Food Order Wrong? Call 9-1-1

At first I thought this was funny. Now that I've thought about it, it just makes me angry.

This is a perfect example of the attitude of many Americans today: Not happy with your life? Call the government to fix it.

Be sure and listen to the audio of the 9-1-1 calls. Ridiculous.

http://www.oregonlive.com/washingtoncounty/index.ssf/2009/05/aloha_man_calls_911_over_botch.html

Gaggle

You may be aware that occasionally, on really monumental days, Google will replace their trademark, colorful logo. Most recently, they recognized Earth Day with a stylized rendering of their name. Of course Earth Day is worthy of such recognition, since it is our most important holiday.



Today, they have replaced the uber-iconic logo with Ida, the newly pronounced missing link.

In case you haven't heard, this billions-of-year-old fossil of a lemur monkey is the missing link that proves that Darwin was right.

I admit, I was a bit skeptical, especially when I heard that the 'newly revealed' missing link was actually discovered over 25 years ago (I guess the scientists just needed time to make sure that the discovery was legitimate before they announced their findings to the world). But then I came over to my favorite search engine, and low and behold, the familiar blue-red-yellow-blue-green-red logo was relaced with none other than this soon-to-be-famous dead animal!

Well, throw away your bibles and lock the church doors. Creationism is dead, along with all of the other mythology that went with it. Wah-hoo the war is over! Thanks for validating this for us Google!

Hybrid Car Review

If you like, own, or are thinking of purchasing a hybrid vehicle, you may be offended by Jeremy Clarkson's recent review of the Honda Insight.

However, if you believe that hybrid cars are but an environmental placebo that allows furry-legged women and smelly, bearded men to feel like they're doing the "green thing" and look down their collective, tree-hugging noses at the rest of us fossil-fuel-wasting Capitalists, then you may find his review humorous. I did.

HT: Between Two Worlds

The Front Fell Off

The Curse of "Are You My Mother"

I was reminded of this book this morning when I read Abraham Piper's blog post. It made me kind of nostalgic to see the book cover and got me to wondering when it was published.

I went over to Amazon to get the publish date and noticed that there were several one-star reviews of this book. I had to read them.

I mean, seriously, what's not to like about "Are You My Mother?"


Check out what this person had to say (regular text is pasted in below if the screen capture is too hard to read. ):

Here's the text of the review:

A CURSE! AN UTTER CURSE!

Many of you, "Parents", have exposed this book unto your families. Same thing with my mother. She exposed this story to me. But you know what I see in this book of evil? Scary images and ideas. Look at the dog for instance. Does he look like a "nice" dog to you? He didn't to me. He scarred the buttons of my shirt. Everytime I look at his eyes I fill with fear. But the idea of being seperated from your parents of the worst fear factor. AND in addition. NEVER EVER EVER BUY THE VIDEO THAT GOES WITH THIS BOOK! It has bizarre music that will stick in your childs minds while the sleep and haunt them. I had many nightmares about "Are You My Mother" and your kids shouldn't. NEVER BUY THIS BOOK!

"CURSE....Book of Evil....scary...fear" -- Wow. This is one scarred soul.

I have a mental picture of the reviewer. It includes long hair bound up in a hair net, and an ankle length, denim skirt (that's inside stuff for my fellow home educators).

Even more disturbing, to me, is that five other people found this review helpful.

Oh well. Don't forget the book burning at 5:00 PM tonight. Bring your Salman Rushdie and Dr. Suess!

CHICAGO

We just returned from an 8 day oddessey to Mishiwaka, Indiana, to see my brother and his family, and eventually to Chicago. We had a fantastic time. Here are some highlights:

This is my brother. He says he is not texting, but I think he is. No one really knows what he is doing. In this photo, you will see his happy, excited state. His other emotions look pretty much the same.

This is Wes and Griff swimming with Trey and Frank. They would be second cousins...no wait. First cousins, once removed. No, twice removed. No....second cousins, twice removed. I don't know. But they are family.

We had a good time at the hotel swimming pool in Mishiwaka. Nobody gave us a hard time about the 8 guests that we brought with us to swim. Way to go Hyatt Place, 5 stars for you.

After Mishiwaka to see the fam, we headed into Chicago to stay at the Drake (the conference that I had to attend later in the week for my job was held there). That's where Oprah puts up her guests so I guess they are used to seeing weird folks there. Nobody gave us too much guff, even when we hauled all of our own luggage up to our rooms. What a circus that was.

Nice hotel. No swimming pool or vending machines though ($7 for a bottle of water from the mini fridge -- are you serious? You lost a star there and one for the pool, Drake).

Monday we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. Very cool. Lots of trains, planes, and automobiles.





















A couple of exhibits seemed surreal, yet familiar.....
















After the museum, and an excellent meal at a downtown restaurant Carmine's, we went back to the hotel and managed to catch most of '24'. Dang that Tony Almeida.

On Tuesday, we went to the Shedd aquarium. Overall it was very good, but it made us realize how great our own aquarium in Jenks, Oklahoma really is.





















After a long day at the aquarium ("Hey look everyone, it's another tank with some fish in it!") we went back downtown to eat at the Rainforest Cafe. I know, that's not really native Chicago fare, but we had a good time and the food was great. We finished up with a dessert called the volcano, complete with a gen-u-ine sparkler on top. Very decadent.

We walked off some of the chocolate cake and magnesium tainted vanilla ice cream with a short jaunt to the Hard Rock Cafe. Here Griffin and Wes posed with one of Jimi's guitars.




S'cuze me while I kiss the sky....





We also visited the John Hancock building a couple of times. The first time we went up to the observatory, it was too cloudy to even see the ground. We managed to catch a break in the weather on our last morning there and got some good photos (including the one at the top of this page).
















Another highlight of the week was a trip to Wrigley Field for a Cubs game. They lost, but we had a blast (and a hotdog).


At the end of this historic day (first major league game for any of us) the kids testified that their favorite part was the ride out to the park on the subway. Go figure.

Things Kids Say, Part 3

We drive some of the neighborhood kids to church on Wednesdays, to our AWANA program.

Among the regulars are delightful twin girls, aged 7.

Recently, on the way to church, they announced that one of their dogs was overheated.

"Overheated?" My wife and I were perplexed in the front seat. It had been unseasonably hot that day -- 85 degrees in April. "Did you say that your dog got overheated?" I asked the girls.

"Yea. She's overheated, " said twin girl #1.

Twin girl #2 clarified with "We have to take her to get bread".