I am just listening to the Jerry Springer show on the radio. One of his topics of discussion today was a recent high school basketball game in Oklahoma. The newsworthy event of the game was that the Earlsboro HS team beat the Hanna HS team by the score of 112-2 Ouch! Here is a link from MSNBC. The discussion on the radio has to do with how the Earlsboro coach could have prevented his team from running up the score so much. (Putting in third-stringers, passing more, e...
Next Friday, we will have another baby boy. Our oldest son is pretty interested in the baby stuff that we're setting up again. He wants to be a baby in the crib. Today a package arrived from Japan. Grandma and Grandpa sent a bunch of stuffed Anpanman dolls. Kenny was too busy watching Anpanman on TV to put his heart into posing for this picture.
This Halloween was our son's first time out Trick or Treating. He went around the neighborhood with daddy for a while, and then he went out with mommy. He liked putting the candy in his bag by himself (but he didn't like holding the bag!) He enjoyed knocking on doors and saying "bye bye", but he didn't like seeing kids dressed in the "Scream" costume. Cute. Kenny got to ride in the wheelbarrow around the neighborhood. daddy and baby. mommy and baby. ...
My son Kenny in his Halloween costume. (He's a monkey) We had a roll of film developed today. Here's a cute one from (probably) this summer.
Today I was thinking about the funniest moments of situation comedies. I was thinking about times that made me laugh out loud. Here are a few of my favorites. 1) The Marble Rye, Seinfeld . I was busting a gut when Jerry was on the sidewalk, trying to heave a loaf of bread up to George in an apartment. 2) Carry a rich man around in his pajamas, Cheers . I was howling with the various excuses Norm gave to the CEO (I can't remember his character's name, but he was played b...
My wife and I received a Halloween card in the mail today. Our friends Andy and Chialing sent us a cute picture of their baby in a Halloween costume. What a sweetie!
Every night before my son goes to bed, he likes to watch an episode or two of Popeye. We had a 30 minute Popeye show saved on our DVR. (I must have recorded the last Popeye show on Boomerang, because they don't broadcast an all-Popeye show anymore.) Last night was no different. He watched a Popeye, I turned off the TV, and then he went to bed. After baby went to bed, my wife and I sat down to watch Tuesday's "Boston Legal." I was having a conversation with my wife while I was retrievin...
Two days ago my family had an interesting day with cars. I went to the bank during lunch time to make a deposit. After finishing up, my car wouldn't start! I had to call a tow truck to bring my car to a garage. It seems that my alternator had broken, and was taking charge out of my battery. So I got that fixed... The interesting thing about this story is that when my wife was leaving the house to bring me home from work, she noticed that she had left her headlights on all day, and her ...
Yesterday my son and I went to the flu shot clinic at the medical center in our home town. There were all sorts of people there lining up to get their shots. It was certainly the place to be! While we were there, I overheard numerous people proclaiming how they "hate needles." There were many people who were making quite the deal out of getting a little shot. I bet that it makes the nurses cringe every time they hear that (unless they're already numb to it.) I think that it is one of t...
Yesterday, my family took a trip to an apple orchard in Buffalo, MN. At the orchard there are apples, a petting zoo, wagon rides, pumpkins, and a nice little store. I had gone there earlier this year with a group of kindergardeners, and I thought that my son would get a kick out of it too. Kenny liked the donkeys. One of the donkeys started to bray. Baby wasn't so brave after that. Mom and baby on the wagon ride.
This weekend is the "Minnesota Education Association Convention" weekend. Schoolkids have a four-day weekend, and it is a reasonably big travel weekend in Minnesota. (Do they have a four-day convention break in other states?) My family spent part of the weekend on what should be our last camping trip for a couple years. (New baby coming...) This time out was our son Kenny's first camping trip. (He had a REALLY good time, but kept mom awake most of the night. ...
I am sure that this has happened to everyone who at one point in their life has had either a stressful, or a repetitive job. You go to sleep, end up dreaming about your job, wake up, and then realize that you have to go to work. It is like working two consecutive shifts! The other day I experienced kind of a variation to that dream. For a good part of the night, I dreamt that I was having a hard time going to sleep. As soon as it seemed that I could finally get to bed, something else cam...
Yesterday Vicki -my student teacher- was going over a vocabulary worksheet with one of our fifth graders. It was one of those fill-in-the-blanks activities designed to help familiarize students with upcoming vocabulary. I was doing something in some other part of my classroom when I heard Vicky say this: "Listen to this. You wrote: 'My brother went on a slave trade to Mecca last year.' Is that right?" I got a real kick out of that. The original is number 2.
When you're a kid, every year you can expect a new professional photo of yourself. Once school is finished, that's all done. Now that I teach at a school, I once again receive annual portraits. Two years ago I was happy with my pictures. Last year they weren't so good. My pictures this year weren't so bad. Here they are.
One of my favorite singer/ songwriters is Liz Phair. Whenever she puts out a new CD I tend to buy it, and I look forward to seeing her music videos. Since she has recently put out a new CD, I bought that one yesterday. What one seems to find in most Liz Phair releases is a mix of her "pop" songs, and those where she adheres to her own "indy rock" style that she's developed over the years. (Her personal style is kind of an acoustic folk-rock, with her voice tending towar...