Vacation, Part 2

I'm going to skip over the drive from Denver to Utah because Magi has all those pictures on her computer. I was driving, and she's got all the cool pictures right here.

The drive was nothing short of spectacular. After endless hours of cornfields we got to see some amazing scenery.

Once we got there, my dad showed us around. He and Dee have a great little ranch just on the south side of Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. Dad had to show me his shop, which was the first thing they built. Here, he shows off his car and tractor collection. He's owned a lot of these cars and tractors in his lifetime, but not the 1950s Batmobile in the lower right corner:

He builds and trades guns, too:

Lots and lots of guns...oh, and knives too:

Here, he shows the medicine bag he had made for my late grandmother, whose great grandmother was Mohawk. Yes, I'm 1/64 Native American:

You might have guessed correctly that my father is into Westerns. Here is some of his memorabilia, including a signed photo of Clayton Moore as The Lone Ranger that my brother and I got him some years ago:

And that IS a Cylon helmet containing the Battlestar Galactica series DVD set I gave him for Christmas. Hey, it's good to have varied tastes!

My dad often uses this getaway spot to sleep in the middle of the night. He suffers from spinal arthritis that the strongest painkillers can't touch sometimes, and the only way he can sleep is in a chair. He was in a car accident when my mother was pregnant with me, that is responsible. His breastbone was broken by the steering column and he broke every one of his ribs...from the back. He also broke both legs. He almost died and still bears the tracheotomy scar on his throat. I'm just grateful he gets to spend his twilight years surrounded by the things that he loves.

Next time: The trip to Cedar City! With pictures!

What are the Odds?

Fans of "The Wire?" Anyone?

I saw this on my bike ride last night. What are the odds that there would be a corner like this near where I live? Now if I see a Wee-Bey Street, then I gotta change it up, yo.

The Fun Never Ends...with Wisdom Teeth

Didn't do any biking today because I thought an emergency root canal would be more fun.

Last night, the tooth next to one of the wisdom teeth I had extracted last November came alive around midnight. I was in so much pain I couldn't even lie still. There was decay there caused by the wisdom tooth facing up against it and I had a simple filling put in about a month ago, right before we left on vacation. The doctor said I might need to have a root canal because the filling was so close to the gumline, and as usual, he was right. Murphy's Law seems to run wild with my wisdom teeth. So, after a combination of Ibuprofen and a healthy dose of Sera's Baby Orajel, I was able to get some sleep...but not much, until about 3:30.

This morning, when I felt semi-human, I called the doctor's emergency number and got in to see someone and he wasted no time in shooting my mouth full of painkillers and getting to work. 45 minutes later, I walked out pain-free, but numbed up so much I couldn't talk clearly. I'll have to have the rest of the work done next week, but at least the tooth isn't pounding like it has its own pulse.

If you are younger than 40 and haven't had your wisdom teeth out yet, I highly recommend it. I have had every possible bad side effect that the doctor has warned me about so far, and it's mostly because I waited so long to have them out.

My New Ride

After my recent bike ride around Mackinac Island, I was thrilled. I had discovered a way to get exercise that I really enjoyed. I had purchased the Jeep Overland Stroller for Sera and me to go walking but my lower back was just killing me over time. So to find an exercise that didn't cause severe back pain while being on vacation was a great bonus for me!

When we got home from vacation, I started shopping online for a bicycle. I found a couple that were reasonably priced, but Magi suggested that I visit our local bicycle shop, House of Bicycles. She sure was right!

I hadn't had a bike that wasn't a Huffy since I was old enough to ride a two-wheeler, and my last bike was a ten-speed that I bought during my senior year in college that didn't even make it through a summer before I returned it because the nuts that needed to be turned to adjust the brakes kept snapping. It was not well-made. There have been several advances in bicycles since 1987, apparently.

The bikes I had been looking at had 19" frames, and the one that the owner of House of Bicycles picked out for me to try had a 22" frame. I liked it well enough, but it was black and green, which I didn't really care for. The next one he picked out was even bigger, a 23" frame Raleigh hybrid with a 24-speed Shimano deraileur that was electric blue. He adjusted the seat for me, took the time to explain how and why the seat could be adjusted to way higher than I would have ever done for myself and then helped me pick out the right accessories for it by asking me what I would be using it for.

There's really something to be said for customer service in local specialty shops. I bought my camera the same way from a place in Elkhart. No matter the problem, I can always go talk to a person with expertise who is happy to answer and help me in any way they can. The people at this store are the same way. They guided me in the right direction and built me a bike to last. They made sure that I got fenders to protect my clothes should I decide to ride to work (measured today at 7.5 miles, but along scary roads with lots of traffic--maybe not) and a cargo rack with webbing to keep my stuff from falling off. I got a headlight and taillight, an electronic speedometer/odometer and, of course, a water bottle and mount.

I picked the bike up at 6:00 last night, and by my second ride at 8:30 this morning I had already ridden ten miles, all without pain. I had to have them make one adjustment, raising the handlebars a little so I could sit straighter in the saddle, but otherwise everything has been perfect. It's great to feel the wind evaporate the sweat instantly as I ride. I can ride longer without overheating, my knees and back feel great, and I get my pulse rate up for a good long time. This may be the answer I've been looking for!

Now, does anyone want a lightly-used Jeep Overland Stroller at a reasonable price?

McCain on Education

John McCain, at the recent NAACP annual conference, said the following:

"We should also offer more choices to those who wish to become teachers. Many thousands of highly qualified men and women have great knowledge, wisdom, and experience to offer public school students. But a monopoly on teacher certification prevents them from getting that chance. You can be a Nobel Laureate and not qualify to teach in most public schools today because they don't have all the proper credits in educational 'theory' or 'methodology.' All they have is learning and the desire and ability to share it. If we're putting the interests of students first, then those qualifications should be enough."

I am growing to hate politics. I really am. Putting politicians in charge of education is like putting candy manufacturers in charge of preventing tooth decay. Anyone who thinks that educational "methodology" is not important needs to shut the frak up about education...right now. It's like saying that all you need to do is take a few anatomy courses to be a doctor. Methods courses teach the very structure of the educational system, including ethics, assessment validity, and the essence of cognitive and affective development. Almost every college professor I had possessed a PhD and most of them couldn't teach their way out of a wet paper bag. It's not just about mastering the subject material. It's about being able to convey it to students of various ages with a wide array of pre-existing understanding in an effective way.

It's about teaching, Stupid.

Vacation, Part 1

As July comes to a close, I look back on the month as one of the best in my life. When summer school ended on Friday, June 27, I was raring to go. I missed vacation last year due to a, uh, miscommunication on the part of our school system. They told us before we left for China that Magi would have enough sick days to take off the rest of the school year to stay home with Sera, and then, with one week left in the year they told us that she was not allowed to use them for the last week. So, we had to basically eat an extra week's worth of her salary, which meant I got to teach another session of summer school to make up this completely unnecessary shortfall. So this year, I was determined to get the most out of my vacation, to say the least.


On that Friday afternoon, I drove immediately over to our new favorite car dealership, Heart City in Elkhart, to get an oil change. While I was waiting in their luxurious waiting room (and I mean that without irony of any kind. They have leather couches and current magazines and newspapers to read, as well as free coffee) my buddy Doug called with great news. He had Tigers tickets for us for the next day! We had planned on making a stop in Chicago at the comic book convention on Sunday, but that plan went right out the window. So on Saturday we piled into the Crimson Cruiser, as we now call our minivan, and headed for the Motor City. It turned out to be a very exciting game. Sera enjoyed the carousel and the fireworks, and I enjoyed the game. Although closer Todd Jones blew the save by giving up four runs in the top of the ninth, Miguel Cabrera picked up his teammate with a walkoff double in the bottom half, preserving the win. This game marked the first time the Tigers reached the .500 mark all season long and it made a great beginning to our break.

On Monday, we left for Utah. The first leg of our trip was to Omaha, Nebraska. Let me begin by saying that when you have seen Indiana, you have also seen northwestern Illinois and all of Iowa. Good grief, I was tired of looking at cornfields! When we arrived, we found every hotel room booked. Turns out that Omaha was the site of the US Olympic Team swim trials! We found a room a little down the road that suited us, and on Tuesday we got up early and went to Henry Doorly Zoo. I've been to a lot of zoos, and this one was pretty average for a big city. But like most zoos it had some features that made it shine. This zoo had a nice aquarium with a glass tunnel that you could pass through, watching sharks and rays swim overhead. They also had a great penguin display. Sera had been watching Happy Feet on the backseat DVD player, so this made her very happy.

As we made our way west across Nebraska we noticed...more corn. To save a little bit on restaurants, we had packed lunches that we prepared using our new Coleman camp stove/grill. We used numerous rest stops to cook hot dogs and chicken breasts and to get away from the van for a few minutes at a time. As we finally made it to the Colorado state line, we saw...more corn. Finally, cornfields gave way to a little more interesting landscapes as we approached Denver.
We arrived just a little bit late for the baseball game for which I had bought us cheap tickets. We got to Coors Field in Denver just before 8:00, only 55 minutes late for the beginning of the game between the Rockies and the Padres. I had just enough time to get Sera and Magi food and tour the stadium and then the game ended. I looked at my watch...9:00! Turns out that this was the shortest game in Coors Field history at one hour, fifty-five minutes. I didn't really mind. I only paid $12 for all three of our tickets. Coors Field has seats in what they call the Rockpile, which are about 500 feet from home plate. I never once sat in my seat but I did get to enjoy the atmosphere and a little bit of food, including the Colorado Rockies Blue Cheese Chips, freshly made potato chips with bleu cheese and bacon sprinkled over a zesty cheese sauce. They had Rocky Mountain Oysters, too, but I had to pass there, sorry.

We left Coors Field pretty much freshly rested, and thought about continuing past Denver on our trip for a while. Just one problem...the highway was closed. They actually closed the highway for construction from 9:30 PM to 5:30 AM, so we ended up getting a hotel. It was just as well. The rest of our trip was amazingly scenic and we would have missed it in the dark!

To be continued...

So Long, Pudge

The Detroit Tigers traded Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez today to the New York Yankees for relief pitcher and former Tiger Kyle Farnsworth.

I hate this trade.

When general manager Dave Dombrowski signed Pudge in 2004, it was the renaissance of the Detroit Tigers. Following a horrible 43-119 season in 2003, they immediately improved to 72-90, adding 29 wins. Pudge hit .334 that year, including going .500 for the month of June. The Tigers were able to add more free agents in the following years, bringing them back to respectability and a World Series appearance in 2006, and it all started with Pudge.

Kyle Farnsworth was one of the players who signed with the Tigers in 2005, but before he had played with the Tigers for even a season, he refused to negotiate a contract extension, instead expressing an interest in the free agent market. The Tigers traded him before the year was over, instead of getting nothing for him when the season was done. Now the selfish jerk is back.

Pudge wasn't likely to return after this season, as he is getting old for a catcher (36) and the Tigers have Brandon Inge under contract for next year already. But I really wanted Pudge to hang around to at least see his contract finished up. There's just a sour taste in my mouth giving Pudge to the Yankees, of all teams, for a guy who doesn't want to play for my team.

Update: I forgot to mention that I personally took this photograph of Pudge in 2005.

Back Home Again

How was vacation? Here's my favorite photograph. It's sunrise the morning of July 24 at the backwaters in my hometown of Mesick, Michigan. Click to enlarge. This says it all:

Still Alive!

I rode a bicycle 7.5 miles around Mackinac Island today. Back home tomorrow. And then I'm buying a bicycle! I've finally found an enjoyable exercise!

Back on Vacation

After a week of recovery from our two-week trek to Utah and beyond, we're taking off tomorrow for a week of camping in northern Michigan, ending with a weekend at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. The latter was a gift two years ago from Magi's father, which we couldn't use last year because I was working the whole summer. There was literally no two days I had off that they weren't booked. We had our honeymoon there in 2000, so we're really looking forward to returning.

I'll try to catch up everything when we come back!

The Dark Knight

Well, I was ready to eat all kinds of crow, hyped by Kevin Smith's rave review and the box office numbers, and...I hated it. Like Lord of the Rings (take your pick as to which one), this movie was about an hour too long. It was slow, there were too many plots that ran each over like steamrollers, and once again, too many villains.

Spoilers Follow

The Joker pulls off so many different and major acts of terrorism in this movie with no time to prepare and virtually no resources, he makes Al-Qaeda look like the Three Stooges. Batman and every other idiot in this movie actually believes the madman when he tells them something. Uh, hello, this is the Joker? When he gives you an address you put all of your resources into investigating it? When he threatens you with the death of innocents, you comply and believe that he will follow through on his promises? You deserve what you get from him.

And here's the true winner of this movie (paraphrased):

"We found three different sets of DNA on his card."

"Whose are they?"

"The judge's, Commissioner Loeb's, and Harvey Dent's."

"Where'd he get their DNA?"

No, the question is, where did YOU get their DNA? Is there a new requirement for public officials to have their DNA on file that I don't know about? I've been fingerprinted for federal background checks, but I never had to give a blood sample. Talk about harsh hiring techniques!

Ever since Batman Returns, comic book movies have this horrible pattern of putting too many villains in the movies. The Joker was a good choice for a villain, but to add Two Face was just too much. Harvey Dent's presence in the movie was welcome, but to make him into a villain was unnecessary to the plot and just to throw him away was wasteful.

And I'm just thinking aloud here, but if you have a device that can use every cell phone in the city to create a virtual imaging environment, then maybe you could use that technology to turn them off so THE JOKER CAN'T BLOW UP ANY MORE STUFF REMOTELY WITH THEM?

I don't know, I am just so tired of seeing movies with plot holes you can drive Bat-tanks through. And speaking of Bat-tanks, are they actually trying to tell me that they designed the Tumbler as a bridge jumper that breaks off into a motorcycle? No wonder the military didn't buy it. If Lucius Fox made modifications to it so that it did so, you'd think that they would have built a spare Tumbler, too, so that Batman wasn't limited to just a motorcycle for the rest of the movie.

And how did Bruce Wayne corrupt Lucius' cell phone technology all by himself? Did he go to engineering school between movies? I'm sorry, but that's Lucius Fox's whole role in this series and to think that Bruce can just go ahead and modify it like that without his knowledge or help is just going too far.

I really wanted to like this movie, but my sense of logic was assaulted too many times. Sorry, Kevin Smith, but I have to disagree with you here when you said, "It's the 'Godfather II' of comic book films."

"Goodfellas," maybe, but not "Godfather II." Okay, that's too strong. I liked "Goodfellas."

DC Motion Comics

Speaking of Watchmen, this is a really cool little thing. Slightly animated from the original artwork, iTunes brings you Watchmen #1.

Watchmen Trailer

The Watchmen trailer should be preceding viewings of the Dark Knight starting at 12:01 AM. Go here to see it now. I can hardly wait!

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Go watch this right now! It's from Joss Whedon and it's shiny. Click the button.

Double Feature Redux

I'm still putting pictures together from our trip, so that post will have to wait. We did go to the drive-in last night to get start getting caught up on what we'd missed, so let's start there.

Heckboy II: The Golden Army. Yes, we call him Heckboy around Sera. No need getting her vocabulary to that level just yet. The term comes from the special features of the Atlantis DVD, in which the producers pay homage to the art and style of Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy. They jokingly say they have to call him "Heckboy" because they are working in a Disney studio. Anyway, Hellboy II was pretty good. They pick up where the last one left off, with Hellboy and Liz Sherman together as a couple, and Abe Sapien hanging around the old BPRD headquarters waiting to bump back against those things that go bump in the night.

With the peace between the paranormal and humanity threatened, Hellboy and his amazing friends have to choose sides and prevent the Golden Army from being used to wipe out humankind. Unfortunately, there was only one real surprise in the movie, and it's given away fairly early. I won't spoil it for you, but it really wasn't important to the plot, and it won't become important unless there are more Hellboy movies. I hope there will be. I just thought this one was fairly standard as far as comic book adventure movies go. Maybe there are just too many to make a fair assessment.

Wanted

Okay, this one was just weak. Poor account manager/schlub Wesley Gibson finds out that he can shoot the wings off of a fly and joins an assassin's club to get revenge on the man who killed his father. Yawn. He learns how to shoot bullets so that they can bend around things like a curveball. Uh, okay. It's not mind over matter, but just the way they twist the gun as it goes off, like the snap of the wrist providing enough spin across the seams of a baseball? I think a bullet has a bit more spin than you can overcome with the flick of the wrist, but whatever. An hour and half later you wind up with the "everything you have been told is a lie" cliche and you have Wanted in a nutshell. This one was just plain bad. I liked the comic, hated the movie.

Last Day in Utah

The flower in my palm is blinking, red, black, red, black.

We will start on our way home tomorrow, hoping to catch a ball game in Kansas City. Should be home Saturday, I think.

Corner of No and Where

We are traveling in Utah and only got access to the net today to check email. We'll be traveling back across the country and will have a lot to say when we get home, with lots of pictures!

Hot Wheels

My daughter Sera has recently been playing with some small die-cast cars we got for free inside one of our 200 boxes of Golden Grahams. I never really considered buying her any toy cars, but the other day we were at Toys R Us looking for pads for her tricycle, and I found Hot Wheels track. Yes, they sell individual pieces of Hot Wheels track for $0.89! You remember the orange strips of track with the plastic pieces that hold them together, don't you? Well, today we had some fun as we put them together to make a track all the way across the living room. The only two cars I had handy, of course, were Batmobiles, so we put them both on the track. And yes, the 1966 TV Batmobile is faster than the 1989 movie car. As it should be. It's way cooler.

WWGCD

I wonder what George Carlin would have had to say about this.

Yahoo! I'm a Teacher!

Yahoo has a great article called, "Five Rewarding Careers that Let you have a Life:"

"Teacher K-12
Many teachers use the summer to catch up with family, enjoy long vacations, and complete additional online education courses. Even with three months off, many K-12 teachers earn over $41,000 per year. Changes in recruitment policies now mean that you can start a teaching job in many places before completing a degree in education.

New state and federal mandates require job applicants to complete at least a few online education courses before beginning their teaching careers. Many school districts have even invested in dedicated recruitment programs designed to help professionals from other fields earn education degrees. For retirees, a teaching career offers the chance to stay active while earning an income and enjoying summers off."

Do any of you teachers out there have three months off at this point? Our school system is about three weeks short of that every year. It's called June, July, and the first week of August now. And, do you know that under No Child Left Behind, you are not a "highly qualified" teacher until you have a degree in the subject which you are teaching, as well as certification? And wow, $41 WHOLE thousand dollars a year? I couldn't make that if I worked in a factory. Oh, wait, yes I could. The part they left out is that 50% of new teachers quit within five years of joining the profession. It's high-stress little reward, and Yahoo makes it sound like a vacation for retirees. Sheesh.

Getting Ready to Roll

Preparing for a long trip can be tiring. Ordinarily, our big trips are south to see Magi's whole family. We stay in the same condo every time, stop at the same hotel every time, and usually stop at the same restaurants on the way down.

This time is different. This time, we are traveling west, to somewhere we've never been. We're going to go to Wizard World Chicago (a comic book convention) on Sunday, then leave for Omaha Monday morning to go to the zoo. I just got tickets to the Rockies game at Coors Field in Denver for Tuesday, and then on to my dad's house in Utah on Wednesday. I've been west several times, mainly to Arizona and once to California, but I've always flown in. I've never driven west of St. Louis, so this will be a truly different trip. I've been picking up picnic supplies so that we can make stops on the way out to eat lunches. I have to pick up a little gas grill this week to tailgate on the trip as well. McDonalds is okay to buy a Coke, but I hate their food.

Next up is making hotel reservations. We'll stay at hotels on the way out, but I'm not sure what we'll do on the way back. Outside of visiting my sister, I haven't planned that part of the trip at all, which makes it kind of spontaneous and fun. We may camp; we may find something else we want to do. I guess that's what vacation is all about, right?

Fore!

I played golf today for the first time this year. I'm more of a social golfer than a serious one. I have a cheap set of clubs and I'll go when people ask, and generally enjoy myself. But today was kind of nice, as it was the best nine holes that I ever played. I shot a 56, which is not good, but for me it was a tremendous boost. I didn't get double digits on any hole! I hit everything pretty well today except my driver, which I'm pretty sure is hopeless. I'm going to get one with a steel shaft. The flexibility of my current one just makes me slice everything. I gave it up after two drives and started teeing off with my three wood. It was 100% better.

When I got home from my round I took Sera out to play miniature golf. She whacked at the ball a few times, but generally had fun looking at the elephant and giraffe statues and throwing her yellow ball and retrieving it. Next time I'm bringing my own putter to the place. I could use the practice.

Hail to the Chef!

So there we were last night, headed out to a Father's Day dinner. The Tigers had won their sixth consecutive game with a nail-biting finish and we were all hungry. We piled into the car and headed west...right into a hail storm. It came on without warning. One second it was fine, and then a torrent came down on our windshield. Tree branches started falling across our path, and hail the size of quarters rained down on our new van. We turned around and high-tailed it right back home!

A few minutes after we got back the storm lessened and then moved on, but Sera was already scared by the first storm so we decided to just cook at home. I ran out and picked up some ribeyes, and when I got home about 20 minutes later, here was the scene in our back yard:

Sera's flowerbed (click here for the before pictures) was a little worse for wear, but her tomato plant and geranium survived okay, despite the collection of hailstones in the pots.

I cooked us all a nice meal and even had leftover steak, from which I made a Ribeye McMuffin with Egg (with a healthy whole wheat English muffin) this morning. When McDonalds starts serving that meal, they'll get my business for sure!

Double Double Feature

Okay, now what could be cooler than a double feature of "The Incredible Hulk" followed by "Iron Man?" Nothing!

No spoilers. Keep reading!

Saturday night was a perfect night for the drive-in. My buddy Doug and his whole family went with us to Plymouth. This is the time of year when the theater's concession stand starts getting crowded, so we ate before we left. We stopped by Little Ceasar's and picked up pizza and sat around and chatted for a while, then made the short trip down to the drive-in. From Doug's house, it's a really short trip because they live in a spot where back roads bypass two speed trap towns that we ordinarily travel through every week. The towns are no joke. When they post 35 miles per hour, they mean 35. Their main source of revenue is from speeding ticket fines. I think they have Mad Max's Interceptor vehicle from the 80s standing by in case it's needed.

When we got to the theater we pulled up next our blue poles as usual, and got out the chairs. We spread a blanket on the ground for Sera to play on and I ran in to get the popcorn. We always tell Sera to stay on the blanket so she knows where her boundaries are. When I got back, Sera asked for her baby's blanket, which I dutifully got from the car. She laid it down next to her blanket, thus extending her permitted travel area! This girl is a precocious one. Uncle Doug brought back cotton candy for his two youngest and Sera got to share in the sugary goodness. I figure they owed me at least one sugared-up kid. Back when their 16-year old was eight, I took him and his then-teenaged uncle to a movie and then bowling. We went to Seven-Eleven to get a 44-oz. Slurpee right before I brought him home, and they reported that he bounced off the walls for hours. At the time I thought I was safe from retribution, but I was mistaken!

When the sun set and the movie began, we settled in to watch. "The Incredible Hulk" did not disappoint! Unlike the Ang Lee film, which I didn't think was bad, this movie was great. I think it was almost as good as Iron Man. It captured all the right beats of the tragedy that is the Hulk's story. It showed Bruce Banner as a responsible guy on the run, and trying to get out from under the curse of his gamma-irradiated alter ego. Like "Iron Man," there are nods to the past, some subtle (and some not-so-subtle) in-jokes, and of course the ubiquitous Stan Lee cameo. Every time I see Stan on the screen, though, I always think that it's too bad that co-creator Jack Kirby couldn't have lived to see this.

Marvel Productions has really done a good job establishing a new paradigm for their superhero movies. Seeing both these movies together, you really do get the sense that both characters live in the same world. It doesn't appear to be the same world that the movie Daredevil, Fantastic Four and X-Men live in (I haven't seen "Ghost Rider" yet), but I do think Spider-Man and the Punisher as portrayed in the movies would fit in well. It will be interesting to see what they do next as far as establishing future crossovers.

It's a great time to be a comic book fan at the movies!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all of you dads out there.

I have found that being a father is the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I'll give you an example: Last night, we went to the drive-in to see "The Incredible Hulk" and "Iron Man," and Sera was awakened at 2 AM from all the cars leaving and didn't go back to sleep for the whole ride home. She struggled to sleep even after we put her in her crib last night. Finally, at 4 AM, I went to get her out because she was crying. As she lay in the bed, she jumped around and punched me in the eye! But one thing made the entire sleepless night worthwhile was when she kissed me on the cheek. Magi and I often pretend to be asleep and the one of us that remains awake tells her that the way to wake the sleeping parent is to kiss them on the cheek. So, when she kissed me on the cheek, I actually did wake up and gave her a hug and she told me, "I love you."

There is nothing better than this.

Church Signs

There is a church in nearby Mishawaka whose signs just kill me. It seems like each week they say something more outrageous than the one before. This one was especially entertaining to me, because I am an atheist. I respect other people's right to believe how they choose, but it seems like it doesn't always go both ways. When I am asked in class about my beliefs, I am reluctant to express them, because it always invites a debate that I am not about to have. I like working too much. While Christian teachers often engage students in public schools on the subject without repercussion, atheists don't have that same luxury.

I'm reminded of Jon Stewart's quote: "Yes, the long war on Christianity. I pray that one day we may live in an America where Christians can worship freely! In broad daylight! Openly wearing the symbols of their religion.... perhaps around their necks? And maybe - dare I dream it? - maybe one day there can be an openly Christian President. Or, perhaps, 43 of them. Consecutively. "

Sera's Dollar Monday and Summer Plans

On Monday night, we were watching the news when the forecast for the Silverhawks game came on during the weather. Magi asked me if I wanted to go. I had quite forgotten that it was Dollar Monday again, so instead of cooking dinner, we packed Sera up in the minivan (now dubbed "The Crimson Cruiser") and went.

We arrived later than usual, and I had to park three blocks away and carry Sera, since I had dropped Magi off at the ticket window. We found our seats quickly, but it was crowded. Sera had very little room to move around, and the crowd was fascinating to her. She wanted to see everything. I was also a little leary about sitting on the third base line because of the people who had been drilled with line drives the previous two times I had gone. I'm pretty sure I can protect myself, but I wouldn't stake Sera's life on being able to deflect a ball coming right at her unless I had my glove with me, and I didn't. So when the announcement came over the PA system that we could upgrade our dollar tickets to box seats at a cost of $2 each, I ponied up the $6 and we sat right behind the plate. Sera now had her own chair, an unobstructed view of the action, and a screen to deflect foul balls that came our way. I could finally relax!

From these seats, I observed five people with radar guns sitting in the same section. Not only were they charting the speeds and locations of the pitches, but they were also making notes on position players and their hitting strengths and weaknesses. At one point, I saw a scout pass over a business card with the Kansas City Royals logo on it to another scout. There were other scouts without radar guns making notes of the game as well. Magi leaned over to me and suggested that it would be my dream job. Gee, I don't know, being paid to travel all over the country watching baseball games? That just sounds rough. When I was single, I would have done it for free, but as a parent I know it would be hard on my family, just as it is for the players and coaches of teams in both minor and major leagues.

When I retire, I want to do stuff just like that. I love to write in this blog. I would love to travel, take photographs and write about the places I visit. That's why I'm looking so forward to July. Once summer school ends on June 27, we are taking off. First, we'll be headed to Utah. We're going to pass through Omaha to see the zoo, and spend the night. Then we'll stop in Denver to take in a Rockies game. After that, we'll visit my father, and then my sister in Utah. We haven't even decided on our route back, yet. We might just be spontaneous, and see where the road takes us!

Later in the month, we are going to Mackinac Island for a weekend at the Grand Hotel, which was a gift that Magi's dad gave us two Christmases ago. We didn't even get a spare weekend last year to use it, which is probably just as well. Sera will appreciate it more this year with all the flowers and "horsies" there. We're going to camp in northern Michigan with my buddy Eric for the week leading up to that weekend, too. I'm going to start plotting out that trip soon, because there are certain places where I know some good camping spots and beautiful sights to see. Magi's never even been to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan before, and I used to live there when I was in sixth grade. It is a beautiful place to visit and live.

All I have to do is make it through two more weeks of summer school and then we will be off!

Double Feature

Now, is Screen 1's double feature a comic book fan's dream come true, or what? Yes, that's "The Incredible Hulk" on a double bill with "Iron Man." Seriously, how many of you would have ever thought that we would see something like this happen in our lifetimes?

Back to School

Well, after four days without kids, I'm back at it today. Yesterday was spent in my new classroom planning every hour of the 17-day summer school session. High school summer school kids meet with the same teacher for 4.5 hours, with five minute breaks every hour. It's more relaxed, and yet it's not. Attendance is strictly adhered to. You miss more than two days for any reason and you're out. It's not a bad day, really. You're out by noon, home by 12:20, and you get to have lunches that look like this:

I made these by hand the other night, and they were good. I love my new grill!

Father's Day Came Early!

My wife suprised me with a Father's Day gift almost three weeks early. When Magi told me that she had a Father's Day gift in mind for me and that there was a timely sale involved, I correctly guessed that she wanted to get me a new gas grill. I bought my last gas grill (left) in 1999, and it has certainly seen better days. Five years ago, the electronic ignition went out, and three years ago, the burner covers rusted and collapsed, and it hasn't cooked evenly since. I'd learned where the hot spots were, and could mostly compensate for its quirks, but every year we'd talked about getting a new one. So when she confirmed that I was to get a new gas grill I was very excited. While at work the next day, I asked where she wanted to get it from, and she told me that it was from Home Depot. When I looked at Home Depot's weekly flyer, I saw a nice little $200 grill that seemed within our budget. I'd only spent about $100 on our last one, and got every penny's use out of it. But when she showed me the one she wanted to buy, I just about fell over. Now I have a brand new five-burner, 60,000 BTU Charmglow gas grill. It has a thermometer and a side burner, and even a side table where I can work while cooking. She said that it was about time that we had a grownup's grill. I laughed, because even at 43 years old, sometimes I still feel like I should be living a spartan life like a kid living in a college dorm. I'm a father now, and like it or not, I should be grown up by now.

Speaking of being a father, I've undertaken a new endeavor with Sera. Last weekend, we planted in the back yard. We always had a vegetable garden when I was a kid, but my job was limited to weeding and killing tomato worms with my BB gun, execution-style. So I got some potting soil and a tomato plant, and Magi bought some flower seeds, and we went to work. The tomato plant is doing quite well so far, but what amazes me are the flowers. I made small holes with my fingers and Sera laid and covered the seeds, and we both watered, and a week later, here they are coming up out of the dirt! I'm beginning to understand the satisfaction that farmers must get from their livelihoods. It's rewarding seeing results so quickly! If this experiment continues to be successful, we'll plant more next year. I really love fresh tomatoes, and I'd love to have them all summer long!

School's Out!

If you're not interested in my education posts, you may want to skip this one. It's a long reflection on the school year that's more therapeutic for me than informative for you.

There's nothing like the last day of the school year to make me relax. On Friday, I had the whole day to work without students, whose last day was Thursday. I had all my paperwork, grading, and inventory done by 9:00 AM. We are supposed to use the whole day to get done what I finished in an hour and a half. I had done most of the work already because I had so much to do afterward.

First, I was partially responsible for the end-of-year cookout. Our technology teacher, Larry Kiefer, built a grill out of a half barrel and the frame of a broken rolling table a couple of years ago, and we use it to grill hamburgers, brats, and hot dogs at the opening and closing of each school year. In the past we've gotten our meats frozen from Gordon Food Service, and neither Larry nor I were satisfied with the results. So this year, I put in an order at our local butcher shop, DC Meats in Osceola. Not only did I save our principal $50 because they gave me restaurant rates, but the meat was fresh. They divided the hamburger into 1/4 pound patties, and even parboiled the brats for us at no extra charge. The cookout was a tremendous success, and nothing brings us all together like sharing food. We have some outstanding cooks on our staff, some of them having been raised by formerly Amish and currently Mennonite parents who taught their kids how to cook old school. So when we have a carry-in, it's a feast. We had to say goodbye to one staff member, and tears were shed and shared.

After lunch, I had to move every single thing in my room. I'm moving rooms again for the second time in three years, as we are going back to the team concept in our school. We used to have block scheduling with teaching teams and it was extremely effective. Essentially, one teacher from each of the four core subjects, math, language arts, science, and social studies, were aligned with each other, so that they shared a common pool of students. If students had math first period, they would travel together to science second period, then to social studies third period, and finally to language arts fourth period. If a teacher needed extra time with a class, all one had to do was poke a head into the next teacher's classroom and ask for it. We had common planning time, during which we could talk about our students, checking to see if there were common behavior problems that could be solved with a conference call to the parents. It was very effective in both learning and discipline. So naturally the school system took it away.

The problem with the block scheduling was that it is expensive. The shared preparation period was costing the school too much. Teachers were given ninety minutes a day to prepare for cooperative and interdisciplinary lessons and it was decided that it was costing too much, especially since there were groups of teachers not utilizing the time properly. We were also switching to a trimester schedule to match the high school that we feed into. So three years ago, we departmentalized, essentially becoming a junior high school. And now team teaching is back. The kids won't be blocked together, so that part of the strategy is gone. But we will have a shared group of students and 60 minutes to prepare interdisciplinary lessons. So like with an underfunded federal law that shall remain No Child Left Behind, we are being asked to do more with less. They just waited three years before taking away 30 minutes of prep time. And to top it all off, the high school we are aligned with is going back to semesters in two years, so our schedule is going to have to change again after next year. Regardless, this team system will be much more effective because the discipline in the classroom will keep more kids in the classroom. There will be fewer in-school suspensions and out of school suspensions and that means more butts in the seats.

So I spent the entire afternoon moving everything I could lift (and that's everything except my desk and file cabinet) into my new classroom. I didn't have to walk on Friday, because by the end of the day, I had perspired through my clothes. But by the end of the day, I felt like I had earned a four-day break.

Looking back on the school year, I am not satisfied with how it went at all. Even after 21 years, I am still looking for ways to make my class run better. One thing I will be doing differently next year is having my students use mechanical pencils exclusively. I used wood pencils this year, but went through two electric pencil sharpeners. The cost of the wood pencils was lower, but the cost of two pencil sharpeners more than made up the difference. Sharpening pencils loudly is too disruptive, anyway. Next year I will also be putting my students in small groups again, called pods. There will be a pod leader in each one, who will be given additional responsibilities like passing out papers and distributing calculators and dry-erase boards and whatever else the pod needs. The pod leader will also be helping me to monitor student progress. There are arguments that say that these jobs negatively influence the leading students' own learning, but I disagree. Nothing solidifies understanding like explaining it to someone else. If anything, it will help them to learn on a deeper level than before. The pod leader will be rewarded for the extra responsibility with additional privileges for their troubles. The first pod leaders will be determined by RIT scores on the NWEA levels test from the previous spring, but could be replaced depending on behavior and continued academic success.

Another modification to my classes next year will be the keeping of a notebook. I am not even going to distribute the joke of a textbook that we use. Our textbook for pre-algebra is actually more difficult than the textbook they use to teach the same class in high school. As an example, the teaching of solving single-step equations in our textbook is done all in one day. Solving by addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are all one day's instruction. In the high school book, it's done one operation per day with more specific attention paid to checking one's work. Now when you have adolescents making a transition from Piaget's concrete operational stage to the formal operational stage of development, do you make things easier or harder for them to do so? I will provide examples for the students to keep in their notebooks, and if they are absent, they will be required to copy someone else's notes. I will stamp each student's notebook with my Yoda stamper when I approve of their note taking while the pod leader will record their participation points for the day.

Participation points will be given and recorded each day based on the following criteria: attendance (including punctuality), bringing a notebook and taking notes, bringing a mechanical pencil, bringing the workbook where we will be doing most of our work, and bringing the planner that the school provides. If a student's absence is excused, they will be given full points. If it is not excused, or the student is suspended, they will lose the points. These points will be a small part of the overall grade, but could certainly make the difference between a C+ and a B-.

My classes will also be doing a five-question cumulative review to start each class period, targeting areas in which they are weak and reinforcing skills that they need to be successful in what we are currently doing. We had an in-service on this concept last year, which was one of the few useful days I spent outside the classroom in such meetings. I think it really needs to be done for students who come unprepared for pre-algebra.

I'm still uncertain what to do about homework. There must be motivation for students to do homework correctly and yet not fear for getting problems wrong. In the past, my students have mistaken this thought for having no concern whether they did it correctly or not. I'll be working on that this summer.

The new school year is ten weeks away, but I'm more ready for the next year than I've ever been before at this point.

Kneel Before Clinton--Link Fixed!

She has a new running mate in mind: General Zod.

The Last Day of School

"Verga." That's what it said in big letters on my dry-erase board today, otherwise filled with students' wishes for me to have a good summer.

Look it up. You will be able to tell what kind of wonderful year I had.

The Future of Public Education

I was thinking the other night about my job. I really don't think things will be done in the classroom much longer. Distance learning is becoming more common in the rural schools. Small schools that can't hire language specialists use video conferencing to share resources across entire counties, and the whole of secondary education may not be far behind.

The time will come soon when the cost of maintaining an informational network from students' homes will be more effective than bringing them to school. I forsee personal instruction presented from a central location by a teacher using a type of Smartboard (seen at left), which would be used to control a networked group of student-operated computers with two-way visual communication, forming a virtual classroom. As the teacher writes on the board, the text is read and transformed into a legible font, easily read by students on their own displays at home. The entire presentation could be viewed by students in their homes, recorded and reviewed at their leisure. They could even use a pause feature, like a DVR or a Tivo has, allowing them to use the restroom, catch up on notetaking, or for whatever reason. The teacher would have to build in a buffer time to allow everyone to catch up and ask questions. If a student had a question to ask, they could pause the presentation, mute their audio pickup, and record the question for playback at a suitable time.

In my virtual classroom, the teacher's computer could monitor the attention paid to the presentation by scanning the movement of the student's eyes. We currently have reading diagnostic hardware that tracks eye movement, and in 15 years it should be sufficiently advanced to serve this purpose. If the eyes close for too long or the student avoids or abandons the classroom camera, participation points could be deducted and the computer would tabulate the percentage of time the student spent on task. The student behavior could also be recorded for parent review, if there were to be questions about "What did you do at school today?" The teacher could also apportion a part of the Smartboard to monitor what the student is doing on their own interface. My wife is already capable of doing this in her computer lab, monitoring which computer applications her students are using on the classroom computers. The teacher could also use this function to quickly assess student understanding of the work as it is being done, and using a stylus, could make helpful suggestions on each student's monitor.

Ordinarily, the teacher would have two-way interaction with each student, but the students would only see and hear each other when the teacher wished it. When an appropriate time came up to ask questions, the teacher could fully conference the network so that students could interact, but each student's verbal contribution would lockout the others' audio pickups so that no interruption could take place. The teacher could also group the students so that they were working in teams in the virtual classroom, and the teacher could sort the students by a database of information at the teacher's command. The students could be grouped by general mathematical ability, their current grades, or even by measures recorded from their standardized tests. These are simple Excel functions that can be done now, but with the power of the computer at the teacher's fingertips, they could be accessed instantly and groups quickly made for any task.

Textbooks would be a thing of the past in the virtual classroom, as necessary texts would be loaded on the server and accessed on the student display as needed. Teachers could modify assignments at the touch of the screen by simply highlighting the problems that they want to omit and deleting them from the day's assignments.

Classroom behavior would be easily handled in this system. With the classroom apportioned on the Smartboard, all a teacher would have to do to draw attention back where it should be is to tap the screen over the image of the offending student's face. This would illuminate a small message on the student's display, letting the student know that their behavior needs to be adjusted. After a set number of warnings have been ignored, the teacher could then remove the student from the interactive feature, leaving the student able to watch, but not participate actively. This is far better than suspension from the classroom and not as disruptive to the rest of the class.

The benefits of the system would enormous. The costs of building and maintaining new schools are skyrocketing. One neighboring district just built a new high school complex to the tune of $60 million. Transportation costs rise with fuel, which is also skyrocketing. Bus drivers and mechanics, custodians, cafeteria staff, security, all will be unnecessary. Of course there will be a higher demand for network engineers and computer maintenance, but those would be better-paying jobs anyway.

The amount of time spent by students actually learning would be maximized. There would be less time spent dealing with behavior issues. There would be no fights. There would be no spread of contagious illnesses. There would be no physical assaults on teachers, or on students for that matter. Let's be honest, these kids will be social regardless of school. Their social skills will not degrade any more than they already have. Snow days would be a thing of the past, but occasional network problems would likely delay school, but probably no more often than it happens now. No substitute teacher would be required if teachers pre-recorded planned lessons that students could watch and work on independently.

I posed the possibility of my virtual classroom idea to my students and every counter-idea they came up with was no worse than what we have in place now, and there was a heck of a lot more upside in what I suggest. What do you think?

The Candidates on NCLB

Here's what the candidates think about No Child Left Behind, which I have written about a couple of times, here and here.

Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Well, I'll say this for it: It was better than Speed Racer.

Things Younger than John McCain

I don't get too political here unless I'm talking about No Child Left Behind, but this blog is really funny.

Another Dollar Monday

And here I am, just back from another Dollar Monday at the Cove. The Silverhawks beat my Tigers' single-A West Michigan Whitecaps 4-1, and it just seems like someone doesn't want me to see any team I root for win this year.

Dollar Monday has to be the best bargain around for entertainment. Tickets are $1.00, hot dogs are $1.00, and pop is $1.00, and even with $3.00 parking, I had an enjoyable dinner and evening of baseball for just $9.00.

The Silverhawks are struggling this year, but they have an absolute beast in Sean Coughlin. He hit a bomb of a home run his first time up, and while it was his only hit of the evening, he hit the ball extremely hard every time he was up. Look at this guy's forearms. He looks like Popeye! He's also hitting .352 with 6 home runs and 19 RBI in only 54 at bats. If he keeps this up, he won't be around here much longer. He'll be promoted quickly, because catchers who hit like this are rare, indeed.

Starting pitcher Bryan Augenstein threw a nice game, allowing only four hits and one run over eight complete innings. Evan Scribner picked up the save in relief with a 1-2-3 ninth.

For the second straight Dollar Monday, someone in the stands has gotten absolutely nailed by a foul ball. Last time a guy got pegged in the ribs and had to be helped up the steps by his wife and mother. This time was worse. An elderly man had to be carried out on a stretcher by paramedics with an oxygen mask on. Please, watch for foul balls at baseball games and for goodness sakes, protect your children. Don't let them run around unaware while the game is in progress!

I met my buddy Rob at the game, and we in turn met some pretty cool people as well. There were some local kids sitting behind us, reuniting after a year away at college, and one of the young women asked me what I was writing. I explained to her that I was keeping score, and showed her how it was done. She said that she'd never seen anyone doing that before, and I looked around to see and sure enough, I was the only one doing it. Throughout the game, she asked several questions about the rules and I patiently explained why runners have to tag up on a fly ball, why a runner crossing the plate doesn't score a run before the catch of a fly ball makes the third out in an inning, etc. and one of her male friends and I talked about China, which he has just now returned after four months abroad. We talked about how dirty Beijing was and how amazing the food was, and generally had a nice conversation between pitches. I think that's one of the great things about baseball. There are natural times during which you can strike up a conversation with people around you and there are plenty of things to talk about inside and outside the game.

Liangping, Chongqing

The earthquake in China is striking kind of close to home for us. Perhaps you've seen on the news how five children were killed and at least 100 were injured when an elementary school collapsed in rural Lianping County in the Chongqing municipality of China. Liangping County SWI is the orphanage where Sera is from. There's a strong possibility that she either had siblings or cousins in the building when it collapsed. If you look closely at this picture, you can see interior blackboards on what is now the left face of the building. That means the floors and ceilings and walls all separated from the building itself. Our thoughts are definitely with Sera's biological family this week.

Fitness Update

I meant to do this on Friday, but got too busy with other things. Sera and I started out a week ago Monday with 4 km in 21 minutes. We took the same route on Wednesday, covering the same distance in 20. Friday, I did it myself in 19. Either we or I have done the route every other day, and tonight I did it in 17. That covered "Hell's Bells," "Back in Black," "Shoot to Thrill," "Givin' the Dog a Bone," and 37 seconds of "What do You do for Money, Honey?" To listen to more AC/DC, I'm going to have to start walking a longer route!

Leg tightness? Feels good. Wind? Better than I expected. I had to stop twice the first day, but not since and tonight I just blew through it. Lower back? Oh my goodness, the pain! I started out weighing in at our school nurse's scale, which is the same one they use to weigh in for wrestling. I tipped the scales at 330 pounds, an all-time high for me. I'd say I'm carrying a good 25% of that in my chest and belly, so it's no big surprise how much pain there was. I will work through it, and as I lose some of that fat my back should feel better. I'll be thinking about that pain every time I'm tempted to have a Coke, and I won't be having a smile with it, I'll tell you that much.

It's funny how much better I feel already after just five times out. I remember my days on the football field, with Coach Bill Hollenbeck shouting out in his cracking voice, "Make yourself better!" as we ran laps or sprints. I remember my senior year when cross-country transfer Phil Perro led the way in running distances in football practice until I decided that pain wasn't going to stop me from kicking his butt. I finally found a way to break through the hurt and smoked him every time out from that day forward, despite the fact that he would hold back during hitting drills (I didn't) so he would have more energy for the running part of practice. I was in the best shape of my life that fall of 1982.

I want to feel that way again.

Speed Racer

I need to watch two or three black-and-white movies just to cleanse my color palette. It wasn't as bad as the reviews said, but wow, my eyes nearly bled from a chromatic overdose.

National Teacher Day...

...was yesterday. I didn't even know it until I got a school email congratulating our school nurse on National School Nurse Day this morning. I thought that if today was National School Nurse Day, then Teacher Day had to be nearby. I was right.

The Drive-In Returns!

We took Sera to see Iron Man at the drive-in on Saturday night. I previously wrote about the drive-in here, but it's such a great experience, I want to elaborate.

One of the greatest discoveries of 2007 for us was the Tri-Way Drive-In Theater. Located in Plymouth, Indiana, about a half hour drive from our house, the Tri-Way is a great entertainment option for families. It's $7.00 admission for adults for a double feature, and the concessions are both reasonably priced and delicious.

Let's put it this way: On Friday night when I went to see Iron Man at a conventional theater, I spent $10.25 for a large popcorn in a bag with a large bottle of water. At the Tri-Way, a plastic tub of popcorn and two 44 oz. sodas came to $9.00! The restaurant at the Tri-Way offers just about everything you could imagine in theater fare, from the standards including popcorn, nachos, and candy, to cheeseburgers, hot dogs, pizza, egg rolls, quesadillas, ice cream, and more. Since the drive-in, like most theaters, makes most of its money from concessions, they do charge $8.00 per vehicle to bring in your own food, so you do have the option, but believe me, it's not necessary.

Another nice thing I just discovered about the Tri-Way is that if you don't want to stay for the second feature of the two at your screen, you are free to drive over to one of the other two screens to watch the second feature there.

If you only remember drive-ins from when you were young, you really get a sense of nostalgia at this one. They still use the old advertisements for the concession stands, animated in the 1960s, complete with intermission countdowns between features. The only thing missing is the tinny speaker in your car window. The Tri-Way broadcasts the sound over FM frequencies, so you can tune in with your car radio, a boombox, or even an .mp3 player with FM reception on your earbuds.

As if to drive home the point of how it used to be to go to the movies, I noted that watching the movie at the traditional theater on Friday night was a nightmare of rudeness and inconsiderate behavior. Teenagers running up and down the stairs looking for their friends, texting each other, and talking during the movie was really annoying. There were small children asking questions in their "outdoor voices," which was distracting, to say the least. "Why's he doing that, Mommy? Is he dead? I hope he's not dead!" Bad behavior is strictly monitored at the Tri-Way. They have security people assigned to make sure that the patrons have a good time without the distraction of people who have not learned yet how to behave in the company of others. All of the employees there are patient and polite, and in today's world, the value of employees who fit that description is rare indeed.

I see a lot of nights in Plymouth in our summer's future!

Iron Man

If you've been waiting for a great superhero movie, it's here! No spoilers follow! It's safe for your review.

Iron Man didn't miss a beat. From capturing Tony Stark's alcoholism to the way he fires his repulsors, this movie puts it all together.

Wounded and captured by militants in Afghanistan, defense contractor and innovator Tony Stark builds a suit of powered armor to help him escape and maintain his life after a piece of shrapnel near his heart threatens his health. With second thoughts about how his fortune has been made, Stark moves to recover or destroy the weapons he has created which have fallen into the wrong hands. This puts him at odds with Obadiah Stane, who has been running the Stark family business while Tony acts ever the drunken dilettante, working hard and playing harder. Stane locks Stark out of changing the business, but Tony has another plan. It's called Iron Man.

The two things that stand out most in my mind about this film are humor and acting. The funny parts are really funny. The audience roared with laughter. But perhaps the strongest feature of this movie was the performance of Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark. I would never assume that an actor in a superhero movie is going to get an Academy Award, but Downey really pulls off this role and deserves a nomination.

The only problem I had with this movie, and it is a minor quibble, is the "unmasking the hero" cliche. At the end of the film, the main character loses his mask so that the actor can effectively emote for the audience. I understand why it has to be done, but I wish it wouldn't happen every time.

I give this movie my highest rating, and for the love of Stan Lee, stay until the end of the credits!

Updated-- I bet some people will actually get this post after seeing the movie!

My New Stroller

It's funny how our needs and wants change with parenthood. I maintain an afterschool program three days a week, and I have often used the money earned to buy things that we don't need but would be nice to have. My digital camera is a good example. I have taken 6,000 pictures with it in the past two years (it keeps count), and I don't know what I would do without it. I used that money to pay for a vacation for us during spring break this year, and it will also buy new carpeting and a ceiling fan for our family room in June.

Last night, I got something absolutely necessary. I picked up Sera's new Jeep Overland Jogging Stroller. Every time I go back home again, I realize how badly out of shape I am, and how unhealthy it is for me to be so. I used to do Karate, which was a blast, until I got hurt. I bought an exercise bike a couple of years ago, but I hated it. This time, I think my remedy will work. I got this stroller because Sera loves to go "ow-sigh" and I need to lose weight. I used to be an athlete who could run three miles in 20 minutes at any given time. I doubt I could make it through three miles in an hour right now, but that's going to change. When I picked the stroller up at Wal-Mart last night, I started putting it together before it was time for her to go to bed. She saw the box and started exclaiming, "Oooooh," over and over again. By the time I had it assembled, she wanted to go ow-sigh, but it was time for bed. I did seat her in it to get the five-point safety harness sized, but she didn't want to get out. I promised her that I would take her outside tomorrow, but two-year olds really don't get that concept too well. I don't blame her, because I wanted to take it out for a spin, too. Even the picture makes it look fast.

This stroller has an odometer/speedometer, shock absorbers, a rain canopy, a sunroof, a hand brake, an air pump, and get this, an iPod jack with built-in speakers. The purchase was probably somewhat an extravagance, but not if it helps me to live long enough to see grandchildren. I am going to weigh myself this afternoon, start a spreadsheet, and start walking with Sera every day. Hopefully, my blog will keep me honest too. My goal is to update it weekly on Fridays with my progress.

I'm also going to be changing my eating and drinking habits. My eating habits are pretty good anyway, having had high blood pressure since I was 18, while still in the best shape of my life. I always avoid salt whenever possible, and carefully measure it when I do use it, like on air-popped popcorn. A little fat-free canola spray and a touch of Lawry's Seasoned Salt and I'm good to go. My main vice is soda. I am a soft drink junkie, Mountain Dew (any flavor, any form) being my drink of choice, but I am dropping that habit as of today. I have recently discovered Crystal Light packets that, when added to bottled water, makes for a tasty drink with 12.5 calories per 20.9 oz. My favorite flavor by far is their fruit punch, which tastes like Tropical Punch flavored Kool-Aid, which in turn tastes like Hawaiian Punch. I've tried about ten flavors of the stuff, but I always come back to this one. I will occasionally have a treat, like a soda when we go out to the movies or to a restaurant. I have to set rules for myself, or else I will abandon this change like anyone abandons a diet.

I know how weight loss works. I know that I will likely gain weight before I lose. I know that muscle weighs more than fat, etc. The important thing is that I maintain this program not only for my sake, but for the sake of the passenger in Sera's--let's not kid ourselves--my new stroller.