My daughter's dance rehearsal May 14th

My oldest daughter had the full dress rehearsal for her dance recital Friday night. Only one parent was allowed to attend, so I didn't get the chance to see it. :(

Here's some pics I took of her getting ready:

Sadly, none of the pics from the rehearsal turned out, and cameras/camcorders aren't allowed at the recital.

Not to worry tho' - for a scant $45 I've put in an order for a DVD of her five minute performance. Captialism, sad to say, is occasionally a B***h.

Now, from what I hear my daughter, the youngest in her class by almost a full year, is the least technically adept of the group.

Meaning while the other kids are doing this or that (insert French dance term) move, she's more concerned with spinning as fast as she can, singing the loudest, and hamming it up.

From the crowd reaction, this ironically made her the favorite dancer in the group. And we're not talking one or two people - from what I hear the auditorium was half-full.

At one point her hair bow fell out and my visibly upset daughter stopped dancing and pouted. Again, to the delight of the crowd.

She also didn't want to leave the rehearsal when it was all done. She claimed that she had to stay for the finale.

"You did the finale," my wife said.

"No! Miss Barbara said there would be loud music in the finale and I shouldn't cover my ears. There was no loud music," she said.

It took the word of her teacher to change her mind.

Guess I have to stop playing my music so loud in the car - the kid's losing perspective.

I'll give my review of the recital post-Sunday.

 

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Introducing The Season

Rather than wait for the 'anniversary' post, I thought I'd introduce you to a new site of mine, The Season.

It's a writing blog that follows the progress of a novel I'm working on in my spare time.

The first post essentially introduces the idea of the novel itself; later entries will deal with the characters and their relationships, and with the everyday process of writing.

The site is brand new and in need of some redecorating, but I hope you enjoy it and visit again.

Also . . . if you have a mind to, take a look at the web version of Slapinions. It's brand new and not open to the public (it too needs some mucho redecorating) but one day it'll probably replace this site. As of now, it simply mirrors the entries on this one.

Enjoy, and thanks for your readership.

 

Dan

Do De Do

Just a quick, useless post to tell you that listening to Garth Brook's "The Dance" while down in the dumps is not a wise life decision.

Oh, and I suppose you're still waiting for that anniversary post? So am I - I still don't have the graphics in hand, and posting without it feels like having a birthday cake without candles.

No one's fault. As it is I'm imposing on the spare time of a friend that's doing it for free.

So I'll wait. In the meantime, check out this link to an article by Pat Buchannan. Forget your opinions of the man - I'm not a fan myself - and read it for the actual content.

Is he right, wrong, or something in between? 

If I find the time I think I'll post my response here.

And on a lighter note . . . (well, hardly that; after all, it involves drug addiction and murder). Never-the-less, this story of a homeless man who died defending a woman gives you some proof of the goodness of humanity, even in tragedy.

Both were taken from the Drudge Report.

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The best laid plans . . ./Blog Soldiers

This being the six-month anniversary of my blog, I was going to introduce some new graphics, some hoity-toity links, and a recap of my glorious online history.

Yeah, about that . . .

The graphics are behind schedule, I have a day packed with appointments and a meeting at work, and I haven't even started writing the post.

So, I guess we'll celebrate the "six month and a day or two" anniversary in the near future.

Meantime, I came across a new traffic exchange. Depsite it's alarmingly militant name, it seems on the up and up and mimics BE and BC. Check it out:

Blog Soldiers

Clearing out my mailbox

When I find something interesting online I send myself an email to remind myself to eventually put it on the site.

Here's a site that'll give you the #1 song on the day you were born - in my case Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks.

The Wayback Machine is an internet archive. Punch in a url and see how the site looked in years past.

I saw this on another AOL Journal. It determines what religion or christian denomination best suits your individual beliefs about God and morality.

Despite answering honestly, even when I felt it was in opposition to the dogma I was taught, I got the following results:

1.  Eastern Orthodox (100%)

2.  Roman Catholic (100%)

3.  Mainline - Conservative Christian Protestant (86%)

4.  Orthodox Quaker (77%)

5.  Seventh Day Adventist (77%)

6.  Mainline - Liberal Christian Protestants (64%)

7.  Orthodox Judaism (55%)

8.  Islam (50%)

9.  Hinduism (48%)

10.  Sikhism (47%)

What a shocker.

Here's a neat little site with an obscure subject: Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary.

And finally, because I'm sick of seeing it in my mailbox, here's a potential opening line for a story idea of mine:

For the first time in his life, Calvin Elworthy felt something akin to hate.

The Post about the Name change that made MU fans say FU May 6th

On Wednesday Marquette University changed its nickname from the Golden Eagles – a lame and almost universally hated moniker – to something fresh and new.

Ladies and gentlemen, just in time for Marquette’s entrance into the Big East, I present to you the Marquette Gold.

Yes, you read correctly. Gold.

As in the color, the metal, dental caps, pansies, Dial soap, and the last name of 30% of the world’s porn actresses.

Gold.

In the interest of full disclosure I have to point out that I’m not a big fan of Marquette. I’m an alumni of UWM, a cross-town university who’s basketball team actually qualified for the NCAA tournament (and made it to the Sweet Sixteen to boot).

I thought their wish to permanently close downtown Milwaukee’s busiest street - for the sake of a school common area -was pretentious and arrogant, and I despise the way they jaywalk in rush-hour traffic as if they own the world.

I don’t owe Marquette any allegiance.

But on the flip side, I will state that their women are pretty hot.

None of that matters now. Fan or rival, this name change cannot stand.

This whole thing is a freakin’ embarrassment to the city.

The old nickname, the one they earned a national championship under, was the Warriors. I have to agree, group that name with a mascot named Willie Wampum and you’re pushing the limits of good taste.

Willie was dumped in the early seventies, and the name lived on.

Then in 1993 the university decided, on strictly PC grounds, to change the name of the team. Introducing the Golden Eagles, and a decade of alumni and students asking for a return to the Warriors.

Bowing to pressure, the university leadership caves in and dumps the Eagles – for the before mentioned Gold.

Alumni reaction has been scathing, local talk show and radio hosts have ridiculed it, and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, while endorsing it in an editorial, also spent considerable time thinking up gold-related puns for its headlines.

Marquette, for it’s part, has said the decision is final and not open to debate.

[Guess it’s okay for them to drain your wallet before and after graduation; just don’t dare ask for your voice to be heard. ]

I know about Syracuse, Stanford, and the handful of other schools associated with a color. Fine forthem. Not fine for a university where more than 60% of the student body identifies with the name Warriors twelve years after a name change.

Personally, barring any hokey/stereotyped mascot to go along with it, I think Native Americans should be proud of their association with the term ‘warriors’. At least they get some recognition.

What do my fellow Poles and I get? Meathead on All in the Family, that’s what.

After hearing that nickname for thirty years I’d applaud a team named the Polacks.

Of course, that’s not my call to make. It’s not my race up there on Marquette’s marquee, and so I’ll bow to the Native American’s point of view.

So here’s an idea. Disassociate the Warrior nickname from its Native American past. Throw a European on the logo, or Xena, or any generic figure that moves the logo away from a Native connotation.

The Belgians might object, but screw ‘em.

Or better yet, it’s a Catholic University: why not put an Archangel on the logo? Not only is it true to the warrior image, it’s biblical and therefore bypasses any hint of conflict with the university’s philosophy.

It’d solve the problem and save Marquette hefty loses from their alumni backers.

But I repeat: anything’s better than Gold.

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More boring Daddy blogging

A minor miracle this morning.

I fed and changed Parker, dressed both girls, gave them their vitamins and the youngest her medicine, packed a lunch for YaYa and put her hair in a ponytail (but botched a braid), made girl #2 her breakfast, had the girls play on PollyPocket.com, took them all with me to drop YaYa off at school and then to my Mom’s house to complete a favor for her.

All in a day’s work for the Mrs., but a primo accomplishment for me.

And (drum roll please) . . .

When I noticed her overnight diaper was dry I asked my youngest daughter if she wanted to go pee on the potty. She said yes, and after one false alarm FILLED the training potty, proudly marched it in to show her sleeping momma, then back to the bathroom where she herself flushed the toilet and waved ‘bye bye’.

You know, if I read this on someone else’s site I’d gag.

Fortunately, my kids never seem to bore . . .

The swingset continues to be a hit. The kids ask to use it before school, after school, in the dark, the rain, and the cold.

They’d use it in a tornado if I’d let them.

Also, I sense a nickname coming for Parker: Baby B.

I wanted to make its source known because I’ve been disputed on these things before.

My youngest daughter’s name for her sister is “Ya Ya”. I’ve heard talk that this is some corruption of her name, or maybe a mispronunciation of ‘sister’.

Wrong.

When we had our station wagon I’d load the kids from the passenger side. Inevitably my oldest would hem and haw with some excuse for not sliding over.

“Yeah, yeah. Move over,” I’d say.

And the name was born.

Yesterday afternoon I fed the baby outside while the girls played on the swingset. The almost two-year old, with her mothering instincts, rushed over to help me.

I was fine with it for a minute, but when she tried to take over Parker started crying.

“Let baby be, “ I said, annoyed.

And it dawned on me how often I say that to her.

Look for more adventures of YaYa, Baby B, and their (as yet un-nicknamed) sister in the days to come.

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The Post where I waste an afternoon defending Paula Abdul May 5th

Last night was this couch potato’s dream day. A brand new episode of Lost, and American Idol, and to top it off, the hour-long Primetime Live special on Paula Abdul, “Fallen Idol”.

The special accuses Paula of having an affair with a former contestant, Corey Clark, who in addition to more biblical rewards received special coaching, cash, and a cell phone.

Now I could waste 700 words on why, even if true, this didn’t affect the result of the show. Corey Clark had enough talent to make it to the top ten by his lonesome, viewers do the actual voting from that point on, no one listens to Paula’s too-lenient judging anyway, and ‘twas nobody that was about to outlast the tag-team of Reuben and Clay.

Of course that doesn’t change the fact that in theory, the show’s integrity was breached.

I don’t know if the allegation is true, but if it is, I didn’t see the proof of it last night.

For starters, Corey’s motives are pretty transparent. He has a CD coming out and managed to con ABC into showing him in the recording studio more than a few times. He has a beef against the show (he was kicked off after it was revealed he’d lied about his arrest record), and has stated he’ll refuse to aid any Fox investigation. One minute - one minute - after the show ended his tell-all book appeared for sale online.

So he’s an opportunistic creep, and at best a not very trustworthy lover.

But is he a liar?

Five years ago I’d have had more faith in the research of a major network, but after Rathergate those days are past. Remember, AI is burying the other networks (like ABC) in its timeslot.

Long on story but short on evidence, with leading questions and cheap theatrical stunts, it reminded me more of Inside Edition than anything put out by ABC News.

The facts, as presented in the story:

Phone records from Clark’s home to a number purported to be Paula’s Whether it was her phone number or not was never mentioned; I guess we’re supposed to assume they checked into that.

A cash receipt from a clothing store. Yikes, that’s the nail in the coffin.

A clerk(s?) at a Sprint PCS store, never seen on camera, alleges that Paula accompanied Corey to activate a phone. Corey says numerous times the affair was top-secret, and that no one could know they were seeing each other. So why risk it all for something as simple as getting a phoneturned on?

With AI’s exclusive contract with Sprints competition, why did/would Paula bother with a different company when odds are she had phone service for free? Remember, Corey implied she had Sprint prior to getting his phone - not to avoid detection.

(personal note: as a Sprint customer, let me just say: I trust the word of a typical Sprint clerk as much as I do, oh, that drunk on the corner who swears the money he’s asking for will go towards a good meal)

A liquid prescription bottle with Paula’s name on it. Assuming he didn’t go dumpster diving, I’d like proof it was hers. I can go to a clinic and get a prescription in the name of Genghis Khan if I pay in cash.

[And what was with those seven AI cast-offs that were brought it and nudged and prodded towards embarrassing themselves on TV? Note to crybabies: you lost because you weren’t as good a singer as the rest, not because of any scandal. Geesh. Their self-pity and inflated egos match, well - my own.]

Maybe the thugarific Corey, his equally thuggish friends, and his fine upstanding family (who agreed to ‘cover up the affair’ but allege they were dead-set against it from the start) are telling the truth.

Maybe they are. It’s possible - it may even be probable.

But 60 minutes of poorly done fluff did nothing to prove it to me.

ABC should be embarrassed.

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Idiot of the Day

Ugh. How embarrassing is this: I was all pumped up to see a Vatican art exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum.

I drove my daughter to school, went across town to pick up my sister, braved horrible downtown construction to find a parking spot, blah blah.

I get to the ticket window and hear "I'm sorry sir. That exhibit is next year."

Yup, it runs from Feb to May of 2006.

Why they've had flyers and ads out since New Years is beyond me, but yes, I qualify for 'idiot of the day'.

Parker Smiles!

As promised, here's two pics of the future Hall-of-Famer as he grins at his Mom and Dad!

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