Miscellaneous rambling, and bragging about my kids.

Ok, so, yesterday I'm listening to Coverville, one of the best podcasts around. It's a music show where he does all cover versions of songs. Well, he's doing a Hall and Oates themed show, and plays "I Can Dream About You". Afterward the host comes on and says, "Now, most people are going to recognize that as a Hall and Oates song, but they actually did the cover – do you know who sang the original, and where?"

Streets of Fire, actually. I happened to know that one. I did not recall that it was Dan Hartman who sang it, but that's not part of my story :). The host then goes on to recall what is otherwise a very forgettable movie, except for the cast – Bill Paxton, Rick Moranis, Amy Madigan, Willem Dafoe, and others. I'd forgotten that Willem Dafoe was in that. He's one of those actors you always remember by sight, but can probably never remember his name. Modern audiences probably know him best as the Green Goblin, from Spiderman. Go a little farther back and he got really famous for playing Jesus in Last Temptation of Christ.

So this morning I'm listening to the radio (Opie and Anthony) instead of podcasts, and they're doing an interview with someone whose voice I don't recognize, until a good 10 minutes into my listening they mention Platoon. Damned if it wasn't Willem Dafoe!

The story would have been even better if during the interview they'd referenced Streets of Fire, but alas they did not (at least, not in the section of interview I heard). But, still….weird.

There's a morning ritual at my house. I get up to go take a shower, and in the middle of it, my not quite 2yr old son wakes up (at least, typically this is the timing). My wife gets him, and he walks into the shower to say hello. He also typically waits to hand me my towel, which generally involves me moving the towel to a place out of my reach, so that he can then hand it back to me.

Today there is a knock on the door before I ever even get in the shower. I open the door and there's my son who, without a word, pushes past me and walks over to the vanity, where he pulls a single tissue out of the box and leaves. I follow him down the hall, where he goes into our other bathroom, presumably where my wife is. "Ok, tell me you just sent him for a tissue, because that was pretty cool," I say.

"Actually," comes the voice, "I told him we're out of toilet paper."

Not bad, son. Not bad.

So I got a new Buddha statue the other day, my in-laws brought it back from Hawaii as a gift. And like my Shakespeare toys, this gets the kids curious. "You like Buddha and Shakespeare," they'll tell me.

The 5yr old understands a bit better and asks things like, "Now, who was Buddha? What did he do?" I do my best to explain that a long time ago this man lived who figured out how to be happy, and everybody said they wanted to be happy to, and wanted to know how he did it. So he told them the rules, and said that if you follow those rules, then you would be happy. So people try to follow his rules.

My 3yr old, on the other hand, goes Zen almost from the word go. What she asked was, and I quote, "Daddy, what does Buddha say when he gets to the end of Buddha Land?"

I would have said "moo", but I don't think anybody in the room at the time would have gotten it. Except my son, who would promptly have assumed that I was talking about a cow.

Yesterday I took my 5yr old to a birthday party and watched her play a game with her friends where one of the girls would just go stand behind a boy until he realized she was there, then he'd scream "A girl!" and run away. On the drive home I explained to her the concept of what he used to call "cooties", as in "ahhh! girl cooties! Run!!!"

"Oh," she said. "We don't really play that game, Daddy."

"You don't play the cooties game?" I asked.

"No," she said. "We just pretend to marry them."

"Same thing."

This morning over breakfast, my wife informs me that our daughter (this same 5yr old) has a boyfriend. "Is that the same one I saw yesterday, who ran away whenever you came near him?" I ask.

"Yes," she says.

"That's ok then."

does anyone know the song with the lyrics, when i think that i might fall underneath the pressure of it all, i'll think of you?

So are you actually going to follow the advice and bathe on a regular basis now?

So I happened to notice the instructions on my bottle of shower soap today. Underneath the usual sorts of things was written, and I am not kidding, "PS – Use more than occasionally, cleanliness is an everyday thing."

I noticed in "offbeat news" this week that a former pro-wrestler, Harbody Harrison, was sentenced to life in prison for trafficking in human slaves. The best part is where it says "…and ordered to pay a $2400 fine."

Now, honestly, you're sentenced to life in prison, who is gonna pay that? What are they gonna do?

Both my girls have the exact same "Leapster" videogame. One of them is in my car. Over dinner I decided to mess with the 5yr old's head. They are the exact same.

"One of your Leapsters is in my car."

"Is it the one with Finding Nemo?"

"I don't know, I didn't turn it on. It was the pink one."
They are both identical, you see.

"But did it have the Finding Nemo cartridge?"

"I didn't notice, sweetie. I just know it was the pink one. Which one of you has the pink one?" I'm waiting for it to dawn on her that they are both pink, and that saying the pink one isn't really a clue.

"Daddy, neither one of them is pink, they're more purple. But that's ok, I know what you meanted."

Yes, she really did say "meant-ed".

So last night, for the first time in a long time, I decided to get the Wrestlemania PPV. It was to be Ric Flair's retirement match, and that alone was worth the price of admission. I figure the show starts somewhere around 7:30 or so, with a bunch of previews to lead up. I wonder aloud to Kerry over dinner how this will work, since everything is "On Demand" these days – will I actually have to be sitting at the TV right when it starts, or will it be the sort of thing that just turns on, and I get to watch it whenever?

Around 6:30 or so I start looking for it on the On Demand Guide (which has its own button on my remote control, after all), and I can't find it? Odd. I find a number of things called Wrestlemania, all of which are "free previews." Never the actual event. I wonder if, because it is live, that I will be able to turn it on closer to the start time. Seems odd to me, but the evidence is there in front of me, I can't see it.

Finally as it approaches 7:45 and I've checked the website to see that the show started at 7pm, I call Comcast. What follows is the gist of the conversation:

"I can't find Wrestlemania on my On Demand Guide."

"I'm sorry to hear that, sir, would you like me to go ahead and order that for you over the phone?"

"Why can't I find it?"

"I don't know, sir, but I can order it for you right now."

"Well did it start 45 minutes ago?"

"Yes."

"And will I be able to start it from the beginning?"

"No, sir. But after it is over, it plays again from the beginning."

"So you're telling me to watch 3/4 of it, and then at midnight, go back and watch the first hour?"

"I'm just saying that it repeats, sir."

"Ok, I guess I'll order it. So how do I find it?"

"Turn to channel 401."

"401? How would I have ever known that?"

"I don't know, sir. Is it on?"

"Yes. Cool. Thanks. Now this is being recorded, right? Like when I get other On Demand shows and they are in my DVR section?"

"No, sir. You'll need to press your record button."

"And then I'll be able to change the channel?"

"No, sir."

"Is this in HiDef?"

"No, sir."

Oy. Something dawned on me after — not all PPV is "On Demand". Wrestlemania is still an old fashioned "event" PPV where you have to sit and watch it live. I'd forgotten those exist. I just assumed that once it had begun, I would be able to watch it whenever. I also learned later that it was broadcast in HD as well, but that cost extra money – something the operator never told me.