Random Thoughts for the Week of March 26, 2012

Perhaps the biggest event of the week is the closing of my house on 80th Street.  I moved into the house in February 2003.  9 years later, I look back on how much my life has changed and all the events of my life that took place in that house.  I’ve moved on to my new home so my sentimentality is tempered, and I’ve said goodbye to the old place. Sure, there are plenty of things I’d like to forget that happened there (I may never like hostas).  Even still, straight from the annals of my life, I give you …

MY FAVORITE MOMENTS IN THE 80th STREET HOUSE

• Proposing to Mindi in the basement to candlelight and slow music.
• Monday nights – from computer games to D&D to Weight Watchers meetings and beyond.  Never a dull night in that house.
• Grilling out front as the thunderstorms rolled by.  Well hell, every time I grilled out front was special.
• Each and every sunset.
• My days and nights with Mindi (Intern wedding, May dinner at Legends, Halloween Party, Nebraska-Texas game, just to name a few).
• Watching thunderstorms roll in slowly from the West.
• Tom and I making Christmas dinner for all our friends.
• Almost burning down the deck.
• Felix.  Gizmo.  Willy.
• Homecoming Date Night for PCM kids with Kathy.
• A warm fire, a bottle of wine, my favorite movies and falling snow on Christmas Eve nights.
• The tree I planted in the back yard.
• Mowing on cool summer days with (yes) my electric mower.
• Building the plant bed out front on Labor Day Weekend.
• Mocking the Northwest High School Band practices.
• Scaring kids on Halloween night.
• 2 AM milk runs to the fridge (clothing optional).
• Rushing the burning log from the fireplace to the back door and out into the snowstorm on Christmas Eve night.
• Lightsaber duels and sleepovers with the Riley/Hoffman/Evans kids (young and old).
• Kevin and the Twins coming over to care for me after I hurt my back and was trapped on the living room floor.
• Death couches.
• Pizza, beer and a TV/movie nights.
• The wall of spackle.
• Tom breaking the handle off my microwave.  Took me 8 years to replace it.
• The smell of the fresh Christmas tree in the living room.
• Falling asleep to the sound of rain outside.
• Pre and Post-D&D chats on the deck or in the garage.
• Scraping the ceiling of the garage with the Exploder’s antenna.
• Setting off the fire alarm every time I started a fire (in the fireplace, mind you).
• Berk showing up in a Favre Vikings jersey for the Fantasy Football draft.
• Coming home from any trip.
• Making cupcakes.
• Painting the walls during the Presidential debate.
• Watching Mom play Rock Band drums on the Wii.
• Working out and/or Yoga in the basement.
• Going home from buying the house with a check for $3000 and a bottle of wine.
• Telling anyone that I owned a house.

And now for other random, lesser important thoughts …

• Enjoying the audiobook of Kevin Smith’s book “Tough Sh-t.”  He’s reading it “totally baked” and it’s the brutal honesty and kind of talking that my friends and I enjoy.  My favorite quote so far:  “We can’t all be Superman, but we sure as shit can train hard and with loads of practice we can be Batman.  And who the fuck doesn’t want to be Batman?”  Amen, brother.
• I winced when I read that Sear Payton was suspended for the entire season for his part in the bounty program, but the more I think about it the more sense it makes.  You really want to nip something like that in the bud, you remove the key instigators and penalize the onlookers who let it happen.  If Williams ever coaches at any level again, I’d be amazed.  It sucks that it happens to such a decent guy as Payton, and for a franchise that is still enjoying the success of the program he put in.  Even though this thing goes on to some extent in teams at every level, I still think Goddell was right in the punishment he laid down.  I think teams will think twice about standing idly by and letting it happen.  Now, I fully expect players to still do it behind the coaches’ backs.
• Wow, Tebow probably would have done better to go to the Packers, Eagles or Texans.  Maybe he had no say in it at all, but he’s going to be in a program that won’t have the time or care to implement him.  What sucks is that now the countdown is on for when Sanchez will get benched for Tebow.  It’ll happen after every game that Sanchez under-performs.  And given his record, that is going to happen very early in the season.  BLEH.
• You know one free-agent move I’d love to see, but it probably won’t happen?  LaDamian Tomlinson to the Packers.  I think he’d give that backfield the stability and skill it’s been missing from its veterans for the past 2 years.  I’d love to see Seine grow to be the new feature back, and I’ve got a feeling he will in time.  Until then, Starks and LT can be a good threat.  Thanks, Grant, for all you’ve done, but I think you are done.
• Makes me sad to see Hines Ward retire.  For almost as long as I can remember he was a solid FF WR for me.  He sure played hard every season, and I can barely recall ever benching him.
• Enjoyed watching the March Madness games this weekend, although my bracket is pretty much toast now that Syracuse is out of the mix.  I’m hoping I have enough points to beat Mindi, but I doubt it.
• Charles Barkley, shut up. You’re embarrassing yourself.
• As much as I’ve enjoyed watching March Madness and learning more about the intricacies of offensive formations in basketball, I swear if I have to watch those fucking LG, Lowe’s, CDW or Bud Light commercials anymore, I’m going to have a stroke.  Jeez, all they could get were 6 commercials for the whole fucking tourney???
• Speaking of commercials, I think it’s pathetic that CBS backed down from playing the Duke/UPS commercial because so many Kentucky fans protested them using a dark moment in the team’s history.  Grow up, Kentucky fans, and grow a spine, CBS.  The tourney has had ups and downs for every team out there, including the top seeds this year.  They need to get over it.  I think it’s sad when companies fold under pressure so easily.
• I’ll admit, I’m still gathering facts into this whole “stand your ground” mess down in Florida, so I won’t make any major conclusions … but something is very hinky here about what actually happened.  Even still, take out race and hoodies and all the nonsense that this has stirred up and look at the situation itself.  The letter of the law may not have been broken but I think there’s grounds for a grand jury to decide for themselves if the guy should be indicted or not.  Sadly, the media and the pundits and the bigots will all cry out with their race cards and incite anger at levels that are unwarranted.  It’s impossible to change the hearts and minds of people when all you’re doing is condemning people for flaws that you can’t even prove!  Let’s get some productive discussion going on here.  Let’s talk about how the situation shouldn’t have been different if the races of the people involved had been different and go from there.  Until we start to treat people and situations with equality, we will never be able to do the same for them in our hearts and minds.  Time for the pundits to start realizing this and change their tunes, rather than just stirring up the pot to get people to listen to them.
• While I agree that random people shouldn’t be allowed to just walk up and throw things on/at people, I really do applaud the woman who threw flour on Kim Kardashian.  For the life of me I’m still trying to figure out why any of us should care one lick about who she is, what she’s wearing or what she does.  I think there are grade schoolers doing more interesting and worthwhile things than her entire family put together.
• Really impressed by The Hunger Games movie.  I thought they paid proper tribute to the book.  I don’t think it was better than the book, but here are some things I thought:
• I thought they hit home on the most important thing in the book … the sheer insanity of making children fight each other and the apathetic nature of the society that promotes it while subjugating entire portions of the population to virtual slavery. 
• They really did show the difference between the Capitol and the districts.  Notice how there was no music during the scenes in the districts?  Yeah, they can’t even afford that.
• I’m not sure if is was intentional, but I saw a lot of homages to the older dystopian movies of the 1970’s like “A Clockwork Orange,”  “Westworld”  “THX1487” and so many others.  I really felt like I was watching one of those older movies that showed just how fucked up the human race could get in the near future.
• I’m amazed how well a 21-year old actress could portray a 18-year old character.
• The actor who plays Peeta just looks weird.  All things being equal, he wouldn’t have been able to land a chick like Katniss.
• Biggest disappointment was Haymitch.  Definitely my favorite character of the whole series, he grows the most and only becomes the heroic leader at the end of the second book.  In the movie they toned down the alcoholism and his depressed chatter to make the him appealing to the kiddies, but it really watered down the character.  I’d bet Woody Harrelson could have done much more.
• I think the scene where Suzanne Collins describes the outfits Katniss wore in the Capitol are some of the best examples of description I can recall from 21st century literature.  The pathetic displays in the movie didn’t do them justice and were very disappointing to me.
• Yeah, I’m still on Team Gale.
• All being said, I’m sure the trilogy will work out very well in the end.
• Angry Birds Space in HD is an excellent next step for the video game.  Definitely worth the $3.  When I complain about spending $3 on a video game, I just remember spending $39.99 on Zork and I shut the fuck up.
• As much as I’ll miss the Pond Family, the new companion for Doctor Who is HOT HOT HOT.
• I’d really like to watch “Mad Men” but I just can’t find the time or the motivation.  Maybe during paternity leave.

BABY WENDEL UPDATE

• Just got back from the doctor and everything is going perfectly for mom and baby.  We’re in single digits for weeks remaining!
• The nursery is 95% done.  Mindi has one last decorating piece left, then we start filling it up with baby shit. 
• The hurry up and wait aspect of the next 9 weeks is going to be the end of me.
• This past week was the first time I really felt powerless to make Mindi feel better.  When I think ahead 9 weeks and the fun times then, I get a little nervous.
• Still won’t tell you the name of the boy, but it’s one of the greatest names in ancient history.
• I find it hard to not buy something from the kid section at Target. 
• I’m going to be a great dad.