Colin Bane's Open Salon Blog

Action Academy: Expansion

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 13:01:43 -0500

Big developments on the horizon at Action Academy: After a year of handling the superhero tutelage of Dangerg!rl and Iron A!dan (now 4 and 6) as a single superhero dad, I'm bringing my old friend and new partner into the mix as the newest Action Academy resident.

Captain Sarah is adventurous, loves kids, has been following the exploits of Dangerg!rl and Iron A!dan from day one, recently saved the day when one of them shoveled sand into the other's eyeball, and has superpowers ranging from ability to navigate by stars to kitchen and cake wizardry, but the fact is there's a lot of plot about to unfold.

I'll send some updates as we go, but in the meantime, loyal Action Academy readers, a question...

Have any of you successfully navigated the introduction of a new partner into your kids' daily lives after divorce? Any awesome tips? Please discuss.

Illustrious

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 01:11:52 -0500

My son was selected to represent his class today at the school's Thanksgiving writing assembly. He was beaming with pride, up on stage next to the principal and one kid from each grade. Before he even got through "I am happy to be thankful for..." I was totally wiping tears from my eyes, and that was before he handed me his certificate for his newly acquired superpower: "Illustrious Writing." How does anybody ever get through this stuff without crying? I hven't figured it out yet.

Anyway...

I'm happy to be thankful for two amazing kids, a new job, the start of snowboarding season, some important new beginnings, and all the people who were disappointed when I neglected my Action Academy blog here at Open Salon for a month and wrote or called to ask me to please get back to it so they could keep up with our adventures. I'm back to it, and happy to report that Action Academy has been alive and well in the interim. Sorry for the suspense!

-- Colin Bane

We offer lessons

Thu, 9 Oct 2008 02:10:02 -0400

My sister is pregnant and just found out the other day that the baby is going to be a girl. Upon hearing this news, my daughter Dangerg!rl said:

"As soon as she's born I'm going to give her Dangerg!rl lessons. Dangerg!rl lessons are like swim lessons, but for danger."

Action Academy has a new student – and a new teacher, apparently – on the way. Stay tuned.

– Colin Bane

Dangerg!rl

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 10:09:30 -0400

I'm positively swooning over how awesome my daughter is. Both of my kids, obviously, but this week the spotlight is on Dangerg!rl, 4 year-old birthday girl extraordinaire. For her birthday this year, she asked for a purple skateboard and also for a purple salon chair so she could style her dolls' hair. That's precisely the kind of balance I've been striving for at Action Academy, but here's the real reason I'm feeling four different flavors of fatherly pride over the whole thing:

When you're a lifelong skateboarder and Daredev!l Dad and your daughter tells you that one of the things she most wants in all the world is her very own skateboard.... Let's just say that regular readers of Action Academy are well-acquainted with the depths to which I've been known to nerd out. I'd been looking all over the place for a perfect purple skateboard to meet the occasion, when suddenly the universe perfectly aligned according to Dangerg!rl's purple parameters.

In my other life outside of the superhero training facility known as Action Academy, my bespectacled Clark Kent alter ego writes about skateboarding and action sports for a living. Earlier this month FUEL.TV sent me out to San Diego to cover the ASR Action Sports Retailers convention, and on the flight home I met a representative from Boardpusher.com, a custom skateboard printing shop in South Denver and put my plan in motion. I wrote a bit more about it over at the FUEL.TV site, but thought Dangerg!rl fans would appreciate the skateboard and graphics, plus a rare peek at the birthday girl in full tiara regalia clutching her prize:

– Colin Bane

Pretty in pink and purple and magenta

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 03:09:00 -0400

"You either have one very lucky little daughter, or one very lucky gay partner."

– Cashier lady at SuperTarget, as I was checking out with a cart full of pink and magenta party plates and plastic silverware, a pink tablecloth, pink balloons, the purple doll's salon chair and accompanying doll my daughter asked for as a birthday present, a bouquet of pink and purple flowers, and various other party supplies, most of them pink, purple, or magenta, per my daughter's request.

More about Dangerg!rl's 4th birthday later, because I'm dying to show off the pictures of the custom purple skateboard I had made up for her but I'm too party-pooped to upload them from my camera now.

– Colin Bane