200th post!!! Ugly Cats

Wow, I just saw that this was the 200th post. It is perhaps fitting that I fill it with more mundanity. Rx is on her final few nights of work before maternity leave, and I am bored at home (getting over a bad head cold).

Anyway, We got our Dog and Cat Fancy magazines today. I want to be clear that we would never pay for these, they are a "perk" of Rx's profession. Loyal To Austin and Beyond readers will remember that the toilet room of the master bathroom is where I like to post my Dog and Cat Fancy centerfolds. This month they featured a breed of cat too hideous to grace the hallowed walls of my commode room: The Cornish Rex.

These cats are ridiculously ugly. Also they have curly hair. The Cornish Rex has no place on my walls...

Pack-N-Play...what the F?

Practice, practice.

Jack figured if this sling couldn't hold Bunny we couldn't use it on our child....

Priscilla had to make sure the car seat was comfortable enough for the baby....

and last night we decided to put up the Pack-N-Play ... we plan to use it as a bassinette after the baby comes home.

There were more moments of cursing during the evening than I've heard come from Jack's mouth, I think, ever. He literally would have liked to throw it in the road and back over it with his car...of course the Metro wouldn't have stood a chance, so we persevered. Thank god we found a You Tube video on how to put it together. Many thanks to "KDARC", a helpful Michigan woman who made this video. It saved our marriage and sanity. While it seems simple enough, in our defense, part of the collapsing mechanism isn't working quite right on ours. You don't have to watch the whole thing, but I love this lady's spunky attitude and cute little accent....

Isn't it a joy? :)

In other news....we found THIS the other day:



And Louie is now in therapy, poor bastard.



Just accept your feelings, Lou.

Evolution Education Round-up

Texas school board voted against requiring discussion of evolution's 'weaknesses'... Yeah!!!
Louisiana is allowing a pro Intelligent Design book in their classrooms.. Boo!!
Mississippi is pr0posing to add this to their textbooks... Boo!!!

1/3 Ain't bad... lets dive a little deeper into Mississippi's textbook addition shall we?
"Evolution refers to the unproven belief that random, undirected forces produced living things. There are many topics with unanswered questions about the origin of life which are not mentioned in your textbook, including: the sudden appearance of the major groups of animals in the fossil record (known as the Cambrian Explosion); the lack of new major groups of other living things appearing in the fossil record; the lack of transitional forms of major groups of plants and animals in the fossil record; and the complete and complex set of instructions for building a living body possessed by all living things."





This is great except just about everything in this statement is wrong. 1) Unproven? How much more evidence do you need? In case you have missed reading just about any scientific paper or textbook in the last century validating evolution time after time after time (I am looking at you here Mississippi), here is a handy chart to show you every fossilized transitional species from a land creature to a whale... The fact that we have not identified every transitional species for every major class does not invalidate evolution. Just because I don't have a garage with every car from the Model T to the 2009 Mustang doesn't mean that the Ford Motor company doesn't exist.
2) Just because science can't explain everything doesn't mean a) it must be supernatural or magic in origin and b) it won't be understood eventually by science... give us some time.
3) undirected forces? sure they are directed.. they are directed by environmental pressures (that is kind of the basis of the whole theory).
4) The first sentence confuses (as these idiots so love to do) the origin of life question with evolutionary theory. Evolution doesn't not make a prediction about the origin of life. It simply states that species change over time due to environmental pressures and create new species.

I could go on, but I have to go perform some directed evolution to make better drugs for fighting diseases...

Definitions of Megalomania

1) Megalomania is an unrealistic belief in one's superiority, grandiose abilities, and even omnipotence. (for examples see here, here, and here) It is characterized by a need for total power and control over others, and is marked by a lack of empathy for anything that is perceived as not feeding the self.
Delusions of persecution (for examples see here, here, and here) may be intrinsically related to - and the flip-side of - delusions of grandeur in that the very idea that one is being persecuted by a complex of conspirators involves a sense of greatly elevated self-importance.

2) These Guys:

From The Onion

Bratz Dolls May Give Young Girls Unrealistic Expectations Of Head Size

Mystery on the Hudson... what REALLY happened!?!?!?

Okay everyone knows this story by now... A plane water landed in the Hudson River this week after it ran into a flock of birds after take off from La Guardia. The pilot did an excellent job of pulling off a water landing which is extremely hard to do. Luck was with them as well and thankfully everyone was okay! Great story... the pilot is a hero, passengers were shaken up, but are all alright, the 24 hour news channels get something to talk about for a week or 2... everybody wins right? End of story... Not quite... Evidently the press and FAA are now pretending this is a big mystery!!!

For Example:

I heard this on the radio today from NPR: NTSB Looks For Cause Of Hudson River Jet Crash

"Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were in New York City on Friday to find out what forced a US Airways jet to make a spectacular emergency landing into the frigid Hudson River minutes after takeoff. A minute into the flight, Sullenberger told air traffic controllers that birds had hit both of the plane's jet engines, but the NTSB warned the public against speculating about the causes of the accident."

Humm... I am no detective, but maybe I can help piece this together and save us all millions of tax dollars. I think the major factor might be that....BIRDS WERE IN THE F#$%ING ENGINES!!!! Planes generally don't fly too well when instead of pulling in air you are pulling in blood, sinew, bones, and feathers of a 30 lb animal. I hate to 'speculate' like that, especially when I have been warned against it. I hope someone from the NTSB doesn't scold me for my speculation. While I am prognosticating... let me go ahead and speculate that the sky is blue and the pope is Catholic. What, do they think Al Queda is training snow geese now? When they do the goose necropsy and find they have been fed a diet of hummus and baba ganoush instead of aquatic plants and grains then we might be on to something. Why is it taboo to speculate about this? Its ridiculous.

More from ABC News: New Jet Mystery, Flight Recorder Underwater.

There is a big effort now to find the engines evidently.. they will give us "clues" as to what happened.

"Salvage crews discovered the engines were missing while trying to determine how to haul the jetliner out of the icy river. Those engines likely hold important clues needed to make as accurate a determination as possible on what exactly caused the plane to loose power soon after accelerating off the runaway at LaGuardia Airport in New York."

Again, I am no Columbo, but I am going to go ahead and guess that once the missing engines are located... they are probably going to find that instead of a normal functioning engine... which you find on normal planes.... you will find AN ENGINE THAT HAS BEEN DAMAGED BY A HUGE F#$%ING BIRD!! This isn't rocket science... Here are the facts... 1) Plane takes off from La Guardia... everything is going okay... 2) Plane hits a flock of birds flying in formation (probably geese)... 3) Engines are not working... and emergency landing is made.

Maybe I missed something here... but I am pretty sure there may be a causal relationship between fact 2 and fact 3. Or do they think the hitting a flock of geese is somehow unrelated to the icy crash landing? Also "Flight Recorder Underwater" in the headline... yeah generally when a plane is underwater..by definition, most or all parts of the plane are underwater also... and the black box is no exception to this rule.

Then I looked and saw this front page news on CNN; here is the headline: Pilot landed in Hudson to avoid catastrophic consequences Really? I just thought he liked the view of the Bronx from the the waterfront and wanted to share it with everyone. Or maybe, he thought there was a shortcut from La Guardia to Charlotte through the center of the earth with an entrance in the Hudson River..... NO S#$T HE LANDED IN THE DAMN RIVER TO AVOID CATASTROPHE!! That is THE reason people land in freezing rivers... not because they want to be in the polar bear club, but because they have no other option but to land in the river!!

I will keep you all updated as this mystery unravels...

UPDATE 1/19/08 From the Saratogian:

"The probe into the crash-landing of a US Airways jetliner will take a year, and the lessons learned from the spectacular accident will last much longer, a senior investigator said Monday. "I think this one is going to be studied for decades," said Robert Benzon, chief investigator on the case for the National Transportation Safety Board."

"The way the landing itself occurred, the thought process that went through the mind of the pilots and the flight attendants. It's interesting stuff for us," Benzon said. "It's going to take a while to go through it, but this one's going to go down as a classic."

Wow! Geese + Plane = Crash landing... seems pretty cut and dry to me, but to to Robert Benzon, this is his Mona Lisa... his Great Pyramids... something to ponder over for decades!! Oh the mysteries of flight A320 will you ever be revealed!?! Its not like it was lost in the Bermuda Triangle... we know exactly what happened to this plane!! IT HIT A FLOCK OF BIRDS AND WENT DOWN!!! Get over it!!!

baby preparedness

Here is the beautiful mother-to-be modeling our new car seat in our snap n go stroller (thanks Julia!). Rx is sporting an awesome backpack diaper bag as well(thanks Dori and Allison) . Installation for the car seat was a snap (literally). I had heard they could be hard to set up, but we must have gotten a good one.

Not good enough for Bunny evidently... she was not interested in playing "baby."

Here I am demonstrating some EXTREME off road action with the snap n go stroller!! Our baby better be ready cause only Mountain Dew is going in his/her bottle!! EXTREME!!!

Last but certainly not least..................

Hold on....

Here it comes.....

BEHOLD!!! The beautiful baby buddha belly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not for the faint of heart...

I have been known to dabble in nerdery. I know the chain of command from James Tiberius Kirk to Hikuru Sulu. I know what a nerf herder is. I know what "the trouble with tribbles" is. That is why I was surprised when a colleague of mine (Mark P.) introduced me to an horrific piece of Star Wars cannon known as the Star Wars Holiday Special. Aired only once in November 1978, this 2 hour piece of junk marks the exact moment that George Lucas lost his mind.

The story centers around Chewbacca and Han Solo trying to get to Kashyyyk, Chewbacca's home world, to celebrate Life Day (aka Wookie Christmas). In true 70's fashion they turn the special into a variety show... and Bea Arthur, Harvey Korman (in drag) and The Jefferson Starship are featured!!! I am convinced that watching all 2 hours will make one's mind melt. Here is a little taste though...



Critics always seem to point out that there is 1 redeeming quality of this special.. a 9 minute cartoon introducing Boba Fett. Let me tell you I watched this cartoon, it is not worth it... Here is a bit of acting that I bet Harrison Ford wishes he could forget... Actually he was interviewed on Conan a couple years ago and he said he has no memory of making this special... good for him.



If you are so interested... clips of Bea Arthur in the Cantina and Princess Lea singing for like 10 minutes while robbed wookies hold candles can also be viewed on youtube. In the world of nerdery this special is the equivalent of a war crime.. We must never forget.

Sweet Tweet Mobile

Our friends L & D at our sister blog Dirtysmoot send us a Sweet Tweet Mobile (presumably for the baby). We were a bit confused at first as there was no indication as to who sent the mobile. I am glad we found out though. Even without knowing the sender, I was immediately enthralled with the idea of doing something crafty for the baby. I don't think I have painted anything other than an occasional wall or house exterior in 15 years. I was excited to give painting the mobile a go. While Rx shared my enthusiasm, I could sense there was a twinge of hesitation in letting me paint something that will reside so prominently in the baby's room, which up until now has been Roxanne's exclusive, matching, themed, nesting domain. I stayed up til 3 am painting it. I hope I did a good job, but I was comforted to know that babies have poor eyesight so they cant tell if I messed anything up.

Don't laugh at my crappy painting!! Babies can't tell... right Roxanne?

Thanks L & D for the mobile... I will procure some fishing line and string it up soon!!

33 and a half

We are leaving pineapple size and entering cantalope size... WOW!!!

Rx said the pineapple stage was hard (with the bumpy surface and sharp leaves) and is looking forward to the transition to the smoother cantalope...

Longhorns win Fiesta Bowl

Texas Football.. something GWB and I can agree on...WHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

09 News

Can you believe this guy is still around? How much of a crazy bastard do you have to be to go about your business like nothing happened after damning evidence of your obvious corruption has been exposed? Speaking of megalomaniacs, has anyone seen this?

Roland Burris, the Illinois attorney general who was appointed to the senate by Blagojevich appears to be a nutjob also. He has built a monument to himself in a local cemetery and engraved all his political accomplishments with room left for more to come!!! Wow, what an ass; dont break your arm patting yourself on the back for your "service" to your state.

I dont think politicians should be allowed to hold public office.

Speaking of idiots.. GW is going on a press junket lately to try to soften up his image as a warmonger/idiot/worst president ever. Good luck with that! Unfortunately for GWB this means that he will have to answer actual questions, and with all these interviews someone in the press is bound to stumble on a good accountability question....

Here is a quote from an ABC interview (that I saw on Bill Moyers).

Bush: One of the major theaters against al Qaeda turns out to have been Iraq. This is where al Qaeda said they were going to take their stand. This is where al Qaeda was hoping to take ...

Raddatz: But not until after the U.S. invaded.
Bush: Yeah, that's right. So what?

So... Basically, Bush is claiming how well we are doing against al Qaeda in Iraq will be listed among the accomplishments of his administration...a feather in his cap if you will.... A reporter actually calls out his BS and says, there was no al Qaeda in Iraq before Saddam.. and our invasion created these new terrorists... and his response.... So what.

Genius... pure genius. You can't argue with that. Its like a firemen starting fires around town and putting them out and patting themselves on the back about it. What a legacy indeed!