Happy Birthday Mom - here's a surprise for you

                            

Today is my Mom's 61st Birthday, and I wish her health, happiness, and another quarter century of the same.

As a small present to her I'm going to post some pictures of her 60th birthday party. They've asked for copies of these forever, but I'd misfiled them on my computer and only recently discovered them. To prove I put some thought into this, I loaded them a few weeks back in preparation for this post.

A word of warning to family: I'm sure I'll mislabel some of the pictures. If you find a mistake don't be a jerk and make a show of it; just drop me an email and I'll correct them within reason.  And yeah, it was my camera, so there's gonna be a lot of pictures of my family. No apologies for that.

And now, on with the show!

I would imagine the next two need no caption

Note the pony in the picture on the table? Back in the '50's a man came through the neighborhood offering pony rides for a fee and my Mom took him up on the offer. My grandma's in the other shot. She passed away the year prior. Still, 59 years with your Mom - not a bad run.

That's my Mom seated with my Great Aunt Mabel, who's talking to my second/third? cousin Brian. My Dad stands in the background and my niece Stacey is by the door. Not sure who the other folk are.

The hottie on the right is Lisa; to her left my Great Aunt Mamie's daughter Rosie (whew!) and her boyfriend, my cousin Pam Brown, my Mom's god-daughter and her life partner.

This my maternal Grandfather's nephew and his wife. I sat with them for awhile.

You know, come to think of it Lisa was FIVE months pregnant at the party. I'm not sure who this gentleman is.

Let's see who's new in this one . .the priest, obviously. I think he's from St. John Kanty. The man with the coat in his hands is my Godmother's son Brian.  I remember playing Matchbox cars with him in the waiting room when his sister was born 25+ years ago. My niece Caitlin stands with her back to the camera.

An overview of the room at some point. LuLu stands to the right of the foreground, my Mom's friends son Max to the left.

You should know who these two are by now: Aunt Mabel and Brian. My father and Uncle George, the photographer of the Danny pics of 3/19, stands next to him.Note the studmuffin at the table in the left background. Next to me is my cousin Pon, who's a go-to guy in my maintenance department. When something breaks around the house, be it a pipe or one of the kids toy's, they say "maybe Pon can fix it".

The lady who's second to the left is my Grandmother's best friend of 70+ years, Gertie. Not sure of the rest.

Gosh these kids are cute. Whoever bred to make them must be spectactular . . oh, wait. They're mine!

Linda,my Mom's friend/mother of Max, and my sister Chrissy.

Yeeeeeeaaaahhhhh . . no clue.

Gertie and Mabel again . . Gertie's late husband Vern lost an eye to the Japanese in the war, something I always found fascinating. Vern, I'd imagine, found it less entertaining.  

My sister Katie with my Dad's side of the family. R-L Katie, Great Aunt Diane, her daughter Doris, and one of my Dad's cousins.

Same table, better light. My mother-in-law sits on the right.

Two shots of my Mom with all her godchildren. That's Linda's kid Anna on her lap, my cousin Becky, Pon's wife, to the left. You've met the rest.

My Mom opening her gifts.

Some random hot pregnant chick.

After the party we tore down the tables and chairs and chatted for awhile. The kids practiced gymnastics, and with some prompting Lisa completed a pregnancy ritual: as with all her pregnancies, she did some cartwheels. I think I tried/did? get some video of the act, but no still pictures.

This next one isn't even from the party, but I had thought it was, until I recognized the background. It's still cute.

I hate to end of a sour note, but before it was over we had an infamous accident. LuLu somehow gouged the back of her heel and it bled profusely and consistently. She nearly required stiches and soaked through bandages for a few days. She still remembers it too, referencing it out of the blue whenever injured.

Still a fun party and well deserved.

Bouncing back to the present - Happy 61st birthday Mom and many more! I love you!

 

Tags: Mom

The Mist, Jumper, and Shooting an Elephant in Burma with George Orwell

You might remember that I read Stephen King's 'The Mist' earlier this year and expressed dismay with the ambiguous ending. Tonight the Mrs. and I watched the movie version.

It was unusually faithful to the original novella for much of the movie but had a few twists and turns of its own, mostly for the best. It got rid of the out of character sexual tryst between the (married) male lead a woman he just met (as his wife was dying/dead).  It kept the military as the 'cause' of the Mist, but removed some objectionable comments  that King, as a child of the '60's, wrote about the soldiers and their death. And of course it elaborated on the ending.

Oh, about that ending . . wow. What a disturbingly dark, harsh way to end a film. I'm truly at a loss for words. It was a logical and organic extrapolation of what happened at the close of the book, but you lose your breath and walk away . . . disturbed.

Huh. 'Organic' and 'extrapolation' in the same sentence. Aint that a peach.

Two thumbs up, but don't see it if you're depressed when you walk in the door. You're not going to feel better after this one.

* * *  *

The Mist spoiler: this morning I thought back and realized the end might have a deeper meaning. Mrs. Carmody spoke of needing to sacrifice the boy, like Abraham and Isaac, or Jesus and his Father, to end the horror. His Dad kills (sacrifices) him and moments later we learn the invasion is vanquished.

And let's not forget Carmody dying with arms outstretched, like someone else we know.

The book and movie both take care to paint Carmody as a kook, and rightfully so, but in retrospect the ending *could* be construed to validate her preaching.

* * * *

I also saw Jumper lately.

 

A mindless but enjoyable romp with only about a 1000 different plot holes. As a matter of fact on IMDB.com there's a hilarious thread listing the top 100 flaws in the movie.

A sampling: the fact that a public restroom is located right next to the bank vault, enabling the robbery; that 'jumpers' are mortal and can be killed with knives and guns but not when exposed to thousands of volts of electricity; that he's allowed to fly overseas with a backpack full of cash that no one finds suspicious, and that his girlfriend, who has never left her hometown, apparently has a passport at home because she flies to Italy with him on the spur of the moment.

After seeing the movie I went and picked up a copy of the novel that the movie was (loosely) based on.

It's a completely different experience, with different characters, plot lines, and philosophies. Enjoyable and recommended, with a few caveats.

One, author Steven Gould uses the novel as a sounding board against American foreign policy circa 1987, the time the book was written.

To paraphrase: Israelis are equal to terrorists because they 'shoot Palestinian children', the Beirut bombing of the U.S. Marines was reasonable because they were 'occupying their homeland', the idea of encouraging the Iran-Iraq war was abhorrent, etc.. Oh, and don't forget the half page devoted to reminding the American lead that 'not all Muslims' are terrorists, because, you know, all Americans are ignorant asses that think that way.

He's entitled to his opinions, but I thought it was tossed in as extraneous and preachy dialogue.

Which leads to flaw number two: the main character suffers a horrendous loss at the hands of a terrorist. He resolves to track them down and bring them to justice, and at the same time rescue hostages from their murderous captors. While doing so he refuses to even contribute to the accidental death of a terrorist. For instance he interrupts the (life or death) rescue of dozens of innocents to toss floatation devices to a gun wielding madman struggling in the water.

Not that I don't think it noble and all, in a GI Joe 'shoot 'em but no one gets hurt' way, but it strikes me as very unrealistic, especially given the loss that establishes the plot line.

[note: there is one scene made horrific by the events of 9/11. He takes a terrorist to the World Trade Center and jumps off with him, then teleports them both away before impact. The irony of using that horrifying fall as a punishment for a terrorist sticks with you]

Third, his girlfriend is haughty and full of psycho-babble. It was like (Robert B. Parker's) Susan Silverman was tossed in for good measure.

Good grief, I have enough of her in the Spenser novels.

 Still, a good fine read.

* * * *

World Traveler brought me a copy of George Orwell's Shooting an Elephant. It's a tidy little essay of his own experiences as a solider in Burma and how he came to loathe the very empire he served.

It was obviously a life-changing event for him, and carried all sorts of political and philosophical baggage. But what struck me deeply was the ease and simplicity of Orwell's prose, and the raw honesty in which he expresses his opinions, regardless of whether they fit neatly into the notions of right, left, or center.

With one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny, as something clamped down . . ., upon the will of prostrate peoples; with another part I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest's guts.

The quote above should really be read in context, and I apologize for shortchanging my readers and Orwell. Go ahead and read the (short) essay. You'll come away with new respect for what Orwell could do with a blank sheet of paper.

Tags: Jumper, The Mist, George Orwell

'Me and Dad' by YaYa

A week ago Monday I spent the evening with YaYa.

With Lisa gone at work or dance four nights a week, the hours of 4 until bedtime belong to me and the kids.  It's made me a better Dad, I can tell you that much, and its allowed me to get to know my children better, both the good and the bad. 

But familiarity breeds contempt, and on that Monday night I caught myself more than content to wile (sp?) away the night at the keyboard while YaYa watched TV in the living room.

And I thought to myself, well, this is one of those wasted moments I'll regret down the road. So I asked her if she wanted to do something.

To my chagrin, she jumped at the chance.

We played dominoes, she lost interest, and we lined them up and knocked them all over, which in the end is the best use for them anyway.

Then she asked if I wanted to work on a book with her. Sure, I said. She wrote the text and did the pictures, I did the coloring.

I'm not very good at coloring.

It was about watching the movie Enchanted, which the whole family adored, although we did not watch it that night, as YaYa wrote.

 

She was quite proud of it in the end, and wanted me to have it bound. Instead, I present it here online.

[please note: I have no intention of flooding you with her work, but I will occasionally post it on Slapinions out of sheer pride. Please note that she was a bit embarrassed that I posted the Fary story, primarily because of her spelling.

In retrospect I think I shortchanged her and that it might have been written months ago. Her spelling tests have all come back with 100%, all of them, and many of the words in this text were written without my help]

I drew the hand on this one:

This one's cheating: I drew the tub and the printing . .  and the coloring. So in other words, I did this one by my lonesome. Quality like this is what prevents me from writing for a living.

Tags: YaYa, Enchanted

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NKOTB on NBC's Today

Well that was a whole lot of hype for nothing. All that for a few minutes of an interview drowned out by screaming fans, no performance . . just the announcement of a May 16th performance on Today, a summer album release, and a fall tour.                                          

                     

Lisa pointed out that during the first segment Jon looked shaky and uncomfortable (remember, he now suffers from severe panic attacks) and that Donnie screened him from the cameras as often as possible.

Naturally, Donnie did most of the talking :) Odd, he's without question the most successful of them post NKOTB (The Sixth Sense, Band of Brothers, the Saw franchise) and yet he's the most eager to reunite.

I guess he really did love performing.

              

Ok, on to May . . I've already taken myself off the work calendar for that day.

Not on AOL/AIM? Comment here

Tags: NKOTB

Prettey Farys by YaYa

This is a 'book' YaYa wrote in February or March. As I've mentioned before, she routinely writes stories in her notebook, usually while laying in bed and ignoring our orders to go to sleep.

The irregular spelling can largely be traced to (well, her age) and the fact that her school stresses phonics over correct spelling until 2nd grade. Following each page I'll provide a translation when needed.

Chapters: Out at the Park, Pretty as can be, and ???

One day I was invited to the ball! And my name is Gem! But I was a maid. My owner said too bad so sad.

No one would believe me, but I saw [a] fairy.

The fairy I see (saw?) has a cat.

The fairy said you can go to the ball. But only until midnight.

No, I completely agree. She so totally left it open for a sequel.

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The MP3 player is up and running, and so is the cost of my cable

                                     

Happy 34th Birthday to my long-time friend Erv. I doubt he's ever  been to this site, but what the heck, this is still cheaper than a card and filled with just as many good intentions.

Yes, I know about the two 'blank' entries. I'm going to let them stew for awhile and then fill them with material that I'll later link to on the sidebar. Or I'll delete them in the near future. We'll see.

I figured out the MP3 player all by myself - take that, youngin! - and now have what World Traveler calls a 'pedestrian' assortment of music loaded on it. Alanis, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Artie Shaw, Joe Mac, Buddy Holly, Bush, Creed, George Michael, Zeppelin, Live, Sam Cooke, 4 Non Blondes, The Cumberland Three, Woody Herman, Black 47, Glen Miller, Michael Jackson, Madonna, GNR, etc . . still to come: a bit more Nirvana and Alanis, some Alice in Chains, Queen, Doors, Cream, Hendrix, NKOTB, and I'd like a little by the Breeders.

Oh, and good news. I discovered Time Warner Cable is having a free preview of MLB Extra Innings, a series of 10 or so channels which broadcast EVERY major league baseball game of the season, until April 6th.

I watched Arod homer against Toronto last night, and quickly approached the Mrs. about signing up for the channels (which is set at $159 until April 7th, $199 after) and she greenlighted it, on the condition that she occasionally be allowed near the TV.

Sure it means I won't pay my electric bill this month to cough up the dough, but priorities people, priorities!

 

1st Pic of the Reunited NKOTB!

Today Katrina, one of my employees,  presented me with a great surprise - a printout of the FIRST PICTURE OF THE REUNITED NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK.

Of course, L-R thats Joey McIntyre,  Jon Knight, Donnie Walhberg, Jordan Knight and Danny Wood.

She herself admits to dumping many of their items when they lost popularity - may the Lord forgive her - but like the Prodigal Son, she now freely admits NKOTB rules. Well, maybe not in so many words . .

Here's a pic from back in the day to compare with the one above:

Less than two days until their appearance on the Today show, and not a single person has come forward with an offer to record it.

Have you no decency?

UPDATE: From an AP article of 4/03/08

Wahlberg said he was convinced to get back together with his former bandmates - Joey McIntyre, brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight and Danny Wood - when they decided to record new music. Wahlberg said he wrote 80 percent of the new material with McIntyre and Jordan Knight.

"I had no interest going out on a nostalgia tour and singing the same material," said Wahlberg, 38.

But he added, "We absolutely will do the old songs for sure."

Tags: NKOTB

On how there's no Sonic nearby and 23 yr old women are now out of bounds

I don't want to beat this 'man am I getting old thing' to death. With luck, I'm still on the 1st half of this ride. I'm repeating that like a mantra nowadays.

But there were three legitimate moments this week thatconfirmed how far I've travelled since the nostaligic - and largely illusionary - glory of my youth.

About this time last week I was talking on the phone to a woman my own age about a couple who was also our age. She was aghast that they were splitting up.

"X left her for another woman. A MUCH younger woman. It's disgusting - she's like 23!" she said.

Okay, first of all, I felt like saying "Go X!", except that would have been neither diplomatic nor keeping in line with my pseudo-Alan Alda exterior.

I do object to the whole 'breaking up a family and leaving the wife and kids' thing.

But when did 23 year old women become verbotten? Did I miss a memo? Now the're not only out of [theoretical] striking distance but the age gap is so great that people look at you like you're Woody Allen at a middle school?

Really???

The second and third moments came yesterday. I took YaYa to my old alma matter after work yesterday to buy a MP3 player from a guy on Craigslist.

First, the directions he gave me made no sense. He was using campus landmarks, but they'd all changed since my day. The bookstore went by a different name, Wendy's was closed, Bodolino's, home of the infamous 'keep the [9 cent] change' incident, was gone. I understood him, but in the way you understand your own toddler; because I could piece together what he was trying to convey and ignore the gibberish.

When it came time to buy the MP3 he encouraged me to try it out. I did - try that is. He gently intervened and patiently walked me through the process of turning it on and listening to a song. I felt like I was having someone teach me how to tie my shoes.

[which come to think of it, is something I had massive trouble with in kindergarten and still find difficult. Not a day goes by without someone stopping me and saying 'you're shoe's untied'.

I had such high hopes for velcro shoes back in the day]

Then the kicker. Here's this kid that by appearance and conversation seems to be someone I would have hung out with in college, someone into 'alternative' music and -were he of age in '93  - massive amounts of flannel.

"I have some good albums on there. You're welcome to keep them," he said. Then he paused. He stopped and looked at me from head to foot, smiled weakly, and said:

"No, you'll probably want to go ahead and delete them."

I was heartbroken. "My God, I've never felt older in my life," I said.

He laughed, but 'twis true. 

Later that night, after a rousing adventure with Socialist, I went road-tripping with my best friend.

I had dreams of White Castle runs across the state border. 'Matter of fact, I'd mapquested directions to the nearest Sonic, located in Davenport, Iowa, more than 150 miles away, and the closest Jack in the Box, nearly 200 away.

Back in the day we'd have done it in one night and made it to class in the morning.

Last night? We drove around Milwaukee for awhile, and then ended up at a burger joint.

About a block and a half from my house.

Happy April - No Fool's Day joke here

I know this runs the risk of sounding like an April Fool's Joke, but believe me, I detest that lame tradition.

 

On Friday April 4th ALL FIVE MEMBERS of the New Kids on the Block will be performing LIVE on the Today show on NBC.

 

I will be at work at that time, and just as importantly my DVR is still not working well with the HDTV.

 

So I BEG of my readers: Someone, somewhere must record the performances/interview and get me a copy, preferably on DVD. I will of course reimburse whoever goes the extra mile for me should it involve postage, etc.

 

This is not a joke . . PLEASE PLEASE let me know if anyone can do this.

 

Thanks!

 

* * * * *

 

You know that whole "I don't care about this (baseball) season' thing? Yeah, right out the window. When I got home from work I sat down and watched the end of the Brewers/Cubs game, then some of the Twins/Angels game and via psychfun got an update on the White Sox contest.

 

Oh, and the kicker, the moment when I knew my protests had all been smoke and mirrors? When I was on the phone with work and the Brewers gave up a 3 run home run in the bottom of the 9th to tie the game (which they won in 10 frames)

 

Right there, with my work Nextel glued to my face and a fellow manager on the phone I screamed . . well, some very colorful words. 

 

I'm baaaack.

 

* * * * * *

.

 

A quiet night at home with the Mrs. Then right at the end I managed to slip and fall down the entire length of the basement stairs. These would be the same stairs that stand in legend among my parent's generation, as my Great-Grandmother took a serious tumble down them thirty or more years ago and the story is still in circulation.

 

I wound up in a heap on the basement floor, and even knocked a shoe off my foot.

 

No harm really, as it was by and large just an embarrassing and inconvenient moment. I emerged with only a neckache, some scraped and sore arms, a nasty cut and welt on my lower back, and a tidy little scrape right down the middle of my plumbers crack.

 

I'm grateful I got off easy. When 300 pounds goes flying down a flight of stairs, the shockwave of the impact alone coulda killed me.

 

* * * *

 

I got Lisa a mp3 player for Mother's Day last year and spent much of the last two day's filling it with songs she loves. I love not having to trip over CD's at every turn.

 

* * * *

 

Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp is a pretty fun show to watch. It's nice to see Willie Aames again, as my Mom was a huge Eight is Enough fan in the day. And might I just say, Tina Yothers . . well, I never thought she was attractive on Family Ties but I've had a change of heart.

 

It's probably the hair. I'm a sucker for a woman with short, dyed hair.

Tags: NKOTB, New Kids on the Block, Eight is Enough, Tina Yothers