YaYa's 5th Birthday Party

The day didn't start very well.

I was getting ready to go into work for a few hours when I received a phone call. Picture this said with a cheery voice, rapid fire, and a bit of an 'upspeak' at the end of every sentence.

"Is this Dan?" the caller asked. "My name is X and I'm a neighbor of Tracy. He was cleaning his gutters when he fell off a ladder. His legs are immobilized and he wanted me to call you and ask you to come see him before the ambulance takes him to St. Lukes"

Tracey, aka Tre, has been a friend of mine since Boy Scouts, my best friend since college, the best man at my wedding, and YaYa's Godfather.

I got to his house in time to see the ambulance drive off. Luckily, once I got to the hospital I found my friend in good spirits, with 'only' a muscle tear in his leg for the trouble.

Yikes.

The rest of the day went much better.

We had YaYa's birthday party at Paulo's, a 50's themed pizza parlor/diner. For months before the party Lisa and her mother worked on making real poodle skirts for every girl to wear (and take home as a favor!).

Note the coordinating scarves and Marilyn Monroe moles on their cheeks . . .

 It wasn't just YaYa's party though. She is very close in age to Lisa's friends daughter, and Meadow celebrated as well.

There was a fine turnout, despite the fact that $ concerns (and a heaping helping of kids in the family and among our friends) severely limited the number of classmates invited.

Her step-Grandmother decided to enjoy the day and dress appropriately

One of the neat aspects of Paulo's is a free jukebox jammed with 50's classics, including my fave Buddy Holly

and a bunch of hula-hoops for patron's use, with a bumper sticker awarded for showing off. At one point YaYa's friends Jordan and Emma had a hula hoop battle royale:

 [ Note Parker poking his head into a lot of these shots :) ]

At some point LuLu decided to get a little antsy

But then we decided to open gifts and eat some cupcakes

After Happy Birthday both girls gave a pretty rendition of "I'm Five Years Old" which lead to a genuine round of applause

The the gift opening. Frankly, YaYa was spoiled. She got so many gifts, of such quality, that we scrapped the gift we were going to give her (a Spiderman themed Barbie where she is dressed in a wedding dress as Mary Jane; she'da freaked!) and instead stuck with only a Rapunzel dress up outfit.

[the ant hill was scrapped when we found out the life expectancy was under three weeks, and that it could not be restocked naturally, as Queen ants cannot be shipped. Oh, our Praying Mantis is still kicking weeks (a month or more?) into her stay with us, but the grasshopper passed and turned into Mantis food]

Here's our gift, and da** the red eye filter for messing with her eyes in the shot.

But I love/adore this pic, and my memories of the moment

That's her best school friend Sophia in the shot with her. Oh, the little boy that proposed to YaYa last year, the boy she swoons over and is infatuated with (and who admittedly is the nicest boy in the class showed up. His name is Dan. Her famous quote: "Isn't it funny Momma how your husband's name is Dan, and my boyfriends name is Dan too?"

After the party at Pulos (a great deal for how many folks we fed, btw) some of the girls went to the hotel for a sleepover in the Cadillac room, where a real '57 Caddy and big screen TV awaited them.

[For space reasons even fewer girls made it to this leg of the party. Among the excluded, unfortunately, were some of her best friends ]

The girls went swimming in the hotel pool, watched Grease and Bye Bye Birdie on the TV, listened to '50's CD's on the car's radio, and went to McDonald's for breakfast. The only bad part: LuLu got her hands caught in the Caddy's door. No harm done, but she wasn't a happy camper for awhile there :(

Meanwhile Parker and I retired home to watch the opening of the World Series and Badger hockey on PBS. Well, I watched that stuff. He slept :)

A great day (even with all the cold rain and early morning drama) and an enjoyable and memorable 5th birthday party for YaYa.

 

WTF???!!!

Ok, now I'm pis**ed.

I jump onto Slapinions tonight to do a post, and the hit counter reads '7'

Seven.

Last year I was up to more than 30,000 and the hit counter went to zero.

Then it goes back up to ~5,000.

And down to zero.

Today it was up to 1340-ish and again . . .

Ugh.

Look, a hit counter is nothing but a visual expression of an ego trip. I realize that. But it means something to me, and more to the point the continued problem means AOL is doing jack to fix the problem.

I know you can reset your own hit counter, but I shouldn't have to do it.

I'm not going to make any rash comments about leaving AOL, even though I have slapinions.com ready to go whenever I want . . but I like AOL, and I like this journal, and I can even tolerate the gawd-awful term "J-Land".

But WTF.

Ugh.

Update: Well, hot dog! I just added a site meter counter in the 'about me' section per one of the comments on this post.

Some Book Reviews

I'm having a lot of fun writing for Slapinions lately - writing in general, really - so you'll have to excuse the frequent posts. [Not that anyone reads this blog, but just in case.]

Recently I began my semi-annual ‘Hey, I just paid off my library fines!’ reading binge.

First on my plate was Old Man’s War, a science-fiction novel by AOL’s very own John Scalzi.

Old Man’s War follows the familiar but beloved path of Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers (one of my favorite books, btw) as we follow John Perry, a new recruit into an army whose sole purpose is to wreak havoc on the alien enemies of mankind.

But here’s the twist: John is seventy-five years old, as are all the recruits. On the edge of their last years on Earth (in every sense of the term) they are granted a newly cloned and modified body in exchange for ten years of service.

As I said the book is very much an homage to Starship Troopers in that both are brutal and militaristic futures where war seems perpetual. Along the way, however, Scalzi twists the plot and settings just enough to breathe original life into his universe. He refuses to be a clone of Heinlein - no pun intended - and the effort shows on the page.

I loved the first few pages, which were beautiful and more than enough to hook me into the story. I did think the ending was a little flat, and there was a brief page of dialogue (when the recruits are still in training) where the conversation seems too . . . Woody Allen, with well thought out and witty comments pouring out of every character.

Definitely recommended.

So is its sequel (?) The Ghost Brigades.

This time the story follows Jared Dirac, a clone of Charles Boutin, mankind’s greatest traitor. Jared was created to track down Boutin by recreating his memories, but along the way he begins to craft his own ideas about the bloody and ethically challenged universe around him.

I think this book was by far the better of the two, well thought out and intelligently written. As it can function as a stand-alone novel I would almost encourage you to pick this one up first.

* * * * * *

A brief note in the afterward of one of Scalzi’s novels pointed me toward the next book, The Risen Empire by Scott Westerfeld.

Normally this wouldn’t be my cup of tea - strongly technical, ‘hard’ sci-fi. But I found myself quickly involved in the story and the subtle but powerful writing of Westefeld.

In the future mankind is ruled by an emperor who died 1600 years ago. His reanimated self is the gift he has given his people - the opportunity to cheat death by way of a symbiant implanted after death. His empire has grown stale and decadent, and the Rix - a computer driven enemy - has successfully planted itself on a Imperial planet.

Among a web of lies and betrayals the crew of one vessel must stave off the invasion and rescue the population of that world from its own Emperror.

Told from varying points of view and jumping from one year to another, the tale grabs you and won’t let go.

The same goes for its sequel The Killing of Worlds. My only criticism of that book is that the secret of the Emperror - the knowledge that has driven the action of both books - is rather tame and frankly, not all that horrifying. I can't say more without giving it away, but if I was one of his subjects I'd contemplate it for a minute, then say "That sucks. But it's better than the alternative. Carry on."

* * * *

Next up was The Coming by Joe Haldeman, chosen because simply because I saw it on the shelf when I picked up Killing. The best part of this pathetic book was the premise explained on the cover: a message from space is intercepted. It says only ’we’re coming’ and the world is left to deal with the impending arrival of ???. Haldeman should give half his royalties to that copywriter, because the rest is a waste. Spare yourself this book; the ending alone is so weak it wouldn’t cut it in a second-rate slasher film.

So it’s beyond me why I picked up another Haldeman book, Forever Peace. Although I disagree vehemently with the ‘solution’ proposed and carried out in the book, it was an enjoyable and entertaining read.

In the near future Soldier-Boys, robots built for war and controlled telepathically from afar, rule the battlefield. Julian Class is in control of such a beast one week a month, and a professor the rest of the time. As the war drags on and society has finally discovered a way to end the universe itself, it also discovers a means to end war forever.

Recommended.

* * * *

The Hard Way by Lee Child is yet another book featuring the great Jack Reacher. It’s basically more of the same old Reacher, but when the bar is so high to begin with, that’s just fine by me. Recommended.

Lisa's 30th Birthday and My Dad's 60th

Friday (the 20th) was my wife's 30th birthday and my Dad's 60th.

I took the day off and we reduced our child-care responsiblites by 1/3rd early on, as YaYa went over to a friends house. The remaining four of us headed over to my Mom's in the early afternoon.

It was a nice, simple affair. It began wtih the fun part: opening presents.

She'd been asking for a pepper mill/salt grinder forever, and the kids bought one for her from Bed Bath & Beyond

She really loved it! A bullseye for once! She really, truly loved it.

We bought my Dad a Donald Duck T-shirt (he's a Donald fan) and a book of essays from the Abraham Lincoln Association.

Here's a funny moment. While Lisa was opening her gifts I looked over to see my Dad, king of all that is shy/quiet/wallflowerish most of the time,busily opening his own presents while no one was watching.

"Dad!," I said. "What're you doing? Where are your social skills?!"

His sincere and loud response:

"I don't have any social skills!"

Here's a shot of all of Lisa's gifts. A pedometer and a Jordan Knight CD from me, the salt/pepper set from the kids, some candy, Diet Coke, a calendar, and clothing gift certificate.

Then came the (cheese)cake.

After the party my folks took the two little one's overnight, and we picked YaYa up and took her over to my in-laws. We visited awhile and they took her overnight.

Then I took Lis to a new (to us) italian restaurant, maybe the best Italian place where we've ever eaten. My God, I must have gained 5 pounds, and no regrets; it was too good for guilt!

At home again we settled down to watch The Office Season 1, then we, uh . . well, the kids were gone :)

Just FYI

I spend a lot of time at BaseballThinkFactory.com - an obscene amount of time actually. I love their newsblog and the insightful and hilarious comments left there (though to warn you, the posters often lean leftist/atheist/libertarian politically and enjoy having it spill over into their baseball comments).

I enjoyed commenting for awhile this summer, but then someone on the site decided to launch a nasty, over-the-top response to a critique I posted of one of his opinion. I said the he** with it and stopped commenting. I've got better things to do than argue with a kook online.

So I lurk, the same as the mysteriously high # of folks who visit here and leave without commenting ;)

The point: BTF pointed me to www.baseballevolution.com. I haven't had a chance to do more than scan the site, but I came across this great stat:

A playoff team has a 12.5% chance of winning the World Series in the current Wild Card format. The Yankees have made the playoffs every year under these rules, and won the World Series 4 times... a 33.3% rate. So they would need to make the playoffs and not take the World Series trophy 20 more times to even hit the break even mark of probability. It seems that reports of the Yankees floundering in the playoffs are quite unfounded.

Not quite, of course. Move the stats forward, to 2001 to now, and it doesn't sound nearly as rosy.

* * * * * *

As I write this the Tigers are getting slaughtered in game 1 of the Series. I don't feel strongly one way or the other about this series, but still yawn when I think of the Cards. So I stand by my prediction - Tigers in 5.

* * * *

I notice a deep dislike among 'serious' baseball fans for Fox Sports, and Joe Buck and Tim McCarver in particular.

The complaints about Fox itself revolve around their music, graphics, in-game sound, etc. Most of these are hoeey, although Scooter the talking baseball was ghastly stupid.

Tim McCarver I can see. The man talks gibberish many times, but he is entertaining. Joe Buck I just plain like; I don't have a problem with him.

Is it so disliked because it's Fox, flowing from the perception that Fox (being 'conservative') is the enemy?

Or is it because most baseball fans are so obsessed with the game that they develop their own beliefs (in what stats are valuable, in what players are valuable, in what plays are worth the risk and which ones aren't) that they are more comfortable with the announcers muted and their own thoughts playing as a soundtrack?

I vote for the latter.

* *  * * * *

Today was YaYa's birthday party, and yesterday was both my wife's and my father's birthday. I'll post more on both subjects later.

 

Lost Season 3, Week 3

A vast improvement over last week, but I'm still having trouble coming up with something to write about.

Do I think Desmond has a telepathic link with Echo and Locke? No. It's possible I guess, but you can't discern that from the slim evidence in this episode. Desmond knew about the speech before Locke gave it, presumably before he even thought of it. 

To me that points towards some kind of voodoo time distortion. Sure, Desmond himself might be changed now; if you still believe the gist of the island to be supernatural perhaps he is now 'one' with the island and viewed Locke's airport scene.

'Course, that still doesn't explain him referencing the speech, not just the idea that Locke would go after Jack and Kate.

[Besides, if they were all 'connected' why the need to follow a blood trail in the search for Echo? Why not just do a Luke/Leia and 'ping' Echo?]

Or he's dead and come back for whatever reason. He looked a little Jesus-like today, no? Minus the hissy fit when Hurley wanted to debate, of course.

And how could all three survive that mess at the end of Season Two?

As to the airport scene, no real surprises - unless I missed something. Good to hear Charlie and Claire will be ok for awhile.

Were the polar bears real? They looked a little cartoonish to my eyes.

After Locke threw the knife I questioned Hurley's sudden appearance, which certainly seemed to be a 'transformation' from the bear. Is it possible that this is a hint (or a red herring) pointing to the island being part of Hurley's mind?

I have no real knowledge about polar bears, other than they sell a lot of Coca-Cola around Christmas. But is it normal for a polar bear to drag a man to his den and keep him alive for a snack?

Sure did look like kids skeletons in the cave. Creepy. But I don't think the bears (if they're real) are controlled by Dharma or the Others in any substantial way. It doesn't ring true to me, and it doesn't fit the Dharma logo among the bones.

By the way, I thought Echo calling Locke a 'hunter' was a weak and obvious attempt to spook out the audience. Not earth shattering at all.

So Locke grew weed. Interesting, but really, the guy has had more adventures in his life than Dirk Pitt. Time to finish off his flashbacks and move on.

Overall a fun episode that answered some questions and raised some others. Well done.

NLCS Game 7

That was a heck of a game.

Sure, the team I was rooting for lost but it was so good it almost seems . . okay.

From Oliver Perez's unexpected mastery, to Endy Chavez's spectacular catch (which had me screaming for joy), to the coulda-shoulda-woulda bottom of the ninth, it was great.

Kudos to St. Louis for pulling it out, and on to the World Series.

Apparently I'm a post-season jinx, so I hate to make a prediction, but . . . Tigers in 5.

Project Runway Season 3 Finale

How's this for odd: when it came down to the final choice, I was rooting for Jeffrey.

Not because I liked his clothing. On the contrary it seemed to me to be more of the avant-garde, unwearable art pieces that you see made fun of in satires of the industry. The exception was his fourth piece, apant outfit that I thought was very hot and attractive.

No, it was because of his remaining opponent, Uli.

I think Uli won the Fashion Week runway, no doubt about it. Her pieces were attractive, showed range, and except for the jarring transition to color late in the show, coherent.

But I also think she was a waste of space on the show, a one-note Nellie who snuck into the finale only because her final runway challenge dress was undoubtably the best of the bunch. She had to be chosen the winner that week, and by default be included in Olympus Fashion Week.

I could almost hear the judges regret when they put her through; hence the four person finale.

But on the big day  she rocked, and Michael (my favorite and America's) fell off the pace with an over the top, very provacative line. Laura, who my wife felt deserved to win, I felt played it too safe (again!) and was just plain bland.

So it was down to Uli and Jeffrey.

The judges - wisely - seemed to go with the person (of the two) who'd been the most consistent the whole season.

And so the a*hole won.

I'm still not 100% convinced he didn't outsource some of his work. He sure seemed a little shady about the whole thing, and reacted out of character when the accusation was put out there.

[I wonder: if he did cheat, is it possible the designer kicked out for cheating earlier was framed, as he suggested? Possibly by someone who wanted a talented designer out of the way, someone like Jeffrey?]

Still, to paraphrase Laura, I'm glad the battle was fought on the runway, not in the accountants office.

Overall, the weakest season of the three, talent wise. Even so I think you'll see Michael and Laura again, Uli will find her niche, and Jeffrey will be a 'coulda been' in the industry.

Time will tell.

Two Pics of YaYa

Here's two pics of YaYa. I'm not playing favorites, I just stumbled across these two and decided to post them. I'll certainly do the same for LuLu and Parker when I find the same.

Parker's Table Manners

Here's a pic from September 9th of Park sitting at the table eating his dinner by his own choice. Keep in mind, the vast majority of the time he's still in his high chair when he eats.

He drinks out of a regular cup, insists on a fork and uses it better than his sister's ever did, and routinely throws his food whenever he feels he's full.

We're trying to stop that of course.

Ditto his disgust for anything green and healthy. He'll tear up fruit and other colored veggies, but green just isn't his color.

He'll make a bad banker some day. :)