Well Wishes

Former President George W Bush had heart surgery today. 

A Great Finale

I was skeptical they could pull it off after Dez all but torpedoed the show in the wake of Brooke's departure, BUT . . . . that was a genuinely touching and powerfully romantic end to the season. Lisa was in tears, I was all "awwww" lol. BEST BACHELOR/BACHELORETTE FINALE EVER!!!!

And - just for the record: people who claim to 'love' Doctor Who yet claim ignorance to anything pre-2005 are a dreadful waste of DNA.

A-Rod singles in his first at-bat of the year . . .

The Colony

"The Colony" is a sci-fi film starring Laurence Fishburne. It's set in the near future, on an Earth that has entered a new Ice Age. The last remaining humans survive in isolated colonies that are dying off of disease and starvation, but a new threat has emerged: a crazy, psychotic cannibal tribe. It's a better movie than it sounds in this description, and it features one of the goriest, wickedest final fight scenes around. Rent it!

On A-Rod's Suspension

I hope A-Rod's suspension finally inspires the player's union to DO THEIR JOB and curb a despotic and arrogant MLB administration intent on pursuing personal grudges (Braun) and voiding legitimate contracts (Rodriguez). Failing that, I hope any one of the baker's dozen MLB tossed on the pyre goes rogue and names names, finally establishing that PED's were and are long tolerated/ignored/promoted by managers and administrator's alike (La Russa anyone?).

The Packers have signed Vince Young as a backup QB

A Fulton Sheen Quote

“There would never be vaccination unless there were germs, there would never have been Prohibition unless there were something to prohibit, and there would never be atheism unless there was a God to atheate.” Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Howsabout

"The home runs that are hit because a guy's on performance-enhancing substances, those ruin somebody's ERA, which ruins their arbitration case, which ruins their salary," Los Angeles Angels pitcher C.J. Wilson said. "So it's a whole domino effect.". 

Huh. Good point. 

Now howsabout "The strikeouts that are pitched because a guy's on performance enhancing substances, those ruin somebody's AVG, which ruins their arbitration case, with ruins their salary" said every  major leaguer who has faced juiced pitchers for the last 20 years.

How about that CJ?

The Grasshopper Picnic 2013

The youngest three consented to joining me in Whitnall Park for an afternoon of tree climbing, golf ball finding, grasshopper catching fun. 

The New Who

Watching the live BBC broadcast that will reveal the new Doctor . . . butterflies in my stomach!

So Peter Capaldi is the new Doctor, and I'm a bit surprised. Not at his age - I'm glad the show is FINALLY portraying the Doctor as a man old enough not to be carded for cigarettes - but I thought they'd go with a complete unknown, as I like to see the show *make* a career. (BTW, is this the first Doctor to have guest starred on the show previously?) I'm also oddly annoyed at his weight. What's with the continuing trend towards stick figures? At this rate, Doctor #13 will be Kate Moss.

To Date:

So far in 2013: 101 movies, 34 books

A Request

anyone going to the fair today? Lisa left her lunch and wallet in the car when i dropped her off, and I'd be forever grateful if someone could deliver it.... pretty please? lol

Not a Good Exchange

Dysfunction, hear me roar!

LuLu returned from a night with friends at a waterpark just in time for me to take her to church, but she came back exhausted and with her inner B---- at full blast. The following conversation took place as Mass ended.

Lu: Are we still going for ice cream? 

Me: We are. You’re not. 

Lu: Why not??? You promised we could go after church!

Me: LuLu! You tried to *break your sister’s thumb* during the Our Father! You're not getting a reward for that. You’re lucky I didn’t lay you out flat. 

Lu: Ugh. I knew you were lying. You’re a LIAR Dad. That’s why your family [Parents/Sisters] don’t like you Dad. When’s the last time they answered the phone for you, hmmm? Or answered a text? Kinda funny they’ll answer right away when it’s someone else, huh? How does it feel to have your parents hate you? 

Me: I don’t know. You tell me.

Law School

Well, it's done. With a hit of the 'enter' button a big chunk of next month's mortgage payment instead went to Marquette as a down payment on the fall semester. A meeting there earlier this week gave me a lot to think about; I knew the financial cost (gulp!) but they were quick to tack on a year (at least) to my timetable, meaning even more time stuck in this miserable financial status quo. That . . . gave me pause. And by 'pause' I mean 'gut wrenching doubt'. But in the end it came down to a simple fact:the situation ain't getting any better on it's own, so I might as well bite the bullet and go all out to elevate Team Slap. Wish me luck.

LuLu and friends at the WaterPark

An all time favorite pic - circa '91 or '92

Those are my cousins Elliot and Mindy in my arms. The picture was taken in a hotel in West Bend, or at least I think that's where it was, when my Uncle and Aunt had my family stay overnight to watch the lil' ones while they attended a wedding. 

It was my first hotel stay ever, and my last until '95.

Me - circa the end of the Carter era

This was taken in 1980 when I was 6 1/2 years old. It was inscribed to "Big Busha", aka my paternal Grandmother. My Mom (it's her handwriting) screwed up my age on the back of the pick, first writing "5 1/2" then correcting it in pen :)

My Thoughts - The Ryan Braun Case

Dumbest line from Tom Haudricourt's newest Braun article "Now you see why baseball fired arbitrator Shyam Das after he ruled in Braun's favor during his appeal. Certainly, by now, Das realizes he let a guilty player walk." Uh, nooooo. . . . Das let him 'walk' because -, whether or not it would have turned up positive if done right - it was a flawed testing procedure, and that wasn't a sufficient reason to trample a man's legal and collective bargaining rights. Das was fired because the Masters of the Universe had as much respect for due process and legality as Haudricourt, not because he was wrong.

George Scott

RIP Brewer legend George "Boomer" Scott, age 69. :(

Eileen Brennan

I knew her best, as did most people, as the frustrated Captain in Private Benjamin - in my case, the TV show, although she also played the role in the original movie.  RIP

Pregnant with YaYa - 2001

This is a famous photograph in our family, one that was in YaYa's room for a decade, until the frame broke and the pic wound up in a pile of dirt on the floor - such is life in the real world. 

Anyway, this was taken in 2001, when Lisa was pregnant with our firstborn, YaYa. The setting is the driveway of Lisa's Mom's house on 56th St, a house she has since sold. 

Some More Reviews

Spring Breakers stars Selena Gomez and James Franco, and traces the descent of a group of young women from bored college kids to armed robbers to live in lovers of a young drug kingpin. There’s a lot of Girls-Gone-Wild type footage, but there’s never any question that there’s a darker, deeper theme to the film than gratuitous exploitation, and the director has a sure and artistic hand. I was somewhat disappointed in Gomez; this was billed as her big bad break from her Disney roots, but her character poops out before her eternal soul is in any real jeopardy. In short, it wasn’t such a break from her norm after all.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters fared much better with Lisa than it did with me, which strikes me as something as odd as the sun rising in the West.  It’s cartoonishly violent, full of anachronisms, and the plot isn’t exactly original. Gretel aka Gemma Arterton, it should be said, was disturbingly gorgeous, and that Jeremy Renner guy probably didn’t look so bad to Lisa either.

Evil Dead is a reboot/remake of the original, and as a separate work of ‘art’ it should be judged as such, or so the thought goes. To this I say “phooey”.  Everyone I know who has seen the new version likes it, but they’re fools. The original, campy film is and always will be the best. Why did they remake it? 

Bob Gibson weighs in on the steroid controversy . . .

Quoting Bob Gibson here, re: the Biogenesis scandal and steroids in baseball:  "I’ve gotta say, if it had been me and I thought that somebody else was getting a little bit of an edge, I"M NOT SO SURE I WOULDN'T HAVE DONE THE SAME THING.. I just don’t know … I’m glad I didn’t have to make that decision. You guys would be talking about me instead of them." He also stated the issue has not dimmed his respect for the players involved.  Good on you Bob!

Quote

'You can always judge a man by the quality of his enemies.' - The Doctor ('Remembrance of the Daleks')

On the Hall of Fame

"But baseball players ARE more than just their pure numbers and production. They are. I've always thought of the Hall of Merit (its purely notional status notwithstanding) as the place where the numbers alone are considered. But the Hall of Fame is supposed to be something more than merely that, regardless of how the concept has been abused by idiot voters. It's not just supposed to celebrate the statistically 'best' players in baseball, it's intended to celebrate those players as they were remembered by the generations who watched them, in their historical context. Because baseball isn't a game played by a set of computers simulating imaginary matches and recording the outcomes on spreadsheet. It's a game played by people, and watched by people, given cultural significance, embedded in national and regional memory, and passed down as living history from one generation to the next. A Hall of Fame that doesn't make any sort of allowance on the margins for the human element (i.e. 'narrative') in its membership criteria is a curious, aridly depressing idea. " - from a  greatcomment on BTF