Published writer, compulsive reader, Old School Whovian, Match Game enthusiast, NKOTB fan, data hoarder, and - surprisingly, given that list - married with four kids. Welcome to my take on life, fatherhood, entertainment, and whatever strikes my fancy. Enjoy!
Here's the first slew of photos from a professional shoot at a local Target store. We usually venture to a family member's studio for our pics, but we had a great deal tossed at us by the store and took a chance with Baby's 6 month shots.
If you don't mind my saying, they turned out great! What a beautiful kid - man my genes rock ;)
True Conversation between me and C.:
Me: "Today's the anniversary of the day I met Lisa."
C: "I know"
Me: "How do you know?"
C: "I read it on your site this morning"
Me (surprised): "You read Slapinions?"
C: "Yeah"
Me: "How often?"
C: "I don't know. Once every other day maybe."
Me (shocked): "How come you never comment?"
C: "Why should I?"
Me: "So I don't feel like some loser talking to himself. . .you know, so I know someone actually reads it."
C: "Well . . I just told you I read it, so . . now you know."
It was closed, and I found out later it was the first and only time in a decade they'd been forced to shut their doors because of staff call-ins.
So we wound up at George Webb's on 47th and Forest Home (for you non-Wisconsinites, Webb's is the hometown equivalent of a Waffle House). The waitress was spouting your typical "I love Clinton" Democrat B.S.
Thus, I ignored her.
My only real interaction with the woman was a brief dialogue about breakfast sausage. I wanted links, they only had patties. Such is the level of debate at a coffee house at 3 a.m.
Somehow the waitress wormed her way into our conversation, and almost without realizing it, I began flirting with her. At one point we discussed music and I mentioned I loved big bands.
"I love them too," she said.
"Well, then I'm just going to have to marry you," I said.
Now as it happens just a few days before I'd been lamenting my bachelorhood - by that I mean my suffocating loneliness - with Erv and the sarcastic S.O.B. had actually had me sign a statement saying I would never meet anyone.
Keep in mind at the time, while blessed with the full and lush hair of a god, I was greatly overweight, clothed in a black sweatshirt and plain jeans, ugly sneakers, made $4.50/hr while going to school full time, and had severe plumbers crack.
[That last part never has changed. Consistency is the key to happiness my friends, the key!]
Erv mentioned this contract in passing to the waitress, and when the bill arrived so did this note:
I was floored. "What should I do?" I asked Erv.
"Leave a bigger tip," he said.
So I wrote back.
I went home, she called me and we went out . . to a different Webb's. I was still full but she hadn't eaten so she ordered breakfast. I said all of 5 words during the meal and was regretting the whole disaster.
"I don't know what's wrong with you," she said all po'd, " but when I'm done with breakfast I'll take you home and forget this ever happened."
Fine by me. Then for some reason this . . this . . Democrat across the table called my beloved Gov. Tommy Thompson a drunk.
No one goes after my Tommy.
So I began to debate her, and after a good half hour or so she asked if I wanted to go with her to get a car wash. I did, and she also stopped home to show me some books she'd just ordered from Book of The Month, hoping to impress my nerdom (it did).
We parked by a local park and talked for awhile, and I remember having to hold this little boombox because she'd bought the car without an installed radio and still hadn't found the funds to purchase one.
Honestly, my clearest memory of the talk was the way her chest pushed out as she spoke with her back to the door.
{D-D-D Diva she used to say, joking about her cup size}
That was when we had our first hug. A few hours later we went to see Higher Learning and had our first kiss.
All in all, our first date lasted 10 hours or so.
I was home for about an hour before she called me. Later that night, after a short nap, I called her and we went out again, this time spending some time at the lakefront and coming home at dawn.
A few days later I spent the night in her dorm room, listening to Billy Joel, playing Skipbo, and making out. She'd cut her hair short and dyed it red because she knew both made me crazy, and in return I'd made a failed effort to pull up the back of my pants.
And no, sadly we didn't *ahem* just yet.
On the way home the next morning we got into a fender bender with her brand new car, and Lis was shaken up. At the time I didn't know how to drive stick so her Mom came to pick us up.
"You should see a doctor, your neck is all bruised," she said to me with concern.
Yeah, uh, not actually from the accident, but thank you :) .
That was how I met my mother-in-law.
After some bumpy patches and drama I proposed on Christmas day, on one knee at the lakefront by Sheridan park, and we were married the next October.
We still have both notes, obviously, and at least once a week Lis wears the shirt I wore that day to bed, now thin and full of holes. In 13 years she has yet to listen to a single big band tune and could not, for the life of her, tell me the difference between Glen Miller and Barney Miller.
Without question, February 22nd remains one of the most pivotal and important dates in my life, if not the most.
Love you Lis, and happy anniversary!
*** Spoilers Ahead * * *
Ok, there wasn't a darn thing wrong with this episode, but it was still a downer for me. Why? Because everything that was revealed, save some incidental trivia, I saw coming from the start.
I can do that with most movies and TV episodes, just turn to Lisa 10 minutes into it and say "You know Lex is really his long lost twin brother from Bulgaria, right?"
But with Lost that usually goes out the window. There's too many plot threads, too many characters, too many sleight of hand twists for me to see the road ahead.
Except tonight.
It's established that Kate has a son. There's incidental hints on the island that she's pregnant, but it has the aura of white noise to distract the viewer. In the flashforwards you hear about her son, you discuss her son, you see how important he is to Kate, BUT . .
But the show never a) never shows him during these scenes, setting up his 'reveal' to be a shock to the viewer. Ok, well, that could mean anything. Maybe he's a Ben look-a-like, maybe he's deformed because of the islands effect on pregnancy, who knows. But then b) they never, not once, refer to him by name.
To me that was the clincher. Why not name the kid? There were other possibilities, but in my head I saw it like the star over Bethlehem: the only Caucasian child we are aware of it Aaron; therefore the writers are trying their best to disguise his identity until the end of the episode.
And at that very momentI said "Dang, I wish I was blogging live about this. No one is going to believe me afterwards."
And lo and behold, it's Aaron.
So what did we learn tonight, other than that I'm a doggone psychic?
* First, we learn that Kate successfully, miraculously really, officially escapes her criminal past after the island. We can assume that the person she had to get back to in the season 3 finale was Aaron. We know that this particular flash-forward can take place no later than, say, 2010, judging by Aaron's age.
That last point is more meaningful than you'd think. Aaron is all of perhaps three months old in the 'current' Losties timeline. I don't think it took 5 years for the criminal justice system to try Kate's case. So where did the other 4 years or so go? Could it be their rescue really isn't at hand?
UPDATE: As you can tell from the picture I misjudged his age on first viewing. He's three, maybe four at most, so it could conceivably be 2008 in the timeline.
* Jack is still in love with Kate in future/present, and she appears more than willing to reciprocate, so we can tentatively presume Sawyer and Juliet are no longer players in the game.
* What is Jack's problem with Aaron? Does he feel guilt over an (as yet unrevealed) loss of Claire, does he resent Aaron for a costly decision his existence forced on Jack, or is Aaron truly an agent of doom, as the psychic appeared to forecast before the flight, and Jack is uneasy around him?
* We learn that in the 'official' version of the crash Kate is a hero, saving the group from starvation and danger. That means that everyone among the Six was willing to recite the lie, giving credit to the idea that the Six doesn't include anyone at odds with Kate (as John is at the moment).
* The story also mentions that eight folks survived the crash but that two later perished. What's the rationale for including two fatalities after the fact? Was some evidence left behind of two survivors (Michael and Walt?) that couldn't be explained away except by including their (temporary) survival in the tale?
* On the island Johnis still playing Colonel Kurtz and without outside direction from 'the island' he's falling apart. The whole slamming doors/throwing trays bit gets a bit old, dontcha think John? And the grenade in the mouth? Cukoo.
* As for Ben, well, he's still hard at work manipulating the world (wouldn't that tire a fella out after a few decades?) and if we are to believe Miles, he's wealthy, powerful, and at odds with someone of equal? wealth and power who wants him dead.
I like Ben tho', he's grown on me.
* In other news the Kate/Sawyer bed me/wed me saga continues.
Strong hints of a Kate pregnancy. As I stated earlier I dismissed them as white noise, and Kate herself says sot in the episode, but I don't quite believe her. I think her desire to escape the island at all costs, despite her status as a fugitive, is because she fears the islands well known affect on fetuses.
So in that plotline, she would eventually have to lose her own baby and be granted/take guardianship over Aaron as her own.
We'll see.
Trivia:
-Loved Hurley's "you just scooby-dooed me didn't' you?" line
-I noticed the episode began with a closeup of Locke's eye, a typical Lost beginning, but it was an awfully quick shot.
- The book Locke gave Ben was by Phillip K. Dick, but I didn't catch the title, I just recognized the cover style. Significance?
- I didn't notice the title or author of Sawyer's reading material. Again, significance?
As usual, a great way to spend an hour in the evening.
I am perilously close to finishing another book review to submit for publication, in addition to an article for an industry trade magazine. There's also a writing contest offered by the local newspaper I intend to give a go, and I'm going to redo my submission packet and try again to get my book published.
In other words, even if all of the above wind up in failure, it'll be the most serious effort to date in my quest to get published. There's an honest chance this next month might produce more rejection letters than in the last 5 years combined.
But all you need is one 'yes' . . .
Anyhow, I'm going to plop some of that stuff on here, and some posts about a philosophical discussion that recently took place, and possibly a piece of short fiction, and the election of course, etc. etc.
Diarrhea of the keyboard is what it is folks.
{oh, yeah, one thing: that 'blank' entry of awhile back was intentional. It's now the (very) rough draft of a new blogroll, and I'm linking to it on the sidebar}
But before all of that, I'd like to journey back to 2007 for another family pictorial, this time to a family trip to Stonefire Pizza in late summer. Why post it now? Lis plans on taking them there again tomorrow.
Correction, it had to be early summer: Lisa was obviously in her last trimester and Smiley looked awfully young.
I'm going to skip the creative retelling of exactly what/where the place is, and blatantly steal from their website. I figure since it's advertising (in a way) they shouldn't complain too much.
"The 37,000 square foot center seats 460 people in four differently themed dining rooms in its all-you-can eat buffet area:
Additionally, there are eight private birthday rooms. Including the party rooms, there is total seating for over 620 people. The family entertainment area occupies half of the center and features bumper cars, a Bouldering wall, a three-level interactive foam ball play Ballocity unit, four lanes of mini-bowling, a children’s Frog Hopper ride, 90 redemption and ride-simulator games and a redemption prize store.
The all-you-can-eat buffet features an extensive selection of foods, including a salad bar, soups, 16 different pizza selections, Asian and Italian foods, a children’s buffet area, desserts and an extensive selection of drinks."
Cliffnotes version: It's a bigger, more upscale Chuck E Cheese.
I kind of got shafted on the fees on the way in. I paid for a lot of upgrades that turned out to be unnecessary, but live and learn. [it was also jam packed, setting off the worst of my 'get a head count of the kids!' paranoia, but I will go no further with that because I stand by my mantra: this isn't a medical blog ;)]
We ate in the Discovery Play room, where the kids donned aprons to play with water toys on a long table
Then they painted their faces
The food was OK but nothing to write home about (better than Chuck E Cheese, tho', and I dig Chuck E's pizza). For once Smiley seemed a bit annoyed, at least for the camera
But soon enough we were off to play again. We split up, with Lis taking the girls and Smiley and I taking up residence in a room devoted to a large set of play tunnels.
The girl on the left in the following pics is one of YaYa's best friends, and since the time of these pics the girls Mom and Lis have become quite close, and her Dad is the guy who helped me tear down my friends shed in the fall. I'd forgotten they were there that day, as we ran into them purely on accident.
Lu rode the merry-go-round
Smiley and his Pops hung out together, since he was too small for the rides
YaYa tried her hand at the bumper cars
and then both girls rode the Hopper, again and again.
There's a rock wall there, and I don't think YaYa quite met the height requirement, and I know her footwear was against the rules, but a few words to the kid in charge and she was off to the races
the family watched spellbound
Video of this exists too, but I'll spare you that :)
As the day ended and closing time neared the place cleared out and Lu set up shop in the pretend pizza shop
I really like this shot:
There was a whole room devoted just to giant Lego-type blocks, and Smiley and I spent quite awhile there, right up to closing.
at close this one poor kid was put in charge of picking and stacking all the blocks -hundreds of them - and out of sympathy the family stayed and helped for a few minutes
By the time we walked out the kids were ready for bed. It turned out to be a pretty enjoyable time!
On Monday YaYa came home and said she needed a Donkey mask for school, for reasons I either forget or never knew in the first place. And no, it wasn't a political project for the following days primary, since the due date was actually Wedneday.
Lis stepped in and took over the project, which in the end ticked YaYa off, but let's be frank; the mask ROCKED :)
For the record, yes, 'only' between .5 and 1.9 inches of rain fell on parts of Milwaukee on Sunday, but again - the ground was both saturated and frozen, and the storm sewers were in many cases covered by snow. Water piled up, and it piled up in depth. Here's a pic from the next day's Journal-Sentinel.
So I got home, changed my clothes, tried in vain to dry my boots, and headed out the door. Our plan was to take the van, but just in case things prove too rough, I had cash on me for the bus.
Eureka! As I crossed the threshold I remembered hand warmers I had left over from my trip to see the '05 Inauguration. I'd seen them only the day before, in the basement bathroom. I went downstairs to grab them . . and naturally, there was water in my basement.
My freshly rebuilt for $15,000 in 2007 basement.
There wasn't a lot of water, to be honest, certainly nothing 'measurable'. It looked like someone had taken a bucket of water and spilled it across the room. Most had apparently come up through the storm sewer, while in the northwest corner water had either risen through a crack in the floor or come in from the where the new walls met the original 1891 brick foundation. It was certainly an atypical situation.
Still, not good.
But I didn't have time to deal with it, not if I wanted to make the show. And what could I have done at that moment anyhow?
I went out and joined the family in the van and, while the water had receded, the roads were still bad enough that we abandoned it at a local McDonalds and crossed the street to the bus stop.
The bus came within minutes, and it was only $5 for all of us to head downtown. (LuLu rode free).
Lu sat with me (quite the Daddy's girl lately) while Lis sat with her young protege. It was a one shot, easy-peezy ride on a clean and friendly bus, a rarity, but a pleasant one. Only one cukoo drunk, and he was on and off the bus within a minute!
Once we got downtown it was a mere one block walk to the theater (albeit across an ice sheet) and we hunkered down and had our lunch in one of the doorways before venturing inside.
A quick pickup of some booster seats, a snack of some roasted cashews, the obligatory purchase of a magnet with the show's logo (to join Annie and A Chorus Line - no idea what happened to 42nd Street's) and it was on to a rough 20 minute wait to be allowed in the theater proper.
The kids did alright for themselves, but it got rough when we faced an additional 30 minute wait in our seats. Crying, whining, YaYa cracking her head on the back of her seat, a tall woman sitting smack dab in front of LuLu . . wow.
[pointless aside: We had four of 5 seats in a balcony row on the right side of the theater (as you faced the stage - is that Stage Left or Stage right?) and we were happy to have the 5th seat as a catch-all for our belongings.
Then right before the musical began the usher brings a woman over to claim the 5th seat, the farthest from the aisle.
"Hmmm.. . Why don't you just take the aisle seat and these folks will move down a bit," the usher VOLUNTEERED to the woman.
"Howabout you don't give away the seat I PAID for?" I roared.
If the woman - who was nice, as it turns out - was cursed enough to be stuck in the corner beside four Slapinions, OFW.]
Back to the kids. They were awful in the moments leading up to the show and Lisa was already saying that she regretted taking them. I would normally have completely agreed, but I had a gut feeling things would turn out OK once the lights went down.
And they were.
Once the show started there was not another peep from YaYa, the theater vet, and while LuLu kept up a steady stream of whispered questions to me (is dat Scar? What kind of animal is dat? Is Musafa dead?) she stayed interested and calm.
Frankly, the biggest disruption came from yours truly. With five minutes before intermission my bladder had all it could take and I had to have the family get up and move into the aisle to let me pass.
The ride home was quick and smooth, with Lu again sitting beside me and getting the chance to pull the 'stop cord' (YaYa having done so on the way out) and soon enough we were home.
I mopped the basement, Lisa baked cookies for the kids, and we all had a peaceful night.
Not a bad way to spend a Sunday, all things considered.
[So how was the musical?
The show was strong and the costuming and scenery absolutely masterful. Do I think it's the greatest show ever? No. It was a bit too reliant on visuals, the additional songs were no vast improvement on the movie, and (in the touring production at least) some of the vocals were weaker than I expected.
I also think it suffers from the typical Disney plot development issues - lots of conflict build-up and characterization followed by an abrupt and simplistic resolution to the problem.
But I will say this: when Simba began to ascend the mountain to assume his reign as king I had literal shivers of pride down my back.
Overall, a heck of a show and something I'm glad Lis paid for the family to see. ]
Truly a day that will long be remembered by history.
First, time manages to do what the generations of Americans could not: after nearly 50 years in power, Fidel Castro has resigned as President of Cuba. In the long run, with a little luck, it'll shift Cuba back into the brotherhood of democratic nations. (I wouldn't mind seeing Havana myself).
Short term, with Fidel still alive and his brother Raul due to take charge, I don't think it makes any difference at all.
* * *
In slightly less historic news, the VHS/Beta- like battle of this decade is over. Blu-Ray has taken the gold as Toshiba conceded the contest by abandoning their HD DVD technology.
I don't have either, so it matters little to me at the moment, but I do take issue with any technology called 'Blu-Ray'. It sounds like a marketing slogan, not the legitimate name of what will become mainstream technology.
* * * Political Commentary - Enter at your Own Risk * * *
And then of course, the Presidential Primary is taking place today here in Wisconsin. In just a few hours Lis and I will take the kids along and vote. Here's the historic part: for the first time EVER, I'll cast a vote for a Democratic Presidential candidate.
[Please, no tears - I still intend to vote for McCain in the fall. All misgivings aside, I'm not willing to disregard the - and forgive me for being hokey- the will of the people and vote against the GOP's nominee just out of spite. If kosher reasons emerge - and they may well do so - he'll lose my vote. But again, not out of spite.]
With the Republican nomination sewn up I'm free to vote for whoever I like. A wise strategy would be to carefully consider who would be the biggest threat to a GOP victory and cast a vote to try and block that threat.
I'm not going to do that. For reasons I may go over in detail later, I think the GOP (surprisingly) has a decent chance against either Democratic candidate.
No, I'm going to vote for (gasp!) Hilary Clinton because in the event of a GOP loss, I think she would far and away be the most responsible, less dangerous option to govern the country.
To me, it'd be the difference between a President I disagreed with politically but who acted in the best interests of the nation (Clinton), and a President that I disagreed with politically but acted, despite his own good intentions, in a manner that would place this nation in jeopardy domestically and abroad (Obama).
Sure, write it off as B.S. Say that I really am voting to protect the GOP candidate, or that I'm a white guy voting against Obama's color. I counter by saying a categorical 'no' to both. For the record, while race plays a part in a good many things in this world, the only time race has played a role in this election is when Barrack Hussein Obama earns empty votes solely because of his heritage.
I have seen and heard nothing to disuade me from the belief that Obama is anything more than a pretty face with an excellent ability to personalize the great words of his speech writers. He promises a lot, but I don't see any evidence that the can meet even a quarter of those empty words, nor any evidence he honestly expects to be held to that standard
I think, as I said before, that while he may or may not possess Jimmy Carter's sincere desire to do 'good', Obama is nothing more than Carter redux, packaged with all the flair of a modern JFK.
There are a good many more words to say on the subject, and I'm sure I'll get around to them in time.
Hilary Clinton earns my vote, and I hope yours too.
I love baby food.
It's not just a cute opening line, it happens to be the truth. Mix up some rice cereal with a touch of soy formula and maybe the odd hint of mango juice and booya!. I wind up eating more of it than the kid - and in fact, I'm often asked to finish off the bowl.
It's better than Mickey D's baby!
I mention this because we are finally begining to get Baby into the swing of eating solids. For awhile she was good with experimenting with it, then went through this long period where she turned up her nose at cereal.
Now, it's chomp chomp. Oh, her first tooth cracked the surface too - yesterday the bottom middle tooth, sorta/kinda on the right side, broke through. About time I say.
Meanwhile Smiley is down with a double ear infection. I thought the ear tubes were going to prevent this sort of thing but here we go again. It tears me up thinking about all the days that boy has lived in a world of hushed and muted sounds. His speech still isn't up to par and while we have that big panel evaluation scheduled for March 5th we've yet to hear back on when his first psych examinations will take place.
And I'm worried.
Today I put on a DVD for him and left the room to go change the wash, then do this or that. I could see him sitting quietly on the chair, staring at the TV. No big deal, not in America at least. But when I finally went back in the living room I noticed the DVD had never advanced past the 'menu' screen.
He'd been staring intently at the same static picture for ten minutes.
That frightens me.
So does his seemingly random mental departure for parts unknown. He can understand complex directions and sometimes even anticipate your request. . .and then there are times when you hand him some pajama's and say 'put them in your dresser'', even point to reinforce the idea, and he goes and puts them in the corner of the room or in the linen cupboard, sincere as all can be that he did what you asked.
He is my only son, the last of my name, and in my heart of hearts I think something is wrong, and the knowledge is tearing me up.
Oh, and get this - the doc also says he has ringworm on his hip!?? Despite what I thought it isn't an actual worm/animal/insect, but a bacterial growth. In fact, his prescribed medicine, which we dilegently picked up from the pharmacist, turned out to be nothing more than a package of athelete's foot cream with a prescription label slapped on for twice the cost of the same thing two aisles down.
For an ox that boy sure can ring up the doctor bills.
* * *
On the way to the doc Lisa lost control of the van for a second and slammed into a snowbank. Luckily no one was hurt and there was no mechanical/structural damage to the van, but the bumper is cracked and the grill knocked in. It could've been a lot worse.
It got me thinking about YaYa's time in K5. She went on a field trip to the museum with her class and when she came home I asked her how the trip went.
"Fine," she said, " 'cept for hitting that car on the freeway"
Yup - her school bus had hit another car on the freeway, tossing several kids around and leaving the class marooned on the bus for two hours while the police and emergency services sized up the scene.
Again, no one hurt beyond the odd and random bruise, at least on the bus (I think the same for the car, as I have the impression it was a glorified, if significant, fender bender). Still, we were we furious! My kindergartner gets into an accident on the freeway and she's the one who breaks the news to us?
Can you believe that??
In closing I want to point out how proud I am that we have yet another baby that's a fan of mango juice (mixed in with cereal at this point - the older kids drink it straight).
When YaYa was an infant our Pakistian neighbors (the same ones who once shared a dish of goat with me) were insistent that she be exposed to mango, which at the time seemed very exotic and foreign to me. She loved it so much she eventually came to be known as 'Mango Baby' (or more phonetically 'maaango babee!')
It's nice to have that quirky preference hold out through all four of my kids.
I was very happy to see the following letter in my email box this afternoon:
Dan,
You won an award in my journal today... CONGRATULATIONS!!! Come pick it up! Good job!! Hugs, Val xox
Whatdaya know? I won the Weekly Sentence with Val! (one of two winning entries)! Hot dog!
Update: with her permission, here's an email exchange with Val:
What a Valentine's Day present. Today, a week after ordering them, YaYa picked up her ever first pair of glasses.
Honestly I like them a lot more than when we picked them out. It turned out that Lisa did veto the pair YaYa and I had picked out, correctly saying they were too wide for her face.
I didn't like this pair but wisely shut my mouth, and as usual, I was right :) They look great.
Having had glasses myself in 1st grade I figure she'll break this pair soon enough, but with luck it'll be just an arm and quickly repairable.
Here's a short video of YaYa discussing the glasses (admittedly taken in part because she was still harping about Lu's video the other day.) Enjoy!
Note: I haven't a clue how to rotate the film, and I'm not sure why it came out like that in the first place. Any ideas?
