The Beer Launching Fridge

I spotted this on TheNewsHole. This may very well be the single greatest invention of our time...

Kids can be evil

I just read this article about one family's horrible experience with cyberbullying. It's extremely moving and makes me dread the thought of my kids going to middle school.

What's wrong with this picture?

Someone at the Topps baseball card company had a little Photoshop fun when putting together this recent Derek Jeter card. Take note of who appears to be watching the game from the dugout and the stands...

The card is now selling for anything from $25 to $400 on eBay.

NH Bound

We had a fun weekend with old friends in NH. It was Michael who introduced Chris and I to each other over 16 years ago! Mike lived on my dorm floor the year before at Plattsburgh State and then sophomore year, I moved to another floor in the building, MacDonough Hall. So I would go up to visit him and kept seeing this funny guy Chris as I would pass through the lounge. Finally we met, became friends and the rest is history. Michael's wife Sharon is his high school sweetheart and so I knew her through Mike over the college years (She went to Marymount in Tarrytown so they loved long-distantly.) and now we are wonderful friends of our own too. They lived in Georgia and then Vermont and have finally settled in New Hampshire where they have 2 children about the same ages as ours. I got to go see Mike at the flower shop where he works and the kids got to play a lot together. We even went to church together which I thought was very grown-up of us. It's so different being together now with the kids, considering how we used to get drunk together and skip classes on sunny days. But I love that our friendship has been through so much throughout these years.
This weekend was after an extremely long week of vacation with the kids. I can officially say I am sick of my children and will be very happy tomorrow when they will both be in school for a few hours and I might actually get something done! Of course, I love them dearly and the work that goes with them, but it is very hard and I am a person that needs to recharge every so often with some alone time. So I am looking forward to tomorrow and nobody better get sick! :)

Globetrotting

I took Nolan and his pal Danny to see the Harlem Globetrotters last night.

It’s funny…Nolan really had no clue who the Globetrotters were before this.

It seems like when I was a kid the Globetrotters were on TV all the time. They were often on ABC’s “Wide World Sports,” they paid a visit to Gilligan’s Island and even had their own Saturday morning cartoons.

The likes of Meadowlark Lemon, Geese Ausby, Sweet Lou Dunbar and Curly Neal seemed to be household names (not to mention Wilt Chamberlain).

I didn’t know who any of the current players were before now, but they still put on a great show. My dad took me to see the Globetrotters in 1982. It was fun last night to see them doing some of the same bits—like the Magic Circle, the bucket of confetti and the stolen pocketbook.

Nolan may not have known who the Globetrotters were before last night, but he sure knows who they are now. He and his friend laughed almost non-stop for two hours straight.

Day 2

Today's cooking segment on the noon news was all about wedding cakes. Right now, everyone in the newsroom in raving about how delicious all the scrumptious varieties of cakes left for our eating pleasure are.

I'm sitting in my room and trying to ignore them!

40 days

It's Day 1 of Lent and I'm already being tested.

I've decided to give up eating extra food at work. I did this two years ago and it was hard. There is always something at work...someone will order a pizza for everyone, candy jars are on people's desks, somebody might bring in cookies and of course there is always the food from the cooking segments on the noon news. And I eat all of it!

Yesterday, in honor of Fat Tuesday, I pigged out on two slices from a pizza someone brought in.

But today is a new day. And sure enough, I walked in the door this morning only to be greeeted by the sight of bagels, cream cheese and doughnuts. Oh, the tempatation!

When I did this before I swear I lost at least five pounds. So I did the weigh-in this morning. I checked in at 170 lbs. We'll see how that stands on Easter.

I haven't been below 170 in years. I couldn't tell you how long it's been. But I'm optimistic. Besides giving up extra food at work for Lent (I'll still eat my lunch), we rejoined the YMCA yesterday and once the weather gets warm I'll start training for this year's Tour de Cure. So there's a good chance I could be in the 160s some day. Cross your fingers.

Mmm...new 'Simpsons Movie' trailer...

Make sure to check out the new trailer for the "The Simpsons Movie." It opens on July 27 and joins "Spider-Man 3" on my list of must-see-in-the-theater movies for 2007.

I would embed this if I could. I'm still not sure why movie studios don't want people embedding their trailers on their blogs and giving them oodles of free publicity.

UPDATE: Woohoo! I knew it would be on YouTube eventually. We'll see if it gets yanked...

Dig Dug

The kids were home with another snow day today. They spent part of their day digging through the backyard...

Snow dog

I hope you’re all surviving the “Great Blizzard of 2007.”

I wound up working from home today. I started driving to work and only got about a block away before I thought better of it. Since I have the capability to work from home, then why would I want to be out driving today?

After that I only ventured out twice to clear the driveway. But everyone else enjoyed the snow—including Chester…

From the 'Duh' file

Check out this dumb headline from KSTP in Minneapolis...

Gas may have fueled north Mpls. gas station explosion

Finally-a potential snow day!

This entire winter there has been nothing but complaints. It's too mild, or it's too cold, or there's not enough snow. Everyone is talking about the weather. I'm guilty of complaining too. And today I've heard a lot of complaints of the upcoming snow tomorrow. But I say yippee! Finally, there will be snow to play in. And I'm a little weird, but I really like to shovel. It's good exercise and a real sense of accomplishment when it's done. I see other people snow-blowing their little driveways when what ever happened to man-power? I mean woman-power. I like all the seasons, and if we're going to have a winter, then I say Let's Have It! Of course, I'm still glad not to live in Oswego.

Hey! Let's Go Bowling!

We met up with our friends the Prices today for an afternoon of bowling.

We had two lanes. One with bumpers for the kids and one without for the grown-ups.

The boys have been bowling before. But this is the first time I've ever bowled with them. So I brought along the camera and slapped together a little video...

Eeewww!!!

Following my rant yesterday about distracted driver laws, comes this story...

A truck driver in Wisconsin flipped his truck over while fiddling with his MP3 player. Interstate 43 was closed for two hours while his cargo was cleaned up.

Oh, what was that cargo you ask? Forty tons of cow intestines! Yuck!

The driver suffered non-life threatening injuries and was ticketed for inattentive driving.

Put down the Big Mac!

When New York became the first state to ban the use of hand-held cell phones while driving, I told everyone to mark my words: they’ll try to ban Big Macs in cars next.

Sure enough, Vermont lawmakers are considering a measure that would ban eating, drinking, smoking, reading, writing, personal grooming, playing an instrument, "interacting with pets or cargo," talking on a cell phone or using any other personal communication device while driving.

There are similar bills under consideration in Maryland and Texas. Connecticut already has a loosely-defined law that bans activity that could distract a driver.

Look, I comply with the cell phone law because it makes good sense to use my headset or speaker phone. I was doing that before the state told me I had to. But I thought it was silly that we needed a law for this.

However, if Vermont’s “distracted driver” legislation comes to New York (and make no mistake, it will) I will resist it whole heartedly. There is no way lawmakers should be able to tell me that I can’t take a sip from my coffee or eat a Pop Tart in my car.

Where do we draw the line? Can I change the radio station? Can I talk to a passenger in the car? Can I pass a pair of sunglasses to one of my kids behind me?

The bottom line is, you can’t legislate against stupidity (look at how state Sen. Carl Kruger became a laughing stock when he proposed banning the use of iPods, cell phones and other digital media devices while crossing the street). No matter what law you pass, there will still be plenty of fools out there doing stupid things.

RELATED NEWS: Felix Ortiz, the assemblyman behind New York's hand-held cell phone ban, is now pushing for a total cell phone ban for drivers unless they're calling 911.

Internal affairs

I'm really curious about the scoop behind the reunion of 80s rockers The Police.

They're performing on the Grammys this Sunday night and are set to announce a world tour the next morning.

They're break-up was a rather bitter one. The last time they got together was just to do a couple of songs for the guests at Sting's wedding, and they couldn't even do that without fighting with each other.

So what's changed that they'll be able to make through a world tour?

PC vs. Mac

Are you a PC user tired of being made to feel inferior by those Mac ads? Then you'll enjoy these clips. I stumbled across several, but these were the best two...

Spidey sneak

I spotted this on Ain't It Cool News this morning. Here's another sneal preview of "Spider-Man 3."

There is still no sign of Venom, but we see plenty of his alter ego, Eddie Brock, and we're give a decent sense of the storyline...

A Night at the Museum

Nolan and I spent Friday night camping in at the New York State Museum with his Cub Scout Pack.

The evening started around 6:45 with pizza for dinner. Then the museum staff had activities and guided tours for the kids all night long. We capped the night with a snack and a late night ride on the carousel.

The museum is closed to the public during all this time. We had the run of the place. After the night's activities were done, we were left to find our own corner of the museum and roll out our sleeping bags on the floor.

Sleeping on the floor actually wasn't as bad as you might expect. When we woke up in the morning the museum served us breakfast. Then we had free run of the place to ourselves again until it opened to the public (although we had left by then).

It's a great museum and we've been there many, many times before (the mastodont is Nolan's favorite). But there is something very cool about being there all night long and waking up there in the morning.

Something new I learned: the artificial mastodont and her calf are mostly made out of styrofoam. Their fur is from the Vermont Teddy Bear Facotry.

'Turn on the magical shining light!'

I'm announcing the official "Off the Top of My Head" guerrilla marketing campaign (that's supposed to be me--I had trouble doing the glasses).

I am not responsible for any panic or road closures caused by the distribution of these signs.

Make your own subversive Lite-Brite display here.

Huff & puff in the buff

Remember the "Seinfeld" episode that taught us the difference between "good naked" and "bad naked?"

The owners of a Dutch gym planning to introduce a "Naked Sundays" promotion may want to review that show. Yes, starting next month at Fitworld in the Netherlands you'll be able to get buff in the buff.

I can tell you right now, there are plenty of people I've seen at the gyms I've belonged to that I wouldn't want to see more of. And even the attractive people might not look so good while straining to lift weights (remember Jerry's girlfriend opening the peanut butter jar?).

Terror Level: Brite Blue

Was Turner Broadcasting’s guerilla marketing campaign for “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” ill conceived? Yes.

Was the terror scare that shut down part of Boston for hours a huge over reaction on the part of local, state and federal authorities? Absolutely.

I just can’t get past the point that these things were up for two weeks without anyone noticing or caring or that they didn’t raise any alarms in the other nine major cities where they were placed.

By the way, the best coverage of this oddball story has been on Lost Remote. They were the first to make the “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” connection and were the first place I saw with a link to the video of the two stoners that got arrested placing the signs around town. They’ve been all over this.

(Thanks, Pat, for the picture.)

Phone the neighbors, wake the kids

David Letterman marks 25 years in late night television tonight! It was Feb. 1, 1982 when “Late Night with David Letterman” debuted on NBC.

It all started with this word of caution from Larry “Bud” Melman:

"Good evening. Certain NBC executives feel it would be a little unkind to present this show without just a word of friendly warning. We’re about to unfold a show featuring David Letterman, a man of science who sought to create a show after his own image, without reckoning upon God… I think it will thrill you. It may shock you. It may even horrify you. So if any of you feel that you don’t care to subject your nerves to such a strain, now’s your chance just to, well, we warned you."

I’ve been a fan since the beginning. Well, almost the beginning. I remember watching Dave’s short-lived morning show on NBC back in 1980. I started watching “Late Night” a few years into its run on the rare nights I was allowed to stay up that late.

One of the first “Late Night” shows I remember seeing aired on a night my parents were hosting a holiday party (it might have been New Year’s Eve) that went into the wee early hours. I was up past 12:30 and remember seeing Dave interview Dr. Ruth Westheimer (although I had no idea what she was talking about!). By middle school, “Late Night” had been expanded to Friday nights (pushing back NBC’s “Friday Night Videos”) and I became a regular viewer on those nights.

The first guest back in 1982 was Bill Murray. He returned for Dave’s first “Late Show” on CBS will be on hand again tonight.

Here’s a timeline of Dave's achievments in late night TV. And below is the piece that was put together 10 years ago for Dave’s 15th anniversary…