With Parents Like This . . .

Another typical weekend for Rookie Dad and Devoted Wife:

When Devoted Wife told me a few weeks ago that a friend of hers that I hadn't met yet had invited us to a party, I said "Sure, let's go." Then she told me it was a costume party and that we were supposed to dress like twins. "How cute," I said, rolling my eyes, "but no way."

But then I realized that this was a great excuse to do something I'd wanted to do recently: shave my head. So I suggested we go as London punks and that I could shave my hair into a mohawk. "How bad could it be?" I wondered to myself. "I'll never have to see these people again if I don't want to." So try to dress like punks we did. I guess we looked like twins, if by "twins" the party hosts meant "two people who both dress in clothes from the T.J.Maxx clearance racks." We improvised with what we could find there the night before the party -- Devoted Wife looked a bit more more '80s (did you know a tube top can be worn as a skirt?), and while I couldn't find an army jacket, I did have a mohawk. In the above photo you can't see my homemade "Anarchy" spray-painted T-shirt held together with safety pins or my calf-length cut-off pants and heavy boots, but I can assure you that our outfits went FAR beyond what the others did. We did win first place in the costume contest, I should add. First prize was a loaf of homemade bread -- totally worth it.

Devoted Wife shaved the rest of my hair short the next morning before anyone else (other than our painters, who looked impressed) got to experience it.

But for one brief evening I was downright scary (sort of).