I heard a rumor people are gathering in Kansas City tomorrow night to celebrate the life of one of the finest artists this nation has ever produced. I will not be making an appearance at this year’s Sinatra Party. I do hope all of you celebrate safely, though, and honor his memory in the proper way. I’ll find something nice to drink tomorrow night after I spend some quality time with the snowblower.
We have a little manger scene that S’s mom put together from pieces she found during her travels back in the 60s. Most of the pieces are wood, so we have it sitting within reach of the girls. C. was running through the house with the baby Jesus yesterday, took a spill, and when she got up, poor baby Jesus' arm was broken off. Santa may not be filling her stocking this year, or may be skipping our house entirely.
We watched a little of the Best of Will Farrell Saturday night and caught the Dissing Your Dog promo. While not quite as extreme, my mocking of M. seemed a little like Dale Sturtevant's methods. I must admit, the last part, "You're a f&(^ing dog!", is something I've often thought of when we've moved both of our girls to solids and they've refused to eat. "The Palms wasn't taking reservations, I didn't want to try Morton's because of the new chef, so let's just go with the oatmeal and formula.
I think I clinched the Father of the Year award last night. I’ve begun mocking my three-year-old. Like most kids her age, M. has developed a potty mouth. She’s not dropping f-bombs or anything, but she does walk around talking about pee and poop all the time, and then acts like it’s super funny. Again, I blame the heathens in her preschool class for introducing her to these concepts. She’s smart about it, too.
That’s the only explanation I can figure on why KU, and not Missouri, is going to the Orange Bowl. Lew Perkins worked the phones harder than Mike Alden over the past week or so, and it paid off. I say that with absolutely no insider scoop and may well be proven wrong when the papers come out tomorrow. But that’s the only reason that makes any sense to me. Then again, college football isn’t supposed to make any sense, so perhaps I’m over-thinking things.
I feel strange today. I pinballed between football games, half-heartedly, not really caring what happened or able to settle on a single game. Why? For the first time in 13 weeks, I’m not worrying about a KU score. It’s weird; I feel naked without the jacket that has kept me warm all fall. Add in the fact I’m still struggling to accept that basketball season has started, and KU has a rather large game tomorrow, and I’m sure something is wrong with me.
I knew the questions might come when I posted the picture of our Christmas tree. And since a few people have inquired, I should go ahead and end the suspense for anyone else who is wondering: No, S. is not pregnant. Some of you have noticed that we have five stockings hung, and with only four people living in the house, it makes sense to wonder if something is in the oven.
Well, that was disappointing. I’m starting to put together these thoughts at about 2:45 on Sunday afternoon, and suffering from a massive headache. I’m not sure if that’s from the beer I drank last night, my contacts/glasses giving me problems, or from dealing with the girls alone all week. Hopefully it won’t interfere with putting together some relatively clear thoughts. First, it must be said that Missouri was much better than KU on both sides of the ball last night.
Here we go. The Biggest Game Ever is only about 30 hours away and I admit the stomach is starting to churn a bit. Before we get to the game, I wanted to share how much I’ve enjoyed the conversations I’ve had with people from both sides of the rivalry this week. To be fair, it’s not like my extended group of friends is full of a-holes who treat their friends like shit on game day.
Everyone Go Crazy And Act Like A Fool</span> week has arrived. The best-case scenario most people scoffed at six weeks ago has become reality. Tigers and Jayhawks congregating in Arrowhead on Saturday to play for a lot more than bragging rights. If KU can continue it’s run, they are just two games from playing for a national title. In football. Consider that again. Ridiculous, right? If MU wins, they probably get a second shot at a wounded OU team they hung with in October, brimming with confidence and with their own less direct but equally real path to the BCS championship game awaiting.
Don’t worry, the weekly football post will come. This late Saturday Big 12 game, though, is making it even harder to rationally think about the next seven days. Dominos falling… In an amazing coincidence, C. said both her name and her sister’s name for the first time today. She said “C.” to me several times this morning, although she would point at me and laugh when she said it. She picked it up again in the evening, so we asked her if she could say M.
Another full weekend of football. First, as I may have mentioned and the pic above will show, we trekked up north to attend the Notre Dame - Air Force game. A good friend from KC has a friend rather high up in the administration at the Academy, and came to town for the weekend with access to some pretty good tickets. When I say pretty good I mean really freaking good.
For the first time in her life, M. threw up today.* Appropriately, C. was laughing the entire time her big sister was puking up her dinner. I say appropriately, because the last time C. was sick, M. laughed. The fact it took M. over three years to throw up something other than formula bodes well for her college years, at least vis-a-vis her old man’s experience. For my non-parenting friends, I make a distinction between puking up your food and babies spitting up.
We took advantage of M. being at preschool and C. not commanding the language well enough to share secrets to take our youngest one along with us today to Toys R Us to scout out the hottest toys for the holiday season. Place was packed. I’m not sure if it was people using their two hour window for voting to actually get a jump on Christmas shopping or maybe Tuesdays are always a busy day, but it was strange to find the place hopping at noon.
The calendar has flipped to November, baseball has ended (only 14 weeks until pitchers and catchers report!), the furnace is on, and there is frost on the grass. All sure signs that football will rule my TV for the next couple months. Three games will hold most of my attention this weekend. Some thoughts below. Game One: Manchester United at Arsenal, 8:45 AM EDT Saturday. When I say football, I mean all kinds of football.
M. was very excited for Halloween. We got the girls' costumes about a month ago, and anytime we mentioned Halloween, M. would shout, “I’m going to be a GOOD witch!” Clarifying the good part was very important. She was literally shaking with anticipation last night, when we finally put the costume on and prepared to hit the streets. When other kids would come to the door, she would try to help give them candy, but would get a little too wound up and would just shout, “Happy Halloween!
I didn’t get this going until late in the game, but some baseball thoughts, wrapped around the last three innings of the Indians - Red Sox battle. Games sevens rock. And this has been a fine one, full of momentum swings, close calls, blunders, and clutch plays. In the first third, it looked like the Red Sox would run away and hide. In the middle third, it seemed like the Sox couldn’t touch Jake Westbrook and it was only a matter of time before the Indians took the lead.
It’s been awhile since I gave you a full update on the girls. C. is full of new tricks. She learned, last week, how to remove her own shirt. I was sitting here in the office one day when she came walking in, sans shirt, with a big smile on her face, smacking her bare belly with her hands. I got the process on video the next day, but can’t get the video across from the camera for some reason.
The Colorado Rockies are in the World Series? Seriously? I must admit, I never thought I’d see that happen. To be honest, I didn’t actually <em>see</em> much of it, thanks to those 10 PM eastern starts. I caught a few innings here-and-there either at the beginning of games, or on the nights when my cough kept me awake and I went downstairs for awhile. It’s a shame most of the country has missed their run, because it is one of the most remarkable runs in sports, ever.
As if you needed proof I’m a bit off, one of my favorite things is to check out </span><span style=“font-family:Helvetica Neue;"><em>The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits</em></span><span style=“font-family:Helvetica Neue;"> from the library and then just flip through the pages, soaking up the trivia. I recently checked it out again and figured I would put it to some kind of use. Thus, I scribbled some notes about one hit wonders as well as bands/artists you might think were one hit wonders but in fact were not.