Thursday, May 3, 2007
Books, books, and more books. 5 - The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama. I have a problem with books written by politicians, even those politicians I like. I can’t stop thinking about how they’re angling, positioning, and posturing. It’s hard for me to separate the words on the page from the next office they will seek. This book was no different. The entire time, I kept thinking, “This man is running for president.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
I tried to dig through the archives a bit today to find an old post about the kid who, one day at the Carter’s store, just came up to me and started talking and asking questions, every sentence prefaced with the word “Hey.” M. is in that mode now. It’s fun for about five minutes. Seriously, listen to a kid say “Hey…” every ten seconds for five minutes and see if the cuteness doesn’t wear off really, really quick.
Monday, April 30, 2007
A lot of ground to cover and, suddenly, nothing but time to do so. Here goes. 3000 words? We’ll see. Grab a beverage and dive in at your leisure. A commenter asked Friday how I was celebrating the end of my grad school classes. Well, here’s what I did. First, I grabbed a big, fat carnitas burrito at Chipotle. Normally, I go with the vegetarian burrito. I figured I owed myself a little pork.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Just put the finishing touches on my final article. Kind of a shitty ending to it, but, you know what? I don’t care that much. Just glad to be done. I’ll print it off and drive it down to campus in a little while, and then I will have finished my grad school requirements. How about that? Seems like we have some things to talk about. Barry Bonds. Curt Schilling’s sock.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Tonight was my last class. Ever? I sure as hell hope so. I always said I would never go back to grad school, because undergrad was enough of a chore. Yet I did return for my Master’s. However, I think it’s safe to say unless they invent a Ph. D. that doesn’t require some kind of quantitative research, the next step is not in my future. My final article is due Friday, and I’m plugging away at that.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
We braved the grocery store with both girls today. Normally I do the shopping while S. stays home with them. It was a typical day with two kids: C. was fussy the first 15 minutes we were in the store; as soon as her mood improved, M. started acting up. Loads of fun. While I was in line to check out, S. found a fountain with goldfish in it that kept M.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
That’s what my father-in-law was calling me today, professor. The exciting entry on my calendar today was serving as a guest speaker at a local high school on the crisis/genocide in Darfur. Yes, as scary as it may sound, I was imparting wisdom on the future leaders of this country. And at the swankiest high school in the city, too. I corrupted the best and brightest! So how did this strange event come about?
Monday, April 2, 2007
It’s opening day, excuse me, Opening Day. I’m preparing for a ten hour orgy of baseball with a little college hoops thrown in for good measure. S. is working tonight, so I’ve already instructed the girls that there will be no nonsense tonight as daddy gets his baseball on. I’ve already got ESPN on, and checked in on a few games on MLB Audio. The Internets are a beautiful thing. I think the Royals are going to surprise a lot of people this year.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
I think I’ve shared this before, but since it’s being repeated more and more, it deserves another mention. M. has this strange habit of calling certain things “the peoples’….” The most common example is “the peoples’ water.” She always wants “the peoples’ water.” We have no idea where this came from. I’ve actually paid attention to some of her shows this week to see if I can pick the reference up there, but have yet to find a connection.
Monday, March 26, 2007
On our last trip to the library, we picked up a CD of Beatles songs sung by kids. A lot of them are completely intolerable to adults, but hey, I had to start indoctrinating the girls with good music. Each time we hop into the family truckster for a journey somewhere, M. asks, “Are we listening to Beatles music, daddy?” This morning, C. and I were watching VH1 Classic while waiting for M.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
The end of the season always sucks. Unless your team is the last one standing, in our winner-takes-all world, we too easily forget about the bulk of the season and focus on the ending. And in most cases, endings are never good. Is it better to lose by 50? To lose by one at the buzzer? Something in between? Any way the season ends and something that brought us great joy has been taken away.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Worst Game Ever And I have no idea how I’m going to sleep tonight. I hate grinders. There’s nothing fun about them. Granted, I’m just happy with the win this time of year. But if we’re going to win by three, I’d much rather it be 82-79, or something that actually resembles modern basketball like that. There was a point, midway through the second half, where I started to feel like the hoop gods were rearing their ancient heads and preparing to punish us again.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
It was 80 here today. Yet we still have a pile of month-old snow out in front of our house. Well, all good things must come to an end. Or so the cliche tells us. This blog is going to die a quick, unsympathetic death in about a month. Don’t worry, I’ll still be blogging and filling your free time with the genius that is me, just not here. I’ve been frustrated by many aspects of Typepad over the last six months or so.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Is there any way we can just have Kansas and Texas play every week? We would be guaranteed something great every time, based on what we’ve been treated to over the past eight days. What a game in OKC on Sunday. Unlike the previous game, which determined the regular season champion and the top three seeds for the conference tournament, this one really was for little more than pride. If that’s what it was for, every player on the court played for every ounce of their pride rather than coast until the games really matter next week.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
It’s been a fantastic music year, so far. The Shins’ new album is excellent, as are those from The Broken West, Feist, and Son Volt. Leaked tracks from new albums by Modest Mouse, Wilco, and Maximo Park all show tremendous promise. Lurking in the distance is a new Radiohead album. However, so far this year it’s been all about the new Arcade Fire album, Neon Bible, which was officially released today.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Collected semi-coherent ramblings after Saturday’s Kansas-Texas game. What’s the old saying, there are two sports in Texas: football and spring football? That can be applied to about any level or school in Texas. High school, the University of Texas or Texas A&M. That may be changing a little, with the emergence of Texas over the past 7-8 years and the more recent ascent of A&M in basketball. It’s not fair, in a way, that Texas fans got to watch Vince Young for three years and now get to watch Kevin Durant.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Well, the blogger and his girls survived the weekend without the wife/mom. There were only a couple blow-ups each day, most involving M. refusing my orders to 1) Keep her hands off of her sister’s head, 2) stop touching her sister’s face, 3) stop pushing/pulling her sister, or 4) just getting the hell away from her sister. At least we were both consistent, me in my orders and her in her refusal to follow them.
Friday, March 2, 2007
Nothing too special to report about day one. The girls were, for the most part, well-behaved. M. had a 30 minute period where she refused to stop touching C.’s head, no matter how many times I told her to stop. When I was trying to get everyone out the door for a quick trip to Target after dinner, she asked me if we were going to Costco at least 8000 times.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
S. left for her girls’ trip bright and early this morning. Not even bright and early; she left the house before 5:00. Yikes. It’s just me and the girls for the next 96 hours, give or take. This is my first time with the girls for this long, believe it or not. I’ve lucked out with S.’s schedule at work changing a year or so ago and she no longer working any 24 hour shifts.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Last week included a couple important firsts. First (uh-huh, uh-huh) C. now has some teeth. As of Sunday evening, depending on your definition, she had between two and six teeth. Her two front, top teeth were the first to pop through and are very visible now. One of her other upper teeth is peeking through. Then, at least two bottom teeth had pushed through by this afternoon, although it was tough to see them.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
I love those random moments when you remember someone from your past and it makes you laugh and smile. Today, while unloading the dishwasher or folding laundry or some other domestic chore I tackle with aplomb, I suddenly remembered my boy Pops. I know a few of you remember Pops, too, but for those who have no idea who Pops is, skip down to the jump and read more. I spent the better part of the 90s working at a warehouse in Lenexa, KS, shipping hardware supplies to stores around the country (Later, when I switched to the night shift, I got to drive a forklift all night.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Yes, I really am posting at 12:20-something AM. I’m not doing it to show off, the way I used to send e-mails late at night or early in the morning in my Corporate Hack days (To the day I left the Big C Corp, there were a few people in high places that I would run into occasionally who would point at me and say, “This guy works crazy hours!” And this was at a company where crazy hours were mandated.
Monday, February 12, 2007
We heard that worst of toddler words today. “Why?” I don’t even remember the context, I just know I was asking M. to do something while cleaning C. up after her breakfast and M. looked at me with big, two-year-old eyes, and asked, very matter-of-factly, “Why?” It was so unexpected that I just ignored her rather than using any of the numerous defense strategies I’ve thought up. I’m sure I’ll get many, many chances to practice them in the near future.
Sunday, February 4, 2007
For the first time in 21 years, I live in the home of a world championship team. And with the Colts' title, Indy officially becomes a football town. I’ve shared this story often: the Colts couldn’t even sell out the smallest stadium in the league in time to lift the TV blackout for their home opener against their arch rivals the first fall I lived here. Four seasons later, they are Super Bowl champions, a sparkling new stadium with the fifth highest capacity in the NFL is being constructed across the street from the RCA Dome, and this city has finally fully embraced the team.
Friday, February 2, 2007
Somehow I’ve managed to avoid most of the Super Bowl hype this week. It was S.’s week to work days, which helped. That meant I rarely had a chance to do more than glance at the paper, often in the evening, and when the local evening news is on, I’m generally finally taking a shower or hitting the books after a long day with the girls. So I’m actually looking forward to the game for the game itself, rather than as a break from the interminable hype leading up to it.
Monday, January 29, 2007
I have to say, C. has done quite well in her transition to sleeping all-night. We’ve only been up with her once in the past two weeks (JINX for tonight, right there!). M. is waking up more for some reason, but at least with her you just go cover her up again, make sure she has whatever toy or animal she’s crying for, and then she’s out again. With all this sleep I’ve been getting, though, has come a very strange group of dreams.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
I’ve had to bust out the 22 oz. Fat Tire at 11:00 PM in order to wind down. Obviously, one of the best playoff games in recent memory, if for no other reason than it had something for everyone. The Patriots came out absolutely humming in the first half. Moving the ball easily. Pressuring Manning. A very Partiot-like fumbled recovery for a touchdown when five Colts had a shot at the ball.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
It won’t take much imagination for you to figure out what M. was describing when she said that earlier today. Think of what steps parents go through with kids (usually) between their second and third birthdays. I did a running account of last night’s KU-MU game, which ended up being a pretty exciting affair. My first editing assignment kept me busy late into the night and then again this morning, and I have an assignment due for class tonight.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
A star is born and a damn fine game is played. Almost 3000 words about Kansas, Missouri, and basketball. It’s becoming a tradition. Kansas-Missouri on ESPN, I do an in-game blog. Well, I guess it becomes a tradition tonight, as last year was probably the first year I did it. Marquette and Louisville are doing their job of finishing up in plenty of time for the Big 12 tip. I’ve got my lucky KU blanket (I say lucky not because I remember winning more games than losing when I’ve had it draped across my body, but because it just sounds better that way.
Friday, January 12, 2007
This was Bootcamp week for C.. She’s nearly eight months old and still was not sleeping all night, so since S. had five straight nights off, we decided to bite the bullet. We ignored C.’s pleas for attention for the past week to try to get her to learn that she can sleep through the night without a bottle. We started Sunday night. As normal, she woke up just before midnight and we let her scream for about 15 minutes.