And another thing!

Lime juice from the import store + Chinese beer = cheap imported beer.

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The best way to shake off a significantly annoying and arrogant image is for a football team to sign a guy who went to jail for accidentally shooting himself in the leg.

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Did American Apparel really go bankrupt? This would be a significant blow to the future survival of my closet. They're running a few men short as it is. Their t-shirts are very comfortable. I am wearing 2 right now.

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The Norway thing is very sad. Horrible stuff. I think of my Norwegian friends and my heart goes out to them and their country. No words can express. There is a scripture that says that the Spirit intercedes for us. I think of that scripture in times like this.

At the same time, it is also sad that Amy Winehouse died. It is no less sad. It can be just as sad. There is enough of us to mourn both situations, no?

As a society, we have a bad habit of trash talking dead celebrities. As if that will make us feel better about our non-celebrity selves.

"Oh, she was a drunk and an addict. And all those tattoos? What a waste."

From what I've heard, it would be pretty easy for anyone to get caught up in all of that junk when they reach the big time. The sad thing is that she is dead. The other sad thing is that, with the way the whole system is set up, there will be many more celebrities dying from substance abuse.

The truth is that Amy Winehouse had an amazingly powerful singing voice that is now forever silent.

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Chinese labor workers usually wear army camouflage clothing. I am not sure why but they do. Despite the camo my son Jonas can still see them. He calls them "bad guys". I am not sure why. Maybe because they're wearing army camouflage clothes.

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Cars 2 is an entertaining movie but I can't help but think that they pushed things a little too far too quickly. Mater equipped with fully automatic machine guns? A female car named "Holley Shiftwell"? Cars trying to kill other cars? Turning James Bond into a cartoon?

Whatever happened to us all laughing as Chick Hicks makes a fool of himself in the winner's circle? It seems like Pixar has things geared more and more towards the parents rather than the kids.

For me, the truth is that I'm kind of sick of all of the side jokes aimed at adults. Make a kids movie for kids and make it completely in the way that would make the kid understand and enjoy all of it.

And another thing! Why can't there be a lesson of reconciliation in there somewhere? Maybe the bad cars can somehow become good cars. Maybe the evil guy in Toy Story doesn't have to be carted away in shame and humiliations all of the time. Anyone can see that Stinky Pete just wanted to be loved just as much as any of the other toys.

Maybe the lesson could be to work out your differences. We could all learn from that lesson, though kids retain information better and learn faster than adults so it would be especially important for them.

Or I could just turn the TV off I guess.

Father's Day... the 4th!

Happy Father's Day to all of the Dadeos out there. This day is a unique day in that most fathers probably forget about it until it actually arrives. Mother's Day, on the other hand, is an important day as everyone knows, and one that is anticipated and planned for many days in advance. Father's Day is a little sneakier.

For me, it sneaks up after my birthday. I have come to appreciate the day as they are slowly being tallied up. Today I was given these beautiful gifts from Barbara and the boys:



Beer and paperweights make my day.

This is my 4th Father's Day, even though Miles isn't quite 4 yet. I remember it being this time 4 years ago when a close friend sent a Father's Day greeting to me. Barbara was just 2 months pregnant but our friend was kind enough to point out that it has already begun. At the time I already had fathering responsibilities. The primary one was to make sure that Miles was well taken care of. The only way to do that, at the time, was to take care of Barbara.

I have friends right now in the middle of the long process of adopting. I've only heard a few of the many things they've had to do in order to get ready and "qualified" for this child. It's amazing to see them already mothering and fathering this child without even knowing him/her yet. The love and care that go into filling out forms and buying fire alarms are all ways of expressing their love to this child. Happy Father's Day to Justin!

Adoption has always seemed like a beautiful thing to me. When a movie has adoption in it, or when I meet people who have adopted, I am just in awe of how amazing and loving the whole thing is. Someday, lord willing, we will also be able to provide a home and family for someone who needs it.

Not only was it important to take care of Miles' mom at the time, but it was important to get into the mindset that I was going to be busier. I was going to have to sacrifice time and energy for this little guy. At first, it was easy to take care of Miles. He slept a lot, weighed about 10 pounds, and his mom did all of the feeding. I changed diapers, but even those weren't that bad at the beginning.

Now, Miles is 3 and a half, but I think that his smarts is more around a 5 year old's level. He's doing math now! I've got more responsibilities, and not only that, but when they get older it is easy just to put a movie on. It is easy to not play with my kids all day. It's easy to feed them instant noodles every day. It's easy to do all that because it's not right and the easy thing to do is usually the lazy thing. They need even more input and wisdom from me than they needed at the beginning. On top of that, they want to play with me. They are people and they actually like me. Who am I to ignore that kind of love?

Anyways, I am pretty, pretty happy that we had these two little boys. I am thankful that they are growing strong and that they love their mom and dad. I hope that I can limit my father screw ups to the minimum and that they won't hold them against me when they become cool teenagers.

Happy Father's Day to my dad, my mom's dad, and my wife's dad and the other dad's that I know.

To misquote Bruce McCulloch:

"These are the dads I know, I know, these are the dads I know."