Barry Munday

We watched 'Barry Munday' last night, an indie comedy about a man who loses his testicles and then learns he impregnated one of his last lovers. It's a very sweet but dry film, w/ a few scattered LOL's, and Lisa liked it a lot. I wasn't as thrilled, but it was OK.

Election news, some random pics, and other malarkey

Nov 1st

Yest was a long day. I took Lu to church to sell candy w/ her Brownie troop (my rare contribution to her Scouting; Lisa's one of the leaders), then went off to work before returning at halftime of the Sunday Night Football game. Meanwhile Lis took the kids trick or treating again (Milwaukee has different times than Bay View) and ran the show at home. Another long one ahead of us today . .

I've finished "Worth Dying For" the latest Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child. 'twas a time, a few yrs ago, when I thought the series was going to hell, and quickly, but he's turned it around BIG time with the last 3 bks. Very enjoyable. Book geeks - who'd win a three way fight: Reacher, Joe Pike, or Spenser?

Some random phone pics:









Except in cases where the obvious exceptions apply (illness, travel, deployment, handicap) absentee voting is absolute BUNK. Getting off your butt & showing up at the polls is a sign to the world of how much you value YOUR voice being heard. It's also a great way to teach kids the same lesson. If you reduce the act to something akin to filling out a sweepstakes form or voting for A. Idol, all the more shame on you.

Nov 2nd - General Election Day

[re Disney star Demi Lovato dropping out of a tour to receive treatment for mental illness] Save the snark. I wish her well.

The Brewers have hired virtual unknown Ron Roenicke as their new manager. Roenicke was the bench coach of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. There are rumors that he got the job only after $ caused talks with Bobby Valentine to break off, but the club denies that they wanted anyone else. True or not, best of luck to him.



Drudge is calling the WI Senate race for Johnson, but I'm loathe to rely on exit polling with voting still open. We'll have to wait and see.

Family night in progress: pizza and garlic bread, followed by homework and a rental of Toy Story 3. YaYa and LuLu are even getting along, chit chatting, helping each other with chores and homework and standing up for one another. That last bit just isn't right. The world seems somehow . . . off.

Obama: Agenda 'all at risk' if GOP wins today. Let's hope so.

‎{Fair Warning: Gonna be a lot of political posts tonight. If it isn't your thing, feel free to scroll on by.} "Tea Party Scores Multiple Victories, ABC News Projects Rand Paul Win in Ky. Senate Race"

‎*Fair Warning: Gonna be a lot of political posts tonight. If it isn't your thing, feel free to scroll on by.* Dan Coats won Evan Bayh's seat in Indiana, marking the first Senate gain for the GOP today; also, as reported below controversial Rand Paul (R) will win in Kentucky.

CNN.com is now reporting that the House is in GOP hands . . .

Nov 3rd

Ah, happy day, happy day! Here in WI we put Scott Walker in the Governor's chair & knocked Feingold on his keister. Nationally the GOP picks up at least *60* seats and control of the House, the largest gain since 1948. The only downer was the local defeat of two folks I know. November 2nd 2010 = a great bleepin' day.

In non election news, Toy Story 3 was great, if a wee dark for the younger kids. Kudos to Pixar for crafting a fine trilogy. Later Lis and I watched the Swedish film "The Girl Who Played With Fire". Bleh. It was so slow we didn't even watch it clean through. Weird - the bk was better than the over-hyped Dragon Tatoo, but the movie version of that blew this sequel away.

Your likely Speaker of the House, John Boehner of Ohio.

One last political blurb (for the time being). I notice, coming off a trouncing, Dems, including Harry Reid, are big on saying "we must work together". I'm not against the notion, but uh, where was that crap when your Prez was telling Republicans to "sit in the back of the bus" and to "shut up"? How hypocritical to ask for courtesy when you were willing to offer none when YOU had the power.

[failed Gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett states he'll run for re-election as Mayor of Milwaukee] This one doesn't count. It's local. :) Yeah, he's an allright Joe, but I think Barrett has done little more than tread water and raise my property taxes as mayor. I just don't know anyone (better) who is interested in running right now, so he may get a bunch of votes by default.

Nov 4th

I just finished 'Splice' , a horror film about a genetically engineered humanoid. It wasn't terrifying, but it was intelligent & raised some valid concerns about that line of research. It also featured the oddest sex scene I've ever seen in a mainstream film. BTW, I found the female researcher morally repugnant, start to finish. In another life she would have been sewing kids together in a concentration camp.

[a follow up to Lovato] Again, save the snark. She seems like a very nice, talented young woman and my kids like her. According to her parents, she suffers from both eating disorders and a history of cutting. My prayers are with her.

Some pics I took while waiting for YaYa's dance class to let out

FB - the end of October

Oct 22nd

Nothing happens until it happens to you.

I received notice today that I *didn't* get that job. A 90 min interview that went like buttah, passed the reasoning/honesty test, good references, the right experience & education . . . & nada. At this point I usually doubt my own worth, but in this instance, the last step (credit ck) had to be the nail in the coffin. Two yrs ago, w/ every bill pd promptly on time each month, this job would have been mine. Damn.

Oct 23rd

After work Lisa & I watched "Frozen", a movie about 3 skiers who are mistakenly stranded on a ski lift when the resort closes for the week. From the start you *know* it's going to get ugly - and it does - but it was a solid effort and enjoyable (for us, not them).

Lulu is a big fan of 'Bony Legs' by Joanna Cole

Nine years ago today, at 4:20 in the afternoon, our YaYa came into our lives. Happy Birthday kiddo!

Oct 24th

I'm not a fan of football coverage on CBS. How Phil Simms ever got a job speaking for a living boggles the mind.

We took YaYa to CC's Pizza yest. for her bday, and to preview it for her bday party there today. Great price, good salad/soup, no decor whatsoever, mediocre pizza, artificially pleasant staff. The cinnamon buns rocked, I'll give 'em that. I wouldn't choose to return on my own, but YaYa and Lisa walked away as fans.

New drinking game: take a shot whenever LuLu trips, bumps into a counter, pokes herself in the eye, or otherwise finds legitimate reason to yell "Owieee!". I guarantee even a lush would be drunk by noon. And here's the rub: she's a natural athlete and dancer. Seriously. It just . . . doesn't seem to carry over to everyday life. ;)

[note: this update spawned a witty reply from my friend Carlos. " So that's how you hide the abuse? Get all drunk and blame the kid?
"Oh officer, she fell, seriously" Sad Dan... Really really sad."]

Eat shit and die, you purple wearing hillbilly Judas. [Brett Favre]

Oct 25th (my anniversary)

Dork alert: as of this morning I've met my annual [minimum] reading goal, finishing my 52nd book of the year. My bucket list goal has always been to crack the century mark, but as an adult I've never read more than 84 in a year.

I finished the horror novel "Let the Right One In" by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist. It's the 2nd bk of his I've read, & looking over my list for the yr I think this might very well be THE best bk I've read in '10. He is a writer that can terrify you while never losing a deeply emotional connection to the characters & their world. I am in awe of his talent.

Obviously I dislike Favre. But independent of that, I've noticed for years that the minute he screws up - aka his classic INT's - he begins to limp, hold his elbow, grab his lower back, etc. Sure, he's banged up, but??? I'm not the only one to notice. Quote the article: "Of course, when he briefly believed he had hit . . . a game-winning touchdown . . . Favre was running around like he could do a 4.4-second 40-yard dash."

[from Lisa]: Happy 14th Anniversary!

Milwaukee is facing the worst windstorm since 1998 (a storm that killed four here).

Oct 26th


[a Muslim truck driver is suing his employer after they terminated him for not delivering Miller Lite ]He failed to do his job, wrongly using Islam as an 'out', & now threatens to use it as a club over the head of his former employers. By all rights he should be LOL'd out of town - it is his JOB after all, one he sought out, and one that by definition requires him to also deliver swimsuit magazines, pork products & many other "objectionable" items. Did he refuse those too, and if didn't - why not? Does he pick & choose when to obey his God?

The 30ft tree in front of my house is swaying w/ the wind. Not just the branches, *the whole* tree. Gulp.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel endorses Scott Walker for Governor.

Taylor Swift's album "Speak Now" got a B+ from CNN.com

Watching He-Man on Qubo.

Oct 27th

I stayed up late last night to finish 'The Twelfth Imam' by Joel C Rosenburg, only to have it conclude w/ a cliffhanger. Apparently it's the start of a series. Phooey. I doubt I'll pick up the 2nd bk. The story was good, even if the characters were shallow, but it wandered off into End Times schtuff near the end. C'mon now, this is a CIA thriller, not 'Left Behind'. C.

Oct 28th

Book 'em Danno. Hawail Five-O's James MacArthur passes away. RIP.

YaYa with some of her Taylor Swift posters:






Oct 29th

‎"Get Him to the Greek" was a fun movie, but awfully repetitive. Cut out 2 or 3 scenes - any scenes - and it would be a much better flick.

Oct 30th

Last night we watched the film version of "Let the Right One in", a Swedish film w/ English dubbing. Everyone in the room enjoyed it but I don't think it measured up to the book. Of course, that might just me being a book snob. Of note: the climactic scene was WICKED, and brought a 'Holy Bleep!" from everyone in the room. One of the best 30 seconds of horror *ever*.

[6:20 PM] I'm on the front porch w/ the kids, passing out Halloween candy.

[9:19 PM] Just left a Halloween party @ the invite of our friend Darlene. It featured a haunted house for the kids.

Oct 31st

We just finished watching season one of Hell's Kitchen. Great show. We used to watch the F Word and Kitchen Nightmares on BBC America, so we came into it w/ respect for Gordon, but of the three I think this one is our fave. Time to put season 2 on our Netflix queue.

I've finished "Layover in Dubai", a non-political thriller set in the Middle East. The plot was . . . well, there wasn't much of one, but the setting was rich and detailed and the two main characters were well developed. It held my interest. B.

RIP Theodore Sorensen, one of JFK's aides and speech writer.

A Peaceful Christmas

Happy Boxing Day. I spent Xmas PM making a dinner of ham, potatoes, green beans, and (1st x ever) homemade bread pudding.  The latter was greeted with gag reflexes by the kids, but Lu & Smiley wound up liking it. Then, w/ our friend Chris over it was a night of 'Survivor: Vanuatu', 'Kitchen Nightmares', & Anne Francis in an episode of 'Honey West'.  Hope u all had a great & peaceful Christmas.

Quote from Christmas

"Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, but to weigh and consider" - Francis Bacon Sr (quote on a leather book weight Lisa got me for Christmas)

Fantasy football, some more RIP's, books, and Indian food

October 16th

RIP Mrs. Cleaver (Barbara Billingsley)

Oct 17th

The Badgers knocked off #1 Ohio State! Whoo-hoo! On Wisconsin baby!

German Chancellor Angela Merkel states that German multiculturalism has "absolutely failed." Huh. Between France and Germany, it looks like Europe is finally wising up. Wonder when it'll be our turn?

Neck to neck in my fantasy matchup this week. My gut says it'll come down to the numbers Peyton puts up tonight.

Despite a 3 digit score my fantasy team lost by under 5 pts. Take away Manning's fumble & Cooley's exit, and the game was mine. That makes *3* losses decided by 10 pts or less. An optimist would say that means I've done my homework & just had some bad luck. A pessimist would say that the scores mean I could've won, if only I'd put forth one extra bit of effort. A Dan would say, who cares? I'm 1-5 & dead in the water.

Oct 18th

I just returned from a 90 minute interview with two regional managers who came in from Chicago for the Q&A. Wish me luck - if I don't get it, it certainly isn't for lack of effort.

Oct 19th

Lisa's van had a flat tire this morning, a gash in the sidewall that meant a good chunk of change was spent before 9 a.m. OTOH, our local Pick 'n Save now carries sushi! About time. Whoo-hoo!

RIP Mr. Cunningham (Tom Bosley)

Howsabout that? My fantasy commish intervened in the outcome of last weekend's game, noting that Yahoo failed to properly post a lineup change that should have *cost* my opponent four points. The other owner concurred. The result? I won, changing my W/L to 2-4, which sounds a heck of a lot nicer than 1-5.

I finished Carter's "White House Diary" & will prob do a write-up on my blog. Meanwhile, I polished off Robert B Parker's "Painted Ladies" on the Nook today. It's (presumably) the late author's last Spenser novel, & while it was enjoyable I thought I caught a few instances were characters spoke or acted 'off' - perhaps the hand of a 2nd author polishing the text? Either way, RIP RBP, RIP.

I've been listening to Yankee radio out of an Albany station. So far Texeria pulled a hammy, the Yanks can't bring a run to the plate if you gave them an armed escort, and Josh Hamilton has homered twice tonight (4 for the series). We're going to lose this game, but hopefully we'll regroup and come back to win 3 in a row.

Oct 20th (Lisa's Bday!)

We received our first Christmas card of the year (!), from a blog reader in Great Britain. She wrote that she was sending it on what her post office claimed was the "last possible" date for overseas mail to arrive by Christmas, but acknowledged they were probably full of it. I guess mail service employees are the same the world over, eh?

Whatever your political leanings, the JSOnline "Choose your Candidate in the 2010 Governor's Race" quiz is woefully biased. Every ? is phrased to make one side the devil and the other sound like Christ himself. I would have been turned off by something that blatant on a partisan site, much less in an 'objective' major newspaper.

‎'finished "Write it When I'm Gone" by Thomas DeFrank. It's a collection of Gerald Ford interviews done over a 30yr period, all w/ the understanding they were off the record until his death. No surprises, other than that he was quite an astute predictor of future political events. The text is often circuitous & repeats the same anecdotes chapters apart, but it's an interesting read. B-

Oct 21st

We watched LESLIE, MY NAME IS EVIL (alt title Manson, My Name is Evil). It's either a poorly written attempt to rationalize the Manson murders as a by product of Vietnam, -or- a platonic love story btwn a fictional juror and Leslie Van Houton. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't good either. Ample sex scenes with beautiful women; unfortunately they were covered in blood much of the time. Yuck. C.

A taxpayer funded entity [NPR] fires a man [Juan Williams] for expressing the right to free speech. If his comments were about Christianity and not Islam, NPR would no doubt give him a raise.

The paper today has an article on 'dirt rain' that blanketed Milwaukee recently. As a victim of it myself, it was quite a pain to wash off the car.

Most people are mostly good, most of the time - Gerald Ford

We had white chili and cheese quesadillas for dinner, & the kids gobbled it up without complaint. As a matter of fact there were no leftovers. Bully for them - when I was a kid I wouldn't have tried so much as a bite of it. We've more or less agreed that since the kids are so willing to try new food, we'll cook up Indian soon. Quote Lu: "Indian? Like, Indian corn and stuff?"

Merry Christmas!

It isn't the best picture in the world, but as usual Lisa's done a grand job of decorating our tree. This is our first year with this a 7ft artificial tree that we got for free (yes, free) courtesy of a Craigslist poster who upgraded his own model.

I wish you all a safe and happy holiday with the ones you love as you celebrate our Saviour's birth.

‎"Every mother, when she picks up the young life that has been born to her, looks up to the heavens to thank God for the gift which made the world young again. But here was a mother, a madonna, who did not look up. She looked down to Heaven, for this was Heaven in her arms." Archbishop Fulton Sheen

The Weight by Andrew Vachh

I finished Andrew Vacch's 'The Weight', which I quite liked six weeks ago when I was 50 pgs in. Then, through no fault of the book itself, I had to finish it in blocks of 20 or 30 pgs over a month long period. By the end I resented the hell out of the novel. Couldn't stand to even look at it. Anyhow, it's the last bk I'm reading in '10. I'm done read out for the year.

Quote

If a train is coming @ you, closing your eyes won't save you. But if u look right @ it, you at least have a chance to jump.