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!