FB'ing the end of January

Jan 23rd - the Packers win the Halas trophy and advance to the Super Bowl:

I am so happy, so happy I requested off months ago for the Super Bowl!

Hey Brett - F*** U again. Sincerely, Ted Thompson

Jan 24th

I finished Robert Crais' "The Sentry", a Joe Pike/Elvis Cole novel centered around the suspected kidnapping of Pike's love interest. It's on par with Crais' other books, which is to say it's a strong story populated by great characters. I do wish, however, that he'd bring back some of the humor that was present in his early work.

Jan 25th

We just finished watching the first season of The Amazing Race. Minor discord there at the end, with me rooting on the eventual winners while Lisa, a fan of the runner ups, accused me of betraying my economic and social class with my decision. Either way, no losers on that show. Even if you're eliminated in week 1, you see more of the world than most people do in a lifetime.

[now] watching 'the notorious landlady' w/ Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon and Fred Astaire

6 pm. Saturday July 6th 1957. [the date/time when Lennon and McCartney first met]

Here's the cover YaYa made for her Expo project, a bio of a famous Wisconsinite. Her choice: Barbie who, yes indeed, is alleged to hail from these parts.



And some ad-libbed work by LuLu



According to an email I just received, a Packers column I wrote should be in Thursday's Journal-Sentinel. I'll let you know if it pans out.

Jan 28th

Thank you to the folks who bought GS cookies from my girls, esp those who went out of their way w/ their generosity

It's petty, but I am sore with a) the headline JS gave my piece B) a glaring typo they introduced into it (it is not in my submission) and c) an edit that took out a line that had a lot of humor and heart. But they paid me, so it's all sour grapes. so OFW.

I made tandoori chicken and rice pilaf for dinner last night, and it was a disaster. Awful. Sitcom awful. Smiley and I were the only ones who swallowed more than the mandatory one bite - Lisa included :( the ckn was undercooked, the rice was crunchy and the spices were too strong. Plus the yogurt tasted off. It bit a*s. Even the cats avoided the scraps.

‎25 yrs since the Challenger exploded. U'd think the anniversary would get more ink, but the nat'l tragedies of the last quarter century - waco, OK city, columbine, 9/11 - seem to make it less impactful on our collective memory.

Facts are for people who can't create their own truth - Get Fuzzy {1/27/11}

Jan 29th

watching the 2011 US.Figure Skating Championships on NBC

I found our old Baby Songs DVD and to my suprise Smiley was ecstatic. He and LuLu are watching it now, singing and laughing along. Good times :)

Zikes. Even the most sedate, productive, happy days can descend into chaos and drama before changing back just as quickly. Life is just a big helping of messy, unpredictable disorder I guess.

Jan 30th

(Pantera playing) LuLu: Dad, turn that off! Me: Why? LuLu: 'Cuz it's ugly music!

Pantera, btw, is loud, aggressive metal. She was in a critical mood, and later objected to my demonstration of the Humpty Dance. There's no pleasing some folks.

Jan 31st

who needs internet porn when u can watch Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream' video? Well done Mrs.Brand, well done. In other news Cold War Kids were pretty darn good.

‎'RED' was ok, but in the end was little more than cookie cutter action/comedy. What comedic bright spots there were came largely courtesy of Mary Louise Parker.

I love this quote: It's always too early to quit - Norman Vincent Peale

A photo dump from my phone - dance pics, Smiley's art, goofy faces

Our "Easter"

Since I worked all weekend and Lisa was up north on Saturday, our Easter is *today*. Took the kids to Mass at 8:15, big dinner at 4:30. Ham is in the oven, kielbasa in the slow cooker, potatoes peeled and cut, hard boiled eggs peeled and ready for . . er, deviling. Desperately hoping for a nap b4 the final push . . . but instead I'm outside Stonefire waiting to conduct a Craigslist purchase of kids clothing. Big scary man alone outside kids play area = not most well thought out meeting place

Chillin'

chilling w/ my friend erv, who just got out of the hospital

Gen-u-wine Wisconsin Potato

While prepping for our belated Easter feast today, YaYa was keen to show me this potato she discovered.








Hmmm. It looks strangely familiar . . .

My Favorite Things

I was a latecomer to the world of mobile phones, first getting one a few years into this century. Consider my reluctance a last gasp of loyalty to the beautiful pager I wore in the mid '90's. Or just rack it up to a lack of $ to spend on a phone. Either/or.

Nowadays, with more kids than zeros on my paycheck and obligations up the ying yang, a cell phone is a necessity. And while the Cricket MSGM8 II is not 'top of the line', and future readers will giggle at what they'll see as an antique, it is my darling, my honeyboo, my honeybunchesofoats.

It is truly one of My Favorite Things.

The party line: it is a bar phone with a QWERTY keypad, and weighs 3.74 oz while measuring 4.2" x 2.39" x .53". The screen has a 220 x 176 resolution and can display 260K colors. It has a 1000 contact capacity and a 1.3 megapixal digital camera.


I do wish the camera had better resolution and low light capabilities, but at the same time the camera is just about my favorite toy on the phone. I take pictures all the time, and sending them to email or my Facebook account is easy and intuitive. I don't just take pictures of the kids, either. I'll snap a quick pic of a book or CD cover as a reminder to research or purchase it later, and I find myself avoiding taking notes by simply photographing a memo or directions.

Speaking of directions, it does feature a link to Mapquest and an (optional) turn by turn GPS program. I've used the Mapquest link several times, and for frequent long distance destinations I've taken to putting the directions in the phone's permanent memo pad. Ditto recipes, list of recently viewed films for review, etc.

On the web browser I often check JSOnline and my Gmail accounts, and I can't begin to express how much happiness I've gotten from the quick link to Facebook that's built into the top screen. I love mobile Facebook.

As far as widgets/apps, I've downloaded PopEater (a pop culture news/gossip site), This Day in History, a personalized sports score app, IMDB news (movie news), Reuters Science News, Quote of the Day, Weather, and plain ol' news.

Texting is fast and easy with the QWERTY keboard and a quck navigation menu. Texting, heaven help us, has now replaced voice calls as my prefered means of phone communication.

Last but not least, the alarm clock is nice and loud and allows three different times to be set - just what this oversleeper needs.

All that for one flat monthly cost, with no overages, free 411, no contract, and great service :)

A Nook Update

The new Nook update is out! Apps increase from a handful to 139! Now it not only wups the Kindle, it makes it put on makeup and call Barnes and Noble "big daddy"

A great day for Lisa

Got to choreograph and teach a number to a close friend's daughter, then out to dinner and a comedy club with three awesome friends to celebrate her mom's birthday. Good times!! Thankful for lifelong friends, good kids, and a good hubby 🙂 - Lisa

A-Rod

Arod's stats on Saturday: 2 for 5 with a homer and SIX RBI.

Quote of the Day

The inability to forget is infinitely more devastating than the inability to remember," - Mark Twain

I'm Joking, I'm joking

Twice in recent weeks I've been asked how "you" - meaning a conservative - could be a fan of lefty music, up to & inc. being a member of Pearl Jam's fan club. Easy. I simply alter the lyrics in my head to reflect a more appropriate social message. "Screamed and bit the recess lady's breast"" - I think not. "Dreamed of always doing his very best" - there ya go Eddie, Danny made it all better.

Easter Egg Dyeing, 2011

It is a longstanding tradition in the Slapinions household, dating back long before we had kids of our own, that we dye Easter eggs on Good Friday with all the kids in our life.

Well, we missed that deadline because I worked. Frankly, this is a pretty messed up Easter weekend. I work straight through, Lisa and the two oldest are up North at a friend's house for a bday party, and . . well, as I said. It's a bit of a mess.

So with the two youngin's in my care this afternoon I boiled eggs and sat down to dye them. I coudln't find any of the supplies I know we had, so I'm afraid it was a ho-hum food coloring Easter, leading to a largely sedate color palate.





It went pretty smoothly, save for one hissy fit where Lump tossed a bottle of food coloring at the window.





I let the kids eat a few eggs that cracked, but they refused to eat the yolk, because as Smiley said "it were a chicken come from". That led to me giving a platonic, short birds-and-bees speech that fell on deaf ears. "Ya, but yellow part still were chicken come from if there a boy chicken, right? I not eat that."







We saved a dozen plain eggs for the girls to dye when they return. Happy Easter everyone!

The Ladybugs Have Arrived!

The title of this post is probably a mystery to you unless you saw my Facebook post on Smiley's birthday. For the big guy's 6th Birthday we bought him a ladybug farm and sent away for the little critters. Just as we were giving up hope of them ever arriving, they showed up in the mailbox today!



First we took apart the terrarium and added water to the feeding station. "You strong," Smiley said as I pulled a wire loose. Darn tootin', kid.








We then unpacked the ladybugs from the mailing tube.





When it came time to open the tube that included the live ladybug larvae (?) and feeding gel, Smiley got squeamish. So I added the little guys myself.












He seems to love the setup, especially the magnifying lens built into the top of the dome. Here's hoping they give him lots of joy this summer!

An odd place to store a toothbrush . . .

What is this, you may ask? A few weeks ago the kids got new toothbrushes that had a suction cup bottom, presumably so they'd stay upright on a counter without needing a toothbrush holder. Whatever. Anyhow, the kids began to attach them to the vanity mirror. After a few days of this Lisa laid down the the law - they were never to put the toothbrushes on the mirror again.

So they didn't. They started using the bathroom window instead.

JFK, Ottomans (the empire, not the furniture), Joseph Goebbels, and French Indochina

A year or two ago I read the bulk of a late '40's edition of Joseph Goebbels' diaries. I did not finish the volume. Over time, reading the words of the Third Reich's Propaganda Minister made me feel tarnished and (I can put it no other way) creeped out. I had to put it down.

Even so I thoroughly enjoyed The Goebbels Experiment, a documentary which has Kenneth Branagh recite passages of that diary accompanied by rarely seen film of Goebbels life.

Joseph Goebbels remains a persistent enigma to me. He was an articulate, intelligent man capable of great emotion, and he seems to have genuinely loved his children. But - and it is the 'buts' that define our life - he was in awe of Hitler, poisoned by irrational hatred of Jews, and condoned the murder of his own precious children.

How do you explain that dichotomy? Can you even try?

Nazi Medicine is an adequately done film about the role the worldwide eugenics movement played in providing a rationale for the work of the Nazi machine. It was too heavy handed in parceling out the blame, almost to the point where the filmmaker ventured too close to giving the Nazi's a historical 'out'.

I enjoyed the documentary Gallipoli for a few reasons: one, it was simply a well done treatment of the chaotic 1915 contest between the British and Ottoman Empires. Secondly, it actually *taught* me something. While I knew the barest of facts about the battle going in, 95% of the film was new information for me. I love that.

A sidenote: I found the practice of personalizing the gravestones on Gallipoli to be a great way of humanizing those buried there. It is one thing to read a name and a date on a stone, quite another to see it includes a mesage from his family or something unique to the man, like the [inconsequential] last words he spoke.

The Battle for Dien Bien Phu is a tolerable British documentary on the infamous French defeat in Indochina. Very little of the information was new to me (nearly none), and it is so History Lite I think it would only enlighten someone brand new to the history of the conflict.

Let's be clear: even as a high school student I thought the French were idiotic to set up shop in a remote jungle valley, by default surrendering the high ground to their enemy. Equally puzzling: the distant location meant all aid had to be flown in from Hanoi, practically ensuring a loss before the fight began. Yowsers.

Still, enough about how this was a 'given' for the Viet Minh, an omen for future American involvement, and about how events X and Y and Z and W were writ in stone after the French defeat. For a documentarian, it isn't enough for hindsight to be 20/20. No, they must also seek to convince you that all parties were fools for not sharing the wisdom of the filmmaker, and sell you on the idea that everything after falls in place like - dare I say it? - blocks of dominoes.

It's lazy history.

In theory, the French could have pulled off a win. They probably wouldn't have deserved it, but stranger things have happened. And an infinite number of changes to, well, just about anything could have remolded our own involvement in Southeast Asia. History is only concrete when its done and committed to ink. Nothing is simple.

You want a waste of time? Try watching The Search for Kennedy's PT 109. I'm not knocking JFK here, but right off the bat I wondered about the necessity of finding a plywood boat that was cut in half and sank seventy years ago. The boat itself isn't essential to the story, as is the case with Titanic or the Edmund Fitzgerald; nope, the tale hinges on the heroism in the aftermath of the sinking. And let's be honest. Much of the story's value comes from the

historical heights JFK achieved later. Take him out of the picture and we have a moving anecdote, nothing more.

Robert Ballard, the holier-than-thou discoverer of the Titanic wreck, goes over the top to slather man-love on JFK, bringing in his nephew (!) to console a crying, elderly native who has set up a shrine to the fallen President.

The worst part? There's no payoff. They find a single torpedo tube on the ocean floor, have an amateur historian look at the screen and announce "That's her!", then explain away the lack of anything else (such as an identifying item) by claiming the ship is buried by silt and, oh, uh, yeah I consider it a war grave so we won't investigate further.

Blech. Mr. Ballard, I want my hour back.