Miscellaneous rambling, and bragging about my kids.

As we wind these shows down to the big finale, it's almost not worth recapping every little instance. The highlight this week should have been the presence of Muhammad Ali to cheer on his daughter Laila, but they really didn't make that much of a deal about it. Probably because the man can barely stand any longer. Billy Ray was the most excited of all, running over to shake his hand during the middle of a performance.

The other big note was Bruno calling Billy Ray's performance crap. That pissed him off like I've never seen before. Billy Ray's got a good point, that is pretty rude. Karina said it best, "Every week I tell Billy Ray to take what the judges say, and try to work on something to improve on the next time. But what can you do with crap?"

It's apparently an omen, however, as Billy Ray finally goes home. It was a little scary there when Joey, rather than Ian, also made it to the bottom two. What does that say about the fanbase? I thought for sure that Ian would be the next one (after Billy Ray). Maybe Cheryl's got the fanbase to carry them both.

Oh, and how weird did Nellie Furtado sound? I always thought she was nasal, but it sounded like she was doing a satire of herself tonight. Yuck.

Nope, not something I wrote, something I'm linking to. Perhaps even more interesting than the article itself is the political correctness battle being waged in the comments. How DARE he say that dad should help out mom, what's he from the 1950's? Doesn't he know that all households require that both parents share all housework equally at all times? And god help him for saying that when Dad has the kids it's "babysitting". Duck, man, duck!

The list, though, is a good one and worth reading. People say "obvious", but as a general rule, people *always* say that whenever somebody makes a list.

If I had to add one it would be, "If you want a job for your children done right, do it yourself." I painted both my daughters' bedrooms, as well as the footstools they use to climb into bed (my dad made the stools themselves). I could have bought something, or hired someone. I didn't. Not because I'm cheap, and certainly not because I like to paint. And by "right" I don't mean that the quality of my paint job was better than a professional. I mean that these were things for my children, and I did them myself rather than throwing some money at the problem and having a stranger do it. Maybe it's a silly little thing, but it's important to me because I think it's important to them.

Yes it is available on iTunes for download:

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=204830047&s=143441&i=204830154

This weekend we got the kids to a carnival that included a magic show. During the show the magician pulled up a little boy on stage who clearly didn't want to be there, and then proceeded to put a pigeon on his head. Pigeon proceeds to go to the bathroom on the boy's head. Later they bring out a giant bunny rabbit, and before the boy can reach out to pet him, the rabbit pees all over the boy. Kid's having a tough day.

Later in car ride home:

"Daddy, wasn't it funny when the bunny peed on the boy?"

"It was funny. And when he got pooped on, too."

[pause] "I think it was pee, Daddy."

"Right, but remember the pigeon? The pigeon pooped on him."

[much longer pause, so much so that I think we're on to a new topic] "Daddy?"

"Yes sweetie?"

"I know that sometimes my brain forgets things, but I'm pretty sure it was a bunny."

Today we took the family to the zoo. As a special treat it was a new zoo that we had never been to before – the Southwick Zoo in Mendon, Massachusetts. As I told the kids, when you to go a zoo for the first time, you'll often see animals you've never seen before. We were not disappointed.

In the Terry Pratchett scifi/fantasy series Discworld, there is a character who happens to be an orangutan. He is a librarian. One of the going jokes is that every book, somebody has to explain this to an incoming administrator. I wish I could recall which book it was, but at some point someone asks, "He doesn't go around showing his bum at people, does he?" to which the assistant replies, "I believe you're thinking gibbons, sir."

Now, I always interpreted this as meaning a monkey that just had a rather pronounced rear end. Ummm….no. Have you ever seen a gibbon? It dawns on me that either I've never seen one, or I've never seen a particularly active one. Today we found the gibbon. We didn't know this at the time, all we knew is that there was a family coming the other way saying, "Be careful, that's a very fresh monkey."

"Is he throwing things?" I asked.

"No," said the other dad, "But he's showing things."

And there, hanging onto the fence and putting on a show for anybody who was interested, was some sort of monkey who wanted attention. He'd hang out for a while, swing back and forth, do a little dance, make a little "woopwoopwoop" noise, and then for no reason, whammo, check out my ass. It's hard to really appreciate the move without seeing it first hand. It wasn't a traditional moon, like he spun around 180degrees and stuck his butt up in the air. It was all in the hips. He's there, he's talking, he's got your attention, and then bam, look at my butt. Just a quick flash, like he's playing a trick on you. Once you realize that you're looking at a gibbon and that's just their thing, it's pretty funny. You could almost imagine the little monkey thought balloon over his head with a "Psych! Showed you my butt!" caption.

In other news, an excellent zoo all around. They had wallabies, which I'm not sure I've ever seen in a zoo around here. At least half a dozen different kinds of monkey cages, including a whole "chimpanzee habitat". Lions, tigers and leopards. Elephants, rhinos and giraffes. Highly recommended. Don't go on the train ride, though, it's lame. All you see are "wetlands" (translation: nothing), and it's infested with hornets).

is this song on I TUNES?????
I really want to know how to download this song

So yesterday at the birthday party, Katherine is sitting with Jack at a table with 12 little plastic chairs. Other kids are running around playing, but it's not like we have 12 kids here. "Daddy," asked Katherine, "Why did Mommy get so many chairs if there's not that many kids?"

"Because Mommy's a little crazy," I replied.

"That's ok Katherine," said Jack, "My mommy's a little cwazy too."

And yes he really did say "cwazy". Adorable little bugger. Earlier that day he'd told me he wasn't hungwy because he had a big bowl of waffles for bweakfast.

I did not think to ask him if he was tired from hunting wabbits (not that he would gotten the joke :)), but Kerry at one point did say to his mom "He sounds just like that guy that used to chase Bugs Bunny."

Lol.Hmmm,how come I didn't think of that,LOL!!!! If I wanted the whole CD I would have bought it,but I just wanted this single song.AnywaysI found it and if anyone wants to listen at it,try here http://www.completealbumlyrics.com/lyric/131279/Chris+Daughtry+-+Home.html#video
Ah,and thnx duane for your helpful thought!

Today is my son's first birthday.  Happy Birthday, B!  Tonight we will go out to dinner to celebrate the actual day.  My wife was actually trying to figure out some place that *he* would like best.  He's one.  He's not ordering off the menu!