Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Scene: A father and his three daughters are cruising in the family Swagger Wagon. Father is flipping through radio stations and passes the local retro station, which is playing DeBarge’s “Rhythm of the Night.” M: “Oooh, dad, turn it back.” Dad: “OK. You like this song?” M: “Yes! Is it the same man who sings the werewolf song?” D: Laughing “No, that’s Michael Jackson. This man sounds like him a little, though.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
We survived week one of school. M. did fantastic, for the most part. We had a few challenges with afternoon pickup once she began full days, but those were all parental errors and we had smoothed them out by Friday. S. was off last week, so hopefully things continue as smoothly this week when I’m on my own. M. seemed to have a great time each day. She was always happy and excited about what she had done that day when we picked her up.
Monday, August 23, 2010
It’s been interesting to see all the first day of school pics on Facebook over the past couple weeks. What’s struck me most is the distribution of kids M.’s age. Many are starting kindergarten this fall. Others are, like her, going through kindergarten for the second time. A smaller group is going on to the first grade. This article doesn’t completely fit what we did but it still struck close to home.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
I’ve been doing some closet and attic cleaning this week. Digging through old boxes of stuff, looking for things that can/need to be thrown away, or items that can be sent to my sister-in-law for her up-coming garage sale. I dug through a huge pile of Far Side books that I’ll be flipping through in the next few weeks. Those should be fun. Was there a surer Christmas gift in the late 80s through mid 90s than Far Side collections?
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Early George Lucas collaborator Gary Kurtz finally talks about why he parted ways with Lucas after The Empire Strikes Back. Did ‘Star Wars’ become a toy story? “I could see where things were headed,” Kurtz said. “The toy business began to drive the [Lucasfilm] empire. It’s a shame. They make three times as much on toys as they do on films. It’s natural to make decisions that protect the toy business, but that’s not the best thing for making quality films.
Monday, August 16, 2010
And she’s off! M. started kindergarten today at the school we plan for her to attend for the next nine years.1 She was up early and excited to get her uniform on and get out the door. We walked her to her class, put her things in her cubby, and helped her find her seat. She sat and started coloring and we drifted away to the parent welcome coffee in the cafeteria.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
I have a longer Required Reading post in the works, but this link deserves its own entry. Professors: Hot at Their Own Risk examines the challenges that attractive academics face. The idea of appealing educators being harassed by their students seems a little gross as I approach 40. When I was in college, though, there was always that hope at the beginning of each semester that one of my classes would be taught by a hottie.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
I don’t consider myself an atheist; I respect the religious views of others and hope they respect my desire to believe something different. A more accurate way to describe my relationship with organized religion would be to call me a pretty hard-core agnostic. But this still made me laugh. I like the idea of children fleeing as I walk down the street. Kind of like Omar Little. “Here come that Athiest!
Monday, August 9, 2010
A few thoughts on the burning issues of the day(s). Tiger I know everyone wants to flip out on what’s going on with Tiger Woods, but let’s all just take a deep breath and relax. If he’s still shooting +18 next year, then we can start talking about the biggest fall from grace in sports history. But, given what he’s been dealing with this year, I don’t see how you can chalk this up as a normal year.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
We took the girls to their first baseball game last night, an Indianapolis Indians contest. We sat in the outfield grass with friends. The girls seemed more interested in throwing peanuts to the mice that were apparently running through the flower beds near us. Awesome. We stuck it out to the seventh inning, which I thought was pretty good. M. complained afterwards that all we did was sit around. She ignored the fact that she and her friends ran in circles around us approximately 75% of the time we were there.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
M. turned six Sunday. That feels like a milestone birthday; a clear delineation between little kid and big kid. Did I say that last year, too? Even though she’s been through kindergarten, she still felt young, something that was reinforced by knowing she would be attending kindergarten again this year. As if last year wasn’t really kindergarten, just practice for the real thing. Preschool AAA, to put it in baseball terms.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Recently the Associate Press Sports Editors organization bestowed upon Mitch Albom the Red Smith Award. The honor, named after the legendary New York sports writer, celebrates a career of achievement and faith to the principles that journalists are supposed to adhere to. I’m no fan of Albom; I find him just slightly more tolerable than the completely insufferable Mike Lupica. Thus, I have taken great delight in the series of takedowns of Albom printed in the wake of the announcement.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
We’ve been dealing with some, umm, discipline issues with the two big sisters recently. Mostly the usual stuff that comes with being home in the summer, standard age-specific issues, etc. But they’ve also learned how to really push each other’s buttons, which can make things worse. One recent day we had a series of issues which, long story short, resulted in C. being sent to her room and M. being sent to the guest bedroom.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
I remember when watching baseball on Fox wasn’t such a chore. When I still liked Joe Buck and Tim McCarver was at least tolerable. Really can’t stand either one these days, which makes watching the All Star Game tough. Since this game will probably last until midnight or so,1 I’ll just toss out some assorted baseball thoughts whilst I watch. ❖ The Boss is Dead. I should probably say something nice.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
If you’re looking for something funny to watch this summer, I give FX’s Louie my highest recommendation. It revolves around a single comedian living in New York. The show features both scripted pieces and scenes of the main character’s standup act. Sound familiar? The Seinfeld comparisons are inevitable, but Louis C.K. is far from a Jerry Seinfeld for the ‘Teens. For starters, Louis, or Louie, is much closer to neurotic George Constanza than the confident, swinging Seinfeld.
Monday, July 12, 2010
I told you Spain was going to win! Never doubt my sports prognostications! Of course, Spain was one of the favorites going in, so it’s not like I picked some 50-1 darkhorse. They did make it interesting by dropping their opener, in shocking fashion to the Swiss, and then needing a win in their third game to avoid going home early. They never captured the flair they played with two summers ago.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Thank goodness, LeBron has made his decision and the world can get back to important things, like whether the economy will ever recover, what the hell to do in the Gulf of Mexico, and how soon Lady Gaga’s 15 minutes will run out. I don’t begrudge LeBron milking the process. He’s perhaps the most interesting free agent ever, and his move will affect the futures of more than just the teams he joins and leaves.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Seven years ago (June 27, 2003 to be exact) I launched the first version of TBB. I kicked things off with an epic, Bill Simmons-style NBA draft breakdown. In fact, if you want to read it for old time’s sake, here it is. For a few years it was my tradition to either keep a running diary of draft night, or do a breakdown the next day. But as we added more girls to the house and Ron Artest destroyed the Pacers and killed my interest in the NBA, I scaled back my efforts.
Monday, June 28, 2010
A disappointing weekend for Team USA. Another early defensive breakdown put the team behind early. They rallied after halftime and controlled the second half, but could only manage a Landon Donovan penalty to tie. Then, in overtime, another quick breakdown and Ghana was able to weather the storm and prevail 2–1 in 120+ minutes. There were quick charges that coach Bob Bradley should not return, as the early defensive errors are easiest to explain by blaming the coach.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
OK, it wasn’t quite the Miracle on Ice, Part II, but Landon Donovan’s game-winning goal Wednesday was pretty freaking cool. We, unfortunately, had a previously scheduled engagement with the new cheetah exhibit at the Indianapolis Zoo. So, other than watching the brilliant opening ceremonies, when the US crowd nearly drowned out the PA system signing the national anthem, I was forced to follow the game on my iPhone from the zoo.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
I forgot to mention that I ran my first 5K in over three years last Saturday. I had been “training”, and by training I mean running approximately once every 5-10 days, and was finally finding some fun in running again. It helped that L., unlike both of her sisters, loves to go for runs in the jogging stroller. In fact, if I time it right, she’ll often fall asleep along the way.
Monday, June 21, 2010
A very good read on how companies and their marketing departments produce loyal customers. I contend there’s more to it than just the branding push by companies, but it does help to explain why dorks like me are slaves to Apple (Or Nikon or Volkswagen or Nike or…) I’m glad my wife didn’t read anything along these lines before she let me buy my first Mac almost six years ago.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Last Friday M. attended a birthday party1 at one of the many local bounce places.2 After bouncing for awhile, then eating pizza, cake, and ice cream, the host mom handed out tokens for the arcade area to all the kids. While I was helping M. earn some tickets so she could get another cheap, plastic toy to take home, I noticed a Pop-a-Shot. Except this Pop-a-Shot didn’t look like the games I remembered.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
It appears that the dust has settled, for the time being, in the great college conference realignment of 2010, so I can finally try to put some thoughts together. I’m not promising anything particularly well organized or original. Consider yourself warned. What a strange couple of weeks it has been. There were multiple times during that span in which I stopped reading any e-mails, message board posts, Tweets, etc. that had anything to do with what was going to happen to the Big 12.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Notice some changes around here? If you haven’t, you’re not paying very close attention. Why the changes? Read on, friends. Welcome to Phase 3 (or is it Phase 2?) of Del Boca Vista, errr. the development of TBB.1 To quickly refresh, over a year ago I took full control of the blog, moving it off of a hosted service to a domain and server space that I owned. I also dumped the easy blogging platforms2 for Wordpress, which offers me more control over the granular details of the blog.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Time for a girl update. A big event has not gotten its proper blog treatment: M.’s “graduation” from kindergarten. I use the quotation marks because A) kindergarten graduations are kind of silly to begin with and B) she’s not really done with kindergarten. Let’s get the event out of the way first. Her class put on a fine performance for family and friends. They sang songs, showed off artwork, recited their lines to a couple poems, and received diplomas.
Monday, May 31, 2010
I’ve lived in Indiana for nearly seven years now. In that time, I’ve been to three Notre Dame football games, an Indiana basketball game, a Purdue football game, a Colts (preseason) game, and a Pacers game. I’ve also watched high school basketball players like Josh McRoberts, Eric Gordon, Michael Conley, and Greg Oden. My Indiana sports resume had two glaring omissions, however. I’ve yet to go to a Butler game at Hinkle Fieldhouse, and I’ve never been to an Indianapolis 500.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
They’ve got me. Every online retailer I’ve ever purchased a good or service from has me in their clutches. There is no escape. Each morning when I first check my e-mail, chances are there are at least three, and often as many as six, messages from various retailers offering up fantastic discounts on things I might like. The Gap. Banana Republic. Old Navy. Eddie Bauer. Borders. Amazon. The KU Bookstore.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
So, not the greatest sports year at my noble alma mater. A series of fights between the football and basketball teams. A football coach forced out because of abusive behavior. A football team that fell apart, lost seven-straight, and pissed a chance at a division title away. A basketball player, who was already in the doghouse, decided to shoot his mouth off during the season. A stunning early loss in the NCAA tournament.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
The school year is almost over, but it’s never too late for the teachers to ban items from the classroom. M.’s class has been overrun by the scourge of our times: Silly Bandz. For the non-parents, or parents of younger kids, Silly Bandz are basically colored rubber bands that have been molded to the shape of kid friendly objects: pets, dinosaurs, zoo animals, etc. Kids wear them as bracelets and trade them with friends and classmates.