Attention All my friends/family with youngins

I have stumbled across an interesting band. The LA times describes them as "the Flaming Lips of the toddler set". They are called The Sippy Cups .

Without Further Ado:

The Sippy Cups



FYI: I'm planning on getting the entire CD collection for my new niece.

"The Highest Form of Patriotism?" or Treason

"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism," it has been said. This is one of those trite phrases which nobody can quite place. Every instance of it seems to attribute it to a different author. It is useful to those for whom it reinforces what they already believe.

It is right to ask questions before entering a war. You can even decide later that we shouldn't have entered said war.

But once you start actively supporting those fighting against us, you have crossed the line to treason.

You cannot say that you are an American if you actively support those working towards our defeat.

The bottom line is that there is a time and a place for everything. Once troops have been committed to combat, there is no honorable outcome other than complete victory. Victory first - then you can yell at the people in charge.

Woe to they that hate certain elected officials more than they love their country. Go live somewhere where you are not under the protection of our brave fighting forces. See how many seconds you last.

Nice Restaurants vs. Fancy Restaurants

Full Disclosure: I have had a 12-year old Glenlivet, shared a very nice bottle of 2001 Barolo, a 30-year old Ballantine, and am now nursing an 18-year old Macallan while watching the Sabres do very well against Ottawa while my wife sits next to me on the couch. In other words, I am in a very happy place, so please excuse any grammaticical annomilalilies. But i promiss to stil spel gud.

Tonight, we had our belated Valentine's Day/Anniversary dinner. Our official anniversary of beginning our second round of dating (the night during which we discussed how long was proper to wait before announcing our engagement) is the 16th. Due to scheduling, we couldn't have an evening to ourselves until tonight. We generally go to Lombardo's for special occasions. The more well-known place of that level is Oliver's. We had each been there a few times before. We had previously been unimpressed by the food, and noticed that former mayors and other such riffraff tended to be there. We therefore generally avoided it.

Unfortunately, ES1's likely future employers gave out gift certificates at Christmastime. We found ourselves with $150 to spend there. We figured - "What they hey."

This was the first time either of us had been there in a group of 2, instead of a larger crowd. It was also a fairly slow business night. Whatever the cause, however, we were not expecting it to be as nice an evening as we had.

It started with a 5-minute conversation at the coat-check. The part-time coat-check girl, daughter of the bartender, is an old acquaintance of ES1's. We finally went in to make sure that we were actually on time.

After being seated, we were assigned the most adorably cute (re: smart and nice but very nervous) imaginable. It was at this point that I ordered the Glenlivet.

Throughout our various conversations (note to bachelors - if you never run out of stuff to talk about, even (or especially) if you can't remember any of the conversations later, you've found the right one) we talked about the general theme of "fancy" restaurants vs. "nice" restaurants, and why this place could really be considered a nice restaurant.

A nice restaurant is a place that wants you to visit - A fancy restaurant is a place that thinks you should want to visit.

A nice restaurant has good food - a fancy restaurant has food that, if your palate is 'sophisticated' enough, you can appreciate.

A nice restaurant has staff that makes you feel welcome - a fancy restaurant has staff that lets you know how lucky you are to be there.

A nice restaurant has good wine - a fancy restaurant has expensive wine.

A nice restaurant gives you more than you expect - a fancy restaurant gives you what they think you deserve.

The bottom line was that it was generally a nice experience. A nice restaurant may cost more, but they give you an enjoyable experience. It's not a place to go every week (or month), but it's definitely nice. Do we prefer Lombardo's - yes. Are there cheaper places with better food - yes. But they tried hard and did well. The woman who walked in wearing jeans looked really out of place, but was treated with the same courtesy as those actually dressed appropriately. That's what a nice place should be like.

In conclusion, let me just say one thing:

Bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong.

And if you don't understand that, be grateful.

And, yes, the 18-year old Macallan is starting to kick in.

Promising, but flawed.

So this article is about a new scanner they're testing in an airport in Phoenix. Right now, going through the scanner is voluntary because they're just testing it out. The ACLU is worried because it provides a potentially pornographic picture and they claim it amounts to being strip searched in public. The more detailed the picture of the person they get, the more contraband they can see. Concerns about that, to me, are minimal. The pictures cannot be stored in the machine and they are being viewed by someone 50 ft away in a closed room, so they're not up for public consumption.

Here's what I see as the major flaw. They use X-ray technology. That's potentially dangerous. No woman who thinks she's pregnant or is pregnant will want to walk through one. I know I wouldn't. We already advise pregnant women to not have routine x-rays to prevent exposure of the fetus to external radiation. And precicesly how do they think there going to check every woman who claims to be pregnant? I mean they're not all going to be showing. Are they going to make all women who refuse to pass through take a urine pregnancy test? That's absurd and time consuming. Also there are reports that male terrorists have dressed as women to escape. So what's to stop one from added a fake pregnancy belly to their disguise? If these questions had been brought up, the article certainly didn't mention them.

I like the idea, but to me, it seems as thought it was not fully thought out.

Old Time Hockey, Eh.

So last night's game ended in a shootout with the Sabres winning 6-5. I was at work and got to start watching the game during the second intermission. Needless to say, I was might surprised when I called Peter and got the summary of what happened before. Great hockey game.

As for the hit on Drury, I'm with Lindy on this one. It was late and it was dirty. If the NHL is serious about keeping the fights and dirty hits out they need to do something about this one. But I doubt they will. Major props to Marty for coming out of net and taking on Emery (who just got back from a three game suspension for slashing). We play Ottawa in Ottawa on Saturday. This should be interesting.

For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, see the post below this one and watch the video.

If You Ever Get the Urge to Turn off a Sabres Game - DON'T!

This'll be all over the news tomorrow.

I was very close to turning off the Sabres game earlier. We were down by 2 against Ottawa, with a metric assload of players out on injury. I figured - "if they score again, I'll switch to something else."

Then we scored.

Then we scored again.

Then we scored again.

Then the REAL fun began.

Drury received a late hit which resulted in a cut near his eye, sending him out of the game.

At the start of the next play, we started going after them - big time.

The series of fights that ensued, resulted in the ejection of a buttload of players, including both goalies. At one point Lindy nearly came to blows with Ottawa's coach, with Rob Ray standing right in the middle, with his microphone and a very uncomfortable look on his face.

It took 5 minutes for the officials to figure it out.

It took a minute and a half to finish announcing all the penalties and ejections.

Old time hockey, eh?

Contrasting Parishes

First, an apology for the lull in blogging. Things have been hectic and crazy in general.

When we started our search for a new parish, we picked a few ones to try first based on geographic location and reputation. We then decided to try them out one week at a time.

The first parish we will not name, other than to say that it was geographically the closest of our primary candidates. We went there last weekend. We had heard many great things about it. They had a great mass schedule. We once attended a wedding there. It seemed perfect.

"Seemed," unfortunately, was the operative term. We liked the fact that the 4:00 Saturday mass was packed. We liked that priest. That was about all we liked.

First off, there is no organ. There is a keyboard attached to speakers. The sound system was completely without any low-end tones (which we found amusing, considering that when our friends were married there, the bass was turned up so high that we thought a Star Destroyer was landing behind the church). The choice of music was abysmal. As ES1 described it, it was entirely hippie-dippie folk-style music. How precisely are you supposed to glorify the awesomeness of the Almighty with music that makes The Mammas and the Pappas sound like Wagner?

This may have had something to do with why nobody was singing. We heard approximately a dozen or so people singing, out of the 200 or so present. Everyone joined in the prayers, but they were not so much praying as mumbling in unison. During the sign of peace, people seemed genuinely surprised that we were actually shaking their hands.

The bottom line was that everybody there was simply going through the motions. The entire mass felt cold and lifeless. People were only there because they knew that people expected them to be there. The priest, who we liked, felt like someone with a lot of energy, who was tired of trying to drag the dead weight of people who really don't care. We couldn't get out of there fast enough.

This weekend, we went to St. Benedict's. By coincidence, it was the first mass for their new pastor. It's a gorgeous church with a real organ. It felt warm and inviting the moment we entered.

There was a real cantor. Everyone was actually singing. The prayers were so enunciated, and so in unison, that we half expected them to end with "Resistance is Futile." People acted like they actually wanted to be there!

It reminded of us a St. Rose mass in the days of Fr. Tony, before he was sent to New Orleans. We come from a parish with legitimately faithful people who live in a close knit community. With St. Benedict's, we have found another parish like that. After another mass or two, we will be officially joining the parish, and I will be sending back my St. Rose Usher pin.

Updating the Address Book

Today, I had to update my address book.

I fired up Address Book.app

I went to the entry for Niels Ulrik Gøthgen.

I selected the "Related Names" field.

In the resulting popup menu, I selected "child"

In the text box, I entered "Annalise Grace."

Done. My address book is updated to include our new niece.

That is all.























Okay, if you insist. Here are some pictures.


You're so needy.

Why I love YouTube

So we were watching episodes of the original "Who's Line is it Anyway?" on BBC America (I love my satellite dish) and one of the skits was "party quirks". It had what I am now calling my second favorite Ryan Stiles party quirk ever: having an orgasm. Only on British tv.

My absolute favorite Ryan Styles party quirk: foal being born. A brief search of YouTube located it. Pay close attention to Ryan's face when he reads his card, it's priceless.



I repeat. I love YouTube.