Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Random Contemplations

Sarah over at SATGS does it.

I do it on my political blog.

So I thought, why not do it on my own blog…

Actually, the reason I'm doing it is because I can't think of anything else to write about, so this seemed to be the easiest cop-out.

So here you go, "Random Contemplations" for a Tuesday

  • Goodbye Mrs. King, the world is a poorer place in your absence and you will be missed.
  • Did anyone, and I mean ANYONE, ever think an alum of ‘Dawson’s Creek’ would be nominated for an Academy Award? I sure as hell didn’t (and no, I didn’t watch the show, my wife used to)
  • How (and why) in the world did my twins’ fall back under the spell of The Wiggles?
  • How is Fox’s abysmal ‘The War at Home’ still on the air while ‘Arrested Development’ is hanging on by a thread? Can someone… anyone, explain that to me?
  • Where's all the hype for the Super Bowl? I need more hype… (it’s really hard to express sarcasm in written form, don’t ya think?)
  • How long until Disney completely ruins Pixar?
  • What exactly is a gamecock? Come to think of it, do I even wanna know?
  • What would I see if I typed ‘gamecock’ into Google image search? Do I even wanna know?


Saturday, January 28, 2006

January 28, 1986

“We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them,this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.’”

President Ronald Reagan on January 28, 1986 from the Oval Office in an Address to the Nation regarding the Shuttle Challenger disaster earlier that day.

Friday, January 27, 2006

On the Defensive

It seems that I wrote a post the other day that is causing division and strife… well, not really, but it’s getting me some ‘snarky’ comments… and nobody snarks the “Snark Master.”

(What is a ‘snark’? Click HERE to find out…)

The post I am speaking about was titled ‘Musical Embarrassment’ (it can be read in its entirety HERE)

In the post, I wrote about how I have downloaded some things onto my new iPod that, shall we say, may cause some people to be embarrassed. Now, I thought it was an innocent enough post, and in the end asked for readers to name some of their musical embarrassments.

I personally caught a lot of flack for some of the music I included in the list. Particularly Andrew Gold, Christopher Cross & Debbie Gibson. I pinpoint those three because they were the ones singled out by my ‘Blog-Amigo’s.’

So, in wanting to defend my musical honor I wanted to take this opportunity to explain some of the songs I have listed.

  • Thank You for Being a Friend” by Andrew Gold. Yes, this was the theme song to ‘The Golden Girls’, and let me say this; I couldn’t stand ‘The Golden Girls.’ HATED IT. Worst. 80’s. Show. Ever. I like the theme song though. Why? Listen to it, or even read the lyrics, and you will understand. The song is all about friendship. And let me point out (I’m not sounding the least bit defensive, am I?) that the song was released in 1978 (reaching number 25 on the Billboard Album charts) and Golden Girls premiered in 1985.
  • Arthur’s Theme” by Christopher Cross. Ok, now this was from a movie I loved. Not since his heyday with Peter Cook (click HERE to learn more about Peter Cook & Dudley Moore) has Moore been better. Funny and poignant it was a movie that delivered such classic lines as “You’re a hooker!?” or Sir John Gielgud saying “Perhaps you would like me to wash your dick for you... you little shit.” A classic film with a song that closes it perfectly. Again, like the aforementioned song by Mr. Gold, take a moment to read the lyrics and decide for yourself.
  • Debbie Gibson. Ok… truthfully, I didn’t put my DG album (why do I still call them ‘albums’?) on my iPod. Why? I listened to a couple of songs from the album (there I go again) and, unlike some of the other 80’s songs I downloaded to the iPod, this one… well, let’s just say it didn’t age well. Ms. Gibson herself? She has aged very well as she was (and still is if you saw her pics in Playboy) HOT.

I have to admit I am surprised I didn’t get derided for some of the other songs I actually listed like “I Think I Love You”, “Dancing Queen” “Twist of Fate” (remember the movie it was from – As Bart Simpson once said, ‘…it both sucks and blows.’) and “The Time Warp”.

I have approximately 3300 songs on my iPod (and still have over 37 GB of memory left - thank you Steve Jobs!) and they run the gamut of genres. You name a genre or a specific group, I am sure I have at least one song on there from them, but you can get a sense of my favorites as I have more songs from certain artists than I have from others. IE The Beatles (and many solo albums from the four of them), Wilco, Bruce Springstein, The Rolling Stones, Michael Penn and so on. Why am I telling you this? Honestly, I'm not sure. I am writing this post late Thursday night (technically Friday morning) because I can't get to sleep so I may be hallucinating a tad.

And that’s all I have to say on the matter.

And let me say this; I am not meaning this as a serious post. I am posting this as a satirical comeback to some satirical comments I received. I know I shouldn’t have to say that, but I’ve been noticing some nasty ‘anonymous’ comments on some other blogs (and I have received some of these via email) lately from people who either:

  1. Have not a single iota of intelligence in their heads.
  2. Don’t know sarcasm, satire, humor, or wit when they see it.
  3. Take everything WAY to literally.
  4. Are dumb as a box or rocks.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

A Twins-Infused Theory

Sarah over at SATGS had a few ‘commenters’ commenting on this (???) and, having some experience with it, I decided it would be a perfect post for me to write.

Imagine if you will, twins… playing quietly with one another in their playroom… no crying, no tantrums… nothing. You are at the dining room table, grading papers, you get up, go into the kitchen to get another cup of coffee. One of your daughters comes in, asks for a drink of water. You get out a cup, but she doesn’t want that cup, she wants her Dora cup… but not that Dora cup, she wants the other Dora cup.

You get the cup out, find the lid, pour some water into it, and give it to her. She drinks it up, says ‘All gone’, looks behind her, hands the cup back to you, and walks back to her playroom. You put the cup in the dishwasher (not the sink with me… no… directly into the dishwasher, I’m a little anal when it comes to dirty dishes in the kitchen, but I’m getting off the subject)

When you get back into the dining room…

Oh.

My.

God.

What am I talking about? Well, it goes by many names…

Planning
Conspiring
Plotting
Helping
Scheming
Conniving

The list is endless, but the best way to put it (especially the best way to put it to people who have younger twins, or multiples, or are expecting twins, or multiples) is “cooperating.”

When you get back into the room, the girls are playing in their playroom, but the papers you had been grading are strewn about the place, everywhere, on the floor, under the table, ‘on top of Ol’ Smokey’… EVERYWHERE. You see a trail of papers leading to the playroom… so you cautiously follow them, picking them up as you go.

You reach the playroom… and your two daughters look up at you with those adorable bright eyes… and they smile… and they say ‘Hi Daddy’…

And at that moment… you realize that you have just been played by a couple of Master Conspirators. These two put Guy Fawkes and his Gunpowder-Plot co-conspirators to shame.

These are my children, The Peanut Butter and The Jelly. Those were my papers I was grading for an Intro to Marketing class I was teaching last January (unfortunately, none of the papers disappeared, so I had to grade all of them… which is another post in itself…all I’ll say about that subject at this moment is that college kids of today can not write ONE properly constructed sentence to save their life…not one. And forget grammar and punctuation… they don’t exist in their world…but I digress as I am, once again, getting off-subject)

You think to yourself… “They couldn’t have done this on purpose could they? Yes, they were trying to get the papers earlier and you said no, but… one of them wouldn’t say they need water while the other…nah, couldn’t be.”

Yes. It could be.

This has happened before. And with their own ‘twin-language’, they could be planning it right in front of you and you and your spousal unit would have no clue.

They conspire (even if they’re not near a fire), they plot, and they scheme. They devise ways to make our lives… interesting (for lack of a better adjective)

Already, at the age of three, they conspire about telling people that they are their sister.

Or… one time, my wife and I heard them talking to each other about whose turn it would be that night to get into ‘Mom and Dad’s” bed. ‘I did it this morning, so it’s your turn tonight.’ ‘Ok, sissy.’

Another time, when they were still in their cribs, The Jelly dropped her baby doll out of the crib and as I bent over to pick it up, The Peanut Butter, speaking in their twin language, said something to The Jelly who then proceeded to drop a book onto my head. When I looked up at them, they both smiled at me., yes as soon as I turned away, they laughed.

So, take this as fair warning all you twins/multiples parents out there. This… is what you have to look forward to.

And I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Let Them Practice Kempolatry...

Mr. Big Dubya partook of this on his blog so I decided to join in on the fun… why? I have absolutely no idea…

10 interesting facts about yours truly, Kemp:

  1. Europe is the only continent that lacks Kemp.
  2. 99 percent of the pumpkins sold in the US end up as Kemp.
  3. You can tell if Kemp has been hard-boiled by spinning him. If he stands up, he is hard-boiled.
  4. The porpoise is second to Kemp as the most intelligent animal on the planet.
  5. Kempolatry is the mindless worship of Kemp!
  6. The only planet that rotates on its side is Kemp.
  7. Kemp is the male seed of a flower blossom which has been gathered and treated by bees.
  8. Kemp was invented in China in the eleventh century, but was only used for fireworks, never for weapons!
  9. The word 'samba' means 'to rub Kemp'.
  10. Pacman was originally called Kempman.

Want to find out 10 unknown facts about yourself? Click here and use the "Mechanical Contrivium" to find out.

And be sure to leave a comment on my previous post about what songs you have in your musical repertoire that you are a tad embarrassed by?

Or... leave a comment on this post... or any of my other posts... am I begging too much?

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Musical Embarrassment

Let me start this post out by saying this: ‘I love my iPod.’

My new iPod, which I received as a Christmas gift last month, has become another appendage, a cyber-attachment if you will.

Having said that, there is one thing missing… and that is a way to hide certain playlists from prying eyes.

What am I talking about? Well, there needs to be something within iTunes that would allow the user to place a password on certain playlists so they can’t be seen by others who may borrow or look at your iPod… like wives, brothers, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, etc.

Why am I brining this up?

Two words… Debbie Gibson.

I have a playlist on my iPod called ‘Guilty Pleasures’ (I know, I know, maybe I just need to change the title to something less conspicuous… and less feminine, but at the time I thought it was an ok title)

You may be asking yourself (and if you aren’t, what’s wrong with you? Get involved!) ‘Kemp, what kind of songs do you have on the Guilty Pleasures playlist… something embarrassing?’

Perhaps… but let me answer that question by first asking all of you dear, dear people who are taking the time out of your busy day to read my blog…

Don’t we all have songs on our iPod that would be cause for embarrassment should other people find them?

You know what I’m talking about. A Mariah Carey here [cringe], a Tiffany there [double cringe]… a Britney Spears here [retch], a Celine Dion there [double cringe with a retch twist]

A few weeks ago I wrote a post where I said I was going to download EVERY CD I own onto my iPod… even my Debbie Gibson CD from 1986.

I got a little… no… make that a LOT of flack for that revelation.

But it’s hardly the most embarrassing thing I have now downloaded onto my iPod.

Within this guilty pleasures playlist I have songs and artists such as…

And various other songs from such forgettable acts as Bay City Rollers, Roxette, Taco, Styx, Journey, Falco, Dexy’s Midnight Runners and, of course, the aforementioned Debbie Gibson

There isn’t anything wrong with that is there?

I think Apple needs to create a software update that would allow the user to place passwords on certain playlists. That way the user can be safe from the potential embarrassment that would occur once someone sees a song like; 'Queen of Hearts' by Juice Newton.

Now it’s YOUR turn dear readers… what songs do YOU have in your musical repertoire that you are a tad embarrassed by?

Thursday, January 19, 2006

A new meme? No, just another list...

While traipsing through the information superhighway (or, if you prefer, the ‘internets’) the other night, I decided to type something into Google to see what popped up.

What I found would shock and amaze you, and make you squirm…

I’m kidding.

I did find a handy little list that made me laugh (and we all know how much I love lists).

I’ve added my own listings to the list, changed some of the other istings in the list in order to better reflect myself and my coffee habit… No, make that my coffee inclination… That doesn’t work, how about my coffee tendency… no I have it...

My coffee dependency.

I thought about making this a meme, but decided better of it. (Best friend Scott, ChildsPlay X 2, MetroDad, Mr. Big Dubya, Becky and Sarah should all be breathing a huge sigh of relief.)

So here it is.

You Know You're Drinking Too Much Coffee When…

  • You answer the door before people knock.
  • Juan Valdez named his donkey after you. (El burro Kemp… just doesn’t sound right, does it?)
  • You ski uphill. (Impressive in itself, even more so if you consider that I don’t even know how to ski… at least not well)
  • By the end of the workday you sound like Teddy Ruxpin hooked up to a car battery.
  • By the end of the night you start to flutter around your house like a hummingbird.
  • Sleep? Who needs sleep? You get plenty of sleep when you’re dead.
  • When you sleepwalk, you speed-sleepwalk.
  • You haven't blinked since the last lunar eclipse.
  • You grind your coffee beans in your mouth.
  • You lick your coffeepot clean.
  • You tell people you’re ‘Chock Full o Nuts
  • Every vacation you have to visit ‘Blue Mountain.’ Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
  • You're been named employee of the month at the local coffeehouse and you don't even work there.
  • Even when you sleep, your eyes stay open.
  • You're so jittery that your hands can be used to blend margaritas.
  • You take cocaine as a downer.
  • You buy coffee filters by the gross
  • You've worn out the handle on your favorite mug. Now, you just drink it straight from the carafe.
  • You go to ‘group’ meetings just for the free coffee.
  • You've built a miniature city and miniature people out of little plastic stirrers… and you’re their King.
  • People get dizzy just watching you.
  • You're so wired; you can pick up satellite radio.
  • People can recharge their car batteries in your ears.
  • Instant coffee takes too damn long.
  • When someone says. “How are you?” you respond, “Good to the last drop.”
  • Your slogan is ‘Coffee is hot and delicious. As am I.’
  • You want to be cremated so you can spend the rest of eternity in a coffee can.
  • Your birthday is a national holiday in Columbia, Sumatra, Jamaica, and Hawaii.
  • Rather than pictures of your kids on your coffee mug and mouse pad at work, you have a picture of your coffee mug on your coffee mug and mouse pad.
  • You name your dogs “Sumatra” and “Kona.”
  • You keep pictures of your coffeemaker in your wallet.
  • You don't tan… you roast.
  • Your three favorite things in life are...coffee, coffee and more coffee.
  • You help your dog chase its tail.
  • You introduce your spouse as your ‘coffeemate.’

Have one of your own? Throw me a bone and leave a comment and tell me what it is.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Follow-Up to yesterday's post

Let me first say thank you to everyone who left a comment or sent me an email regarding yesterday’s post about my father-in-law’s surgery. My wife and I, and our family, thank you.

The surgery was a success as the surgeons were able to remove the entire cancerous esophagus and reconstruct it using his stomach, which is now located in his mid-section rather than his belly.

Rather than take the four/five hours they had originally said, it ended up taking a little under 10 hours due to some scar tissue left over from a previous surgery about 10 years ago. Because of that, the surgeons had to crack him open rather than do the less-invasive surgery and that is being cited as the primary reason the surgery took longer than originally planned.

He is in pain, but they have him hooked up to a pain machine so he can get morphine at the push of a button.

Again, everyone in my family would like to thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

I will be funny (such as it is) again tomorrow. I promise.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

A Simple Request...

Simple post today asking for everyone to keep someone in their thoughts and prayers.

Today, Tuesday, my father-in-law is having MAJOR surgery at the University of Chicago Hospital (also where my twins, The Peanut Butter & The Jelly, were born and lived for 2 weeks) The surgery he is having is an esophagectomy/esophagogastrectomy (exactly which one depends on what they find when they start) It’s less invasive than the previous procedures, but still dangerous. It involves the removal of his esophagus and then having his stomach stretched to replace it.

To give you a little background, about 1-½ months ago, he was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus and Barrett's Syndrome after suffering from severe acid reflux for decades.

He will be in Intensive Care for 3 days, followed by 8 days in the hospital and then an 8-week convalescence at home with a liquid-only diet for a month. The doctors have told him he will lose, at the minimum, 50 pounds.

My wife is the 2nd oldest of 5 daughters. She, sister # 4, and their mother are playing the waiting game in the hospital’s OR waiting-room anxiously and nervously waiting for the 3+ hour surgery to be complete. Sister # 3 is sitting at home with sister # 5 who is mentally and developmentally disabled and in a wheelchair. The two son-in-laws, myself and sister #2’s husband, are going to be at work, trying to imagine what the 6 of them are going through and doing what we can to ensure things run smoothly in his absence.

While at times I may complain about my in-laws, I do love them, and it is hard to see them all going through this.

So… what’s the reason behind this, wandering, poorly-written, post?

Besides to vent, is I believe that the more prayers the better, so I ask all of you to please pray for a successful & error-free surgery and a quick recovery.

Monday, January 16, 2006

Happy Birthday Dr. King

When I was in college working on my undergraduate degree I wrote a critical analysis of Dr Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech for a Psychology of Speech class. (I also did a critical analysis of Aristotle’s Rules of Rhetoric… Best. Paper. Ever.)

You can see the text of Dr. King’s glorious speech here, posted on my other blog.

Sure, I looked at other speeches; Winston Churchill’s ‘Iron Curtain’, John F. Kennedy’s “Inaugural Address”, Ronald Reagan's "Shuttle Challenger Disaster Address", Abraham Lincoln’s "Gettysburg Address", and so on and so forth.

Why did I pick this speech? Because I believe that it is, arguably, the best speech ever given… at the least, one of the best speeches ever given. Pathos, logos and ethos are all well established and used in his speech. But… I’m veering off the subject of this post.

You might me asking, Kemp… why are you bringing something up that happened almost 11 years ago? Yesterday, January 15th was Dr. King’s birthday. Happy Birthday Dr. King.

Today our country honors that man.

On a vacation to Memphis, TN one year, my wife and I went to the National Civil Rights Museum. We walked through the museum and saw the infamous hotel and hotel room that the good Reverend was staying in. We walked away from there with more knowledge than when we walked in and with amazement.

We also walked away very, very humbled.

While I know that many changes and many strides have been made since Dr. King made that stirring speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, I am also mindful of the fact that we as a nation, and as a society, have much further to go.

I ask all of you reading this blog to take a moment today and think about the man and his dreams.

We salute you Dr. King. Your memory, your life, and your dream will never die.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

National De-Lurking Week

It’s not a national holiday (yet), but it is an important holiday. My good blogging buddies ChildsPlay X 2, MetroDad, Mr. Big Dubya, Becky, and the crew over at DadCentric (among others) have posted about this on their respective blogs, so I thought I should follow suit.

This was started by Sheryl (or Cheryl – I have seen her name spelled both ways on a few different sites this week - but her site has it with an ‘s’, so I’m gonna have to go with that one as I would think she knows how to spell her own name) as a way to entice (or lure, or attract, or tempt, or inveigle or draw) people who are loyal visitors and readers, intermittent visitors, newbies, trolls, antagonists, really, everyone to come out from behind the fence and leave a comment on the blogs that they visit.

I’ve noticed over the last few weeks that my traffic has steadily been increasing… I attribute that to a couple of factors; being linked from other blogs (thanks everyone for the linkage) and, I believe, word of mouth. While my numbers may not match those of a few of the other blogs you read, my numbers are going up and I want to give all of you a great, big THANK YOU.

Now back to the task at hand. National De-Lurking Week.

As I stated above, National De-Lurking Week was started by Sheryl and is meant as a time for all of you that read our blogs but don’t comment to take the bull by the horns and leave us a comment. Tell me (and the other readers) a little about yourself, or where you hail from, or why you’re reading my blog, or what you think of the post specifically or the blog in general. It doesn’t matter, just comment. If you want to leave a comment on the state of affairs in The Federated States of Micronesia, then do it. If you would prefer to leave a comment about the current weather in Belize, then do it… it’s your choice. You don't need to have a reason to leave a comment, just leave a comment.

In fact, just for leaving a comment, (and this I am lifting directly from Matthew over at Childs Play… so thanks Matthew!) you can advertise on your blog (if you have one… who am I kidding, everyone has a blog) that you celebrated National De-Lurking Week here at Kemp’s Blog.

Or take my button... and post it to your blog.

Thanks... and enjoy.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Uh-oh...

First it hit my youngest (which is almost a moot point when talking about identical twins born within the same 60 seconds), the Jelly first, then it hit me, then my wife. We can only hope that the Peanut Butter is spared.

What am I talking about?

Stomach flu. The 24 -(give or take an extra hour or two) hour variety.

I'll be back tomorrow... I hope...

To prevent you from having withdrawals from my writing's and teaching's, read this classic post from August 27th... I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me.

My twins are getting bigger every day, and older. And as they are growing older, they can now speak in complex (for a three-year old anyway) sentences. This has given them new ways of communicating with me and with each other (though the latter was never a problem – gotta love twin language). It's interesting to hear the thoughts running through their heads that were previously unknown to us. Now, instead of just bouncing around in their head, they say it…and sometimes, what they say can be an absolute doozy. The other day, while my wife, the girls and I were in the SUV (I know, but at least it’s not a minivan), one of them said, out of the blue: ‘daddy laid a big turd.’

Ooookayyyy. Where that came from, I have no idea, but there it was…out in the open.

(Now, some of you may be asking where a three-year old learned the word ‘turd’ from. That, sad to say, is my fault. During potty training one day, after one of them had successfully ‘gone potty’ in the toilet, I told her she had laid a big turd. Before I could stop myself from saying the word – they had it memorized and it has been in both of their lexicons ever since. They never remember the words you want them to remember, but they certainly do remember the ones you don’t want them to hear, much less remember, instantaneously.)

The other day, while I was busy getting ready for work and trying to help my wife get them ready for daycare, I told one of them to please hurry up because we have to leave soon. One of them responded by saying: "Drink your coffee, daddy."

It escaped me at that time, but I then realized that I had just been ‘sassed’ and put in my place…by a three year old.

Ouch.

I’ve always been a bit of a smart-ass (people who know me that read this column are saying to themselves: A BIT???), and my wife had really been hoping that our daughters would not inherit that trait from me.

Evidently, no such luck.

They are well on their way to becoming ‘world-class smart-asses’ like their father.

Better that than a Republican.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

So you say you want a resolution...

Resolutions…

It’s an evil word, isn’t’ it?

As I’ve been hopping around reading other people’s blogs since January 1st, I’ve noticed that a lot of bloggers have been posting their resolutions for the new year…

Never one to pass up a chance to be a lemming and ‘borrow’ from other blogger’s blogs, I’ve decided to do it as well. We will ignore the fact that research has told us that the majority of people fail miserably with their resolutions, with most people even making the same resolution year after year after year… not me. I blow off new resolutions every year, none of this repetitiveness for me.

So where do I start? I have absolutely no idea.





Well, uh… let’s see… resolutions… um…





I got it!! (Don’t give it to anyone else {rimshot}) Mine will be part funny & part humorous, part serious and part satirical.

I now present to you, my dear readers, a list of my “Resolutions in honor of the New Year of 2006.”


  • A no brainer, one that is usually on everyone’s list; lose weight. Not jut for myself, but for my wife, my daughters, and my family. I want to stick around on this planet for a very long time, and in order to do that, I need to lose some weight. It won’t be easy, and it won’t be quick, but dagnabit, I’ll get it done…
  • Be a better husband & father. (And for today only, I’ll throw in being a better friend as an extra bonus. Act now to take advantage of this exciting and limited time offer!) Everyone can be better at what they do, and everyone can work to make that happen. It’s just a matter of doing it and following through. As MetroDad himself stated via DadCentric “Shouldn't we all be doing these things on a daily basis? Aren't they all part of the human experience?” Well, sure, but who has the time??
  • I resolve to be a better dresser. After Christmas, I now have two pairs of blue jeans (as opposed to the 142 pairs my daughters have… each). I have to dress-up for work (dress shirt & tie, occasional suit), so I need to buy some new dress shirts. Various colors. They way I look now, I have mostly white… hell, I look like an Old Republican at a Young Republican rally (not that there’s anything wrong with that… who am I kidding, yes there is) who isn’t that young… nor Republican. And apparently I need a pink shirt, since that is the ‘new, hip’ color.
  • I resolve to work harder at making my dreams and my wife’s dreams come true.
  • I agree with MetroDad when he says his daughter has way too many toys. So do my two. Our toy room (which used to be our enclosed sun-porch) looks like a daycare center. Therefore, I resolve to not allow people (or my wife and I) to buy them any more toys. Unless someone out there wants to buy me— (sorry I meant them) a new X-Box 360… 3 ½ years old isn’t too young for one of those, right?
  • I resolve to go to (and take my daughters, and, if she wants, my wife) to a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game in the “new” Busch Stadium. I took them to one last year so they could proudly proclaim that they attended a game at “Old” Busch Stadium. Also, I resolve to take them to their first Cardinals-Cubs game at Wrigley Field. One is never too young to get sprayed with beer and hear the assorted swear words one hears at a Cardinal-Cub game.
  • Keeping with the sports theme, I resolve to take my daughters to their first Rams football game next season. Hell, they could be on the sidelines with me since I know that I have to be a prospect as the new head coach… everyone else is so why not me?
  • I resolve to not be reading 3 or 4 books all at the same time. One at a time, like a normal person.
  • I resolve to stop annoying my blogging friends with games and memes… yeah, like that’s gonna happen.
  • I resolve to become a better player at Halo, Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Call of Duty. It may take hours and hours of game play but, damn-it, I’ll make that sacrifice and get it done!
  • I resolve to download every CD I have to my new 60 GB iPod. Even the ones I’ve had since I was 12 or 13 and haven't listened to in 20 years… like Debbie (excuse me, it’s now Deb-or-ah) Gibson… (Don’t ask, I was a "pre-teen", she was hot, and my hormones were a-raging!) Why all of them? Because you never know when you may have to ‘rock-out’ to “Only in My Dreams”... ok, now I'm REALLY starting to worry about myself...
  • I resolve to stop doing lists on my blogs. Not much chance of that, is there?
  • I resolve to try and do a better job of keeping up my number 3 blog.

That’s about all I can think of for now.

How about you, what do you resolve to do this year? Leave me a comment and let me know.

And I thought about tagging a few of my fellow bloggers with this monumental task, but seeing as how I am already being villfied by MetroDad and Mr Big Dubya for tagging them earlier, I decided against it.