Spider-man III for free

Last night I went out with the Old Married Man's Club. We intended to see the movie Disturbia, however, upon arrival at the cinema we found out that the projector for this show was broken. The young man working the ticket booth informed us that he was supposed to try and convince us to see another one of their great films but if we could not be swayed then he was supposed to give us free passes to see Disturbia on another night. We had him get his manager and Brad used a little smooth talk to get us into Spider-man III at no charge. I can't say I was particularly impressed with the story line, but the movie is based on a comic book, after all.

New skill for Dec

Let me start by apologizing for taking some time off. Things have been very hectic at work and at home and it is really easy to get out of the habit of making time to type a few words about what is going on.

Last night I took Dec over to the nearby school, which, by the way, is not the school our kids go to. Our school district is a big believer in the idea of trying to make schools more equal by shipping kids all over the place, so our kids go to the 13th closest elementary school, which is only 10 miles from our house. Regardless, Dec and I drove a quarter mile so that he could practice riding a bike without training wheels in the local school's flat parking lot. I have tried a couple of other times to teach him how to ride a bike, but he isn't very patient when things don't go as he would like and so I didn't push the issue. Despite a few minor tumbles, he did very well last night and should now be able to peddle around the cul-de-sac at home. I have to admit that it is a bit saddening to see them growing up, especially considering that I'm being told in no uncertain terms that we are done expanding our family.

No wonder Science couldn't publish my paper

They've been busy publishing "serious" research on global climate change.

"The research, published in Science, identified changes in wind patterns caused by climate change as being the direct cause of the weakened ability to absorb carbon dioxide."

In other words, climate change is now causing further climate change. We should outlaw climate change to prevent it from further propagation.

Buried in the last few lines:

"The researchers accepted there were limits to the data available from the Southern Ocean and that “the magnitude of the CO2 sink is heavily disputed”. Professor Chris Rapley, director of BAS, said uncertaintities remained, but the findings were “a serious concern”."

Ignorant Democrat alert

I just had to post on this comment from an AP story about the Democrat's failure to cut off funding to our soldiers fighting in Iraq.

"How many more soldiers do we have to bury? How many more do we have to bring into our military and veterans hospitals? How many more thousands of innocent Iraqis have to die before we finally accept our responsibility to bring this war to an end?" asked Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.

What an ignorant statement. Does he suppose that if the U.S. just puts its tail between its legs and runs away from Iraq that innocent Iraqis will stop dying? Last I check, the reason we are still in Iraq is to protect the innocent Iraqis. If we leave there will be a bloodbath.

Another example of why the Democrats are not capable of running our country.

Images - Can loved the hike

Another picture of Can with his typical big smile. (taken 04/06/07)

Family Photos - Big swing and a miss

After missing the ball, Dec's swing carried him all the way around.

Can is cast free

Can went to the doctor's yesterday and they finally took his cast off for good. The doctor said that he isn't allowed to jump or rough-house with his brothers. Good luck with that! Hopefully Nae can keep him off of the trampoline until it gets stronger. He walks a bit funny. He still point it out to the side like it was with the cast on. The doctor said that this should go away soon.

Rascally Stupidity prevails in the Country

"The Rascally Stupidity which now prevails in the Country at large is beyond all description."

"I despise my Countrymen, I wish I could say I was not born in America. I once gloried in it but am now ashamed of it."

"The Insults and Neglects which the Army have met with from the Country, Beggars all description. it must Go no farther, they can endure it no longer."

"... all this for my Cowardly Countrymen who flinch at the very time when their Exertions are wanted, and hold their Purse Strings as tho' they would Damn the World, rather than part with a Dollar to the Army."

Nope, these are not words written about the current Democratic leadership in Congress, but excerpts from a letter written by Colonel Ebenezer Huntington to his brother Andrew on July 7, 1780, during the Revolutionary War.
(I initially read some of these excerpts on the title page of "Rabble in Arms" by Kenneth Roberts and then found a transcript of the original letter on the web.)

Children are bad for the environment

The population control freaks have jumped onto the global warming bandwagon. From a recent article out of London,

"'Having large families should be frowned upon as an environmental misdemeanour in the same way as frequent long-haul flights, driving a big car and failing to reuse plastic bags', says a report to be published today by a green think tank."

"The decision to have children should be seen as a very big one and one that should take the environment into account."

"as a general guideline, couples should produce no more than two offspring.

Maybe we should all have a few more children.

Images - Dec in the outfield

Dec is having fun in the outfield. He must have been telling jokes with his friend out there. At least he is in the ready position and not playing with the grass.

Family Photos - Goin' around #9

This was from last week's soccer game. I was coaching again, so Nae was taking pictures. She had a hard time getting one of the front of Sul because the field is so big. Sul is just about to juke number 9. They lost this game but the team won the next day (Sunday) when Sul couldn't be there. The team they played today stomped them by a score of 8-0. This team was really good and the defense on Sul's team just couldn't slow them down. Sul got scored on twice while he was in goal, but there isn't much he can do in a one-on-one against a really good shooter.

Images - I can't believe he missed it!

I took this at Mad's game last week too. The ball looks like it is just about to hit the bat, but somehow it he missed it. He ended up getting walked both times up to bat and scored one of those times. His team still lost that game, but won today's game. The team they beat had been unbeaten so far this season, but now they have a 5-1 record. Mad hit one this week, but it popped up and the pitcher caught it.

Family Photos - Dec's first T-ball game

I can't belive that I haven't posted any new entries in a whole week. This picture was taken at Dec's first T-ball game last Saturday. He had his second today. They tied won both games. OK, they don't keep score but all of the kids on both teams think that their team won. I have to say, the kids are cute but it isn't a very exciting game to watch.

Family Photos - Cool Mad

Mads thinks that it is pretty cool that he can wear sunglasses now that he has contacts. (taken 04/06/07).

Images - kinked vine

I just thought that this was an interesting looking vine.

Still in a Cast

Can went to the doctor again yesterday. They took his cast off, which was a good thing since it was getting really dirty and worn out from having him walk on it. Unfortunately, after looking at the X-rays the doctor decided to put another cast back on. Nae said that he could still see the line of the fracture and he is worried that a small jump off of the couch or something similar would put us right back to square one. Needless to say, Can was not happy when they started to put the new cast on. He is, however, getting around pretty well even with the cast. We'll see how things look in two more weeks.

Wipe too much, warm the world

"I have spent the better part of this tour trying to come up with easy ways for us all to become a part of the solution to global warming"

"I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting"

-Sheryl Crow

And rationing T.P. is what she came up with? This illustrates perfectly why celebrities should have no place in the real life of real people. Stick to the pseudo-life of the entertainment world.

New music toy

If you look to the right, you'll notice that I found a new music toy. The website finetune.com lets me customize a music playlist with just about any song I want. They also provide the widget that I've pasted in at the right so that anyone visiting my website can listen to my playlist. Go ahead and give it a listen. I can't personally vouch for all of the songs because I made this list by picking a few songs from artists that I like and then I had the finetune algorithm fill in the rest of the songs based on similarity to those that I picked. You can also visit my finetune page to see additional playlists or you can sign up with finetune for free and make your own playlists.

Two Wins

Today was another game day and both boys won. Sul's team shut out the opposing team with a final score of two goals to zero. He made one good save in goal where he had to dive on the ball to gain control of it. Afterwards he punted the ball all the way to the other end of the field. He also had an assist on one of his teams goals, so he had a productive game.

Mads' team won by a score of 3 to 2. They were leading 3 to 0 for most of the game but their last pitcher hasn't had much experience and he let a couple runs in before he could stop them. The final play of the game was a big pop fly to right field. It was actually going foul but the boy out there caught it. He looked in his glove and realized that the ball was in it and then got really excited. The whole team ran together into a big pile. A much better day than last week. Each team now has a 1 win and 1 loss record.

Can has started walking on his cast. He and Mom are counting down the hours until his visit to the "broken-leg fix-it doctor" on Tuesday. Hopefully the cast will come off and stay off so that he can go back to running instead of hobbling.

Lifetime book reading list

Highly suggested reading by David Allen White and John Mark Reynolds from a recent Hugh Hewitt show. It is suggested that every college freshman and sophomore should read the books discussed in these transcripts.