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Taken while waiting in the Target parking lot:

Baby Teeth

Yesterday the boy lost another tooth.





He doesn't hand anything over - the teeth just vanish.
Therefore there have been no tooth fairy visits yet.



After his bath he wore his favorite Spider man towel
and we sang the song we love to sing:

The Broken Lands (Review)

I actually finished this book several months ago.
The Broken Lands is a fictionalized account of what may have happened to the members of the doomed Arctic Expedition of Sir John Franklin. All in all it was an interesting book, if you are the type of person who likes the History channel or PBS documentaries.

Some may find the book to move intolerably slow
(I myself utilized it as a bedtime read and as such it took several months to digest) however there can be little doubt that the author Robert Edric did his research when writing this book. He provides excellent descriptions of the two ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror, as well as detailed descriptions of daily life and duty of crewmen on board 19th century British naval vessels.

Told in story form, it was necessary to not only advance the storyline through speculation but ultimately it was also necessary to develop the characters in a similar fashion, attributing sometimes less than auspicious personality traits to the names of men who no doubt retain traceable and living descendants to this day. That is to say that in order for Edric to advance the story, he was forced to speculate on the consequences of decisions that (may or may not) were made by officers who experienced varying levels of breakdown as isolation, starvation and the elements took their toll upon both the leadership and the crew.

Personally I was able to suspend my disbelief and indulge in Edric's speculations. In spite of what I wrote above and given that I am not a descendant of any of these men with the honor of an ancestor to protect, the speculations presented in the book regarding the fate of the crew seemed entirely plausible.

In the end it is an attempt to tell the tale of dead men.
And as we know, dead men tell no tales.

Hillary Clinton: The Early Years

It's pretty pathetic that I am not coming up with my own material these days but I thought this was funny enough to share with my three readers:

New Looks

Gypped again

Today was supposed to be the day that we had the ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby. The same doctor who looked us in the eye and told us that a month ago blinked at us through his glasses today and said "What...? I said that? No, it's not for another two to four weeks."

I was away from the office for two and a half hours all said and done, which means that minus my lunch hour I am sitting in the office until 6:30 tonight because of that stupid rinky dink.

My brother-in-law Dale is having a quadruple bypass surgery today. Please add him to your prayers.

Bye-Bye, Bo

Ellas McDaniel, aka Bo Diddley
December 30, 1928 - June 2, 2008

I had a chance to see Bo Diddley play at the Columbia Arena in Fridley (of all places) back in 1987. It was some sort of back to the 50's show with a bunch of other legends most of whom I cannot recall. Freddie Cannon and the Coasters and some others. Really all I was there for was to see Bo. All of the performers were backed by the Rockin Hollywoods. The show was general admission with cheapie seats up in the stands and the premo spots down on the main floor.

Bo was the last artist to perform. A lot of the people left after "their" artist was finished, so it was during the confusion between sets I was able to sneak my way down to the main floor and get up close to the stage. I cannot tell you how many people ended up seeing that show, because once Diddley took the stage I never looked behind me. What I do know is that the dude played his heart out for us - It was all the Hollywoods to do to keep up with him. By the end of the set their clothes were soaked through with sweat.

I was less than 10 feet from the guy and we made eye contact many times while he played. I can only imagine what he must of thought of me, some long-haired teenager, dancing unrestrained to his music in front of all those forty-something classic car owners.

You hear a lot about performers who play their best, even when it is to an empty room. I have never forgotten how this Rock & Roll hall of famer played such a big show, even in a half-empty hockey rink. Easily the best show I have ever seen.

Bo Diddley was the real deal.