Happiness, Can It Be Calculated? Plus, The Great Housecleaning Quiz. (Warning: You may be surprised)

All right, good morning, good afternoon, good new year to our Dad Time Out listeners around the world. I say that because it's our first show of the new year. Welcome to the Dad Time Out show. We're just four dads with 12 kids between us and we all oddly enough, or not work in the entertainment industry. We're not parenting experts, but we do listen to them. We interview them, we read what they have to say, and then we report back to you and ourselves to see how we're doing. It's a place to put your feet up or down, relax, listen, let us do the legwork, research, and reading. All articles, interviews, and show notes are now available on www. That's available after each and every show, and we are also very interactive with our listeners. So if you could like us, subscribe, or leave a review, we'd be grateful. Follow us on the Instagram, where we are most active. In tonight's show, of course, the dads will kick off with a little New Year catch up, a little Canada chat, a little January chatter. Someone had a car breakdown. We're going to talk about that. And then they're going to move on to the parent funny tweets of the week, kind of around kitchen cleaning, fresh starts, new year, you get it. Then onto smart articles by smart people to tonight's article, the secret to living a happy and more fulfilling life. Can't wait to see that one. from author Virginia Pelly coming to us from Fodderley. And finally, we'll wrap up with a quick quiz on how often should you wash the sheets? We're gonna take a cleaning quiz tonight, see if the guys do well in their own domains. And then we'll talk about things that make us smile, things that make me smile. I'd like to welcome this wonderful young lady to the microphone. What's your name, ma'am? Lola. Uh, Lola, we always traditionally start off with a dad joke. This is the first one of the new year. What is your joke? Why am I afraid for the calendar? Why are you afraid for the calendar? I do not know. Because it's days are numbered. Great job, Lols. Alright, I will let you back inside the house, go hang out with the dog, eat some pizza, have a good night, young lady. Guys will be around the corner next, Dad Time Out Show. Here we go. from the cosmic reaches of the universe. Assembled, dedicated to truth, justice, and justice. gentlemen welcome to the DadTimeOut show. All right guys welcome around the corner they come. Let's just dive right in here. Let's paint the room. It's a little chilly outside. We all got considerable jackets on. Yeah, I just went in and put my winter coat on it's a little breezy out here in California But nothing compares to the temperatures I was just in but I'll explain in a minute I would like to start out by reading Ben's quote of the night coming in hot off the presses Which we still don't none of us really understand what happened to Ben and why he was tardy, but here it is It's not a context I'm throwing more cold in the engine boys five minutes late best and then followed by a picture of a towed vehicle on the back of a flatbed. That was my addition. Chai. That was Chai. So what is throwing cold on I already explained I'm trying to throw coal in the engine like Casey Jones He was he's got an old car. Oh, oh train coal cars. Where'd you get that up on Cripple Creek? There are more coal in the engine come on In the engine boy Yeah And then the other the other car photo was yours to all. I know it's kind of odd we're taping a little late but we have all been very busy boys recently not only with holidays and life and travel but kids and holidays and life and travel so welcome back. You know I don't think they'll listen and I think like waiting like kind of builds the anticipation for the new vehicle. Yes. And then you're like oh my gosh it's like Christmas Day there's a new episode out this is gonna be outstanding. Well I'm lucky that I'm here. Oh, was that applause? A little fumbling on the soundboard buddy. I'm here. Can you reach the sound of applause? He's just firing away random. So let me tell you my quick story and then we'll get into the big show. First of all, by the way, very fun happening since the last one. So the last show we did an article from Amy Joyce and it was her last article ever in the Washington Post. So I took the sound clip and I just threw it up on the gram and kind of tagged her and stuff like that. And she tagged us back and put it out to all her readers and listeners and all that good stuff. Are we getting a reputation out there? This is it. Yeah, this is it, Ben. This is it. Start looking at new car engines. You can afford them now. Move away from coal. It's not environmentally friendly. So you guys can see I got many favorite new things we haven't talked about we haven't even seen each other since I gave You all presents with no return gifts. I know my birthday So there's nothing here to show except me giving you more stuff. I have a gift. That's okay So I reveal what the gift is gonna. No, we can wait till later in the show Yeah, I do want to tell everybody what I got us. I got I just cuz I'm looking at it Well, there's a new lamp behind but that's another story but one of my you have to get Now this is my new thing. I got a lamp, right? And it's a lamp, traditional lamp. but it heats up your candle. Oh my god. So if you put a candle, like it has a little holder for a candle. He's run out of things to buy. I know. Not at all. Let me explain the benefits of this. Yeah, what's the benefit of heating up a candle? I would show it to you without burning it. Yes, no smoke, Mark. Exactly. I understand this. So you're getting full fragrance, light, and no smoke. Okay. So you're not using the candle. And the candles burn exponentially. Well, they don't burn. Slower, yeah, forever. Ironically, for, well, I don't know. I'm going to test the theory. Some of these say like 30 hours. I think I can get a good 120 hours out of these things. That defeats the whole point of a candle, though. Not if you have the light and the scent, I mean. You're giving up a little bit of flames. So you get one of those fake flames behind it. OK, if you got it for you, then I'm in. You really need that action. Here's what it's for. For places that are like. that you might forget. Right? What? Like, okay, so I get it. You put candles in a room. We have candles, like, lit in our house all the time. Okay. So whenever you leave the home, you're like, oh, I gotta put the candle out there and put the candle out there and put the candle out there. With this guy, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It'll just get juicy. So you're more about the fragrance than the mood. I'm about the mood of a candle. And the lamp room. No, I do both, but I'm saying this is a brand new discovery that's against you. So I will put it out here in the barn, and then I won't panic thinking when I run off Oh my gosh, I left the candle burning in the barn the working barn. I might Yeah, the working barn just going back in time So anyway, that is my new favorite thing Amy Joyce and then I'm gonna wrap this up in less than 60 seconds but Can can I get a toast real quick to here's why I'm toasting my presents The crowd cheering it again I almost got stuck in two different countries this last 72 hours. I'm lucky to be alive and lucky to be here right now. So we went to Vancouver, Canada for our extended weekend. And there's a lot of story to tell there about Vancouver. It's a wonderful city. One of my favorites. I've been there a couple of times, but never with family. food, nature, I mean, museum, like whatever you want, it's there, plus it's on water, it's on the mountains, it is so beautiful, it's incredible. But anyway, I digress. So we go to the airport, leaving, now keep in mind, the Arctic blast has blasted that part of the country, which then dipped down through Montana, and the rest of the country's getting crushed right now with all that air. When we were there, it was like minus 12 for Canada, I know. Well, when you're looking at Glacier Park's minus 34 windchill, you're like, oh, this isn't that bad. Glacier National Park in Montana is what I'm referring to. But Vancouver's not usually that cold. No, not at all. That's like, that's even the Vancouver, the Canadians up there were like, this is awful. Like wind chills at like minus. Anyway, so we survive all this. It's fun. We were like, oh, we're going to remember this trip because it's cold. And you know, we're all like freezing and steaming and but we're wearing puppy coats. We're fine. We're stupid. So we get to Vancouver to leave the joint after a wonderful weekend and then we go to typical airline story. We get called out to the runway and they're like, well, you know, you're going to be on a little, let me do my pilot. Well folks, we've got a little delay out here. We're waiting for a little clearance. We're going to have the mechanics come check things out. I'm not going to name the airlines because this airline's recently been under some grief for things happening to them. them already so I don't want to pile on that. I'm not a PR vehicle here but so we're out there for an hour and a half I watch a full movie I don't even really notice it to be honest then we get we get pulled back in they say oh hey by the way flights canceled we're in Canada we're like all right so that's happening now so then my wife and I are like optimists we said well we can go really Nice. Because there was a bar right near the thing. So we sit and we have food. We don't pay attention to time. And they're like, they're helping all these passengers rebook and get a hotel. And we're just like, Canada, look at this. They're coming back. Football. Football won. The kids are happy. So then I'm going to make sure. I'm sorry, listeners. I'm going to go less than one more minute. So then we can't get back. We don't know where to go. And all the gate agents are gone for the night. So we're stuck in Canada. Cheers. Or actually, we're stuck in United. side of the airport but we can't go anywhere because our luggage is still in limbo. So then we're calling the airline it takes like an hour to call them and get them live and we're like here's the deal they send a guy from baggage to come up through the airport come get us pull us back to Canada. Oh my. And then we go to Canada then we go to a Canadian hotel we get on a flight six in the morning the next morning. Oh jeez. Then we get to six in the morning, we get all the way to Portland. Portland says, hey, we're shutting down at noon, all ice, like ice storm, ice storm, ice storm. We get collapsed again. So my wife looks at me, she's like, we got to rent a car. So we rent a suburban and we drive the 600 miles from Portland to the Bay Area. Are you serious? I love it. Wow. That's a great trip. That's crazy rolling with the punches. Eugene and this adorable town called Cottage Grove. There's some serious elevation. Ashland. Well, Ashland's at the very end toward California. Ice storms, the worst they've had in a century. We are literally seeing tractor trucks fishtailing in front of us. Hold on, hold on. Sweet. Coming back on the five. Anyway, so I'm alive, I'm here, hold on. What an adventure. Oh. Yeah, it was an adventure, but I am here with you guys tonight. I'm sorry to bore the listeners with that. That was exciting. I almost became Canadian for a frustrated. Tommy Horton is there. Tim Horton's highly recommend Tim Horton's. Shout out to some of our Instagram followers for my. I'm going to probably have to cut that whole story. I wasn't that great. Great. Some fun ones. Oh, Chris Chai following us out here on Macaron Patisserie. Oh, baby. I had no idea. Better Call Daddy podcast, great name. PG is parenting. Mom's behaving badly, by the way, who we put a response on their page and got 700, 800 kind of things going on. As there's a lot of action, folks, follow us on the gram. We respond, we'll answer questions, all the good stuff. All right, coming up next, tweets of the week. and they revolve around kitchen and cleaning and some sort of a new year. and have a good week. Cheese, cheese. All right, it's time for Tweets of the Week. I... Ben loves resolutions so much. We were talking offline and we were like, we should do a whole show on resolutions because Ben just adores them. Ben's resolutions. He don't believe in them. But so on Ben's thing, I said, well, I will make several new starts when I arrive back from Canada because I will. Lucky to be alive. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just filled with gratitude. So I was looking up the tweets and cleaning is like the first agenda for me for the new year. some tweets I'm cleaning in kitchens and stuff like that. So here we go. This is from at mommy cusses, like most mommies, including mine. That's funny. Me finishes cleaning. My family breathes and instantly three loads of laundry and 5,000 dirty cups appear. So incredibly true. How is that? How do they do it? because they don't clean up after themselves. It's plain and simple. My teen daughter now will send me like memes of messy rooms just to mess with me all day. That's just mean. Yeah, it's just what I get it though. I take photographs and text my children with phones of the mess that I tell them how much I need them to take care of it immediately. I have one buddy that goes through similar things and we trade mess texts all day. And he's, because I can kind of commiserate with the guy. I'm like, what is what is what does the nightstand look like today and they'll send me a picture isn't I'm like Oh, I got you beat look at this. I want to get on in on that. I want to get it on that. It's very cathartic. I feel like there are other humans out there that have my problems I think we need to start a support group. We could be a support group. Totally. I live in perpetual mess I well, I can't live in perpetual mess. I would love to but like it just drives me insane do it. Okay, this is from life at Tiffany's. Not to be confused with breakfast at Tiffany's great movie was Audrey Hepburn. Yes. I think I never realized about being an adult is that you will always be cleaning your kitchen no matter if you get takeout no matter if you're gone all day you'll be cleaning the kitchen again. That's so true. Why, I guess, we don't even really hang out there. Like most people say this is the most used room in the house. It is. The way our house is built, we have a big, we don't have the open concept that you see on Home and Garden television. We have a huge wall. Oh yeah, the layout matters. Yours is tucked away. I've told my kids that my kitchen is like my bedroom in terms of, I spend almost. Wait a minute, Mark. No, no, I spend, okay. I just see that. I spend almost as much time part of my house. How many? Hey, grab the spatula. No, no, I mean. How many aprons you got? Several. I can see it. I'll bet your kitchen is pristine. I'm just saying, they like to leave things in my kitchen. I'm like, no, this is like my, don't mess up my space. I like it, I like it about you, Mark. I were teasing you, but I like it. I'd say you guys, I bought this puffy coat in Canada. I like the puffy coat. I can see it, it's pretty fresh. Oh, it's so cozy. You know what it is? It's so fresh, it's so clean, clean. How did you know it's roots? I know. That's my oh you read my sweat fan way hipper than he looks Ouch he looks like he just got off the loading a ship every day I need some scallops Why scallop I don't know come on looks like he's most long Sherman craves scallops after a day of a very Eclectic one who understands that's tightener up fellas. All right. This is from at Simon C. Holland One of our favorites it's full of clean dishes and I'm scared my wife is going to know that I know. Well to be followed by the cat whisper, Mark's favorite, says if one spouse empties the dishwasher and the other spouse isn't around to hear it, did it really happen? We got our kids on load and unload. I never touch it. Well, all right. So here you get into this thing like do you want it done? Right, right or do you want it done sort of done? Like that's the quandary that I find myself gone through intensive training. It doesn't work in my house No, it doesn't still my well. Yeah, my boys pretty good But I know that I need to go through I've been to a second load the whole thing start over unload it all start over But here's the irony of the dishwasher. It takes five minutes. Yeah Literally takes five minutes. Yeah It's Tetris. All you do is how much do you have? How do you fit it in so it all gets clean and then and then we have the kids flip-flop So those who unload have to then load and then you understand like that's the pain of dealing with it. Okay, anyway What intimidates me more is the sink when the sink is full. And I don't want to get in there. But a dishwasher, I am not afraid of. It's only bad if there's dirty dishes in. You can't do anything with a dirty sink. And then my, back it up, back it up. Well, and then I'm pretty, so I have a tweet on rage vacuuming in a minute, but I get ragey every once in a while, and I'll just take the cascade and squirt it all over the door. I don't even make an attempt to get it in the little pouch. Security pouch do you think it's just a mean trick of the manufacturers that it takes three hours. I don't understand What takes three? I don't know what the heat dry man. Mine's two hours and 39 minutes Well for heavy wash ours is like three days You know we use coal to heat it up though I'm mood to butane Alright, this is from Ms. Libby. Mark, you can relate to this. Uh, the rage I feel when people are in the kitchen at the same time as me is not normal. Oh. Yeah, I just leave. I can't handle it. Ah! Yeah, if I'm cleaning, they need to stay clear because I've got the music on and I've got the, of course, the candles. Why do they stand exactly where you are? Not the newish invention. That's a full flameer in there because the flame needs to burn off the kitchen. And then if I'm cooking, it depends if it's a complimentary project. Sometimes the kids will help me make the food. That's okay. But if I'm like, last night I was focused on cooking and I'm like, just get out. Go rest. Relax get on your electronics cuz I got more minutes if they were in the same room That'd be one thing but they stand exactly where you need to be in the crossroads. Yes. Yes Right Between that and our bozo dog Like I'm about you know, they say senior and falls like is the big thing when you're a senior I'm a Early version of a seat that dog almost kills me twice a week Yeah, and the way our house is, it's like a racetrack, but it's hard to see around the bends. Corner. So, oh my gosh, yeah, it's a constant. Restaurant mirrors. Restaurant mirrors, dude. Be cautious. We do, no, like those mirrors that you see at like, corner restaurants. Like country driveways, you know, where the big round thing. That's a restaurant, so you ever work at a restaurant? Restaurant mirrors. Restaurant. You say corner. At restaurants, you say, they have mirrors up because you run into each other. And if you ever work at a restaurant, you have to call out when you're... Any restaurant. No. If you don't think, totally. If you work at a restaurant, you don't say corner, somebody yeah I say corner I've never I've worked in several restaurants I've never had a mirror oh right but you say corner also or coming or behind you yeah we don't have a big round behind you objects are closer than they appear but then you've run into somebody yeah hot plate okay this is from at We do not throw away perfectly good food in this house. We put the leftovers in Tupperware, put the Tupperware in the fridge, let it go bad, then throw it out. Right. That's right. And my kids called dibs on it. I'm gonna eat that leftover. Okay, cool, 3.85 days later, you're like, what was all that passion you had three days ago? Like, it's so dumb. Yeah. It's super dumb. And I'll make them eat the leftovers. If I'm in charge, they'll eat the leftovers. I'm like, you're hungry, I'm gonna eat. Cause some of the food's better on the second round anyway. And you know what else we were bad at? Those dumb little salsa things. Don't say that everybody because they're free you feel the need to bring six home and then we end up using one and then Well, then they get then they start puffing up. Yeah, you gotta be careful then they splode Yeah, they do the worst is those the crisper drawer where you buy like oh, we need a broccolini for one recipe So you use like a little like a little? Nub of it, you know, like the whole bushel of it is just like a rotting the worst vegetable is celery I need one little thing of celery for soup have an entire stock of it sitting in my crisper. Yes, always a tough one, but we have a bunny, at least he'll mull. Give it to the bunny. Give it to the bunny, I need a bunny. I need a bunny for celery's purpose. Speaking of, look at that guy. Oh, he's here just talking about him. Did you call me? What do you want? I was like, wait a minute, there's activity? I want to trip that guy. That's the guy that I trip every day? Sorry, listeners, my dog is staring us down from the back fence. All right, this is, well, we'll keep on the waste front. Does anyone else have a plastic grocery bag full of other plastic grocery bags full of other plastic grocery bags somewhere in the house? Oh my gosh. Yes. Or is that me? Nope, we do. I finally have moratoriums in the house, because they used to be, you know, when, well, it's not a trend. their bags to stores to like reuse the clock bag. Yeah. But then we collect them like quarters. And then there's like seven of them inside, four of them inside, a giant IKEA one inside. It just gets to be too much. Got to purge. So what do you do when you go to like Trader Joe's? You get paper or plastic, or do you bring your own little? I bring my own. You do? Of course. How many? They stay in the- You have a family of four? They live in the car, so- It's always in the trunk and I forget. I think it depends upon what you're buying. Sometimes I bring four in, sometimes I bring two in. You don't bring bags? I always bring bags. I bring paper and then I just put the paper right in the recycling can like a good human. I bring canvas. We use the bag, like, re-usables. What about in the car? Good on you. You ride your bike to school. We do ride our bike too. We have a Buckfeet's which is a box bike. We ride that to the good. You also have an outdoor shower. yet at Earthman. Okay, so this is from at Mary Fabry Bobry, fairy Bobry. Rage vacuuming is like regular vacuuming except you're married. So for I don't know yet. It wasn't for the holiday but we got it we had this vacuum. with a little green laser on it. Oh yeah. You seen this thing? Love those. Yeah, it's a Dyson. It's like a sight? It's a little laser beam that shoots this green laser. You feel like you're in a club and you push it and it illuminates what's on your floor. Creepy. And you would die if you knew what was on your floor on a daily basis. So then what does it do? Just say this is gross and then now you're just... I'm vacuuming. It kept me like, yeah, but I mean... No Mark, that's the key word of a vacuum. The activity is vacuuming. I understand, but like what happens if vacuuming isn't gonna cut it? Maybe you need to steam clean. It's dust, it's hair, it's... It helps you identify. It's like CSI. Dander, yeah, it's CSI. It feels better. Luminol. Okay, I have a Dyson and mine does great. It would feel better. I don't need a laser to tell me what he has. You need a laser. It's on the latest... You don't need to have a fricking laser beam. I'm telling you. Like Dr. Evil. Alright, have you done your impressions now? Sure. That was good, that was a good one. Wait. Crowd liked it, crowd liked it. I've got Mark back twice tonight already. Alright. I'm now going to send you a video of what the laser picks up. I'd like to see it. Because I want you to know that your Dyson's not cutting it. You know the Dyson's were on sale during the holidays and we considered getting a new one but we've got two. That seems excessive. And that is excessive, Martin, for each hand. These are first world problems. Exactly. Alright, this is from Noah Garfinkel. This is nothing to do with any of them, but it is kind of funny. Microwaves should have a get butter to room temperature without melting button. Yes. Well, that's not possible. No, it's eight seconds. It's about eight. Yeah, but Liquify auto defrost. No, you take you take hot water you heat up something glass you put it over and then you let it warm up the butter Sorry folks Mine was short. Moving on. Sorry. Everyone's got their way. All right. Those are some good tweets of the week. Thank you very much. That was good, good stuff. or was it? Coming up next, a great article from Fatherly, great way to kick off at January, to everybody, the secret to living a happier, more fulfilling life. The happiness researcher explains what it really takes. Coming up next. Articles by smart people. All right, this article's from Fatherly. It is our Smart Articles by Smart People section. The secret to living a happier, more fulfilling life. Are you four happy? Yes. Are you three happy? Trying my best. Yeah. Yes. Do you feel like you have to work at it? Or do you feel like? It's a choice. It does take work. It does take some little effort, I think. The ability to be generally consistently happy can feel like an innate gift bestowed upon a lucky few. Even those who seem to have it all and have seemingly nothing to be unhappy about can feel like they're not happy enough or even unhappy a lot of the time. If you wonder why you're not happy more often, you have plenty of company. Many Americans have a wealth of comforts and advantages available to them, yet the US doesn't even crack the top 10 countries with the happiest citizens. Boo. Gallup's 2022 and the World Happiness Report concluded the global unhappiness post-vandemic was at an all-time high. But note the authors also found levels of self-reported worldwide happiness started their downward slide long before COVID. According to the blah, blah. So why, despite decades of research and positive psychology, hundreds of self-help books and daily onslaught of influencer guru videos claiming to reveal these secrets, why are Americans so unhappy? Studies merging positive psychology and neuroscience are providing useful insights on how to create real, sustainable happiness. Let's establish a baseline for what we're talking about. What is happiness and what are some common misconceptions about what it is or what does it feel like? What's happiness to you? Chris, Ben, Mark, who's gonna start? It doesn't have to be long-winded, just quick answers and then we can plug them through the article because this isn't a typical article where we have a list and we can analyze each number. This is more a generality. I think in my old age, the one thing that I feel that has kind of been the one true ism is gratitude. For sure. And like what you were saying about, I think people, especially Americans, tend to be... less grateful for how awesome life is that we have and i just feel like you know from like the you know the ditch digger to the c e o it's really just that mindset of being grateful that you could be happy regardless and i think we get distracted by you know other things that don't bring the happiness, you know. Well, it says here, you know, it's a really, it's not exclusive to life's inevitable unpleasant moments. It's a really important misconception. Happiness kinds of means something different than the momentary emotional experience of feeling happy, which could be gratitude and frequent gratitude and gratitude, and we've talked about this, you know, at length on the show. And it says, if you're unhappy, authentically happy. I was saying how my kids and I go out randomly and we will compliment people, right? And that makes us happy because it makes them happy and in turn it's just a little joyful moment. I think that if you connect enough of that together and you can if you can define servitude a little further, I mean, I think it's kind of in the same ballpark. Yeah, it is. Respirication of happiness to and toward other people or helping other people. Yep. You know, I think the article kind of hunkers in one area, but I don't totally disagree with it either. Mark. I would just, I, maybe I'm somewhere in between. I kind of agree with what you're saying to a degree in terms of I do believe that, well, happiness is a choice. I do believe there's a spiritual aspect to it. I do believe that servitude is a big part of, that brings me happiness, whether it's through, whether it's through compassion or empathy or whatever things like when I'm, well, I feel like when I'm, you know, happiest, it's when I'm doing things that makes other people happy. So, you know, I get that. But like you were saying, MK, in terms of like, you know, music makes me happy, you know, doing certain things make me happy, taking my kids someplace, watching my kids play a sport, like, and like Chris was saying is like, you know, here in the States, we're so blessed, and we're lucky because we don't I don't think we fully comprehend how fortunate we are on a daily basis to have opportunities to be happy. And so choosing happiness is is it's a choice. It's something that you, you know, and then as the article went on to say, in terms of, you know, when bad things come your way, the choice of happiness makes those bad things that come a little bit easier to weather because you've already chosen a brighter outlook versus a gloomy outlook. So, and I'm working on that every day. Like I'm not, you know, sunshine guy. I'm, you know, my tag name on Twitter is the way that it is for a reason. So I'm always trying to, you know, lift myself up, But again, it can't be all me, me. It's gotta be us and they. And the other thing I loved about the article was the social aspect. But I know I feel a lot better when I am being social, when I'm talking to my friends, when I'm seeing you guys. Like that really uplifts me and keeps me happy. So I know like when these are on the calendar, when Dad Time Out shows on the calendar, I'm a lot happier leading up to it because I get to hang out with you guys. Right. That's kind of the point. Just the very title of the article is, how can I be happy? I guess that's what bugged me. Choose it. No, but that's what I mean. That's not what's important. Yeah. Your own happiness is not what should be the focus. And that's the front door. And I think there's a back door to happiness and that's, you know, joy and enjoying our creator, each other and there is. And that's pretty much it. It's over thought. Yeah. Now I got you. Well, and fulfillment. I mean, there's a million good quotes out here. I was trying to find one. Fulfillment is the result. Yeah. The purpose of life is not to be happy, it is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. So that kind of strikes a balance. That's by this guy named Ralph Waldo Emerson. I've heard of him. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, there was one that I was really looking for, but I can't find it right now. Yeah, again, I think this is just one avenue. is what they're saying. You took it as a credo, but I find all this stuff interesting and I like to read it with big paint brushes and just try and figure out what works best for me. And you see the one I found interesting and I heard this before is the money thing. Yeah. You get you making money is good. It feels comfortable to a certain point and then it plateaus. And I think they said, I don't have the number in front of me. It's like striving to get that extra 5% is like not worthwhile because you're gonna fight so hard and your happiness is not gonna be equivalent the fight you have to put in to get that extra coin. Yeah. And there's a certain level where you've got the stuff and now you're like. Well, one thing I'm not going to say I like, but one thing I took away too, it's like happiness doesn't mean having, not having unpleasant emotions, but that happy people are able to manage those effectively. I did like the line where it said, know your own emotional capacities. That made sense. Ben, you know what makes me happy? You read an article. Yeah. I know. Hold on. Good job, buddy. Cheers. There were a lot of good parts of this article. I agree with some of what you're saying, but to a degree, there was a lot in there that I thought was... was just solid info. Yeah, I agree. Like even this paragraph here, what does increase happiness is investing in your relationships. Spending time with your loved ones, getting to know your colleagues and friends, having spontaneous conversations with people out in the world who you never met about things that you might have in common. My wife and I do that to a fault because we're late for a lot of things because of that activity. These kind of pro-social activities, actions, and priorities continue to influence happiness throughout the course of your life. that comes with a certain income level, there is no end. There's no max to their impact on a daily basis. I also too, it's like, I get to that, I think Seinfeld has a whole bit where, no, it's not a bit really, but he's talking about why he doesn't get in confrontations during the day. This may go a little bit to the right, but, or left. But he said he wants to hit the pillow at night, having no regrets about the day that he's just had. And that's why he doesn't get confrontational argumentative. He doesn't fly off the handle. Like even the airline situations we just went through. We were the funny couple that just got dealt some really horrible cards. You guys are good at that though. Right, but I mean, that's part of the big. pie too. And when the kids are watching you, your way to roll with the punches, that's what I'm always trying to do with my kids in tow, is let's roll with the punches so they can see how to handle things gracefully. It doesn't mean that we like what's happening, but handling it with grace is giant. Well the article says that being resilient is a, you know, is a trait that helps to be happy. But yeah, rolling with the punches like... getting stuck in Portland and Vancouver could have been like the worst day ever and you know if you flip it around it could be a you know a fun memory I've slept in many airports in my day you just make lemonade out of the lemons. Wait a minute uh oh Why did Mark sleep in many airports back in his day? Just what day? What day, Mark? Oh, yeah. Between 2003 and 2016. The CIA days? Yeah, CIA days. My spa days. I don't know. I think, like, I don't dislike the article. I think that the article, man, I think that if you're going to use a weird analogy, it's like a big soup. There's a ton of good ingredients that can go into the soup. And as long as you're enjoying the soup regularly, no matter what it is, then it's all good. And I like this, I looked at, I was just looking up different quotes and I came across the one from Michael J. Fox is, with gratitude, optimism is sustainable. Which I enjoyed too. Yep. But I don't know, what do you teach your kids about it? What do you... What is your line that you're towed? Well, yeah, we definitely are service and community oriented. That's the one good thing about at least the schools that we go, our kids are going to personally, is that there are hours that they have to complete. And then what we find, well, we found, cause I didn't have that when I grew up, is that my kids actually enjoy it. Yeah. And I think you have to take and read the Gallup 2022 Global Emotions Report, and then combine that with the World Happiness Report. And then we're going to take you to read the general social survey by the National Opinion Research Center. Well, that's a lot of studies on this stuff. That's what I'm saying. All this self-help stuff that self I guess it just was a lot of self-helpy and I just have always just like self-help stuff. I think you take it where you can get it. All right. Well, happiness isn't about pleasure and entertainment. It's not feeling good all the time. Hey man, I'm gonna tell you like this. I'm happier now. I'm happy, I'm happy. We don't want to all agree, that'd be boring. I do like the relationships part though, because even when I watched, I think I talked about this about five episodes ago, the Blue Zone show. And the reason the longevity in the Cincinnatians is because the family is so thick. in these little pockets of the world. And everybody looks out for their elders and they respect their elders. But that's why the happiness content is so high because of the relationships that you cultivated and kept over the years. And it can of course apply to friends and families or even your butcher baker and candlestick maker in your own community. Like, you know, I look forward to seeing certain people at certain spots in my community every day, you know? Like, I don't know. All right, well. agree to agree, maybe disagree, or agree. But I think it's a good article. I think Ben's got some great insight as well. Coming up next, well we'll put this on our page as well and you can draw your own conclusions and opinion. The secret to living a happier more fulfilling life Coming up next is the quiz on cleaning And we might even talk about the laser eye vacuum once again All right, ladies and gentlemen boys and girls it's time for the quiz of the week only because we were talking about cleaning earlier ish and that's you know part of my resolutions is to really overhaul the house in the garage moving forward so i thought would it be good to take a cleaning quiz here we go question number one so are you cleaning the things around your house frequently enough test your knowledge below Remember, if you live with pets, kids, or other messy folks, you'll probably want to intensify your cleaning game. Same goes if you have immuno, can't ever say that word, immuno-compromised people living. How often should you watch bath towels after each use once a week? or once a month, how often should you wash baths? Once a week. How? Twice a year. Once a week. Huh? Suggesting every day. Every day. That's what there's. I think it's. Who's got time for that? I'm saying once a week. But I think that's what it's saying. From an environmental perspective. I go. I'm going to go with A. Once a week. You're going once a day? The correct answer is once a week. A, C, B. You should wash your bath towels once a week or maybe more. If you bathe multiple times a day or live in an area with high humidity, experts recommend changing out your towels. Closer to every three days Okay, you got to keep your biome healthy Bathroom hand towels follow the same rules watch gloss on the other hand to be washed every other use Okay, one that really gets the germs. I'm over washing good to know I failed this stuff miserably. I'm not even gonna tell you what I answered on some of these. All right, question two, dish towels. After every use, once a week or every two weeks? Dish towels. You're supposed to wash those? I mean, they last a day in our house. Dish towels. I'm going once a, well, okay, you're both like a drying towel? A drying towel. We just hang there forever. Once a week. We've ever washed ours. Once a week. Ours is like 10 years. Just get used from any other things, so. I wanna show this to my wife Both disagree on this answer. I'm gonna say once a week. Every use. If you use your kitchen towels while cooking, you need to throw them in the laundry after each use because they are probably making contact with raw food. Of course. And we're not just talking uncooked meat. Okay. That needed to be qualified question. Cause I was talking about the drying towel for my dishes. My dishes are clean. Saying people don't realize leafy greens can cause outbreaks of gastroenteritis, whatever the word is, and other illnesses. If you wipe down your counter with a kitchen towel after cutting up raw veggies, that towel should go into the wash. Oh yeah, the one that I wipe down my counters with is every day. When you're in the kitchen and you're cleaning up your food, salads are nearly as risky as raw food. If you use your dish towels only to dry clean dishes or clean hands after washing them You can keep them in circulation for three to four days Just poop he recommends keeping a basket in your kitchen serve as a hamper now If you take your best self back to the restaurant world Think about it. Oh, yeah, they wash daily. All right, how often should you clean your pets bowls? My pets what never oh, okay food and water bowl daily food water bowl Food Bowl weekly water bowl daily or food bowl daily water bowl weekly you're laughing at me You must wash your bowls. I'll wash the water bowl daily Really? Oh weak. I don't think I've ever washed my dog's food bowl I think the book for me is both once a week, but we do we have we have one of those cat fountains now So the water is constantly moving So cool. I want one of those. It's only because my cat. I need one. All right, well the correct answer is food bowl daily water bowl weekly So my poor dog. Yeah, your poor dog. My cats don't get they get dry food They don't need to have a clean bowl every day. Yeah, that's especially if your dog eats wet food Okay, the second that wet food interacts with the bowl. It's got to go. You got to wash it Water bowls should be scrubbed weekly. Yeah, that's what largely because something Eventually grow in there or a doggy that came from Johns Hopkins University oh gosh, how often should you watch your pets bed once a week once a month or once a quarter? Okay, I feel bad. I Bed I've never watched our pets bed dogs bed. This is all like dog related pet bed I don't have a pet bed, so I'm out. We have a little dog bed. You don't have a pet head for your rabbit It's just hey You just throw hay in the corner of your room? Room? It's our rabbit's outdoor rabbit. Oh, it's an outdoor rabbit. I take showers in the outdoor shower. I walk in the cat trees. I shower with my rabbit. Does it flush the toilet like Jinxy and meet the parents? The answer is once a month. Throw your pet's bed in the wash every month. Your animal is regularly groomed and bathed for pets that lead more active outdoors. Bump up the frequency. Tip, dry the bed in the sun if you can, because ultraviolet light kills bacteria. bacteria. How often should you clean the microwave? After each use once a week or once a month. After each use. Microwave each use? Don't the microwaves sort of self-clean? I feel like you know. I don't have a feeling you know a lot of it. Cleaning my friend. The lady takes care of all the... It's once a week. You should wipe down the inside of microwave weekly. Not because of the microbiological danger, but because of the smell. Unless you always cover the food you heat up, some of them will end up on the apply- and they'll continue to cook every time you turn it on. Never. Leading to unappetizing aromas. Emilia, director of cooking system at GE Appliances says, you'll make it easier on yourself if you always clean up after big spills. Target splatter with a soapy sponge and avoid at all costs. Bleach ammonia, abrasive soaps, or commercial oven cleaners. Okay. Speaking of ovens. How often should you clean your oven? Once a week, once a month, or once a year? Once a year. Oh, once a year, yeah. Hmm, I don't know. Yeah, like after Thanksgiving, we run the self-clean thing in my jiggy. Yeah, once a year. Yeah. The average family should clean their oven at least once a year, possibly twice. I'm rocking. Cook every single meal in the oven. If your oven has self-cleaning, follow those instructions. Otherwise, use soap and water. Okay, the dishwasher. Interesting. Once a month, once a year, never clean it. Never. It cleans itself. What the? You're talking about the filter? No, why? It's just the dishwasher with a question mark. Never in my life. Throw in one of those Febreze thingies. You know. Once a month. Just put the dog in the dishwasher. Yeah, put the dog in there. Once a month. Yeah. You might assume that because this device cleans other items, it is always clean. But you'd be wrong. Oh, I'm wrong. If you're using your dishwasher regularly, you should at least check monthly whether old food and grime has collected in the crevices. Yeah, you take out the trap, you empty it out, and then you run a cycle with vinegar in there. And it actually cleans your dish. You don't do that. Yes, I do. Remember when he was cleaning his dish? He's very adamant about this. I don't doubt that for a second. I think that's his surprise. Yeah, Mark's right though. Director of engineering for GE Appliances said you should clean out the filter in the tub, pop it out and give it a rinse. He's trying to sell more dishwashers. Yeah, he also said you should buy a new one every year. Exactly. No, man, you get like a Bosch, like the one I have. Good dishwasher. Is your foot hurt from your name dropping? All right, the washing machine. Watch not sponsor that you should clean the filter is what we're talking about. There's like that. No the washing machine once a month Yeah, we have a real in trap in a washing machine. Okay, but that little gunky thing you got a guy that every use Y'all every month once a month once a year never once a month What's sure about some of backwards then cuz I clean that my watch actually has a function where it tells me Hey, you need to do a cleaner cleaning cycle. I do it. See is that a Bosch or Is it a Viking? So it's gone. One more. Viking. Oh, what to do? Laundry. I don't think they make one. Is that a Vitamix? What's the answer? The answer is once a month. Yes, once a month. Okay, okay. Especially important to clean your washer once a month, you have a front loader. Yes, front loader. We got rid of our front loader. We couldn't get rid of that stink. It's stinky. You gotta wash it every use, that's why. I know, because it gets trapped in that little rubber rim thing. But I like watching it, you know. Me too. Seeing your little underwear tumble up and down, mingle. It's like, oh, it goes backwards now. Mingle with your own clothes. That's creepy. How often should you watch throw blankets? What's so arbitrary? Shaming it's not we're giving you some concrete knowledge Ben. This is not on the household, right? This is not a spiritual question This is a What what is it a month two months six months or once a year once a year two months The correct answer is two months. Wow. OK, don't come use my blankets. This is another category based on who lives in your house. If you have pets and kids snuggling up with your blankets or dragging them on the floor, you want to wash them more often. But Richardson says, especially if you have those. vacuum with the laser eye you can see what's on your floor but Richard said every two months is generally sufficient because they don't come into contact with skin the way bedsheets do moving on to bedsheets yeah buddy done and done twice a week once a week or once a month once a week bedsheets once a week I hear those. Correct answer is once a week. You should wash your bed sheets at least once a week to get rid of, there we go, built up skin cells, dust mites, and odors. The more living creatures, human or pet, that use your bed or fewer clothes you wear when you sleep, the more frequently you should wash. I mean, in college, I might have washed them one time in four years. Every year. Oh. Ooh. You know, I still believe in the biome. You know, that stuff helps the biome. I believe in the biome! It's the discoloring that gets ya. Oh, jeez. You used that deodorant that was like the crystal rock, didn't you? I do. I don't. I use spring, baby. I use the crystal. Alright, the duvet cover. Ooh. Once a month, six weeks, or quarter? Once a month. Okay, I'm not sure. Using a top sheet, you can generally go about a month. You don't use a top sheet and your duvet covers constantly touching your skin and ought to be watched alongside with the rest Yeah of your sheets so my kids don't use a top sheet so I have to wash their duvet covers every year I hate top sheets So annoying straight to the do you gotta pull them out and then we got the clips on the ends you got it so bad That's too much No need to the do To the dude How often should you clean area rugs final question Okay, we vacuum them once a quarter twice a year once a year area rugs Once a year twice a year twice a year. Yeah, it depends on the traffic, but once a year. Yeah, yeah. Well, vacuuming area rugs is fine for typical maintenance. It doesn't sterilize them. You need to use a steam vacuum, which you should do at least once a year for rugs that get regular traffic. Dry vacuum and then wet vacuum. Or you buy one of those brand of rugs that are machine washable like we got. Those are awesome. Wow, Mark. Why I won't drop the name. Never mind. He's got special washing rugs What kind of area rug can you squeeze in a washer? They have a backing. What are you thumbtack a blanket to your? No, they have they have a big thick backing and then you lay one of those I've seen the Instagram ad for it's ruggable Yeah. All right. Well, you guys did terrible but I That's alright. What are you kidding me? I got them all, I'm solving them right. That's alright. Except for like one. Only Mark. Oh, Mark. Don't take the bait, Mark. Alright, that is the quiz of the week. I always take the bait. Coming up next... Things that make us smile. It's time for things that make us smile. I go right off the bat. Mine's a long story from the top of the show that I'll finish. It's good to be back home after a very long road trip but a fun road trip. Our kids are all in little shows right now and that's always a blast to go see them. I treat them like... big night out anymore. Like we go out, we'll have a cocktail, we'll go see the show. It's always kind of fun. So you can't really do as much in the elementary school, but in the high school with a nice theater, you can have a nice dinner. Yeah. And we're back in the swing of things. Wife's doing good, work's good, life's good. Chris? Uh, man, we had a great, uh, drive my kid back down to school weekend and swung by the old Disneyland again and... What happened to the car? Car? Not so fun. Not making me smile. It didn't make you smile. On the way home, right about two hours away, overheated so we had to get towed. Waa, waaa, waaa. That was cold. Put some cold in that action, you know, yeah, but you were with your girl once another great story time resilience having resilience Making me smile y'all. Oh, yeah Let's see I biked it was I literally smiled as I was coming home today My daughter ripped around the corner on her red bike on her way to her bass lesson She was wearing a tie and an eye makeup and she was like just I almost hit her shoes Lessons today, and that just carrying the base no They have a base there that made me smile And then I am excited to like I always love when you're headed up the mountains and like all of a sudden It's it's like rain And then it turns to snow the moment that the rain turns to snow makes me so I know I'm talking about You know that feeling yeah, I mean yeah It's like are we high enough is it cold enough and the kids are walking watching the temperature gauge on the car Okay, that's always a good time. That's a good one. Yeah. My little still into that feeling. I love it. Yeah, they when we were in Portland, they ran outside of the airport just to roll around in the snow for like, yeah, 20 minutes. Mark. Uh, my son's ninth birthday was fun. That was Tuesday. So he had a good day. Right. He's a sweet kid He he wanted me to make beef stroganoff for dinner and uh, and he wanted to have his grandma Donna's carrot cake, so my wife and 13 year old obliged and made him carrot cake, which was Unbelievably delicious. I hadn't had it's all you could want it for his birthday. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, yeah, he's You know, yeah He just he just wanted to have family around and have some food cool and so that makes me smile and you know yeah and I got a really good Christmas present this year I got I got a Cuisinart like air fryer toaster oven convection oven thing that thing's awesome yeah so it's like I like what kind was it mark it's a Cuisinart but it makes me super happy and I love it it's made my life so easy and I really appreciate that gift it's make sure you want to clean it twice a week though I'm actually cleaning it daily That's too much. It's my favorite new tool. Air fryer. No, no, anyway, yeah. Anyway. So it's made me smile. Good presents. Good presents makes me smile. Simple man. All right. Well, that wraps up an inaugural 2024 show. Oh yeah. Thanks for watching. Ah, love you guys. We are everywhere. We're on the threads, the Twitter, the Instagram, the book of faces, and our website, www. We are the Dad Time Out Show. Peace. And we're out of here. Goodnight, resilience. Thanks for listening to the Dad Time Out Show. We're out of here. We've been listening to you talk for an hour. Ha ha ha. Bye, dude. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to our time down house. And we're out of here.

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