Why so Serious?

My Youngest found some of her sister's makeup and smeared it across her lips and cheeks. She is very funny. I asked her Why so Serious? Like the joker in the new batman movie. We kept saying it all night.

Screw you Sox

I hate the Chicago White Sox more than any other baseball team. And that was before I found out that they were Obama's favorite team. My Tigers have a chance to knock them out of the playoffs. They are playing now. Cross your fingers.

Perfect Sunday Morning

I woke up, toasted an Elaine's bagel with butter and fresh motzarella. I got my diet coke and put in the Harold & Kumar go to Guatanamo Bay DVD. The girls came down and I got them a plain bagel with cream cheese and sat them in the recliner in the study with a blanket. A perfect moment.

Best Swag Ever

At the EMU tailgate on Saturday, they were giving out tons of free stuff. The best was an Eastern Michigan hoodie from TCF Bank. XXL. I tried to get my family in to get one for the whole family, but they didn't make it on time.

Never a Huron, Always a Huron

I got two tickets for free to the Eastern Michigan football from the school of my Eldest. I think a pre-game tailgate is included with the tickets. Free Food! The opponenet is Northern Illinois. NIU is 1-2 with it's win vs. Indiana State (same as EMU). Losses by 3 @ Western Michigan and by 4 @ Minnesota. Eastern is 1-3 with losses to Michigan State, Maryland and Toledo.

My prediction . . . .

FUN!

What do you mean I'm fired?

Matt Millen was fired. The world rejoiced. The problem is that he dug such a deep hole, it may take years for the Lie-Downs to get out of it. My biggest hope is that the black gets purged from the Unis. One of Millen's millons of bad ideas.

Not Sleeping with the Stars

I woke up at 4:30 AM and couldn't go back to sleep so I went downstairs to watch the DVR'd Dancing with the Stars. I have watched snippets of this show, but never a whole episode. The girls are smoking hot. OMG! I felt for Jeffrey Ross. You know they pick people in these elimination shows that are expected to go first. It was definetly between him and Cloris Leachman, aged 82. She looked good on day one. Definetly doable. But day 2 the makeup made her look 102. The judges definitely don't like Kim Kardashian. She looked super hot both days. I can see why the old queer brit judge doesn't like her. She should just be listed as porn star for her credentials. Without that sex tape, would we even know who she is? Looking forward to the rest of the year. I think Misty May-Traenor will win.

New title

I changed the name of this blog from Soul Particles to Banal Blog. It is more accurate and not as pretensious. The posts will also be shorter.

My stupid cat likes to lie down in the middle of the road and won't move if a car comes by. He is not long for this world.

Emergency pants

Apparently, the head of my company called my cell on Saturday (during the MSU game!) to warn me about a meeting with an important external stakeholder at their office on Monday at 2 PM. I didn't get the message. I wore my olive cargo pants and a blue button up shirt to work.

Luckily, I had an emergency tie and an emergency pair of dress pants. The meeting went great.

Thank God it's Monday

The weather was so beautiful this weekend that I spent the entire time working on the yard and the house outside. It was so hot and dry in August that I'd neglected the lawn. On Saturday, I raked up three garbage cans of yard waste/sticks, and my lawn is a postage stamp. On Sunday I got my folks from the airport and spent the rest of the time pulling vines off my house. It was disheartening to see how much damage the vines were doing to the wood. And I cut them to the bone every year. They just come back thicker. I swear if the vines were left alone for 20 years, the house would be completely destroyed.

Michigan State had a big win, so that made me happy. I spent most of the the game cleaning out the garage. I tried to climb up to the chimney, but the roof was too steep. I did see a pile of what looked like berries and feces. I didn't know what to do until I stepped out onto my rug shaking porch on Sunday morning, right into a pile of poop/berries. It must have been the damn racoon. What a way to start your day. I threw out my sock.

I was so glad to get back to work on Monday.

Friday was a good day.

I went to Elaine's bagels for lunch. Thanks to a buy one, get one dozen free coupon, I had plenty of the best bagels in the world. Awesome~! And the girls like them. The Youngest is not eating well right now, but she had one for dinner.

I was wrong about the price of the Ypsi game yesterday. It cost $5 for me and My Eldest was free. I only had $4 in my wallet, so I had to go to the bank first. I also needed extra cash for snacks. The good news is that my ticket was also good for a buy one, get one free coupon for a polar pop from the Circle K. I can be cheap, but bringing in outside food for a football game is not fun. I only paid $1.25 for a Barq's red cream soda. They are still making $ and when's the last time you paid under $3 for a soda at a pro ball game? I also got popcorn ($1) peanut m&m's and two air heads for Eldest. We sat near the band as usual. I went to the last row, because you really can see a football game better, the higher you sit. I sat down in the row behind a lady wearing a leopard print coat with two young daughters. Then she starting moving down. I thought she was trying to avoid us. But then Eldest went over and started to talk to her. Not to her girls, but to the mom. Then she made friends with the girls and spent most of our time running around and having fun with them. Eldest is amazing. She is so outgoing and makes friends at the drop of a hat. She really likes meeting new people. Which is totally the opposite of me. So much for genes. Eldest cried when we left at halftime. I know I'm a bad fan for leaving a game early, but I had all that wanted. It was after 8:30 and Eldest had a long school week. She cried when we left, but I told her that her friends would be at the next game. The mom confirmed this. Eldest was fine by the time we got down from the bleachers.

The game was fun. The Ypsi players seemed bigger and more athletic than the Dearborn Heights players. Maybe it was because DH wore all white unis. They looked stocky. From the announcer, I could tell that many of the DH players were muslim. Because it is Ramadan, they would be fasting until sundown. I know this because Youngest goes to an in-home daycare that is run by a woman who is muslim. I can't imagine fasting all day when I was a teenager. It would be even harder for a football player. I really admire that. I don't think that fasting had anything to do with it, but the Braves were up 14 - 0 at half when we left. They won 21 - 8. Terrance Moore (sp?) the Braves quarterback is a special player. He reminded me of Vince Young. He was a dynamic runner, but he threw three TDs. On one Ypsi drive, two TD's were called back, including a TD throw by Moore. But he just threw another on the next play. I hope that the Braves can pull together and make the playoffs. They are 2 - 2 on the year.

Sarah Palin

I love Sarah Palin. She is my favorite politician of all time.

If that doesn't get a reply, then nothing will.

Braves game tonight~!

I can't wait to go to the Ypsilanti Braves high school football game tonight vs. the Crestwood Chargers. Yes, I will call them the Braves. There is nothing offensive or wrong with the name. Even so, I submitted the names Olympians and Generals to the committee selecting a new name. Phoenix won. Not bad. Not great. At least its better than the Eagles.

If you haven't been to a high school football game, you are really missing out. You can't beat the atmosphere. You can't beat free parking and a $3 ticket. I would never take my daughter to a Pro football game. I've taken my eldest to an EMU Hurons game, but she wasn't into it. The did have a good time when I took her to the home of the Braves. Hope to see you there tonight!

What's going on?

They say you should write about what you know. I know what it is like to be a married father raising two young daughters and the joys and challenges that go with it. I am a white, male, Catholic. I am 39 years old. My wife is 43. My daughters are ages 6 and 3. I live in Ypsilanti and am a conservative (rare in this city). I am a sports fanatic, but I really don't watch a lot of games from start to end. Parenting, laundry, yardwork, shopping, cleaning, dishes, etc. usually get in the way. My wife and I both work full time, but money is tight. Blah, blah, blah.

When you are single, you can be the center of your own universe. When you get married, your spouse and their needs have to be at least equal to your own. When you have kids, their needs become #1 and your needs move down to #3 on the list. Is this fair? I am trying to teach my oldest daughter that life isn't fair. If her friend gets a new bike, that doesn't mean she has to have one too. But in a deeper sense, having kids is more than fair. The joy and blessings I have received from being a father are astronomically greater than the sacrifices.

This blog will fail if all I post about are philosophical musings. Details. People want details.

So . . .

What am I dealing with right now.

We had a large storm on Sunday. It rained for three days straight. Of course, the basement flooded again. Dammit. I fear my foundation is cracked, but I don't have any money to fix it, and it is darn near impossible to sell a house in this marked. After seven years in the house, we still don't have any equity in it after the housing market collapsed. On Sunday night, we heard a big crash on the roof. Our first thought was that the huge maple tree in the front yard had lost a large limb, which it is apt to do periodically. So far no branches had hit the roof our cars to cause any damage. I looked in the front of the house and saw nothing. An hour later, we heard another crash on the roof, towards the back of the house. I went in the back yard and saw a few bricks. I was afraid that the chimney was blowing down so I looked up. I saw a racoon poking his head out of the top of the chimney. The little bastard had deliberately removed the bricks to get in. My wife asked me to go on our steeply pitched roof to scare him away. In the rain. I told her to tell the girls that I loved them if I fell off the roof and broke my neck. Thankfully, she agreed that it was too dangerous to go up on the roof to try to whack the racoon. The weather has been better, so this weekend, I'll go up to assess the damage.