Saturday, 26 March 2011

Today I attended my niece’s five-year birthday party. I’ve actually been to all five of her birthday parties. I don’t think I have a perfect attendance record for anyone else like that.

The other day, I made some off-hand comment that Owen had been to more birthday parties in his life that I’ve been to in my life. Owen didn’t believe me, but then we started counting–

We’ve both been to all the parties each member of our immediate family has had, and we’ve been been to my niece’s (his cousin’s) five birthday parties. But while I’ve been to four birthday parties for friends, he’s been to at least seven. And just about a month ago, he attended the party of someone he hardly knew.

Maybe I should start a list for him.

Sunday, 27 March 2011

So, by popular demand (including a phone call from my brother-in-law at a quarter to ten last night), I have decided to upload the footage of my time spent on the Oprah Winfrey Show stage. Here it is:

I am quick to note here that I do not have the copyrights for this footage. However, in an agreement I signed, I only agreed to not benefit financially off of my interview. So I just want to make that clear: I’m not posting this with the intent of making any money, and if any of the proper copyright holders do have an issue with my uploading it onto the WWW, please let me know and I will remove it.

Did I ever mention that my appearance on the show came with multiple limo rides, two free nights in fancy-schmancy hotel and a $160 room service credit? Yeah, I ordered four orange juices with my breakfast on the first morning. And five on the second.

Wednesday, 23 March 2011

I love when I wonder about something, and then an answer just comes at me from an unexpected source. Check out this blog entry from one of my friends:

Proper Noun Blog: Savor

There, my friend talks about a book she recently read in which being a “mindful eater” is said to include all six senses. I commented that I couldn’t really think of a way in which to engage hearing in meal time. Put another way, if I was completely deaf, would my meals be diminished in any way?

Then…

This afternoon I was at a Toastmasters meeting (I gave a speech about the Hinckley Firestorm, but that’s not relevant right now). One member gave a speech titled “A Beginner’s Guide to Enjoying Wine.” In his speech, he noted that partaking of wine should involve all the senses, and this is why people clink their glasses at the start or end of a glass of wine: it’s the best way to engage the sense of hearing.

Pretty cool, huh?

Oh – he also recommended the documentary Mondovino, which I have subsequently placed high on my Netflix queueueue.

Thursday, 24 March 2011

Today I took part in a group outing (yes, yes, I know “group” is a silly word, but I honestly think that’s the next level up from my department at work) at Pinstripes.

Pinstripes appears to exist solely for the purpose of catering to events; i.e., you wouldn’t go there just for dinner, but you would go there for, say, a groomsmen dinner (where you can hope to Thor that they don’t serve Pastira).

First, there was an eleven-course meal. I tried to abstain from gluttony and only partook of nine courses. Then there was bowling, then indoor bocce ball, which was a new experience for me. The only other two times I’ve played bocce ball have been outside on sand. The flooring for the indoor variety was akin to a pool table’s felt top: a little power and the balls went a loooong way.

There was so much food leftover that the staff packaged the pasta into containers 9x4x3 inches in size. I took one home and it should provide an additional three meals. They might be that last meals I have on the company tab – as my co-worker said on the way home, perhaps today was our Last Supper.

Friday, 25 March 2011

Back on Wednesday, I went out to my car, and it didn’t start. This wasn’t too much of a problem since I just took my wife’s car to work. Owen is on spring break this week, so he didn’t need to go to school and, though my wife had an appointment that morning, it was postponed due to the weather.

Anyways…

My car chooses not to start whenever the air is really wet. The heavy precipitation of Tuesday, coupled with the melting of snow, likely conspired to keep my engine from “turning over” (whatever that means) on Wednesday morning.

Wednesday and today, I used my wife’s car. (Okay, technically, I really hate the term “wife’s car,” as if she is in sole possession of that Saturn. That’s silly. The car belongs to both of us equally. It just turns out that my wife uses the Saturn more often than I do and, as a routine, I drive the Cavalier to work.) On Thursday, I got a ride to work from a co-worker.

I knew my car must be okay, because my father-in-law stated that I “should be able to get another 50 thousand miles out of that thing,” and that was only 8,000 miles ago. So today, with the sun shining and the air heating up, I decided to give my Cavalier another try. It worked, and I took it around the block to fill the tank up with fossil fuels. When I returned home, I wisely decided to back into the parking space…just in case.

Monday, 21 March 2011

Here’s one of my pet peeves:

When people say they have a secret, but that they can’t or won’t tell you.

Nothing says “I’d like some attention please” like saying you have a secret (except maybe maintaining your own blog).

I can recall several instances of friends performing this little bit of narcissism throughout my life, but online social networking has taken this to a new level.

Here’s the deal: if you have a secret that you can’t/won’t let me know about right now, then just don’t even tell me you have a secret. After we told our family that Jennifer was pregnant (back in ’04 – with Owen), a few of them commented on what good secret-keepers we were. Yeah, it’s true, we are awesome secret-keepers, and the reason is because we didn’t run around saying: “Guess what? We have some big news. But we can’t say what it is right now.”

Here’s why it’s advantageous for you, the secret-holder, to keep your mouth shut: it’s just gonna make the big news that much less special, perhaps even anticlimactic. For example, suppose you say, “I have some big news that I have to keep secret right now,” …well, then everyone just starts guessing (at least in their mind). Are you getting married? Are you pregnant (or, if you’re male, is a woman with whom you’ve recently coupled pregnant)? Are you moving to Tajikistan? Did you win the lottery? Then, when you do reveal that – Surprise! – you bought a puppy, we’ll all be like, “oh, was that all?”

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

Tuesday, 22 March 2011

Did I ever blog about my sand timer? Here’s a recent picture of it:

The sand timer’s history goes back several decades, at which time my great-grandparents (my dad’s mom’s parents) acquired it under circumstances and location unbeknown to me. It sat on their shelf for many years.

In the mid-1980s, following the death of my great-grandmother, my grandma flew to California to help her dad sort through his wife’s possessions. My grandma came home with, among other things, this sand timer.  It sat on her shelf for four or five years.

Then, one day in early 1990, it was sitting on a table in her garage as an item in her garage sale. I asked if I could have it, and my mom said, “I don’t want to take all of your Nana’s things. If it doesn’t sell, you can have it at the end of the day.”  I ensured it would not sell by deftly switching the price from $4.00 to $14.00. Fretting that that was not enough, I later added in another 1, uping the asking price to $114.00. At the end of the day, I was allowed to bring the timer home. It sat on my shelf for many years.

About two years ago, in an effort to help Owen calm down and get to sleep at night, I brought the timer into his room and set it on his nightstand. Turning it over to allow the sand to pour through, I told him of all its owners and explained how watching its methodical filtering can help his drift off to sleep.

Anyway, he broke it today. It was an accident, and he was sad about it – even to the point of getting out of bed and coming into the living room crying that he didn’t have the timer to help him get to sleep tonight. When it first broke, he said, “Can we get a new one?”

The answer is…not really.

Of course, I have other things from my parents and grandparents, but most things are gifts they bought from me. I have hardly anything that they themselves once owned. I have that evolution book I discussed last month (CLICK HERE), and I have this knick-knack from my maternal grandparents:

…but that’s about it.

Here’s a more recent picture of the sand timer:

R.I.P., old friend.

Friday, 18 March 2011

Today marks my seven year anniversary with my current employer. My supervisor treated me to lunch at Potbelly. It’s kind of a cool fast food place because they toast the bread for their sandwiches (always nice when it’s cold outside) and they have live music. Some guy with a guitar today was singing and strumming “Dear Prudence,” among other great, classic tunes.

Sadly, I think this might be my final occasion being treated to lunch by this particular supervisor. That is, unless we both survive the imminent lay-offs and  continue to have the same working relationship. I doubt it.

Not sure where I’ll be working next, but I’m gonna ask if I get a free meal on my anniversaries.

Saturday, 19 March 2011

Today, our friends Ryan and Esther took us to Jun-bo, an “authentic” Chinese restaurant in Richfield. Our meal was served dim sum style, which basically means every dish the restaurant serves is placed on your table (unless you quickly decline) and you take a portion and pass it on to the others at your table. This, of course, is a great racket for the proprietors, as they manage to rack up your bill to a hefty total before you’ve even looked at the menu.

I must say, though, everything I tried tasted excellent – from the seaweed salad to the pineapple donuts.

Jennifer and I left with five – yes, FIVE – Styrofoam containers filled with food, and our friends had at least three containers in tow as they left. I think this must be some kind of a record; it was as if we both dined at a restaurant and did our food shopping for tomorrow and Monday.

Sunday, 20 March 2011

…Yep, we feasted on Jun-bo left-overs all day.

So, in taking my class this semester, I’ve realized there are some serious gaps in my reading list. So, come mid-May, I’m gonna try to correct that. Things I’m gonna read this summer:

–The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri (friends just called him “Dante”).

–On the Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin. Of course, the book’s full title is On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, because people in the 18th and 19th century abhorred brevity.

–Common Sense and The American Crisis and The Rights of Man and The Age of Reason, all by Thomas “The” Paine. I want to read these because they are constantly referenced in other readings I do.

–A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens (I don’t know, maybe I’ll wait until December to read this). I know so much about this book, I think it’s time to actually read it.

–The Koran, also known as The Qur’an, as dictated by Jibril, also known as Gabriel. Who knows, maybe I’ll become a Muslim?

–The Federalist Papers, written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. Like Paine’s writings, these are vitally important in the history of our nation. I’d like to be able to say I’ve read them.

–The Song of Hiawatha, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I’ve been on Hiawatha Avenue, and I just can’t see how anyone can write a poem about it. I’m very curious.

Also, did you know radiation is good for you? Ann Coulter said so on Bill O’Reilly, so it can’t be wrong. I’m moving to Japan.

Wednesday, 16 March 2011

So, there’s now a chance that liquor stores will no longer be legally prohibited from being open on Sundays. This definitely ranks on my list of stupid laws here in Minnesota.

For one thing, it’s unfair. If the government wants to make it illegal for all stores to be closed on Sunday – okay, well that’s still stupid – but at least it would be fair. This is just an antiquated law that lawmakers imagined would get people to church on Sundays (nevermind that going to church is what often drives people to drink).

For two thing, it seems like a clear case of loss revenue. Granted, if I lived out in the middle of the state, I would just have to wait until Monday to get my liquor (or make sure I got there on Saturday). But I, like thousands of other Minnesotans, live really close to Wisconsin. So I could just drive over there and buy some liquor on Sundays – and this has happened at several events I’ve been to. Thus, lost income for my local store and lost tax revenue for my state. Also, restaurants can still sell alcohol on Sundays, so this outmoded rule seems highly unfair.

The weird thing is, though, I don’t really want stores to be open more. I think it’s too bad that malls stay open even on holidays and many gas stations and convenience stores are open all the time. Come on, people, let’s close up shop from time to time.

However, while I might feel that way, I also feel the government has no business demanding stores be open or closed at certain times. So I’m rooting for this law to be stricken from the books.

Also, I want to thank the sexually repressed, morally deficient Catholic Bishops in North Dakota for giving me a great list of charities I should be supporting. Among the charities they want their flocks to stop supporting are the Susan G. Koman for the Cure foundation and the American Association of University Women. Wow. This is really surprising that a religion would show a bias against organizations that promote women’s welfare. I mean, given how fair the bible treats them, this is really surprising.

Thursday, 17 March 2011

I’m on spring break as of 9:30 this morning. Once class was finished for the day, I took off for work and I don’t have to be back to class until the 29th.

I thought for sure we’d be assigned a paper or two to write but, apart from some reading to do, there are no assignments.

I plan to toss the book up on the shelf for the next ten days or so. There’s no point in reading everything that’s assigned when I will forget most of it by the time I next attend class. This is especially true considering how far behind we are. Today, for example, we discussed some texts that we read a week and a half ago. When we’re so far behind like that, I feel like I have to refresh my memory each time we open up the text in class. Oh well, I’ll manage.

Also, next week I am slated to give a presentation in my Toastmasters Club and right now I have no idea what to talk about. I read the chapter that details the kind of speech I’m to give, but I don’t know what to talk about. And for the upcoming meeting, the Club President invited a bunch of other people to attend, so I feel a little pressure here.