(gentle music)
You're back on land.
If you're pregnant or
if you have COVID, right?
Same concept to some degree.
Same concept, different drip.
We should put you guys all
in a rafting boat with a bear.
It doesn't flush, it
just sprays everywhere.
It wasn't just a really
tough trip to the restroom.
I mean, like, you were in there.
The floor is so, yeah.
Woo!
Has anybody else got in a fight with
Alexa, the chat GPT?
You did.
I got in a fight with
full question mark enter.
All right, let's see what they say.
Up-a-dee, the Up-a-dee English is,
oh, that should be,
that could be another name.
Yeah, that could be our new name.
It might be catchy.
It might be.
Let me get a look at these two.
Let's just check these two out, let's see
how Up-a-dee they are.
Ooh, they are Up-a-dee.
They are Up-a-dee.
Very Up-a-dee.
Do it all over again.
Absolutely.
I know, it was so worth it.
Absolutely, no question
about it, that was incredible.
It was so worth it.
Welcome to the Mr. and
Mrs. English podcast.
I'm Megan.
And I'm Sean.
We're here to talk about
the wild ride of raising kids
and growing careers,
keeping life together
in the middle of all the chaos.
So buckle up, because we're all
in this crazy journey together.
Which is my butt.
Oh, and a bop.
I'm gonna do my bops.
Bops are good.
Okay, and the land.
Land, yeah, let's not go into that.
Everybody knows that, I gotta get that.
So we'll jump into it now.
We are back in the studio.
We are back on land.
Back on land, yeah.
Right?
We've landed back on land.
Yeah.
What do you mean?
We've landed back in.
In the US.
That's right, in the US.
And the last few, we were not on land.
That's right, we were on the boat, yeah.
We were, we were.
Floating.
We were floating.
That's right.
Right, so see, it was a great segue.
Yeah, it was great.
And I missed it, I'm sorry.
Cloudy, and I'll get into that.
Really got a little bit of a cloud.
So do you, we'll get into that though.
We're a little bit of foggy.
But we are, like you
said, we're back, obviously,
but we're so new back,
it's only been a week or so.
Almost two now, but yes.
Is it really?
But we're still on the
high of a couple things,
but of the, we're still on
the high of that vacation.
It was incredible.
I mean, I keep saying it's incredible.
I'd be, if you're having,
if you're playing a shot game
for the amount of time
Shawn said the vacation
was incredible, yeah, someone--
Or Megan, I mean, like
either one of us really, yeah.
Just start drinking water instead.
Right, right, and
you'll be really hydrated.
You'll be very hydrated
instead, that's right.
But yeah, it is incredible to be back.
I mean, we obviously talked at length in,
you know, over the last couple episodes,
but before, you know, as we wrap it up,
any, anything else that
you would want to share or--
Well, I was gonna ask you that question.
I totally stole it.
You stole the question.
You know, now that we're back, it's,
as some of those great vacations seem,
again, I didn't count
it down when I was on it.
I felt like I really
enjoyed it while we were there.
And it's tough for me
to be in any moment.
It really is for you.
But I feel like I was in those moments
just really trying to
immerse myself, enjoy it,
enjoy it with the kids.
Because there's gonna come a time
when we don't have all
the kids with us as children
that still like want
to be around mom and dad
to some degree, you know?
And our oldest is right at that age
where he's becoming
much more independent,
getting more friends,
spending time with them.
We had them all, and we had them all,
we had all their attention.
Yes.
It was incredible to walk
around wherever we were walking.
And like the kids would just talk to you.
Even if it was something that,
whether it was a YouTube
thing that they had seen
and they wanted to share or whatever.
It was just time that we were together.
There wasn't a screen
in front of anybody.
And so they just talked.
Right.
Whether it was their
deepest, darkest moments
or whether it was something
that they had seen on YouTube.
As shallow as that is.
They were talking to us.
Right, right.
And they never fought it either
because we're pretty good in this house
still about not having a
lot of cell phone time.
We've learned we have to take
the cell phones in at night.
We've just gotten better at that.
But we never felt like we had to
institute that previously
because our kids, as far as we knew,
aren't constantly on their phone.
Now more so than I want
them to be in video games.
We've held back on all
these things as much as we can.
I get it, that's the generation,
that's things they need to have.
That's social interaction at this age.
But they didn't fight it on the cruise
because I don't think
they're not completely addicted
to it at home.
And they had them ripped
from them on the cruise
because there was zero,
we've talked about it.
There was zero internet.
Zero.
Even the 400, $500 internet I purchased
for the higher level on the ship.
Yeah, how'd that work for you?
I'd need to call and
see if I can get a refund.
I couldn't download a
text, a picture on a text.
No, I could.
And I didn't have the internet.
Anytime you were in a
port, you'd get them in.
That's right.
You weren't connected to
the ship's wifi though.
And I didn't, hijacked everything.
And when I was doing, I know we've talked
about the Instagram pics,
but we did Instagram pics,
basically a reel for
every port we were in.
And I've told it, I may
have mentioned on the last one,
I don't know when I've
mentioned this to several people,
but it's like, I had so many great videos
that I was intending,
because I think videos
are more enjoyable to watch
on a reel, you know what I mean?
I know they're long,
they're a minute and a half,
90 seconds, because
that's as long as you can use
the music for, at least that I know,
and I'm not gonna get
any deeper than that.
But I enjoy watching videos
more than do just picture,
picture, picture, picture scrolling.
And I couldn't use any of the videos,
which I had intended to
put on these Instagram reels,
just to show people that do care.
And not for any other
reason than other people do care
to see them.
And I have had
several people actually say,
you should post those again,
like repost for every port,
but with videos this time.
Right, with all your extra time.
Yeah, it is the bane of my life.
Like I enjoy it, it's fun
to show it when it's done.
Because now that I figured
out how to download them,
these are actually like
home movies for us now.
For sure.
Right, so I mean, the
way I think about it now
is not hey, I'm being
annoying and posting stuff,
that's great.
If you care, you'll look at it.
If you don't, you'll scroll.
I've gotten past that to some degree,
because there's a lot of stuff up there,
like morning cereal every day, I get it.
Some people probably
roll their eyes at it,
and they scroll, that's fine.
But there's some people that like it,
and they listen to the, you know,
that's less than a minute every time.
So I'm gonna have a long story short,
now that I can
download those, and save them,
and now we can share,
we have shared folders
so the kids can have these
pictures for their entire life,
right, because it's shared to their
iTunes account and stuff.
These are home videos now that they'll
take forever, right?
These are the old VHS tapes, you know,
but in digital form.
So that's why I
actually enjoy doing them,
and that's why when I do
take the time to do it,
it's like I wanna do it right.
I like using the videos,
because they're more
fun to watch, I think.
Yeah.
But they take a lot
of time, you're right.
They do.
The other thing, you did such a good job
of on the reels that you posted,
and there's something
about this, I mean, obviously.
I know what you're gonna say.
There's a part of an award for music editing.
The music that you paired
with each one was so thoughtful,
and I don't even know, so
I mean, in Malta, right?
Like, that's where
Game of Thrones was shot.
Anything that happened, you know,
any of the southern
ones, anything at the north,
obviously, was not in Malta.
You put the Game of Thrones music to it.
Right.
You did the Godfather in Sicily.
Like, just those little tidbits.
Yeah, I found that one little gem
to take me to Mykonos.
Mykonos.
In Mykonos.
Like, I actually really like that song,
I need to download it.
It's a great song.
It's a very Mykonos song.
It 100% is.
You're right, most of them, and I love,
music is a passion of mine.
I know most people have a passion.
God, I wish I was musical, talented,
in any way, shape, or form, because,
you know when they talk about,
if you could do
something you love for work,
it doesn't feel like work.
Like, mine would be music somehow.
Yeah.
Creating any shape, fashion to music,
I just, it just is in my soul.
I love it, and I have
not a drop of talent in it.
But I do like picking the songs out,
because I mean, to me, it's, you know,
music evokes such emotion.
Yes.
From within.
Yeah.
To me, it touches me.
I know people feel that too.
And so if you pick
the right one, you know.
You pick that emotion.
That, now, I've never heard you sing.
You set the emotion.
You set, and that maybe is your talent.
Maybe you're an incredible singer,
because in the more than 20
years we've been together,
he's never sung in front of me.
You--
Can we just unpack that for a second?
How many people have sung
in front of other people?
You've never really sung in front of me.
I sing all the time.
Well, I feel like I sing all the time.
No, you don't.
I do.
Just not when I'm around.
I sing when people are around.
Well, I do too, when people are around.
But it's always like in like a, you know,
but it's how I sing.
Yeah.
I'm not gonna stand up
to a mic and, you know,
just belt out the "Star Spinkle Banner"
or something like that.
That's not how real I've worked.
The bottom line is I
don't have a lick of talent.
I can't sing, unfortunately.
My mom can sing.
You can sing.
I think there's things in my genealogy
that would suggest
there's musical talent.
It was on my mother's side.
And I think even on my
paternal father's side,
there was some,
fortunately, I didn't get any of that.
Well, maybe your talent,
in addition to any other hidden talent
that we haven't found musically,
that's in your genealogy,
is being able to
connect music to any motion
and bring that to other people
so that they feel what
you want them to feel.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, if anybody's
hiring for somebody like that,
just let me know.
Sure.
Drop me a DM.
(laughs)
Now that I know what
that is, direct message.
Yeah, yeah. I had no idea.
Anyways, we're off topic there.
But yeah, I think, you
know, if anything else,
that we just kind of
wrapping up the vacation,
not to talk about it.
We're still a little
bit on a high from it.
Yes, yes.
Maybe there'll be some more reels on that
if I take the time to do it.
We're busy.
That's the other thing
coming back from vacation,
just like.
We were dropped in, you know, headfirst.
And another thing that we learned
is that COVID does not respect
international boundaries.
Yeah, apparently COVID's still a thing.
It is still a thing.
Because we brought that back with us.
We did.
Yeah.
Or maybe you did.
I mean, I haven't been sick since the
last time I had COVID,
which was like three years ago.
I don't get sick that often.
Ironically, it was
only like two, but yeah.
It was two years ago now?
Ironically, either way.
Oh yeah, ironic.
That was the wrong.
Well, that's fine.
No, I wasn't trying to
call you out on that.
But yeah, I don't get sick that often.
And I guess COVID just influenza, right?
So I mean, like we know what it is now.
The only reason we say COVID
is because we had extra COVID
tests laying around
the house and I used one.
Well, the thing with
influenza that is different
is that, and the
reason that prompted you,
A, you felt like crap.
And you had been for a few days.
The first time I had this.
This was the first
symptom of you completely
lost your taste.
Yeah, I've never lost my
taste with COVID before.
I don't think that is influenza.
And I thought maybe it was just jet lag
and I had to dive
straight back into work, busy.
And I was just like,
I was busy before it,
like going to the
vacation, like trying to lead up
to all the stuff getting
done to prepare for it,
as were you.
But I was not rested going into vacation.
And as you heard on, if
you watched last week's,
we were not rested on
the vacation either.
It was not a restful vacation.
So then we get dropped back out of it.
You're unpacking from emails,
I'm unpacking from emails and bills
and all the other
businesses, all that kind of stuff.
So, and jet lag.
And jet lag.
And then, so I'm like, I
don't get sick that often,
but you're cooking food one night
and I'm tasting something that I love.
And I'm like, I cannot taste this.
Put some more of the dressing on it.
I'm like, I can't taste it.
Then the next day at church,
I always put in some of
those wintergreen mints.
Yeah.
You know, can't taste a mint.
A mint.
Like what if the strongest flavors?
I can taste a
lifesaver's mint for like hours.
Yeah.
And yeah, you're like,
nope, I can't taste it.
So.
So I had to be left over COVID test.
So I took the COVID test
and I've taken them before
it's like, you gotta wait for
that second line to show up.
And you're like, maybe
there's a faint line there.
Maybe not hard to tell.
This one was like, bam.
I was like, so when did you do the test?
When you told me,
you're like, it's positive.
And you're like, I
don't know, 20 seconds ago.
We've all taken them, right?
Cause I mean, like, you
need to take these back.
When first COVID hit,
we had to take these.
We would, when we
finally could travel again
to go see clients,
there were some clients
that wanted us to take COVID tests
before we went into like
the actual like meeting room.
Sure.
So everybody's used to the swab
and then you gotta do it.
And then you gotta do the
drips on the test, you know,
to see if you're pregnant
or if you have COVID, right?
Same, same concept to some degree.
Same concept, different drip.
Yeah, different drip.
Very well, we'll leave it at that.
But sometimes you get away.
It says, wait 20 minutes, just to make
sure 15 to 20 minutes.
And I've had that before where it's like,
gosh, I don't know, but not this time.
It was like drip, drip, bam.
Second line.
Yeah, second line showed up.
So anyways, Sunday was my worst day.
And then
unfortunately, slowly but surely,
it made its way to you.
Yeah, Monday, I woke
up with a sore throat.
Yeah.
Ignored it for a day.
Then I'm like, this is not good.
And yeah.
You're about a week
behind me in symptoms.
It was about a week, yeah.
Yeah.
I think Friday was my worst.
I was probably the blue monkey
that brought it home, unfortunately.
I think so.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Someone sitting next to you on the
airplane or something,
who knows, but yeah.
Could be, could be.
You know it's bad when just this morning,
you know, the failure was asking,
like, oh, how are you feeling?
I was like, I'm feeling better, thanks.
And I was like, I think
Friday was the worst for me.
And our 11 year old was like,
yeah, I didn't want to say anything,
but you looked really bad.
I was like, thanks.
I mean, you didn't
kick me while I was down.
Yeah, he's learning.
He's learning some things.
Yeah, yeah.
You didn't get that from me though.
I'm pretty, I hit you in
between the eyes all the time.
Yeah, you were working all day Friday.
I said, you seen me, you
probably would have been like.
I saw your eyes that night.
I mean, you could just, there's a tell,
there's a tell, tell.
Yeah, yeah.
When people are sick like that.
Your eyes just don't look right.
Mine were like that most of the week.
They were, they were a little glassy.
Yeah.
Dark circles.
Yeah.
It's all good, but I don't know.
Knowing that you're going
to come back to jet lag,
the busyness of ignoring, you know,
regular life for two weeks
and that you were going to get COVID,
would you do it all over again?
Absolutely.
I know, it was so--
Absolutely, no question about it.
That was incredible.
It was so worth it.
You gotta take a drink.
Now it was totally worth it.
Yeah, I mean, when can we go back?
Right?
You said it at some point in time saying,
I could be a professional vacationer,
like on this kind of thing.
I really could.
I think all of us could.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You got friends there
in Costa Rica this week,
watching some of their things.
I'm like, well, I could go there too.
I could go there.
I miss Costa Rica.
We were there two or three years ago.
I don't know.
And how snobby did we just sound?
I can't remember when it was Costa Rica.
Well, I think if we've
established anything,
very uppity.
We're uppity.
Uppity, the uppity Englaces.
Oh, that could be another name.
Yeah, that could be our new name.
The uppity Englaces.
It might be catchy.
It might be.
Let me get a look at these two.
Let's just check these two.
I'll say how uppity they are.
Ooh, they are uppity.
They are uppity.
Very uppity.
And then they could just laugh at us.
We were more like a reality show, right?
Yeah, that's right.
We'd be boring.
Yeah, we're not Kardashian level drama.
No, we have some family
members though that I think
that could definitely do it.
And I'm not calling anybody
out in a negative way there,
but there's people that have said like,
oh, I could be, they should watch us.
We should have
cameras following us around.
Yes.
Yeah.
And I might agree with that.
We would have, we would be signed up
if we were a reality show,
we'd be signed up for 10
shows for the first season
and we'd be canceled after
a show of three probably.
Cause it's like, there's just not enough.
There's just not enough here guys.
Like you're pretty darn normal.
Yeah, that's when all those people,
I think that's the point of
some of those reality shows.
Like they're normal
and then they're like,
you know what we should do?
We should put you guys
all on a rafting boat
with a bear.
Right.
For this episode.
Right.
Right?
And then that'll make,
that'll be interesting
cause that's what you would have done.
And like, you know, they
start doing all these things
to make people more interesting.
Yeah.
If you haven't done it, I
can't stand reality people.
That's why, you know,
people probably, again,
I'm very aware of the fact that we do
this kind of podcasty
stuff now and whatnot, but
not the intention at all.
If you know us, that's not us.
Yeah.
Whatever.
But everyone has the
stories out there that are just
silly and like it, and some people,
sometimes it does feel like
it happens more to our family.
Like we did a quote of the day.
You actually put a quote of the day
when you posted on Instagram,
but like one of my
favorite quotes of the day
was, it came about, our
youngest had to use the restroom.
And he comes out, we're
like, did you flush, man?
Like, and he's like,
well, it doesn't flush.
It just sprays everywhere.
This is in Rome, first night in Rome.
This is in Rome.
Yeah.
And we're all like, oh my gosh.
Like, is this really happening to us?
Like, what other
family is using the bidet
instead of like the handle to flush?
It was just like.
Yeah, I was like, why
are you using our bathroom?
Because he rushed in and I
had to go to the restroom too.
He rushed into ours.
I'm like, why are you using ours?
Go to your bathroom.
And he's like, ours doesn't work.
I'm like, what do
you, I'm like, oh great.
Like, what do you mean it doesn't work?
And I got to fix something else, you
know, or call someone.
We broke the verbal.
Yeah, we broke the verbal.
And then he's like, would I
flush it just sprays everywhere?
At least he was using the actual toilet,
but using the wrong flushing mechanism.
I mean, it was like, are
we getting punked here?
Like, this kind of stuff.
I mean, at least it
wasn't a drinking fountain.
It's true.
Although what grossed me
out was the next exclamation
that came that we didn't post anywhere
was from our daughter.
And she's like, is that
why the floor's all wet
when you're done using the restroom?
And she didn't tell anybody.
I know, like, oh, now
I'm connecting the dots.
It wasn't just a really
tough trip to the restroom.
The floor is soaked.
I threw a top in there.
Whoo, don't nobody use the bathroom.
25 out of five minutes.
It was just, I was like, yeah.
So these things do tend to happen to us.
I feel like a little
more than some people,
which is one more reason why we're like,
they must happen to everybody.
I don't think that's
what I love about this
is that it doesn't.
And I think it's funny,
so other people are looking
at their spouse or
whatever in their lives right now
saying like, that's
just like when we did this,
or just like this.
It's like, we're all on this chaos train.
It's the same thing.
There's lots of people I know that are
way more charismatic
than me and can tell better
stories than me and whatnot.
And that's fine.
It's just, it's so funny
that I think when people put it
out there, because I'd
love to hear that story
from other people.
Right, I would too.
Because these things
happen, but they're not captured.
There's just no way
usually to capture them, right?
Right, right.
I don't know.
It's pretty funny.
But that, to your point, there was all,
there was so many funny
quotes the day that never made it
on there.
Right.
Because I actually started
writing them down on my notes
on my phone, because it
was like, there's a quarter
of the day.
There's a quarter of the day.
So we had to kind of pick one that fit.
And that was funny.
Yeah, yeah.
So, but that's one reason why
we wanted to do the podcast,
right?
To capture those silly
moments that oftentimes in life,
that everyone has been in
life, like maybe these jar,
that memory that happened
in your family, you know?
Yeah.
I think the final thing, just
to wrap up the vacation one,
is what we're going to do,
and we're not going to post it
or anything, but it's
just for our family,
is since we got all
this equipment and stuff,
we're going to bring the
whole family into the room here,
bring some more chairs
in, I guess, and whatnot.
We can put pictures up on
this video monitor back here,
but we're just going to
do like a family vlog,
I think is what they're
called, video, vlog, whatever,
just kind of, it's kind
of, again, it's like the VHS,
but just talking about
everybody's favorite parts
and what we loved about it,
since it's still so fresh,
because it was just so
amazing and incredible,
that just to put that down,
I can't think of the word
I'm looking for there, but.
Yeah, it's to just
capture it, document it,
but also, I think it's
a great way to look back
at these memories, I
think the kids still enjoy
talking about it, and
hopefully it's a really good.
I am feeling very, I'm
feeling the sands of time right now
for some reason, I don't know why,
I just, I was
thinking about it yesterday,
sitting in the pool, right, where again,
our oldest is 15 and 13 and 11,
and he's starting to spend more time
with friends that are
girls, friends that are boys,
he's going to have his license here,
he's driving around now,
which we haven't talked about yet,
so that's weird, but we've
moved into that phase of life,
he's doing his permit, so
he's going to have his license
in six months, and by
the time that happens,
I mean, he's going to
be gone all the time,
because he's going to
drive himself to soccer,
he's going to go to his friend's house,
his girlfriend's
house, whatever it might be,
and I was just sitting
there in the pool yesterday,
making myself sad a little bit,
and I know this is part
of that empty-nester thing
that we all have to go
through at some point,
people have gone through it,
people are going through it
right now, but, I'm like,
this is one of those last moments
of just the innocence of
our family's childhood, right,
like, it makes me sad
thinking about the innocence
of my childhood being
gone sometimes, you know,
I'm like, I'm an old man
now, people call me sir,
you know, and they see me, you know,
and now our children are like that too,
because next week we start soccer again,
and so I was just thinking, like,
this is one of the last
family moments in the pool together
where they want to be
here, with just us five.
Yeah, just playing together with us.
Right, right, and I don't know,
that's tugging on my heartstrings,
it's hard to get through, because I just,
I am not ready for my
kids not to be in my house,
I know it's a while away,
but it's not that far away.
Right, it'll go so fast, I mean,
it just goes faster every
year, the busier you are,
and it just, it's flying.
The irony of this
though, is that I'm trying
to slow it down, like I am,
I'm trying to slow it down,
I want to be involved, I want to do this,
but it's like you're
caught in this riptide of life
where it's like, I'm
trying to hold onto my kids
as children, and being a dad
that they want to do things
with, and have fun with,
and choose to do things with,
and life's currents are pulling me away,
even though that's what I want,
and I'm like missing out
on both I almost feel like.
I'm in a weird place,
partially because I've got
COVID fog brain.
It's real, it's a real thing.
But that's something that's
really struggling with me,
it's not a midlife crisis,
I've already been through that,
I already bought the
Porsches and already sold them,
so I've already been
through that midlife crisis.
But this one is about
family and getting old,
and you double my
life, I always say that,
you double my life, I'm almost 100,
and that's an old man.
Right, right, and I think there's,
I don't know, I don't
have the right answer,
but it's trying to
appreciate the phase that you're in,
and each phase feels like it is so busy,
and there's so much
in that phase going on,
that it's hard to capture it,
and I think that Riptide, if I'm honest,
I mean I feel it
constantly, and I really do try,
and I think I'm probably
better at this than you are.
You're really good at that.
Being in that moment, and
remembering that moment,
but it's like if I look back, even when
the kids were little,
like that first year
of our youngest life,
I look back at
pictures, I'm like, oh my gosh,
and I like to think I
have a really good memory.
You do.
That year when we had a newborn,
I mean our middle child wasn't even,
she was still one when he was born,
and our oldest was three.
So we had three in three years,
and it was just like,
I'm changing diapers,
I'm not sleeping, I
don't have many memories.
Most of my memories,
honestly, are sleeping,
taking a nap on the couch
with a baby on my chest.
Yeah, yeah.
That's most of my memories.
Yeah, it's precious.
And it's like, I can't,
how do I even remember
all of that, and it's the same here,
it's like how do I capture
the joy or disappointment
on, sadly sometimes disappointment,
after a game that is on my kid's face,
or you know, it's just, it's crazy.
You know, yeah, it is the moments,
and for me it's really
hard to do that, you're right.
The key to it is just
being present in that moment
and enjoying it as much as you can,
and I'm terrible at that.
I mean out of 10 moments to capture,
I might capture half of one.
And I don't know why that is,
it's just, it's the
way I'm built internally.
And I just keep thinking,
I don't wanna look towards the future,
I don't wanna miss the
path, I wanna enjoy now.
But I do hope it just continuously,
you know, we are in a
season of change in our family,
to some degree in
multiple aspects, right?
Seasons of new pathways and doors
that have been opening and closing.
And I'll never forget, even spiritually,
I've always gone to church and whatnot,
we've been spiritual of faith,
and I've struggled through
that this last season as well,
because I just feel
like it's been difficult.
You always, we talk about
pathways being opened up
and doors opened where you want,
where you're supposed
to be led to go, right?
Sure. In a certain way.
And you don't wait for
that, I go, I always go, go, go.
But it's like, hey, make sure,
hopefully I'm going
the right pathway here.
Where I was going with that is,
there was a preacher that was preaching,
he's not one of our main ones.
I may have already said
that on this podcast before,
but it just keeps coming back to me,
and he keeps saying like, my
best times aren't behind me.
Yeah. Right?
My best times aren't behind me.
And it's really hard for
me right now to think like,
that they're not. Right.
Because I am in such a
weird season right now
of just change and whatnot.
I think back to being 43,
and where I was in my
career, in my house,
and all the financially,
all that kind of stuff.
I mean, we are right and high.
Not that we're not still right and high,
but it's just different.
And because of some of the shifts,
who said it the other day too?
I'm talking a lot here, so
feel free to interrupt you,
but I got one more thing to say.
So interrupt me now.
Certainly won't, I don't
wanna stop your train of thought.
This is good.
It's not good stuff, but it's just,
it's not how I feel.
I don't know if other
people have felt that way or not,
but I was listening to a podcast,
one of my favorite podcast, "Smart List."
And somebody said on there,
I can't remember if it
was Bateman or Arnett
or something like that,
but maybe it was
something they had on there.
But they talked about it.
Same thing that we always say.
It's like, if I get this
role, if I get this and I land it,
my life will change forever,
and I will finally have made it.
I'll hit that calmness way.
Everybody's like, it's what
we talk about the horizons.
Why don't you get to that?
Once I do this, everything will be fine.
And there's a whole thing about like,
you get there, even for them,
who now may, they may
remember me on that one thing,
probably they don't make my entire life,
but they still don't have
that sense of fulfillment,
the sense of
accomplishment, that sense of peace.
And that's what we're
searching for in these times.
Even though the Riptides
have taken us different places,
life has taken us different places,
what you're looking for is
that peace to enjoy that moment.
And that's easier said and done
depending on different
scenarios that you find yourself in.
It is, it really is.
And there is no right way to find it.
And I think some people
struggle with it more than others.
And I don't have any advice,
but I know you're not alone.
All of our listeners
have experienced that
because that's part of life, right?
It's that full summit.
Well, I think, yeah, you're
right, it's a full summit.
I think it's just so much in life.
And we've talked about
this a little bit before too,
is you see people on Instagram reels
and you see people on
Facebook or whatever it is,
you see people on TV,
whatever people watch YouTube now.
And everybody's happy, everybody's great,
everybody's living a celebrity life.
Everybody only shows you
the highs of their life.
I mean, that's just reality.
And I'm not saying we're lows,
I'm not saying that at all,
but I mean, we are in
more difficult times.
It's not horrible by
any means, but you know.
But if people are to
look at our Instagram feed,
I mean, we just came back from Rome,
but they've been
living the good life for us.
I mean, we're never
gonna be Richie Riches,
but we're doing fine.
Exactly.
And there's people that
would love to do what we've done.
We understand we're blessed on that.
But there's always just,
every person has that struggle
wherever they are in their life
to feel that sense of
peace and contentment.
Contentment's a big word, I think.
It is, it is.
And I think that's something that
everybody has a different,
everyone strives to get there
and based on different personalities.
And sometimes, especially,
I think the more ambitious someone is,
the less able they are to feel content.
Easy it is to find contentment.
You and I have talked about that.
Where I should be content.
And I--
Yeah, I don't, sorry, keep going.
No, no, no, I interrupted you.
I think when we always talk about it,
you are like the white
water rapids guy, right?
You're like, "Woo, this is gonna be fun.
Let's go, let's go,
let's pick the next rapids."
And I'm like, "I like
the lazy river," right?
And that's because I find
contentment in the lazy river.
And then you're like, "Oh,
no, no, no, let's change it up
and let's go whitewater rafting."
I'm the risk taker that
will ask the question, what if?
Right, right. What if we did this?
What if this happened?
What if I could do this?
Right.
And that's one reason why I think we
balance each other out
and why we work well.
Like sometimes, Megan, you can't always
have the lazy river.
The lazy river isn't
maybe not gonna get you
to the place you need.
And sometimes you need
a lazy river, you know?
We both have influenced
each other's decisions in life
one way or the other
based on kind of what our
natural North Star is.
Exactly. Yeah.
And some of those have been right
and some of those have
been wrong, I feel like.
But either way, where
we're at, we're here.
You know what?
We are still in the raft rowing the,
like, we wouldn't like.
Are we rowing towards rapids?
Are we rowing upstream
towards the, I'm just trying
to figure out where we're, yeah.
We got too much water in
our face right now to know.
Yeah.
I think we're in the
middle of the rapids.
I think we're in the
middle of the rapids.
This is class five, baby.
Class five, baby.
Which brings me to one
of our memories from Rome.
Just to kind of break this deep one.
We're crossing, what's
the, I don't remember.
Do you remember the main
river that divides Rome
from basically where Vatican City's at?
A tiber, I think.
Is it the tiber?
Okay, I'll put that on you.
Yep, yep, yep, okay, question
mark over that just in case.
You're probably right.
Anyways, a long bridge going over there,
because it's fairly wide.
You know, 100, 200 yards wide, maybe?
Anyways, there's like,
there's some rowers on there
that are like doing like the old college.
Oh yeah, it's a crew team.
Yeah, just row and streamline
right down the middle of it.
Going, maybe upstream, I don't remember.
They had to be going upstream.
They had to be back.
We're watching them and
then slowly but surely,
another boat comes going downstream.
And it is literally a white water raft
with people in it with the helmets on,
the orange helmets, the orange life vest.
They all have paddles, just
like they're on the Colorado
or Arkansas River, right?
Go get ready for the class five rapids.
And it was glass.
It was totally glass.
It was like, what?
Like that was being punked.
Like again, that's the
reality family that we were,
that's probably some reality family.
That's like, you know what?
The show's not, it's
kind of been boring lately.
You guys are just going to
work and going to soccer practice.
So let's throw you in a raft
and put you on the Tiber River.
Oh my gosh, it was the funniest thing.
Like the whole like--
I take a picture out of T.
Absolutely, because I
mean, even the kids,
the irony of this was
not lost on the kids.
Slow down.
Don't get thrown out
of the boat, you know?
How they were--
Heffling them.
I have no idea.
They're going down,
they're just floating downstream.
They were floating.
Like I bet their oars
never had to touch the water.
Well, if they wanted to
go faster than, you know.
(laughing)
I mean, a baby could have crawled faster
than they were moving.
Oh yeah, yeah.
On that water.
This was not like--
It was hilarious.
Now I don't know, I mean,
you can only see, you know,
800 yards up, 800 yards down.
So maybe it was got
crazy after that next band.
Maybe, maybe.
But I mean, we all know that, you know,
in the largest cities in the world,
they're usually built on
high rapid rivers, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, is that true?
I didn't know that.
Yeah, it is known.
Nope, pretty sure they needed calm water
to draw their water
source, blah, blah, blah.
Anyway.
Well, here's something that I
did wanna talk about briefly
because we're into
this a little bit here,
but tell me, has anybody
done, this is new, right?
This is something new.
I've never heard of this before.
It's something I've
never done before either.
But I couldn't have done it 10 years ago.
I couldn't have done it
two years ago probably.
But I got into two arguments this week.
Two arguments with AI.
Artificial intelligence.
Yes, you did.
I don't know what else do you--
Has anybody else gotten a fight with,
well, one was with Alexa, okay?
And one was with chat GPT.
You did.
I got in a fight with both of them.
And it was literally verbally.
So just briefly, I'm just curious
if anybody else has done this,
because this was my first time.
So the music, we
listen to music all the time
and here I've talked about
it a little bit earlier today.
So always have music on in the bathroom
when I'm getting ready, okay?
And it's just like, hey,
Alexa, turn on and play music.
Whatever it is, right?
And she plays based on our iTunes list.
So all of a sudden she stops
and she's done this a couple of times.
The music just stops.
So I decided because AI is so smart now.
So smart.
I decided just to ask, hey, Alexa,
why did you stop playing the music?
And she's like, because you asked me to.
And I'm like, Alexa, I did not ask you
to stop playing the music.
Why did you stop playing the music?
And she's like, because you asked me to
at 1.06 p.m. in 32 seconds.
So she gives me more information.
And it did feel like
she had a little attitude,
but it's her new voice.
It's smart, Alexa now.
Yeah, yeah.
And I'm like, Alexa, I
didn't even talk to you.
I didn't even say anything to you.
And she's like, you did.
Dot, dot, dot.
She starts giving me more
data about it on this dot
and all this kind of stuff.
I'm like, Alexa, what
dot did it come from?
Was it told from the master bathroom dot?
So now I'm trying to get into,
so I'm literally arguing with her,
trying to get her to back down on this.
And she's like, yes,
it was from this dot.
And I was like, are you sure it's not
from Liam's room dot?
Because I think that's what it is.
That one's got an issue.
So he's saying stop
playing the music in his room.
And she's stopping it in our room.
And she was dead set that it came from me
in the master bathroom
with the candlestick.
Right?
So I gave up on it
because she was dead set.
I ended up just being
like, Alexa, you're an idiot.
And she didn't respond to that.
I said that to her in the kitchen before
and she did respond to it.
Like, I'm sorry, you feel that way?
I don't remember.
No, you're an idiot.
I'm an idiot.
Oh my gosh. You're an idiot.
I'm an idiot.
That's a great reference.
Well done.
But what is so funny is
that this is truly an argument
you cannot win.
You're fighting with a non person.
Yeah.
And even yesterday, like--
Well, she was being
passive progressive though.
(laughs)
She doesn't have feelings.
She might.
And this is AI now.
I mean, this is, it's the next level.
Oh my gosh.
Last night, I mean,
we were in the kitchen
and you were fighting with chat GPT.
And even our daughters like,
dad, are you fighting with chat GPT?
Like, it was--
Hilarious.
That was a typing fight.
So I was typing it out to
chat GPT on my computer.
And for the record, it was wrong.
Chat GPT was wrong.
Yeah, totally wrong.
Completely wrong.
And oh my gosh, it was hilarious.
I was, I actually got
some enjoyment out of this.
Because I was reading the back and forth.
So I'd read, I'd read
out what I'm typing.
Why are you giving me
the wrong information?
You already said this was wrong.
Question mark, enter.
All right, let's see what they say.
And then I'd read back what chat GPT say.
You are absolutely
right for calling me out.
You should expect me to be accurate.
And they'd have this
long, like perfect apology.
I should be better.
I'm gonna do better.
And here's what you can
do to help me be better.
So we went through this
whole long thing about,
they gave me some wrong
dates, incorrect dates.
I said, I called chat GPT out on it.
This date is wrong.
You're absolutely right, it's wrong.
Here's the note.
I'll get here.
Do you want me to double check it?
I'll go deeper, double check, yes.
And then after like three or
four or five minutes of this.
You have like double, triple,
quadruple check. Yeah, back and forth,
back and forth, back and forth.
She's like, here's the final list
that has been double quadruple checked
and is accurate now.
She gave it to me.
Still wrong. So I'm reading it.
The one that started
the whole conversation
that I knew was wrong
was back on the list.
For the record,
Wil Wheaton's birthday is July 29th.
It is not July 30th.
Which was this all,
she put Wil Wheaton back
on there for July 30th.
So Wil Wheaton, if you're watching,
the English is know your birthday.
That's right.
Chat GPT does not.
That's right, super confused.
So you're welcome, Wil Wheaton.
Oh my gosh.
But that's the truth and
we've talked about that.
Everybody, well not everybody knows,
but people should know that
when you do like Google AI
and all that kind of stuff.
It's like 80% incorrect.
And everybody talks
about Chat GPT being so great
and you can get so
much more done on that.
And it is, it's
helpful for writing things,
but you can't use it for factual stuff.
You cannot.
You still have to fact check it.
You absolutely have to fact check it.
It defeats the purpose of
using it in the first place.
Same with Google AI.
I've got things on there
that I've just double checked.
And here's another ironic point of it.
Who do I double check it with?
Google. Google.
(laughs)
So I'm fact checking
Google's AI with Google.
I know.
But the other thing is though,
it honestly scares me when
AI finally does get it right.
Yeah.
Like humans are rendered useless.
Well.
So I'm actually okay that it's wrong
because then I'm still needed.
There's a lot of
worthless humans already.
(blows raspberry) I can't believe you just said that.
I want a podcast so bad
that I can just say the truth.
You know what I mean?
Just put it like it is, but I can't.
We can't.
But that's one of them
that you can talk about.
There's a lot of...
We'll drop that one for the time being.
We'll just drop.
I might be one of them, which is fine.
I might be included in that.
So I'm not saying I'm
better than anybody.
I could very well be one of them.
I could be included in that really big list.
Yeah.
I don't disagree that that exists.
If there is a list somewhere,
we may or may not be on there.
Yeah, I'm sure I'm on a lot of lists,
especially now AI's making lists
with people that are fighting with them.
(laughing) You're the first person.
I'm toward the top of the list.
Like you're the first person
who's gonna have to be
plugged into the matrix.
Yeah, yeah.
They're gonna go after me first
because like this guy started.
Anyway. He started it.
Well, I will try not to
pick fights with AI anymore.
So we just ended with me saying
that I'm not gonna pick
fights with AI anymore.
And then I had a major audio video error.
Luckily we were wrapping this thing up.
We were. (laughing) And we ran out of audio.
It was recording no audio.
So we could just give you silent.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Actually, isn't that thing on HBO
where they have like comedians voiceover?
Yeah, just voiceover the rest of the way.
Yeah, talkies or whatever they were.
That's funny.
It's like Mystery Science Theater.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
From 2000, whatever it is.
That was so funny.
Those are always hilarious.
Well, we were just
kind of wrapping it up,
talking about getting
back to going back to school.
I know.
Two and a half weeks of
summer left, which is crazy.
It has gone by so fast.
It just evaporated.
It did.
Just like that, like water gone.
Yeah, like our pool.
I was just about to say that.
A lot of evaporation happening right now.
A lot of evaporation happening.
But no, it's just sad, moving into it.
I don't remember.
Did I go into all that after AI
where I was talking
about just the time of life?
That was before.
I don't remember.
So it's again, the sands of time.
I'll give you guys the whole tear,
the whole tearful.
I feel like I'm getting old and the kids.
But the kids are going
back and our R&R of summer,
our summer of R&R is coming to an end.
Soccer, track, school, pick up drop offs.
All of it, the constant like,
I gotta go here, gotta go here.
Oh, school physicals, all the things.
We gotta head back to the train station
and get on the Chaos Express.
It hasn't been as chaotic.
No, it really hasn't.
I really enjoy the non Chaos Express
every now and again.
But you know what,
hopefully we're rested for it
because we had a whole month off.
Two and a half more weeks
to really get our relaxation in.
Well, without school, I guess.
Sports are starting up.
8 a.m. practices all weekend.
I know.
Today, the day we're filming this
was the last day that we get to sleep in
until goodness knows when.
The apocalypse.
Let me try it one more time.
The apocalypse.
(laughs)
It feels like that sometimes.
Or until like Christmas break.
(laughs) Or maybe even, no, because we don't get,
now that we have a fall break,
but soccer doesn't take that off.
No, no.
Don't even get me started on fall break.
It's the dumbest thing ever.
Just like any working parent knows.
Like, really, why does
the school district hate us?
I think at some point
over the last few years,
maybe when it happened,
COVID happened or something like that,
people stopped, schools in particular,
stopped and sports teams, I think.
They stopped
remembering that people work.
I totally agree.
There's no such thing as working a job.
Leaving at 7 a.m. in the morning,
getting to the office,
leaving the office at five,
getting home at six.
Those are work hours.
You got to commute,
all that kind of stuff.
I think at some point, people forgot.
People have to work to make money.
Actually, to pay the
taxes which help fund schools.
Or pay for all the sports fees.
Exactly.
But instead, they seem to be scheduling
more and more and more within
that eight to five timeframe.
It's crazy.
It's insane.
So that's what we're coming back to.
We feel your pain,
because I know everybody
else is there too on that.
Yeah.
Oh goodness gracious.
All right, well, next
week will be one more week
closer to that, so
we'll see where we are.
Hopefully we're more healthy, recovered.
I feel like I'm better,
but still kind of
just recuperating energy.
Still not where it should be.
You're even more in the midst of it,
but recuperating as well.
Recuperating as well.
It's all good.
What better time?
All right, well, do you have a word?
Oh, were you gonna say something?
Yes, I do have a word, yeah.
So, do you have a word?
Well, this is funny,
because everybody already knows
that we finished this
podcast and came back.
So we could cheat now and
totally say the same word.
But we're not.
Stick to our original ones.
We are going to stick
to our original ones
to keep the authenticity.
That's right.
Of this podcast.
That's right, that's right.
I was totally acting there too.
Like, do you have a word?
Yeah, your acting is so good, honey.
Yeah, everybody would have been like,
well, I thought I already,
maybe nobody would
have picked up on that.
Maybe not.
Yeah.
Unfortunately, now we've told them.
Now we've told them.
This whole thing is just a sham.
It's a sham.
We are going to keep it authentic
by using our--
The original words, yeah.
The original words.
Okay, here we go.
One, two, and three.
Routine.
Recovery. (laughing) Oh, really?
Recovery, why would you say that?
Well, but because we're
recovering from COVID,
we're recovering from vacation.
We're getting back to the more routine.
So very, very similar concept.
To my beating back into the routine.
Routine, yeah, exactly.
That's right.
Exactly.
Everyone has to recover a
little bit from vacation, right?
The laundry's piled up.
The mail is piled up.
Yeah.
All of that, you know?
It takes a little bit of time
to get back into the routine, see?
So you were kind of thinking about
what the last week has been,
which is what the point of that was.
And I was thinking a little bit more
of going into the future,
getting back into a routine.
So your point's better.
It's a better point.
Because that was the intent,
is like what we felt.
But it's, I mean, really,
mine is just the
vehicle to get to your word.
The vehicle.
Very nice, very nice.
We're stretching now,
because we're reinventing
words that we've already said.
That's right.
Trying to recreate the magic
that was in those lost plans.
It was so good, you guys.
You guys missed it.
It was incredible.
I mean, it was honestly,
I was thinking about
editing that portion out
and sending it to the
Emmys or something like that.
The Academy, for sure.
For sure.
Right, because I don't know.
They would have, I
think it's all for not now,
but it would have been impressive.
It would have been, I mean,
we would have put that in.
I would just like to tell me
the Emmy is right back here.
It's pretty crazy.
Oh, my God.
Oh, no.
All right, so sad.
Well, we will leave ya,
and we will repeat
this one too, because...
So I've always kind of
wondered about the sign off, right?
And I never liked my sign off.
What do you do?
And anyway, I'm going to adopt
what our cruise director
just owed on the cruise.
So every day, he would talk
and give you the day's schedule,
wind up, you're back on
the boat, blah, blah, blah.
We always ended it the same way.
And so I'm going to
adopt that as my sign off.
And it grew on me,
because the first day I was like,
oh, that was kind of a lot.
But once he did it for 12 days
and however many times a day he did it,
it kind of grew on me.
And now it definitely has a place.
Somewhere deep down in my heart, I guess.
Exactly.
All right, so that's
gonna be your new one.
I'll say it with you this time.
I don't know if it will be mine.
It's not true to me, I don't think,
but I'll use it today.
I think we used it on
the last one too, though.
We may have, but that's okay.
All right, well, thanks
for joining today, guys.
We will see you next time.
Ciao, ciao. Ciao, ciao.
All right, see ya.