The Wii is Wonderful

The events of Thanksgiving were greatly soothed because my Wii occupied the time of the under 12 set. They're totally engrossed in Wii Sports especially bowling, boxing, and baseball. As any parents will tell you, anything that keeps the kids quiet and well behaved is a good thing. It had the added benefit of giving me clout over the children which was handy at times.

Of course the side-effect is that I'm now wii-giver to them. I walked in the door yesterday and the first words out of every child's mouth was "where's your wii? Did you bring your wii?" I haven't felt so objectified since we first got the cat. I'd neglect to bring the wii tonight to teach them a lesson, but then I'd get dirty looks for their parents because they'd have to deal with their own children again.

Tough Times

Please say a prayer for John the Methodist. Recent events in his candidacy have really hit him hard and he could use any prayer support you can give him. If you read his blog regularly, don't be surprised if he takes a few weeks off to regroup.

McCain Eligible to Run for President

Even though he was born in the Panama Canal Zone, the Senate has unanimously resolved that he is a natural born citizen. Now if they could do something about all the hassle similarly born citizens get at DMVs across the country.

Amybear's dad is an Air Force vet and she was born on an airbase in Italy. Delaware somehow equates "not born in the US" to "foreign national" and made her jump through all kinds of hoops to transfer her residency and get a Delaware drivers license. Not fun for her at all.

Contest Outcomes

My household was left reeling from last night's results. No, not Clinton/Obama. The outcome of that match up was as expected, an 8-12 point win for Hillary. I mean that the Flyers beat the Capitals last night in Game 7 to clinch their NHL playoff series. That's right dear, my Flyers just knocked out your Capitals. Hope this doesn't ruin your day off.

Working in a Toxic Atmosphere

Amybear has been working at Sylvan Learning Center since we came back from our honeymoon. She does their testing and is currently the acting Director of Education at a Delaware center. It's been a rocky two years for her, mostly because of Sylvan's toxic management style.

Sylvan's curriculum and testing systems are fully developed and work well, but their attitude towards their employees stinks. The company just needs warm bodies to fill the instructor and administrative slots. Staff members are largely interchangeable provided they are trained within the existing system and curriculum. This works because there are lots people with education degrees (new graduates, part-time homemakers, etc.) they can hire to staff most open positions. Interchangeable staff also allows them to control costs and maintain profitability. That's important when you're paid by kid's parents directly and not through their tax dollars.

But, staff members are treated like gears in a machine, pushed and pulled, bent and spindled. Amy has been lied to on several occasions by management in order to manipulate her for their advantage. She changed centers because she was promised the possibility for promotion, only to have that snatched away. They've placed ads for her job and her boss's online as an incentive for them to work harder, keep quiet, and do as they're told. When staff members have had enough, they quit.

Amybear just found out that it is her turn to quit. A job interview last week paid off and she can give Sylvan her two weeks notice. Her new job will give her higher wages, more hours, and a shorter commute. She is understandably happy about this. I am understandably happy about this as well because I don't have to cheer her up after every crappy day at work anymore.

UPDATE: Amy's been gone from Sylvan for quite a while, so I'm restoring this post to its original honesty.

Subtle Hints

My wife sent me this article this morning. Perhaps I need to do more vacuuming?

Congratulations!

John the Methodist and his wife are expecting their first child in September. Please go over there and suggest a baby name or else they'll probably use a Watership Down character. Because a kid named Thlayli "Bigwig" the Methodist would have a really rough childhood.

Making the World Smaller

I just realized that my parents' house is on Google's Street View. For some reason that seems a lot more eerie than the old Terraserver picture I had of the old homestead in college. In the latter you can see the grainy outline of the house from space. In the former, both of their cars are parked in the driveway and you can see the make, model, and color.

It would be scary if the street numbering weren't all screwed up. If you actually put in my parents' address, you get pictures of our neighbor's houses instead. But nothings perfect.

UPDATE: Oh and if Street View is supposed to help you figure out where you're going, it fails miserably. Sure I can make out buildings, but it lacks the resolution to read most types of signs and I know the numbering is off. So I have no idea whether I'm actually headed to the right place.

Wars of Attrition

One of the most despicable legal tactics I know of is filing a mountain of motions in order to bankrupt your opponent. This is what has befallen Melody Byrne in her fight to retain custody of her children from her abusive ex-husband. Now she and her current husband Chris are out of money and need it in a hurry.

I wish they had come forward two weeks ago, I could have written them a generous check. Instead my church received it before the end of last year. Until I receive my next paycheck, anything I can give them will be limited. If you don't have this problem, please hit their tip jar with whatever you can spare.

This tactic is reprehensible and there should be work put into drafting laws to prevent it. Of course most of our politicians are lawyers or are financed by lawyers, so I don't see that happening any time soon.

UPDATE: I fixed the link to Melody's post. It's amazing what an extra set of quotation marks can do.

Is He Living in My House?

Amybear and I have been playing Fairyland together recently. Mostly this was because I don't want her characters to get 'married' to other characters (and therefore other people) in game. I'm strangely possessive of my wife that way. When we play together we are in different rooms and different floors of the house because of the computer locations. We end up text messaging each other like we still live half a continent away from each other. It's odd really. I can't wait for the writers strike to be over so we can go back to prostrating ourselves before the one-eyed God in the same room. To whatever she wants to watch of course.

Dishing the Dog Dirt

Scott Adams tells an amusing story about taking his in-laws dog for a walk without out adequate preparation for poop retrieval:

Later, when my in-laws returned, I told the story. Larry, a laid-back gentleman from Arkansas, turned to his wife Cheryl and drawled “Mollie double-bagged him.” Let me tell you, the only thing that could have made my experience worse was finding out my in-laws have a name for it.

My last family dog was a border collie mix named Rocky. Rocky had the uncanny ability to poop exactly halfway through his walk around the neighborhood. This coupled with his ability to poop one more time than you had bags meant you would have to walk the entire route again to pick up after him. This tendency explained why my Dad lost a fair bit a weight while the dog was still alive.

It struck me that this is a pretty amazing dog ability. After all, he doesn't really know where he's going or how far the walk will be when you set out. Yet he could still poop halfway through it. Maybe he could read your body language or something. Perhaps it was tied to the find-his-way-home sense that dogs supposedly have. I'm willing to bet that the dog who traveled across 9 states to get home did a lot of pooping in state number 5.

Rocky's other super ability was Twinkie detection, but this is understandable for a canine of his girth. Imagine this: you're inside the kitchen. All the house's doors and windows are shut. The dog is in the backyard on his doggie run. You crinkle a Twinkie wrapper and he turns and stares at you with his big Twinkie-lusting puppy dog eyes. And he could do it every time.

The cat doesn't seem to have any potty-related skills other than being naturally neat. I'm thankful for this as my aunt's cats do more crapping around their litter boxes than actually in them. And Milo can open bathroom doors. It's kind of funny that my wife yells at me for looking at the cat while he's in his box, but this very same cat regularly barges in on her whenever she uses the bathroom.

Flip Flops

Flip flops are bad for your feet. I am now going to do something which will make every married man reading this cringe... See dear, I told you so.

I can't wear flip flops because I supinate. That extra bit of foot rotation means I'm constantly losing one or walking on the edge of the sandal. So I generally wear shoes that give me good support or I just wear full sandals.

I have to wonder if a lot of these problems are coming from people wearing cheap flippies that are just layer of foam with a thong through it. I can't see those being good for you. Amybear's favorite flip flops are from Under Armour. These actually have some arch support and a surface texture that should keep them from getting slippery. Hopefully they're less of a problem.

Handy Men

Instapundit and the Wall Street Journal are discussing men's abilities around the house.

Around the apartment I did some simple plumbing. I fixed the sink after the disposal didn't dispose properly. I replaced the flappers in several toilets so they would actually stop running. Now that Amy and I have moved into the house, I'm finding myself drawn toward further acts of handiness. I think it is part of home ownership because I'm building up my residence. So far I've put up some blinds, but I'll soon be working on getting hot-water to our guest bathroom tub properly. After that, hmmm, perhaps putting up a ceiling fan in the master bedroom. But I'm going to have to do wiring for that, I'm not really a big fan of wiring.

Oh and women can be handy too. In Amy's case, she handles almost all of the administrative responsibilities of our happy home. I pay the bills and fix the plumbing, but she's the one who sets up all the services and appointments. And I stay out of her way because she does it very well.

Mini Manifest Destiny

Amy and I spent yesterday at our new house cleaning things up with the aid of my parents. What better way to celebrate the 4th than by subduing your own land with the help of kinfolk?

Thanks to my parents' carpet deep-cleaner and some detail work by Amy and my Mom, the carpets don't look half bad. The Tide spinbrush works very well for getting out carpet stains, which is odd because I've never found it to be especially effective on clothes. All the cleaning moved carpet replacement from our requirements column into our wants column. Which is great because there are more important things I really want fixed.

My mom lined all the shelves and drawers in our kitchen and bathrooms so it's time to start moving relevant household items into those spaces. Tomorrow I'm going to be spending a lot of time grabbing boxes and packing so we can do that.

Frankly after cleaning things up and making a few necessary changes the house is starting to feel more like home to us. That's a good thing since we'll be living there at the end of this month.

Oh and my Dad went to work mowing my lawn at one point this week. That little turnabout was almost worth the price of the house.

Happy Anniversary to Me

Amybear and I were married one year ago today. One year down, many more to go...

I must say that getting married on Memorial Day has its advantages. Not only is it difficult to forget that your anniversary is coming, but we're probably going to get have the day off about half the time.

The Manly Cat

I must admit that when Amy and I first got Milo, I wasn't too sure about this whole cat owner deal. My family went through three dogs growing up and I had all ways been a dog person. Cats just seemed girlie to me.

Milo has done a lot to change my mind. There is something that is just cool about cats. Mostly I think it has to do with their killer instincts. Living with a cat is like living with the sniper of the animal kingdom. Milo was great when we had crickets last year. He'd just wait outside of that little crevice they were chirping from. Then he'd pounce on them repeatedly or bite them in half. Thankfully he didn't eat them and then barf them back up.

With dogs, you play very contrived games like fetch or tug or whatever. They're like your sloppy, slobbery buddy. Despite a working relationship with humans for millenia, cats show a blessed lack of this form of domestication. Sure Milo wants his belly rubbed or some good scratchings, but all the games I play with Milo are just variants on Kill It. What is that flittering bird-like thing? Orange furball must kill it! Is that a mouse? Feline fist of death! A big bug? I will Stalk It. Closer. Closer. Yes. Yes. Now kill it!

And that literary device about catlike reflexes? Really true. I've thrown something across the room only to have Milo streak out of dark recesses of my apartment and intercept it before it hit the ground. He's like Milo Cat, the Ginger Jedi.

All in all, Milo has proven the value and coolness of his entire species to me. Especially since his automatic feeder has now gotten him through the stage where he wakes me up at 5am every morning.

TIAs

My grandmother left the hospital on Saturday afternoon and there was much rejoicing. She is under doctor's orders to stay at my parents place in Pennsylvania for at least a month. My grandfather is decidedly unhappy about all of this. He's 90 and is "set in his ways" to put it mildly. He didn't want to come to my parents house. He is comfortable at his home (in Connecticut) and not particularly comfortable at my parents place. Among other things my parent's split-level requires him to climb stairs to get anywhere.

The doctor is classifying my grandmother's stroke as a Transient Ischemic Attack or TIA. This means that she should make a full recovery but she is at heightened risk for further TIAs and strokes. She's on medication and has orders to take it easy for a while.

Cutest Cat

The News Journal has their cutest cat poll back up so vote for Milo. Again. And this time it will count.

Mortality

One of my ex-coworkers died Wednesday after a brief hospital stay. Jack was a colorful character and one of the few people at work who was louder and more opinionated than I am. He put up with a me a lot considering I was the young whippersnapper and he was the old codger. He retired around a year ago after repeated health problems like gout and a recurrence of cancer. I'll miss him more and pray for his family.

In more personal news, my grandmother had a minor stroke yesterday. She and my grandfather didn't want to bother anyone, so they didn't mention it until my mother came home from work. While being mild-mannered is a virtue, not when time is of the essence. Fortunately she seems to have made a strong recovery and has most of her speech and motor control back on her right side. Any prayers you can offer for her would be most welcome.

Voter Fraud in the Cat Contest

It seems that the News Journal's Cutest Cat Contest has been called off for the time being due to suspected voter fraud. They are going to revamp the voting system for the kitten contest coming up and then they'll rerun the cats the next week.