So, a long awaited Tyra update.  A lot of people have been asking what it was like? Two words—nerve racking. Not simple walking on stage and seeing the audience, not just waiting for hours in a green room—the entire experience.

Tuesday before the Wednesday Taping

Tuesday, the day before our trip to NY City, I waited for my book to arrive. I needed the book for the appearance on the show and I was promised it was on its way and at my post office the day before. The only problem—when the mail came the book did not. I was bookless and freaking out. I had promised the Tyra Show a book and I didn’t have it. After hours of tense conversations with my publisher and my local post office I found out that the publisher inexplicably shipped the book to the wrong address—a non-existent one at that. So, the day I was expecting my book was actually the day it was returning back to the printer. I was told there was a chance the book could be shipped overnight, priority to the show’s studio, but it was a long shot.

After running chess club at my daughter’s school and taking the kids to twenty different activities I came home to find out that option 2, overnighting the book, wasn’t a possibility either. One more option was to print a copy of the cover via Kinkos and have it slipped over a similar sized book. I ran that option by the Tyra Show and they said, thankfully, that if I send them a jpeg of the cover they could run with that instead. Score! This was around 9:00pm Tuesday evening and we were about to leave around 6:30am the next morning for New York. I was super relieved—that is until the next morning.

This post is designed to increase the tension leading up to our trip to NY and prolong the posts associated with the Tyra Show appearance*

So, my publisher was supposed to send me a pre-production copy of the book so I could give it the final ‘thumbs up’ this past Monday. That meant I would the book in plenty of time for the taping of the show on Wednesday.  The show wanted me to bring the book—so I started to count down the hours to getting the mail on Monday.  That day the mail was delivered but the book wasn’t, although it was confirmed to be in my post office that morning. My confidence in a federal government controlled health care plan sunk to new lows. I called the post office that day trying to track down my book. They couldn’t locate it in the post office or on my truck—maybe I just needed to give it one more day.

Nervously Tuesday came but the book didn’t. This time the post office asked me to check with my printer to see which address they mailed to book out to. Apparently the printer thought it would be fun to send my book out to a made up address in my zip code thus assuring that it would be sent back to them. The book did reach my post office on Monday and on Tuesday I found out it was shipped back to where it came. It wasn’t the governments fault after all.

After hours of tense conversations with the publisher I discovered that the book wouldn’t be making its way to my house or to the NY studio where the Tyra Show was taped in time for my appearance.

With my tail between my legs I let the Tyra Show producer know. They told me, “Don’t worry about it, we’ll just use a jpeg of the cover instead.” Crisis avoided. This brings us up to Wednesday morning and when Jodi and I made our trip to NY.

Jodi and I are going to be on the Tyra Banks show! Tomorrow we are taking a train ride from Penn Station in Baltimore up to New York for a 4:00 pm taping. We are thrilled. The show won’t air for a few weeks after the taping, but I will post details for sure. It happened with unbelievable timing too. The book will be ready for distribution within a week (fingers crossed) and the producers of the show even agreed to plug the book on the show! Life is good!

So, why were we asked to be on the show? Well, at first the show was only going to have us on for a brief spot. The show is about women who marry for money and Tyra wanted to show the opposite—well, I didn’t marry for money, but a married couple where the wife is the breadwinner. Jodi and I got to talking with the producer about the book and about our kids and our relationship and things just took off from there. Now, we have our own segment! What are my thoughts? Excited, a little nervous, a little nervous for Jodi, and ready to share our lives with the world.

What are going to talk about? I really want to talk about how it’s was hard for me the first year as a stay-at-home dad trying to deal with not bringing in any money and how my self-image was pretty much in the dumps. How it was hard for me to associate pride and ego with being a caregiver during that first year at home. I want to talk about how I think it’s important that I let my girls see me do the dishes and the laundry. We want to talk about how it’s important that our girls don’t associate chores or jobs with a specific gender and how our girls sense of limitations won’t be based on anything they have seen at home. We want to talk about how strong our relationship is and about the book. I am not sure how it will all pan out, but we are super excited!

Stay tuned for the next update. ~ Joe

Good people of the internet, I am looking for your help.  I have finished writing a parenting book and I am trying to decide on a title.  The book, a lot like my blog, is from the point of view of a stay-at-home-dad and entertaining as a mo.  Below you will find the top title ideas I came up with.  So, I am just curious to see what everyone else thinks.  What title idea do you like best?  (Subtitles are in parenthesis) Leave a comment and let me know.

• Dad 2.0 (Parenting Humor, Tips and Insight from a Stay-at-Home Dad)
• Joeprah: Life as a Stay-at-Home-Dad
• Changing Diapers and the World (Parenting Humor, Tips and Insight from a Stay-at-Home Dad)
• "Daddy, where's your vagina?" (Parenting Humor, Tips and Insight from a Stay-at-Home Dad)
• Composting in the Minivan (Parenting Humor, Tips and Insight from a Stay-at-Home Dad)
• Petrified Banana Peels (Parenting Humor, Tips and Insight from a Stay-at-Home Dad)
• It Takes a Man to be a Stay-at-Home-Dad (Parenting Humor, Tips and Insight from a Stay-at-Home Dad)  

So, yeah--that's what I have been working on.  Well, that and my other site.  Thanks for you comment and look forward to more updates.