Sopressa FEVER

I got a fever... and the only thing that can cure it is more sopressa.

For those in the know, sopressa is a local Italian sausage made here in the Vicentina area. It's nothing short of spectacular. Last Sunday, we visit the northern town of Schio and checked out their Sopressa Festivale. It was something else. When we arrived, there was a huge table set up along the main road downtown. By huge, I mean it was close to half a mile long. Ridiculous. On this table were set up all these small sopressa sandwiches. Nothing but sopressa and crusty Italian bread. It was delicious.

Around 7:30, they started serving dinner plates and we picked up a couple. Here's what the sopressa-fest plate looked like:



That yellow brick thing is grilled polenta. So... cornmeal-y?

While we were there, I was obliged to buy a little block of sopressa to take home. Here's me posing with the sausage and the "official" print from the event. Notice the "popped up" collar on my pink shirt. I'm trying, and apparently marginally succeeding, to look more Italian.



One thing that I did not know about Italians is their love for fun hats. Here in northern Italy, I've noticed a love for funny little hats by the older set. Here's a close up of said hats:



They're a little Peter Pan meets Heidi. I dig 'em. Anyway, after a couple of cheap Italian vinos, we worked up the courage to ask a group of these old Italians for a picture with their funny hats. Rather than being put off, they were more than accommodating and even let me try one of their hats on. Too bad it was from the smelly, sweaty one. Hygene!



All in all, it was pretty cool to experience the "local flavor". Stay tuned, because we have a couple of upcoming posts that are sure to please. They include: Aidan's dance recital, cherry festival, antique Vespa rally, and much much more!

Living in the dark

Although it is only June 4th, I guess it's officially summer here in Italy, since the energy crisis has started. We've always had an issue here with the power (besides the transformers issue), because there is a governor on the electricity- if we use too much at once, all of the power is cut off until we turn something off and reset the fuse box. Although that may sound draconian to the average American, it's not too bad, and we have gotten used to it- you just can't run three heat-generating things at once, like the dryer, the washer, the dishwasher, the hairdryer, and the iron. There might be more offenders, but those are the main culprits we've identified so far.

However, the new energy issue is that they have lowered the limit, or something to that effect, because I was not able to use the hairdryer at all today. I even went around and unplugged everything else in the house, but to no avail. I'll probably get over this, too; the perks of living in Italy far outweigh awesome hair.

Italia in fiori

Here are a couple of pictures from last weekend, when we went to a Flower Festival in Costozza di Longare. It was held at Villa da Schio, an historic house and gardens that also houses a winery inside caves on the property. The town is near where Joel works, about 15 minutes from our house.

Unbelievably, the gardens and winery were started in 1330! Crazy!! It was really picturesque, and we picked up a few flowers and some bottles of wine. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

School's out...almost

Aidan's school had an end-of-the-year party last night. It was really cute, with several parent/kid games and gifts for the kids at the end.

First, the kids from all three classes got together and snag a song and recited a poem. Aidan got upset, presumably because he didn't know the words, and ended up running back over to us right after the picture.

Next we played some games. I partnered up with Aidan for the first one, in which I had to carry Aidan and run over to get a bandanna when our number was called, racing against another parent/child with the same number.

In the second picture, Joel blindfolded Aidan, who then fed whipped cream to Joel. Aidan snuck a few bites for himself, too.

In the last game, the kids brought balloons to the parents, who had to sit on them until they were all gone. It wasn't clear how a winner was determined, but it was definitely fun for the kids.

The wierd thing was that the "end-of-the-year" party was on May 26th; school doesn't let out until June 30th, followed by an additional July session. Whatever; we're just going with the flow over here.

Mood Swings

For the past few years, I have had a picture taken with Aidan around Mother's Day. This year, we took the picture at home, since there are few Sears Picture Studios around here. Aidan wasn't into it at first; as evidenced by this grouchy face:

However, see how quickly his mood changes when I promise him a Spiderman lollipop (parenting tip: Use the adjective "Spiderman" for anything red, for added child interest):

Don't bother writing to inform me of the inherent irony of using the poor parenting crutch of a candy bribe to get a "good mom" picture; it wasn't lost on me.

Positive reinforcement

It's been said that you have to be cruel to be kind. If the sign below is any indication, SGT Corbin uses that at his personal anthem.



There's a couple of things about this picture that endear it to me, but first a little background. I pulled Staff Duty Officer last night, which means I stay at work all night and answer the phone in the event of an emergency. I also have to conduct security checks of the installation and make sure all the paratroopers are tucked snugly in their little airborne beds. I came across this sign in one of the barracks buildings; haphazardly taped to a supply closet door.

The first and obvious thing that I like about this sign is that the author (whom we can only presume is SGT Corbin) not only refers to himself in the third person, but threatens physical violence upon his subordinates if they fail to clean their hallway. Maybe a little excessive, but I like his enthusiasm.

The next thing that I love about this is that Corbin took the time to sit down at a computer, open up PowerPoint, craft this sign, print out a half-dozen copies, and tape them around this hallway. On one hand, that sort of behavior starts to bleed into the obsessive and may be cause for worry; on the other hand, that sort of dedication does lend credence to his threats of violence.

Which brings me to my third and final observation: the poorly scrawled "He won't do it!" calling Corbin's bluff. Despite all of Corbin's huffing and puffing, despite the professionally made signs posted in his living area, this unknown young soldier has courageously stood up to the tyranny of SGT Corbin.

It's this type of never-say-die attitude that separates the American fighting force from all others. Go Joe!!

Life beyond The Office

I am just a big of a fan of The Office as the next guy, maybe even more so, but what is with the ridiculous episode commentary?!?! I have a good reason I was even looking at it- living overseas, I can't watch the shows regularly, and I needed to have some info filled in about what was going on since I had missed some episodes. I COULD NOT BELIEVE the number of real-life office losers that write comments, as if Jim and Pam (or "JAM," as they call them) are more than just real people, but their real friends, or those that are operating under the delusion that they are writers for the show, making predictions about plot lines and character development. And the worst (or best?) part is that one of the members, Ellelque, wrote a post saying that she had some fan fiction about Jim and Pam's first date that she would send if you wrote her an email, but that it was too racy to post to the message board. Uh- puke! Cosplay doesn't seem so weird anymore.

Choice posts:

"pack-man's back. i'll tell you what pam says. she's decided to be a more aggressive pammy and is moving on to pursue training if graphic design. so, she'll be leaving dunder-mifflin and moving out of scranton to a place where she can have a house that she dreamed about as a little girl. jim will be near her and away from karen if he gets the promotion to corporate."
-packer

"okay...after watching once again...jim's smile (right before she goes off on everybody) is so sweet! you can tell he's proud of her for being proud of herself. plus, when she's happy, so's he. then while she's pouring her heart out to him, he looks shocked but it's like...it's just him and her, everybody else just disappeared around him and it was once again just jim and pam. okay, my tangent is done...omg...i sound like JAM."
-sweetcheeks

"LOVE JAM!!!!!!! LOVE PAM, LOVE JIM, LOVE THEM LOVING EACH OTHER. LOVE PAM LOVING JIM. LOVE JIM LOVING PAM!!! LOVE LOVE!!!!!!!!!!1"
-JAM

Barkeep in Training

Today's bartender market is getting so competitive! I've decided to start training Aidan early in the wiley ways of livations. I submit to you Aidan's Margarita Primer:

Pap Papa and Nana visit Italy

My mom and dad made the trip over to help with the new baby, since Joel was supposed to be out of town. His trip ended up being cancelled at the last minute, so we had a full house for a few days. Here are the proud grandparents with their two grandchildren.

T-Ball Free for All

I don't know who decided that 3-year olds could-or should- play t-ball, but Aidan is in fact on a team. Here are a few choice shots from his practice (in the white t-shirt) and his "game" (in the gray "Pirates" t-shirt). He seems to be getting the idea more and more- he doesn't chase after the ball after he hits it anymore, and he sort of knows how to run around the bases. It's a start.

Happy Mother's Day!

First, happy Mother's Day to my mom, Maryland, and Joel's mom, Jo! We have lots of friends who have recently become moms, so happy first mother's day to Kat, Laurie, Karen, and Michele!

This year, I get to celebrate being amother twice over, with our new addition, Ava. However, I think someone misunderstood about how to celebrate me, the mother, as evidenced by this photo that I just took:

Yeah, you guys take it easy... I'll just be mopping the kitchen, quietly, as to not disturb you...

Just kidding! How can I be anything but thrilled to have these two great children?

Aidan picked that dress out for Ava to wear- he said she looked like Sleeping Beauty. How sweet!

Styrofoam Apocalypse

Here's a short film that I threw together today.

Children are the ultimate reality show.

Ava Slideshow

New Baby!!

As many of you may or may not know, Jessica and I have been expecting for quite some time now. Yesterday, at 4:15, we finally got to see our little girl. Her name is Ava Kate.



She is a big girl, weighing in at 9 lbs, 1 oz! Jessica wasn't thrilled at pushing that heavy baby out, but it was well worth it.



I, of course, am thrilled to have a new baby girl.



Aidan was pretty excited too. We've been telling him to be very careful around the new baby. That elicited this super-cute response:



He's all ready to be the big brother.



Jessica and Ava are still at the hospital, but should be released tomorrow morning. I'll have more pictures and video, of course. So keep posted.

May 1: Festival of the Workers

Here in Italy, May 1st seems like a big holiday. Nearly every store in town was closed today, in celebration of Labor Day, or the communist-sounding "Festival of the Workers," which is how it translated from the Italian name using Babelfish (which I really cannot continue to use- its Italian-English translations are truly incomprehensible). Apparently, a lot of people use the day off to protest working conditions, which doesn't really sound like a day off to me.
Anyway, in honor of the holiday, I thought I'd post this picture, which we took during Carnivale in Venice. Not exactly sure what the creators of this sign are protesting, but they sure seem pissed.
Enjoy!

GET OUT!!!!!

I am so tired of being pregnant! While I know in my brain that babies are often born later than the due date, you just get so used to thinking about that date that when it comes- and goes- with no baby, it's really disappointing. For nine months, you say it to everyone who asks- "April 27!" It's marked on all my calendars. I prepped the house and baby's room for an April 27th arrival, and now the sheets are getting dusty. Ugh. As of today, I'm 40 weeks and 4 days...sigh.
The saddest part was when I went in for an appointment yesterday, and the doctor said I wasn't dialated at all, despite two other doctors at my previous appointments saying I was at 2 and then 3. (For non-baby makers, a bigger number means the baby is coming.)How is it possible to go backwards!?! Not a good sign. On the plus side, I am scheduled for an induction on Friday, if there is no "action" before then.
I'll post some pictures and all the news as soon as she makes an appearance.

Back with a vengence

Soooooooooooooo...

It's been a while since I posted. Don't bother looking for my last one; I want to spare you the search through the archives. I'm sorry.

What's my excuse? Laziness, work, broken computer? Probably a combination of all three. I just got my desktop back up and running again after a long hiatus. Something with Vista and my NVIDIA card. Fortunately, after a half-off ATI card sale I'm back on the information super-hiway.

I'm going to spare you with a lot of idle chit-chat and re-telling of quasi-humorous anecdotes. Instead I'm going to commemorate my glorious return to blogging with this incredible video of Aidan dancing to Sly and the Family Stone. Jessica says it reminds here of the "Elaine dance" from Seinfeld. Enjoy.

Easter Bunny visits Italy!!

Here are a couple of pictures of Aidan at Easter, finding eggs in our yard and coloring eggs with Joel.
One quick story- I tried to tell Aidan the religious and secular meanings of Easter, so I said that easter was when the Easter Bunny brought candy and also when "Jesus got his boo-boos," since there are many public crusifixes around here and he has seen Jesus hanging on the cross. I thought I did a good job, until he told someone at church Easter was when "The Easter Bunny got boo boos on his neck." Uh, close enough...

Italy is a dangerous place...

A few weeks ago, Aidan bumped into another kid at school and his front tooth was damaged. It wasn't falling out, but it was slightly moved to the side, which was a big concern since it had previously been damaged when he fell in the bathtub in Korea. After being reassured by the Italian ER doctor that it was fine, we went home. Just over a week later, he was hit in the mouth AGAIN at school, this time his poor little tooth barely hanging on by a thread. We went to the dentist on post, and it had to be... pulled. In an awesome parenting move, I cried a LOT at the dentist's office, probably more than Aidan, who was very brave and cheered up with just a popsicle on the way home. In my defense, I am nine months pregnant at this point...hormones, etc...
Then, last Sunday, Joel leaned over to give Aidan a kiss at nap time, and Aidan poked him in the eye. We ended up going to the Italian ER around midnight, and Joel was told he had a pretty bad "corneal abrasion." Four days of eye patches later, he is finally starting to drive again, and is spending less time acting like a vampire, sitting in the dark with his eyes closed.
Consequently, protective eyewear and a mouth guard are strongly suggested for all visitors.

Peanut EXPLOSION!!!

Since we're behind in our posts, I'm going to try to catch up some and post some pictures that I have been meaning to get up here. This one is the aftermath of Aidan jumping into a large shipping box full of styrofoam peanuts, which then exploded at the seams, sending styrofoam dust all over the kitchen. It took me days and days to get it all picked up, but it really did look like fun!

Those college students think they're so special...

This is kind of old, but I wanted to write a post about this news story, which states that college students today are more narcissistic than any previous group since 1982, when they started doing the survey.
First, I take issue with the questions they are using to determine if students are narcissistic. Some of the statements that participants agreed/disagreed with were “It is important to be very well-off financially” and “If I ruled the world, it would be a better place.” I don’t really see how agreeing with these statements determines a person is narcissistic. There are many reasons that a college student might state that it is important to be financially secure, including the fact that they are currently incurring huge debt just by being in college, and are often living hand-to-mouth while they are in school. Neither of those implies that the person is abnormally self-obsessed, just that money and their future earning potential are important issues for them at that point in their lives. As far as running the world, with the current state of international affairs, it is hardly surprising that students feel that they could make positive changes. Again, does that mean that these students are narcissists, who “lack empathy, react aggressively to criticism and favor self-promotion over helping others,” as the article states, or could that be positively interpreted as students are taking a greater interest in world affairs, and have opinions about how to improve things? That sounds like empathy to me.

From Purim to Praise Him!

I was checking out another blogs (this is OK for a blog pro such as myself to do, but you should stick here for all your information), and I came across this one. With a name like "Bigmouth Indeed Strikes Again," I was expecting some uber-nerdy Morrissey-loving goth-esque blog by a sad woman/sad gay man who had a rough time in high school (which would have been awesome); what I was NOT expecting was the in-your-face jewishness. Now, those of you that know us know that Joel and I both have a soft spot for the Tribe, but I have never understood the sprinkles of Yiddish in normal conversation, and this blog was chock full of sprinkles.

So, I was wondering if there was any correlating practice for those of us that partake of the body and the blood? It doesn't seem that we have any phrases or bon mots that really let everyone know we're Christian. I guess the closest thing is listening to Garrison Keillor; I actually heard him the other day make a really funny joke about (guess what) Lutherans vs. Catholics: "Lutherans don't kneel when praying; we just close our eyes, or read the program for grammatical errors." Oh, those Lutherans! Ha ha!!

Still, that's not the same, and I have a feeling yelling out "Jesus Christ!" while driving also doesn't quite cut it. Maybe saying "Bless your heart?" But I guess Jews can also get blessings... Heller, Linda, please check your "Jewish Book of Why" and get back to me. Shalom!

Japanese Tree

The original and my vector art attempt via Adobe Illustrator. I've been playing around with Illustrator a lot lately. This is my first attempt to render something into Illustrator.

One-Room-at-a-Time, part 2

OK, see, my house must not be that bad that #2 is already up here, right?? Really, the problem isn't that is too messy, it's that I keep thinking, "I'll wait until we get it all fixed up- hang all the pictures, get the curtains up, etc." But, you'd be waiting forever, so here goes...Enjoy, looky-loos! (Insider tip: click on the photos to see them in GIANT SIZE!!!)

This is our bedroom, which has a nice little balcony off the side that is basically a blinding white spot in this photo. We have some more pictures to hang in here that still need to be framed, and I am going to eventually try to hem these curtains, but otherwise, we're done in here.

Joel had a funny joke about the little "displays" on the bedside tables and on the dresser: He calls them "The five treasures of Asia," because we have stuff from five countires in there. I guess it might be a little much; maybe when we have a bigger house I'll have more room to spread out my stuff. Anyway, hope these help satisfy your curiosity!

G.I. Milk

Just a quick post about our milk. For some reason, Joel took a picture of the "US Forces Europe" dairy products that we buy at the commissary here, and I guess it is pretty silly. I don't think IBM employees buy their own branded milk, nor do any other groups/organizations. Joel likes to buy the local milk, but it costs about 3 times as much as this milk, which goes for the low, low price of $1.77 for a half gallon.
Also, it sort of brings up the mythology of government cheese, which I have never really understood. I mean, free cheese, who's complaining??

The One-Room-at-a-Time Project

Since we moved here in December, people have been asking for pictures of our house. First, this was impossible because we had no Internet connection, and then because the house was full of moving boxes. At this point, I am running out of excuses to cover up my real reason, which is that my house is never really clean enough for pictures. So, I've decided to launch the one-room-at-a-time project, in which I clean up one room, at the expense of all others, and take a picture. For the first installment, I present the kitchen: Tah dah!!

When Joel first looked at this house, there was only one cabinet with a sink. Through an arrangement with the Army and the landlady, Joel was able to pick out all of our cabinets/etc from IKEA, and he installed them all himself, with only minor help from me and his parents. Amazing, huh?? Smart AND handy!

I was going with "colorful/ethnic" as my decorating inspiration; we had such a plethora of Asian tchotchkies that they really spilled into every room. Over the sink is my teapot collection- from Japan, Cambodia, China, China, and Japan, from the let to the right. Hopefully Euros drink a lot of tea, too, so we can add to it as we travel over here. The kitchen table is against the island, but you can't really see it in the pictures.

Anyway, look for more exciting rooms to follow...at some point...

Paging Dr. Aidan

Aidan has to wear a smock to his Italian school- it is so cute! Joel says he looks like a little doctor, and I say a little scientist. He says "I'm not a scientist!" and looks at us like we are crazy. I guess he also has a bit of an alter-boy look, but I'll stay away from those connotations. Here he is trying on his new "school shirt" after dinner (try to ignore the spaghetti sauce on his face and hands). Awww!

He has started saying "I'm handsome!" when he gets ready in the morning- it's so funny. He also uses cute and beautiful in the wrong situations- Joel put a desk together and when Aidan saw it, he said "That's cute!" Maybe that would be appropraite if we had gotten that pink Hello Kitty desk with the furry boa seat, but, alas, we got the "Jerker" from Ikea. We're still trying to teach him to say "That has a nice, minimalism appeal."

Plus-size modeling

The last time I was pregnant, Joel was deployed to Iraq and so no one was really around to take any pictures of me pregnant. There was actually only one picture- my friend's mom and sister were in town, and asked me to meet them at IHOP early in the morning before they left town. I woke up late and ran over there looking an absolute mess. One of them took my picture and emailed it to Joel in Iraq. If I can find it, I'll post it here, but just take my word for it that I'm sure it was not what Joel was hoping to see after not seeing me for months.
So, after seeing my friends' artsy pre-baby pictures, I asked Joel to take a nice picture of me. I figured that we'd better do it now, since I only have 9 weeks to go! We went out to the backyard on a sunny day and took 150 pictures... and about 15 are good ones. Have I mentioned how un-photogenic I am??
I know that Joel really enjoys me posting goofy pictures of myself, so here I am checking myself out between pictures:

And here is one of the nice pictures. When you picture me in your head, try to remember this picture and not what I looked like after that sweaty hike, or when I had too much to drink at your Christmas party, or any other less attractive moment:

happy valentine's day, kids!

Aidan has been talking a LOT lately about parties... when we are at the store, he holds up cake mix, plastic plates, balloons, etc and says, "For my party?" Sure, sure, for your party, sweetheart.
But, since his birthday is not until late fall, we thought it would be nice to have a little Valentine's party and have some kids over. I met some other moms on post, and invited three kids over on the 10th to make cookies. We bought balloons, which Aidan was totally excited about, and all of the prerequisite heart-emblazoned cups, napkins, plates, and table cloths. It was a little crazy, and I made some mental notes about what would help for the next time, but here is a picture to show it was an overall success:

I tried to have the kids make heart-shaped cookies with the cookie cutters, but I made chocolate chip cookie dough, not sugar cookie dough, which apparently is an issue. They ended up just making balls with spoons, and dousing them in sprinkles.
If the true mark of a successful children's party is how much the kids cry when it's over, well, this was the best party ever. It took us about an hour and a pizza dinner to cheer Aidan up after the kids left- a small price to pay to make him happy.

God Bless America

When I saw the explosion of news this morning on Anna Nicole, my first reaction was, "What has this nutjob done now?" One of my co-workers informed me that she was found dead in a Las Vegas hotel room, Elvis-style.

Hmph... I thought. Who would have thought. I assumed it would be a short piece on CNN before they'd go back to covering the war or possible presidential candidates. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Throughout the day, everytime I take a peek at CNN in my office, they are "continuing to cover" the Anna Nicole story. There's been Anna Nicole experts, Anna Nicole montages, and a seemingly endless stream of Anna Nicole video clips. At the time that I published this entry, she was still on the CNN front page. Here's the screen from today:

Why exactly is this woman famous again? Wasn't her only accomplishment being a Playboy/plus-size model? She wasn't really an actor. She wasn't known for her philanthropy. Why is this news?

Remember that other high profile death that happened about a month ago? You know, former President Gerald Ford?



Is it just me, or is Anna Nicole getting more coverage than Ford? I don't remember nearly as much coverage on that. Maybe a couple of hours in between other stories, but Smith has shut down the channel. They've got multiple live feeds running from the coroners office, courts, Hard Rock Hotel. Live feeds! There was a reporter on scene informing us that "the autopsy on Anna Nicole Smith has just been initiated." What is that supposed to mean?!? They're slicing into her at this moment? Do I need to know this? What kind of a country do we live in where a Playmate generates more coverage than the former leader of the free world?

Just to illustrate my point, I took the liberty of googling Anna Nicole and Ford as a measure of their relative importance. The results may surprise you.





So... Anna Nicole squeaks it out by about 57,000 results. Ugh. I feel like I need a shower.

No excuses

Sorry to leave everyone hanging for so long without a post. There's no excuse for it really. I came back from my "business trip" on the 31st and just haven't sat down in front of my computer to do anything productive yet.

I updated my processor, motherboard, drives, and upgraded to Windows Vista. So there's been a lot of swearing and gnashing of teeth as I've been fighting through all that. No major problems just yet, except that my DVD burner has stopped working. Not sure why that occurred, or what I can do to get it to start working, but rest assured we're exploring all options.

Hope to have some actual content for you soon, but right now I'm just trying to keep everyone from thinking that this page has been abandoned.

Lock Down

It's been a long time since I've posted.

Sorry.

I've been on a "business trip" with the Army in an undisclosed location for the past week or so. I'm supposed to be back next Wednesday, so I'll have a big welcome back post then.

Unlike my other "trips" that I took when I was in Korea, these keep me extremely busy and away from any Unclassified computers for most of the time. But it's rapidly coming to it's culmination point, so I'll be happy soon enough.

However, until then I'm a miserable bastard.

Order my "World's Greatest Mom" t-shirt now

Sometimes, Aidan drives me crazy, but then sometimes he comes up with a gem that gets me through another few weeks of crying, tantrums, 5 AM wake-ups, and bathroom "accidents."

Today, Aidan asked me to kiss his boo-boo, and I asked, "Do my kisses make you feel better?" and he said, "Yes, mommy's kisses are magic!" He told Joel last week, "You're my best friend ever!" and when he broke a gravy boat (yeah, I know, what was I doing with a gravy boat??) that was in the refrigerator, he said, "Mommy, I too sorry! Too sorry!" Either he's just super adorable, or he's already a master manipulator to come up with that stuff to avoid spanks. The jury is still out.

Knocked Up

I guess everyone knows by now, but I'm having a baby in April. I went to the PX (the department store on post) to survey the baby shit that's available here, to see what I will need to order from the states. Unfortunately, there is only ONE stroller/carseat available at the PX, and they are too big to ship over from then states. Not one style, just one for sale. I spent fifteen minutes standing in front of it, wondering if I should snap it up before someone else got their dirty hands on it. Yes, there are some regular strollers, but I want the one that the carseat snaps into, damn it! Really, though, one of the hardest things to get used to in foreign countries is the lack of commercialism- can you imagine the outrage if a Target in Atlanta had only one stroller for sale?? Outrageous! God bless America!
Second, there is the whole TV issue, which I guess is just extra irritating now that I have all these extra hormones interferring with my usual calm and even temper (cough, cough). Overseas, the military makes available a cable system of sorts, AFN, that shows American TV shows from various networks. Nice, huh? Well, the first problem is that the prime time shows are all a year old. So, if you know who won The Biggest Loser (actual available show) last season, AFN saves you the trouble of watching this year! Huzzah! The reason this really iritates me, of course, is that I WANT TO WATCH THE OFFICE!!
The second problem is that AFN doesn't show commercials, but they have to fill the spots, so they make these silly Army safety infomercials. One today was about Al Jolson, and how he died just after making a 6-day, 42 show (!!) tour of Korea to entertain the troops. It was one of a series entitled, "American Patriots." I know when I hear "patriot," Al Jolson is in my top three, right after Thomas Jefferson and Donald Trump and his big flag.
One final (semi)funny story about the AFN "commercials"- one "news" story today was about a soldier that served as a plambearer for President Ford, and all of the fore-arm muscle strain he suffered. I thought his name tag said "Laughter," which I thought was not very tough for a soldier, but then I realized it said "Slaughter." Big difference, I guess! Oh, and I saw a guy today whose name was "Begaye." Boy, I never get tired of bad soldier names...

No Fat Italians

Italians have beautiful foods.

For lunch today, I went around the little town where we live and picked up some a couple of things for a lunch. Bread, meat, and cheese from the local shops. Each of these come from a different little shop that specializes in the item. It's great.

Here's the spread that we laid out for our lunch today. It was delicious.



I should be a food photographer.

My kid does tricks

An excerpt from the Aidan show last night:



Don't know where Aidan got the idea to do this, but he pulled this trick yesterday evening. This was actually the third balloon that he dispatched with in this fashion.

This kid's got starpower.

Funny or sad?

It's been a while since I posted. I know; get off my back. We just got internet hooked up at my house today!

I saw this while screwing around at Amazon checking out the Zelda game for the Wii. Here's the link to the message board forum from the product review. This guy bought both the GameCube and Wii versions of the same Zelda game and played them both. He said he likes the GC one better because he's stuck on the fishing level. Observe:

Anyways I'm gonna get right to the point I actually enjoyed the GC version better because I couldn't catch any FISH with that freaking Wii Nunchuk controller. So I popped in the GC version and I actually passed a few stages including the fishing stage. I knew the regular controller would be so much easier to catch fish then with the new nunchuk controller. While on the Wii version I'm still freaking stuck on the 1st stage trying 2 catch 2 fish. TRAGIC!!!!!!

That's definitely not funny, and maybe a little sad. But here's the payoff: after 15 people give him little tips and advice on how to catch a fish with the Wii controller, he responds back with this gem.

Im seriously standing by the river waiting 90 min & no fish ever get on my rod, it was SUPER easy on the GameCube. I cant believe its been 90 min & not 1 fish yet and that F*CKING cat is still running around like some WHORE!!!

Har-de-har-har! Don't know about you, but to me, that's funny.


Oh, and Merry Christmas/Happy New Year.

Jam Packed

That's what my apartment looks like right now. Stuffed to the rafters with sticky, delicious jam. Mmmm... jam.

Actually, it's filled with moving boxes. Right now, about 60 of them. There's probably another 60 coming in about two weeks. The place seemed really spacious before all our junk cluttered the place up. I guess when it's all put away, it'll seem a little better.

As I'm going through the boxes, I feel like Steve Martin in "The Jerk". At first, my reaction is, "What is all this junk. I don't need any of this stuff!" Then I open a couple of boxes and find some things for the kitchen. "Except for these mixing bowls. But that's it!" On to the living room. "And this DVD player. Just these mixing bowls and this DVD player." It continues ad nauseum. I guess we just have a lot of stuff.

I've also been building a kitchen since our place was without one. We ordered some stuff and it came in big flat boxes, which I had to open and transport upstairs to assemble. At that point, picking out the thick solid birch countertops started to seem like a mistake. But I managed. Here's a little "from conception to completion" for you. This is from the kitchen planner software that I used to figure out the layout of this thing.



And here's an almost complete kitchen.



Pretty good, right? That's a one-man show in one day. And the one song that was in my head throughout the time that I was putting it together was Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing".

We got to install microwave ovens/
Custom kitchen deliveries

It was a long day, but it won't be long before our place starts to come together and we can finally settle into that long winters nap I've been hearing so much about.

Damned Singing French Woman

I've been packing this afternoon in preparation for a "business trip" that I'm taking next week. While I've been pulling all my stuff together, I've had on CNN to keep me company. It's the International version of CNN, with the anchors that are a special blend of nationalities so as not to upset or isolate any particular group of viewers. Is he Indian, or Arabic? African, or Asian? Their backgrounds are so muddled, it's anyone's guess. But they all speak the King's English, so it brings a nice sensibility to them when they announce riots in Lebanon or radiological scares on British Airways. But I digress...

There's a commercial for Novotel, which I just learned is a hotel chain in Europe, that has been playing in heavy rotation on CNN. It features animals making themselves at home in the hotel rooms while a woman sings this semi-creepy, semi-sweet song ever so softly in the background. I don't know if the song itself is noteworthy or I've just listened to it twenty times today, but I can't get it out of my head. And it's only five or six lines longs. A quick Google search yielded that the woman singing is Emilie Simon, who is French. She has a website, Follow the Blue Light, which is completely in French. Would it kill her to have an English translation site up? The only reason that I stumbled onto her was because I heard her singing in English on English language TV. But it's her site, I guess she can do as she pleases. Give her a look and see if you can download the clip from the commercial. I'm sure it must be somewhere on there. If you can find it, listen to it about twenty times throughout the day at about ten or fifteen minute intervals. If it doesn't start driving you nuts, then I guess there's just something wrong with me.

But I guess we don't need this little exercise in active listening to tell us that, do we?

Happy World AIDS Day

What's the last thing that you want to hear on World AIDS Day? How about this?



Jeeze. Thanks for "breaking it to them easy", Olde Tyme Quaker Man. You really are a jerk.


On another note, here's what I've been reading lately. Empires of Light, by Jill Jonnes. It's a somewhat dramatic telling of the discovery and rise of electricity in the late 1800s. More specifically, how Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse helped shape the electrical world from its infancy into what we now have today. It's pretty fascinating. It also reinforces Edison as one of the baddest asses of all time. In his day, he had the fame and influence of a Bono/P. Diddy cross. Extreme crossover appeal. One of my favorite passages from the book describes Edison's method of dealing with striking workers in his light bulb factory:

At the lamp factory out in New Jersey, eighty highly skilled filament sealers formed a union and "became very insolent," said Edison, "knowing that it was very impossible to manufacture lamps without them." When they objected to the proposed firing of one of their members, Edison quickly designed thirty machines to automate their work. Then he fired the man as planned. "The union went out," said Edison, following up with the punch line: "It has been out ever since."

The moral of the story? Don't screw with the world's foremost genius inventor.