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!
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Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Gawd, American Idol was boring. I'm not a huge Stones fan to begin w/, but most of the 12 seemed bound & determined to make each song xtra slow and shi--y. Siobahn was the glaring and inspired exception, & the night belongs to her. Tim Urban should be voted off the show this wk.
Is anyone on FB going to take part in a fantasy baseball league? I'm looking to join a free but competitive league on one of the major sites and would welcome the company.
Just read an article about a 68 yr old in Ohio punching little kids in their heads w/ a closed fist (and a key sticking out) at walmart. Said he's been coming there since January to punch random kids because they don't fight back. Nice......dude better steer clear of this mama! - Lisa
On Sunday night I picked YaYa up from her friend Meadow's house. On the way home, needing garbage bags and cat food, I pulled into a store's parking lot.
"Dollar General?" she said. "Do we have to go here *every* day?"
"Yeah, actually, we do," I replied. "I like this store. And you wanna know why?" Before I could voice a reason, serious or silly, she beat me to the punch.
"One," she said, counting on her fingers. "Good food. Two, low prices. Three, cute cashiers."
And then she zig-zagged her head sideways like "Oh, yeah, I went there".
"Well," I said, and was struck silent for a moment. "Yeah, actually that pretty much sums it up."
Good news: Smiley's cast will come off at 9 a.m. on my birthday. Bad news: one of LuLu's fish was obviously dying, and so I fed him to our turtle (circle of life and all). I had Park and Junie say a prayer over him as they were a bit too gleeful over the feeding bit. He was a good fish, nothing more than a 30 cent feeder that's lasted since last May. RIP noble swimmer.
I received & completed the census form today. We were already subjected to the 'long' form earlier in the year. Assuming u don't mind answering questions about your race, bills, income, transportation, etc. the long form isn't invasive at all ;)
Today's form was easy-peezy, and I'll admit I felt proud listing the whole family. In a weird way, I feel we now 'exist' in history.
"I want to be remembered when I'm dead. I want books written about me. I want songs sung about me. And then, hundreds of years from now, I want episodes of my life to be played out weekly at half past nine by some great heroic actor of the age." - Happy International Blackadder Status Day!
Feb 19th: The man who allegedly accosted Mitt Romney on the plane was Berry Gordy's nephew, a rapper from LMFAO. He claims Mitt started it. Hmmm. I wonder which one to believe.
* re: Tiger Woods' apology: From Tim Cuprisin: Best line tweeted by Channel 6's Ted Perry "Did Tiger just say he's studying "Bootyism"? I thought he was teaching it."
* It'll be 4 years since I quit smoking and Newport still sends me coupons. If you smoke Newports, and would like $1 off/pack on the delicious, relaxing yumminess that is a menthol cigarette enjoyed with a cup of coffee in the dead of winter then [slap!]. Whoa. Maybe that's y they still send them, to tempt you. Anyhow, ur welcome to the coupons.
* Excuses for Obama's Failure to Lead The Dems should've ran Hilary. November '08 might have been iffy-er (but manageable) but at least after a win they'd have had someone who was good at something other than campaigning.
* National Enquirer in the running for Pulitzer I'm fine with this, btw. If they did the work, and got the scoop, then why not acknowledge it? Because of 'standards'? Puleeze. Need we bring up the recent Nobel Prize?
* Germany plans to allow the sale of Mein Kampf w/in their country: From an American POV it seems barbaric for the state to ban the publication of any book, especially one of historical significance, nor does it seem right to ensure the sale of used copies is 'tightly regulated'. This isn't a textbook on bomb making, its a whacked out political tract/autobiography. If the people of Germany are so prone to hate that a bk can bring back the Reich, then all is lost.
- It's been 70 years, first of all. & I think the idea that Germany was somehow brainwashed by Hitler was a fiction that conveniently (and correctly) allowed Germany to resume life at a time when it was a battleground for the cold war. No knock on Germany - my kids are half German - but go as far back as 1000 years and you'll find a history of Jewish persecution unique to that region. Mix that in w/ all the bitterness of the Great War and anyone, or any philosophy, could have ignited a fire.
* re: a nut who ran his plane into a building to protest the IRS: This is the headline on the article "Attack on IRS part of long line of tax protesters". Yeah, uh, NO. Tax protesters generally don't follow Bin Laden's advice and fly planes into buildings. He was a f*ing nut.
* Milwaukee Forge likely to be sold This is a Bay View landmark. My Mom remembers falling asleep to the rhythm of the drop forge as a child, and you can still hear - scratch that, feel - it running today.
* I'm looking for marbles to replace missing pieces from Smiley's Hungry Hungry Hippo game. None of Milwaukee's grand and varied Dollar stores carries marbles, or at least had them in stock. Any (really cheap) ideas on where I can find some? I don't want to spend $6 to restock a $9 game that's already well worn.
Feb 21st: Safe in the comfort that it is now 1:24 AM, and that this will be buried down the feed by the time any youngin's return to FB in the morning. I present a great memory from my college days (early '90's) I still can't believe they played this, unedited, on AM radio here in Milwaukee. God bless the WARP.
I suppose 102.1 is as close as you'd get to the WARP today, but it lacks the panache. That gorgeous tinny AM sound, the lack of any DJ's, the canned, monotone introduction to each song. It was grand.
I received & completed the census form today. We were already subjected to the 'long' form earlier in the yr. Assuming u don't mind answering questions about your race, bills, income, transportation, etc. the long form isn't invasive at all.
Today's form was easy-peezy, and I'll admit I felt proud listing the whole family. In a weird way, I feel we now 'exist' in history.
Good news: Smiley's cast will come off at 9 a.m. on my birthday. Bad news: one of LuLu's fish was obviously dying, and so I fed him to our turtle (circle of life and all). I had Smiley and Lulusay a prayer over him as they were a bit too gleeful over the feeding bit. He was a good fish, nothing more than a 30 cent feeder that's lasted since last May. RIP noble swimmer.
Finished 'Gone for Good', the first novel I've read by Harlan Coben. It's a good read and a solid page turner. Still, while one twist or turn is great, an endless parade of them (all more extreme than the last) gnaws away at the all important suspension of disbelief. Unless you're watching The Sting. Then it's cool.
Finished 'Gone for Good', the first novel I've read by Harlan Coben. It's a good read and a solid page turner. Still, while one twist or turn is great, an endless parade of them (all more extreme than the last) gnaws away at the all important suspension of disbelief. Unless you're watching The Sting. Then it's cool.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
I'm waiting to pick something up off of Craigslist. The last email? "You can come at 11 and pick it up". Yeah, uh, howsabout at some point you give me a phone # or say, an *address* so I can do that.
If you can get past the over-the-top gore of the movie's first few minutes, I think you'll like Zombieland. When all is said and done its a fun, occasionally endearing film that just happens to include rampaging zombies. And Bill Murray. Let us not forget the great Bill Murray. B+
Matt Damon is fat. And wears a toupee. And narcing on a price fixing scheme in the corn syrup industry. Yeaaaah. Yawn. C.
A parody of Blaxplotation films of the '70's, made all the funnier by playing it straight Black Dynamite features wicked kung ku, some good one-liners, and some nice breasts. Ok, so maybe that last bit shouldn't be in a review, but it's true all the same. B.
After school we braved the gray, rainy afternoon to deliver her Girl Scout cookies in the neighborhood. I don't know why, but she asked if I would carry her home on my shoulders. No, I said, an answer I repeated several times over the course of our walk.
"Why not?" she asked.
"Because we're both getting too old for it," I said.
But, a block from home I gave in and put her on my shoulders.
"It's kinda scary up here," she said. "It's been a long time."
"It'll probably be the last time too kiddo," I said. "You're getting too big for this."
"I know," she said.
"Does that make you sad?" I asked.
"Yeah, kinda. There's a lot of 'last times' lately. This year was the last time I could go to the pumpkin farm at school, it's the last piggyback. A lot of things are ending."
"That's just part of growing up baby. There's gonna be more and more things that are the 'last time' for you as a kid. But there's going to be a whole lot more 'first times' to balance it out. You'll see."
"I guess. Will you still buy me a pumpkin though? I don't want to see LuLu and Ginger do their's if I don't have one."
"Sure," I said. We were climbing my front porch steps.
"You should tell Mom to take a picture Daddy," she said. "This is the last time you'll give me a piggyback ride."
And that pretty much kicked me in the gut.
"Wellll," I said. "Maybe it won't be the 'last' time just yet."
What a lousy night of AI. Andrew freakin' Garcia, Didi and Lacey Brown go forward while Lilly Scott is cut? F that. Good for her for not rolling over and mouthing the standard issue PC crap after she was robbed. Alex Lambert was screwed too; forget the mullet and listen to that voice. WTH was America thinking?
I've finished the historical novel "The Burning Land" by Bernard Cornwell. As the 10th century ends the Saxon warrior Uhtred, oath-bound to Alfred the Great, forsakes his vows. But soon a Danish army under Haesten threatens Mercia - & Alfred's daughter, its Queen, so Uhtred's blade must sing again. It's fast moving, blood-drenched, (more or less) historically accurate adventure from a proven master. Well done.
I think the men did quite well tonight on AI. Michael Lynche won the night, although not my vote, but I was also quite impressed with Alex Lambert's voice. My picks to go home: the one-note Andrew Garcia and Todrick Hall.
I'm a wee bit peeved. I was called and asked to pick up a shift at work and said yeah, sure, just let me ck the wife's schedule and I'll call you back. I called and, naturally, it had been handed over to someone else - because that 15 min delay obviously meant the diff. between the comp going bankrupt or staying solvent. $%^#@
Just finished watching the Spanish language film "Before the Fall" (Tres Dias). The world has 3 days before a meterorite destroys the earth. So its a disaster movie right? Nope. Prison riots break out, & a serial killer escapes to kill the family of the man who caught him. Only the man's loser brother is left to defend the children. Think High Noon meets Armageddon meets Party of Five. Very good flick.
I'm a wee bit peeved. I was called and asked to pick up a shift at work and said yeah, sure, just let me ck the wife's schedule and I'll call you back. I called and, naturally, it had been handed over to someone else - because that 15 min delay obviously meant the diff. between the comp going bankrupt or staying solvent. $%^#@
