Jude's Graduation

Wednesday night was Jude's graduation from pre-school. Kerrigan was so proud of her big brother...

Hulk Art

Hulk Art

Samuel Langhorne Clemens

"It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."

- Mark Twain

Daddy & Moo Moo

got diastema?

As all of you know, I have always had a gap in my top teeth. Whether my folks couldn't afford braces or if mom just liked the way it looked, I don't know, but it was never fixed, and it has always been a slight point of insecurity for me. Anyway, the other day I was listening to one of my favorite radio shows, This American Life on NPR, and there was a guy, Noel Franus, being interviewed that has a website geared specifically toward diastematics (gappers). He even accidentally started a national stir when he half-jokingly held an on-line protest back in '96 when a stamp of Vince Lombardi was to be released but the artwork left Vince quite gap-less. Here is the story:

In late 1996, the US Postal Service issued the art proposed for a Vince Lombardi stamp. Strangely, Noel Franus noticed the gap-toothed coach of the Green Bay Packers had a diastema-free smile in the art.

Amused and outraged at the gall of it, Franus organized an online protest, which in turn was widely reported by major media (it didn't hurt that the Packers were going to the Superbowl that year). Turns out that as a result of the uproar, the stamp program had to defend the charges of altering an image to the Postal Board of Governors. Meanwhile, the artist who rendered the Lombardi art was claiming professional defamation.

Franus, more of a goof than a hothead, saw that the fallout of his protest had gotten out of control. He called the artist to apologize, dropped the protest and the stamp was published in all its artificially gapless glory.

Funny stuff. Anyway, after the interview, I went online to find this website and in my search came across a community of fellow gappers at Love That Diastema! on tribe.net.

I may still be a bit insecure about it, but just not enough to get it fixed.

Always, the Gappa'

At the park

We all went to a small fastival at the park a few days ago. The kids had a great time!

Rainbows Rule

This was a great moment!

This afternoon, there was a great rain shower. Jude, Kerrigan and I sat out on the front porch and watched the rain come down. When it was done, we went inside and played. A short time later, Jude looked out the window and shouted for us to come look. This picture does not do it justice, but it was the biggest, fullest and richest rainbow I'd personal ever seen. It stretched accross the horizon in a full arch. If I had a decent camera, I may have captured a bit more of it's true beauty. Anyway, we played outside and looked at the rainbow till it disappeared, Jude thanked God for giving us such a beautiful rainbow and then we trekked back inside. If you look carefully, you can barely see a second rainbow just to the left of the arch. Very, very beautiful!

Taylor vs. Mailbox

This is my nephew, Taylor.
My brother's family came to visit this week from Charlotte and we had a blast!! This particular photo was a classic moment. Taylor, Dave and myself were playing catch with a nerf football from our backyard, over our house to across the street. Needless to say, this one ended badly. Luckily, Taylor didn't uproot any of the neighbors flowers... oh yeah, he was okay, too. You can even see the nerf in the yard behind him...

Jump the Shark - Music Style

Jump the Shark, or in this case, Jump the Stage.

In the spirit of the great website Jump the Shark.com, I wanted to start something new. Well, not really new... I've since seen it on Wikipedia. Anyway, I wanted to put a couple thoughts of my own on this site, since no one really reads it anyway.

First, Jump the Shark is a site that has an extraordinary deep list of TV shows and people vote as to when it started to turn south. In case you didn't know, 'jumping the shark' is a reference to when Fonzie (uh, from Happy Days) jumps a shark while on water skis, signifying a memorable moment when the show turned for the worse. Most TV shows have one or several (sometimes NONE) of these such moments that define the collapse of the show.

My thought is that the same is true for a lot of bands. Here's a short list of possibilities:

Metallica: 1) When Cliff Burton died, 2) When they released their first video, 3) When the Black album came out, 3) When they cut their hair, 4) When Jason Newsted left, 5) Never jumped.

Van Halen: 1) Jump, 2) When David Lee Roth left, 3) When Sammy Hagar came aboard, 4) When Eddie cut his hair, 5) When Sammy Hagar left.

U2: 1) Rattle & Hum, 2) Impossible to live up to expectations after Joshua Tree, 3) Never jumped.

Bob Dylan: 1) Full band, 2) Saved, 3) Traveling Wilbury's, 4) Never jumped.

Kiss: 1) Beth, 2) Peter Criss leaves, 3) Make-up comes off, 4) Make-up back on.

That's just a few off the top of my head. I hope to slowly put together a better list. Please vote or add your own thoughts. I'll try to keep adding them here.

Final thought: The Beatles never jumped.

Happy, uh, Cinco De Mayo

"We need to hire people who speak Hispanish because Hispanic is an important language."

- Maryland lieutenant governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, when running for governor

Wallace & Gromit

One reason for this post is because I know Jude and Kerrigan will love it.

Without a doubt the 'in' thing right now with them is Wallace & Gromit.

Thanks to Wallace & Gromit, my children:


* can say the word 'Wensleydale', and know that it's cheese.
* know what 'porridge' is.
* know what 'trousers' are.
* think robots can dream and ski.
* can sing the entire theme song over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again...

... and I still love it.