, I bet he'd have some hilarious stories about his 72 hours on the road and bunking with friends during the fires of 2007. Chad's asthma has always been more stress-induced than anything, and after a day or so, I guess Bri figured he would have been better at home.

I spend a lot of time trying to think things out and plan ahead, especially now with three kids. But evacuation of my own home is not something I think about. And leading scared adults out of a burning building is hard enough... keeping kids relaxed and thinking you're on a vacation when they can see the smoke all around is like living a TV movie.

I'm a lucky guy. And I'm enjoying a couple days off, with nothing to do but yardwork and diapers!

So, Brian and Linds have taken the kids and gone north. I'll find out where they land when they land there. We can't afford for them to stay anywhere very long unless some friends take them in. But Chad has asthma, and the smoke comes and goes. And with a baby, a toddler and a wheezing kid, and a dad who's working extra shifts, wtf are you supposed to do? We're just lucky our home isn't threatened.

Linds has friends in SF, and they'll stay there a couple days if the friends say okay. Otherwise they'll hole up in a motel if they can find one. I should have sent them Monday.

Maybe there's a reason I was driven to the computer, here alone with the dog and cat. In checking out my flist, I'm really worried about my friend Mandy a_phoenixdragon. I wish I could help. There are so many people who care, and all we can do is just ask you to hang in there. Hopefully you can feel these positive thoughts and they help in some small way. (Hey, go talk to the bank and explain, and I'll bet they'll drop any fines. Bri's done that before with Katie on his lap, and that seemed to work.)

Don't get me wrong. I understand Brian's concerns about my career, and occasionally I do give it a second thought myself. But, really, it's not as bad as some people make it out to be, and he of all people should know that.

Still, we lost two of our guys in traffic accidents on July 29, and last week the Police Commission reported that attacks on LAPD officers were up 39% this year. The Protective League says the community and the media should make more out of this stats and show more support for us guys.

Like that will ever happen. It's much more popular to paint LA cops as brutal or corrupt or lazy. You just have to learn to ignore it and do your job.

I've learned to be good at ignoring bullshit. But I have to remind myself that the concern my family shows for me is not part of that. It's one of the things that keeps me safe and happy... not just more drama.

I'm a lucky guy.

Chad's right. Boy babies are a lot more work than girl babies.

What's that about?

I never thought going grocery shopping with Brian and Chad (thanks, Linds, for babysitting) would make me wish I was back in the patrol car...

Whoa, I barely survived the birthday party today. All the little kids of all ages... and yes, we doubled up the b-days and did both Katie and Chad on the same day. We made sure Chad was okay with it, but since they go to the same play group, it's the same kids anyway.

(Was it my idea to have three kids?)

Chad got to pick out a movie, and Bri and I took him last night. He picked out the new Die Hard. (That's my boy!)

I need to mention that yesterday was also the birthday of gypsyluv's Alexander. And today is my friend lancelotluv's b-day.

Thanks to those of you who have joined Bri and my Tudor communities. We promise to work on getting those more active. Also, I've got a new (old) community I'm now moderating called colin_watch, so if you're a Colin fan, please join! This is a place to try to keep track of our errant lad and let each other know what's going on with him (both good and bad).

In the meantime, I gacked this from Lady L (far_mountain) and spent the time doing it, so I'm putting it under a cut.

( Jim's Scattergories )

No surprise.

My little girl is two years old today!

And it's been around two years that I've been blogging, even though I've really fallen off lately. I haven't written much fanfic, either, but I hope to get back to it this summer.

Vacation time!

Thanks to all of you who have emailed me and encouraged me to show up here. It's great to have LJ friends. I do try to check out your entries when I can.

Henry's doing great, btw. The family thing is a little overwhelming right now, but we're adjusting. Thank God for Linds.

Note: Funny that when I started to check out my friends tonight, LJ went down for hours. Hopefully it's not a sign of something.