Happy New Year

7:45PM - Grace is in bed. We are to follow shortly.

Balsamic Blues

we went to our friends' place for a lovely Boxing day dinner where Grace discovered a new taste sensation: Balsamic Vinegar.

There was a small dish out as a dipping sauce for some asparagus & prosciutto. Grace stuck her finger in it, tasted. She now found something she liked more than Teddy Puffs. Her finger and that bowl became fast friends. We all laughed at "what a sophisticated palate Grace has." She dipped her finger well over 15-20 times.

Fast forward to leaving time. we were extremely clever as we had dressed Grace in her pajamas for the ride home so when she went to sleep in the car it would be so much easier when we got there. We also put the lovely new sweater Leslie gave her on for warmth for the walk to the car.

One step out of the house, Grace throws up everything in her stomach (which includes lunch, dinner, and a few balsamic soaked teddy puffs. First thing I notice is that she needs to learn to chew her food better).

Lesson for the evening: Give the girl a medal for not throwing up in the car.

Questions & answers

I saw this little quiz going around the internets (on blogs people actually read).

Four jobs you've had in your life: Little league umpire, shoestore stocker, Red Lobster Busboy, Substitute school teacher

Four Movies you could watch over & over: Chinatown, Local Hero, Diner, & It's a Wonderful Life

Four Places You've lived: Gainesville Florida, Auburn Alabama, London England, Brooklyn, New York

Four places you've been on vacation: Tanzania, New Zealand, The Scottish Highlands, & Lisbon

Four TV shows you love to Watch: The Daily Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, I'm Alan Partridge, & Meet the Press

Four Websites you visit daily: Letsgotribe.com (A Cleveland Indians website written by a very very smart fan), Eschaton, Talkingpointsmemo, & Hullabaloo

Four of your favorite foods: pizza, ice cream, Bobbi's Hummus, & Smokehouse almonds

Four places you'd rather be: New Zealand, Columbia County New York, Sydney Australia, & in any number of English country pubs

Four albums you can't live without: The Band (Brown Album), REM - Murmur, Randy Newman - Good Old Boys, & Big Star - Radio City (impossible to pick only one Springsteen so I decided to leave him off)

I need to be more observant

Holy Fucking Shit!

I was getting my truck inspected & oiled today & was forced to watch Fox News for aout 45 minutes.

I repeat: HOLY FUCKING SHIT:

For a story on whether Clinton & Carter illegally spied on Americans,they brought in a columnist from the Washington TIMES. Then they they interviewed 2 folks who were insanely pro management for the NY Transit strike.

The sad fact is I was in the room with 4 other people who seemed t be lapping everything up on the tube. Freaky.

2 new words

I need to be more proactive.

Grace's 2 newest words are:

Kettle (the thing to boil water for tea)
Marmite (yeast spread that all English and NO American children eat)

Grace, can you say football or peanut butter?

A Curious Phrase I Keep Hearing

Lately, whenever I am put on hold in advance of speaking with a real human, I am told:

"We are experiencing an unusually high call volume, please be patient."

Why is Taconic Telephone experiencing an unusually volume of calls that result is waits of over 20 minutes? Is it that so many people are giving the gift of residential phone service this Christmas?

Sad but true Facts Dept.

Grace is now over 17 months old. Basically she has been alive for around 525 days.

Tonight is the first night that we have ever left her in the hands of a babysitter other than one of my sisters.

To put that in perspective, each sister babysat for one night when she was a tadpole.

We have to get out more. I must say, it was really nice seeing Sarah dressed up. She smelled nice too.

BTW, the babysitter was paid $10 per hour and Grace was asleep the whole time.

Shit Scary Story in today's NY Times

I haven't seen anybody else posting about this story but I read it on the way into work today. It's about a woman from Belgium who married a muslim and became radicalized to the point of becoming a suicide bomber in Iraq last month.

This is the future face of Islamic terrorism. European women (most Euro/American men don't tend to hook up with pre-radicalized Muslim women) who are in relationships with radicalized Muslim men, eventually become radicalized themselves to the point of suicide bombing. Women like this are so much easier to get into this country. It's not exactly easy to racially profile young western European women for this sort of thing.

Take a good look. This woman is the future of terrorism. In this country.


Click here to read the entire frightening story

As if you needed another reason not to shop at Walmart

Here is a heartwarming Christmas story that should easily convince you never to darken the door of Walmart again.

Click the link.

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/12/02/Tampabay/Racial_profiling_fear.shtml