All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

So I took the day off of work today because I have put in way too many hours as of late. I was thinking this meant a nice day of relaxation and fun...then I remembered I was married. So the day of fun and relaxation turned into the day of cleaning out the spare (junk) bedroom and starting the task of cleaning the garage. Needless to say I wasn't too excited about work over play. Well as we were cleaning out the front bedroom we came upon our VHS collection. In the collection we found some priceless old movies - including 3 of my all time favorites. First there was the 1987 World Series Championship VHS hosted by Al Michaels. This is incredible. I know they have since made a DVD (of which Logan my brother owns) but this is a rare gem. I am proud to say that I will continue to own that copy. Next, I found my copy of the Burbs. This is one of the greatest dark comedies ever made, and perhaps my favorite Tom Hanks film. [Bruce Dern is amazing in this film as well. If you have not seen this, you are truly missing out in life. Oh and if all else fails, Carrie Fisher is in it. Not that she is all that great, but it reminds me of when she was such a babe as Princess Leia.] Finally, as if it can get any better, I found my copy of Planet of the Dinosaurs. I received this movie as a kid because I was obsessed with dinosaurs. The acting is so cheesy and the special effects terrible, but for the longest time it was my absolute favorite movie. They have a collection of clips from the movie on youtube - including the opening scene. Wow. So I guess the whole point of this is that what seemed like the worst (cleaning) turned out to be worthwhile after all.

Uh, my friends call me Phlegm.

Mucus & phlegm are pretty disgusting, however, as a boy [particularly an Anderson boy] they have always been commonplace for me. I remember as a kid one of my brother Leighton's friends Scott Peterson was the King of hocking a good old loogie. One of the funniest moments though came when Leighton spit a big old nasty phlegm ball that landed on the back of my friend Eric Chad's neck and proceeded to wrap around his neck while we were playing football in the backyard. Eric had to roll around the field getting the nasty stuff of his neck while we all laughed. Anyways, it is interesting to me that I never really see girls spitting loogies, shooting snot rockets, or making that annoying hacking sound in their throat. Yet I see boys of all ages doing those very things. Why the difference is what I want to know. Well the reason I bring this up is because right now Trenton and I both have colds. I am currently getting over mine so each morning begins with the process of spitting up nasty that has collected in my throat all night. Well today I put Trenton in the car for Danielle and he started coughing. Trying to teach him manners, I told him to cover his mouth. He did so, but after coughing into his hands he decided to show me what he had coughed up and then laughed and smiled about it. I was left with the decision of whether to laugh and encourage this sort of behavior or do something responsible. Well if you know me you already know the answer to what I did. Looks like the loogie tradition lives on for the boys in this family!

Sandra Templeton, I love you and I will marry you!

I went out to eat yesterday with some of the guys I work with. [side-note: We ate at Wings Express, this little dumpy place on Lindsay & Broadway - pretty good wings. Honey hot is the best flavor. I love that flavor, a little zing with some good old honey taste...I'm drooling thinking about it now] While we were eating, the tv on the wall was on the USA channel [which for whatever reason reminds me of my grandparents house] and the channel was playing the movie Big Fish. I think this might be one of the greatest films ever made [I like Tim Burton films]. The story telling is incredible and really carries the story. There is a line in the movie said by Billy Crudup, in which he states, "A man tells his stories so many times that he becomes the stories. They live on after him, and in that way he becomes immortal." It is such a cool line. It gets me thinking about how for so long the only way the past could live on was through story telling. Most of history exists only in the form of story, most of it oral. The most fascinating part about it is that even when the stories seem far-fetched and overblown, they are still great to listen to and still valuable. I love reliving the past by hearing stories about my grandparents told to me through the lens of my parents. In many ways, my grandparents are "immortal" in the sense that the stories live on and in some cases get better with age. My hope is that I will be able to tell stories as good as my grandparents did and my parents do now. Life is just better when told through a story.

Where have you gone Terry Ryan?

It is frustrating being a Minnesota Twins fan. What in the world was Bill Smith thinking today when he traded away Johan Santana for crap. He got absolutely nothing in return. The 4 losers he picked up from the Mets will most likely not even contribute this year - possibly never. I understand that he works for the biggest tight-wad (east of bidwell) in sports...but still, make a better deal. As bad as it would have been to trade him to the Yankees, at least we would have gotten Hughes, Cabrera and a couple of other no-namers. Instead he sat on it and ended up with nothing. Apparently he was jealous that there were crappier teams with smaller payrolls out there so he did the only thing he could to compete with them. AUGH! This is so frustrating.

Broken coffee pot

So my wife broke the coffee pot the other day. She was leaning over the counter and just knocked it straight off. Needless to say this saddened me greatly because of my hopeless addiction to caffeine. So we had to order a new pot for the coffee maker leaving me stranded until it gets here. So being a junior high pastor, the only solution I could think of was increasing my Monster consumption. Now I have been told by many adults that this stuff is terrible for me, but at this point my options are Monsters or caffeine-induced headaches. Now I suppose I could buy gas station coffee for a few weeks...but I already had convinced my wife to buy the HUGE pack of Monsters @ Costco. She more than makes up for her clumsiness with her spoiling of me. Anyway...as I looked at the can of Monster this morning I started wondering what some of the ingredients really were. Taurine, Panax Ginseng root extract, L-Carnitine, Glucuronolactone, Inositol, Guarana seed extract, Pyridoxine, Maltodextrin, and Cyanocobalamin. What the heck am I actually drinking? Interesting enough most of the stuff had to to with sugar processing and vitamin-b processing. Now I admit I looked up all of the stuff on wikipedia which is not nearly accurate all of the time...but its what I did. My favorite ingredients would have to be the guarana seed extract and the taurine. The guarana seed has approximately 3 times as much caffeine as the coffee bean. Good thing every junior high kid I know drinks a can of Monster a day...The taurine makes me smile because it was first isolated from ox bile which is how it got its name. Ox bile. My dad is a doctor having taking out many a gallbladder which stores bile so somehow the connection made me smile.

Well the next time you tear open the "meanest energy supplement on the planet" at least you know what you are drinking.

Yes, we can change

Big win in the South Carolina primary for Barack Obama. Hard-luck for SC resident John Edwards. When will that guy realize that America does not want him? If anything he probably stole votes from Hillary...on second thought, maybe I do like him staying in the race. Check out the speech he gave after the win. This political race is just getting started....

Well this has been a poor year for Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey. Not totally their fault, as they have lost a lot of players to the NHL. With all the success that Don Lucia has brought back to the program, hard to doubt him now. I will take the tie with Wisconsin but here's hoping that they can get back on track soon. Oh and while I'm on the topic of Minnesota hockey, I like seeing the Minnesota Wild sitting atop their division at the All Star break. I have been struggling to watch the NHL though as of late. Not sure if that is because being an Arizona resident I have lost interest or if its because the NHL has lost its soul since it started changing the way the game was played just to try and lure in dumb fans. Either way I just have not paid as much attention. The Wild getting into the playoffs would change that!

Until the next time...Minnesota, hats off to thee, to thy colors true we shall ever be, firm and strong, united are we. M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A, Minnesota! Minnesota! GO GOPHERS!

Wow. This guy is absolutely HUGE! What else is there to say.

I believe he's ready

So Danielle and I have been debating about the whole potty training issue in regards to Trenton (our two year old). He is now 27 months old so the issue has naturally come about. We have talked to many people (most who claim to be "experts") who have given us a variety of opinions. All of that has left us even more confused and lost as to when to begin and how to do it.

Well today I think I have finally reached the point where I am convinced he is ready. I put him down for his nap this afternoon about an hour or so after he had eaten his lunch. I heard him talking in there while playing with his stuffed penguin in the crib. Finally after about 20 minutes I heard him go quiet assuming he was now asleep. 20 minutes after the quiet started it stopped. "Dad? Dad? Dad?" was what I now heard from the bedroom. I figured he was still just playing around and needed more time to fall asleep. After 15 minutes of "Dad, dad, dad, dad, dad..." I finally gave in and headed into his room.

The second I opened the door I was blasted with pungent odor straight from the bowels of Hades. Fighting through it I turned the light on and their was my two year old, sitting buck naked in his crib smiling up at me. On the floor was his stuffed penguin, his blanket, and his pants complete with clean diaper. Upon further inspection into the abyss of his dwelling I found 3 freshly laid steamers (aka logs, aka poopers). Apparently not wanting to sit in his own filth, Trenton had pulled his pants and diaper off and dropped a deuce on his bed instead.

So I had to get him up, change him, and then pick up the poopers and flush them away. Needless to say, I did not read the fine print about parenting where it says "pooper scooper" as part of the role. Potty training, here we come.

"Nobody has a monopoly on religious belief"

Politics and Religion (specifically Christianity) have always been a hot topic. Personally, since I started owning my faith in the 11th grade I have been fascinated by the topic. I was raised by Christian parents who happened to also be Republicans and for as long as I can remember, I often linked the two in my head. It just made sense. I remember being so excited upon hearing George W. Bush refer to his faith and the need for Christ in America. I was immediately smitten by it and just knew that "God" wanted him to be president more than the heathen-democrat Al Gore. My political beliefs remained such that despite representing things and doing things I disagreed with at times, I held to supporting Bush and His "Christian presidency." As time has gone on, however, I have grown increasingly more aware of the fact that Republicans seem to take the Evangelical Christian voting bloc for granted. As if the Republican party is the moral-Christian party while the democrats believe in only those things that stand in opposition of Jesus Christ. The current campaign of Barack Obama has attracted my attention in this regard. Now to issue a disclaimer: I am not saying I am going to vote for Obama or that he is in fact a Christian. What I am saying is that it is really interesting to me how this guy is getting blasted on the religious front of things. Charges of him being a Muslim, him hating America, him not saluting the flag, and so on and so forth. Recently these things have become such an issue that he has had to address them. Foxnews & beliefnet. Its hard to separate the truth from political agenda sometimes. Is he indeed sincere about his beliefs and faith in Jesus Christ? That can only be known by God. All I know is that it is interesting how a man's name, ethnicity, and political party can make so many people assume they know exactly what he believes in. Would America benefit by having a Christian president? My personal belief is yes. However, I have learned that, that person can be found on both sides of the political spectrum. Here's hoping that whoever gets elected will remember its not about how many times you can say Jesus in a speech, whether or not you have a flag lapel, or even what percent of the evangelical Christian vote you received...what matters is whether or not you actually help the people of this country and this world.

And you thought your monthy gas bill was high...

I came across an article on foxsports today about Shaq and his monthly spending habits. Check it out! I cannot believe some of the figures in there. His monthly gas bill is close to my annual salary. I wonder what its like to be able to spend 100K on vacations each month?! It makes you wonder if the guy is really happy in his lifestyle. Who knows. I'm just glad he can keep his cable bill under $1500 - wouldn't want him going broke.

Coffee and poop

Elliot: My dad's coming in to town for a conference tomorrow.
Carla: You don't seem that stressed out.
Elliot: Well, I haven't pooed in six days.
J.D.: Twice this morning, and I haven't even had my coffee yet.
Elliot: You really pick odd things to brag about.
J.D.: I'm just saying, if I had to get three by lunch, I probably could.

Can I just say how much I love the tv show Scrubs? The show is pure genius. The best part is now Danielle even finds it funny (she has a crush on Turk) so we watch it together. How awesome that there are re-runs on every day!!

Anywho, I thought of it this morning as I drank my cup of Starbucks coffee and two sips in had to poop. It got me thinking about the re-run of Scrubs I saw the other night with the above quote(s). Then after laughing in my head...I began to ponder why does coffee make you have to poop? I researched on the Internet but could not come up with anything conclusive. The answers I saw were because its a diuretic and because it is a stimulant. Neither seemed to be backed up by much fact. So the question remains. Any help on this topic would be greatly appreciated. Until then, keep hitting the coffee pot to stay regular.

Disaster

Bratwursts, Sun Devils basketball, souvenir cups, "free" parking and spending time with Scott. The night had such perfect intentions and the only thing that ruined it was the stupid Washington Huskies and Jeff Pendergraph. The game tonight was a complete disaster by all accounts. Hard to believe I spent $25 to watch my beloved Sun Devils get destroyed. Two things though that I take from this evening (besides having some quality guy time)...

1. Why do Scott and I always have to park in shady places/situations in order to "cheat the system" and get free parking? Its like a game we play every time we got to a sporting event. Instead of paying $5 and parking close, we have to drive for 20 minutes around Tempe looking for any place that we can park for free. Yet when it is all said and done - we did not pay a dime for parking. We are pros at this.
2. Why do I feel like I have to order the bratwurst instead of the regular hot dog? For some reason I feel like the bratwurst is worth more man points then the hot dog. Not sure where the logic is on that...

Final thought...I like Herb Sendek. Best thing to happen to ASU basketball since the great Ned Wulk. Here's hoping that he continues to get this young team on track and that one day he may approach the benchmark of 406 wins.

Book List

I love to read. If I had to select one "hobby" that was my favorite - it would have to be curling up with a good book. I have read a number of books over the years, each of them rewarding me with some piece of information - even the bad ones. Here is a small sample of what I have been reading lately...

American Prometheus (Kai Bird & Martin J. Sherwin)

The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (T.J. Stiles)

Steve Jobs (Walter Isaacson)

The Millennium Series (Stieg Larsson)