Happy Birthday Mindy!

Team Slap helped my cousin Mindy celebrate her golden birthday today!

(The New) Match Game

What show could get all six members of #TeamSlap together for an hour in front of the TV? Why, the all new #MatchGame, that's what! Same set (different colors, boo), same theme song, same microphone and game play. Alec Baldwin was OK, and best of all NKOTB was referenced TWICE! Welcome back my love!

Why Him?

Way too long - it could have used an edit, or two. Or three. But it was reasonably funny and not a rental Lisa and I regret.

Junie the Good Samaritan

When I came home from work I saw Junie on the corner, nervously clutching a water bottle by the burnt out wreck of a van. (Lisa had texted earlier to say a van was on fire down the block).

I stopped and asked her what was up, and she said she wanted to give the van driver the bottle but was too scared. I walked back with her and he gratefully took my little Good Samaritan's gift. Through tears he said he was driving, the engine knocked, and then flames came out of the hood. May your weekend start better than his.

LOL

As we pulled up to Cousins Subs in St Francis an alarm went off 

LuLu: what'd you do Dad?

Me: nothing. It must be a sexiness alert.

Lulu: Probably. I  did just arrive.

Shallows

Blake Lively plays a surfer on a lonely Mexican beach who is attacked by a shark. She reaches the safety of a rock off shore, but the tide is rising and her foe is patient . . . LuLu wanted to see this at South Shore, and it was a great call. Kudos to all involved in making this film. For a relatively short, nearly one person show, it has its share of terror and a surprisingly strong and natural character arc. Well worth the ticket price.

By the way, I booed the Ghostbusters trailer. Again. It looks like a turd.

My Thoughts - Brexit

I may develop this thought more here,  but I am disgusted by the pushback against the Brexit vote. Cries of disenfranchisement (aka, I didn't vote and now I wish I had), petitions for a second vote, even seemingly serious calls to weigh a vote heavier if cast by a young person. In a democracy, the victory of your viewpoint is not assured. Defeat at the polls is as integral and history shaping a part of the democratic process as monumental wins. To pout, to scream foul, to steadfastly refuse to acknowledge not everyone thinks/believes as you do - that's emblematic of tyranny, not freedom.

Steven Universe

The younger kids, especially Smiley, are obsessed with this show. I don't love it, but the writing is strong and that's all I really require of my media. But Lisa just spoke to the TV, urging on a character, and she wasn't being funny. That . . . concerns me. LOL

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I feel soon bad for you. . . not

My professor was a . . . jerk for the first hour of class. He was short tempered, dismissive, condescending, and visibly agitated . He then stopped class for a moment and apologized to us all, saying he'd had insomnia and was going on only a few hours of sleep. Assuming that "few" meant more than two, that was at least one more hour than I'd gotten. #ButThatsNoneOfMyBusiness

Memorize This

Criminal defendants have a right to testify as a result of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the compulsory process clause of the Sixth Amendment, and the Fifth Amendment’s privilege against self-incrimination.

My Thoughts on Gun Control

Gun control doesn't stop terrorist attacks like the two we've seen in the last year, it only varies the technique used to accomplish it. But say gun control IS necessary. As it stands, it will never happen, nor SHOULD it happen, because like it or not the 2nd amendment makes it a right, as valid and valued as free speech and a free press. If you wish to change it, then you must amend the Constitution. That's the safe harbor the Founders built into the system, and the only means of gun control that doesn't skirt the essence of this people and their republic.

Yikes

I was just attacked by Mothra. I tried to get a picture of the beast but I couldn't switch to panoramic mode in time. Things like this make me doubt the wisdom of standing outside at three in the morning.

The Fast and the Furious

I just got back from taking the kids and Yaya's beau to the 15th anniversary showing of The Fast and The Furious, complete with behind the scenes footage from the upcoming Furious Eight! Every bit as good as I remember, and you better believe I peeled out of the lot with that minivan! Lol

Exhaustion

I am utterly exhausted. I had 8 hours of sleep last night and feel like I had 8 minutes.

THIS - My Thoughts

I find it irritating that people have to preface a statement with a laundry list of why I shouldn't take their opinion to mean they're anti-police, a drug addict, a racist, or whatever. G'damn, just state your mind. If I thought you were a complete a$$ I wouldn't be listening to you in the first place. Grow a pair.

The Zoo on Father's Day 2016

     On Father's Day after I opened my gifts, I wanted to take the family to the zoo. Due to the heat and general apathy, only LuLu and Ginger decided to go with me. In some ways it was far better that way: less pressure to make it a "memory", less personality conflicts, less $$ out of my pocket. 

     That last point was my favorite. 

   

 Just about as soon as we arrived we hit the big cat house to see the lions and whatnot. 

Then, with extra cash unexpectedly in my wallet, I let the girls go on the sky glider. 

I promised this worker internet immortality. 

The big hit of the day, to my surprise, was the reptile and fish building. Not because, as they claimed later, of the air conditioning, but because they both seemed genuinely fascinated with each exhibit and actually interacted with one another.

The primate house was a disappointment, not the least of which because this guy threw poop at the glass.

In the primate house was a device to measure your grip strength in relation to that of an orangutan. I topped out at 85 pounds per square inch (I think that was the measurement standard), and 70 with my left hand.

By that time my hip was hurting, and so was Ginger's ear (her tube is working its way out), so it was time to leave. We still stopped and saw the bears and elephant before hitting the road. 

It was a blast. Thanks LuLu and Ginger!