Gay Vampires

So, I wrote about spending the day with my daughter last week and how wonderful it was. Something that occurred that day completely slipped my mind until I saw an article about the movie Twilight this morning and it’s just too hysterical not to bring up.

  

During our hours of playtime on Friday, my daughter discovered how to turn the clock radio sitting on our bedside table on and off. Have I mentioned she’s a genius? Clearly, her mother’s genes. In other ways she takes after her daddy, because she likes her music loud. I kept lowering the volume and she would mess around with knobs and buttons until she found the volume and then cranked that sucker up. Big time.

 

One of the times the radio was on, blaring, I heard a promo for the morning show where the caller talked to the DJs about Twilight. It was about a minute-long recording, but the caller ended his commentary with the observation that finally, finally, geeks had made vampires cool. He was a big fan of the movie, the books, and was in absolute bliss. Then one of the DJs said that not long ago Anne Rice had not only made vampires cool, she’d pulled them into mainstream America.

 

His response? “Yeah….. but they’re all gay.”

 

I sit here weeping at stupidity.

An actual vacation day

My wife, Sarah, had a serious deadline that’s kept her glued to her computer any and every free moment for the last few weeks. That’s not why yesterday was so nice, but seeing the tick at the corner of her eye is mildly amusing. No, the real reason is this: because the project is coming to a head, she and most of the other managers at her company went in early for a roundtable to get the finishing touches dialed-out yesterday morning. And, as I was on a vacation today, I was able to spend almost a full day hanging out with my daughter, Ellie.

 

I bring this up because somewhere between practicing our signs, running around in the back yard, and doing an absolutely miserable job at putting her hair in pigtails it occured to me I’m going to need to take advantage of every moment like this I can get.

 

I’ve heard (Bill Cosby?) that having one child is akin to having no children at all. With our second child fast approaching that bit of wisdom keeps pushing on the big, red panic button in my mind. As rare and valuable as days like yesterday already are, what are things going to be like with two?

Vacation day – kind of

I just Tweeted about this so I thought I’d throw the question out here, too.

Because I rarely take a vacation day end of year comes and I find myself scrambling to burn through vacation days that I’ll otherwise lose. It makes for a pretty cool November and December – lots of Fridays off – but it does nothing to minimize the amount of work that still needs to get done.

I’ve put in an hour or so of time on work and I’ve another hour or two on the radar. The upside is productivity is through the roof with no distractions. The downside is, well, I’m supposed to be on vacation.

So, the question – how do you balance work and time off? Are you ever completely ’off the grid?’ 

Not sure if I’m hoping for Captain Jack or the Dread Pirate Roberts

If you haven’t heard, this weekend a group of Somali pirates hijacked a Saudi oil tanker holding close to 2 million barrels of oil and 25 crewmembers. While the Saudis are still working on a solution to get their crew home safe, their Forreign Miinister Prince had this to say:

“Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal on Tuesday called the hijacking “an outrageous act” and said, “piracy, like terrorism, is a disease which is against everybody, and everybody must address it together.” Speaking during a visit to Athens, he did not elaborate on what steps, if any, the kingdom would take to better protect its vital oil tankers.”

My question is this: how many of the pilots on 9/11 were Saudi? Answer: 15 out of 19.

Between two friends

Written on Friday night…

 

I’m on another patio but the weather isn’t nearly as pretty as it was last week. Right now clouds are rolling in – a breeze is kicking up, the temperature is dropping, and it looks like the sky is about to open up. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn’t rain because there’s really no where else to sit; not to mention what will certainly be a mad, comical scramble to get my laptop protected. We’ll see.

 

I grew up in a town called Pearland. It’s a black spot of earth that sucks away at your soul, but that’s a different conversation. For now, the relevant piece of information is a good friendship that began in high school is still alive and well today. Not only have we remained friends, but her family and mine have developed a new kind of friendship. It’s been great.

 

My friend’s husband, S, is on his way now. Over the years, he’s become a wonderful, strong friend whom I respect and genuinely enjoy spending time with. We’ll be relaxing, having a few drinks, I’m sure to mock him being an ardent Republican at some point, and we’ll finally get to the real reason he called me to hang out.

 

He and his wife, my old friend, look like they might not make it as a marriage. This blows.

 

photo by banjo d

Tuesday wrap-up

Today makes two weeks in a row I’ve lost both of my fantasy football leagues. I’m, remarkably, 4 wins and 7 losses in both leagues and I just can’t seem to get it together. To be fair, one league found me scrambling for a new quarterback when I lost Tom Brady and the other had a similar situation when Tony Romo broke his pinky. But the loss of both of those players shouldn’t have been my downfall.

And in fact, they weren’t. Nope, for me, each week (for the most part) I’ve done reasonably well. Side by side, I would have beaten about 70% of the teams in each league, just not the one I was playing. Take last night, for instance. One of my players, Buffalo’s rookie wide receiver Lee Evans, managed to catch not a single thing the entire game. Zip. That powerhouse performance clinched my seventh loss by 4 points.  The other game I lost by a whopping 2.5 points.

Color me ecstatic.

So, what is the universe trying to tell me? Is it saying I need to learn patience? A shift in priorities? Focus on the important stuff and let the small things slide?

I think it’s saying the Buffalo still stinks and not to get my hopes up. There’s always next season.

A little Sunday humor

Where do ideas like this come from?

Thoughts about election night

A great guy I work with turned me on to a blog called Dooce. I’ve added it to the Blogroll if you’d like to check it out. The author, Heather, is a wonderful writer and I laugh out loud – occasionally a real, honest guffaw – just about every time I read. Check this post out for just one of those moments.

I mention her and it because shortly after my wife and I found out we were pregnant I began writing letters to my (at the time unknown and unnamed) child. It’s been a great experience, and I’ve already started new letters for our next kiddo who’s currently, well, baking. I’ll be glad when she/he/it no longer has a tail. While I’ve been using pen and paper for my efforts, Heather writes letters to her daughter in her blog. The post I suggest you read is one such letter.

It begins with her thoughts and recollections of this year’s Halloween, but ends with election night and the hopes she has because of it. Since I’m still working on my letter to Ellie about this very thing, I found the bost both warm and poignant. Take a few moments and check it out.

Something else you might like to read is this post from the Times. It’s a bit partisan, but the central theme isn’t entirely dissimilar from Heather’s. One of the final paragraphs is below.

“The actual real America is everywhere. It is the America that has been in shell shock since the aftermath of 9/11, when our government wielded a brutal attack by terrorists as a club to ratchet up our fears, betray our deepest constitutional values, and turn Americans against one another in the name of “patriotism.” What we started to remember the morning after Election Day was what we had forgotten over the past eight years, as our abusive relationship with the Bush administration and its press enablers dragged on: That’s not who we are.”

That the article is clearly slanted left is something to shelf for the moment. For me, the message that’s important is that we now have a real opportunity to do and become something wonderful. My question is this: how are you explaining these events to your children?