Biblical Archaeology Review

I recently subscribed to Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR) and enjoy reading it cover to cover, even if some of it is waaaay over my head. However, I will say it seems like anything authored by the editor himself is below BAR standard. For instance, on the issue of the "James, Brother of Jesus" ossuary, the guy's got a vested interest in it being legit, so a cover piece he wrote about it is as objective and professional as campaign literature. Still, this month's two page illustration of the Bubatite Portal's Sheshonq relief is worth the price of a subscription all by its lonesome. Anybody else read BAR?

The Lowest Tip Ever

I took the family (minus YaYa) to Hector's on Delaware for dinner. The food was good but overpriced, and the service was awful. We waited forever for drinks, were served in slip-shod fashion, and the waitress was argumentative and rude. Fair enough. I hope she enjoyed her 95 cent tip on a table of five.

Flag Day!

Happy Flag Day. Fly the Stars and Stripes today folks! Indy legend Michael Andretti will be @ the Bay View Piggly Wiggly from 3 -5 today. While you're there, stop in the floral department for great Father's Day ideas!

Quote of the Day

Two quotes of the day. The first: LuLu asked me to get her past a puzzle on a video game she was playing on the Nook. I took it from her, whipped through it in under 30 seconds, and handed it back. She was amazed and wouldn't stop talking about it. Later I told Lisa how annoying it is when your kid seems awestruck that you're smart enough to finish a kids puzzle. "You think that's bad?," she said. "At least they think you have a brain. You know what Smiley said to me? He said "Mom I 'ave a question", then said "ne'ermind, it a hard one" and went and asked you." :( 2nd quote of the day: Lisa: "Why don't you just come to bed? It's ten o'clock. I know you're tired." Me: "No way. I go to bed and the next thing I know it's morning and I have to go to work. The longer I stay up, the longer it is before the start of another workday." Lisa (after a moment of silence): "Whatever. For a smart guy you have a lot of awfully dumb ideas."

Maybe you can provide the answer . . .

Ok, World Wide Web, I need your help.

As a youngster I watched a WWII movie that's stuck in my head for thirty years. Unfortunately, the title was less memorable, and I've been unable to ID the movie to this day. Maybe you can help change that.

Here's what I know:

1. I watched it with my Grandpa, who died in 1983. I would place the viewing as somewhere between 1981 and '83. 


2. We watched it on the "Late Late Show" on CBS (6) in Milwaukee late one Saturday evening.


3. If it was on broadcast TV then, I can't imagine it being made any earlier than 1980 (and that's a stretch). 


4. I remember it being in color. For a second tier WWII flick, I'd say that dates it to no earlier than 1960. 

So we have a twenty year window, 1960-'80.

The plot:

a. A U.S. Army company is ambushed and destroyed in Europe by a German armoured force. I remember the German's broadcasting "Is anyone alive?" to the shattered group, searching for prisoners. 


b. a small number of Americans (seven?) escape and try to return to their own lines. 


c. one by one, over the course of the film, they are separated and picked off


d. one GI is captured. When the Germans take the pic of his wife from his wallet and toss it in the mud her frantically dives to the ground to retrieve it, ignoring their screams to stop. They shoot him dead on the spot. 


e. one of the last remaining characters is killed at the conclusion of the movie with a shot to the throat.


Any ideas folks?

A-Rod by the Numbers

Alex Rodriguez's historic home run yesterday traveled 389 feet, leaving the bat at a whomping 118.4 miles per hour, at an elevation angle of 18.9 degrees, a horizon angle of 120.0 and an apex of 46. In English? It means that statistically that was the third hardest hit baseball of the 2012 season to date.

The Grey

We just finished watching "The Grey" starring Liam Neeson. A group of oil-rig workers survive a brutal plane crash in the wilds of Alaska, only to find themselves hunted by a pack of wolves eager to eliminate the 'intruders'. I thought this was a very well done movie that takes time to develop the emotional center of the characters (no small feat given the scenario). And the ending . . . I grade this one an "A".

The newly renovated LuLu and Ginger Room (in progress)

Well, that's a cruddy shot, complete with smudge on the lens and a mess on the dresser. Oh well. My nine year old (LuLu) took it, and I doubt I could have done better at her age. I'll get better pics in the near future.

 What you're looking at is the 1st concrete step towards reclaiming our home and our lives in this, The Year of The Comeback.

With a new full time job lining my pockets with an extra $5 to spare at the end of the week, we've decided to redo the house, one bedroom at a time. First up is LuLu and Ginger's room, seen above. Last month we spray painted their old red metal bunk bed black, and a few paychecks later picked up zebra print bed sets for the girls.Yesterday, the big plunge, using the remnants of last week's check: two gallons of  paint in LuLu's favorite color of lime green (officially, Harvest Plantain), a half gallon of black to touch up the bed and for the insets on the door, a desk lamp, and light dampening, insulating widow curtains.

While I was at work today Lisa emptied the room and painted it, and when I got home we put the bed back together. There are still touch ups to be done, and the door insets. I also need to replace the closet light, better insulate the window A/C, and buy a new bolt for the bed guard on the top bunk.

Plus it wouldn't hurt for the kids to clean the room either.

Once their room is done its on to Smiley's, then YaYa's, then our own and the entryway. But before any of those, a huge expense: the replacement of our back porch, which is quite literally a safety hazard. It's falling apart, and some steps are supported solely by scrap pieces of wood anchored to the side. I'll take pics of that mess in the next few days, but the contractor has already been hired to replace it.

Progress . . . it makes you feel, what's the word? Oh yeah. Proud. 

Pulo's Pizza

We took the two youngest out for pizza at Pulo's at 1567 W Oklahoma, in the same building where my sister Chrissy once lived in an apartment upstairs. Good food, good company. Oh, and Smiley brought his favorite buddy, Ducky!

Chronicle

I just finished watching 'Chronicle' a found-footage film about a trio of teenage boys who discover . . . *something* . . . in the woods and emerge with super powers. Don't judge the movie by the trailer, or the poster. Very little of the movie is devoted to action/adventure (although the parts that are are spectacular). At its heart, it's a movie about the disintegration of a family and the failed attempt of a troubled kid to rise above his circumstances. I really liked this film. Grade: A