It could happen only to me

That awkward moment at the grocery store when someone congratulates you on your weight loss while you have three pies in your hands.

The Community Center Food Pantry Walk 2016

Earlier this month Team Slap participated once again in the charity walk for the local food pantry. It's one of the ways we try and give back to the community, and it's become an annual tradition. 

The night before I took the kids to the store and allowed them to each buy five dollars worth of food to donate, in addition to our cash gift. 

Early the next morning, under a cloudy sky threatening rain, we met up with friends at the Community Center. 

Grace's friend Nick walked with us, and very kindly offered his condolences on the loss of Jaspare. 

And then we were off, sticking to the longer 3 mile course. The organizers claim it's only 2.6 miles, but even the map they hand out betrays that white lie. 

For the second year my friend Tre and his family joined us!

Smiley spent much of the walk watching over my Godson. Cutest moment of the day: seeing the two of them skip, hand in hand, near the end of the walk. 

Alas, the skies broke open near the start of the walk and we spent the majority of it wading, undeterred, through a big rainstorm. 

Afterwards, soaked to the bone, we (well, everyone but me) dined on ice cream at the community center before walking home. 

I look forward to participating again next year, and hope to enlist even more people into joining us!

The First Day of School 2016-2017

Lu

ZZZ

My sleep this week

I'll Miss This

At quarter after midnight I called my Mom. She answered on the first ring, wide awake. That's something I'll miss decades from now.

I always enjoyed their sleep habits when they were on 18th, no matter the time of day or night, someone could be found wide awake LOL - Lisa

Pity Them

I feel a bit of pity - just a wee smidge - for those who don't relish an election year. The adversarial divisions, the angst , the nation's compulsive obsession with November and the abrupt end of it all on a cold Tuesday -- I relish it. I *wallow* in it? How can you not?

Smiley Quits Dance

Smiley has asked to quit dance and Lisa has acquiesced. I am in mourning. I don't raise quitters. I'm hoping he changes his mind.

[in response to a comment saying to let the kid do what he wants] That's entirely , fundamentally incorrect. If you only did what a kid wanted to do they'd do nothing all day but sit and watch TV - no school ,no extracurricular, no chores.

I'm in between on this.... Kids must be forced to do things they don't want to do, because they will grow up and have to do things they don't want to do all the time, better to get them used to it. But, I think his disinterest and ill feelings on dance has been growing stronger and therefore more legitimate and we need to support his decision. Hopefully he'll find something else physical soon to keep up his health. - Lisa

An Angry Morning

Holy shit** I woke up in a bad mood. In a prior life I would have just razed a village or burned a heretic at the stake to chillax, but since that's "frowned upon" nowadays, I'll just internalize it and die of stress by sixty.

The Nice Guys

Fun movie imo.

A medical update

I went to my physician today to follow up on the chest pain, but after a short wait he came out and told everyone in the waiting room there was a staffing problem and we'd have to reschedule. Swell. I wasn't going to wait and fret another week so I went to a local urgent care. A nurse hooked me up to an EKG and pronounced my sinus rhythm normal, showing no evidence of a heart attack, and said it was probably muscle strain combined with a bad panic attack. He said the dr wanted some more tests, and plopped me back in the waiting room. Ninety minutes later,still waiting but with class looming, I thought "F this" and bolted. I'm going with the panic attack/muscle strain theory, and thus will happily resume both gym and romantic activity.

My Thoughts

The American Bar Association has proposed withholding accreditation to any law school that has less than 75% of its graduates pass the bar exam within two years of graduation. The National Black Law Students Association has objected, expressing concerns it will negatively affect minority schools. In my opinion, the NBLSA stance only promotes the idea that minorities are incapable of doing the job unless given preferential treatment, which is insulting and ridiculous - and presumably not the organization's desired goal.

[in response to someone who commented that minority students attended simply to learn enough to defend their rights, not to work as attorneys] No one attends law school, at the cost it is, to simply know their rights. It's financial suicide. And the 75% pass rate applies ONLY to graduates that sit for the bar. In your scenario, the school wouldn't have an issue because those casual learners would not count toward the statistic. Law school is a trade school. A phenomenally expensive one, but a trade school. A school that fails more than a quarter of their graduates serves no one well, least of all the student mired in debt.

I think those are points are well said but merely rationales for the institutional failure. Arguing against the bar exam seems to occur, no surprise, only when the inability to conquer it threatens the livelihood of an academic institution. Even if it was the worst gateway possible, which I don't believe it is, it is THE gateway to the job, and you know that going in. Mandate part of a L3's curriculum be devoted to bar prep - one credit perhaps - and be done with it. And as near as I can tell from following tales of woe in The National Jurist over the last few years, there are schools that deserve to lose accreditation.

A Scare

A scare tonight. I had severe pain in my left arm, and as a long time fat man I grew concerned. My anxiety led the pain to expand to my jaw, at which time - after stopping at a friend's house to try and relax - I went to the ER. One look at the wait there and I turned tail and left. Once I did so the pain immediately lessened. I'll still follow up with my physician, but it's probably a pulled muscle from lifting weights yesterday. Or my impending death. Either/or.

Everyone in Politics is a Hypocrite

How True this is!

A Day at the Gym

Went to the gym and lifted weights with Smiley while Junie spent an hour in the daycare area there. On the way home the skies opened up and the rain was so bad I pulled over for a few minutes. That's Smiley's fault; just moments before he said he hoped it would "rain loud."

Nonsensical Pandering

In the wake of the recent terror bombings, Clinton has been quick to eliminate any mention of religion as a motivation for the attacks. To mention it, we are told, would only make radical Islamic violence happen more often. Even tho it, you know, it supposedly isn't happening at all. 

Let's  go over that logic. You can't say terrorism has nothing to do with Islam and simultaneously claim that addressing that claim will inspire more terror. That's . . . loopy. 

 #Enabler #Sucker #WrongForAmerica

Kubo and the Two Strings

Smiley and I had some father-son time this afternoon. I didn't know much about the film going in, but my son has good taste and chose an excellent movie. Visually grand, with a solid story and engaging characters, I recommend this to anyone. Thanks for hanging with me Smiley!

The Girl With All the Gifts

The first fifth of the book should be a primer on novel construction in creative writing classes; from there it descends into a standard, if literary, zombie tale.

I Wish

It is but a passing fancy, and no words are therefore needed to dissuade me, but today I feel very much like going full fat guy again. Say, eat a large pizza and garlic bread by myself, then sit and search for the TV remote between my fat rolls. You know, like in the #goodOldDays

A New View of Jupiter

Jupiter's south pole as seen by the Juno spacecraft. Amazing!

An update

Aside from my son being a complete spoiled jerk for two days in a row, and a funeral on the horizon, I spoke to my Mom today and was alarmed at the precipitous drop in her intelligibility. I literally could not understand a single word she said. I immediately called my Dad who said the cause is unknown; not a stroke, but perhaps caused by a lack of oxygen. Life, at the moment, is not kind.

Also - while walking to pick the kids up from school I stopped to talk to one of their classmates. A minute later he crossed the street on his bike and was struck by a car. He's OK, but man, what a day.

Challenge Accepted

The best thing about living in a First World country is I can leave my water running all day so it's nice and cold when I get home #MyWaterChoice

Hypocrisy

I'm watching a Jon Benet Ramsey Dateline special. I find it deliciously hypocritical that the press hounds someone to speak, then castigates and vilifies them for doing so.

Odd

Clinton is trying out claims that her slip in the polls is due to inherent sexism in the electorate. Odd she didn't mention that when she had a 15 point lead weeks ago.