Miscellaneous rambling, and bragging about my kids.

I feel sorry for him also. Watching him cry at the end of the show reminded me how young he is as well. At only 17 he has born the scorn of the nation. It is not his fault the judges passed him to the final round and then America voted him into the top twelve! I also do not think that he conspired to have people vote for him in the masses that they did. He was just along for the ride and I think people should give him a break. He handled it well considering the mixed signals he was getting from the nation. I mean, half of America loved him and the other half hated him! What would you do? In the beginning he actually sounded better than he did going out and I just don’t think he was ready for the caliber that American Idol requires. Give him a few more years and he will find his niche, even if it does happen to be a hair model! (There is no denying most of us would give almost anything to have his hair!)

The new Pope has made it official – unbaptized babies who die still get to go to Heaven. This has been a theological debate for decades, and basically the primary reason for the whole concept of Limbo, a place between Heaven and Hell. Here's the deal: unbaptized babies still have original sin, and thus if they die, they can't get into Heaven. That's sort of the whole point of baptism to begin with. But nobody wants to believe that newborn babies have done anything to deserve a straight ticket to Hell, either. The official document now says that "grace has priority over sin, and the exclusion of innocent babies from heaven does not seem to reflect Christ's special love for children."

Oh my, the anti-Catholic folks are going to have a field day with "Christ's special love for children."

Your ideas are great for teaching the concept of multiplication and division but when it is necessary to memorize the facts there is a memory method that works extremely well. It was developed by a teacher and used in schools and homes nationwide. Go to http://www.memoryjoggers.com and take a look.

Sorry for the spoiler, but man, it's about time!

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Can I tell you how much I hate country week? I was on cbs.com looking to see if I could find when Rockstar: INXS is coming back.

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I don't know if I'm just extra busy at work or I'm just not into the shows like I used to be, but neither Dancing nor American Idol is really doing anything for me this season.

Dancing this week was actually pretty high end, with a number 10s including a perfect 30 for Apolo and Kim. And what do they highlight in the recap? Heather's "dramatic" fall. Dramatic? I had to rewind on Tivo because I missed it the first time. Right at the very end of their dance, for the pose, she actually stood on one leg. Problem was, it was the wrong leg and down she went. She brushed it off like "It happens to me every day, big deal," but the audience was all "I had tears in my eyes, that brave woman!" So I was left wondering if she did it on purpose.

Who did I say last week, John would be next? John's actually safe, and it's Clyde and Heather in the bottom two. That surprises me, I thought Heather would go farther than this. Clyde, if you missed it, was called "the worst dancer in the competition" this week. That's a bit rude, even if it's true. Somebody has to be. Clyde goes home. But does that mean Heather will be next? Does John, who was also tagged with "the best worst rhumba I've ever seen", have enough popularity points to start beating out the better dancers ala Sanjaya?

Kim is evil and has only been in it for her career since her first episode. I hope while in Washington the Spaceneedle falls on her.

Over at Tubewad.com there's an article up detailing the elements of a great sitcom. They are: a solid premise, strong characters, great writing, comedians in the lead roles and a live audience. The comedians one in particular fails pretty miserably and he admits that (Friends? Cheers?) what he really means is "If you have a comedian in the lead role, you're better off than if you don't, see Seinfeld and Raymond as my prime examples."

I'm disappointed that he does not include How I Met Your Mother, my favorite sitcom on tv right now. I like the premise and characters, very Friends like. A happy couple, a couple of friends who ultimately hookup, and the outsider Barney. The writing is brilliant (mostly coming from Barney's character). None of them are comedians by trade, and I have no idea if it's filmed before a live audience. I think that the first three are enough to carry it, and the author was just looking to round out to five items so that he could hav e a list to post on Digg.

Did anybody watch this show? I wouldn't even have noticed it if not for some reference in one of the TV blogs I follow in reference to where it would end up on the schedule relative to American Idol (or Dancing with the Stars, or something like that). It wasn't bad, but I don't expect it to last.

The premise of the show is to take a 30-something couple expecting their first child, and then surround them with every combination of friends with advice that you've ever heard. Start with the happily married couple who are so into researching and practicing their first parenthood that they carry around a doll, and even set the alarm to wake up at 3am to practice feeding. Never met anyone that does that, myself.

On the other end of the spectrum is a zombie-like couple that the central characters meet at a shower who give them much more realistic advice about never sleeping again, as well as several other scary things including a graphic depiction (and delivered upon promise to show them) of what happens to breasts after breastfeeding.

Throw in one oversexed, divorced career woman best friend and you've got a borderline Sex in the City episode. All character development in the show will apparently always devolve back into "I'm in my early 30's, I'm not ready to give up the life I enjoy but I want to start a new life by being a parent and I'm scared silly about it." So the stories will be stuff like whether to swap out the small car (the mini cooper) for a minivan. I wonder if at one point there was supposed to be a joke in there about trading the mini for a mini, but if there was I missed it and it was just confusing.

I don't believe the characters. The husband is supposed to be one of those anal retentive freaks that researches everything on the net first, which is funny when he disagrees with the doctor and has to learn to shut up, but other times just makes him hard to get behind. The couple I mentioned above, who are so gung-ho that they deliberately wake up at 3am, are either completely unbelievable or, if they resemble somebody you know, completely annoying. I don't see them lasting long.

It's on at 10pm on I think Thursday (Tivo will do that to you) so we'll record it as long as it lasts and probably watch it over the weekends. Maybe it will get better if the network gives it a chance. I just wonder if they'll run out of material, bouncing back and forth between "I don't know how to unfold the stroller" jokes and "What do you mean I don't get to wear sexy underwear anymore" jokes.

This morning has not been a good morning.  We're having a "take in everything that's not nailed down, and kiss goodbye anything that is" storm.  Since it's a holiday and the kids are on vacation I had hoped to take a day off, but with nothing to do on such a horrible day I might as well work and save the vacation day for a better opportunity.  But what kind of limbo is this that I'm in?  Go in to work?  No way.  Work from home?  Maybe, although that looks cheesy, like I'm really taking the day off and trying to claim that I'm working.  The power is flickering in the morning so I don't exactly want to leave everybody home in the dark.  I think maybe work from home is the best option even if it doesn't seem kosher.  As if on cue the cable goes out, taking the internet with it.  Looks like I'm driving in to work.  Wrong!  On the way to work I see a house that's been hit with *three* trees.  Ouch.  That alone should have been enough to turn me around.  But when I couldn't even get on the highway because the main road out of town is blocked, I decide to give up and head home, figuring it will just be a rainy day off.  On the way back I even see a car accident.  It is a lousy day out there.

So I get back home, explain the situation, and Kerry tells me that it's a good day for a coffee run.  She's a little bit more carefree with my safety when she knows there might be a medium french vanilla with cream and two Equal at the end of the rainbow.  So I go off to get the coffee.  As I'm pulling in to the parking lot my cell phone starts ringing, and I'm wondering if a tree has come down.  "Come home!" Kerry says, "I think there's a mouse under the couch."

"A mouse?  That's different," I say, glad that it's not a tree.

"Katherine won't look at it, and I don't want to," she says.  "I think it's dead, it's not moving."

"Well if it's dead, then there's no hurry," I tell her.

"Just come home."

So I get the coffee and bagels, and come home.  The kids are up at the kitchen table, and Kerry's feeding the baby. They all start telling me excitedly about the big black thing that might be a mouse.  Black?  Probably not a mouse.  I look where they show me, and whatever the hell it is, it ain't no mouse.  It's big, more like rat sized.  Definitely not moving.  You can see it sticking out from under/behind the couch.  My longtime readers might recall that I'm not great with mice, so the prospect of having a rat in my house is not exactly thrilling me.  I get the flashlight and take a quick glimpse, and it really looks more like a stuffed animal to me.  I'm not getting close to it just in case the damned thing does decide to move, but I'm pretty sure it's a stuffed animal.

"All right," I say into the kitchen, "I'm moving the couch.  Does everybody have their feet up off the floor just in case?"

The scream that came out of my wife was truly worth staying home for.  She tried to put her feet into the baby's high chair.

I pull the couch out from the wall, and sure enough it's a black stuffed scotty dog.  I bring it into the kitchen, being sure to hide it from Kerry long enough to keep the suspense up.  Katherine's only reaction was, "I was looking for that!"  Elizabeth's reaction is, "Where's the mouse?"