We had decided we would try on more time with a dog, and as such had set forth a few requirements. Well Lisa had quite a few requirements, I just wanted to start with a puppy this time to try and avoid the abandonment and socialization issues Turk brought with him. Lisa wanted something that wouldn’t shed and was trainable among other things. So we had settled upon a poodle or poodle mix and were just checking around for how much that would cost (quite a lot actually). I checked out the pet finders website (a great online resource connecting Humane Societies nation wide) when I saw a pure bred 8 week old Standard Poodle had just been put up in Faribault (about 60 miles away). I called and left a message on their machine that we were interested. They called back and said I was first to call in (there were several more calls for him) and he was ours if we wanted, we just had to get over to Faribault by noon.
Well a mad dash later and we met our new puppy. He is all black and cute as a button. In the few days we have had him we have already learned sit, so I think he is a fairly smart dog as well. We debated the name choice for two days and again I had Hairy Pooper rejected, along with Mr. Tibbs, the ironic Whitey or Cracker, and the very appropriate Hegai (Hegai being the kind black eunuch from the story of Esther). Since Parker P is the opposite of Peter Parker (i.e. Spiderman), and from Spiderman 3 we know the opposite of Spiderman is the black suited one, the name seems to work.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Somnambulistic Showering
Zeke likes to sleepwalk around a bit at night. Mostly he is harmless like turning on his lights, but occasionally he does something a little more odd. Last night about 10:30 he went into the bathroom, turned the shower on, and then went back to bed. Lisa noticed around 11. What deep seated tension is he hiding??
Sears Sucks (at least ours does)
Bought a new dishwasher from Sears which they said they would install. One week later they show up put in the dishwasher and take the old one away; but wait the new one doesn’t work. The guy said it sat outside for two days on a truck being delivered from Chicago. Consequently the water that was in it during quality checks was frozen; so it needs to defrost. Lets not forget he damaged the water shut-off valve (we discovered that later) as well. Anyways we wait until Monday and still no water is entering the machine. We call Sears and they send out the installer again. He says the Bosch technician will need to see it and there isn’t a local guy.
So we wait until today (5 days hand washing the dishes so far) for him to show up. The computerized scheduler called and conveniently let us know he would be here between 8am and 5pm. Thanks for really narrowing that down. So he had not shown up by 2:30pm so I had to leave work to go pick up the kids at school, just in case he picked that 15 minute window to arrive. Good thing I did as that is exactly when he arrived. The Bosch is a bust, a lemon. His advice was for Sears to just replace it or give us our money back. Still waiting to here from them still.
So we wait until today (5 days hand washing the dishes so far) for him to show up. The computerized scheduler called and conveniently let us know he would be here between 8am and 5pm. Thanks for really narrowing that down. So he had not shown up by 2:30pm so I had to leave work to go pick up the kids at school, just in case he picked that 15 minute window to arrive. Good thing I did as that is exactly when he arrived. The Bosch is a bust, a lemon. His advice was for Sears to just replace it or give us our money back. Still waiting to here from them still.
Friday, February 22, 2008
The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green
Occasionally when I find the writers I generally read do not have any new books out and the new release shelf does not have anything that catches my eye; I will peruse the general fiction shelves. I then sort of scan them until I see a spine that interests me and proceed to pick 4-6 books off that bookcase from writers that I have never heard of. Sometimes this pays off and I find a new writer and backlist that I can work through. A lot of the time I will make it 50 or so pages and give up. Then there is the third category, I read the book and it is okay but does not evoke any excitement in me.
The Unthinkable thoughts of Jacob Green by Joshua Braff is clearly in the third category. It visits a young man at three points in his life; 9, 13, and 15 years old. While mildly entertaining and providing a pretty good portrait of what a bad father can do, overall I am at a loss to understand what the writer was trying to say. This is another book that could have been a lot longer, but instead it leaves a lot for the reader to imagine. Unfortunately as a reader I just didn’t care enough about the characters to ponder it.
In short, Jacob thinks his father is crap in that narcissistic religious fundamentalist way (in this case Jewish), and that girls are hot and he wants to have sex with them (but as a teenage boy myself once, I already knew that – it is kind of universal). The one thing I did learned was how to understand the joke about a pastrami sandwich from Annie Hall from a Jewish perspective. In the same venue (books about teenagers written more for adults), a recall enjoying King Dork by Frank Portman more. As a bonus, if you get it as a recorded book you can hear my old college roommate Lincoln Hoppe doing the voice work.
The Unthinkable thoughts of Jacob Green by Joshua Braff is clearly in the third category. It visits a young man at three points in his life; 9, 13, and 15 years old. While mildly entertaining and providing a pretty good portrait of what a bad father can do, overall I am at a loss to understand what the writer was trying to say. This is another book that could have been a lot longer, but instead it leaves a lot for the reader to imagine. Unfortunately as a reader I just didn’t care enough about the characters to ponder it.
In short, Jacob thinks his father is crap in that narcissistic religious fundamentalist way (in this case Jewish), and that girls are hot and he wants to have sex with them (but as a teenage boy myself once, I already knew that – it is kind of universal). The one thing I did learned was how to understand the joke about a pastrami sandwich from Annie Hall from a Jewish perspective. In the same venue (books about teenagers written more for adults), a recall enjoying King Dork by Frank Portman more. As a bonus, if you get it as a recorded book you can hear my old college roommate Lincoln Hoppe doing the voice work.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
More Choice for Gunnar
Typically we have given Gunnar a limited number of college choices that we as parents will pay for. Generally speaking it has been BYU or BYU-I as both are quite cheap. We will help pay for other options and he knows generally speaking he can go anywhere he would like (and can get into). That said he also knows that he needs to get a scholarship of substantial amounts to afford them. So he has favored THE Ohio State University since visiting the campus last summer, and the success of their sports programs hasn’t been bad either. Of course now that it has been butt cold here, we have been hearing some talk of Arizona State.
The exciting development for us this week is the news that Stanford will not be charging tuition to any students who families make less than 100K a year. I am sure the competition will increase even more dramatically now, but since we qualify for that condition it has been added to the BYU’s as a full ride destination for Gunnar.
The exciting development for us this week is the news that Stanford will not be charging tuition to any students who families make less than 100K a year. I am sure the competition will increase even more dramatically now, but since we qualify for that condition it has been added to the BYU’s as a full ride destination for Gunnar.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Childhood Revisited
Through NetFlix we received a copy of Carry on Camping, a English comedy from 1969. The Carry On movies were a series of comedies all starring the same group of Actors in a variety of plots; and all were just an excuse to see how much innuendo could be packed into one movie. Another words, they were very funny. It is also fun to see the old grandparents on the current PBS British shows playing the young nubile sex vixens. It is like comparing Miss Brahms with Pauline Fowler.
So if you want to see what had a large influence on my sense of humor, or more importantly, what had a profound effect on Mike Myers in the creation of the Austin Powers character, rent a Carry On film (they all begin with the phrase Carry On).
So if you want to see what had a large influence on my sense of humor, or more importantly, what had a profound effect on Mike Myers in the creation of the Austin Powers character, rent a Carry On film (they all begin with the phrase Carry On).
Why it is hard to love Minnesota
IT IS 17 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT BELOW ZERO RIGHT NOW!!!! With the wind chill it is more like 35 below – and it is going to stay that way for three more days at least.
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