Doogie Howser

I am not sure why I found this funny, but I did. And I have to say that this past weekend's Saturday Night Live was one of the best I have seen lately. Neil Patrick Harris did a very good job hosting.

Weekend in Iowa

This weekend we went to Iowa to finish up our Christmas celebrations for the season. Mel, Emma, and I, as well as my sister, left early Saturday morning for Waterloo, Iowa, where we stopped at my mother's house for a short while before heading to my grandmother's house in Keystone. We had a good time visiting with her, as well as with my aunt and uncle who came as well. We opened some presents and had dinner of oyster stew and chili. We did have a bit of excitement when my sister ended up going to the emergency room after returning to Waterloo around 8:00. Hopefully she gets better soon.

Speaking of being sick, Emma is staying home from daycare today. She slept most of the way back home from Iowa yesterday afternoon, and she didn't seem like herself after getting out of the truck. We took her temperature last night and found it to be a bit high, 99.6°F. This morning we took her temperature again and discovered that she had a 101.3°F fever. So I will be taking her to the doctor in a little bit this morning to have her checked out. Hopefully I can get a little work done later today if I can get her to take a nap.

It's Comcastic

Over the past month, we have been experiencing sporadic problems with our Internet connection from home. Since the beginning of December, we have probably once or twice a week we have been unable to connect to the Internet early in the morning, usually between 6:00 and 8:00. I called Comcast's customer support number to get help with this a few time, although the last couple of times, I did not call because I figured the issue would resolve itself shortly. Except for this morning, it has.

This morning I called and the phone system said it would try to reset my modem remotely. It then disconnected my phone call, and I still did not have Internet service, so I called back. This time I got to speak with a customer service technician. He ran me through all the things I had already tried, although he added a new thing to try to my repertoire -- unplugging the modem, removing its battery, and shutting down the computer. When that still did not work, he told me that since I have had reoccurring issues with the Internet service over the past month, there could be something wrong with my modem. He then gave me the option of making an appointment for a technician to come out to the house or to go to a Comcast service center and have them diagnose the issue with the modem, possibly replacing it.

Not wanting to wait for an appointment, I said that I would prefer to go to the service center to get immediate service. He gave me an address for a couple of locations in my area. The first one was in Brooklyn Park and the second was in Minneapolis. The Minneapolis location would have been closer to my home, but through his accent I could not understand what he said for the street name, and when I asked him to spell the street name, he continued on to another location that was almost as far away as the first.

So off I set for Comcast's office in Brooklyn Park, over thirty miles away. It took about forty-five minutes to get there. Thankfully the traffic was not too bad. When I got there and explained my issue to the person at the desk, she told me that since we get our phone service through Comcast, as well as the Internet service, they could not do anything there, but I would have to have a technician come to the house. Gee, if the guy on the phone would have told me that, I could have saved over sixty miles of driving and an hour and a half of my time. So, I made an appointment for someone to come out tomorrow morning. She then added that her computer was showing that there was a service outage in my area. Ok, I realize the technician I was speaking to was located halfway around the world, but you would think that before spending all that time trying to fix my Internet connection, he would have checked for something as simple as a service outage!

Anyway, I drove home and hooked the modem back up, and violà, my Internet connection was once again working! I did not bother cancelling my service appointment for tomorrow between 8:00 AM and 1:00 PM. I figure that whoever shows up can look at the modem and decide if there is an issue with it. Besides, after they wasted an hour and a half of my time today, I do not really care if I waste a little of their time!

Family Pack

We have been using Luvs diapers for most of Emma's life. We did try some others first before settling on Luvs though. We like the diapers, but there is one thing about them which I find a bit odd. We buy the case that has two packages of diapers in them. They call this the "family pack." I find that term a bit odd for a box of diapers. It's not like the whole family is using the diapers. At least I would hope that would not be the case. In the event that a family had more than one child in diapers, they likely would not be wearing the same size, unless they are twins, or children of some other multiple birth.

Another thing that bothers me about the packaging is the claim that the Family Pack has "2 times more diapers . . . than Jumbo Pack." The Jumbo Pack of Luvs size 5 diapers has 30 diapers, and the Family Pack has 70. If the Family Pack had 2 times more diapers than the Jumbo Pack, it would have 90 diapers. Two times 30 is 60, and since the box says "2 times more," not "2 times as many," it should have 60 plus 30, or 90, diapers. Perhaps I should write a letter to the makers of Luvs to bring this mistake to their attention

Franken Wins! (At Least for the Moment)

The recount of votes in Minnesota's Senate election has now ended, and Al Franken has the lead by 225 votes. So barring the inevitible challenge that the Norm Coleman campaign will file, it looks like Al Franken will be the next senator from the state of Minnesota. It looks like Norm Coleman, who initially said that Franken should concede the election, wants more of the rejected absentee ballots to be counted. And he is still concerned about some ballots which he, or rather his lawyers, content were counted twice. As for the twice-counted ballots. If no additional absentee ballots are allowed, these ballots shouldn't matter, as the number of ballots in question is fewer than the vote margin. I'm sure Coleman will drag this out as long as he can though to keep Franken from being seated in the Senate when it reconvenes this month.

Toddler Bed

Yesterday, before we brought Emma home from daycare, I removed the front side of Emma's crib and put on the toddler bed rail. Only a couple of times has she made any attempt to climb out of her crib, but we decided that it was time for her to move up to the toddler bed. Maybe it will help her sleep in other beds when we are out of town. When she got home from daycare, we showed her the bed. She seemed fine with it, climbing into it. She even sat down to "read" one of her books shortly before it was time for bed. However, when it was finally time to go to bed, she put up a huge fight! It took about an hour before we could get her to even sit in bed, and I had to be in her room with her, with my head lying at the bottom of the bed. Eventually, after much loud screaming, she settled down and went to sleep.

She ended up sleeping through the entire night and managed to get herself out of bed when she was done sleeping. We opened her door around 6:30 this morning, after we had heard some noise coming from her room through the baby monitor. At that time, she must have been standing near the door, because she came right out and greeted us.

After all of the difficulties we had getting her to go to bed last night, and the fact that she often screams and puts up a protest when it is time for a nap, I thought that nap time today might not go so well. However, I had no reason to worry. She went down for her nap just fine on her own today.

A New Year, A New Calendar

While my daily calendar still has 19 days remaining on it (the Bad President Countdown Page-a-Day 2008 Calendar goes to January 20 of this year for some strange reason), it was time to get a 2009 calendar. So wanting to get out of the house yesterday, Mel, Emma, and I headed over to the Mall of America yesterday afternoon where we could then walk around quite a bit, and do some window shopping. We ended up in the calendar store, where everything was half off. Looking through the remaining stock of 2009 calendars, I settled on the Life Is Crap 2009 Daily Boxed Calendar. The calendar is a parody of the Life is Good products that have become popular recently, except instead of illustrating good things about life, it has pictures of crappy things that happen. The picture on the calendar yesterday showed a guy driving an SUV into a tunnel with low clearance with the bikes attached to the top of the vehicle being sheared off. And today's illustration is of a snowboarder flying off a snowy cliff. This should be an entertaining calendar.

A New Video from the Loney Island

The Lonely Island, a group made up of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, is now on YouTube. The song is "We Like Sportz" and is on their upcoming album Incredibad, which is due to be released on February 10. The album will also have the song Jizz In My Pants, the video of which is also on YouTube.

Happy New Year

Now that the new year has begun, here are my dead pool picks for 2009:

• George H. W. Bush
• Nancy Reagan
• Barack Obama
• Dick Clark
• David Prowse
• Stephen Hawking
• Ted Kennedy
• Wilford Brimley
• Darryl Strawberry
• Muhammad Ali
• William Shatner
• Kim Jong-il
• Andy Dick
• Willard Scott
• Kenny Baker
• Mr. T
• Bea Arthur
• Queen Elizabeth II
• Suge Knight
• Barbara Bush

Scoring is based on 100 points minus the age of the person who dies, with a minimum of 1 point being awarded per person. I will be sure to keep you, my readers, updated as to my score during the year.

Dead Pool 2009

Having completed all of the work I needed to get done by the end of the day, I entered the dead pool contest at TheDeadpool.com. Since there is still time to sign up, I am not going to reveal who my picks are at the moment. Now I am not personally hoping that any of these people die. In fact, there are people who I picked who I really hope do not pass this next year. I thought it would be something fun to do though. I did this a couple of years ago on a different website, but I don't think I did too well. Now, as long as none of my twenty picks die before midnight tonight, I'm ready to go.

Emma Says...

At twenty-one months of age, my daughter Emma now has several expressions and short sentences that she uses with great frequency. The first thing that she says quite a bit is "Mine." The meaning of this would seem to be quite obvious, but it can vary subtly depending on the context in which it is used. Obviously, if she is looking at something and says "mine," she wants whatever it is. However, sometimes she just starts saying "mine" with nothing around. In this case she usually wants her pacifier. We are planning on removing the pacifiers completely in a week or so. Hopefully that doesn't go too badly.

Another thing that Emma likes to say now is "I want..." What she wants can vary quite a bit. It can be "I want cracker," which she said repeatedly last Sunday morning. She did not stop until she got a graham cracker for a snack. She often fills in other foods in this sentence when she is hungry. She also says "I want Mommy" or "I want Daddy." Usually she wants the parent who is not currently holding her or with her.

A third expression that Emma says with some degree of frequency is "Oh no!" She says this when things fall on the floor, or when she drops food on the floor from the dinner table. She also likes to say "oh no" when she sees something covered with snow, such as the car when we go out to go to day care. She also hates having snow on her shoes, or anyone else's shoes. So she will say "oh no" if there is snow on my shows when I come inside. She will then try to brush the snow off. She did this while we were walking around the grocery store this evening, much to the amusement of others.

It has been really interesting seeing how Emma has begun to put words together into sentences. I just continue to be amazed at how much her vocabulary has grown in recent months.

A Bit Excited

We got ourselves a Nintento Wii for Christmas, but the reaction was nothing like that from this kid.

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone who reads my blog has a safe and happy Christmas. And, in case you need some Christmas music to get you into the spirit of the holiday, here is Twisted Sister performing "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" from their 2006 album Twisted Christmas. I didn't realize that they were still performing, let alone that they had released a Christmas album. I may have to look into acquiring that for the next holiday season. They did a pretty good job performing the classic Christmas carol, although they did insert a few bars from "We're Not Gonna Take It" into their rendition. Actually the melody of "We're Not Gonna Take It" has many similarities with that of "O Come All Ye Faithful."

Christmas Videos of the Week: A Patrick Swayze Christmas and Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy

For this year's final Christmas video of the week, I present to you "A Patrick Swayze Christmas" from the Mystery Science Theater 3000 third season episode Santa Claus Conquers The Martians.

And here is an additional bonus Christmas video, Bing Crosby and David Bowie singing "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" from Bing Crosby's 1977 Christmas TV special.

A Bonus Christmas Video: Christmas in Hollis

Before I post tomorrow's final Christmas video of the week for this year, please enjoy this classic Christmas song by Run-D.M.C. From 1987, here's "Christmas in Hollis."

A Festivus for the Rest of Us

Here's to wishing you a happy Festivus. May your Festivus pole stand tall, and good luck with the feats of strength and the airing of grievances.

It's Working!

While speaking with her dad on the phone this weekend, Mel mentioned that our snow blower still was not working. Her dad gave some suggestions to get it working, noting that if they did not work, we could bring it with us for him to look at when we go to their house for Christmas. After two trips each to both the auto parts store and Menards to get the necessary tools and parts, I still could not get it working. I had decided that we would have to take it to have it looked at by someone else, most likely costing us more money. However, when Mel asked me if I had gotten it started, she reminded me of one step that I had not tried when replacing the spark plug and replacing the gas. I tried what she suggested and it worked! I had to let it run for a bit because it was running a bit rough at first. However, after clearing what little snow was on the driveway, it was running mush more smoothly.

Snowy Day

It snowed all day yesterday. We did manage to get out of the house to do a little shopping in the morning. We decided that we had better stock up on groceries in the event that we would be stuck in our house for the next week. Just kidding. We actually bought a lot fewer groceries than we usually do.

I also managed to get a couple of packages sent. One of them was a Christmas present for one of Mel's friends in Cedar Rapids. The other was a birthday present for Mel's friend who lives in Ohio. Her birthday is on New Year's Eve. We haven't sent her Christmas present yet, but plan on sending it tomorrow. If she doesn't get it by Christmas, she should at least get it by Friday.

From the weather reports I heard yesterday, we got around six inches of light, fluffy snow. I would have used the snow blower to clear off the driveway, but it is not working. So I ended up shoveling. Emma came out to help. We thought she would enjoy playing in the snow, but when I stood her up in the snow in the yard, she fell back onto her behind and started whining. Apparently playing in the snow is not Emma's idea of a good time. At least it wasn't today.

Today I got a new spark plug for the snow blower. Hopefully that will help it to start. I was working on getting the cover off so I could install it, but the screws are a little tight and it's just too cold to spend much time working on it right now.

Will the Real Lizard People Please Stand Up

The Great Minnesota Senate Recount seems to have had its moments of levity. In this video, the canvasing board is debating whether to count the write in "Lizard People" as a legitimate vote, making the ballot an over vote. The Flying Spaghetti Monster also got a vote. One woman on the committee apparently has never heard of Flying Spaghetti Monster, although I am sure she is not alone. Finally, the person who added the letters "STIN" to the end of "AL FRANKEN" to create a vote for "AL FRANKENSTIN (sic)." In the end, after much debate, the vote ended up going to Al Franken, although it was not a unanimous decision.

The Recounting Continues

Things are looking up for Al Franken in the Minnesota senate race recount. According to the Star Tribune's website as I write this, Norm Coleman's lead in the recount has dropped to just five votes. While Coleman still has the lead, I believe the contested ballots the canvasing board is currently contemplating are the ones that the Coleman campaign challenged. I would guess that a lot of the challenges were to keep Franken from getting a vote. Of course there are other reasons, but I think Franken will gain more votes from these ballots than Coleman will, although I could be wrong.

And in another bit of good news for the Franken campaign, the state Supreme Court ruled that improperly rejected absentee ballots should be counted as part of the recount. That seems like a nobrainer to me. If the absentee ballots were rejected without a legally valid reason to disqualify them, why shouldn't they be counted? Of course Norm Coleman saw it differently, indicating that these people's votes should not count, through absolutely no fault of their own, unless a lawsuit after the recount is completed says that they should. I would expect this from him. He had a modest lead and these ballots, while they could help him, could also hurt him. With the status quo, he knows where he stands, but these ballots could change everything.

I am all but certain that whatever the results of the recount are now, this race will still not be decided. Whoever loses, especially if it is Norm Coleman, will be taking this to court. Hopefully any legal challenges can be resolved quickly before the governor can just appoint someone to the seat because it would be vacant if not filled by the beginning of the next legislative session.

Oh, and apparently when you vote for Al Franken and write in Lizard People for the same race, that is considered an overvote.

Majel Barrett Roddenberry

Majel Barrett Roddenberry, the widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry has died from leukemia at the age of 76. From reading some articles about her death, I learned that she did some voice work for the upcoming Star Trek movie which is due to be released next spring, and apparently her lines had all been recorded already. I gather that she is going to be the voice of the computer, a role she had on every incarnation of Star Trek, making her the only actress to appear on each of the different Star Trek series. Of course she also played Number One in the Star Trek pilot episode, Nurse Christine Chapel in Star Trek, M'Ress in the animated series, and Lwaxana Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

A Bonus Christmas Video: Feliz Navidad

I would like to begin this entry by thanking my sister for sending me a link to this video. I was going to wait to make this my final Christmas video of the week next week, but I decided I would add it as a bonus video to give all my readers time to enjoy it before Christmas. I bring to you the song "Feliz Navidad" sung by Charo on Pee Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special from 1988. Wow, I can not believe it has been twenty years since this program aired!

Christmas Video of the Week: Santa Baby

This week's Christmas video is from 2006. It features Eartha Kitt singing her song "Santa Baby."

Don't Eat the Yellow Snow

The city of Ankeny, Iowa, is using garlic salt donated by the Tone's spice company, which is based in Ankeny, to treat their roads this winter. Now, they aren't using just the garlic salt, but are diluting the normal rock salt they use for the roads with tons of garlic salt donated by the company. This report from CNN indicates that the people working with the salt are getting a bit hungry smelling the garlicky smell. And apparently the dogs of one of the salt truck drivers tries to lick the garlic off of him when he arrives home from work.

That Crazy Shatner

In the latest video posting to his YouTube site, William Shatner is seen communing with whales during a 2007 excursion he took with his family. It seems his experience from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home has come in handy. At least he didn't jump into the ocean to mind meld with them.

Keep Your Shoes On

The recent shoe attack on President Bush shows just how dangerous footwear can be. My goodness, he could have suffered a black eye. Fortunately, unlike the subject of the shoe attack in the video below, George Bush showed some pretty good reaction as he was able to dodge the shoe.

Here's one more video. This time it shows the actual attack on the president, although it is spliced together with some other video.

Merry Christmas from Barney and Friends

Barney, the First Dog, has come out with the final Christmas video of his tenure in the White House. After viewing this, I can only say that I hope that no one in the Bush family has any aspirations on ever becoming an actor. I take that back. I do have one other comment. I just hope no one tells Bill O'Reilly about this, or he may go ballistic on Laura Bush for wishing everyone "a very happy holiday" instead of Christmas.

Stuff You Should Know

I found a free podcast today on iTunes that I am really enjoying. It is called "Stuff You Should Know" from HowStuffWorks. The two hosts of the podcast discuss some, often bizarre, topic over a period of about fifteen minutes. Their discussion includes a lot of useful information on the topic, as well as a good bit of humor. The topic of the first of the podcasts that I listened to this morning was on where in the body is the best place to be shot by a gun. The second was on whether extended warranties are worth purchasing. I haven't counted how many podcasts they have available at the moment, but so far I have downloaded twenty-five of them to listen to when I get the chance.

Brrr

Damn, it is cold outside! Yesterday the temperatures did not even make it up to 0°F. I believe the high temperature today is supposed to be around 5°F, but that is still bitterly cold. Fortunately, yesterday I didn't really have anywhere to go. Oh, I did end up going to the post office to get stamps for Christmas cards and to the grocery store to get some Pedialyte for a certain little girl who needed some fluids replaced, but that was it. I, as well as my sick wife and daughter, stayed home the rest of the day.

A Visit With Saint Nick

We went to Valley Creek Mall in Woodbury yesterday so Emma could visit with Santa Claus. However, when we got in line to see him, she started clinging to her mommy. Mel asked Emma if she wanted to see Santa, but she did not want to. I did manage to get a picture of Emma with Santa Claus, but her mommy had to hold her, and she seemed a little frightened of him. Once we left the area, Emma kept saying "Bye bye Santa." She kept saying that, even as we left the mall for the car. Maybe she will want to sit on his lap next year.

The Unstoppable Epic Surge

The Cedar Rapids Gazette has put together more than 300 of its photos from this past summer's flooding on Eastern Iowa into an eleven-minute video. I remember seeing many of these photos at the time, but there are many I hadn't seen before.


the unstoppable epic surge from GazetteOnline.com on Vimeo.

Shatner in Seattle

In looking at the most viewed channels on YouTube this week, I saw William Shatner's channel listed at number 19. This is his latest video. In it, you will get to see him sign someone's nut sack. That comes at the end, so watch the whole thing.

Snowman

Emma had a better day at daycare yesterday than she had the day before. She did not get in trouble. One of the things they did yesterday was to make snowmen out of paint and construction paper. Sometime with the crafts they do at daycare, I wonder what parts of the project Emma actually does and which parts are done by the staff. I think it is pretty obvious with this art that Emma was the one who placed the construction paper hat, arms, and nose on the snowman. It does make for a really cute snowman though.

Christmas Video of the Week: Christmas At Ground Zero

In 1986, long before the words "ground zero" would immediately cause people to think about the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, "Weird Al" Yankovic sang this jolly song about a nuclear attack on Christmas.

Embedding of the video on YouTube has been disabled, but you can view it if you follow this link.

Bad Emma

Emma had a bit of a rough day yesterday, or rather, her parents had a bit of a rough day because of her. It all began when she decided to wake up at 4:00 in the morning! We could not get her to go back to sleep, so we ended up sitting with her in the living room, with Mel lying down on the couch and Emma sitting on my lap. Mel and I both dozed off a bit, but we think Emma stayed awake until around 5:00, a mere fifteen minutes before Mel had to get up to get ready for work. I tried to put Emma back in her bed then, but she woke back up. I did get her to go back to sleep, but she woke up again when I tried to put her back in bed when I was ready to go shower. She was up from that point on.

Emma's day didn't seem to go better at daycare. When Mel picked her up, she learned that Emma had gotten in trouble during the day. Apparently she and another child were fighting over a toy or something and Emma shoved the other kid, leaving a scratch mark on him or her. She got a talking to at daycare, and then again when she got home. I hope she is better behaved today.

How Did This End Up On TV?

I am not sure how this video with Andy Samberg made it on TV, although it was on toward the end of Saturday Night Live last weekend. I thought it was really funny though, and I did like the music. This is definitely not safe for work, so wait until you get home to check it out. Oh, and see if you can spot Justin Timberlake as the janitor.

Today's Pointless Blog Posting

Because I haven't posted anything in a few days, and I have nothing to say, I thought I would post this one of many Star Trek inspirational posters.

Barbie Kicks Slutz (oops, I mean Bratz) Dolls Collective Asses

A U.S. district judge ordered the maker of Bratz dolls to stop production of the slutty-looking playthings. Although, he did allow them to wait until after Christmas to yank them from store shelves. Barbie-manufacturer Mattel had sued MGA Entertainment over the dolls claiming that the person who designed the dolls was working for Mattel when he developed the ides for them, and therefore they rightfully belonged to Mattel. Apparently a jury agreed with Mattel. Or maybe the jury just thought this would be a good way to get the over-made-up dolls off of store shelves and into the back alleys where they would fit in much better.

Christmas Video of the Week: Do They Know It's Christmas?

Here's my first posting in a series of blog postings that I will be calling the "Christmas Video of the Week." This week's featured video is 1984's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band Aid. This song came out when I was twelve years old, and it is still one of my favorite Christmas songs. It is kind of fun to look back at this twenty-four-year-old video. The hairstyles sure bring back memories.

Whee, Wii!

During my lunch break today, I stopped by our local Target store to pick up some pop since they have Pepsi products on sale this week, five for $15, and when you buy five twelve-packs, you get a $5 gift card. But I digress, since we decided that we were going to buy ourselves a Nintendo Wii for Christmas, I stopped by the electronics department to see if they had any in stock. They had one. So I decided I had better get it now since they can be hard to come by. Since we are buying it as a Christmas present, I am not sure if we will open it now, or wait until Christmas. Of course, it's not like we'd be ruining a surprise if we opened it now since Emma is too young to know anything about it or to even care. I guess Mel and I will have to discuss that tonight.

More Christmas Shopping

We started our Christmas shopping a couple of weeks ago when we found a good sale at the Disney Store at the Mall of America. We hadn't planned on doing any Christmas shopping that night, but we couldn't pass up the deals. Well tonight the Christmas shopping moved into high gear with the ordering of plenty of presents online. We took care of presents for four and a half people tonight. Now we have to finish the shopping for one person (the half person mentioned in the last sentence) as well as doing all the shopping for four others, not including ourselves. For Mel and me, we are going to pass on getting each other presents and instead buy one present for us as a family, a Nintento Wii. We have seen them in stores quite a bit lately. I just hope we can find one now that we decided to go ahead and buy one.

Let the Christmas Season Begin

With Thanksgiving day now behind us, the Christmas season has begun. And here for your enjoyment, in tribute to Fox News's Bill O'Reilly, John Gibson, and their fight against the so-called "war on Christmas," is a version of The 12 Days of Christmas.

Just In Time for Thanksgiving

Martha Stewart makes mashed potatoes with the help of Snoop Dogg. You've just got to watch out for the cognac in his potatoes.

Mousetrap

A month or so ago, Mel noticed a mouse in our attached garage. So after sealing up the gaps below the doors to the garage, I set two mousetraps in places near where Mel had seen the mouse. For the first several days after setting the traps, I checked them fairly regularly, but nothing had been trapped. Then today while I was changing the bag in the garbage can we have near the door to the house, I noticed that the mousetrap was upside down. Upon closer inspection I noticed that we had finally caught a mouse. Hopefully this is the one that Mel had seen earlier. After disposing of the rodent's corpse, I reset the mousetrap with some more low fat peanut butter (I wouldn't have used low fat peanut butter, but it was all we have in the house).

OMG

I still can not believe that this thank-you video addressed to Sarah Palin is serious! I guess Palin is the new savior of the GOP.

Who's Captain Kirk?

It looks like William Shatner has a problem with the new Star Trek movie.

Turkey For Me, Turkey For You

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin recently gave an interview following the pardoning of a turkey in Alaska. The interview probably would not have been noteworthy were it not for the fact that her backdrop had turkeys being slaughtered in it. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with the killing of turkeys for food. It's just a bit incongruous with the pardoning of the turkey that she had just completed.

I thought that some of the captions on screen were particularly funny, such as these two:

GOV. PALIN APPARENTLY OBLIVIOUS TO TURKEY CARNAGE OVER HER SHOULDER

TURKEYS DIE AS GOVERNOR PALIN TAKES QUESTIONS FROM MEDIA

Also, the irony about the question about state programs being "on the chopping block" made me chuckle.

Star Trek Movie Trailer

The new Star Trek movie, directed and produced by J. J. Abrams, is set to be released on May 5 of next year. Until then, here's the latest trailer for the movie to when your appetite. I must say that this looks like it should be a good movie!

Christmas Shopping

Yesterday afternoon, we all headed over to IKEA and the Mall of America. All we really intended on buying was a bookcase from IKEA. I am planning on using the bookcase to display my Yoda collection which, for the most part, has been boxed up since we moved to Minnesota. We did end up buying a couple other things there though. Mel got a small desk lamp and Emma got a stuffed rat (MINNEN RÅTTA). Who would ever have thought to make a rat into a children's stuffed animal?

After shopping at IKEA, we headed over to the Mall of America. We mostly intended on just walking around and browsing a bit, but while we were wandering through the Disney Store, we found something to get Emma for Christmas. I carried that item around the store, trying to keep it hidden from Emma. Mel also found something that we could get one of our nephews for Christmas, and we also got a present for our niece. Since almost everything in the store is on sale for 25% off all week, we got some good deals.

Last night I put up the Christmas tree in the living room at home. Currently we are not intending on decorating it until we return from Mel's parents' house Thanksgiving weekend, but we decided it would be easier to just get it put up when we have the time.

Christmas Is Coming

Yes, I realize that Thanksgiving isn't even here yet, but I would like to extend holiday greetings to all of my readers anyway. Please enjoy this festive video of Mathman and his family.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Who Are You

This afternoon Mel and I went to the Science Museum of Minnesota. We began our visit by viewing the movie Mysteries of the Great Lakes in the Omnitheater. It was a good movie which focused on the depleting sturgeon in the Great Lakes and the measures that are being taken to repopulate the species there.



While the movie was good, the primary reason we went to the museum was to see the CSI: The Experience exhibit. It was really cool! Before entering the exhibit we were each handed a clipboard with a piece of paper on it. The paper told us which of the three cases we would be investigating while viewing the exhibit. Our assignment was to investigate crime scene number three, "No Bones About It." We started by viewing a crime scene which consisted of the skeletal remains of someone who appeared to have been shot in the head and left in the desert. We had to look at the trace evidence in the lab as well as the firearms evidence. In the photo here, Mel is attempting to determine the caliber of bullet that was in the victim's head. Next we compared the teeth from the victim's remains to the dental records of some missing people and compared the mitochondrial DNA of some dog hair found at the scene with that of dogs owned by people who knew the victim. After that we listened to the medical examiner's report. Finally, we put all of our evidence together and learned who the murder was. It would be neat to go back and try one of the other two cases that they have there.

Politics in the Bedroom

I promise that this is the absolute last blog posting I will write that is related to the recent presidential election. I saw a story this morning on CNN about merchandise related to the recent election, and there was one series of products that they reported on that I did not expect -- condoms! Apparently you can order Barack Obama condoms which sport the slogan "Use with good judgement" on the package, or John McCain condoms which are labeled "Old but not expired." The person producing these also has a Sarah Palin condom which has the slogan "When abortion is not an option" printed on the packaging. Interestingly, I could not find a Joe Biden condom for sale. The video below is a story about the Obama and McCain condoms from a local Fox station somewhere in the United States. The CNN story I saw this morning said that these could become collectors' items. However, I would warn you that if you do decide to save these for posterity, I wouldn't use them for their intended purpose too far in the future.

Flu Shot

I took a little time off from working this afternoon to go out and get a flu shot. In the past it has been really convenient for me to get the shot as I could just go up to the cafeteria at work when it was being offered. However, now that I work from home, it was a little less convenient. I did not have to go far though as there was a flu shot clinic administered by the Minnesota Visiting Nurse Agency at the Cub Foods that is located just over a mile from out house, and insurance should pay for the shot so I did not have to pay anything out of pocket. With Emma attending daycare at a daycare center instead of a private home, I figure she is more likely to pick something up and bring it home than before. She has however had a flu shot as well.

Snow

Over the past few weeks, I have written a couple of times about it snowing here in the Twin Cities, but none of these instances resulted in any accumulation. This morning however, I awoke to see a thin layer of snow covering the yard. There was even some snow on the driveway, but not enough to bother with shoveling. Although, I did have to clean snow off of the car before taking Emma to daycare. The temperature outside is slightly above freezing, so what show there is in the yard is a heavy, wet snow. While there is not much snow on the ground, it is enough to make it look nice and wintry outside.

Cleaning Out the Garage

Since moving into our house, we have been meaning to get rid of a few items, including a large entertainment center, an end table, and an extra microwave. I have meant to find a Goodwill or similar store to donate these items to, but I just haven't gotten around to it. So, when I learned about the Twin Cities Free Market website, I thought it would be just as good of a way go rid ourselves of these still-usable items. Yesterday afternoon I listed the microwave oven on the site, and by that evening someone had called asking about it. She is supposed to be picking it up this evening. I have now listed the entertainment center and end table as being available as well.

In addition to those free items, we have wanted to get rid of a couple of our spare bicycles. Since inheriting my dad's Cannondale bike a few years ago, Mel has been riding my old bike, a Univega Modo Vivere. She has ridden it on two RAGBRAIs, but it is a bit too big for her. Also, she would rather have a recumbent bike to ride. Mel also has a Schwinn Frontier mountain bike that she doesn't ride anymore either. We thought about trading in the Univega at a bike shop in town to help with the purchase of a recumbent, but they do not have Univega in their database of bikes they will take, so I have listed both of them for sale on Craigslist. I have never used that before, so hopefully we get some interest in the bikes. I also hope I am asking for reasonable amounts for the two bikes. I suppose if someone is interested and I am asking too much, they will offer a lower amount. That would be ok.

Barack O'Bama?

Among all of the questioning about Barack Obama's place of birth during the presidential campaign, I don't recall hearing anyone concerned about his Irish ancestry.

What's Norm Coleman Afraid Of?

With the Minnesota senate race still up in the air, Norm Coleman thinks that Al Franken should just concede and let him win. Apparently, Coleman does not care about the will of the voting Minnesotans. He claims that if it were him who was behind by less than 0.02% of the votes cast, he would not want the recount and would just step back to allow his opponent to be declared the winner. He seems concerned about the $90,000 cost to Minnesota taxpayers. Well, if he were really that concerned, maybe Norm Coleman could just "step back" and let Al Franken be declared the winner. Of course he won't do that, nor should he. What Norm Coleman seems to be forgetting that whoever is elected is a servant to the people of Minnesota and therefore Minnesotans should have the final say as to who represents them.

Gas Prices and Snow!

While I was out taking Emma to daycare this morning, I noticed that the price of a gallon of gas at the two gas stations nearest our house is now under two dollars per gallon, although just by a tenth of a cent. I do not remember the last time gas was this cheap! And, I can't believe that I just called two-dollar-gas cheap. I guess it is though considering we were paying almost four dollars for a gallon of gas this past summer.

Before I get to work this morning, I just want to say that IT IS SNOWING! I don't think it is supposed to accumulate at all since the ground is still fairly warm, but considering that we had temperatures in the seventies earlier in the week, it is a nice change to see snow.

Warp Speed

I found instructions online today for creating a model of the Starship Enterprise out of ordinary office supplies. I think I actually have most of them in my desk. Maybe I will have to do this the next time I have nothing to do when I am working.

Beam Me Up Anderson Cooper

Here's one last posting in regards to yesterday's election and it deals with the election coverage of CNN. Shortly before Barack Obama appeared in Chicago to give his acceptance speech, CNN's Anderson Cooper interviewed hip hop artist will.i.am via "hologram." It looked kind of cool, but overall the gimmick was just ridiculous.

Minnesota's Senate Race

It looks like the Associated Press has called Republican Senator Norm Coleman the winner of the senate race in Minnesota over Democratic challenger Al Franken. However, there are fewer than 800 votes separating the two. As this is less than 0.5% of the votes cast, there will automatically be a recount. I heard this morning that the recount will not happen for a couple of weeks though, I am guessing that it could then take a while until the over 2.8 million ballots are recounted, then we will truly know who the winner of this race is.

President Barack Obama

It looks like all of the major news networks are now predicting that Barack Obama will become the forty-fourth president of the United States. I am now off to bed. Hopefully this doesn't turn into another Dewey Defeats Truman moment.

One Last Reminder to VOTE

I saw this video online of a four-year-old telling people to go out and vote. It is just too cute!

I Voted!

I didn't wait as long to go back to my polling place as I had initially planned. I hadn't really gotten started on much for work yet this morning, so I decided I would go ahead and vote now. Besides, someone is coming to the house between 1:00 and 5:00 this afternoon to fix the dishwasher, so I need to be sure to be home then. When I arrived at the polling place this time, there was no line at all. I was able to get right in and vote. After double and triple checking my ballot to make sure it was completed the way I wanted it to be, I slipped my ballot into the optical scan machine, registering my vote for Barack Obama for President, Al Franken for Senate, and many other people for the office for which they have been campaigning. Now I should just get to work and try not to be distracted by too much political coverage on TV or the Internet today.

Went to Vote

I stopped by my polling place around 7:20 this morning with Emma before I took her to daycare. The line was very long, so I decided I would take Emma to daycare first, since I didn't think she would tolerate waiting in line for that long. I plan on returning later this morning to vote. Hopefully once the lines have died down a bit.

In the meantime. Please enjoy the song "Obama Be Thy Name" by Kenyan artist Makadem.

Trick-or-Treat

Last night I took Emma, dressed as Elmo, trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. We walked to the end of the block then back on the opposite side of the street. Almost everyone was handing out treats. Emma got quite a bit of candy, most of which she probably will not be able to eat. I guess that means Mel and I will have extra candy to eat.

Having only recently moved to this neighborhood, we had no idea what to expect for trick-or-treating, so we prepared by having about 250 pieces of candy available to hand out. We were not sure what time kids would start to come around either. Every community in which we lived in Iowa had set trick-or-treating hours. That is not the case here. The first trick-or-treaters arrived around 6:15. Things really picked up after 7:00, and by 8:00, there were few kids coming by, although we did hand out candy until about 8:45. I lost count, but I would guess we had about 40 to 50 kids come by. We do have quite a bit of candy left over.

Today Mel and I did some yard work, picking up leaves and mowing the lawn, while Emma took her afternoon nap. We ended up filling thirteen 39-gallon bags with leaves that had been chopped up in the leaf blower/vacuum. We also got rid of a pickup truck load of brush. We found that the city's compost drop off location is not too far from our house, which is good since it took us two trips to get everything there. Our back yard now looks much better, and the patio is suitable for use now. We will probably still have some leaves falling in our yard from our neighbor's tree, but I do not know if it will be enough that we will have to do anything about it.

Tonight I roamed throughout the house setting all of the clocks back an hour in preparation for the return of standard time tonight. We have so many clocks in the house. Besides the actual clocks, it seems like every other electronic device in the house also has a clock that needed to be changed. I ended up setting back twenty clocks tonight. I just hope I did not miss any.

Root Canal

I just got back from the dentist's office where I had a root canal procedure done on one of my molars. The procedure was not as bad as I feared it would be. In fact, except for a very slight pain when the local anesthetic was injected, there was absolutely no pain at all. However, it was a bit uncomfortable lying back with my mouth open for such a long time. I will be going back to the dentist in a few weeks to get a crown put on the tooth. I am not anticipating any problems with that either.

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween. Just watch out for those pesky evil robots!

Cute Commercial

Here's a commercial from the National Republican Senatorial Committee featuring "celebrities" John Ratzenberger, Victoria Jackson, Stephen Baldwin, Robert Davi (who?), and Pat Boone. They do not want Al Franken to ruin the reputation of everyone in Hollywood as they are nothing like him. I guess I will not hold that against any of them.

Incidentally, Stephen's brother Alec has spoken out on why we should replace Norm Coleman with Al Franken in the Senate.

It is cute how Victoria Jackson concludes the ad by rooting for the Vikings. Sorry, but this won't convert me to a Norm Coleman follower. I will definitely be casting my vote for Al Franken on Tuesday!

Dentist

Until today I have seen the same dentist all my life, aside from the dentist I saw once when I lived in Waterloo, Iowa, (and I believe he lost his license for unnecessarily removing mercury fillings). My experience at this dentist office was good. It was a lot more modern than the office I had been going to in Cedar Rapids. But then, this office did just open up within the past month. Overall it looks like my teeth are in fairly good shape, with a few exceptions. I have a chipped front tooth which I will be getting fixed at some time in the future. I also have a molar which is broken, so I am returning to the dentist this Friday afternoon for a root canal and to get the crown built back up. I am so no looking forward to that. Not only do I think it will hurt, but even with dental insurance, it will be a little expensive!

HOPE

The election is one week from today. Vote for hope!

The Presidential Candidates as Babylon 5 Characters

One of my brothers-in-law sent me a link to this image equating the current candidates for president and vice president of the United States with characters from Babylon 5. If you know little about Babylon 5, this will probably mean very little to you. However, for those B5 fans who read my blog, you may find this entertaining, unless of course you disagree with the original creator of this art.

President Bush Endorses John McCain and Sarah Palin

In case you missed it last night, Will Ferrell made a return to Saturday Night Live to reprise his role as President George W. Bush in a skit in which he endorses Tina Fey's Sarah Palin.

The Sexist Elite Liberal Media

The elite liberal media have really been sexist in their recent discussions about Sarah Palin and the $150,000 the Republican party paid to dress her up for her appearances. The non-elite, non-liberal media would never stoop to commenting on the money anyone spends to maintain his or her appearance.

Ron Howard Wants YOU to Vote for Barack Obama

And here he is with his friends Andy Griffith and Henry Winkler trying to convince you to do so.

Too Early

For the second morning in a row, Emma woke up way too early. Thursday morning she woke up around 4:10. I held her while sitting in the living room in the dark, hoping she would go back to sleep. However that did not happen. After sitting on my lap for half an hour, she struggled to get down, put her pacifier away in her room, and ran off to the kitchen, waiting for me to get her breakfast. She eventually did go back to sleep, but not until 7:10. I normally take her to daycare at 7:20, but I put her back in bed to sleep some more. She didn't sleep too long however, as she ended up waking again at 7:45. I then took her off to daycare so I could get working.

This morning she woke up a little after 3:00! After holding her for about half an hour again, I just put her back in bed. Mel decided we should leave the hall light on and her door cracked open. We returned to bed, and while Emma did whine for a short time, she eventually went back to sleep.

Hopefully she gets over this soon. I don't know how I would handle it if she does this once standard time resumes in a little over a week. At the rate she's been going, she could be getting up at 2:00 or 3:00!

A Blast From the Past

I found a couple of Star Wars related videos on YouTube today that I would like to share with my loyal readers, and with anyone else who happens by. The first video is the original trailer from 1977 for Star Wars. It sure looks cheesy!

Next, is a clip from Sesame Street from 1978 featuring C-3PO and R2-D2. I don't think I even knew that they appeared on Sesame Street, or if I did, I have absolutely no recollection of it. In this clip, R2-D2 has apparently fallen in love.

New iPod

With money I received for my birthday, I just ordered myself a new iPod to replace my three-year-old iPod nano. I could have just gotten the battery replaced, but newer iPods have features that my old iPod nano does not, such as the ability to play video. Last month I contemplated buying one of the new iPod nanos, but I decided that I would rather have an iPod with a larger capacity, so I decided at that time to buy a new 120 GB iPod classic. Then when I checked out the Apple store online yesterday, I learned that I could get an 8 GB iPod touch for less than the price of the iPod classic. While the iPod touch has significantly less capacity than the iPod classic, it has wi-fi capabilities. However, I realized that I probably wouldn't get much use out of that, so I went ahead and ordered myself a new black 120 GB iPod classic. I should have it before the end of next week!

WCCO - WTF?

While watching Criminal Minds on WCCO, the Twin Cities CBS station, last night, they aired a commercial for an upcoming news story about someone who had ankle surgery performed on the wrong ankle. At the end of the commercial the text "WTF?" appeared on the screen. I was a bit shocked that a TV news station would put something like that in their ad. Did they not realize that WTF is an abbreviation for "What the f***k?"

This did remind me though of something that happened at the last school I taught at. I noticed that several students were wearing T-shirts with the letters WTF emblazoned on them in school. I believe there was also something relating to the school mascot on the shirts as well. Apparently, someone had convinced the school administrators to approve such a shirt, claiming that the letters stood for something completely different. Eventually the administration did catch on however.

The Obama Flag

Radio host Bob Grant recently reported on his radio program that at a recent rally, besides having American flags behind him, Barack Obama also had some flags on which the field of stars had been replaced by an "O" for Obama. Here you can listen to him expressing his concern:

And here is a photo Obama with the of the questionable "Obama flag."

In case you were wondering, the photo shows Obama giving a speech in Toledo, Ohio. Apparently, Bob Grant does not know what Ohio's flag looks like. Is looks surprisingly like the so-called Obama flag.

My Birthday

I had a really good birthday yesterday, for the most part. Mel had taken the day off from work because it had been a while since she had had a day off. I worked in the morning and then took the afternoon off. Mel and I then went to see Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. I really enjoyed the movie. I had head a good review of it on All Things Considered a couple weeks ago, and my sister said it was good. My only complaint about the movie was that I felt parts of the move were a bit predictable.

After picking up Emma from daycare, we were going to drive to Roseville to go to dinner at Romano's Macaroni Grill. We had fastened Emma into her car seat when we realized that she needed a diaper change. So we stopped at home first to do that and we discovered that Emma wasn't feeling all too great, so we decided to stay home for dinner. We did pick up food from Green Mill in Hastings, since it was much closer and it was the other restaurant I had considered going to for my dinner. The food was good.

After going to bed, my birthday made a turn for the worse. I'd had a pain in my stomach since dinner, but I thought I was just still hungry. Well it turned out that I was sick. I think I may have picked up something from Emma that she got from day care. Not getting much sleep last night, I ended up using some sick time today and getting sleep. I am feeling a bit better right now, but I am not back to 100%.

36

Today is the 36th anniversary of my birth. And for my birthday, Mel baked a cake. Instead of putting candles shaped as the numbers 3 and 6 on the cake, she put 36 individual candles on the cake! I could feel the heat coming off of the cake as I was blowing out the candles.

Mel took today off from work since she hasn't had a day off, except for weekends and days she or Emma was sick, since July. I am taking the afternoon off, and we plan on catching a movie. Tonight we plan on going out to dinner. I am not sure where we will go yet, but I think maybe we will go to Green Mill.

Oh, and I just got an email from my friend Martha who reminded me that my age is now a perfect square! Excellent!

OMG!

I can not believe there are actually people like this in the United States in 2008! Mike Lunsford of Fairfeld, Ohio, has hung an Omaba effigy from a tree in his yard. He stated that the United States is a white, Christian nation, so only white Christians should be president (of course Obama is a Christian, although I would guess Lunsford is not convinced of that). Also, he is concerned that Obama is not a "full-blooded American." Lunsford spoke to reporters of camera because he felt that appearing on camera could hurt is employer's business. Actually it might help it gain in popularity among members of the Klan. At least Lunsford has no problem admitting that he is indeed racist.

Return to the Pumpkin Farm

My sister Rebecca wanted a pumpkin to carve for Halloween, so yesterday afternoon she came over and we all headed back to the apple orchard and pumpkin farm that Mel, Emma, and I went to a few weeks ago. Rebecca managed to find two pumpkins.

We returned to our house and had dinner. After dinner, and after putting Emma to bed, the three of us carved up our pumpkins into Jack-O-Lanterns. Below you can see the results of our efforts.

Finally, after making the Jack-O-Lanterns, I decided to try my hand at toasting the seeds from the pumpkins. I found an instructional video online which was quite helpful in the creation of the seasonal treat.

ZooBoo

Yesterday afternoon, Mel and I took Emma to the Como Zoo for ZooBoo, their annual fundraising event which has costumes characters all around the zoo and which gives children an opportunity to trick-or-treat. Emma's costume for Halloween this year is Elmo. She just loves Elmo, although she did not like keeping the head of her Elmo costume on her head for very long. Despite it being a bit chilly, we had a good time.

Neighbors, Part 2

A few weeks ago I blogged about the neighbors who live behind us. They are still working on the two-story structure that is being built in their back yard. Except for seeing someone on the roof a couple of days ago from my office, there hasn't seemed to be much progress.

Anyway, today I am going to write about another of our neighbors. The neighbors who live next door to us on one side of the house have eight little yappy dogs that run around in their back yard being very noisy. In the few instances when we have had visitors and showed them our new house, it was difficult to show them our back yard because of the loud barking of the neighbor's dogs. I really hope that these dogs do not prevent us from enjoying our property to its fullest extent.

Before moving here, I had checked out the city's website and I had read that no more than a total of five cats and dogs may be kept at a residence. It wouldn't be very neighborly of me though to call the city on our new neighbors, especially since we only recently moved here. I guess it isn't very neighborly of me to complain about my neighbors on the Internet with relative anonymity either through. Besides, that may make it obvious who made the call, and we don't need to start out on the wrong foot with the neighbors.

I have met one of the owners of these dogs, and he seemed like a decent person. While I may not care for the McCain-Palin and Norm Coleman signs in his front yard nor the Nobama T-shirt he was wearing while mowing the lawn, I haven't let political difference ever keep me from getting along with someone.

Battleground for Your Heart

If nothing else can convince you to vote for Barack Obama, maybe the musical stylings of the boy band Boybama can.

Michelle Bachmann 'May' Be Anti-American

So, Minnesota Republican Representative Michelle Bachmann said in a recent interview that she is "very concerned that [Obama] may have anti-American views." I guess if someone's views do not line up with the Republican party's views on issues, they must be anti-American.

In a somewhat related story, John McCain has stated over and over again that he doesn't "care about a washed-up terrorist," referring to Bill Ayers, however his campaign for president sure does. People in Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well as other places, have been receiving automated phone calls from the McCain campaign warning them of the "association" between Obama and Ayers. Yes, they served on a board together, as did a lot of other people, including notable conservatives. But Ayers has absolutely nothing to do with Obama's campaign for president. I really do not see what the big deal is with this issue. Anyway, if McCain doesn't want to make an issue of this, maybe he should put the smack down on his campaign staff!

Vote!

In a recent 20/20 piece, John Stossel questions whether some people, mostly young people, have enough knowledge to vote. Before viewing the video, I assumed he would be asking people what they knew about the positions of the various candidates for whom they could be voting. However, that was not the case. Instead, people were asked how many states there are in the United States, the number of senators each state has, what the Bill of Rights is, and what Roe v. Wade is. He also had people attempt to identify photos of political figures. Everyone identified McCain and Obama, and most identified Sarah Palin. Joe Biden did not fair as well though, and neither did Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (although everyone could identify Judge Judy).

Frankly I don't care if someone can't identify a photo of a Supreme Court justice. I doubt I could identify them all from their photos. Hell, they don't even let cameras into the courtroom! And while the first set of questions are things all American citizens should know, I do not think that lacking this knowledge automatically means that a person's vote will be completely uninformed, although I admit that some people will vote with a lack of any real knowledge of the candidates. This applies to all people though, not just the young people singled out in this piece. Maybe John Stossel should do a piece next about people whose heads are filled with erroneous information about the candidates for president, such as their religion and country of origin.