Facebook - the end of April

APRIL 23RD

Smiley hooked his hands like a cat on the prowl & said "Claws it" over & over. He then started grabbing his, er, junk, still saying 'Claws' & pointing at the TV. 'Go pee," I said. "No!," he said, "Claws it 'en pee." "Pause the TV?" I said. "Yeesssss!" he said, & ran to the john. He gets his point across somehow/someway. He may not be able to speak well, but he apparently has the rhyming thing down pat.

‎"We have to believe in free will. We have no choice." - Isaac Bashevis Singer

APRIL 24TH

I had big plans in the yard for this day off, but it's been rainy and dreary all day. Lisa took lulU hiking with the Daisy scouts, YaYa is camping w/ the Brownies, Smiley is w/ Grandma, and Ginger was content with having the 2nd floor to herself. So I've spent *hours* watching the NFL Draft and finishing 'God's Spy', a novel by Juan Gomez-Jurado. Not the morning I had planned, but I'll take it.

‎"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison

Read Smiley "Just a Bully" ( G & M Meyer). I expected the PC "Boy is bullied, he stands up to him, Bully is Exposed as Coward & Backs Down". Nuh-uh. He FIGHTS him, wins, becomes a cool kid, & the bully becomes a target himself. More realistic, but yowsas, is that always a good thing? While you're at it, for 'realism' why not have him knock up his girl & get a job under the table to avoid paying child support? Jeesh.

Since the Nook has a built in MP3 player and access to Barnes & Noble's inventory, here's a little idea. Wouldn't it make a whole heapin' helping of sense for a user to be able to purchase and download music or whole albums to their Nook?

In retrospect, the day seem like a waste. After a morning spent on the NFL draft I dropped Lu off at a bday party, bought some soda, then returned home to watch a) Bucks-Hawks b)Lakers-Thunder c) bits of STL-SF (MLB) and d) an all-new Doctor Who. YaYa did watch Dr. Who w/ me, so I suppose that counts as 'bonding'. That salvages part of the day, right?

[re: Hawking's warning against contacting aliens] I would agree that it's short-sighted and dangerous to seek out a species w/ technology far more advanced than our own. Life isn't Star Trek. But that's not going to stop people from trying.

APRIL 25TH

‎"It's always a big day tomorrow. We've got a time machine. I skip the little ones." - Matt Smith's Doctor

[re: The Dr. Who episode "The Beast Below"] I have to revise my opinion of the episode. I missed some of Soffat's subtlety yest., and on a second viewing it really develops Smith's portrayal while telling you something about the Doctor himself. Matt Smith's quite good; more of a 'Old Soul' than Tennant, but with a dry and enjoyable sense of humor. I like him. I'm not digging his sonic screwdriver tho', or the high varnish look of the Tardis exterior.

Ladies, if your Facebook status is "It's Complicated" it's really not. It's simple, you have a sh*tty boyfriend/ husband, and you're co-dependent.

I think the joke [an allegedly anti-Semitic joke by National Security Advisor James Jones) is pretty funny. Common sense says there was no intent to malign Jews, since it was told in front of a pro-Israel group. There is a serious f*ing lack of humor in the world today; it's PC this, PC that. The Obama administration has been less than grand to Israel and they deserve criticism for that; but as for this joke - what the f* ever.

APRIL 27TH

The word I can never, ever seem to spell correctly: convenient

Productive day off so far. Wrote & submitted a piece to the Journal, spent some time w/ Lisa, took Ginger w/ me to Home Depot, just got done patching some cracks in our sidewalk and . . .well, sh**, I don't know the construction vocab: redoing a 3x3 square of 100 year old concrete that had cracked and caved in. Now, pending a disaster in the drying process, it looks as good as new. [fingers crossed]

Marriage resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they can't be separated; often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing anyone who comes between them." - (Adam Smith) I used this quote in the best man toast at my sister's wedding.

YaYa and I had an argument this afternoon that matched one I had with my parents almost thirty years ago. Subject matter, volume, regrettable angry statements, you name it - it was eerily word for word at points. Afterwards she lost the glasses she's had for ONE day (found them later). We're good now but sh*t. That was depressing. On the plus side, the column I wrote this morning was accepted by the Journal.

AI was surprisingly good, wasn't it? From what we saw (we missed Mike's song) the weakest performance was Bowersox, and she wasn't 'bad' at all. There may yet be hope this season. OTOH, DWTS minus Kate just wasn't worth it. We fast forward-ed (sp?) it this week. Sigh. Maybe if Edyta was still on the show . . .

i Lisa watched today's Oprah on the DVR. In one segment a woman was happy to say she'd signed Oprah's ridiculous "contract" to ban cell phone use in a car (even w/ hands-free sets). How did the viewer break her 'habit'? Why, by cranking up the volume on her radio to eleven and singing along as she drove. Because THAT isn't more distracting than carrying on a conversation.

APRIL 28th

My latest column will appear in tomorrow's Journal-Sentinel. I'll post this again later just to be obnoxious, but you've been warned - buy one!

APRIL 29TH

We sent Lu to school today in her full Daisy Scout uniform. An hour later she called us from the office; there is no Daisy meeting today and she sticks out like a sore thumb. Oops. It's certainly not our worst error tho'. A couple of years back we sent both girls to school dressed to the 9's for Pajama Day and, well, I think you can see where this story is going :)

If you do the things you need to do when you need to do them, then someday you can do the things you want to do when you want to do them

Just finished putting a new (well, 'new to us') storm door on the back door. Now if only I'd remembered to buy a closer for it . . .

C'mon really?? This week the UN elected Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women, handing a four-year seat on the influential human rights body to a theocratic state in which stoning is enshrined in law and lashings are required for women judged "immodest." What a world.

APRIL 30TH

Richard Dawson on Match Game '74: "[Brett Summers] doesn't drink as much as she did. We slowed her down - we bent her funnel."

Saigon fell 35 years ago today.