Flying Hotdog

So...we were at a Grand Rapids Griffins hockey game last night. Between periods it is always entertaining to stand and watch not only what is going on on the ice, but how the crowd is acting as well.

Between the second and third period the Griffins' mascot had a hotdog shooter and was getting the opposited sides of the arena all riled up. Which ever side shouted the loudest got the hotdog shot their way.

Stacey and I are just standing there commenting at how crazy people can be all for the very slight chance that they might get a free hotdog. And not just any hotdog, but one that has been shot out of a cannon at 84.5 miles per hour.

Just then, Griff aims our way and a hotdog projectile just about hits Stacey square and ends up sitting under her seat. Now the real dilema begins. Brant wants to eat this hotdog that cam partially unwrapped mid-flight. What does a good parent do? I decided to give him what wasn't exposed to whatever explosive residue may have been in the cannon not to mention what was lurking under the seat. I come to find out, however, that these projectile hotdogs are wrapped in packing tape to keep them at least half wrapped as they fly through the air. Ten minutes later, I almost had it unwrapped. We got about two bites of cold hotdog from the whole experience.

So, all of this craziness by a few hundred people was all over two bites of a cold hotdog. We certainly can be strange...

China Survival Guide

Having been to China, I'm very interested in picking up this new book published by two Calvin professors and highlighted in the CRC Communications newsletter. Click here to read about the book.

I loved the summary which read...

"It occurred to us that there are plenty of guidebooks out there that tell you where to stay and what to eat, but none that tell you about the nitty gritty problems that you encounter in China as a traveler every day—how to handle toilets in a culture quite different from our own, how to haggle over prices when you make a purchase, how to obtain clean drinking water and how to cross the street without getting killed."

The whole toilet thing is pretty important to know. And he isn't exaggerating about being concerned about crossing the street without getting killed. That truly is an issue! I somehow missed the warning about black taxicabs, but am confident we didn't ever ride in one. I'll have to find out why that is a good thing.

I believe I'll be stopping by the Calvin College Bookstore in the near future and making a purchase!

Boggled

I reached the pinnacle of my Boggle career tonight.

Erin, Stacey and I will often play a few rounds of Boggle before Erin has to go to bed, and Stacey routinely crushes us all. Her mind has an amazing way of organizing mixed up letters.

In one round tonight, however, I scored 15 points using such words as "video", "shout" and my all time ultimate... "shouted" -- a four point word!

I gloated in my hard fought and suprising victory until the next round when Stacey scored 16...

A Brand New Start

You truly can buy anything on the Internet these days.

Click here to read an amazing article about a man from Australia who is so fed up with his life that he is putting his whole life up for bid on eBay. You can have his house, his car, his job and even his friends if you are the winning bid.

This plan has been endorsed by his friends and his employer. It doesn't say much about the quality of his relationships that his friends would willingly agree to something like this. I guess they are ready for him to go as well.

It also seems strange to me that someone would want to purchase a life that he is so ready to walk away from forever. He hates his life, but hey, you might love it! Not the best advertising...

Here is his webpage.

War Requiem

Last night I went to the GR Symphony with my mother. We enjoyed Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem" with over 350 people in the orchestra and huge choir. (Click here to read a review.) It was a very impressive performance even if it is one that probably would not be my first choice. Most of it was in Latin. Knowing the history behind it, especially the history of the poet Owens, made it a moving performance.

The one down part of the performance was my sneeze management. I worked so hard to hold my sneezes back to an appropriate time, and for the most part I was successful!

Happy Pi Day!

Define Blue

For 36 days in a row, a New Yorker named Michael Surtees took a picture of the sky in the morning. He then placed those 36 pictures in a square grid. The result was a pretty cool looking piece of art. You can see it below or click here to link to his page.


I thought of you, Kirk, when I saw this, as someone who defines color for a living. When someone says that the sky was blue, how exactly do you define that color blue? I love all the different shades.

Happy Birthday Scrabble!

Being from a family that played Scrabble a lot, I thought I'd do well at this quiz on the Mental-Floss web page honoring the 60th year of the game. I was incorrect. I scored 50% in my Scrabble knowledge.

Click here to take the quiz and see if you can beat 50%.

Parenting Help

Just in case you need some help, the city of Santa Ana provides this poster to help you notice if your child is a tagger or not. Looking at the picture, if my child went out late at night looking like this, I would probably be suspicious to begin with.

If you need written descriptions to help you in your parenting, feel free to check out Santa Ana's web page. Just click here.

Brant's New Room

We just finished giving Brant's bedroom an Extreme Bedroom Makeover. When we first moved in we painted it and put stickers up for decoration. Now that he is older we redid the decorations for him.

It started last fall when the lockers at the old YMCA went up for sale. I went down and picked up two of them for his room. Stacey has done a wonderful job planning, picking colors and shopping for materials...with a little direction from cousin Jen). (Stacey could work for Pottery Barn!) Now, months later, the painting is done, curtains have been purchased, lockers have been cleaned and Brant's room is done. We are going to add a couple of white shelves soon, but that should be it.

Now it's just a matter of keeping it this clean!