PSoTD

You can get it done if you really want to know what breeds of dog your pet is...

They share the same facial expression in the following examples:

Dog: Barking at a dog that is going by. I take her head and scratch her behind the ears to try to calm her down, and she's looking at me, but all the while is thinking about getting back to the door to check if she needs to bark some more.

Kids: Yelling at each other about almost anything. I take them and tell them they need to settle it without yelling, arguing is fine but name-calling and loud voices are not. They look at me nodding but all the while thinking about how they are going to tell me it's the other person's fault.

Wheels turning, ears just for show.

When you don't take responsibility for what you believe...

Anglo-americans (who are mostly christian) do not understand the concept that in Islam, as in Judaism, you are BORN into the religion (it is not a "choice"). In Judaism it is matrilineal, in Islam it is patrilineal.

One of the side benefits of having an Obama candidacy is that it gets this discussion of religion out on the table. Who determines your faith and your beliefs - you, or your parents?

The above simplistic review of religion categorizes it as an all or nothing question. I just can't see it that way. In the end, each individual has the responsibility of accepting or declining even the tiniest article within a belief structure, regardless of what their parents say. Period. Some religious cultures try to take that option away from the individual with the idea that a person is "born into" a religion.

But that is part of the faith's structure, and each individual has the option to accept or reject it. Even if most accept it, that does not mean that the option isn't there. Even if the religious culture demeans the individual for rejecting it, that doesn't mean the option is there. If a child is born of Jewish parents, who then immediately put the child up for adoption, and the child is adopted by Christian parents who raise the child as Christian - what is that child? When the child decides, as she grows up, that she accepts Buddhism as her faith, what is that person?

In other words - faith is not genetic regardless of what religious conventions may push. And it's time this country start getting their heads around this a bit more.

Every odd-numbered year, my two brothers' families and ours get together for a big family summer vacation. The selection process rotates, and this time it's my job to find the spot. So, I'm looking for input. I've narrowed it down to about 10 different places around the country, and by the end of this summer I need to have the place figured out. Have any suggestions?

So... who has vacationed in Vermont? None of us have - three families, five kids between 8 and 15, and we're looking at various places in the U.S. for vacation in 2009. Sell me on Vermont.

Every odd-numbered year, my two brothers' families and ours get together for a big family summer vacation. The selection process rotates, and this time it's my job to find the spot. So, I'm looking for input. I've narrowed it down to about 10 different places around the country, and by the end of this summer I need to have the place figured out. Have any suggestions?

One of the places I'm looking at is the Ozark Mountains region. 11 or 12 people total, 5 kids ranging from 8 to 15. Anyone have any experiences vacationing there they want to share?

Every odd-numbered year, my two brothers' families and ours get together for a big family summer vacation. The selection process rotates, and this time it's my job to find the spot. So, I'm looking for input. I've narrowed it down to about 10 different places around the country, and by the end of this summer I need to have the place figured out. Have any suggestions?

One of the places I'm looking at is Mackinac Island. There will be 6 adults, all in their 40s, and 5 kids, from 8 to 14. I'm a little afraid this place will be lacking in the kid interest department, but feel free to convince me otherwise.

I think I'm going to go 2 for 2 on the baseball front with our kids. I, having been raised in a household of sports fanship, of playing organized baseball until late teens, had been a bit concerned. Was baseball going to be too boring to our kids?

Our daughter proved it not to be for herself, at least at this point. She loves the big league ballpark experience. She loves playing softball. She'll play catch if you ask. She seems to be... invested, at least as much as a 5th grader can be.

But after one year of tee-ball, the youngest wasn't so sold. After last season, he told me he didn't want to play baseball, that he had "already learned it". I explained that he was going to play SOME spring sport, and it was probably a choice between baseball and soccer.

Okay, soccer.

So I explained a bit further - you run a lot in soccer. A LOT.

Okay, baseball.

So, he's now in his second season, and this year, he's into it. The coach gives baseball cards out to the kids who make outs in the field. He's not a bad fielder for his age, so he's been loving that, and I'm enjoying his reading of the cards on the way home. Are 89 BBs good? This guy had 89 in the BBs column. Is that good?

Is he a pitcher or a hitter?

He plays outfield.

That's pretty good, I explain.

He now likes playing catch, just about anytime. Game days he wants to put his uniform on. He keeps asking to do it, usually ends up with it on at least a half hour before we need to go. Then he asks if he should put his cleats on. Over and over and over. He's ready to go.

It's all cool. He wants to play the game, and that feels good to me.

Somehow, as a Bears fan, I am raising a Green Bay Packers fan, and even more unfortunately, apparently I'm going to be destined to see this painted on his bedroom wall soon.

Your spouse may discover you've been reading this blog.

Mothers posing naked for calendars appears to be fading in popularity...

Women in a Spanish village who posed almost naked for a calendar they hoped would fund a leisure centre for their children have been left with huge debts after they failed to sell enough copies.

"It was an erotic calendar by the firemen of Bilbao that gave us the idea," one of the women, Rosa Garin, told AFP Thursday by telephone from the village of Serradilla del Arroyo in western Spain.

The seven mothers took the photographs themselves, posing virtually nude in the local swimming pool, the tourist office and the bakery last November.

But only 1,500 of the 7,000 copies of the 2008 calendar were sold, at five euros each, and they are now in debt to the printer, who is threatening to take them to court claiming 18,000 euros (29,000 dollars) in damages and interest.

If pizza lasts two whole days in our refrigerator at our house, that's bad pizza. We've now had several pieces saved in our refrigerator for three days from a store-bought pizza - I can't say what kind it is because I didn't cook it, and we don't remember what we bought - and nobody wants to touch it. Unheard of around these parts.

I do remember that it cost $3 on sale at Giant, so I guess I won't be buying any more $3 frozen pizzas.

I'm a cold pizza fan. I think Christine Lavin was on the right track. Our son would eat pizza for all three meals each day if we let him. There's no way it should still be in our fridge - it's gonna get tossed.

I would have hoped that our nation was teaching people to be more responsible than to intentionally provide their underage kids with alcohol.

Apparently, I would have been wrong.

The overwhelming message from panelists at the Town Hall meeting on underage drinking Wednesday was that parents have proven to be the most common source for kids having access to alcohol.

The first speaker from the panel was a high school student who began drinking when she was 12 years old.

“I went with a friend to her parents cabin, and they let us have the alcohol. They didn’t have a problem with it, so I thought, ‘OK, it’s not that big of a deal.’ We went to parties and we mostly got the alcohol from parents,” said Jessie, whose last name is withheld.

Jessie went on to say, looking back, she couldn’t believe that so many of the parents didn’t try and prevent it.

This is just sad, and is just another reason why parents ought to know the parents of their kids' best friends.

I work at home. There's a lot of upside to it - flexibility to be with the kids when they need me, a lot cheaper costs on commuting and office clothes, etc. There's some downside as well - it can get lonely working by yourself, and you have to set up routines that put you around people for conversation and comradery, even if that's the coffee shop or the YMCA. Like any other work environment, there are times when I strongly value the benefits, and times when I am unhappy with the limitations.

One of the things that comes from working out of your house is that some neighbors seem to think that since you're around, you're not doing anything, or much of importance, anyways. The importance part might be true, except this is how I make my living, so it's important to us.

True story from a few days ago - the doorbell rings, and I can see it's one of my neighbors as I come down the stairs. I answer the door.

"What are you doing?" he asks.

"Working," I answer.

"Do you have five minutes?" he asks.

This is a trick question. Interruptions are never for five minutes, and when I'm in the middle of a job, it's some work to come back after a lengthy break and figure out where I am on it.

"Not really, I'm kinda busy. What's up?" I replied.

And then I found out. Our neighborhood ordered a porta-potty for one of our neighborhood parks for the next six months, it makes it easier for neighbors to have events there with a bathroom facility. It was delivered yesterday, and apparently in the wrong place in the park. This neighbor wanted me to go help him move the porta-potty to the correct place. Like, now. Ha ha ha. It's not a big job, but it's not my job, and my job needs me to work at it at that time.

"C'mon, that's the company's job. Call them up and tell them to place it where we requested it, that was part of the deal. We don't need to do this, that's their job, that's what we're paying them for," I told him. He said okay, and went on his way.

Yeaaarrrgh. I don't know, it just struck me as funny, that somehow I'm the guy he thought of to move a porta-potty in the middle of a work day. I'm going to have to do some reputation building, I think.

Well, our daughter's basketball season ended yesterday with a tournament at Mount Saint Mary's College in Maryland. Our 5th and 6th grade girls played as tough as they could, winning the first game before running into much taller competition.

It's a long season even as a rec coach, and I'm surprised to admit that I'm ready for it to have ended now. Our daughter has already started softball practice, and our son starts baseball practice on Monday, and I'm ready for the change in sports seasons.

BTW, if you're ever looking for a place to eat at when in Emmittsburg, I can recommend Dave & Jane's Crab House. We only got sandwiches there, but for the price we received more food than we could finish. If we're at this tournament again next year we'll go back.

Funny... I don't think my wife is part of that 15%. I smell carrots.

"Note to dads...What gets us in the mood:"

1. Foreplay 45%
2. Romantic gestures, like flowers and holding hands 29%
3. Choreplay (i.e., Dad chipping in around the house) 15%
4. A glass of wine 11%

You're like me, a full-sized cart person, having to go down every aisle, looking at the long list of items compiled.

You find yourself in the packaged food aisles. You look at the packages. Hey, prices haven't really changed. But wait a minute, that box is smaller. There's only 12 cookies in this container? Does this salad dressing really have an eye dropper to distribute the sauce?

The kids keep getting bigger, eating more. The packages keep getting smaller. Oh, except over there in dairy, and in packaged meat. There they get bigger - no, we don't want you buying 10 ounces of colby cheese, you have to buy 16 ounces. Eggs? You really can't buy 6 any more, you'll have to buy 12 or 24. Sorry. That's just the way it is.

What games they play with us. The packaged food doesn't expire for a long, long, long time so the contents are small, you'll be back to buy next week. The expirables, such as dairy, they maximize your weekly purchase, because it isn't going to last that long in your refrigerator, anyways. And in both times, every time a packaging size changes, there's a price increase. We know it, they know it, they just try to hide it a little by changing the quantity.

And we mull around the aisles and just take it. What can we do? Everyone in the supply chain is in the game - the grocery, the distributors, the manufacturers. We have to figure out something better to do, as consumers, than walk around with glazed eyes in the grocery, remembering the old days when ice cream came in half gallons instead of 1.75 quarts.

Maybe the news media should quit their preoccupation with serial marriers. These kinds of stories, and these kinds of profoundly shallow commitments to the ideal of marriage, are probably the biggest diminishment of the institution in the world. This isn't a complaint about divorce - it's about how little diligence some celebrities put into marriage, and it's about how they use marriage as a possible tonic for whatever horrible personality ailment they are suffering from, and treat it like a ineffective over-the-counter ointment when they determine they aren't feeling any better.

Part of me feels sorry for Pamela Anderson, and wishes she'd find help. Part of me is sick of seeing her in the news, and wishes the news media would quit validating her impression of what marriage is.

In the wilds. Okay, not exactly.

There I was, at CVS, on Valentine's Day. In the candy section of a pharmacy. Yes, there I was, giving in to the expectation that I must buy my wife some candy for Valentine's Day. It's not like we're a household devoid of candy. There's candy left over from Halloween, leftover from Christmas, and my mother-in-law sent some crate of See's Candies just a few days ago. We probably have more chocolate in our house, by sheer weight, than we have of butter and margarine. Maybe I should use chocolate on my toast tomorrow instead.

So much chocolate. And still... I felt it. Required. Destined to buy chocolate, or destined to be doomed if I didn't. I looked at the ravaged CVS shelves. There were those hearts with words on them. There were heart gummies... actually a lot of that. Who thought that was a good idea? Why not heart pepto-bismols, or heart Cheerios, while they're at it? Then there were the Whitman samplers, at least some. Most that were left looked like they'd been knocked over in a brawl, or used for late night floor hockey. There was this bizarre concept of chocolate covered fortune cookies. I guess you can sell anything for Valentine's Day if it has chocolate on it. Why doesn't CVS move their chocolate Exlax to these aisles? Why doesn't Exlax have some special red and white packaging for this time of year? Oh, the missed opportunities.

I wasn't alone in the aisle. There were many of us, hovering, mulling, probably all disappointed with the remaining choices. Surprisingly, there were only a couple of men, but several women. Well, I was surprised. A little embarrassed, too - I thought I might be able to sneak in at 2:30 and make my guilty purchase with fewer witnesses. No such luck. We all went through the same drill - looking at items on the shelves like a beachcomber reviews a half-buried shell, until deciding that it better be grabbed before the next wave (or shopper) took it away, then, after bothering to pick it up, deciding to return it to its original place, so some other force may remove it later.

Way in the back of one shelf were a few Hershey Truffles in a heart-shaped box. Perfect. I snagged it and practically ran to the card aisle. Mine, all mine! The selection in the card section was actually prettu good, and I was able to find one that fit my MO - a little humor, a little sweetness, a little raunchiness.

My wife is very nice. She acted surprised and delighted when she received these. We had a deal - no gifts - but both of us broke it, albeit not by much. It was one of those kinds of no gift deals.

You might wonder why I chose to go to CVS for my Valentine's Day shopping on Valentine's Day. The answer? Experience! Let's just say, I've been there before. Thanks , CVS!

Fidel Castro is interviewed by Edward R. Murrow.

The movie Sleeping Beauty released in Brazil.

The launch of the first Titan rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

On February 6, 1959, a patent is issued to Texas Instruments for "miniaturized electronic circuits."

The Big Bopper’s funeral was held at Broussard’s Funeral home in Beaumont, Texas on February 6, 1959.

And... I was born. So close to the big five-oh at this point... I'm out for the rest of the day - so you should go enjoy my day off!

Last night we were having a last beer in a local establishment, four of us, all Dads, and one says to me:

"That's different, now that your kids are older..."

and I think it was the first time I had heard that. It was one of those moments where a different way to think about my (and our) situation was crystallized by someone else, and it stopped me a bit in my tracks.

Yes, we know our kids are "getting" older, and there's all these signs that have been coming up - giving away the toddler stuff that we've used for two children, the tiny desks, the little chairs, and now we're planning on repainting both kids' rooms this summer to replace the current "kiddy" images with something more tween-and-teen friendly.

But there's a difference between seeing your children as "getting older" and seeing them as "now older". Didn't know that before last night.

We took down the Christmas Cards yesterday. This year we received 4 or 5 annual wrapup holiday newsletters from friends and family as well. That's probably par for the course.

Only one of them was actually interesting to read. It's not that the rest of them didn't lead interesting lives or had news to provide - but they weren't well written. They weren't written with the intention of giving the reader enjoyment, or at the very least, news.

I think that Hallmark and all other card providers ought to provide a free link to Christmas News Letters - Suggestions and Examples as a favor to society. People do some mindnumbing things with these end-of-year newsletters. We received one that actually described the plants that were put in a garden, and the exciting growth results. Flowers. People have to remember that when they're doing these kinds of newsletters, they're sending to a general group, and they need to focus on content - and the details - that would be of interest to the general group. In the case of the garden, a picture equals 1000 words, so don't waste the 1000 words, because I won't get through it.

I'm no grinch, I like getting the holiday letters when they're well done. But it's a craft that people don't prepare enough for before they undertake it.

Whatever that means. These broken up work weeks play havoc with focus.

ThePoliticalCat tagged me the other day with this - and now I'm doing my part to make the holiday last.

Da Rulez

1. Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share Christmas facts about yourself.
3. Tag seven random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Welcome to the Christmas edition of "Getting to Know Your Friends."

1. Wrapping or gift bags?
Gift bags, although I have a tradition of wrapping at least one gift for my wife with Sunday newspaper comics.

2. Real or artificial tree?
It depends on how we feel. I have one of those 1960s silver aluminum trees, with the color wheel, that I inherited from my Mom, and every once in a while that's fun.

3. When do you put up the tree?
First or second weekend in December.

4. When do you take the tree down?
New Years Day weekend

5. Do you like egg nog?
Yes, I'm normal.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
Electric football.

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
I think we have a small one around here somewhere.

8. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
One of these days I'll write about how my MIL destroyed a brand new Christmas collectible hobby my wife and I were embarking on by getting us practically everything we could think of.

9. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Mail. Mail. Mail. And early, so that the holiday is spread over December.

10. Favorite Christmas Movie?
It's a Wonderful Life.

11. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Early December.

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
I love the Christmas cookies.

13. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
Either.

14. Favorite Christmas song(s)?
We Three Kings.

15. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
I hate traveling at Christmas. When we moved to Pennsylvania, we went to California for Christmas for the first four years to be with family. We ended up sick every time, plus you feel like Christmas is on an agenda. I much prefer being home with the kids, going slow, and playing all day.

16. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?
Yeah.

17. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Star.

18. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning?
Both. We all open one gift on Christmas Eve, the rest the next morning.

19. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
Crowds.

20. Do you decorate your tree in any specific theme or color?
No.

21. What do you leave for Santa?
Cookies and milk.

22. Least favorite holiday song?
Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.

23. Favorite ornament?
The Chicago Bears ornament! (and they played Santa all year long, giving away games)

24. Family tradition?
Opening a present on Christmas Eve came from my Dad's side of the family. We have the Santa hat as well, which one person must wear when they are distributing gifts on Christmas morning.

25. Ever been to Midnight Mass or late-night Christmas Eve services?
Yes. But I don't make a habit out of it.

Hmmm ... Who to tag? How about Audacity, BearWaller Hollar, cannablog, Dizzy Dayz, Fiat Lux, Waiting for Dorothy, and Out of My Mind in Mechanicsburg.

Just wanted to revel in that feeling for a bit. Thanks for indulging.

There's some commercial out there that mentions "explosive diarrhea". After my son went to the bathroom today, he asked me if there was such a thing as explosive diarrhea. I said yes.

He then asked that if you had it, would it blow you up?

It happens.

When my parents were alive, the hardest person to figure out a Christmas gift for was my Mom, because she was a frugal person as it was, she lived in an apartment with limited space for storage or display, and she never really said anything about "wanting" anything. When I was in my late 20s, I decided one year to try "time and place" as gifts, as opposed to things, and one year I gave her and my brothers a weekend in San Diego, and we had a great time there, and after that, the issue was resolved, and I tended to give both my parents such gifts after that. A gift of a good time is hard to beat.

Today, my wife holds the place of toughest to shop for during the holidays. There are several reasons - first of all, I do want my gift(s) each year to be spot on for her, because it should be, and also because I've given her my share of duds in the past. I have a hit-and-miss history - either they are great gifts, or they're in the "what was he thinking" category. On the other hand, we're able to get pretty much anything we want or need within reason anyways, so a lot of potential gift ideas don't work just because they're either already owned or already judged to not be that important.

I hate the years where I feel pretty uncertain about the specialness of my gift(s) to her. This year I feel pretty confident I have a winner. I hope so. I just want to avoid that sensation of a lead dirigible plunging into your house, the one I had when I got her the camping stove for her birthday.

Floating around in the news today:

Men are naturally more comedic than women because of the male hormone testosterone, an expert has claimed.

I'm not about to claim that this is true, but I will agree that I will be using this blurb to pester my wife considerably this weekend.

I can't claim to understand the pathetic personality needs or relationship abilities of somebody who gets married and two months later files for divorce, but frankly, serial abusers of marriage such as Pamela Anderson probably need a better support system to prevent their abuse of the process, and their crappifying of the conceptual pool of "marriage" in the public eye.

We kinda thought we might buy the kids a Wii this Christmas. As we learned yesterday, think again.

It's pretty clear that there's a sturdy undermarket of Wiis being sold, on Amazon and elsewhere, at prices that are double or more the listed price of the item. This kind of speculation seems, at this time of year, very Scroogelike, and seems like the action of a pretty miserable personality. On the other hand, I see no reason to buy at those prices, either, and the kinds of senseless people that are doing so are responsible for this kind of speculation in the first place.

Maybe the senseless and the miserable deserve each other, but it's unfortunate that the rest of us have to be swamped in their wake.

My wife spent a good part of yesterday putting up Christmas decorations around the house. It's a bit early for me - we'll go get the tree next weekend, and that's when we normally do this. I say we, although my decoration job ends with whatever we decide to put up outside, and the placement of the tree in the treeholder. My wife pretty much holds the internal decorating job by her choice, and she and the kids fancy up the tree. And so the season begins.

For whatever reason, it occurred to me that I probably couldn't figure out where I've spent, specifically, even most of my 48 Thanksgiving dinners to this point.

But I figure I can be general:

1959-1970 - Primarily Marion, Indiana, where my grandparents lived, although it's possible that either Indianapolis or Muncie could have been the primary location.

1971-1983 - Pretty much Livermore, California, with one memorable trip to an Aunt's in Southern California, which became known as the "Windowshopping versus Notre Dame" controversy in our family.

1984-1989 - Various places in California. Rancho Cordova one year, Livermore for several of those years, probably Bakersfield, I don't really remember at this point.

1990 - Bahia, Brasil. I didn't have Thanksgiving dinner that year.

1991 - 2003 - Mechanicsburg, and then Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. We may have spent one of those holidays in DC, but again, not remembering much. Thanksgiving Day, 1991 was the day I proposed to my wife, and it is by far my most eventful and enduring Thanksgiving, and is the best reason I have to be thankful for this particular day.

2004 - Pittsburgh, PA - We all took a trip to goof around in the Steel City, and we had a lot of fun.

2005 - California. We decided to go to California for a couple week in November - my Dad was terminally ill, and it was a time for our kids to see him one last time before he passed. We had an early 70th birthday party for him at a local restaurant, there was a good number of family that flew out for it, and we all enjoyed our time together.

2006 - Camp Hill again - last year our house was torn up for remodeling, we ended up eating at Fire Mountain, a relatively decent buffet restaurant, before heading down to Colonial Williamsburg.

2007 - Camp Hill again.

That our seven year old boy will enjoy well beyond its cost.

Last night was Trick or Treat in Hampden Township, and the kids had a good ole' time. Funny thing about trick or treating, parents end up carrying for their kids all the masks, hand held items, and other eventually uncomfortable or unwieldy parts of their costumes.

Sooner or later some discount costume maker is going to figure this out, and just put a grab bag of costume items that no longer sell out there together as a new costume - trick or treat parent - which requires the wearer to just carry everything.

Well, our daughter's Halloween Birthday sleepover went as well as such a thing can go. I had ordered Horror Classics 50 Movie Pack Collection and they watched the one true "classic" in the bunch - Night of the Living Dead. This morning's verdict? It was pretty good for being in black and white, but the special effects didn't look like real zombies. Still, they were too scared to watch at a few points where there was screaming.

This leaves 49 more movies to watch - and I'm a sucker for these kinds of movies. I was a Creature Feature regular viewer, and these are just up my alley. I'm hoping that we can have a regular "Creature Feature" night around here and the kids and I will be sharing popcorn for the next year.

Our lives changed for the much better, much richer, with the birth of our daughter. Happy Birthday, C-Monster!

And now, I must prepare myself for the near future screams, giggles, and other carrying-ons when girls have a sleepover birthday party.