A joker and two queens

So, this weekend was mostly dedicated to Andy.

Andy was a rat. Literally.

After auditioning, Andy was chosen to be one of about 18 kiddos playing rats in the Missoula Children's Theater production of "The Pied Piper." He was especially pleased because he was given an additional duty in one of the songs of biting one of the other cast members. So, he was officially "The Biting Rat."

Andy had a great time and really hammed it up for the "Cheese, Cheese" song. I think it's got to be tough to be a little brother, so I was glad he got his chance in the spotlight.

And Alex is crossing his fingers. He and his buddy Kevin tried out for the school talent show with a hilarious Spongebob and Patrick song. He finds out Wednesday if they made it. He's pretty excited about it, so I'm crossing my fingers for him (which makes it very difficult to type BTW).

And in other news, my friend, Dan, and his lovely wife, Kate, are expecting twins! They found out on Friday. This will be their second and third. Both girls. They already have one adorable son, Jayden. My dad is a twin and Tracy's uncles are twins, so we figured we had a pretty high chance of having twins sometime, but we didn't. I am so thrilled for Dan and Kate. It's scary but it's also going to be a blast. Good luck, Bud!

It's a start

Well without a real plan except to drink tons of water, avoid ice cream and eat more "real" foods (fruits and veggies) on top of doing some light exercise every morning and playing racquetball twice a week, I have managed to lose eight pounds in a little more than a week.

Tracy tells me I don't want to lose it too fast because my body will freak out, but I'm such a lard-butt right now, my body doesn't even notice eight pounds.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy so far. It's not real painful so I hope that continues.

Crack

I'm fairly certain that the makers of LEGO put crack or meth or some other drug in the plastic for their pieces because my sons are addicts. Alex will only talk about LEGO and even created a LEGO-themed hat for New Year's. Both boys ordered some stuff from the LEGO site (thanks to a gift certificate from my mom, who I will now refer to as "The Pusher.") and the stuff arrived two days ago. Our living room was turned into a LEGO assembly area.

But at least they're happy.

I'm planning to go break everything they have put together because we have another snow storm coming and I want them to have something to do!

Movie review: Children of Men

Not to be confused with Little Children or Children of a Lesser God or In the Company of Men.

So, we saw this on Saturday. Quick thought: Eh!

It was visually a very interesting movie, but that's about all I can say for it. It starred Clive Owen. My wife loves this guy. And I have no idea why. To me he has done nothing that is remotely interesting. He looks half asleep in everything he does. His King Arthur was so laid back I figured he'd say "Yeah, Lancelot, go ahead and take her."

My other problem with it was the ending. And I wasn't the only one. When the credits started to roll, someone else in the audience said rather loudly, "What?" and many others laughed.

I know this flick is getting some high critical praise and I have absolutely no idea why. I thought it was boring and pointless. Then again, I'm not much for big "message" movies. I go to movies to be entertained; not enlightened. And this movie was NOT entertaining.

I did rent "Me, You and Dupree" (thanks NetFlix) and while it wasn't a great movie (or even a good one), there were some laughs and the DVD has a special parody trailer which I thought was hysterical and actually made the whole thing worth it for me. So, yes, this was WAY better than Children of Men.

HOFs

So, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees are decided. Gotta say that I agree with all of them (although I still think it's too early for REM) except for the Ronettes. Only thing I can see they did was sing backup to the Righteous Brothers and sing "Be My Baby" which was used partially with the help of Ronnie Spector in Eddie Money's version. That's not HOF material in my book, but I guess it helps when Phil Spector is one of the "experts" coming up with the nominations (which STILL have not included Kiss, Rush or Genesis.

Anyway, I can't wait to see who is singing for Van Halen at the ceremony. The big news is that Eddie's son, Wolfgang, has replaced Michael Anthony on bass in the band. Not that there really is a band right now anyway, but still...

The other big HOF is baseball. Tomorrow the inductees are announced. Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. are no-doubters. With the backlash against Mark MacGwire, it looks like another of my favs, Goose Gossage, may make it in. I'm crossing my fingers. To see Gwynn and Gossage in on the same year would make me consider making a trip to Cooperstown.

Just hoping.

'Nuff already

This one was going to be light... "nothing like the last two" ... "Just a dusting." ...

Well, we woke up to ANOTHER four inches of snow today. In the past 11 years, I would venture to say 4 inches was probably our biggest storm every year.

So, again my neighbors and I griped as we shoveled our walks and driveways.

I love winter and I love snow. But c'mon!

Good/sad

The Good news: The Police may be getting back together.

The Sad news: It's been 30 YEARS since "Roxanne" was released! (Holy crap, I'm old!!!!)

Back

Long time, no blog.
Just got back from an extended holiday break thanks to the biggest snow storm I've even been in. We got about 2 feet of snow and basically shut down everything. It's been fun driving around. Greeley looks like a ski town with the big drifts everywhere.
Mom and Dad were here over the holidays (although a bit delayed thanks to said storm). We had a great time and the boys were happy to have them.
Now it's back to the grindstone and it's pretty tough to get started again.
But it's a new year, so I figure I better make some resolutions:
1. Lose weight. Seems like a cliche' but I really need to and I'm going to do it. Promise.
2. Get queries out to agents for my novel, Wrath. I know this book would sell well. I just need to do it.
3. Get organized. I have come to the conclusion that I can't trust my memory for anything longer than about 2.4 seconds. So, I need to get better about writing stuff down I need to do.
4. Enjoy the boys. Like everyone, we are so busy and the boys are more independent now so they don't NEED me to help out with everything. So, I need to make a more concentrated effort to be involved even though I don't NEED to be.
5. Lose weight. Just needed a second reminder.

It's my fault

Things are crazy busy around the house and I got to thinking about why.

Then, I realized I'm making my son's birthday cake (instead of buying one) and I'm also making several Christmas gifts (can't tell you what!) this year instead of buying them. I'm sending out my normal slew of Christmas cards (many to folks I only communicate with once a year any more) even though it doesn't make a lot of sense to send so many. And I always have to do a fancy newsletter instead of just a normal holiday letter. And that took time.

So, the problem is: ME!

If I'd just give up on some of this stuff, my life would be a heck of a lot easier right now. All I'd have to work on would be cleaning our house for when my parents come next week.

But, I really love making birthday cakes and ... emmm ... other presents. And I like making a fun newsletter. And sending cards to long-lost friends.

The holidays are weird ... and so am I.

One down

Of all the stuff we were focusing on in our house, the production of "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" was a big one. But it's over now after a successful four-show stint this weekend.

Both Alex and Andy were fantastic. I'm just amazed at home mature they are now (usually).

But no kid production would be complete without some mess-ups so here are my favs:
* On the first night, the lamp post shorted out toward the end of the show and blew the circuit for all the stage lights so the end of the show took place under the regular house lights.
* During a sweet scene with Aslan, the sound effects for the fight scene blared from the speakers for a couple seconds. (The kids did a great job of continuing on).
* Alex's final scene was completely cut on one show because, well, nobody really knows why. Just happened.
* During the last show, Father Christmas was supposed to have a present for Edmund, but it was misplaced so when it came time to give it, he said, "Well, that's all I have." And then the Lucy character tried to remind him, "Is there a present for Edmund?" and Father Christmas responded, "Nope." Just classic theater IMHO.

So, now the only things on the agenda are: take picture for family newsletter, write family newsletter, address cards for newsletter, make and decorate Andy's birthday cake, work on special gift for parents (shhhh, don't tell!), wrap presents, get house cleaned for parent visit, make gifts for co-workers (shhhh, don't tell!), try to calm down Tracy who will be freaking out about cleaning house for parent visit, having Andy's birthday party and editing the video from that for thank-yous, and possibly feeding and bathing the children every so often.

I love the holidays.

Clerks 2

So, I don't know why I didn't see it in the theaters, but I just watched Clerks 2 on DVD (thank you NetFlix!).

I have no idea why this movie didn't do better in the theaters. It was funny. It was well written and the love story was actually touching (as opposed to Jersey Girl which was just lame).

The intros by KS are great and, of course, having Jay and Silent Bob back is great. You need to watch the deleted scenes because it does explain one plot hole that was bothering me.

In the opening, KS explains that there are outtakes on the DVD as well, but I couldn't find them. Anybody else had better luck? There's one part of the deleted scenes with Wanda Sykes that is close to outtakes, but I don't think that's it.

Anyway, if you haven't seen it, you should. I actually think I like this one more than the original and I can't remember the last time I said that.

Big show

So, this weekend -- after many, many long hours of practice -- the boys will be featured in the play "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" which is being put on by the Broadway Bound Theater School.

Alex will be Mr. Beaver and he's very excited to have such a big role.

Andy will be a Dwarf and an Animal on different nights. He is outstanding as the Dwarf being a power-hungry underling. He loves to yell at people and now he's being encouraged to do it.

Should be a lot of fun, but I'm mainly looking forward to it all being over after Sunday so we can get back to our regular lives again. It's been a grueling time and Tracy has been helping out a bunch, so she's really beat, too.

Tradition

Last night, we continued our holiday tradition and saw the Air Force Academy Band's holiday show at the Union Colony Civic Center here in Greeley. We have been going to this show ever since we moved to Greeley and it's just fantastic. Tracy's cousin's husband, Mark, is in the band which makes it really special, and all of the performers are top notch.

Alex and Andy love to hang around after the show and get autographs from the performers. And every year they mob the stage with the other kids to see Santa. It'll be sad when they're too old to do that anymore.

I consider myself a pretty cynical person, but I fall for the Christmas fuzzies in this show every year. We're lucky to have this here and such a nice place to see it.

Wow, that was a lot of sweet stuff for one of my blogs. I'll try better next time.

D'oh

So, now that NaNo is over, we can get to more serious issues...

TV Land is brilliant because it is doing the 100 greatest catchphrases ever list.

The only things wrong with the list of nominations: Paris Hilton is in there and "finger-lickin' good" isn't!

Here are my top 10:

1. "D'oh!" (Homer Simpson, "The Simpsons") – The fact this is now in the dictionary just shows how much it has taken over. I use this word daily (in my feeble attempt to decrease the number of actual swear words I say daily)

2. "Do you believe in miracles?" (Al Michaels, 1980 Winter Olympics) – For historical relevance as well as just the perfect summation of the event. Any time someone says “Do you believe …” you immediately think back to this.

3. “And that's the way it is" (Walter Cronkite, "CBS Evening News”) – Just classic.

4. “I know nothing!" (Sgt. Schultz, "Hogan's Heroes”) – Another one of those things I say pretty much every day. Anyone under 30 has no idea what I’m saying, but screw ‘em.

5. “Yada, yada, yada" ("Seinfeld") – I figure it would be bad form to have more than one line from one show so I chose this over “No soup for you” but it was tough.

6. “Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" (Arnold Drummond, "Diff'rent Strokes") – When I first say the name of this list, this was the first phrase that popped in my mind.

7. “Jane, you ignorant slut" (Dan Aykroyd to Jane Curtin, "Saturday Night Live") – Again I didn’t want two from the same show so this beat out “2 wild and crazy guys” mainly because I can’t meet someone named Jane without thinking about this.

8. “The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat" (Jim McKay, "ABC's Wide World of Sports") – Classic.

9. “If it weren't for you meddling kids!" (Various villains, "Scooby Doo, Where Are You?”) – You know that “meddling” was actually supposed to be a swear word!

10. “Say good night, Gracie" (George Burns, "The Burns & Allen Show") – This is one of my all-time fav shows and this line is just awesome!

Honorable mentions:
_"De plane! De plane!" (Tattoo, "Fantasy Island")
_"Good night, John Boy" ("The Waltons")
_"Here's Johnny!" (Ed McMahon, "The Tonight Show")
_"Holy (whatever), Batman!" (Robin, "Batman")
_"How you doin'?" (Joey Tribbiani, "Friends")
_"I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV" (Vicks Formula 44 ad)
_"It keeps going and going and going ..." (Energizer Batteries ad)
_"Mom always liked you best" (Tommy Smothers, "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour")
_"Nip it!" (Barney Fife, "The Andy Griffith Show")
_"No soup for you!" (The Soup Nazi, "Seinfeld")
_"Oh, my God! They killed Kenny!" (Stan and Kyle, "South Park")
_"One small step for man ..." (Neil Armstrong)
_"Tastes great! Less filling!" (Miller Lite beer ad)
_"Up your nose with a rubber hose" (Vinnie Barbarino, "Welcome Back, Kotter")
_"We are two wild and crazy guys!" (Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd as Czech playboys, "Saturday Night Live")

Done

The book stinks. The characters are boring. The plot is juvenile (and not in a good way!).

But it's 50K words. I might add a few more before I officially verify the count tonight or tomorrow, but I'm done for another year. Yeah!

The only things that has come out of this year:

• A few kernels of ideas for actual good books
• The realization that I can force myself to write 50K words on total crap
• Something closely resembling a habit (but really November is all about not getting proper sleep and that's not really a good habit ... even if I am writing). I need to develop a healthy habitual writing schedule.
• Even with two medical procedures, a whole house carpet and duct-work cleaning (try typing when your living room sofa is jammed in your ribs!), two sons trying to memorize their lines for their upcoming play (I think I know it better than they do!), my wife who was rabidly trying to sort through boxes of memorobilia dating back to her birth to make way for the major cleaning, and all the hundreds of other things that normally keep me from writing, I still got 50K.

Woo-hoo! Now, I'm going to sleep.

Tastelessly funny

I'm going to hell for linking to this...

In other news

There's a bunch of talk about the Baseball Hall of Fame now.

Three guys Tony Gwynn. Cal Ripken, Jr. and Mark McGwire.

Gwynn and Ripken are no-brainers. Gwynn is one of my all-time favs. I won a signed picture/plaque of his at the Baseball Breakfast of Champions a few years ago and it hangs proudly on my wall. (This year's BoC features Nolan Ryan!!!). I heard a stat somewhere that Gwynn could have struck out 2,000 times and his career batting average still would have been over .300. That's incredible.

Ripken is just awesome. I will never forget watching him on the day he broke Gehrig's streak. The guy was class and a pro.

Both Gwynn and Ripken were great players. And shoo-ins. The only question is if either one will get 100 percent of the vote. (Nobody ever has ... not Mantle ... not Mays ... not Ruth). And they deserve it. But let's face it, they were boring. Gwynn was never a home run guy or an RBI guy. He just got hits. A lot of them. But usually they were a slap into the opposite field. Pretty boring. Ripken's greatest achievement was for basically never calling in sick. He played every day. And, yes, that's incredible, but it's also kinda boring. (Please remember I love both of these guys and I'm not saying they shouldn't be first ballot...)

So, that leaves us with McGwire. I'll admit I am biased. I remember his rookie season with Oakland. A season when people were talking about him breaking Maris' record at the All-Star break. He fell short that year, but he was always exciting to watch. He lit up the scoreboard. With his Bash Brother, Jose Canseco, they scared the pee-water out of opposing pitchers. And there are very few people who would disagree that when McGwire and Sosa broke Maris' record in that incredible summer, they brought droves of people back to the game -- people who swore to never return after the strikes. He helped save the game.

Of course everyone talks about the steroids. Possible steroids. Did he take 'em? Probably. Can anyone EVER prove it? NO! So, get over it. What if alcohol became a banned substance? Would we have to wipe out Ruth's records? Of course not. Could Mantle have been dosing on illegal pain killers to help him play? Maybe. Doesn't mean we ban him from the Hall. Plus, WE CAN'T PROVE IT!

So, obviously I think McGwire should be eligible for the hall. I also think he should get in. His impact on the game is larger than any other person in the 90s. However, looking at his stats, I don't think he's a first round guy. That's hard for me to say because I loved watching him play. But he didn't get to 2,000 hits and he didn't play for as long or as well as Gwynn and Ripken. They should go in together and then next year we could have McGwire and FINALLY Goose Gossage.

I still think I can...

Guy coming to the house today to clean our vents and our carpets. Whole house in disarray. Still got a decent word count. Hopefully cross 50K tomorrow. Normally I keep writing until the story is done, but I hate this one so much I will probably just sleep in on Thursday morning. YEAH!

I think I can ... etc.

Almost there. Finish line in sight. Hate every single word I write. Hate NaNo (not really, but sorta). Hate my characters. Hate my plot. Hate my dialogue.

This is the hardest NaNo ever and vow to NEVER try to rewrite something I started in college. It's just bad. I mean stinky. Really bad.

But almost done!

Limping

This weekend, as expected, kicked my hiney! Now I'm a little below pace. But I am taking off early from work today, so I hope that will put me back.

Gotta go to the doc for a test tomorrow and I'm expecting to return looped-up pretty good, so maybe that will help also.