Yuki vs. Balloons

We threw a surprise birthday party for Erin's Dad at our house. Afterwards, Yuki helped us dispose of some of the decorative balloons!

On Space Managment

As the Winter snows begin to fall, I stand baffled at one of our neighbor's apparent decision to leave their Toro lawn mower outside in the driveway. I have had opportunity to see inside this large three-car garage, so I can tell you why the Toro is collecting snow. It's because there is no room left! That's right. This massive garage is so full of junk that only one car will fit, and there is no space left over for a mower. Incredible. It's a daily reminder to me to declutter!

Lowering The Bird!

Drinking With The Smurfs

Like a blast from our cartoon watching past, Erin recently unboxed a lot of classic Smurf drinking glasses and filled our cabinets with them. These are the kind of "collectible" glasses fast food joints like Burger King used to offer. If you envy these smurfy drinkers, you probably won't have to wait long before you can get your own. That's because the Smurf 3D movie is currently in production. The latest rumors claim it'll be in theaters in 2010. You can bet a flood of new Smurf merchandise will follow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dreams of a "Drummer Boy" Free Christmas Shattered Early

This year I aspired to be like Dad and have a Little Drummer Boy free Christmas. It is getting much harder to do as more and more artists keep recording the song.

A casual search on iTunes turns up 150 versions!!! Here's a small sampling.

Here's how it went down - during breakfast this morning Steph, Jack and I thought we'd get a jumpstart on our holiday mood and put in the new Josh Groban Christmas album which I had picked up for her a few weeks earlier.


Track 1 turned out to be Silent Night - which didn't seem appropriate for Thanksgiving morning so we casually flipped to the next track... that's right - it was The Little Drummer Boy and my dream was shattered.

It gets worse though. We dutifully listened to the drummer boy while enjoying Kellog's new Blueberry mini-wheats (which we all like by the way - even Jack!)


The next song on Groban's album was I'll be Home for Christmas and this is one of the worst Christmas songs I've heard ever. It features those radio/TV clips of soldiers/loved ones talking about missing Christmas back home. It just didn't work. Thankfully - even Steph agreed and we pulled the plug on Groban about half way through the song.

We substituted the Jesus and Mary Chain and it was much improved breakfast and kick-off to our Thanksgving morning.



Happy Thanksgiving!

Georgia Tech - Univ. of Georgia Week

In recent years Tech fans have had to take solice in the fact that Tech is a much better school academically if not on the football field. Hopefully this is the year we'll be superior on the field as well!

If not - we've always got this...

Holiday Prep

It's nearly turkey time. That means at least one trip to the grocery store a day (2 if your name happens to be Rick DeBruyn). We got a jump start on things by making a few trips this week-end.

Here's Jack just after his Santa pictures. Too bad he wasn't nearly this happy in Santa's lap.



Jack remains busier than ever. Add that to the fact that he's learned how to climb and we've got to keep an eye on him at all times. Here's some evidence...



On the hearth and in the table...



He's now at the age where he is a blast to play with and we have as much fun as he does!

Bowl Projections - 2008

Many of our teams will be going bowling this year with Michigan and Arkansas being the big exceptions.

The biggest surprise is that Arkansas State is getting mentioned! Projecting to the Papa Johns bowl against Pittsburgh. The still have to get bowl eligible by beating the best team in the conference Troy though.

Tech's big win has them aiming towards the old Peach Bowl (Chick-Fil-A) though who knows - things still very much open with lots of the ACC teams.

Nebraska projected to the Gator which could lead to a match-up against Georgia Tech as well if it comes to fruition. KU is floating around too.

Michigan State - for the blog readers up North is looking like a New Years team as well - maybe in the Outback :)

Should be a fun month.

Baby's Tantrum

This was after waking up at 5am to go have ear tubes inserted so he was a tired, somewhat grouchy baby :)

Lincoln Named Healthiest CIty

According to new data released from the CDC, Lincoln, NE is the healthiest city in the USA. Huntington, West Virginia is the least healthy. It's good news to know the city I live in is healthy, but can someone explain why I've had a nasty cold for like a whole month? Here's a link to the article. As you'll see if you read it, the data collecting methods are somewhat suspect.

Here's a list of the top 10 healthiest cities according to the article.
Healthiest Cities:

1. Lincoln, NE Metropolitan Statistical Area
2. Fargo, ND-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area
3. Boulder, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area
4. Burlington-South Burlington, VT Metropolitan Statistical Area
5. Ogden-Clearfield, UT Metropolitan Statistical Area
6. Provo-Orem, UT Metropolitan Statistical Area
7. Concord, NH Micropolitan Statistical Area
8. Sioux Falls, SD Metropolitan Statistical Area
9. Barre, VT Micropolitan Statistical Area
10. Cambridge-Newton-Framingham, MA Metropolitan Division

Lordi Proves Rock Still Lives!

The new album from Lordi, "Deadache", hit the streets a few weeks ago, and it's great! If you ever liked 80's metal, then you owe it to yourself to check out Lordi. Kind of like a modern day "Kiss" since they're always dressed in monster suits, Lordi cranks out melodic and catchy metal tunes that really stand out when compared to the bland rock and roll noise that passes for popular rock these days. Plus, the new album is only $7.99 on iTunes. A steal!

We only got 4 minutes to save the world - Madonna Stick & Sweet Tour Concert Summary

Steph got me a ticket to see Madonna with some friends for Father's Day earlier this Summer and she finally made her way to the Bay Area earlier this month on her Sticky & Sweet Tour.




With tickets going for $350, plus that famous sizable Ticketmaster service charge and $20 to park you need to be a big Madonna fan to attend.

Here's a low grade "phone" video I shot of Miles Away.


Here's the setlist - which is standard across all her shows on the tour.


'Intro/Candy Shop'
'Beat Goes On'
'Human Nature'
'Vogue'
Video Interlude
'Into The Groove'
'Heartbeat'
'Borderline'
'She's Not Me'
'Music'
Video Interlude
'Devil Wouldn't Recognise You'
'Spanish Lesson'
'Miles Away'
'La Isla Bonita/Lela Pala Tute'
Romanian folk interlude
'You Must Love Me'
Video Interlude
'4 Minutes'
'Like A Prayer'
'Ray Of Light'
'Hung Up'
'Give It To Me'


And here are some pictures taken by my friend Gilbert and his wife who had a higher quality camera available.

Jonesboro Featured in National Ad

I was watching a football game on FSN recently when a Shelter Insurance advertisement came on. The spot featured dogs riding in cars (presumably covered with Shelter auto insurance) in various cities around the USA. I did a double take and rewound the Tivo when I noticed the pictured hound getting a ride in Jonesboro. Fancy that. I think the ad would have been better if it featured Dad's Miata and Jake.

Welcome to Arkansas

Arkansas gets no respect! It's the Rodney Dangerfield of states!

Diet Pepsi NFL Kickoff Flavor

Pepsi has launched a new limited edition flavor called "NFL Kickoff". I drank one down expecting the cola to have a hint of pigskin or an aftertaste of freshly mowed grass. Turns out "NFL Kickoff" flavor is just a clever way for Pepsi to re-release their failed lemon flavor. You'll remember that lemon flavored cola was briefly all the rage, until lime flavored cola came along and blew it out of the water.

The Presidential Vote

Deciding who to vote for in the presidential election was a difficult choice. No, I wasn't anywhere close to voting for McCain and Palin the dummy. The real choice was between Barack Obama and Chuck "Chuckles" Baldwin of the Nebraska Party. As you can see, I ended up selecting Obama, although based on Nebraska's statewide election results, I'm pretty sure the computers counted my Obama vote as a McCain vote.

Active MSNBC Election Widget

History in the Making?

Tomorrow is election day - or today if you are reading in the Central or Eastern timezones. Here's a widget you can download to monitor things tomorrow if you are so inclined.



We seem to not let this blog get too political so will let the dogs do most of the talking.



Regardless of the outcome it will be nice to send Bush off to finally go look for those weapons of mass destruction. Go-bama!

Breyers Ice Cream...Don't be so sure...

I've always regarded Breyers as a producer of quality ice creams. Their website certainly doesn't go out of its way to mention they also slip in "frozen dairy desert" on occasion and we recently made the mistake of purchasing such a product.



It's a good bet that the peanut butter cups mixed in to this dairy product are not made of chocolate but rather a palm oil derivative.

Don't make the assumption that the Breyer's name represents top quality ice cream like I did.

Jack In a Box

Here's Mom and her little bear cub!



and Jack looks from above