New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Years to all blog readers and participants.

In keeping with the spirit of the season, I am setting forth three modest resolutions for myself:

1. To become Barack Obama's 1,500,000th friend on myspace. He's currently at nearly 1,100,000, so I'll have to watch his myspace every day to make sure I hit this just right. But with everybody around me myspacing, facebooking, twittering, poking, prodding, zombeeing, watching, "what I'm doing at this exact instance"ing... it's time for me to get on the bandwagon.

Alternately, I could just go out and find 1,000,000 people to push a button and be my friend. One or the other.

2. I resolve to go to Wal-Mart and leave inappropriate messages on every, single recordable Valentine's Day greeting card. You know the ones... push a button, leave your message of love. Well, they'll start with mine. This is going to take a few hours to pull off, and I'll need to avoid being thrown out of the store... but if it were easy, then it would be everybody's goal, right?

3. We will be working hard as a Southern Crew to get Joel and Erika on a Von Trapp Family-like whistle system. This will be much easier and more effective than actually using their names for the next year. One short whistle for the big one, two long whistles for the little one.

Other than that, it's just gonna be us being us in 2009. Actually kinda looking forward to it.

Fighting Crime In Gotham

What you are looking at is a flashing sign that our local police department has had downtown through and following Christmas. The idea is that we should not leave our Christmas loot laying around in the backseat where passers by might covet and steal.

While I appreciate the concern the police force has for the kids' new digital cameras and my tea-maker, we live in the city ranked 2nd for most violent crimes in America. I would probably rather see flashers aimed toward solving that problem, assuming these flashers are, in fact, effective reminders. Off the top of my head, I might suggest:

MPD SAYS... HUG IT... DON'T MUG IT

MPD SAYS... LIFE IT... DON'T KNIFE IT

MPD SAYS... FRUIT IT... DON'T SHOOT IT

I would go on, but I can't seem to think of anything that rhymes with METH LAB EXPLOSION.

The thing I like best about this flashing message of wisdom is that it is exactly seven words long. Putting those words across three flashes may, of course, have led to one or two traffic accidents, but it's the spirit of the thing that counts.

Home(ish)

We made it home from Cali late Friday night. The kids had to make a quick turnaround to head up to Indiana Saturday morning to spend a late Christmas + New Years w/ that side of the family. Despite the weather and jet-lag, sounds like the trip went well.

As you can see from the picture, the group is not a bunch of little kids anymore.

My New Years plans are still undetermined. Watch the network coverage of the ball dropping in some metropolis and you might see me out there braving the weather for my 15 seconds of fame. Yeah right. I'll be inside somewhere where it is warm and cozy.

Twofur

Two posts in one day...

The kids and I are back in Cali for vacation. We arrived yesterday.

Going back to the seven word updates, here is mine from yesterday's travel:

Snow in Vegas... Global warming strikes again

As it turns out, Erika just wishes there were snow in California. Never quite sure how she ended up my kid, but we're working on it.

PS: This is Erika, snow is awesome, and i do not know how this is my dad who doesn't like snow(-:

New Newz!

Ok, so a blog that only updates every 6 months isn't really a blog... it's more of a periodical. But here goes.

From the latest school news, tryouts for Annie are finished. Our girl made it big!

The Trip Continues

My Update:

Shopping and Swimming, Kids Never Coming Home


From Erika... aka Swimming-Girl:

Love you a lot... have face mask.


My Thoughts About Joel at this exact moment:

Lost Phone Charger? Again? Forgetfulness is genetic.

Yesterday In Cali...

Joel's 7 Word Entry:

We Saw Journey to Center of Earth.

Seven Words

With due acknowledgement to the Webbie Awards (where winners' acceptance speeches are limited to 5 words) and to the Ig Noble Awards (where scientists have to explain their research in 7 words), we will be updating the blog on Joel and Erika's trip to California via 7 word updates.

My first update:

Security Found Gatoraid: Kids Attempt Federal Crime

Ummm... Owiee

So sorry this is the first update in a long time. There are a bunch of updates, however, besides the unsettling pictures you see.

Erika has made the school musical... she's in the Flower Chorus of Alice in Wonderland.

Joel has celebrated his 12th birthday... so much fun.

Regarding the accident, there will be more details as I learn them. I promised pictures... here are a few. More to come. (I'm not sure why these are coming out turned 90 degrees off... but I can't seem to change them this evening.)