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.

Great McCain Photo

Check out this great post-debate photo of John McCain and Barack Obama. Does anyone feel like creating a caption for this photo? You can put one in the comments section if you would like.

Justin Timberlake Wants You to Vote In the Box

While not endorsing any particular candidate (unless you bother to check out his backdrop), Justin Timberlake would like you all to go out and vote in the box.

I have to admit that this video did remind me of another song Justin Timberlake sang about something in a box.

UPDATE: The video above appears to no longer be available. Perhaps the connection to the second video I linked to made it unsuitable to be on Obama's YouTube site.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Someone has reposted the Vote In the Box video, so the video player above should work once again.

Hate

Wow! This piece shows some of the extreme hatred that some McCain supporters show for Barack Obama.

The Last Presidential Debate

I was actually able to sit through the third presidential debate after finding the first two to be absolutely unwatchable, and quite boring! I thought both Barack Obama and John McCain came out of this debate without looking too bad. Of course, the debate did little to change my decision to vote for Obama on November 4.

While McCain tried to attack Obama on his "associations" during the debate, I felt that Obama's reply, explaining them, was very good. Hopefully Obama made this a non-issue for the remainder of the campaign, although I doubt that will be the case.

I found McCain's reaction to Obama saying that "Joe the Plumber" would pay zero fines if he did not provide health insurance for his employees to be priceless.

I think McCain has some good ideas, not enough to get me to vote for him though, but he also expressed an idea that I found a bit irritating. At about an hour and eighteen minutes in the debate, while discussing education and how crappy American schools are doing at educating children, in his opinion anyway, McCain said, "We need to encourage programs such as Teach for America and Troops to Teachers where people, after having served in the military, can go right to teaching and not have to take these examinations which -- or have the certification that some are required in some states." So, McCain's plan to improve education is to hire teachers who are not certified in the areas in which they will be teaching. I am sure these programs have done some good, but to think someone can be a good teacher simply because he or she served in the military is ludicrous!

He's an Arab, Don't Cha Know?

It seems that many people actually believe that Barrack Obama is an Arab, not that there's anything wrong with that. This includes Gayle Quinnell of Shakopee, Minnesota, who got lots of information at the library about Obama, including the "fact" that he is Arab. She even let John McCain know that his opponent is an Arab at a recent rally in Lakeville, Minnesota. In his defense, though, John McCain did correct Quinnell, incidating that Obama is not Arab, that he is "He's a decent family man." Hmmm, I didn't realize that the two were mutually exclusive.

Shameless

I saw this commercial from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on TV last night. It attacks Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman on a couple of fronts. First, it alludes to the possibility that the suits he wears may have been a gift from a local businessman. And secondly, it points out the hypocrisy of his pledging to stop campaign attack ads since practically all of his ads to this point have been attack ads. I suppose he is doing this in an attempt to look good.

I suppose the reason for his calling attention to the stopping of the attack ads might be due to the recent publicity that one of Coleman's ads attacking DFL opponent Al Franken used a story Franken was telling about Paul Wellstone to make Franken look angry.

Happy Columbus Day 2008!

I hope everyone had a happy Columbus Day. I actually took part of the day off from work, not to celebrate today's "holiday," but to watch Emma since her daycare was closed for staff development today. The two of us had fun. We started the day at the Saturn dealership getting the SUV serviced. Then Emma got a haircut, although Mel tells me that I didn't get enough cut off. I guess her next haircut will come earlier than we had hoped for. After that, Emma and I went to the Lookout Ridge indoor playground in Woodbury since it was raining outside. Emma had fun playing there, but she seemed scared of the tube slides and of some of the other features. Maybe in six months or so, it will be somewhere more suitable for her to play. While Emma napped after lunch I was able to get some work done so I did not have to use a whole vacation day.

This past weekend, we found ourselves back in Cedar Rapids. A former coworker of Mel's was getting married. Their wedding had originally been scheduled for June 14 at Saint Patrick's Catholic Church in Cedar Rapids. As you may remember, that was at the height of this past summer's record-setting flooding in Cedar Rapids. The wedding ceremony had to be postponed. They actually got married on that date, in a very small ceremony, so we actually attended a blessing of their marriage. It had to be held at a different church, since Saint Pat's was damaged in the floods and won't be ready for quite some time yet.

The ceremony was nice, and not too long. We also had fun at the reception, although I managed to eat way too much. And because we got to sleep late the night before since Emma refused to go to sleep at a reasonable hour, we were tired and therefore left the reception at 8:30 to retire to our room.

Emma stayed at my mother's house for the weekend, and both my mom and Emma seemed to have a lot of fun.

Patriotic Drunk Redneck, Part 2

Here's more of the patriotic drunk redneck woman I posted a video of yesterday. She is still ranting on about how Barack Hussein Obama is an Arab, saying that while we are at war with Iraq and Iran (Hmm, I didn't realize we were at war with Iran. I guess this woman knows something I don't know.) we shouldn't elect someone from there as president. I may not be Obama's personal biographer, but I do not believe that he is from either Iraq nor Iran, nor has he ever lived there. Oh, and she claims that Obama's father is from somewhere around Saudi Arabia

She goes on to say that electing Barack Obama as president would be similar to us doing something such as hiring the Japanese president (Do they even have a president?) to be our president when WE (the United States) bombed Pearl Harbor! This woman should probably brush up on her history, as well as a little geography before she decides to show her ignorance before the videographer's camera.

Oh, and I like how she tries to get the dog to drink her beer.

The McCain-Palin Mob

In this video, people were interviewed outside a Sarah Palin rally in Strongville, Ohio, about their knowledge of Sarah Palin and whether they think that Barack Obama is a terrorist. I found it really scary the number of people, such as someone identifying herself as Mindy Green, who think that Obama is a terrorist simply because of his name. Ludicrous! And then there is the woman who thinks that there have been a lot more interviews with Sarah Palin then there has been with Barack Obama.

For All You Lab Techs Out There

Do you work in a lab and are tired of pipetting? Maybe you should put down your pipette and try epMotion. This music video states the benefits of epMotion.

OMG!

I caught this video online today about some drunk redneck woman from Kentucky talking about that "Arab" Barack Hussein Obama. She rambles on for over three minutes about how we shouldn't want someone with the name Barack Hussein Obama as president. Although to be fair, despite what one of her companions on the ATV says, her dislike for Obama has nothing to do with his being black. By the way, she was for Hillary Clinton. I just can't believe that there are people like this in this country! If she weren't serious about what she was talking about, this could be funny. I only hope that come November 4, she is too drunk to hop on her four-wheeler to make her way to vote.

Apple Orchard

Last weekend, Mel's parents came to visit. While they we were here, we all went to McDougall's Apple Junction to pick out some pumpkins to carve for jack-o'-lanterns. We had a good time looking around. We ended up buying two pumpkins with a combined weight of 41 pounds. If only we had know we would get such big pumpkins, we probably would have grabbed a wagon with which to haul them back to the car before we ventured down to the pumpkin patch.

Luke's Parental Advisory

Since discovering Luther Campbell's new reality show, Luke's Parental Advisory, on VH1 yesterday, I have had the opportunity to view the first three episodes of the series. As I wrote yesterday, the series follows the daily life of former 2 Live Crew lead Luke as he raises his 17-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son, as well as preparing for his wedding and running his adult entertainment business.

The first episode basically just set up the premise for the series, which I wrote about in the previous paragraph. In the second episode, Luther finds out that his daughter, Lacresha, is going to have a party at his house. He learns this when his son, Luther Jr., snitches on his sister. Once Luuther learns of the party, he is going to have Lacresha un-invite everyone, but he relents and decides to let her go ahead with the party. Of course, Luther cancels his plans to be out of town so he can be at home to supervise. Luther discovers that the party seems kind of lame, so he tries to liven things up by playing some of his own music, much to Lacresha's embarrassment. None of the guests seem to care for the music, except for one boy who eventually gets out and dances to tunes such as the song "I Wanna Rock" from his solo album I Got S**t On My Mind. He then ends the party, causing everyone to leave earlier than Lacresha would have wanted. Later on in the episode, he comes home to find Lacresha and her "boyfriend," as well as another couple, in the hot tub. He decided that he should invite the boyfriend to a family get together at which Lacresha's relatives grill him about his intentions toward Lacresha.

In the third episode, Luther thinks that his 15-year-old son, Luther Jr., does not know how to talk to girls. So he begins by calling up a woman he knows on the phone then having Luther Jr. talk to her. That does not go well. So next, Luther takes his son to a bowling alley where he really finds out that Luther Jr. has no clue about talking to girls. It was at this point when Luther comes up with a plan. He has Luther Jr. carry one of the walkie-talkies his security guards use, wearing an earpiece. Luther can then give his son advice as to what to say from a distance. They go to Gameworks to try out the plan. Luther gets caught early on when one of the girls Luther Jr. is talking to asks why the guy in red, who Luther Jr. has identified as his dad, has a walkie-talkie. Later on, Luther Jr. talks to a couple of girls playing basketball, and does a bit better. Finally, Luther Jr. goes to a table with a couple of girls and talks to them, abandoning the script that his father gave him. He does well nonetheless, and even gets their phone numbers. Luther then tells his son that he has passed. All of this seemed to have the effect of boosting Luther Jr.'s confidence in talking with girls. At the end of the episode, Luther Jr. is outside playing with a couple of friends when he sees a couple of girls approaching walking a dog. He ends up going up to them and striking up a conversation.

Luther Campbell seems to be doing a fairly decent job of raising his kids, despite the fact that he seems to employ a bit of a double standard in their relationships. In one of the episodes, I do not remember which, Luther's fiancée finds a porn video in Luther Jr.'s room. When Luther discusses this with his son, and the son tries to use the excuse that it is what Luther does for a living, Luther comes back with the comment that what he produces is for adults, not for children, and his son can view these types of materials when he is older, but not now. Luther does separate his business life from his home life. His house is not full of strippers pole dancing.

So, while Luke's Parental Advisory is definitely not a TV show that is going to have any major cultural impact, I have found the first three episodes to be somewhat entertaining, and I will probably continue to watch it.

A Public Service Announcement

Those of you who have read my blog for some time, or who know me personally, know that I am a fan of "Weird Al" Yankovic. Well, within this morning I got an email from Mr. Yankovic himself informing me that he has a new single that is available for sale on iTunes. The song is titled "Whatever You Like" and is a parody of the song "Whatever You Like" by hip hop artist T.I. In T.I.'s original song, he talks about giving his girlfriend, or maybe it's just some girl he wants to hook up with, whatever she wants. Of course, he talks about giving her all sorts of extravagances. The Weird Al song is also about providing his female companion with whatever she wants, however the items he suggests take into account the current situation of the economy. They include such things as going out to dinner anywhere she pleases such as Burger King or Mickey D's, staying home and playing board games, splurging for the triple-ply toilet paper, and even buying day-old bagels.

I had not heard the T.I. song before listening to Weird Al's parody. I managed to find it on YouTube. I have to admit that listening to the original version of the song made me enjoy the parody even more.

WTF?

While watching a news story on the FOXNews website today, I learned that Luther Campbell, aka Luke Skyywalker, the former lead singer of 2 Live Crew has a reality show on VH1 called Luke's Parental Advisory. The show follows Mr. Campbell as he runs his business and plans his wedding, all while dealing with raising two teenage children.

Here's a clip of Luther Campbell on FOXNews's Red Eye.

By the way, full episodes of Luke's Parental Advisory are available for viewing on the VH1 website.

Enjoy These Clips

I don't have much time for original blogging today, so please enjoy these two video clips until I write something of substance.

The first gives John McCain's view on campaign attack ads, which he is focusing on at this point.

The second is some video of Sarah Palin from Late Night with David Letterman.

Credit Card Dispute

This morning I called one of my credit card companies to dispute a couple of charges. This is the first time I have ever had to dispute a charge. In August, I got a call from one of the major newspapers in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area asking me if I would like to subscribe. I decided to go with their Thursday, Friday, Sunday subscription. After a couple of weeks, I still had not received any newspapers from them. I called the paper at the beginning of September to inquire about my subscription only to discover that they had no record of me. I was asked to fax to them a copy of the credit card statement that showed the charges. I did so and did not hear from them again. So on Monday of this week, I called again and eventually was told that they would have to send the issue to their accounting department as they had no record of the transaction or of me as a customer. I still have not heard back from them, nor have I received a newspaper. Because of this, I decided to call my credit card company to dispute the two charges; the newspaper charged my credit card, not once, but twice! My credit card company will be crediting the amounts to my bill and sending me the necessary paperwork. I do not think that the newspaper with which I was dealing can really stop the charges from being reversed as they have said themselves that they have no record of dealing with me. Needless to say, if I decided to subscribe to a newspaper here, it will not be the one with which I have had these issues!

Happy Rosh Hashanah

Ok, so Rosh Hashanah ended at sundown yesterday, but I thought I would share a Rosh Hashanah greeting from the presidential and vice presidential candidates with you.

1,000th Post

I began this blog on August 18, 2004, and in that time I have written 999 blog entries prior to this one. And now, for my one thousandth blog posting I thought I would share with you this video. For quite some time now, I have been convinced that I would be voting for Barack Obama this November. However, this video gave me several compelling reasons to switch my vote to John McCain.

Neighbors, Part 1

When we lived in Cedar Rapids, we lived in a terrific neighborhood. Everyone was really nice and looked out for each other. The neighborhood we live in now seems nice as well. It has been fairly quiet.

Last Saturday morning, before we left for the Renaissance Festival, I heard the noise from power tools coming from the yard behind ours. That yard had a small, homemade, wooden play structure in it, so I figured that they were adding on to it. Sunday morning, I discovered I was wrong. It looks like the neighbors behind us are adding a two-story structure to the rear of their back yard. From what I can see over the fence from our yard, I am guessing that they are going to use the ground floor of this structure as a garage or something of that kind. I am not sure what the top floor will be used for. I guess the view from the rear of our house will be forever changed.

Funny Commercials

I saw a link to one of these three commercials a few weeks ago. They are ads for Caterer.com, a hospitality job website in the UK. These are pretty funny, but may not be appropriate for work. The kid in the ads, Little Gordon, is supposed to be a child version of chef Gordon Ramsay.

One of My Fish Is Missing

This past weekend, when I was cleaning the aquarium, I noticed that I was missing a fish. I do not recall what type of fish it was, and somehow I forgot to mention it in my blog entry on August 15 when I mentioned the new fish. It was sliver with a slight bluish tint and had black vertical stripes.

Anyway, I figured the fish was in trouble when I got back from my business trip at the beginning of this month and noticed that the back half of the fish had turned a black color. Over the next couple of weeks, the fish turned black over more of its body. Then when I cleaned the tank last Friday, I could not find the fish at all. I looked in all of the aquarium decorations, but it was nowhere to be found. I can only assume that it died and was then consumed by the other fish in the aquarium.

The remaining fish, which number seven with the addition of a plecostomus earlier this month, all appear to be doing fine. Well there is one exception to that statement. The bottom fin of one of my three tiger barbs appears to have been nibbled on by another fish. That does give the tiger barb some difficulty in swimming, but it seems to be surviving anyway.

Fun Weekend

We had a fun, and busy, weekend! It all started Friday night when Mel, Emma, and I went to the Mall of America to do a little shopping and for dinner. Emma needed a few more pairs of long pants, and we had a coupon for Carter's, so we got her a few pairs of pants there. Afterwards, we went to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. I thought the food was a bit pricey for what it was. I guess we were paying for the atmosphere. And my sandwich was good, but not great. I thought it needed more sauce on it.

On Saturday, my sister came over to ride with us to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. We only live less than ten miles from her, but we hadn't seen her for quite some time. Anyway, we had an enjoyable time. Even Emma seemed to enjoy herself. We saw several performances--mostly comedy acts and then the jousting as well. A couple of the comedy groups we saw were The Mud Show and Puke and Snot. Both shows were good, but I thought Puke and Snot was hilarious, although I was surprised at how many of their jokes dealt with politics. It was funny nonetheless!

As if seeing my sister on Saturday was not enough, we got together with her again yesterday to go to the Minnesota Twins game. That was a fun game to go to. The Twins beat the Kansas City Royals to maintain their half game lead in the American League Central division. Now if the Chicago White Sox lose to the Detroit Lions in their makeup game today, the Twins will have the division title and head to the playoffs. Of course if the White Sox win, then they will have to play the Twins in a one game playoff for the title. Hopefully it doesn't come down to that.

Seriously?

I can't believe that Sarah Palin, who could possibly become the President of the United States some time in the next four years actually believes that Alaska's close proximity to Russia translates into foreign policy experience. Give me a break!

I Spoke Too Soon

I guess the bailout plan has hit a few bumps, so unless there is an agreement and if McCain follows through on his word, there may be no debate tonight. Seriously though, can't McCain take a few hours off this evening to fly his private jet to Mississippi for the debate?

Let the Campaigning Resume...

Now that there's a plan, it looks like the campaign may be back on schedule.

A Publicity Stunt?

Yesterday John McCain announced that he is going to suspend his presidential campaign because he needed to head back to Washington to work on the Wall Street bailout. I agree that both he and Barack Obama should be doing their actual jobs as members of the United States Senate while campaigning for president, but does McCain really need to suspend his campaign so he can work on something else? I understand cancelling any appearances to get back to Washington, but then cancelling one TV appearance for another seems a bit dishonest of him. And why is it that he feels the need to suspend his TV advertising? It's not as if he can not be working hard on the bailout plan while his TV commercials are still airing! Does he not have any staff to work on such things?

Then for the issue of tomorrow's scheduled debate between McCain and Obama. I do not know why the two can not work on legislation during the day, then head to Mississippi in the afternoon for the debate. From what I've read, McCain wants to push the debate back to October 2, the scheduled date for the debate between vice presidential candidates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, if the bailout plan is not approved by tomorrow. I don't suppose he is trying to keep that debate from taking place so he can avoid the public seeing Biden wipe the floor with Palin.

Oh well, there are just forty days of campaigning left until the election. Actually I suppose there are fewer since McCain isn't campaigning at the moment.

For your viewing pleasure, here's David Letterman's reaction to John McCain's suspension of his campaign.

Last Weekend

It's been a while since I have blogged anything of any substance. I've mostly resorted to posting videos lately. Part of that is because I haven't had much to blog about, but also I have been both busy and lazy. Anyway, I meant to blog about the weekend some time on Monday, but I just didn't get to it.

Our weekend was quite full of activities. On Saturday, we all went to Mel's grandmother's house to help with the painting of the house's exterior. We hadn't seen Mel's parents in a while, so it was good to see them. The painting wasn't too bad either, even though painting exteriors of houses is not among my favorite things to do. It does make me glad that we have vinyl siding on our house now. However, the trim will need to be repainted some time soon, but that's not as bad as painting the entire house.

On Sunday, we went to the Minnesota Zoo with my mother. We had a good time checking out the animals there, although we did skip a couple of sections of the zoo.

This coming weekend will be full again as we are going to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival with my sister on Saturday, and then on Sunday we are going to a Twins game with my sister as well.

John McCain's Economic Plan for a Struggling Nation

From America's Finest News Source, here is McCain's economic plan for the nation:

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day Everyone!

Ahoy me hearties, today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. The video below from the founders of this fins holiday gives some tips on how to talk like a pirate.

My Sarah Palin Baby Name

My sister sent me a link a website which determines what your name would be had you been born to Sarah Palin, and according to the website, my name would be Drill Swollen Palin.

To the Doctor

This past weekend, actually since Friday, I have been feeling like crap! At first I thought I just had a cold, but I seemed to be missing some typical cold symptoms, and my throat hurt much more than it normally does when I have a cold. So after seeing that I had a fever of slightly over 100 degrees Fahrenheit Sunday night, Mel told me that I needed to see a doctor the next day. I haven't bothered to find a doctor yet since moving to Minnesota, so I wanted to find a clinic where I could just walk in without an appointment. After doing some searching on my health insurance manager's website, I found that there was a walk-in medical clinic at one of the grocery stores which is located near our house. I was a bit apprehensive at first about going to the grocery store to see a doctor, but I was impressed with the service I received. There was no waiting, and both the nurse and doctor were very professional and friendly. Within half an hour of arriving I left with a prescription and knowing that I have both an ear infection and a sinus infection. Hopefully I feel better soon.

Trip to the Aquarium

Yesterday we took a trip to the Mall of America to visit the Underwater Adventures Aquarium, the world's largest underwater aquarium. We had a good time. Emma seemed especially pleased with out choice to go there. She enjoyed looking at all of the fish and turtles before we entered the tunnel. When we were in the tunnel, she was really excited by all of the fish swimming around us.

After touring the aquarium, we strolled around the first floor of the mall. It was very crowded as there was a scapbooking event taking place all around the first floor. That also explained why parking was such a pain. We had to go all the way to the top of the parking ramp. Despite those issues though, we had a good afternoon out.

Pigs and Lipstick

I guess the big news of the day was Barack Obama's recent use of the expression "you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig." At least you would think this was big news if you looked at the Fox News website, which has had something related to the story at the top of its page the entire day, or if you asked the McCain campaign. So Obama used this common expression, and because Sarah Palin made a joke in her speech at the RNC about the difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom being that the hockey mom wears lipstick, the right wingers are saying that Obama called Palin a pig. He did not call her a pig. His comment was in reference to the idea that a McCain presidency would be the same as the past eight years of George W. Bush's presidency. Besides, I guess Sarah Palin thinks that she's a dog, afterall the only difference between her and a pit bull is the lipstick. Does that mean she goes out into the yard to take a crap?

Oh, and Obama isn't the only politician to use this expression recently.

At least one prominent Republican doesn't think the lipstick-on-a-pig remark is a big deal. Here's Mike Huckabee discussing this issue with Sean Hannity.

New iPods

I have had a second generation iPod nano since November 2005. Since that time, I have listened to it for most of the workday almost every workday. This changed when I started working from home in July as I can now listen to my music directly through iTunes using my computer's speakers instead of the earphones. However, I still like to use my iPod when travelling for work or while driving in the car. Unfortunately, the battery life on my nano has decreased significantly. It's now to the point where I am lucky to get even five hours of listening time out of it.

Recently, I have been considering my options. While I could send it into Apple for a battery replacement, I could go ahead and spend a little more money and just get a new iPod. My birthday is coming up next month, so I may get some money as gifts with which I could make such a purchase. I had been thinking that the iPod classic would be the way to go as its 120 GB (about 30,000 songs) capacity would enable it to hold my entire music collection with plenty of room to spare. However, while that would be great, I do like the small size of the nano. It's small enough to fit in my pocket.

Well today I discovered that Apple has released a fourth generation iPod nano, the nano-chromatic. Not only does this nano have improved battery life, a bigger display than my nano, and a greater storage capacity of 16 GB, four times that of my nano. It also comes in nine different colors, looks awesome, plays video (which mine does not), and is less expensive than the iPod classic. While I do not know yet if I will go ahead and replace my iPod nano with a new iPod, it looks like I will have more options to choose from.

Primary Election Day

Today is primary election day in Minnesota, and on our way to her daycare, Emma and I stopped to vote. Well, I voted, she watched and helped to push the ballot into the machine. This was my first time voting in Minnesota. When I registered to vote a month ago, I was a bit confused since the voter registration form did not include a space to indicate party affiliation. I was wondering how this would work for the primary election as every other state in which I have lived asked for a party when registering. Well here everyone gets the same ballot. One side has the partisan elections in which the candidates are listed in three separate columns, one for each party - Independence (former governor Jesse Ventura's party), Republican, Democrat-Farmer-Labor. I could choose any one column in which to vote. Now it is less than two months until the general election. I wonder if the attack ads between Norm Coleman and Al Franken will heat up even more if Franken wins the DFL nomination. At least there are less than two months until the general election.

Livening Up the RNC

This certainly would have made John McCain's speech at the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul more interesting...

RNC

I flew out of the Minneapolis - St. Paul Airport to get to Chicago for a week of meetings for work. With the Republican National Convention being in Saint Paul this week, all of the stores were well prepared for an influx of GOP members. Most of the stores were decked out with signs welcoming the Republicans to town, and as I walked through the mall area of the airport, I felt completely surrounded by Republican and McCain/Palin swag. They had T-shirts, polo shirts, water bottles, and even red, white, and blue, stuffed elephants. Ugh.

Anyway after dinner tonight I returned to the hotel and caught Joe Lieberman's speech at the RNC. I have to say that I found the speech much less than inspiring. He kept harping on the theme of putting our country ahead of our political party. That all sounds good and fine, but John McCain and Sarah Palin's view of what this country should be does not fit with my view. Anyway, I suppose that nothing I could possibly hear in the RNC coverage would change my mind about my support for Barack Obama in November's election. If anything, McCain's pick for his vice presidential running mate has only cemented my decision to vote for Obama in just over two months.

Heading to Chicago

I'm about to take off for a business trip in Chicago for the remainder of the week. As I depart, here's a video of the grizzly bears at the Minnesota Zoo that I shot Sunday while Emma, Mel, and I were there. I'll try to find some time to blog once I make it to the Windy City.

Go Miniman Go

Here's a short video celebrating the 30th birthday of the LEGO miniman.

Fox News Covers Protesters in Denver

Apparently some of the protesters at the Democratic National Convention in Denver do not care for Fox News, and they have no problems with letting them know it.

Sold!

As of last Friday afternoon, we are the proud owners of just one house with the sale of our house in Cedar Rapids closing around 5:30 that day. It actually came pretty close to not closing as I got a call from our Realtor early in the afternoon. Apparently there had been a disconnect in how we and our Realtor read the purchase agreement and how the buyers and their agent intended for it to be understood. It turned out that the buyers thought they were getting $4,000 more from us for closing costs and down payment assistance than we thought we were providing. Eventually everything got worked out, although we did up contributing a bit more money than we had originally anticipated. I am just glad that the sale was completed before we will have to make another house payment. I didn't care for the idea of making two different house payments for a second month.

With everything we put into our house in Cedar Rapids, I hope the new owners manage to take care of it. I especially hope they don't lose the house to foreclosure. That could hurt the neighborhood, and we had some terrific neighbors there on Sheridan Drive in Cedar Rapids. I am concerned though because the buyers were participating in a down payment assistance program in which we, the sellers, provided some of the money for their down payment. If they didn't have the money for the down payment, I don't know how they can afford the house. I guess time will show if they make things work out.

Picnic

Today Mel, Emma, and I went to Mel's company's company picnic at Como Park in Saint Paul. With the state fair going on a short distance away, we decided to head over early to find a place to park. We got to the park early enough that we decided to check out the zoo first. It was fun walking through the zoo. Emma really liked to watch the California sea lions swimming around in their pool.

After checking out the zoo, we went to the pavilion where the picnic was being help. I was able to meet several of Mel's coworkers, and we had some good food. Emma even enjoyed sliding down the inflatable slide that they had set up in the park.

The Great Minnesota Get-Together

As we had planned, Mel, Emma, and I went to the Minnesota State Fair today. This is actually the first state fair that I have ever been to. In the thirty-four summers I lived in Iowa, I never attended the Iowa State Fair, but the very first summer I lived in Minnesota, I ended up becoming a fair goer.

Mostly, we just wandered around looking at the various exhibits. The first thing we did was to go to the Miracle of Birth Center. There we saw a newborn lamb and its mother. We also saw a cow that was starting to go into labor. However, Emma grew a bit impatient as we watched the cow, so we had to leave before the calf was born.

In all, we spent about four or five hours wandering around the fairgrounds. This gave us the opportunity to try a wide variety of the foods that were offered at the fair.

We had some deep fried cheese curds. They were very good, although Mel told me that at her Weight Watchers meeting last week they learned that just three of the cheese curds would be 11 Weight Watchers Points.

I also tried the hot dish on a stick. It was alright, but not my favorite of the foods I had at the fair.

We all had some mini doughnuts. Emma really liked them.

Mel and I also had some pepperoni pizza on a stick. It was pretty tasty as well.

It seemed that everywhere we turned at the fair, there was some other food being offered on a stick. One other food that was not on a stick that we felt we had to try was Sweet Martha's Cookies. We had heard from multiple sources that the chocolate chip cookies there were absolutely wonderful, so we had to check them out for ourselves. We ended up buying the tub of cookies. Now they fill this cookie tub significantly past its top, so it was good that Mel thought to bring along a Ziploc bag in which to put the overflow cookies so we could close the lid on the tub. I suppose we could have eaten the pile of fresh-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookies down to the top of the tub, but that probably would have been a bad idea. I think it is better that we savor the cookies over the next several days, if not longer.

Next year when Emma is a bit older, maybe we will have to take her on some of the rides, such as the giant slide. I guess we'll have to wait until next summer for that though.

2:37 A.M.

This morning at around 2:35, I heard Emma making noises in her room. So I got up to check on her. As I was walking through the living room to her room, I heard the text message notification sound from my cell phone which was sitting on the desk in the office. I went to check the text message to learn that Joe Biden is Barack Obama's vice presidential running mate. I was expecting the text message to come some time today, but definitely not at 2:37 in the morning!

Welcome to Minneapolis/St. Paul

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has erected a billboard in Minneapolis to welcome visitors to the Republican National Convention here in Minneapolis/St. Paul with the phrase "Welcome, rich white oligarchs!" When I received the email informing me of this, I first thought it surely must just be a joke, and that someone photoshopped this. I may have to see if I can actually find the billboard. According to my sources, it

is supposed to be located near Interstate 494 and Highway 77. I'll be sure to look for it the next time I am in that area.

Mall Walking

Mel's engagement ring was due for its regular cleaning, so after she got Emma from daycare today, the three of us headed over to the Mall of America. After getting the ring checked out, we had dinner and walked around the mall a bit. We didn't buy much--just some air fresheners from Yankee Candle Company, and some greeting cards from The Afternoon. However, it did give us a chance to do some walking. Since I have begun to work from home, I do not get nearly as much walking in each day as I did when I worked in the office. Tomorrow though, I should be able to get a considerable amount of walking in as we are currently planning on going to the Minnesota State Fair. Of course, that could change depending on how Emma is feeling and behaving tomorrow.

More Fun Videos

Ok, maybe I shouldn't spend my lunch break viewing videos on the web, but here are a couple more I found today.

This first one is The Muppet Show's Beaker performing Beethoven's Ode to Joy.

The other video is titled "Where in Iowa is Jeff?" It shows a man, named Jeff, dancing in various locations in Iowa. I first saw this video on the blog Law & Disorder.

Cute Video

Check out this cute video of a kid dancing to techno music.

Recap of the Past Week

Last Saturday morning, Mel, Emma, and I headed back to Iowa for the weekend. Saturday was my grandmother's eighty-ninth birthday, so we went to her house for dinner to celebrate. Also at her house were my cousin and his wife who live about an hour or so away from us. I find it a bit ironic that we have to drive several hours to Keystone, Iowa, to see family that lives relatively close to us. Maybe we can get together sometime up here in the cities. As I expected, I ate way too much at my grandmother's house.

We spent the evening at my mother's house along with my sister. Then on Sunday, we stopped at Mel's grandmother's house which was on our way home from Waterloo, where my mother lives. We spent a few hours there. We had brought KFC chicken and biscuits with us, so once again I ate a bit too much. However, when I checked my weight for my weekly weigh-in on Wednesday, I had actually lost 0.6 pound since the previous Wednesday.

With my weight hovering around 205 pounds for the past several months, I decided I am going to change my goal with Weight Watchers to maintain this current weight rather than trying to lose any additional weight. I think it would be nice to get my weight down to 195 pounds, but I do not feel unhealthy at my current weight, and my clothes fit, for the most part.

Not much else eventful happened this week. Well, I guess I could mention the hour or so I spent at a Verizon location to get my cell phone replaced as it had broken last weekend. Fortunately, the Verizon employee replaced it under the phone's warranty. The outer plastic of the phone cracked by the hinge, causing the flip part to have difficulties staying closed. They could have said that the crack was because of misuse, but the rest of the phone looked good, so he considered to have just failed. So I now have a new, although identical to my previous one, cell phone. However, I did lose the ringtones I downloaded.

New Fish

Tonight we finally got some fish for the aquarium. I had only intended on starting out with two or three fish, but we ended up buying seven of them. We got three tiger barbs (Puntius tetrazona), an albino tiger barb which is shown in the photo on the right, a red-tail tinfoil barb (Barbonymus schwanenfeldii), and one more fish which is abbreviated on my receipt at lep. fasciatum (I don't remember its name). All seven of the fish seem to be adapting quite nicely to their new home. I just hope they don't decide to start eating each other, but the employee who helped us at PetSmart said that they should all get along just fine in the same aquarium.

Update: Thanks to some research by my brother-in-law, the unknown fish has been identified as a black-banded leporinus (Leporinus fasciatus).