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Sunday, August 9, 2009

I mean this with 100% sincerity: if you want to put a smile on my face and make me instantly happier, no matter the situation, just show me an Alex Rodriguez home run.
Busy day today. My daughter's 2nd birthday party, followed by a family BBQ and then a bit of a mess after that. All in all, a great day.

Family Movie Night . . . in 3D!

Wow. A busy, busy day today, one almost solely devoted to family. I hope to post about it soon, but in the meantime . .

A couple weeks back Lisa surprised the kids by buying a copy of Coraline on DVD; the 2D version on one side of the disc, 3D on the other. If you remember I took YaYa to see it on the 21st of March. Based on a book by Neil Gaiman, it's a good movie, if a trifle slow. It's certainly impressive to the eye, especially in the 3D version.

We made a movie night of it, complete with popcorn, pizza, salad and the mandatory 3D glasses. Note the Ronald McDonald teeny-Beanie Baby near Smiley. The kids are going nuts for those Happy Meal toys right now.

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Friday, August 7, 2009

Match Game: No Blonde Jokes Please (even if warranted)

In honor of Ginger's birthday, here's a Match Game contestant whose real name is Ginger - and her answers are so bad she dang near stops the show in its tracks. What's scary is that the second half of the clip is her in the bonus round, meaning she won her game. Who the heck was her opponent?

Happy 2nd Birthday Ginger!

Today is the 2nd, joyous birthday of the one and only Feral Child, aka Lump aka Baby, better known online as Ginger Slap.



May she enjoy this day, and another hundred birthdays in the years to come!





Thursday, August 6, 2009

Another (?) cat, and a link to a column

Make that three cats, a turtle, a frog, and two fish. My wife's Aunt is in a nursing home recovering from an illness, and so we've agreed to watch her cat (our old cat Gizmo) for a few weeks.

* * * *

Anyway, here's a link to a column I wrote for the Journal-Sentinel last week. It's on gay marriage, and so will no doubt pi** someone off. So be it. I have no hate in my heart - but the same doesn't appear to be the case for some folks on the other side of the issue.

I'd kept it on the hush-hush rather than risk an argument at work, as I try not to sh*t where I eat. But tonight the cat was let out of the bag and a (civil) debate occurred with a transgender co-worker, so I guess there's no longer a reason to keep mum.

"Circumventing the Electorate"

As always, columns read better in the format they were designed for, the printed page (they really do, it's odd). In this case my picture and column were plop in the center of the page, next to a large graphic, so it was kind of hard to miss.

In response I got a few letters of agreement, some that were against my view but civil, and some absolute crap. I received two pieces I'd describe as hate mail: one today that called me names and wished me ill, and another last week that called me names and then oddly, given that it was in opposition to my views, ended with links to gay porn. I suppose that last bit was sent to scare my "phobic" self. What an as*hole.

Anyhow, I hope you at least find it readable.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Just got a charming piece of hate mail on my gmail account. For all their talk about peace and love and brotherhood, I notice the whackjob left - note I said whackjob left, not "everyone on the left" - are prone to calling you names and wishing you dead at the drop of a hat. 

A frog, a turtle, two cats, four kids . . .

Today was a productive day off, and a productive day usually means a good day for me. This one certainly fit the bill.

For starters, Lisa and I got to sleep in an hour. It was at the cost of the kitchen being trashed by the kids, but it was well worth it. Then, with my nephew watching the baby (he returned home from Cape Cod in the evening and crashed on my couch) the rest of us piled in the van and went birthday shopping for Ginger. All of us except YaYa I mean, as she stayed at my parent's place overnight.

Toys R Us was a little depressing. The kids were just overwhelmed by the store.. It wasn't "Ooooh, I want this!" it was "Ooooh, I didn't know they made dolls named Barbie. Are they new to the market?"

I guess I should take them out more often.

At Wal-Mart we replaced YaYa's dear departed fish with a Beta. She had requested a "Blue one with a shredded tail" i.e. a blue male crowntail, and we picked it up for her.

After a few more stops I dropped the family off at home and took LuLu to the doctor. She's been waking up at night with horrible coughing fits and wheezing, and since a co-worker of mine was officially a victim of the swine-flu, I just wanted to play hypochondriac parent.

The verdict? No swine flu, but she may have asthma. They prescribed an inhaler and mask and want to see her again to (hopefully) elminate it as a true cause of the persistent cough. It seems to have helped tonight, as she appears to be resting comfortably. She's been having such a rough time sleeping that the bags under her eyes could double as canvas totes.

Immediately afterwards I took her to the DMV, where I renewed Lisa's plates and got a new license, the old one having been lost when Ginger dumped out my wallet once upon a time. While we were waiting a little girl approached Lu.

"How old are you?"

"Six"

"I'm five. I think your dress is very pretty. Where did you buy it?"

"My grandma [Scor] made it for me."

and a new, if temporary friendship was born. I did notice that the girl later said something in glorious recognition of the President's birthday. Yikes. Indoctrination begins young I guess.

So I got my picture taken and immediately complained. A mere three DL photos ago I took the Best. Picture. Ever. and this time around I look like I posed nude. Their lights washed out my tan tshirt leaving me to appear as if I'm nude from at least the belt up. Lu started giggling the first time she saw it. Ugh.

Then we picked up YaYa and my sister, ran a few errands on their behalf, and dropped back off before returning home for a full chicken and stuffing dinner.

When that was done LuLu and Smiley joined me in a run to pick up a Preston/Child book I'd saw at a thrift store (one that didn't accept credit, and I had no cash), and then we went back to Wal-Mart.

I bought LuLu a goldfish to fill a spare bowl we had at home, and I bought Smiley a dwarf African frog. At Christmas last we'd bought him a Diego! frog habitat, but he ripped it open and lost the order form for the frog. We figured this was about the only way to make good on the gift, so a frog - excuse me, his name is "oggy" - was brought home.

Total cost for these three animals and appropriate food was under $20, and most of that went towards the Beta I felt obliged to replace (after all, YaYa had bought her fish out of her own pocket, and it was killed on our watch).

So now our home features two cats, four kids, a turtle, a frog, and two fish. And a lot of fruit flies in the kitchen, but they don't count.

One we returned home, got the animals set up, gave LuLu her medicine, and put them to bed I took my nephew to the local Budget show to see a movie "Drag Me to Hell". $3.75 for two tickets. Not bad.

So there you have it. A long day, no doubt boring to you, but productive.

To me, it felt like a great day indeed.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

A milestone for Ginger

This morning, a little after 10:30, Ginger peed in the toilet for the first time. Celebrations throughout the Slapinions household have begun, tempered by the fact that there will be 80 more accidents before she's adequately trained.

*And she still threw her diaper overnight, which means we'll have to start putting them on backwards at night so she can't reach the tabs.

X Files: I want to Believe



I jumped off the X-Files bandwagon long before it ground to a halt, convinced that the story lines were never going to be resolved to my satisfaction. I still don't know if they were, and I don't care. Even so I knew I wanted to see this film.

It's a good film, well written and well acted, as you'd expect. I don't think the subject or the action required a movie screen's possibilities, nor did it live up to them, but it was great to see Mulder and Scully together again.

The film concerns the disappearance of women in West Virginia. A convicted pedophile priest is allegedly having 'visions' that can help the case. Knowing his track history with the X-Files, the FBI recruits Scully (now a private doctor) to help bring the maverick Mulder back into the fold and recover the victims.

The movie, start to finish, is about redemption. For the priest, for Mulder, for Scully, and for a TV show that seemed to forget about its fans and limp away into oblivion.

Much has been written about the Mulder-Scully romance in the film, and here's my two cents: I thought it was very warm, loving, sincere, and natural. This is no one-night stand or Romeo and Juliet. They are two adults who have been friends for decades, who know each other's every thought, who stand isolated from the mainstream of human life, and who care very deeply for each other. I applaud their love, and the casual way the filmmakers carry it off. Good for them.

For fans 3.0 out of 4. For non-fans, maybe a 2.5 out of 4