brainsplotch

Once again, I am writing this on our new favorite toy, the Dell Studio laptop computer that we recently purchased. I'm sitting in our living room with the family. Blade Runner is on in the background. I've never had a laptop computer before (am I officially the last person on earth to own a laptop computer?), so I'm having to get used to using my finger as a mouse and, in fact, just realized that the two "space bar" thingies under the "mouse pad" are part of the mouse. (Boy, this is exciting, isn't it--hope you haven't fallen asleep reading this). Today, we had my wife's family over for a "three birthdays in one" party. My youngest son's birthday is on February 26, my birthday is tomorrow, and my sister-in-law's birthday is on March 4. Luckily, my son's birthday deflects attention from the two adults' birthdays, which is fine with me. I think after you turn 30, birthdays cease to be exciting. Even at age 41, though,...

This is a note to let everyone know that I am still alive, and apologize for not posting for over two weeks. I am writing this on the new Dell laptop that my wife bought. This is the first time I've been able to use it. I am in the living room and carrying on a conversation with my four year old son, who is telling me about activity in his Fisher-Price dollhouse. My son just turned four on February 26, and I will be turning 41 tomorrow. I don't have any special feelings about turning 41, except wondering how exactly I got this old. It does seem that the minute you turn 30, your life goes into fast-forward. I remember when I was young, my parents always told me that life goes by like a blur the older you get, and now I know what they meant. I stressed out when I turned 39, realizing that it was my last year until 40. Once I actually turned 40, it really was no big deal. 41 just feels like a number. Well, I am going to cut this short because my son (who cracked me up on ...

Temperatures today in mid-Michigan are hovering around 60 degrees, a lovely respite from the awful arctic weather we've been experiencing this winter. The sun is out and I swear it feels like baseball season should be starting. Alas, in the next few days we're scheduled to get back to our regularly scheduled Michigan winter. I'll try and enjoy it while it lasts. As I write this, my two kids are outside, assuredly splashing around in puddles and getting messy. I should probably cut this short and make sure they're not either drenched or covered in mud (or both).

I need to make this brief, since I really should go to bed--because I need to get up for work in, oh, five hours! Had a date with my wife yesterday evening and it was wonderful. So great to get away from the kids for a few hours and actually have a chance to talk and hang out, just the two of us. After a nice dinner at Mitchell's Fish Market, we DID go and see "Slumdog Millionaire" and both enjoyed it. However, now that I'm the father of two boys (ages 7 and almost 4) I have developed a REALLY HARD time watching movies that depict violence towards or abuse of children--and there is a lot of it in this movie. I'm no expert on modern day India, but assume that the film is reasonably accurate in its depiction of the struggles of the country's underclass. In any case, a very good movie deserving of the acclaim it has received--and, to tell you the truth, I was so darned glad to be seeing a "grown-up movie" for a change that it probably could have b...