Dad & Daughter Dance

Last night Courtney and I went to the Girl Scout Dad and Daughter dance. The theme was 50's to 80's and everyone was encouraged to dress up.

Being a child of the 80's I knew the style I wanted, I just didn't have the clothes! I couldn't find any suit jackets that were white or pink. Nor could I find my old boat shoes (must have left them at a fight?).

So I settled for a pink izod shirt, over a white izod shirt, black chino's and shoes. Unfortunately I don't have white high tops any more. I also couldn't find my skinny black tie. I'm sure Deb has hidden all of these things.

Courtney had a very nice dress that would have fit into the 80s. Except she wouldn't let Deb 'poof' her hair. She did look very cute.

We first went to dinner at Chili's then to the dance. She and I danced to a lot of songs including some from the 50's 60's and 70's. (They didn't do a lot of 80's music.) We also did the Chicken Dance and the 'stomp' thing they do in school (The one where you 'slide to the right')

Most of the girls were dressed up and a bunch of the Dads. One was Steve Perry, there were lots of hippies, a couple of skinny tie'd and lots of 50's greasers.

I don't know which was funnier: Courtney's look during 'play that funky music white boy' or 'Shout' (Animal House) where we were on the floor.

After the dance she was of course hungry, so we had to get desert. On the way I was clicking through the radio stations and Aqualung by Jethro Tull came on. I started singing and, in an attitude only an 11 year old can pull off, she said 'Um okay Dad. Are we there yet?'

Misguided 'environmental' idea and the next round of stimulus welfare

Our friends in Congress are again trying to use the economy problems that they created to push their environmentalist agenda. While I support helping the environment, dumping my tax dollars into a poorly thought out, ripe for fraud plan is unacceptable.

I'm talking about the 'cash for clunkers' plan that the Senate Democrats are trying to stick into the next round of welfare, I mean stimulus plan.

Basically, if you turn in a junker car, which doesn't necessarily have to be running, Congress will give you thousands towards a new car. California tried this in the 90s and it failed, so why does Congress think it will work now?

If you agree that there are better ways of stimulating the economy, without the fraud found when California tried this, please write your Senator and Speaker Pelosi.

From SEMA, some points on what to say in your message.

Dear Speaker Pelosi

I am writing to urge lawmakers not to include a "Cash for Clunkers" provision in the economic stimulus bill. Owners who turn in vehicles for crushing would receive a "minimal" payment to purchase a new car. This is a misguided attempt to spur car sales and claim that the country's air quality or fleet fuel mileage is being improved.

* "Cash for Clunkers" programs threaten enthusiasts nationwide with the loss of valuable parts and parts-cars for repair, restoration, and customization projects. The programs also risk destroying classic, historic and special-interest vehicles, our American heritage.

* Cars turned in for scrappage often barely run, or are rarely-driven second or third vehicles that have a minimal impact on overall fuel economy or emissions.

* "Cash for Clunkers" programs will reduce the availability of affordable transportation and repair parts used by low-income drivers. It will also compete with the Salvation Army, the Purple Heart and other charities that rely on vehicle donations to raise money.

* "Cash for Clunkers" ignores better policy options. If Congress wants to act, support for repair and upgrade is a better choice and a win-win for consumers, dealers, manufacturers and repair shops. Significant emissions and fuel economy improvements can be achieved in older vehicles through relatively simple and inexpensive means: repaired/replaced exhaust systems, tune-ups, etc.

* I hope I can count on you to reject "Cash for Clunkers." Thank you for your consideration on this very important matter.

Blackjack II battery

I was finally able to get Deb her Christmas present last weekend, and instead of an iPhone I bought her a Blackjack II. It fit her needs better than the iPhone. Plus it was a lot less ;-)

One issue though: the battery lasted less than 12 hours. Not good for a mom on the run chasing a Toddler, a Tweener and a Teenager.

I looked around and found the problem on an obscure site. The issue was the 'beam' feature of the phone was sucking lots of battery power. This is the feature that allows someone to 'beam' you their contacts from their phone. Since Deb stopped going to bars without me, she doesn't need that any more.

Turning it off and she has had a full charge for the last 3 days. Cool.

Courtney is 11!

Courtney's 11th birthday was yesterday. More pictures on the Flickr site.

I don't know where they get the idea of messing with the cake.


She is a serious shoe girl. She got 2 pairs of boots.

Silver lining on being older?

So, I'm 40 now. Even though I don't act it much. Today I had a reminder why it is good to be older.

While putting gas in the mini-van (No, having a mini-van isn't a good part of being older. stop it) it started raining pretty hard. I just put in the credit card, filled up and looked around. I don't care it was raining, the pumps were under a roof.

A young man, late teens probably, got out of his car and ran into the store, getting soaked in the process, to pay cash for his gas. Then ran back out. I'm still dry watching him.

I remember being that kid running into the gas station because I didn't have a credit card. So chalk one up for a good credit rating ;-)

I remember my Dad always used to say something along the lines of 'old age, experience and trickery will out smart youth and energy'. I guess I'm starting to understand what he used to mean.

Yeah, when I was I kid we had to go on the roof to move the antenna to watch TV!

With all the talk about over the air digital TV I had some strange memories of watching TV via an antenna as a kid today.

First, I remember my dad going to radio shack to buy one of these on the roof antennas. But not just any antenna, one that had a motor on it. I don't remember exactly why we did this, but I suspect it was because we needed to watch the Giants.

Next I had to help my dad put it on the roof, attached to the fireplace. And not fall off.

Then run the cable, probably 1" wide, down the side of the house, in the window and to the TV. For those who remember my parent's house this is why we had those metal spikes in the side of the house until they got cable ;-)

We also had to run a ground wire. I remember Patrick joking about the ground wire for some reason, pretending to be electrocuted.

Anyway, this thing was the balls for the 1970s. When you turned on the TV, you could move the dial that went 359 degrees around and it would move the antenna the same degrees. So you'd start with the TV on the football game you wanted to watch, then turn the knob until the picture got good then turn it back when it went bad. I remember fighting over which position was 'best' for a particular channel.

In those days we had maybe 8 channels? NBC, CBS, ABC out of New York, CBS out of Hartford, Fox 5 (the original!) out of New York, PBS out of New York and Channels 9 and 11 (Mets and Yankees respectively). None of this 600 channels with nothing on. We had 8 channels with nothing on!

Anyway, as more people are trying to get HDTV over the airwaves I have to wonder if these antennas are coming back.

yeah, that was pretty random.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Wow, this has been a crazy month. I don't know if it was the 30 posts/30 days thing last month or just all the Christmas planning, but I haven't had a chance to blog in a while.

So some updates:

No iPhone yet. Still need to wait to get Deb her Christmas present

I helped with the 'holiday breakfast' for Courtney's school. Pretty fun, but I wouldn't want to be her teacher after all those kids ate all that chocolate, sugar and caffeinated drinks.

Christmas Eve Mass went pretty well with the little guy. We arrived an hour and a half early and found an empty parking lot. This is strange since most years there are already a lot of people in the church by then. Another sign that our church is no longer as active as before. We didn't even try to go to the church, instead going to the 'hall' where they had a second mass at the same time. Christopher had to explore everything, including the bleachers in the gym where Mass was said.

By the time Mass was ready to start he was a little fussy, but not bad. I held/fought with him the whole Mass. I was setting on the right aisle, left most seat so I could see the priest and he could see me. I swear he saw Christopher stick the Curious George sticker on my nose. When we went to communion he gave me a strange smile, so I guess he did.

Did I mention the battery on the van had died before we went into Mass? So between keeping Christopher occupied I was looking around for anyone I knew to give me a jump after mass. I forgot this was Christmas, so most of the people were there for their once a year visit. We went out to the car and held our breaths as it turned over and started. I think what happened was we were waiting in the car before mass and drained the battery with the DVD player. It has been fine since.

We ended the night with our traditional Chinese food dinner (no Jason we aren't Jewish, but this is the South so nothing else was open!)

Christmas day was nice and some-what relaxing. Christopher received two dozen Thomas engines, 100 yards of track and lots of other Thomas-themed toys. So we've been doing trains since.

I'll get some pictures up in the next day or so, but the kids (and Deb except for the iPhone mess) all were happy with their presents. I received a couple of cool things, but my favorite was a t-shirt Deb found from Cherry Bomb. On the back it says 'Disturbing the Peace since 1968'. (They make high performance mufflers.) Since I was born in 1968 it was fitting.

We are currently trying to figure out what to do for New Year's Eve.

Not much else new around here.

Nice service AT&T so much for customer loyalty

So Deb wants an iphone for Christmas. Shouldn't be a big deal right? We've been with Bellsouth/AT&T for 15 years. So I went to the store today to see what my options are.

Turns out, we aren't eligible for upgrades until 1/1. Yes 2 weeks from today. And they won't budge on the upgrade date. So a new iphone is $399 or $499 today. I wait 2 weeks and it is $199 or $299.

So $200 for 2 weeks. I get putting limits on when you can upgrade, but being within 2 weeks and not giving me a break, especially before Christmas?

I need to go do the math, but I think it is cheaper for the next two years to break the contract and go with Verizon and get her one of the new blackberries.

Santa's Gmail read the subjects ...

Frosty is hysterical!

From here.

30 posts in 30 days

So that wasn't has hard as I thought it would be. I missed 1 day once I got started, but made up for it with a couple of multiple-post days.

I only had one 'filler' day when I didn't feel like writing. Not bad.

And I haven't exhausted my list of blog ideas. So look for a few more interesting (or bizarre) posts in the coming weeks.