Cobb Community Summer Singers

Last year, my former choir director invited me to participate in launching a local community chorus. Flattered, and very interested, I jumped at the chance to work on the project.
We launched the Cobb Community Summer Singers in 2006, held rehearsals on Monday nights from June until August and then held a concert which was very well received. The program consisted of some classical sacred music as well as several spirituals. The recording sounds great, and I am really proud to say that I was a "founding member" of this chorus.
This year, Year Two, we are hitting the ground running. We are trying to improve on our numbers, recruiting more than the 40 we had last year. One of the ways we decided to get the word out was to use a website. Who would create such a website, you might ask. Me, of course.
www.cobbsingers.com
This is my first ever web creation. I had to start it from the ground up, purchasing the domain name, finding a hosting service and then creating and publishing the actual code for the site. It was a challenge for a novice like myself, but I think it turned out all right. Let me know what you think! I am happy to hear any suggestions you might have.
My next task for the site development is to add some photos that I will take during rehearsals. I'd like to also add two pages: one to list out sponsors and donors, where others can choose to make a donation via paypal, and another to launch an application for membership and scholarship (tuition assistance). I think that I can do it, but it will take me some time to work out the particulars.

Don't Go. Don't Go. Don't Go.

I am going back to the gym again, I have been going for the past two weeks. Six pounds in six visits. Not bad, I think.
That's the good part about hitting the gym again. The bad part is that I don't get to spend my mornings with my kids anymore. I used to wake up with them every morning and we would play and have breakfast together before I headed off to work. In order for me to make it to the gym before going to work, I leave a full hour before they even wake up.
The past couple of mornings, Bib Sis comes into our bedroom after she wakes and asks her Mommy where Daddy is. "At work," Mommy tells her. This morning, Big Sis enters the bedroom and before she even asks, she looks at the empty place on my side of the bed and says in a disappointed tone, "Again?"
Ugh. I keep telling myself that it's a good thing for me to keep going. Stories like that really bum me out.

Speaking of things she misses, I traded away my Jeep for a pick-up truck. That's a story for another day, and one worth telling. Big Sis, on the way to dinner tonight asked me where the Jeep was. I told her that we had traded it in for the pickup truck.
"Your pickup truck?" she asked.
"Yep, my pickup truck." I answered.
"I don't like it. I want the Jeep back."
So do I, kid. So do I.

Big Sis is doing great with her potty training. The best part is when she lets my Wonderful Wife know that she has to go, it is all-of-a-sudden the biggest production for her to get to the bathroom.
You know how Road Runner would run in place for a few seconds before he would actually takc off? She's kinda like that. It looks like she would be running sprints in the Olympics, but there isn't much forward motion for all that movement.
The whole way to the potty, she whispers to herself, "Don't go. Don't go. Don't go."
She is a hoot.

My wonderful daughter

Let me fill you in on the past few days around here.
My daughter is wonderful. I love her like crazy, and I'm so glad she's here.

You could stop right there, read no further, and get the message. Want more? Keep right on reading.

Potty Time
Not long after Big Sis turned two we started to encourage her to use the potty. We bought an assortment of "pull-ups", the diapers that work like training pants, and used them whenever we could get her to sit on the potty. We would sit together in the bathroom, waiting for the magical moment when she would produce a few tiny drops and then celebrate with Mini M&Ms and her pull-up diapers.
After a week or so of trying, she started to get bored of the potty. When we asked her if she wanted to sit on the potty, she would tell us, "No," shaking her head in an indifferent sort of way. "I want to use my diaper."
She even got a gift of big-girl underpants from her Grandma with the Disney Princesses. They were a big hit, but didn't change her mind about the potty. My Wonderful Wife and I were a bit discouraged, but we decided we just wouldn't push her. If she didn't want to do it, if she wasn't ready, we couldn't force her. My WW told her, "you can use your diaper until you turn three years old," giving her more than six months, plenty of time to warm up to the idea. "When you are ready to use the potty, you just let us know."
Big Sis seemed relaxed about that, grateful that there was no more potty-pressure. And we all went happily along, using diapers that way for another few months. It wasn't a big deal -- Bubba is still in diapers too, so we have plenty around.
Three days ago, while I was changing her diaper, Big Sis looks up at me and says, "I want to use the potty, Daddy." Stunned, I said, "That's great! ...are you sure?"
"Yes," she said, "It's time."
Um... how old is this kid? "It's Time"?? I couldn't believe it. I wisked her off the changing table and plopped her down on her potty.
And she went.
There was much celebration. Her reward? A pair of her princess underpants. The Snow White ones, to be exact.
Since then, she's had only one accident (that I know of) and she has been using her "big girl underpants" throughout the day. Diapers still at night, of course. Tomorrow is the big test; she returns to pre-school and will spend three hours away from home armed only with some thick training pants.
I am positive that she will do just fine. I am very proud of her.

Mr. Brown Can Moo
For those of you familiar with Dr. Seuss, you might recognize the title of this particular book, Mr. Brown Can Moo. Bubba got this and another Seuss board book as a Christmas gift, but Big Sis has taken them from him for her own personal use. She particularly likes hearing me say all the sounds that Mr. Brown can do, but none more than one special one: the rain. Mr. Brown can sound like the rain, the book tells us. "Dibble Dibble Dopp. Dibble Dibble Dibble Dibble Dopp Dopp Dopp".
I didn't even notice that she took an interest in this one until a week ago when she was singing a song back to me that I was teaching her (I can't remember what song it was -- either "the Song That Never Ends" or "Dr. Worm" by They Might Be Giants). Whenever she couldn't remember the words she would ad-lib with a few dibbles and a few dopps.
My daughter talks to herself a lot. My daughter is kinda funny like that. It's not anything weird, or anything that i worry about. She will narrate her way through the day and not think twice about it. Occasionally she will involve you in her self-carried discussion, but only when she thinks it's a good idea. A day or two after learning how Mr. Brown can sound like the rain, she was using Dibble-Dibble in between sentences.
This wouldn't be a big deal unless you know my sisters. And the big deal isn't actually my sisters, but rather what they remember about me when I was a kid. When I was young, I used (over used) a certain nonsense word often to express all kinds of things, including anger and frustration, satisfaction and happiness. That simple word was "dibby". I even created different forms of that word like it was a Latin noun with different declensions. Oh, I can't even believe I am writing this, or confessing it, but hearing my daughter using "dibble" in between sentences brought back quite a few memories of my own nonsense word.
And it now reminds me of how my three sisters love to bring it up to me whenever we get together. They love to kid me.
With that in mind, I decided to teach my kid something different (but equally funny) to say while wandering around the house...

Gooped up on Gop
You know how you get certain phrases stuck in your head after watching a really funny movie? Movies like "The Mask" are extremely quotable, and these memes have become part of our vernacular. How many times have you heard someone say "Somebody stop me!" in that Jim Carrey tone of voice? Too many times, I'm sure.
The same kind of phrase stuck with me after watching "Austin Powers in Goldmember" a few years ago. The character, Goldmember, while entertaining Austin Powers in his office, offers him a "Smoke and a Pancake". The thing about it is that it sounded more like "Schmoke and a Pankeg", which, to me, is pretty funny. I can't explain it any better, it's just funny to me.
That phrase popped into my head on New Years Eve and as a result I had half of the people at our houseparty that night saying it. "Schmoke and a Pankeg." Cracks me up.
It's even funnier to hear Big Sis say it. Oh man, she is a hoot. She's just trying to please when she repeats it back to me, but man, she is funny.
I started her on another one tonight -- "Gooped up on Gop". I heard it on the radio, referring to how Paula Abdul sounded during several recent interviews. Paula sounded like she was Gooped up on Gop, drowning in the sauce. Of course the publicist blamed it on faulty equipment, and a technical glitch, but let me tell ya: I heard her, and she's gooped up on gop.
Big Sis has a little more trouble saying that one, but we're working on it.

Co-workers, Friends and Readers

I recently had a co-worker mention that they read my blog and they like it.
That's cool.
It's also a little interesting... I didn't expect that this website would remain a secret or anything. A few of my friends know about it, and when anyone asks about it I don't avoid the topic. But there is something a little unsettling about having a co-worker read some of these things.
I have a tracker on this site which tells me data about each visitor to the page. I can find out all sorts of things about you -- where you live, what kind of computer you have, and even some of your web browsing habits. But it doesn't tell me who you are.
I put myself out there on the page and don't expect anyone to sign in or sign up. I don't have a guest book for people to record their visits. I offer a place for comments, but it's certainly not required. The point is, I don't really know much about my reader, but they know about me.
It's true, I don't write much, if anything, about work. I almost avoid the subject entirely; it's just not the point of this blog. And that is a good practice, since I'd like to continue working at that place.
Basically, the reader's benign complement ended up as a reminder that people do read what I write, and that I should be careful about the kinds of things that I post. And that's the reality of the world around me.

Why I watch these movies, and Why I don't go spelunking

The long awaited film, "The Descent," finally arrived from Netflix today. The same night where the mother-in-law offers to take the kids for the evening to give me the the Wonderful Wife a night to ourselves.
After a dinner of wings at an establishment called Buffalo Wild Wing, a place which pales in comparison to my favorite wing joint, Wild Wing Cafe, we decided to head back home to watch an episode or two of "24: Day 5". When we got there we realized that my other Netflix pick showed up as well, the horror flick. I figured that I would have to watch it solo, in the dark quiet of the late night in my office above the garage after WW had gone to bed.
On my way to my comfy chair, I jokingly suggested that we could watch "The Descent" instead of boring old "24", and she said, "Sure."
Wha?
Huh?
Did she just...
"It's been over three years since I watched anything scary," she adds. Upon becoming pregnant with Kid A, she quickly grew a distaste for anything violent or tense on TV, and absolutely refused to watch any kind of thriller or horror movie. Over 36 months later, she has decided that tonight was the night to jump back into the ring.
"Are you sure?" I asked.
"Yeah, sure, it sounds good."
And it was.
This was one of those horror movies which makes you feel uncomfortable from the moment it starts. You don't know exactly why, but things just aren't right. Ok, someone dies right in the beginning of the movie, but from a car accident and not by any supernatural means. Ok, it was particularly shocking, and even a bit gruesome, but it wasn't the scary part of the movie. It served it's purpose for the story, and helped to set a disquieting mood for the rest of the film.
The protagonists of this particular story are a group of six girls who decide that instead of enjoying a weekend of basejumping, mountain climbing, white water rafting or any other of nature's thrills, the best way for them to spend their free time was exploring some underground caves. Boy, were they wrong.
They should have asked me what to do. I never would have sent them into that cave. Why? Because of the monsters, of course.
There was a good hour spent in this movie heightening the tension by following the girls through narrow, dark cave tunnels, each leading to another series of tunnels further underground, even darker than before. They are forced to push on after a (well named) cave-in blocks their known exit. It was just after one of the girls falls and breaks her leg that you see the first of the monsters. Not so creepy at first. Hard to see in the dark. But you know it's there. And the girls can't escape.
And I can't move from my chair.
And I am so uncomfortable.
And my poor wife is enduring this along with me because she loves me.
And she can't move either.
Normally I watch these movies alone and I can pause to take breaks whenever I feel too much pressure. I avert my eyes or press pause and breathe deep before continuing with the movie.
Not tonight. Not with my wife with me. Not if I am going to make it though this thing. We press on, taking only one bathroom break during the first hour.
And that's when all heck breaks loose. Thirty minutes follow of terror, on screen and off.
No, I didn't scream like a girl and embarrass myself. I may have jumped a few times and clutched at my heart for fear that it had stopped, but I didn't yelp or cry out once.
By the time it was over my entire upper body was numb from holding my muscles tense for the last 30 minutes. Yikes that was gross. Ugh, that was scary.
At the end of the movie, my WW jumps up from the sofa, grabs the "24: Day 5" DVD and replaces "The Descent" in the player.
"I don't understand why you watch these movies," she says. Same reason I don't go spelunking. It's all because of the monsters. And now I've seen the proof.

Big Sis at Christmas

Down here in the Deep South we do things a little differently than I had up North. On Christmas morning, the kids are awed by all the gifts from both Santa and Family, but all the Santa gifts are left unwrapped. It is as if Santa pulled them directly from his sack upon arriving from the chimney flue, and just couldn't find where we kept the tape or scissors.
Not that I mind, it's less for "Santa's Helpers" to wrap during the weeks leading up to the big day. If I can avoid the nights of measuring, cutting, and taping, well that's okay by me. It just feels funny, strategically placing and arranging all the Santa-gifts late on Christmas Eve. Organizing them in a particular way to highlight certain things and to make sure that everything from Santa can be seen all at once.
What makes this such an event is that Santa always brings one "big gift". It might be a lot to live up to in Christmases to come, but these have been good years. This year's big gift for our daughter was a Disney Princess Castle doll house. This thing is as tall as bubba and three times as wide. It has a piano which plays music, working lights, and an oven which makes a strange gurgling noise that only a Disney Princess could explain. It's really extravagant. Along with that our little princess found a Snow White and a Belle doll in each of the bedrooms in the upstairs of the doll house. These are really nice, Barbie-like dolls which she really seems to like.
She calls it Cinderella's Castle. That only makes sense since Cinderella is her favorite of all the Disney Princesses. There are quite a few to choose from: Belle, Ariel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, and even Mulan. I might have even missed one. But Cinderella is her favorite. She has been reading the story for years and watching the movie for months. She knows all the character names and probably could tell you the entire story if you left her alone with the book.
Shortly after Christmas, during the week before New Year's Day, I over heard someone ask Big Sis what she got from Santa. She thought about it for a minute, like she does most things, and answers, "a Cinderella Castle!". She pauses for a second and then adds, "but no Cinderella!"
Hmmph.
No Cinderella.
Here, she gets all this neato cool stuff and she is focused on what she didn't get. Does it really start this early? I couldn't believe it! Hello?? Snow White?? Belle?? Are they second class doll citizens??
I decided it wasn't worth getting too worked up over and it wasn't until later when i mentioned the incident to my Wonderful Wife. "She has a Cinderella already," she tells me. "In fact, she has a Cinderella, a Prince Charming and an entire horse and carriage to go with it." You're kidding. She is so focused on what she got that day, she has totally forgotten what she already had!
We should have just put the same Cinderella inside the castle on Christmas Eve. Maybe next year we do it a little different. Maybe next year we just give her something she already has. I'm not sure if she will notice.
The good news is that she loves it. We set it up in her bedroom; it's previously been a "sleep only" room where we kept her clothes, her bed and her books. There were a very few things in there that she could play with, mostly because we wanted to emphasize that this room is for sleeping. The castle is now the only real toy in there. Sometimes we find her in there humming and talking to herself playing with the dolls and arranging them in the house. She is so wonderful to have around. Looks like this present worked out after all.

My Wonderful Wife reminds me...

I just told my WW about some of the things i have written about and she looks at me with this blank look and says, "when are you going to write about something pertinent?"
"What do you mean? What would be more pertinent?" I asked.
"You started this whole thing so that you could stay in touch with your family, remember?"

Ah, yes. I remember. I am just warming up. I've been out of practice for some time. This is just clearing the slate, clearing the mind. I need to get this all out of the way so that I can get to the rest of it.

Here's a little taste of the family news:
Bubba is almost walking. He is saying a few words now along with a few signs, so we are really communicating well. Two more teeth have poked through for a total of eight.
Big Sis is in school two mornings a week (although she is on break right now). She is the best singer in her class, and really shined during her holiday performance.

More to come, when I can really tell the tales.

The Flood continues...

Okay, where did I leave off last night?
Ah, yes. Here.

Words, Words, Words
I love Etymology. I ended up as an English major in college, and probably should have minored in the Classics since I spent a great deal of time learning Latin and reading the works of many Greek philosophers and playwrights. As a result, I have a keen eye and ear for words. I pay attention to how people use them, I notice when they are used out of context or incorrectly. I sometimes agonize over the right word to use while writing, because I know the right word is out there, I just can't think of it.
Etymology is almost like history -- the history of words; where did they come from, who used them first, what did they really mean, and how did they come to mean what they do today. There is an interesting website that i have stopped at once in a while called http://www.etymonline.com/ where you can look up all sorts of words and learn about where they came from and why we use them today. Check it out sometime.
My friend SB recently posted on her blog about the history of a particular Christmas song, "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas". In the same way i love words, I found this fascinating. It's hard to imagine that this song was actually intended to be sung as a sad goodbye, from one sister to another in the musical Meet Me in St. Louis. You can read more about this song's bitter origins at its Wikipedia article.

Speaking of Bitter...
I was a bartender for a few years before I moved to the Deep South, and during that time I learned quite a few things about mixing ingredients to make delicious beverages. I rarely ever drank the drinks I made, but I have been told that I was very good at the craft.
Tonight I found my bottle of Angostura Bitters and felt a rush of memories about family parties, watching my father create what seemed to be a witch's brew for my Grandmother. He would make her something called a Manhattan, and, if he had the right ingredients, he would even mix an occasional Old Fashioned. I was a little kid back then, and my Dad much older. My Grandmother, even older (imagine that). But these drink names seemed ancient. It was like my Dad was mixing up some part of the old world, and the secret ingredient was "bitters". "Only two dashes, son," he'd tell me. "Don't overdo it." By the smell of them, two were plenty.
And there they were. The bitters. In my refrigerator. I read the entire label. I learned some of the history of the bitters (created by J.G.B. Siegert), I learned that there is alcohol in the bitters (a whopping 45%), and I learned an interesting recipe for a non-alcoholic drink called the Southampton: juice of half a lime, two or three dashes bitters, tonic. I happened to have tonic in the garage and a lime in the fridge. I made the drink immediately.
Delicious.
Even better than Pirates of the Caribbean, and just as sour.

The Wonderful World of Wiki
I linked a reference to the Christmas song above to an article posted on Wikipedia, the open-source, community driven, free encyclopedia. This is a great tool. It's also great for an interesting read during the lunch break at work. Want to know something about Quantum Physics on a lark? No problem. Have a need to peruse a Glossary of Ballet terms? Piece of cake. Just head to www.wikipedia.com and search for it. What you get is an easy to read, easy to navigate page about everything I could possibly want to know about the subject.
The best part is that if you think you know something about the subject, and the page lacks the detail that you have to offer, you can submit edits to any page and teach the encyclopedia what you know. Brilliant. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything that I know enough about that I could help write. But I still like the site.

...and I'm still not done. But I need a break. More to come.

Too much going on in my head

I have been too busy to sit and write for a while, as I expected I might be. I have been too busy to even write down some of the ideas I have had to write about lately, forget about sketching them out in outline form. So, due to the overwhelming stress these unwritten ideas are causing me, here comes the Brain Dump!

Man takes Gore Verbinski out to the woodshed, film at eleven.
I just watched the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie last night and I want my one hundred and fifty minutes back. Director Gore Verbinski has taken an interesting movie about a lovable scoundrel, Captain Jack, and turned it into an epic trilogy filled with distracting special effects and a boring story with a meandering plot line. Sure, the whole Davey Jones' Locker extrapolation was interesting, but each time Davey Jones appeared on screen I was mesmerized by the tentacles hanging from his face. How many of those thing were there? I tried to count each time, but they kept moving and i couldn't keep up with them. What? A story line? Did I miss something? Two and one half hours after this snooze began, we wind up with the most major faux pas any movie can make: a CLIFFHANGER ENDING. Only TV shows are allowed to write cliffhanger endings into their stories, keeping us engaged until the next week's episode. That's just the way it is. Movies aren't supposed to do this. ESPECIALLY when the follow-up won't be released for an entire year after the last.
The Matrix did something like this, but each movie really was a capsule of the story, and can stand alone (with some minor explanation) without the other films. The Star Wars Trilogies may have left us wanting more at the end of each movie, but they did nothing like what this film did, cutting us off at the knees, waiting for some resolution. Gore might have been better off if he had yelled "CUT" in the middle of the last sentence and wrapped it right then. The viewer left with the same unfinished, unsettled feeling. The ONLY movie to have ever done the cliffhanger right was the Back To The Future series, but the simple reason for their success was releasing the third episode only ONE MONTH after the second. We really don't have to wait very long for the exciting conclusion.
Bah. I expected more, and was left wanting still by the movie's end. Leave this one on the shelf.

Oprah spends her money the way she feels like it, insults millions.
Ok, so Oprah spends $40 million on a school in South Africa to enable 150 girls to get a better education. Maybe I'm a bit naive, but that's quite a tuition! Ok, sure, there is a beauty salon and a yoga center on the campus, but so what? These elite students are here to learn right? I wonder what else is available for these lucky 150? I have heard that the student class size will grow to be almost 450 some day. That's just so inclusive, isn't it? Maybe i really don't understand what it costs to educate the nations youth, but I feel like that is a steep bill to pay to do so much for so few.
Really, it wouldn't bug me much except for what she has done to mischaracterize the youth in America's "inner city schools". The way she has labeled the inner city youth as "not wanting to learn" and materialistic, is ironic. Oprah, you should be ashamed of yourself for using such a broad stroke brush to paint these kids in such a way. You have just alienated all of the hardworking, good students struggling to succeed in the environment you see as so awful.
In a speech she made regarding the opening of the school, she says "her whole life had led her to this moment." Wow. What's next? I'm sure she is spending some money in her home state of Mississippi, but I never hear of it because none of it generates so much publicity. The problem with her current Cause is that it emphasizes her own materialism, underscores the flagrant materialism on her TV show, and could ultimately promote the same sense of materialism in these special 150 students she has chosen to attend her special school for girls.
Oprah says that all these girls really want are uniforms so that they can go to school. Hopefully they won't wake up and start demanding Ipods with their plaid skirts.


...it's late. More to come soon.

Word on the Street

I have been told that people have been having issues posting messages on the blog. I'll look into it and see if I can figure it out. Try to post again soon and let me know if it still isn't working.

New Horror movie on the way! Tivo is already here!

I can't wait. The Descent is on its way to me from NetFlix. I will be sure to tell you all about it once I have seen it.
The only thing better than NetFlix is Tivo. Our friends Howie and Darryl gave us a Tivo for Christmas this year. Woah, i just love to fast forward commercials. I really enjoy pausing a live broadcast while i get a soda refill from the kitchen. I think recording movies and TV shows like "Good Eats" to be watched later is very cool.
My Tivo movie waiting for me is Bruce Almighty. I am excited to know that when there really is nothing on TV, I don't have to struggle through some second-rate USA Network movie just for the small entertainment value. I also think that I will be recording all Yankee games available to me for later viewing.
Man, this is going to be great.

To Kill a Spider

...blah blah blah blah. Self-important blather. Quit patting yourself on the back already! Get to the funny stuff, man! No one wants to read you talking to yourself about how important your writing is. Jeez! Tell us a real story.
Fine. I'll tell you an old one then -- about how I killed a certain spider.

One night this past summer, after a quick dinner of tater tots and fish sticks, the family headed outside to play a little in the evening sun. The plan was run around the yard and wear the kids out a bit before heading out for ice cream cones.
It was still very warm outside; Little Bubba broke out in a sweat almost immediately. That's just what he does. Big Sis, excited to be outside, ran down the driveway to meet her neighbor-friend, Katie.
Katie is about about 10 years old and Big Sis adores her. She loves playing with Katie, and Katie has adopted a "big sister" role with her, taking very good care of her and paying her a lot of attention even when she has her own friends around.
As Kaylin ran down the driveway towards her, Katie points into our pine island and says, "Ew, look at that big ugly spider". I didn't think much of it since we have an occasional wolf spider around, but they generally don't stay in sight for very long.
"Look at the red on it," she says. "Do you think it's a Black Widow?"
Now she has my attention.
My Wonderful Wife scoops Kaylin up after one look at this spider and asks me to join them at the foot of the driveway to investigate. Barefoot, I run to the place in where the girls are pointing and see a spider the size of a nickle making it's way though our yard. It was an ugly bugger with a black sectional body, what looked like pincers on the front of it, and eight red legs. A very strange looking arachnid. Not a Black Widow, but still dangerous looking, mostly because of the red coloring.
"I hope it isn't poisonous. Kill it." I can't remember if my wonderful wife said that or if it was my inner monologue, but that's all the encouragement I needed. No spider is safe from my wrath.
I run back in the house to put on my bug stomping shoes, some old pair of Nikes I keep in the garage to mow the lawn. Ironically, i have to smack them together to make sure i don't stick my toes into more spiders... nope, nothing in there. Once I'm fully armored, I head back down to the edge of the property where the spider is making its way towards the road. I take aim, and *squish*!
"Is it dead? Are you sure?" I poke around with the toe of my shoe to be sure, and yep, there it is, upside down and curled up in that "dead spider" kind of way.
"You're certain?" Oh yeah, that sucker is dead, dead, dead.
Mission Accomplished. Threat averted. Return to your playtime activities.
I couldn't go back to playtime. I was too busy wondering what the heck that spider was and what it was doing in my yard. Was it really dangerous? Will there be more of them?
I excused myself and ran into the house, planting myself in front of my web browser. I pointed my way to Google and searched for "spider red legs black body". In the millions of results, two catch my eye immediately. I click on the first, and get to a webpage called "What's that Bug". Good start, huh? I'm certain to find answers here. Check it out: http://whatsthatbug.com/red_legged_purseweb_spider.html
Don't feel like reading it? No problem. I quickly found out that I had killed a Red-Legged Purseweb Spider. Not DANGERous, it seems, but actually enDANGERed.
That couldn't be right, could it? I return to the Google web search results and click on the second link, a University of Kentucky site. http://www.uky.edu/Ag/CritterFiles/casefile/spiders/purseweb/purseweb.htm I scroll down to the bottom of the page and, sure enough, that sucker is endangered.
I feel like I am living in the movie The Freshman, when Matthew Broderick thinks that Marlon Brando is actually killing the endangered Kimono Dragon. Except, I really did kill the Kimono Dragon.
Trouble is, if I saw that ugly spider again, I'd probably squish it again.

Hiatus is over!... a Merry Christmas!

The wait is over. Thank my Wonderful Wife. I am back and I am determined to stick to it and keep up with writing on a regular basis.
For those of you who were avid readers (as Stephen King would call you), I apologize for abandoning you to read over and over the same unfulfilled promise of my return. This has been long overdue. A few of you had mentioned to me that you missed reading these posts, but I just shrugged the encouragement off as polite courtesy. I apologize for not allowing myself to hear you.
I have thought about coming back often, but i just have never made the time. Not an excuse, just the truth.
I got promoted recently at work and my available brainstorming and subsequent writing time was reduced to the hour at night I would spend unwinding to a video game after the rest of the family was safely tucked in to bed. Not an excuse, just the facts.
There are even a few posts that I started last summer that were decent beginnings that I just couldn't seem to finish -- perhaps I was struck with a bit of writers block. Not an excuse, just a dose of reality.
Anyway you look at it, I wasn't coming back on my own. Not without help. Again, you can thank my Wonderful Wife.
She might be the most ingenious person I know. A few times in passing, she mentioned that I should get back to writing, that I enjoyed it so much; that she enjoyed it so much. Yeah, yeah, I thought, she is so sweet to say things like that. I didn't "get it" until she showed me how important this blog was to her in an unexpected and inventive way.
Over the course of the past week, in preparation for her very personal Christmas gift to me, my Wonderful Wife spent many hours selecting, cutting, pasting, organizing, printing, binding, and essentially publishing the entirety of this blog (yes, word for word, all of your comments were preserved). She says it was to ensure that the writing wasn't lost forever in the vacuum of the Internet. What she meant to show me was the actual weight of the work that I had created in a way that forced me to finally realized the value.
I couldn't imagine that I had actually written that much until it was presented to me, boxed and bound. The volume of words was one thing, but the real value of them registered as her father read through the beginining pages, laughing all the while. He'd look up at me shaking his head and smiling, immediately returning his eyes to the paper once he knew I was able to recognize the pleasure he was having reading my writing.
I don't mean to over dramatize this whole thing, (too late) but it turns out that several others were taking this blog more seriously than I. I had started to take this all for granted: the blog, the entries, the ideas, the opinions, the readers. I started to write and then quit once I felt satisfied, never finishing what I had started. I owe it to any faithful reader to continue. And with all the effort I had been putting into the writing, especially knowing how much I love to write, I owe it to myself to continue.
So here I go.
I'll have to start slow.
Writing is a bit like running; you get better and faster the more you do it, and until you are back in shape, you have to take frequent breaks.
I'll try to keep the breaks short.

August is a good month to take off

I'm back.
More to come.
August was long.
I have much to say.

Just not today.

That was no horror movie.

At best, Resident Evil 2 is an action flick that happens to have scary looking undead marching around eating people.
Ok, that's a little gross, but it really wasn't scary. In fact the undead are almost funny in how they are depicted. Comic lumbering masses, who are constantly rising from the dead. Silly.
Oh well. I'll have to look forward to whatever is next on my Netflix list. Maybe a little "Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter"? Perhaps.

It's Horror night!

Tonight I'll be watching "Resident Evil 2". I watched the first one, and it was as much cool sci-fi as it was a thriller. Not quite a horror movie, but it was shocking in a few places.
This one picks up right where the last one leaves off and should explain a little more from the first movie.
Best part? Milla Jovovich, of course! Ok, and the crazy undead creatures that prowl after her. So cool.
I'll give you an update once i am finished with it.

World Jump Day

Did you feel that? Were you awoken this morning by a certain "bump" in the night? Wasn't an earthquake, can't quite explain it? I can.
It's World Jump Day today and I can't believe you missed it!
According to some very bright scientists in Germany, if 600 million people all jump at the same time, at exactly 6:39AM and 13 seconds EST, a force could be exerted on the earth so strong that it would send it into a new orbit around the sun.
Neat, huh?
Why in the world would we have World Jump Day? To prevent Global Warming, of course. The theory states that if we can push ourselves just a little further from the sun, the world will get a bit cooler and we'll live a lot longer.
Nice.
600 million people are required for this to work. According to the offical website www.worldjumpday.org at 2pm yesterday they were a few hundred thousand shy. Last night there were over 250 thousand more than needed.
What happens if enough people don't actually jump? Will it help a little, or not at all?
What happens if there are a whole bunch of unauthorized jumpers? Will this send us on a collision course with Mars?
We can only guess.
Let me know if you jumped, would you?

It's Dean R. Koontz week!

While on vacation I love to spend my free time reading. Nowadays, with two kids constantly needing attention, reading time is in short supply.
Before we left for the trip, my Wonderful Wife suggested that I choose a book for her. Her last book, Flirting With Pete, by Barbara Delinsky, was not the page turner that she was hoping for. Even though she finished it and enjoyed it, she wanted something a little more exciting.
I went to the bookshelf and looked past my huge Stephen King collection (you can't take first edition hardcovers to the beach!), and found my Dean R. Koontz paperback collection. I have about 20 different soft-cover Koontz books, each from different points in his career. I have two that I read repeatedly (Midnight and Watchers) and a bunch that I have never even cracked open.
I pulled Watchers off the shelf, since WW told me that she had already read Midnight. Just in case I also grabbed The Door To December for her. That worked out for the best since she turned up her nose at my original choice when i told her it was a story about a "really smart dog." I think i undersold it a bit.
For myself, now in the mood for some of this easy reading, I selected Cold Fire and Twilight Eyes. I have never read either before and they looked interesting.
My wonderful wife began to read while on our journey to the beach; she didn't waste any time. I, on the other hand, had to wait until we got to the island for a quiet time after the kids went to bed.
Once we got to the condo we were staying at, I unpacked all the books and put them on an endtable in the living room. That's when i noticed that my father-in-law had also brought two Dean Koontz books for himself. He was planning on reading Strange Highways, a collection of short stories that he began a long time ago but never finished. The really odd thing was that he also chose Cold Fire for the trip just as I had.
I finished Cold Fire and most of Twilight Eyes (i just have the second half left, added a few years after the original publication. It was not a great book so I'm not sure I'll finish it). My wonderful wife had 20 pages left in her book by the time we made it back home. The F-I-L managed to finish the first (and longest)story in the collection he was reading; he did us the favor of watching Big Sis often while WW and I snuck away to the beach for some quiet reading and sunning time.
So, the final score? I win... but it wasn't a race, i swear.

All-Star Fantasy Team

Every summer I look forward to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. For the past four years, a friend of mine from the Deep South, Tony, and I would seat ourselves at a local watering hole and watch the entire game while trading baseball statistics and factiods. Our little tradition started out with just the two of us but has grown to include a larger number of baseball fanatics.
This year, however, I will not be attending the annual event since I am away on Hilton Head Island. Instead, I have convinced my Wonderful Wife that it would be necessary for us to have wings and beer at the local Wild Wing Cafe in the spirit of our annual get-together.
Yep, there is even a Wild Wing on the island, a little slice of hot-wing heaven. If you haven't heard already, I love this place (read my old rant here).
So with the big game in mind, I have examined my current fantasy baseball team and I think I have a winner. Much to the chagrin of some of the whiners in my league, I have assembled a serious contender, and I think I have a very good shot at the championship this year. Let me run down the list of players on my team, whether or not they are All-Stars this year, and how they ended up on my roster.
Offense --
Joe Mauer (C - Min): All-Star, Drafted
Albert Pujols (1B - StL): All-Star, Keeper
Dan Uggla (2B - Fla): All-Star, picked up from free agent list.
David Wright (3B - NYM): All-Star, Keeper
Rafael Furcal (SS - LAD): Keeper
Chone Figgins (Util - LAA): Keeper
Manny Ramirez (OF - Bos): All-Star, Traded Corey Patterson (OF - Bal) for him amid much league controversy. The trade was offered to me, and the originating team manager still wanted Patterson even after several other managers berated him.
Jeremy Hermida (OF - Fla): Drafted
Justin Morneau (1B - Min): Drafted, dropped and picked up again later from waiver wire.
Ryan Freel (Util - Cin): Drafted, dropped and picked up again later from the waiver wire.
Gary Sheffield (OF - NYY): Traded Brad Wilkerson (1B, OF - Tex) for him even though Shef was on the DL.
Pitching --
Roy Halladay (SP - Tor): All-Star, Keeper
Mark Prior (SP - ChC): Keeper
Billy Wagner (RP - NYM): Drafted
Joel Zumaya (RP - Det): picked up from free agent list
Rafael Soriano (RP - Sea): picked up from free agent list
Scott Kazmir (SP - TB): All-Star, Drafted
Francisco Liriano (SP - Min): All-Star, picked up from free agent list
Ryan Dempster (RP - ChC): Drafted
Huston Street (RP - Oak): Drafted
Justin Verlander (SP - Det): picked up from free agent list
Yep, that's quite a team.

The Caiprinha - a great drink while on vacation

While on a date-nite with my Wonderful Wife, we stopped at a local Hilton Head restaurant called "Marley's". The place had an island sensibility and lots of charm. We ordered a dessert of Churros (mexican cinnamon and sugar sprinkled donuts) and some tropical drinks. She ordered a strawberry pina colada, and I ordered a Caiprinha. The Caiprinha is made using a special rum that is made from sugar cane instead of molasses. Very tasty.

INGREDIENTS
1 lime quartered
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 shot of cachaça
1/2 Cup of ice cubes with water

PREPARE:
Place the lime and sugar in the bottom of a glass.
Using the handle of a wooden spoon, crush and mash
the limes. Pour the liqueur and ice. Stir well.

I prefer it shaken, which distributes the pulp throughout the drink. You can top off the drink with a little lemon-lime soda to fill the glass.